26-11-2012, 06:35 PM
Indian Two Wheeler Industry
LITERATURE REVIEW.docx (Size: 30.21 KB / Downloads: 35)
The Indian two wheeler industry has made a great transition and gear shift over the last few decades. It has come a long way since its beginning in 1948 when Bajaj Auto started selling Vespa scooters in India. Over the time the customer preference and market offerings have changed drastically. The customer preferences have changed in favour of those products having higher technology, better fuel efficiency, more aesthetic looks etc. These customer taste change has even the luck and fate of many players in the two wheeler market. Some early movers perished or have lost the market share which apparently resulted in the emergence of new players in the market
Customers exhibit complex buying behaviours during the purchase of a two wheeler. They not only look for the price as in the past but also keenly drill down to the minute aspects of the bike such as sound, suspension etc. The process is very rigorous and consumers put lot of efforts starting from the search of information to the finally purchase decision (William & Narasimhan, 1994). This process of consumer buying poses a significant challenge to the researchers on what consumers sees during the purchase process.
Buying process involves various phases. (Kotler & Keller, 2009)
Many studies conducted earlier have found out several factors which influence consumer buying behaviour. The various factors (Hitesh Bhasin, 2010) include
o Cultural
o Social
o Personal
o Psychological
When consumers buy a product, whether it is a good or a service, they buy a cluster of product features, but may want only one or two of these features. The main reason behind consumer’s search is uncertainty. (Bettman, 1979).
Consumers perceive a considerable amount of risk in purchasing an automobile which is a complex decision making process. In order to reduce the perceived risk consumers select a popular brand. Brand of a particular product plays a fundamental function in consumer’s perception of a product. It helps in developing a market position, prestige and image of the product and for these reasons the brand constitutes a mechanism of risk reduction (Aaker, 1996). In the complex brand selection environment, which exists today, there has been a widely reported research work which discusses and reports that consumers defer product/ brand selection on a variety of factors (Tversky & Shafir, 1992)
The Indian automobile industry is growing at a spectacular rate ever since 1991 thanks to de-licensing. This attracted many foreign players to set up their units in India which eventually aided for the growth of this industry. It is very important for any automobile company to identify the key factors that customer looks for when he/she buys a two wheeler. In the past there are studies conducted to identify these factors. Recent studies indicate that the customers buying behaviour of a two wheeler is influenced by the following factors.
o Fuel efficiency- With increasing petrol prices every now and then, customer cannot ignore the fuel efficiency factor of the bike. A smaller-sized standard bike will give great fuel efficiency whereas a bigger engine capacity will have more power and will get low fuel efficiency.