Brand and its impact for cement in India Mr.Diptendu Ghosh Research Scholar School of Management, KIIT University Bhubaneswar, Odisha Dr.Biswajit Das Professor School of Management, KIIT University Bhubaneswar, Odisha Abstract The present paper is an attempt to understand whether brand plays any role in buying behaviour for cement in India. For the purpose of study Kolkota is taken as research area. Through this paper we have included the view of masons, contractors, architects, and retailers and also individual house builders perception have been considered. In overall 312 questionnaires were distributed and finally 207 responses received. For reaching more and more audience likert scale is being used. The result shows that most of the respondents strongly feel that brand plays an important role for the purchase of cement in the research area. The brand of a particular cement cannot be ignored by the vendors while dealing with the ultimate consumers. Key words- brand, buying behaviour, cement, market An overview Brand have been around ever since business began. The Greeks and Romans used marks and names to identify their offerings. Branding is used to identify and differentiate one product from the other. A brand is often taken to be the same as the product. But it is not so. A product is essential for a brand to exist, but a brand is much more than a product. The essence of branding is to lift the product to a higher plane. It makes the product relevant and meaningful for the target customers. In a competitive situation, a brand s success comes at the expenses of others. A selected brand essentially signifies its ability to survive in the buyer s elimination process- his choice behaviour. How customers take purchase decisions in important for developing brand and marketing efforts. Alternative model exists to explain consumer behaviour. Important among these are economic, passive, emotional and cognitive perspectives. The cognitive perspective is the most balance view on consumer behaviour. It proposes that consumers are capable of cognitive or thinking activity which they use to solve their problems. Buying is nothing but problem solving behaviour. Consumers use their cognitive abilities to get out of problem situations by making satisfactory purchase decisions. The brand choice decisions are critical for the marketers. Choice means success and rejection means failure. Understanding how customers arrive at specific brand choice is essential for brand development. The decision making framework suggests that while making purchase decisions, customers pass through five stages- problem recognition, research for satisfactory solution, alternative evaluation, purchase decision and post purchase evaluation. Each of these stages 99
suggests specific tasks to be performed by the brand marketer. The failure in performing the attending task at these stages exposes the brand to the danger of getting eliminated in the decision processes. The brand manager must understand that customers do not always follow a standard decision in solving problems. The customers adjusts his decision making according to the challenges involved in buying. Buying in some product categories my create a situation of high involvement for customers while in others, it may be low or moderate involvement. In high involvement situations, a customer tends to solve buying problem extensively in order to maximise the benefits and minimise the risks. Accordingly, a brand manager must promote his brand as a utility maximise, provide extensive information, induce rigorous evaluation. Cement is part and partial in the development processin our economy. So through this paper we are trying to understand the buying behaviour of various participants in the study. Research Questions To understand the perception of the participants towards brands effect in cement. To understand the various dynamics of buying behaviour related to branded cement products. Scope of the study The study is conducted in and around Kolkota City only. The study is carried out by collecting data from Masons, Contractors, Retailers, Architects and IHB (Individual House Builders) Methodology of the study The study is based on the primary data collected from the filed study. It is based on purposeful sampling method. For the purpose of study 312 questionnaires distributed in and around Kolkota City and finally 207 responses received. This includes 39 Masons, 47 Contractors,54 Retailers, 32 Architects and remaining Individual House Builders (IHB). For the purpose of variables initially 16 variables were identified, however after conducting pilot study the variables restricted to 11 only. In the present paper Likert scale used with five point scale. Completely Agree-5 points, Agree-4 points, Neutral-3 points, Disagree-2 points and completely disagree-1 point is allotted. Final scores for each feature are calculated by multiplying the number of responses by the weights of the corresponding response. To measure the perception level of the participants with regard to brand and its impact on buying behaviour for cement the various variables identified as- brand name s the, brand mark s the consumer for cement, Producer of the cement makes, consumer belief that their choice, consumer abilities to identify their, consumer ranking, packing of product, brand awareness has direct impact, brand awareness has direct impact brand image has direct relationship brand image has direct relationship Computation of respondent s perception Ideal and least scores Ideal score are calculated by multiplying number of respondents in each category with 5 and product with total number of attributes. Least scores calculated by multiplying the number of respondents in each category with 1 and the product with number of attributes in the questionnaires. 100
Category Equation Ideal score Equation Least score Masons 11X5X39 2145 11X1 X39 429 Contractors 11 X5X47 2585 11X1x47 517 Retailers 11X5x54 2970 11 X1X54 594 Architects 11X5x32 1760 11X1X32 352 Individual House Builder (IHB) 11X5X35 1925 11X1X35 385 Findings of the study Perception Score Table Brand name s the consumer choice for cement Brand mark s the consumer for cement Consumer belief that their choice and brand is better makes impact on Aggregate score of the respondents Masons Contractors Retailers Architects IHB 171 217 239 148 163 169 206 228 132 155 185 203 246 134 158 176 203 244 140 148 176 188 249 139 155 Consumer ranking 172 202 235 143 142 packing of product 173 211 238 133 163 on buying behaviour on current purchase, with direct purchase, with future purchase. 185 208 240 145 169 186 214 248 144 158 180 216 236 137 153 179 207 238 142 143 Total Score 1952 2275 2639 1537 1707 Ideal Score 2145 2585 2970 1760 1925 % of total score to ideal score 91 88 89 87 88 Least Score 429 517 594 352 385 Number of respondents 39 47 54 32 35 101
Source- Annexure A, B,C, D &E 4000 3000 2000 1000 0 Perception of various respondents Total Score Ideal Score Least Score Source- Perception Score Table Concluding Note In the above perception table it is clear that the total scores for masons is 1952, for the contractors it is 2275, for the retailers it is 2639, for the architects it is 1537 and for the individual house builders it is 1707. The percentage of perception for the various respondents to the ideal score are 91%, 88%,89%,87% and 88% respectively. In no case the actual perceptions are near to the least score. So it seems that all the variables are valid one and these various factors plays an important role in the buying behaviour for the brand in case cement in the research area. References Aaker, David A. (1996), Measuring Brand Equity Across Products and Markets, California Management Review, 38 (Spring), 102-120. Aaker, David. A. and Robert Jacobson (2001), The Value Relevance of Brand Attitude in High-Technology Markets, Journal of Marketing Research, 38(4), 485-93. Reference articles Aaker, David A. and Erich Joachimsthaler.(2000), Brand Leadership: The Next Level of the Brand Revolution, New York: Free Press. Agarwal, Manoj K. and Vithala Rao (1996), An Empirical Comparison of Consumer- Based Measures of Brand Equity, Marketing Letters, 7 (3), 237-47. Kapferer, Jean-Noel (1994), Strategic Brand Management, New York: Free Press. Brand name s the Brand mark s the consumer for cement Annexure-A (39) Perception level of Masons 28 4 3 2 2 171 27 5 2 3 2 169 31 6 2 0 0 185 102
Consumer belief that their choice 30 4 2 1 2 176 26 8 4 1 0 176 Consumer ranking 29 3 3 2 2 172 packing of product 28 4 5 0 2 173 33 3 2 1 0 185 34 2 2 1 0 186 31 3 3 2 0 180 32 2 2 2 1 179 Annexure-B (47) Perception level of Contractors Brand name s the Brand mark s the consumer for cement Consumer belief that their choice 38 3 3 3 0 217 36 2 3 3 3 206 35 2 4 2 4 203 34 4 3 2 4 203 29 5 3 4 6 188 Consumer ranking 31 6 5 3 2 202 packing of product 32 8 5 2 0 211 35 3 4 4 1 208 36 4 4 3 0 214 38 2 5 1 1 216 103
34 5 3 3 2 207 Annexure-C(54) Perception level of Retailers Brand name s the Brand mark s the consumer for cement Consumer belief that their choice 41 4 3 3 3 239 38 3 5 3 5 228 43 4 3 2 2 246 42 4 3 4 1 244 45 2 3 3 1 249 Consumer ranking 40 4 3 3 4 235 packing of product 39 6 3 4 2 238 42 3 3 3 3 240 44 4 2 2 2 248 37 6 7 2 2 236 41 4 3 2 4 238 Annexure-D(32) Perception level of Architects 104
Brand name s the Brand mark s the consumer for cement Consumer belief that their choice 26 2 2 2 0 148 20 3 4 3 2 132 21 4 2 2 3 134 24 2 2 2 2 140 22 4 3 1 2 139 Consumer ranking 23 4 2 3 0 143 packing of product 19 5 4 2 2 133 25 2 3 1 1 145 23 4 3 2 0 144 22 3 3 2 2 137 23 4 3 0 2 142 Annexure-E (35) Perception level of Individual House Builders (IBH) Brand name s the Brand mark s the consumer for cement Consumer belief that their choice 28 3 3 1 0 163 27 2 2 2 2 155 26 4 3 1 1 158 24 3 3 2 3 148 105
2 155 Consumer ranking 22 3 3 4 3 142 packing of product 29 3 1 1 1 163 30 4 1 0 0 169 27 3 3 0 2 158 25 4 2 2 2 153 24 5 3 1 2 143 106