“A STUDY TO EVALUATE THE EFFECTS OF

SALES PROMOTION ON CONSUMER

PERCEPTION”
BIGBAZAAR (Retail Chain) AS CASE

September-2009

Supervised by:
Mrs. June Dennis

Written by:
Dipin Kuzhikkattumeethal
77014141

Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirement for the

Degree Msc Purchasing & Logistics

Faculty of Business

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 Acknowledgement

I begin my acknowledgement by thanking almighty who was

with me all through the way

I express my whole hearted thanks to Mr.Noor Alam Ansari,

Store Manager, Big Bazaar who gave me an opportunity to
undertake this project in this esteemed organization

I am extremely grateful to Mr. Vivekananda, Marketing

Manager, Big Bazaar for his stimulating support and
guidance through out the study in spite of his busy schedule

I deeply express my thanks to Mr.Uma Nath who helped and

supported me in the course of study

I extend my sincere gratitude to my project guide Mrs June

Dennis, Reader for the guidance given to me during the
course of this dissertation.

I express my sincere thanks to all the staff of Big Bazaar and

all those who have directly or indirectly helped me during
the course of study.

I am greatly indebted to my parents, friends, relatives for

their constant support and encouragement throughout this
program.

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 CONTENTS

Sl. Page
Title
No. No.
1 Chapter-1 7
Introduction
2 1.1) Research Problem 9
3 1.2) Scope and Significance of the study 9
4 1.3) Objective of the study 10
5 Chapter-2 11
Research methods
6 2.1)Introduction 11
7 2.2)Purpose of research 11
8 2.3) Research design 12
9 2.4) The research approach 13
10 2.5) The research strategy 14
11 2.6) Types of research 14
12 2.7) Survey strategy 15
13 2.8) Secondary research 15
14 2.9) primary data 16
15 2.10) sampling 17
16 2.11) Data Collection methods 19
17 2.12) Data analysis 20
18 2.13) Ethical issues 20
19 2.14) Limitations 20
20 2.15) Conclusions. 21
21 Chapter-3 22
Literature Review
22 Introduction 22
23 3.1)Consumer behavior 22

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24 Fundamentals of consumer behavior 23
25 Factors influencing consumer behavior 23
26 motivation 24
27 Human need 25
28 Factors influencing the buying decision 26
29 Role of Marketing activities and functions in consumer behavior 27
30 Role of marketing activities in retail industry 28
31 3.2)Promotion and perception 29
32 Introduction 29
33 promotion 29
34 Sales promotion 30
35 Objectives of sales promotion 31
36 Importance of sales promotion 31
37 Disadvantages of sales promotion 32
38 Sales promotion in retail industry. 33
39 3.3) Perception 35
40 Introduction 35
41 Importance of consumer perception 36
42 Stages of perception 36
43 Importance of under standing perception 36
44 3.4) Promotion and perception the core element of marketing 38
45 Introduction 38
46 Various factors influencing promotion and perception 39
47 Elements of promotion mix 40
48 Importance of communication in sales promotion 42
49 Importance of price and loyalty in sales promotion 43
50 3.5) sales promotion and perception from retailers point of view 45
51 introduction 45
52 Types of retail ales promotion 45
53 3.6) Industry profile, retailing 50
54 A view over retailing 50
55 Indian retailing 50

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56 Organized formats of retailing in india 50
57 3.7) Company profile Big bazaar 51
58 Business description of Bigbazaar 52
59 Insight to Bigbazaar 53
60 Goals 53
61 Mission 53
62 Business strategies of Bigbazaar 54
63 The merchandising mix of Bigbazaar 56
64 3.8) Theoretical frame work, retailing 57
65 Nature and scope of retailing 57
66 Types of retailers 57
67 Retail marketing decisions 59
68 Chapter-4 61
Analysis and interpretation
69 Chapter-5 75
Findings, summery, suggestions and recommendations
70 Chapter-6 79
Conclusion
71 Chapter-7 81
Bibliography
72 appendix 1 : statement of originality and authenticity 84
73 appendix 2 : self reflective learning statement 85
74 appendix 3 : questionnaire 89

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 ABSTRACT

The main aim of this research is to understand effects of sales promotion on consumer’s
perception. Here in this research the major benefits of sales promotion, various types of
sales promotion and how influential these promotions are in the process of making
buying decision are clearly analysed and explained. This research also tries to find out the
effectiveness of various sales promotional methods with respect to Bigbazaar , Banglore.
For the purpose of carrying out the evaluation literature review, research methodology,
presentation, assimilation has been done in this study. The literature review part has
helped the researcher to gain through knowledge and to establish a strong foundation and
back ground for the subject. The researcher has also analysed various research
methodology and selected the most appropriate one suitable to study was selected to
collect the primary data. And the suitability and acceptability of various sales promotion
programs and related factors were analysed in detail. Questionnaires were used to collect
the first hand information from the consumers. And in conclusion the researcher has
explained the benefits of sales promotion and its effects on sales when introduced and
operated wisely.

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 CHAPTER-1

INTRODUCTION

In saying, marketing involves the conception, pricing, promotion and distribution of

ideas, goods and services. The fundamental objective of marketing is to exchanges of
goods and services (Frances Brassington and Stephen Pettitt, 2005) By designing
products setting sensible, acceptable and justifiable prices, creating awareness and
preferences, and ensuring availability and service, the marketer can influence the volume
of exchange therefore marketing can be considered as a demand management activity on
the part of the selling company.

Promotion is an important component of marketing mix which has got a very significant
impact on the demand managing activity of marketing. The key components of
promotion includes personal selling, direct marketing, advertising, sales promotion, and
public relations. Sales promotion is a range of marketing techniques designed with in a
strategic marketing frame work to add extra value to a particular product or services,
developing a promotion strategy involve deciding on the objectives of marketing
communication. Promotion objectives are so vital that these objectives are the key in
determining the role of each components of the promotion mix in the marketing
objectives of the organisation. The role of promotion mix components depends on the
type of organization, nature of products, etc. Promotion is a part of integrated marketing
communication which recognizes the advantages of having a complete plan to find better
ways of understanding and connecting with consumers.

Organizations are forced to test various strategies to find a better one suitable for them in
increasing their sales and market share. Sales promotion is one of the important
promotion strategies followed by the retailers. Sales promotion refers to communication
strategies designed to act as a direct inducement, an added value, or incentive for the

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product to customers. In retail industry sales promotion efforts are designed in such a
way that it always assists all other promotional activities undertaken by a retail store.
Sales promotion always tends to encompass all the external factors such as advertising,
publicity and direct marketing although these might be used to deliver sales promotions.
Since the sales promotion is all about communicating we could see in this study that how
an effective sales promotion strategy executed or implemented through a better
communication results in positive perception in consumers there by resulting increased
sales.

The Pantaloon Retail India Ltd. (Big Bazar) leave no stone unturned to woo the consumer
in various festive seasons. The Drivers of various festive Bonanza re of two types one is
to cash in on increased festive season spending and the other one is more of a bottom-line
driven, with loss making stores looking to wipe out losses. Retails stores utilises the
festive seasons to liquidate all stocks and inventories to avoid loss on account of excess
inventory and low turn over.

The promotion programmes relate to consumer purchase decision and what the strategies
adopted by the retail group. Most observers feel that dealing activity do not build long
term consumer loyalty. The different services offered by the retail chains or hypermarkets
may be perceived positively by certain set of consumers due to the opportunity it
provides them to look at the products leisure. Retailers often develop and design the retail
marketing mix to ensure patronizing the retail store or format by the target segment or to
attract new customers. The attractive sales promotion offers may or may not be effective
concerning the customers. The study based on the sales promotion of Big Bazar and its
impact to the consumers is relocated in this research.

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RESEARCH PROBLEM

Big Bazar, being a unit which stays in a highly competitive marketing environment, often
tests and introduces various promotional schemes on a regular basis. The organization
pays better attention to know how appreciable such schemes, clarify draw backs, and spot
out the better schemes which may be developed and introduced in the future promotional
activities. Due the dynamic marketing and market trends organization like Big Bazaar
should be prepared enough to meet the dynamic trend. Hence developing and designing
schemes with innovative concepts which are better results oriented than the previous one
are highly significant. In this study the researcher is trying to assimilate and explain how
effective are the sales promotional activities and how much it can influence the consumer
while making the buying decision.

SCOPE AND SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The scope of this particular research is based on the evaluation of the sales promotional
activities operated in a single BigBazar Retail unit which is limited to the area of
Koramangala. Banglore. The study helps to understand the effects of sales promotion in
the consumer’s perception and how much the sales promotion activities can influence the
customer in their buying decision.
• It helps us in gaining independent knowledge about consumer perception toward
sales promotion
• It helps in evaluating the effects of sales promotional activities.
• It can provide prospective information to potential customers.

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OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

Primary Objective

The main purpose of this research is to gain the effects of promotional programme on
consumer’s perception with special reference to the promotional programmes of BIG
BAZAR. And to assimilate how it affects on consumers buying decision. This research
also helps to understand how successfully they could carry out certain schemes and how
far it could gain the consumer’s attention.

Secondary Objective

Following are some of the secondary objectives for which the research is carried out.
• To study about consumers attitude towards sales promotion of BIG BAZAR
• To evaluate the effectiveness of sales promotion schemes.
• To study about the suitability of offers in each departments
• To find the customer loyalty to the sales promotion programmes of BIG BAZAR.
• To find out the best communication channel for promotion.
• To find out the effects of sales promotion on consumer perception
• To find out the awareness level of the consumers with concern to various sales
promotions of BIG BAZAR.
• To find out the effects of sales promotion on buying decision.

This above chapter explains the primary and secondary objectives of the study .These
study provides a vital solution to number issues that are prevailing in the area of sales
promotion also also provides some solutions to the promotional activities of Big Bazar.
At the end of this research one could be able to frame a better sales promotion scheme
that deliver better results by taking in to consideration all the elements of marketing mix

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and how it can be implemented in such a way that to gain optimum consumer
perception.

Chapter-2

RESEARCH METHODS

Introduction

This chapter explains various methods that are used to collect information’s. It is so
significant that improper research methodology might results in inefficient and unreliable
results. Hence it is highly significant that planned structured and systematic approach is
so vital. Therefore the over all approaches and strategies are explained in the beginning
with rationale where appropriate. The primary and secondary usage, various data’s that
are used for the study are presented such as qualitative and quantitative information.

Research is a key to both business and academic activities and it is carried out in all sorts
of fields to find out better solutions and scope. People undertake research in order to find
things in a systematic way, there by increasing the knowledge (Jancowicz, 1995).
‘Research is considered as systematic because the research is always based on logical
relation ships and not just beliefs.(Ghauri,1995). ‘As a part of this your research will
involve an explanation of the methods used to collect the data, will argue why the results
obtained are meaning full and will explain any limitations that are associated with them.
‘Finding out, suggests a multiplicity of possible purposes for your research. These may
include describing, explaining, understanding, criticising and analysing’ (Hhauri,1995)

Definition

‘Research is defined as a process of enquiry and investigation’

(Jill Collis and Roger Hussey, business research,2nd ed,2003,pp1)

Purpose of research

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‘Carrying out research allows you to apply theory to and or analyse a real problem or to
explore and analyse more general issues. It also enables you to apply research procedures
in order to illuminate the problem or to generate solutions. The purpose of research is as
follows’.

1. To review and synthesise existing knowledge

2. to investigate some existing situation or problem
3. to provide solution to a problem
4. to explore and analyse more general issues
5. to construct or create a new procedure or system
6. to explain a new phenomenon
7. to generate new knowledge
Source (Jill Collis & Roger Hussey,2003)

Research design
Saunders , Lewis, and Thornhill (2003) suggest that the researchers can design
their methodologies by identifying layer by
Layers of the research process ‘Onion’.

Saunders , Lewis, and Thornhill (2003)

source (http://www.thesisexpress.com/images/fig3.jpg)

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The process Onion consists of five layers such as research philosophy, research
approaches, research strategies, and time horizons and data collection methods.

Research philosophy:- In the process onion the first layer is research philosophy .
Saunders , Lewis, and Thornhill (2003) defined that there are three types of research
philosophy like positivism, interpretivism, and realism. The philosophy chosen by the
researcher will rule what role the researcher takes while he/she observes or analyses
matter of the research. The perspective of the researcher will affect what research strategy
and method should be used in the research. (Saunders , Lewis, and Thornhill (2003).
According to Bryman and bell (2007) ‘Positivisam is a study of knowledge that valid and
value knowledge that is value free’. ‘Interpretivism philosophy is that which believes
every situation is complex and unique’.Jankowicz(2005). And ‘realism philosophy
believes that there is a reality (exists for a condition or phenomena) that is separate from
our description of it’ Ryman and Bell (2007).

In this research the researcher is going to use interpretivism philosophy. The researcher
has selected this philosophy mainly because of the complexity of certain issues and the
difficulty involved in explaining such matters such as dynamic marketing and sales
promotional trends and the current factors influencing the consumer behaviour.

The research approch.

Here it explains various ‘theories that are used in connection with drawing conclusions
and this process are further divided in to two types that are deductive approach and
Inductive approach’.(Saunders , Lewis, and Thornhill 2003)

In deductive approach literature is used to set theories or hypotheses and that are tested
with empirical observation, conclusions are drawn through logical reasoning deduced
from hypothesis set (Colllis and Hussey,2003) on the other hand inductive research
approach theories are developed from general conclusions of empirical observation.
(ibid).

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As per ‘deductive approach, the conclusions drawn might not be true in the real
situation to eliminate invalid findings it is important to put emphasis on the development
of hypothesis and how to design appropriate research strategy to test that hypothesis’.
(Saunders , Lewis, and Thornhill ,2003). Both these approaches are the part of research
process. Here the researcher is making use of Inductive approach because this study deals
with behaviour and perception these two facts are highly dynamic in nature hence more
flexible structure can adopt changes as the research progresses.

In this study the main objective of the researcher is to investigate consumers and
perception towards the sales promotional activities of Bigbazaar from a normal market.

The research strategy

‘The research strategy is the general plan of the researcher about how he/she is going to
answer the research question’ Yin (2003).According to (Saunders , Lewis, and Thornhill ,
2003). There are various types of research strategies available.

Types of research.

‘The research can be classified in to various types on the basis of its purpose. If we are
classifying research on the basis of its purpose, we can describe as being descriptive,
analytical or predictive’. Following are the various types of research. (Jill Collis & Roger
Hussey,1997)

1. Exploratory research:- This is conducted in to research problem were there are

very few or no earlier studies, ‘the main aim of this type of research is to look for
patterns or hypotheses rather than testing or confirming a hypotheses’.
2. Descriptive research:- here it describes the phenomenon as they exist. It is used to
identify and obtain information on the characteristics of a particular problem or
issue. The data collected is often quantitative and statistical tools are used to
summarise the information.
3. Analytical or explanatory research:- Here the researcher goes ‘further more
from the descriptive research to analysing and explaining why or how it is
happening’.

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 4. Predictive research:- Here the researcher goes even further more than explanatory
research. ‘The latter establishes the explanation for what is happening in
particular situation. It aims to generalise from the analysis by predicting certain
phenomena on the basis of hypothesised, general relation ships’. These are the
major type of researches.

In order to conduct the current research the researcher is making use of ‘exploratory
approach because it is valuable means of finding our what is happening, to see the new
insights, to ask questions and to analyse phenomena in a new light’ (Saunders , Lewis,
and Thornhill ,2003). It also helps the researcher to clarify and understand the research
problem.

Survay strategy

This is most common method used for data collection. By filling a questionnaires or
structured interview using two or more variables will be processed to conclude a certain
pattern of association (Bryman & Bell,2007). In this research the qualitative information
is collected by using questionnaire.

Secondary research.
In this research the secondary data include both qualitative and quantitative data.
(Saunders , Lewis, and Thornhill ,2003). The secondary data was collected and analysed
and presented in the literature review chapter to develop an understating of the
surrounding concepts and theories of consumer behaviour, sales promotion and
perception with regard to Bigbazaar .

Importance of secondary data.

The secondary data is collected through a process of secondary research. This data has
got a very important role in answering the research questions and achieving the primary
objective of the research. There are several other advantages with this data it can be
collected with out spending much money and expenses, and it saves valuable time, The
secondary data received through secondary research helps to make comparsions of the

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current research with past, similar and complementary research. Saunders,Lewis &
Thornhill(2003).

Conducting secondary research.

The proposed secondary data has to be in relation with the consumer behaviour,
perception and sales promotion in Indian retail market. In order make this data available
for the research analysis the researcher has followed journals, from Emerald, Mintel and
other magazines and publications. By going through these reports the researcher has
learned enough about the issues prevailing in the current retail market, sales promotion
and consumer perception.The researcher also has gained assistance and guidance from
the supervisor and the availability of various infrastructural facilities provided by the
Leeds Metro Politen Univercity, the researcher could read sufficient books, Journals,
Magazines, Articles related to the particular topic. This has helped the researcher
tremendously in developing the theoretical knowledge. Various theories are applied to the
topic as selected by the researcher. Saunders,Lewis & Thornhill(2003)

Limitations of secondary research.

The secondary research alone cannot afford to full fill the entire objectives of the
research. And this limitation of the secondary data actually affects the research finding
and analysis, most of the key data requires monetary cost. Secondary data is not
completely reliable and it contains some bias. Saunders,Lewis & Thornhill(2003)

primary data

Primary data are the new data collected specifically for a particular research purpose.
Saunders,Lewis & Thornhill(2003) .These are the most up to date and first hand
information to the main objectives of the research. The primary data are collected through
in-depth interviews and questionnaires.

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In depth Interviews:- In-depth interviews are ‘informal unstructured and non
standardized. Here the interviewee is given the opportunity to talk freely about events,
behaviour and beliefs in relation to the topic area’ Saunders, Lewis & Thornhill(2003). It
is use full to find out what is happening and to seek new insights. Here the researcher has
not used this tool to collect any information.

Questionaire:- In this study the researcher has used the questionnaire in terms of
interviewer administered and the sampling method used here is convenient sampling.
This method is selected based on the ease of access in the process of data collection

Reasons for using this method.

1. The respondents were the customers of big bazaar most of them were busy with
shopping and other activities in the huge Salarpuria Tower where the
Koramangala, Banglore Bigbazaar located.
2. Since the respondents are seen very busy and this method ensure better
participation.

Purpose
The main purpose of questionnaire was to collect quantitative data about the sales
promotional activities of big bazaar.

Sample size
For this study the researcher has used a sample size 100, completed questionnaires were
used to study including both male and female respondents.

Convenient sampling.

Here the researcher has used convenient sampling. Here the samples are selected
randomly. And the sample selection process is continued until you reach the required
sample size. ‘ The samples represent the total population the easiest way to obtain the
sample by interviewing persons randomly based on the researchers convenience.
Saunders , Lewis, and Thornhill ,(2003).

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Following are some of the reasons for selecting the convenient sampling for this research.
1. Convenient sampling is considered to be the easiest way to collect data.
2. The collected samples represents the whole population
3. It is less time consuming.

Questionnaire Design
Here the researcher has used fourteen different categories of questions to collect the both
attribute and behaviour data.

Piloting

The researcher had conducted a pilot test to make sure the content validity, before
making the final questionnaire. Here the researcher has asked the supervisor to comment
on the suitability of the questions and the structure of the questions. Saunders , Lewis,
and Thornhill ,(2003). As per the suggestions and recommendations of the supervisor
certain changes were made in the questionnaire.

Time horizons

Here it explains about the time limit to finish the research. ‘This can be divided in to two
types on the basis of the time stipulation which are cross-sectional longitudinal. The first
one deals with quantitative and qualitative collection of data and analysis in a given time
and the second one investigates the changes over a period of time’ Saunders , Lewis, and
Thornhill ,(2003)

And in this research the researcher has followed cross sectional time horizons to
complete the work at a specific point of time.

Sampling method:
This is the process of choosing the different samples for the purposes of conducting the
research, there two main types of sampling methods available.

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Probability sampling:- This is basically a survey based research, here the researcher
needs to collect a sample from a population to answer the research question as how the
consumers choos their products or brands with respect to advertisement and sales
promotional activity. And collecting data through questionnaire probability sampling can
draw direct conclusions. Jankowicz(2005)

Non-Probability sampling:- Here the researcher is interested in individual positions,

roles and back ground experiences and it involves identifying and questioning
respondents.

Here in this research the researcher uses the convenient sampling it simply means
selecting samples randomly. And the sample selection process is continued until the
required sample size is achieved. ‘The easiest way to attain the sample size is by
interviewing persons randomly based on the researchers convenience’. Saunders , Lewis,
and Thornhill ,(2003)

Data collection method

Her the researcher collects all the required data through various methods and the
collected data can be classified in to types called primary and secondary data. Primary
data is the new first hand data collected by the researcher and this data can be collected
from observation, questionnaires and by interviews and secondary data are those data
which are already in existence it can be found from any sources. Saunders , Lewis, and
Thornhill ,(2003)

Observation:- this is a way collecting data by observing and ‘nothing or recording the
research objects behaviour’ Saunders , Lewis, and Thornhill ,2003.

‘Questionnaire:- is the other method used to collect data by requesting the respondents
to fill the questions in predetermined manner’ Saunders , Lewis, and Thornhill ,2003.

Interview:- This method can be described as the purposeful discussion between two or
more people Saunders , Lewis, and Thornhill ,(2003). There are mainly three types of
interviews such as structured, semi-structured, unstructured interviews. In structured

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format interview is conducted on the basis of predetermined questions. Here the
interviewer will use questions on the basis of situation. The last one is conducted
informally and loosely with multiple objectives and with our predetermined questions.
Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis, Adrian Thornhill (2000)

Here in this research the researcher uses the structured interview format to collect the
data based on the response from the local consumers of Bigbazaar. The secondary data is
collected from various sources to know about various sales promotional activities
prevailing in the retail industry in India and the end customer response to such activities.

Data analysis

The collected data through questionnaires were analysed and interpreted. The researcher
has made use of all available tools like computer to make the research more effective and
accurate and also to reduce the time factor. In this research the collected data are
presented and explained by using various bar charts and other diagrams to make the data
more simple understandable. (Bell, 1999) while explaining the collected data the research
questions were at high priority consideration and the important information’s were noted
and interpreted and the researcher tried his best to avoid bias.

Ethical issues

Through out this research the researcher has kept in his mind all the ethical issues. Since
it does not have any volatile issues the researcher has taken advice and permission from
his supervisor before started collecting the data. And as per the supervisor’s advice, in
this study only information is collected for the purpose of data analysis which does not
mention the name of the respondents.

limitations.

This particular academic research is to be done in three months time, because of this time
constraints limited resources were investigated. And the limited knowledge of the
researcher in the field of presenting and analysing data also affects the over all outcome.

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 Other limitations.
• Since the study was conducted in a limited area there are chances of incorrect
results.

• This study contain all the limitations of convenience sampling

• There exists probability of bias with regards to collection of data.

• Duration of the study was very less

• Majority of the respondents have less knowledge about the past offers.

Conclusion

This chapter has clearly explained and covered all the aspects of effective methodology.
In this research in order to answer the research question the researcher has made use of
primary data which was collected through questionnaires, and secondary research is
conducted through various other literatures of the past. The researcher with various
limitations tries his best to answer the research question wisely and meaningfully.

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 CHAPTER-3

LITERATURE REVIEW

Introduction

This chapter explains certain literature facts and theories about Consumer behaviour, the
characteristics of consumer behaviour. Why understanding consumer behaviour is so
significant that it gives the marketer an insight into the consumers purchasing decisions,
what they buy, why they buy, how they buy. It also helps to find out how individuals act
in certain consumption related ways; the eternal and external factors impel them to make
certain decisions. Robert east(1997)

CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR

Consumer behaviour covers a tremendously wide range of topics from the consumer’s
first internal recognition of a need through the external influences of people, information,
products, to the ultimate decision of purchase. Martin Evans, Ahmad Jamal & Gordon
Foxall (2006)

Definition,

‘Consumer behaviour is the study of the process by which consumers make decisions.
More specifically, it is concerned with how consumers acquire, organize, and use
information to make consumption choices.’
(Consumer behaviour an information processing perspective, Brian Sternthal,C.Samuel
Craig,1982,pp-6)

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‘Consumer behaviour is the activities people undertake when obtaining, consuming and
disposing of products and services’
(Blackwell, Miniard and Engel,2001,p-6)

Fundamentals of Consumer behaviour

Consumer behaviour is a process of problem solving and

Decision making and the result is often determined by the buyer’s goal directed
processing of information. The cognitive consumer is credited with the ability to handle
huge number of information’s, engage actively in the comparative evaluation of
alternative products and brands and to select rationally among them . Foxall (1992a).

It is generally accepted by marketing and consumer researchers that individuals consume

products and brands for their symbolic properties as much as for functional benefits
(Levy;1959;Elliott,1999). Individuals use products and brands as materials with which to
cultivate and preserve identities. Consumer goods are capable of serving consumers in
this way because of the symbolic meaning that is embedded in them
(Belk,1988;Solomon, 1983;Leigh and Gabel,1992)

Factors Influencing Consumer Behaviour

There are both internal and external factors that affect the ways in which consumers act.
The internal factors are interest, attitude, opinion, outlook etc. The external factors are
society, culture peer, family (wells,1975). Individuals use certain goods and practices in a
number of ways firstly they use the goods as materials with which to create foster and
develop their identity (Elliot and Wattanasuwan, 1998). Here the symbolic meaning of
goods is used as an outward expression of their self concept and connection to society.
Certain recent research found that consumers develop a sense of who they are over time,
through a long, continues process of self examination and observation.

The study of consumer behaviour includes a broad range of topics and activities, it is
concerned with understanding of individual’s purchase and consumption activities and

23
how individual consumers are acquiring information and the way they process the
information into a purchasing decision. Solomon and Stuart (2000) explains the consumer
buying behaviour as ‘the process individuals or groups go through to select, purchase, or
use goods, services, ideas, or experience to satisfy their needs and desires’ also
emphasised by Kotler and Amstrong (2000).
The consumer decision making process can be explained in the following diagram. These
are some of the highly significant factors that affects and influence the consumer in
making a buying decision.

source:( http://iml.jou.ufl.edu/projects/Spring01/Ko/5process.gif)

Here the researcher trying to explain in detail the motivational factors on perception of a
brand, package or a promotional activity makes the consumer aware of the availability of
a product. Consumer’s buying decision is often motivated by something more than
awareness, Belk (2003) it depend mainly on his needs and drives. Consumer motivation
is the driving force which makes the buying decision.

Motivation

Motivation can be considered as one of the basic concept of human behaviour. It is the
driving force that forces individuals that make them to do a particular action.

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Definition

‘ Motivation can be described as the driving force with in the individuals that
moves them to take a particular action’
(MARTIN EVANS ,AHMAD JAMAL AND GORDON FOXALL;2006,pp,4)

Motivation always supported and influenced by the basic factor that is Human need,
Human need is considered as the fundamental element that determines the purchase
decision. Abraham Maslow(1943) .

Human need

It is widely accepted that the consumer behaviour and purchasing decision is based upon
the needs of individuals, groups and organizations. If marketing is all about satisfying
needs it is so vital to understand the relevance of human needs. Maslow (1943) has set up
a hierarchy of human needs as follows.

(Abraham Maslow,1943)
(Source,http://www.learningandteaching.info/learning/graphics/maslow.gif)

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When we look at Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs the hierarchy is triangular in
shape this is because as people move towards the upper side only very few people satisfy
the higher levels of needs.

Physiological needs:- food, air, water and all the basic necessities that are required for
survival purposes are need to be satisfied first.
Security needs:- At this level of safety and security one gives importance to have a place
to live and protect him self from all possible threats.

Social needs:- At this level of social needs one gives importance to satisfy the social
and belongingness needs like join social groups, marry ,friends etc.

Esteem needs:- Very few people satisfy the top two levels called esteem and self-
actualisation needs. The esteem need can be defined as things that you achieve which
make you recognised and gives a personnel satisfaction. And the self actualisation need is
actually satisfied by very few people. Here a person is one among a small number to do
some thing exceptional.

Factors influencing the buying decision

There are several factors that affect the consumer behaviour in their buying decisions. A
mix of cultural, social, psychological and personal factors is the main factors that
influence the consumer. Following diagram shows several factors and the process by
which it influences the consumer in making their buying decision.

26
(http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol9/issue2/giaglisfigure1.gif)

In this study researcher is going to concentrate and explain how the Marketing
activity,’Promotion’(the researcher also uses the marketing activity of Bigbazaar as a
case to explain) the external factor influences the internal factor (Perception) in the
process of making a buying decision by a consumer.

Role of marketing activities and functions in consumer behaviour

Introduction
This chapter explains about various marketing activities that are very commonly operated
by various firms in the field of marketing.In this research the researcher is trying to prove
how strongly are these factors linked with each of the other factors like communication,
promotion, perception.

Marketing management includes a number of highly significant and sensitive functions

and activities which determines the fate of the organization. These functions are always
been used in the form of a process and are inter-related and linked with each other (Philip
Kotler). The functions and activities of marketing are incorporated to the new and
dynamic organisational structures and methods of achieving objectives. In the customer
led organisation, marketing acts as a pivot to integrate the activities of other departments.
(Susan Norgan,1994)

27
Definition:-

‘Marketing is the management process responsible for identifying anticipation and

satisfying customer requirements profitably’ (CIM) The Cyprus Institute of Marketing
(UK).

Following are the major functions and activities of marketing management. But for our
research we are taking into consideration the promotion function of marketing only.

Sourec:http://schools.nashua.edu/myclas
s/mcquestenl/Seven%20Functions/functions-of-marketing.jpg

Role of marketing activities in retail industry

Gaining consumer attention is the main factor that determines at the point of purchase.
Hence the main objective of marketing in retail industry is optimum utilisation of
available resources to attract and increase the sales and in-store footfalls. Marketing
activities are so significant and an important determinant of purchase behaviour. ‘An
important, part of purchase decisions is still being made at the point-of-sale’ (Inman and
Winer, 1999). Therefore effective and impressive marketing activity in the form of sales
promotion can play a major role in attracting and attaining the positive perception of
consumers.

28
Manufactures along with retailers are still very keen in undertaking short term sales
promotional activities, more than 75% of their marketing communication budget is
allocated to these short term activities (Tenser,1996).

PROMOTION AND PERCEPTION

In this research researcher is going to explain in detail on one marketing activity which is
Promotion (sales) (the external factor influencing the buying decision) and how does it
influence the internal factor Perception while making a buying decision.

It is widely accepted that the Consumer behaviour and buying decision is always
preceded by a decision process. Various researchers have also proved that it is highly
influential. Consumer perception of price, quality, and value of the products are found to
be the basic determinants of buying behaviour (Bishop 1984; Doyle 1984; Jacoby and
Olson 1985; Sawyer and Dickson 1984; Schlechter 1984). Effective use of sales
promotional tools can influence the consumer’s buying behaviour in favour of a
particular brand or product. For example when using price as a tool for promotion the
perceived price is the actual price that a consumer places on a product that which the
retailer offers, and through effective sales promotion tools one can offer some thing more
which the consumer think that it is worth enough, but which cost a little and there by
driving the consumer into buying. ‘PRICE’ is one the indicators used by the consumers to
asses the quality of a particular product (Gabor,1977;1988). Stoetzel (1954) suggested
that consumers always have an acceptable price range with upper and lower limits. When
the price is beyond the upper limit the product is seen as too expensive and when it’s too
low the buyer may suspects the quality of the good and avoids it.

PROMOTION

29
Introduction

Promotion is an important component of the marketing mix, the other components being
price, product, and place. The key components of promotion include personal selling,
direct marketing, advertising, sales promotion, and public relations. Developing a
promotion strategy involves deciding on the objectives of marketing communication,
deciding the role of each of the components of the promotion mix, budgeting, and
strategy development for the promotion mix components. (John C. Totten, Martin P.
Block,1994) Promotion objectives determine the role of each of the components of the
promotion mix in the marketing objectives of the organization. The role of the promotion
mix components depends on the type of organization, nature of products, and so on.
Budgeting for promotion makes use of various approaches like the top-down approach
(percentage of sales, affordable method, arbitrary allocation, and competitive parity) and
bottom-up approach (pay out planning, objective task method, and mathematical models).
Integrated Marketing Communication is a concept which recognizes the advantages of
having a complete plan to find better ways of understanding and connecting with
consumers

Sales promotion is one of the important promotion strategies followed by retailers. Sales
promotion refers to communication strategies designed to act as a direct inducement, an
added value, or incentive for the product to customers. Sales promotion efforts are
designed to assist the other promotional activities undertaken by a store. (Peter Mc
Goldrick,2002).It tends to encompass every thing that falls outside advertising, publicity,
and direct marketing, although these might be used to deliver sales promotions.

Modern marketers have recognised that effective sales promotion tools only can move the
products off store and shelves. The market environment provides the Companies with
many opportunities to play on consumers sense’s to further generate and maintain the
customer-brand relationships’
(Fulberg,2003;Jackson and Fulberg ,2003). Modern companies use sales promotion tools
at each and every level example Consumers, Distributors, Wholesalers, Retailers,

Sales Promotion

30
Definition
‘Sales Promotion has been defined as the coordination of all seller initiated efforts to
set up channels of information and persuasion to all goods and services or promote an
idea’.
(Advertising and promotion;4th edition;pp13;george E .Belch,Michael A.Belch)
‘Sales promotion can be defined as diverse collection of incentive tools, mostly, short
term designed to stimulate quicker and /or greater purchase of particular product or
service by consumers (Kotler, 1998).
‘Sales promotion is an action-focused marketing event whose purpose is to have direct
impact on the behaviour of firm’s consumers’ (Kotler,1998; Webster,1981; Davis,1981)

‘The term sales promotion refers to many kinds of selling incentives and techniques
intended to produce immediate or short- term sales effects’
(John C. Totten, Martin P. Block,Anlysing sales promotion,1994,2nd Ed,pp)

Objectives of sales promotion

The following are the most widely accepted objectives of sales promotion these
objectives are often used to justify the use of sales promotion.
1. Obtaining product trial:- Making consumer try a particular product or
services is so significant to marketing strategies, it can be an introduction
of new product or reaching new customers .
2. Encouraging repeat usage:-Once a customer tried the product it is
necessary to retain the customer to buy the product again and again hence
it is necessary to give additional incentives to keep the competitors from
winning the consumers back after the successful trial.

Importance of sales promotion

The global market today is highly competitive, in order to sustain in this tough
atmosphere companies are making use of all possible efforts to increase the sales. Certain
incentive is being offered to customers to generate sale of a particular product lets see the
merits and demerits of sales promotion from the producers and consumers and point of
view.

31
Manufacturer’s point of view.
1. It helps to increase sales and profits in the competitive market
2. It helps to introduce new products and to get the attention of potential buyers.
3. It enables quick disposal of existing stocks.
4. It helps in maintaining the sales of seasonal products
5. To challenge competition.

Consumer’s point of view

1. goods are available for cheaper rate
2. economical benefits to buyers
3. creates awareness about new brands
4. stabilises the sales volume
5. raise the standard of living
(http://www.nos.org/Secbuscour/24.pdf)
The above are some of the importance’s of sales promotion form the manufactures and
consumers point of view.

Disadvantages of sales promotion.

Following are some the disadvantages of sales promotion

1. Sales promotion is effective only for short term purposes.
2. Hidden costs.
3. Adverse effects on the brand loyalty of the products when offered huge price
discounts.
4. Some of the sales promotion strategies are highly expensive to implement
5. Difficulty in managing and monitoring
Source (Kenneth e.Clowe &Donald Baak,2004)

32
Sales promotion in retail industry.

Introduction
This chapter deals with the sales promotion in the retail industry. Promotion programmes
related to consumer purchase decision and what the strategies adopted by the retail
chains. Most observers feel that dealing activities do not build long term consumer
loyalty. The indifference service offered by the retail chains or hyper market may be
perceived positively by a certain set of consumers due to the opportunity it provides them
to look at the products at leisure. Retailers design the retail marketing mix to ensure
patronizing the retail store or format by the target segment or to attract new customers.
(Mc Goldrick,2002) It is found that the top 25 retailers accounted for over half of all UK
advertising (Mintel,1999)The attractive sales promotion offers may or may not be
effective concerning the customers

The main objective of retail sales promotion is to pull the crowd and to increase the
number of foot falls in to a particular store. (Mc Goldrick,2002) Therefore the retail
advertising tends to emphasise some significant motives such as the price, the hours of
operation, the store atmosphere, Various value added services, the retailers are very
much concerned about building the store traffic so their promotional activities are of
direct and immediate action such as advertisement published to produce immediate store
traffic and sales. (Kotler,1998; Blattberg and Neslin1998)

In India the use of sales promotional tools has been increasing significantly over the
years. The sales promotional activities has got a very high impact on the behaviour of
consumers towards the price perceptions, choice of brand, brand equity, brand

33
perception, brand switching behaviour so on. The main objective of consumer promotion
is to draw out a direct impact on the purchase behaviour of the firm’s customers.
(Kotler,1998; Blattberg and Neslin1998) Sales promotions normally give positive sales
results for short term period. (Priya 2004) Where as price promotions consistently
reported to have high sales effects and high price elasticity for brands in the promotion
campaign(Blattberg, Briesch and Fox, 1995). Various studies proved that price promotion
often facilitates brand substitution with the product category (Dodson et al,1978).Price
promotion often affects cumulative sales (Gupta,1998), and also affects stock piling and
purchase acceleration (Blattberg, Eppen and Lieberman, 1981, Nelson Henderson, and
Quelch, 1985). Various studies proved that among the various elements of marketing mix
sales promotional activities have long term influence on the brand equity (Yoo et al, 200).
‘(Martineau (1958) quoted that the success or failure of nstores could often be attributed
to under tested and underemphasized elements of their brand image’ (retail
marketing,Perter Mc Goldrick,2002pp-181).

The above chapter explains various facts regarding the sales promotional activities in the
retail industry. It is found that almost all the retailers are doing some sorts of sales
promotion at any level. And most of the retail sales promotions are supported by the
manufacturer. The important features of retail sales promotion is that the success is
depended totally on the co-operation of both manufacturer and the retailer.

34
PERCEPTION

Introduction

Consumer perception has been found to be significant determinants of consumer

behaviour. The purchasing decision is always been influenced by the perceived image of
the product or service as determined by he consumers present state of mind. The
advertiser’s manipulation about various attributes of the product always ensures better
attention paid by the consumer.

Importance of consumer perception

Perception is considered as one of the important psychological factors which influence

the consumer behaviour. In simple words perception can be described as ‘how we see
things around us’. Every individual every now and then are receiving messages and
information through our five sensing organs these different information’s and messages
are called stimuli. .(Terrell G Williams,1982) Perception varies from individual to
individual each individual selects, recognise, organise, interprets these stimuli in his own
way based on his values and expectations so the perception varies from person to person.
(Terrell G Williams,1982) Hence perception is highly significant factor in consumer
behaviour and buying decisions. In order to get better response to a product or service it
is so vital to find a combination of particular stimulus which generates the most
favourable perception in the maximum amount of customers. (Henry Assael,1995),

In marketing perception is concerned with understanding how the consumer views a

product or services.(Kenneth E.Clow & Donald Baack,2004) The five sensors of a person

35
help him in this process. The marketer uses various tools to encourage the consumer,
which is through the use of colours sound and touch, taste or smell to absorb the product.
ICMR (international centre for management resources)
http;// www.icmrindia.org/

Definition

According to John C.Mowen, Michael S.Minor ‘Perception is the process through

which individuals are exposed to information, attend to the information, and comprehend
the information’

‘Perception is a process where by an individual receives stimuli, selects,

organizes and interprets the message’ (Harrell, 1986).

Stages of perception
 Exposure stage: here initially the consumers receive the information
through their senses.
 Attention stage: Here consumers allocate the processing capacity to a
stimulus.
 Comprehension stage: here the consumers organize and interpret the
information to obtain meaning from it.
All marketing and sales promotional activities may not do so in the way the marketers
would like them to do but this facts reinforces the value of exploring the psychology of
perception. This is the base at which the shared ways of interpretation can be encouraged.
Source: (Terrel G Williams , Consumer behaviour,1982)

Importance of understanding perception

36
 Consumer perception of price, quality and value are always considered the basic
determinants of shopping behaviour and product choice (Bishop 1984;Doyle 1984;Jacoby
and Olson 1985;Sawyer and Dickson 1984;Schlechter 1984)
Olson (1978) pointed out that the consumers may use informational cues to
develop beliefs about products and that task response.

Hence understanding consumer behaviour is highly significant in planning the marketing

strategies of an organisation marketing strategies should always influence the consumer
and should be always influenced by them. Twenty first century it is the consumers who
hold the power and it is the buyers market rather than sellers (Shaw New holme and
Dickson,2006). Consumer behaviour is actually to analyse how a person interacts with
marketing mix of a particular product or services. According to Cohen (1991), the
marketing mix inputs and the four P’s price, place, promotion and product are designed
and aimed at the consumer. The individual consumer considers each product in terms of
their learned culture, attitude, previous learning and individual perception. Then the
consumer decides whether to go for a particular product and when and where to purchase
the brand and other choices. Krugman (1965) has come with the concept of involvement
according to him when people had low involvement in a product, advertising could still
affect their behaviour by strengthening the recognition and brand recall stimuli. Engel,
Blackwell and Miniard (1995) also found that involvement as one of the a very strong
influence in the cognitive activity.
Impulse Buying is another attitude where by consumers experience a sudden but
powerful and persistent urge to buy a product offering immediately, with diminished
regard to the consequences of buying the offering (Rook,1987) and it is considered to be
an unplanned decision which may happen in less than a second and is a very common
feature in market place.
According to Rook ‘Impulse buying is relatively extra ordinary and exiting, emotional
rather than rational and is likely to be perceived as bad rather than good.

The demography’s of the consumers are so vital for the marketers. By this consumers
can be aimed sharply by using variables such as age, gender and Y occupation (social
grade) because consumer behaviour differs with demographic variables. Adults define
themselves by their job where as youths define themselves by their consumption patterns.
Brands and products are therefore of a critical importance to teenagers (Gillespie,2003).

37
Information processing style of male female work differently. (Kitchen and Spicekett-
Jones (2003) Males tend to be selective processors of information and use heuristic cues
where as females tend to be comprehensive processors of information paying attention to
the entire information (Darley and Smith,1995;Meyers-Levy and Maheswaran,1991).

PROMOTION AND PERCEPTION THE CORE ELEMENT OF MARKETING

Introduction

Promotion and Perception are deeply linked together by an important element of

marketing mix called communication. Perception is always an after effect of promotional
communication. (Foxall,1980)

The effects of sales promotion can be evaluated by observing the Consumer’s response
or perception towards the marketing activity. Consumer’s response to marketing activity
is a stage wise process like Exposure, attention, perception; learning, attitude, action and
post purchase these sequences cannot be necessarily followed by all consumers in all
situations, it varies depending on the situations. AIDA (attention-interest-desire-action)
this is another sequential model ( Tosdal,1925:St Elmo Lewis, Circa 1900). Hierarchy of
effects model. This model includes the following stages: awareness, knowledge, liking,
preference, conviction, and purchase, there are also stages starts from awareness to
adoption (Robertson,1971).

It is widely accepted fact that consumer’s exposure to marketing activity is selective,

when an advertising message comes in to contact with consumers senses we say that
consumer is being exposed to the message, and this message has the chance of being
noticed by the consumer. ‘We do notice much more than we consciously remember and

38
it has got a very significant influence on our behaviour at the point of sale’
(Chandon,Hutchinson and Young,2001) consumers normally do not buy what they do not
see therefore product display layouts, image, product design are so vital in contributing to
success or failure of a product. After being exposed to the message and after paying
attention to it, consumer makes sense of the message and this stage is called perception,
here the consumer recognizes, selects, organizes and interprets the message (Harrel,
1986).

Better consumer attention is gained by ensuring the following aspects of promotion.

1. Proper product placement in the shelves
2. Effective utilisation of entry points and hotspots of the shelves
3. Area covered in the shelves
4. Selection of neighbouring product categories
5. Colour combination, size and shape of packing
6. Promotions
7. Prize displays and other promotions

Following are some of the commonly used marketing actions to gain better attention of
consumers.

1. Branding
2. packaging
3. point of sale materials
4. in-store displays
5. Websites, sales promotional offers.

All the above aspects of sales promotion is resulted in gaining better perception and there
by increasing the sales as the over all out come of sales promotion. Hence it is highly
significant that the sales promotion can push the sales up tremendously.

Various factors influencing Promotion and perception

Communication is the Basic tools used to gain consumer attention through

promotions .The organisations main communication objectives are commonly known as

39
Promotional Mix. An ideal promotional strategy consists of Advertising, sales promotion,
personal selling, public relations in order to communicate with their present and potential
consumers (Kotler, 1994). Promotion also can be defined in the following manner.
‘Promotion is the communication methods used to achieve a firms promotional
objectives’
From promotion point of view communication can be classified in to two
1. Non controllable communication
2. Controllable communication

The importance of communication can be seen in detail when we analyse the promotion
mix. The main objective of promotion tool is to move the demand curve upward and to
the right by utilising some or all of the element of promotion mix (Ward and Hill, 1991)
Following are the elements of promotion mix. from the following diagram we could see
the all the elements of promotion mix are situated around the main core aspect which is
communication.

Elements of Promotion Mix

40
 http://www.davedolak.com/graphix/promix.gif
Advertising:-
‘Advertising is defined as any paid form of non personal communication about an
organisation, product, service or idea by an identified sponsor’
(Advertising and promotion; 4th edition;pp14;george E .Belch,Michael A.Belch)
The main means of advertising are TV, Radio, magazines, and news papers. This is a
very significant promotional tool used by various companies to reach the mass consumer
markets.
Direct marketing:- is a tool by which companies communicate directly to their target
consumers Eg; using direct sales force.

Sales promotion:-Which is generally defined and those marketing activities that provide
additional value or incentive to the sales force. There are two types of sales promotions.
 Consumer oriented such as coupons, rebates, contests etc.
 Trade oriented where the sales intermediaries are targeted such as
wholesalers, distributors and retailers

Publicity:- This refers to the non personal communication of an organisation paid for or
run under a sponsor ships such as news story, announcements, editorial article etc.

Pubic Relations:- ‘ Public relation is defined as the management function which evaluates
the public attitudes , identifies the policies and procedures of public interest and
executing an action to gain public understanding or acceptance’

41
Personal selling:- \this is basically person to person communication in which a person try
to assist or persuade a prospective buyer to buy a particular product or services or to act
on a particular idea.

When we analyse the marketing mix of Bigbazar we can see that it has paid better
attention to gain all positive perception of all its customers to get better results. Here the
link between all the aspects of the factors which influence the consumer’s buying
decision are well linked and co-ordinated and this is the reasons for Bigbazaars success.

Following are the different elements of retail ‘marketing mix of Big bazaar’.
1. Merchandising assortment
2. location
3. price
4. visual merchandising
5. store atmosphere
6. customer service
7. advertising
8. promotion selling

some of the innovative sales promotion programmes of Bigbazaar

1. Low prices on Wednesday
2. Concept of big day
3. promotional offer like ‘Believe it or not’
source(http://www.scribd.com/doc/904659/Big-Bazaar)

source(http://saleraja.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/big-bazaar.png)

42
Importance of Communication in sales promotion
‘Promotion is all about companies communicating with customers’ A business’ total
communication programme is called the ‘Promotion Mix’.
(http://tutor2u.net/business/marketing/promotion_mix.asp)

Importance of communication can be proved by using Brand Image as a case. Brand

image in retailing can be defined ‘as the way in which the store is defined in the
shopper’s mind, partly by its functional qualities and partly by an aura of psychological
attributes’. (Martineau (1958)(retail marketing,Perter Mc Goldrick,2002pp-183)

When a customer make the buying decision there are number of ideas and concepts been
processed in his/her mind. As stated earlier that this process is highly influenced by
number of internal and external factors. These factors are the outcome of Promotion
through Communication and by the end process called perception the consumer makes
the final brand choice for purchase. Process of brand choice is explained in following
diagram.

Process of brand choice

(http://www.emeraldinsight.com/Insight/viewPDF.jsp?
contentType=Article&Filename=html/Output/Published/EmeraldFullTextArticle/Pdf/007
0390104.pdf)

43
With effective promotional activity executed through better communication channel can
develop better attention and can results in positive perception and thus results in
developing the brand image. When the brand image is developed it always facilitates
brand equity and sales.
When we look at the marketing strategies of Bigbazar we can see that ‘Value Branding’
is the key to their success.

Importance of Price and Loyalty in sales promotion

Sales promotion is a significant tool used universally by all marketing concerns to gain
better perception from its consumers. Therefore manufactures and retailers are so keen in
identifying the effects of marketing variables like price, loyalty and promotions on to
their sales and market share. The first such variable is price. The price that is observed
at the moment of purchase is a fundamental variable (Winer 1985, Lattin and Bucklin
1989, Kalwani and Yim 1992, Mayhew and Winer 1992, Mazumdar and Paptla 2000)
says that price is an essential element. Price is closely associated with reference price.
Reference price is a subjective price with which consumer compare the observed price
and determines whether the prescribed price is acceptable or not. Various authors have
stated that the reference prices are formed on the previous occasion or estimates based on
past experience (Mayhew and Winer, 1992; Rajendran and Tellis ,1994; Bell and
Bucklin,1999; Erdem, 2001) As a result of this comparison at the time of purchase the
gains and losses emerge. When the reference price is high consumer perceives gain and
when the reference price is less the consumer perceives loss. When a consumer perceives
gain he or she shall be more inclined to purchase, if the consumer perceives loss the
interest to purchase will diminish.9(Winer, 1986; Kalwani and Yim,1992;
Briesch,1996;Mazundar and Paptla,200) And some authors also suggested that the effects
of losses will be greater than that of gains (Kalyanaraman and Little,1994; where as some
authors says that consumers will react more strongly to gains (Green leaf,1992,1995)
Depending on the consumers response to gains and losses we come across two types of
consumers Loyal and Non Loyal consumers. Loyal consumers respond similarly to gains
and losses where as non loyal consumers will respond with much better interest to gains.

44
There fore the success of any sales promotional activity is closely associated with price,
reference price, gains and losses and loyalty.

SALES PROMOTION AND PERCEPTION from retailers point of view.

Introduction

Sales promotion techniques are commonly used by retailers to have a direct impact on the
customer’s buying behaviour. In order to get better output sales promotional activities
should be properly planned, organised and integrated in to the organisations marketing
plan. Basically there are two types of sales promotion objectives, Short-term and Long-
term. The first one is aimed at responding to competitor’s activity or to sell off and get rid
of the stock, the second one is aimed at increasing the market share building up brand
image etc. John C.Totten& Martin P. Block (1994)

Generally promotion provokes two quick reactions in people

1. Increased consumption ; more quantity of the product is acquired
2. Storage of the product for the future
(Chandon and Wansink,1999) However the effects will vary depending on the
attractiveness of the sales promotional tool employed. Effective sales promotion can
make a consumer attracted to buy a particular brand which he or she normally doesn’t
buy (Gupta,1993)

45
The effects of retail sales promotion on consumer also depends on his or her behaviour
and attitude. Based on this we can divide the consumers in to three segments.
1. Consumers who find the actions attractive and likely to buy.
2. Those who find neither attractive nor necessary
3. Those who find and remain indifferent are not affected by these actions in their
final decisions.

Types of retail sales promotion

Introduction

Sales promotions are mainly divided in to types Price based and Non Price based
(Campbell and Diamond, 1992; Blattberg and Neslin, 1990) Price Promotions are
promotions such as Coupons, Cent Off, Rebates and Refunds that temporarily reduces the
values of goods and services (Cooke, 1983) Where as Non Price Promotions is
promotions such as giveaways (freebees) or contest in which value is temporarily added
to the product at full price. When implementing a sales promotion campaign the main
objective of management is to stimulate immediate sales and consumer attention towards
a particular brand. The success or failure of a promotional campaign depends on how far
it could affect the consumer’s choice.

In a highly competitive retailing environment, the retail managers are prone to test
number of strategies and techniques that would gain either a short or long term
competitive edge.(International Journal of Retail & distribution management,D.C Gilbert
and N.Jakaria,2002,Vol.30,No.6,pp-315-322) When we look in to a firm’s
communication strategy the one major factor which would give both long term strategic
benefits as well as short term tactical flexibility is sales promotion. Strategically, in a
highly price sensitive environment
Some supermarkets tend to depend heavily on price related promotional activities and
there by adjusting the extent of promotion to match the daily or weekly promotion of
their competitors. Some other supermarkets refuses to modify prices on a daily basis and
are interested in paying better attention to product quality, assortments and more
conservative price promotions to attract the other markets. It is assumed by the retailer is

46
that some deals are more effective than others in getting the attraction of consumers. .
(International Journal of Retail & distribution management,D.C Gilbert and
N.Jakaria,2002,Vol.30,No.6,pp-315-322). Following are two main categories of sale
promotion.( John C. Totten and Martin P. Block,1994)

 Price promotion
 Interest promotion

Price Promotional technique:- This tool can be used in different ways as an effective
promotional tool, from price off to refund offers. This
sales promotion also includes various short term tactical tools, and is proved that it is an
effective tool to increase sales. Price promotions can generate only short term increase in
the sales (Smith and sinha,200;Banks and Moorthy,1999;Koppalle and
Mela,1999;Diamond,1992; Gupta and Cooper,1992;Bava and Shoemaker,1987). Studies
prove that customers who take advantage of price promotion benefit normally returned
to their favourite brands (Ehren berg et al,1994;Brand week ,1994)

This tool can be segmented in to the following categories as the way the special price is
offered and communicated to the consumer.
1. Price-off :- Here a retailer or the manufacturer simply mark down the price on
the price label and shelf label.
2. Coupons :- In this method retailers actually maintain the original price of the
product and only the coupon holders are privileged to have price discounts.
Following are the varieties of coupons. Coupons are proved to be the powerful
inducement for consumers to switch brands (Lichtenstein,1990)
 Cents-off –here certain amount off is offered on actual price
 Free- a free product given
 Buy one, Get one free-With the purchase of one product at a regular
price, a second one is given free
 Time release- Cents off coupons are introduced with different time
expiration dates.
 Multiple purchase-Coupon offer for more than one unit purchased.

47
  Self destruct-More than two, coupons printed over each other and only
one can be used, and the consumer must choose one.
 Personalized-Localised coupon based on geographic location or store.
 Cross-Ruff- A coupon for one product is gained with the purchase of
another unrelated product
 Related sale- A coupon received on the purchase of one product
applies to another product, related in some manner to the purchased
one.
 Sweepstakes Entry- Redeemed coupon becomes an entry into
sweepstakes.
Source: (John C.otten,Martin P.Block ,1994,Analysing sales Promotion,2nd Edition,1994)

Coupons:
Coupons and discounts are the most widely used sales promotional tool (Krishana and
Zhang,1999; Huff and alden,1998; Leone and Srinivasan, 1998; Blattberg and
Neslin,1990) In this method retailers actually maintain the original price of the product
and only the coupon holders are privileged to have discounts. Coupon promotions are
fully successful only if the consumers are used to keep a track of the coupons and are
used in utilising it (Huff and Alden,1998). And if the customer is more price conscious
then his/her attitude towards the coupon will be more positive.
Bonus packs:-
By using this tool consumer is offered a special price is to increase the amount of the
product given for the same price. The main advantage is that it encourages the consumer
to buy more quantity.
Continuity plans:-
This technique requires the saving of some device related to buying. Example is frequent-
flyer plans in various airline companies. The main benefit gained from this tool is that the
requirement for high purchase frequency.
Refund offers.
Here when a purchaser sends a proof of purchase, a refund or discount is given. The main
advantage is that not every one who purchases the product request refund.
Trade promotion:

48
Trade promotion generally can be trade allowance or A trade coupon, this is also a form
of price promotion where discount is offered on the basis of sales volume.

Interest promotion techniques

These are some promotion tools which generate interest rather than price, these tools are
primarily been used to generate short term sales. Certain techniques fit with in this
general category are as follows.
Sampling:- Giving customer a free sample is the most effective means to introduce a
new product demonstrating the improvement in an existing one. The major problem in
this method is the distributing of free samples and the cost.
Contests and sweepstakes.:- In contests it require that consumer purchase a product to
enter and sweepstakes are only a ballot entry that is drawn at random to win. It is widely
used to generate interest in advertising or to increase the store traffic and the main
advantage is that they build store traffic.
Free premiums:-There are several types of free premiums such as in-or on-pack
premiums, such as toy, reusable container, offer to buy another product for a cheaper
price. It increases the products perceived value and the main advantage is that they gain
display, differentiate the product and facilitate the use of self liquidating premiums.
Mail in premiums:- These are gifts that are send with proof of purchase. The promoter
bears the entire costs. The main advantages are it requires multiple purchases and attracts
attention.
Source: John C.Totten, Martin P. Block (994).

49
INDUSTRY PROFILE

A view over retailing

Retail industry is the second largest industry in the United States with the number of
employees and establishments and it is also one of the largest industrial sectors in the
world. Retail industry employees 23 million Americans and generates more than $3
trillion through retail sales annually (www.playground.us-anlytics.com). In every country
whole sale and retail business make up a large portion of nations employment and
business establishments. Wal-mart the world’s largest player in the retail sector is
associated with 1.3 million employments and a per capita sale of $11.993 and this
particular industry is predicted to add 2.1 million jobs between 2002 and 2012 and an
increase of 14%.

50
Another important feature of retail industry is that it can offer substantial employment
opportunities because pastime and temporary work is plentiful in a wide variety of
formats in all forms of retailing.

indian retailing

Introduction
In India retail industry is the largest industry, with an employment of 7% and
contributing to over 10% of the country’s GDP. Presently the India retail industry
employs 21 million people which is 7% of the total employment (Surabhi Shukla,Vidya
school of business Meerut). The Indian retail sector was predominantly controlled and
driven by the traditional and unorganised format of retailing. The Indian retail industry is
expected to rise 25% yearly being driven by the tremendous rise in income, changing
trends in life styles and favourable demographic patterns.

Organised Formats of retailing in India.

Indian retail industry started changing its face from 1980’s. The last decade has witnessed
a tremendous dynamism and various organised retailing has become the centre of
attraction in all the urban areas, we could also see that these retail giant were gaining the
momentum going in their favour. The success of these modern retailing

were mainly because of the increased purchasing power and, credit facilities, rise in
income, changes in life style, increased consumer awareness etc. But the over all share of
organised retailing is still 3% of the total retail in 2004 and it is expected to grow up to
9% in 2010 (Surabhi Shukla,Vidya school of business Meerut).

• Some key facts about Indian retailing

• Retail industry is the largest industrial sector in India over 10% of the country’s
GDP and around 8% of employment.
• Organised retail will form 10% of the total retailing by the end 0f 2010 and is
expected to grow $70 billion.
• The market size of Indian retail is about $312 million.
• Arrival of multinational will further enhance the growth.

51
The Indian retail industry has witnessed a tremendous growth over last five years (2001-
2006). The organised form of retailing has come in to existence from the shadows of
unorganised and traditional Indian retailing. Ever since it was emerged it started
contributing significantly to the over all growth of Indian retail sector.
(http://www.bharatbook.com/detail.asp?id=20208).

Company profile bigbazaar

Pantaloon Retail (India) Ltd.

The current Market share of Pantaloon India Ltd must be one of the greatest success retail
stories in Indian retailing sector. Pantaloon was founded in the year 1987 at Mumbai by
Kishore Biyani. Manufacturing and selling its first formal trouser brand called Pantaloon
Trouser. Initially the company was distributing its garments through various multi brand
retail units through out the country and later they opened ‘Pantaloon Shoppe’ an
exclusive menswear store in 1995 later there were 70 such stores across the country and
most of them were franchised.

In 1997 the company opened its first department store in Kolkata. Thus the company took
its current name Pantaloon Retail India Limited and is now the leading retailer that
operates multiple retail formats in both the value and life style segment of the Indian
consumer market. The company is headquartered in Mumbai and operates over 5 million
square feet of retail space with over 450 outlets in 40 main cities in India and provide
employment for over 20000 people.

The company’s major forms of business includes Pantaloons’s a chain of fashion

garment outlets, BIG BAZAR, The Indian hyper market chain, Food bazaar a
supermarket chain, some of the other formats of business includes Depot, Shoe Factory,
Brand factory, Blue sky, Fashion Station all, Top 10, mBazaar, star and Sitara. The online
portal operated by this group is called future bazaar.com.

Recently the Panataloon Retail India Ltd was awarded the International retailer of the
year 2007 by a US based National Retail Federation (NRF) and also awarded the

52
Emerging Market Retailer of the year 2007 by the world Retail congress held in
Barcelona.
BIG BAZAR.

Big Bazar, the hypermarket format of Pantaloon Retail India Ltd has changed the entire
out look of Indian retailing as a whole. It has rewritten the rules of Indian retailing with
innovation. The 120000 square foot area in a six storied seamless mall and it houses over
300 brands in all categories of goods such as apparel, footwear, accessories, music,
books, furniture, home appliances etc. It also has a coffee shop, a food court, a food
bazaar, a fine dining restaurant, a pub and a discotheque attached to it.

Business description of bigbazaar.

The principle business activity of pantaloon retail India is operating chain retail stores in
the name of BIG BAZAAR. Big bazaar is a hypermarket which offers huge discounts and
a wide range of products under one roof. Since the organised retailing in India is growing
at a very fast rate the sector has become highly competitive with the entry of several other
players such as Reliance Industries, Adity Birla Group, Bharathi Group etc. Big Bazar is
pulling out all the available tools to win the consumers by offering services like tailoring,
laundry, cleaning homes, repairing electronic appliances etc.

insight to big bazaar.

Big bazaar out lets in India operates on the same economic model a Wal-Mart. It has
gained a very high reputation and market share in many Indian cities and small towns.
Right now Bigbazaar stores are located only in India and are considered as the biggest
and fastest growing chain of department stores. By 2010 Bigbazaar is planning to launch
350 outlets in India.

53
Source(http://images.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http)
Goals
Vision- Future Group's vision is to, “deliver Everything, Everywhere, Every time to
Every Indian Consumer in the most profitable manner.” One of the core values at Future
Group is, ‘Indianness' and its corporate credo is –” Rewrite Rules. Retain Values.
Mission
‘We share the vision and belief that our customers and stakeholders shall be served only
by creating and executing future scenarios in the consumption space leading to economic
development’
Source (http://www.pantaloon.com/corporate_state.asp)

We always will be the trend setters in evolving delivery formats creating retail reality,
and ensuring the consumption affordable to all Indian customer segments for classes – for
masses.

Business Strtegies of Bigbazaar

54
Bigbazaar belives in offers, we can see often see various offers of Bigbazaar in news
papers, Their business strategy is like the main head office decides the promotional
schemes and the outlets run these schemes. The company is making every effort reach
and every individual considering all sorts of available media resources such as digital
signage, audio video Bluetooth technology etc.
Source (http://retailjunction.goelji.com/retail-promotions/promotional-offers-run-by-big-
bazaar.html)

Following picture shows some of the sales promotion offers of Bigbazaar.

55
 source(http://www.saleraja.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/adishwars1.png)

Following are some of the key business strategies that resulted in the success of
Bigbazaar.
• Bigbazaar has realised the fact the saving is the key to Indian middle class
consumers.
• The concept of ‘Bazaar’, as the store that offers large number of product mix at a
discounted price

• Price was considered as the basic value proposition at Bigbazaar.

• The Bigbazaar outlets sold a wide variety of product at a discounted price which
were 5 to 60% less than the market value.
Source(http://www.scribd.com/doc/15808215/BIG-BAZAAR)

The merchandising Mix of Bigbazaar.

• Bigbazaar could offer large product mix, this was the main attraction.
• Bigbazaar offered around 130000 products over 20 product categories.
• The buying process for most of the categories were price driven.
• Bigbazaar can cater every possible retail need of a consumer.
• Attracts huge customers per day.
Source(http://www.scribd.com/doc/15808215/BIG-BAZAAR)

The above are some of the facts and figures of Bigbazaar .The giant retail company in
India with the acceptability of this Bigbazaar the researcher could say that Indian Retail
Market may well see an onset of a revolutionary phase and tremendous growth can be
forecasted in the near future.

56
 THEORATICAL FRAME WORK (Retailing)

Introduction

This Chapter briefly explains various theories related to the concept of retailing and the
entire retail management such as retailing strategies, retail marketing decisions, various
classifications in retailing and a brief note about Indian retail industry, current trends in
the retail industry etc are explained in detail in this chapter.

RETAILING

Nature and Scope of Retailing:

‘Retailing includes all the activities involved in selling of goods or services directly to
final consumers for their personal, non business use. Any organization that does the
selling- whether a manufacturer, wholesaler, or retailer- is doing retailing’ (Chethan
Bajaj, Rajnish Tuli, Nidhi Srivstava,(2005)

Types of Retailers

1. Store Retailers: Consumer can shop for goods and services in a wide variety of
stores. Here is a brief description of the more important store types

a. Specialty Store: A specialty store carries a narrow product line with a deep
assortment with in that line. Example of specialty retailers is apparel stores, sporting
goods, furniture stores, florists and bookstores.

57
b. Department stores: A department store carries several product lines,
typically clothing, home furnishing, and household goods. Where each line is operated as
a separate department.

c. Supermarket: A supermarket is a relatively large, low cost, low margin,

high volume, self service operation designed to serve the consumers total need for food,
laundry and household maintenance products. Many supermarkets are moving into
prescription, appliances, records, hardware, garden supplies and even cameras, hoping to
find high margin lines to improve profitability.

d. Convenience stores: convenience food stores are relatively small stores

that are located near residential areas, are open long hours and seven days a week, and
carry limited line of high-turnover convenience products.

e. Discount store: A discount store sells standardized merchandise at lower

prices and selling higher volumes. It offers national brands and not inferior goods. In
Japan discount stores are the rage as Japanese consumers become more price conscious.

f. Off price retailers: A new wave of Off Price Retailers moved up in to fill
the low price, high volume gap. There are three main types of Off-price retailers- factory
outlets, independents, and warehouse clubs. Factory outlet are owned and operated by the
manufacturers. Independents are owned and run by entrepreneur or division of larger
retail corporation. Warehouse club sell a limited selection of brand name grocery items,
appliances, clothing and a hodgepodge of other good of deep discounts to members who
pay annual membership fee.

g. Catalog showroom: A catalogue showroom sells a broad selection of high

mark-up, fast moving, brand name goods at discount prices.

h. Superstore, combination and Hypermarket: superstore average 3300

square metres of selling space and aims at meeting the consumer’s total need for
routinely purchases food and non food items. Combination store represent a
diversification of the supermarket store into the growing drug and prescription field.
Hypermarket is even larger, ranging between 7400 and 20,400 square metres. The hyper
market combines supermarket, discount and ware house retailing. Its product assortment
goes beyond routinely purchased good and includes furniture, large and small appliances,
clothing, and many other items

58
 2. Non-store Retailing: This is the second type of retailer. Although many goods and
services are sold through stores, there is non-store retailing that can potentially
take a large chunk of sales from store retailing channels. For example; direct
selling, direct marketing, automatic vending, buying services etc.

Source(Chethan Bajaj, Rajnish Tuli, Nidhi Srivstava,2005)

Retail marketing decisions: Retailers today are anxious to find new marketing strategies
to attract and hold customers. They are rethinking their marketing strategy. The
marketing decisions faced by the retailers are

Target market decisions:

Too many retailers have not clarified there target market or are trying to satisfy too many
markets. Retailers should conduct periodic marketing research to ensure that they are
reaching and satisfying their target customers.*

Product assortment and procurement decision:

The retailer product assortment must match the shopping expectation of the target
market. The retailers have to decide on product assortment breadth and depth.

Service and store atmosphere decision:

The retailers must also decide on the service mix to offer customers Pre-purchase
services, post-purchase services, ancillary services are some major services that full-
service retailers can offer. The service mix is one of the key tools for differentiating one
store from another.

Price decisions:

The retailers price is the key position factor and must be decided in relation to the target
market, the product and service assortment mix and competition. Retailers have to decide
whether to use a promotional pricing strategy or an “everyday-low prices” strategy.

Promotion decision:

The retailers must use promotion tools that support and reinforce its image positioning.

Place decision:

59
The three keys factors of retailers to success are “location, location, location.”
Department store chains, oil companies and fast food franchisers must exercise great care
in selecting location.

Sales Promotion

Sales promotion consists of a diverse collection of intensive tools, mostly short term,
designed to stimulate quicker and greater purchase of particular products/services by
consumers or the trade.

Source: (Chethan Bajaj, Rajnish Tuli, Nidhi Srivstava,(2005) Retail Management, Oxford
University Press, New Delhi).

The above chapter explains briefly about the certain facts regarding the retailing and
retail management and marketing methods and profile of this particular sector. This is
necessary to describe some facts about retailing as a whole mainly because in coming
chapters the researcher is trying link all the aspects of promotion, perception with respect
to retailing.

60
 Chapter-4

DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION

ANALYSIS OF CONSUMER SURVEY FOR SALES PROMOTION

Introduction:

This chapter deals with the analysis and interpretation of the collected primary data. The
research is conducted to evaluate the consumer perception of various sales promotion
offers with respect to m/s Big Bazaar, Bangalore with special reference to various
promotion offers operated and introduced by them. Here the researcher has collected the
data through questionnaire from 100 respondents chosen by the method of convenience
sampling is analyzed here.

Profile of the Respondents:

The personal detail of 100 respondents such as gender classification, age wise
classification, location wise, income wise classification, their mother tongue, family size,
occupation are shown below:

Gender:

Out of 100 respondents there were 68 males and 32 female respondents.

Age

The age profile of the respondents are tabulated in table number 5.1

61
 Profile related with age

Age no of respondents % level

Under -18 11 11
18 -30 44 62
30-40 27 27
Above 40 18 18

Chart showing the age profile of respondents

noof respondents

50
40
30
noof respondents
20
10
0
Under - 18-30 30-40 Above
18 40

(source primary data)

Income

The income profile of the consumer are tabulated in the following table

Profile related with income

Income per month No. of respondents % Level

Below 10000 9 9
10001-20000 32 32
20001-30000 25 25
30001-50000 28 28
Above 50000 6 6
Total 100 100
Source: primary data

62
Chart showing the income profile of the respondents

No. of respondents

40
30
20
No. of respondents
10
0
Below 20001- Above
10000 30000 50000

Interpretation:From the above chart we can find that most of the respondents belongs to
the middle class section of the society and in India this section is considered to be huge in
numbers. Hence the business strategies of big bazaar could attract the middle class
section of the Indian society that itself is great success.as per researcher’s opinion.

Occupation

The occupation wise classifications of the respondents are given in the following table

Profile Related with Occupation

Occupation No of Respondents % Level

Self employed 8 8
Private employed 35 35
Govt employee 23 23
Professional 12 12
Student 16 16

63
Others 6 6
total 100 100%
Source: Primary data

Chart showing the occupation profile of the respondents

No of Respondents

Self employed
Private employed
Govt employee
Professional
Student
Others

Frequency of Customer visit:

The customers are asked about the frequency of their visit to Big Bazaar and the
suggested responses were once in a week, once in a month, once in six month, once in a
year and the tabulated response are shown in the table followed by a pictorial
representation in chart .

Table showing frequency of visits

No of times No of respondents % Level

Once in a week 28 28
Once in 2 weeks 42 42
Once in a month 18 18
Once in 2 months 12 12

64
total 100 100%
Source: Primary data

Chart showing the frequency of visits by the respondents

Once in 2 months

Once in a month
Series1
Once in 2 weeks

Once in a week

0 10 20 30 40 50

Interpretation: The above table shows that about 28% of customer visit Big Bazaar once
in a week, 42% of the respondents visit once in 2weeks, 18% of the customers visit once
in a month, and 12%. of the customer visit once in 2months. Nearly half of the
respondents visit Bigbazaar once in 2 weeks and there is a high chance for repeat
purchase and better footfalls in the store.

Why people shot at Bigbazaar:

When the customers were asked why they prefer to shop at Bigabazaar? And the
suggested responses were because of offers, convenience, quality, price and other factors.

Why people shop at Bigbazaar

65
 No of Respondents % Level
Offers 67 67
Convenient 6 6
Quality 8 8
Price 17 17
Others 6 12
Total 100 100%
Source: Primary data

Chart showing the Reason why people buy from Bigbazaar

80
70
60
50
40 Series1
30
20
10
0
nt

y
rs

s
e
lit

er
ie

ric
ffe

ua

th
n

P
ve
O

O
on
C

Source :Primary data

Interpretation:- From the above table it is found that more 67% of the respondents shop
at big bazaar just because of offers followed by 17% of them are shopping because of the
price factor which is also a part of various offers . Hence one could say that customers
have perceived positive perception towards the sales promotional activities of Bigbazaar
and sales promotion is still the driving force behind majority of the consumers who are
shopping at Bigbazaar.

Consumer’s awareness level about offers

The data regarding s awareness level about various offers of Bigbazaar.

Table 5.8
Consumers Awareness level about offers

66
 No of Respondents % Level
Yes 98 98
No 2 2
Total 100
Source: Primary Data

No of Respondents

100
80
60
No of Respondents
40
20
0
Yes No

Interpretation: The table indicates that about 98% of the respondents know about the
offers and only 2% don’t know about offers. From the above figures we can also trace out
that almost all the visitors to Bigbazaar are aware of the availability of various offers and
only 2% are not aware, it indicates that most of the customers are impressed by the
promotional activities and are being driven to pay visits.

Source of information

The customers were asked for the media through which they came to know about
‘Believe it or not’. The data is shown in the table 5.9 followed by a pictorial
representation in figure 5.3

Source of Information

Media No of Respondents % Level

News papers 42 42
Pamphlets 22 22

67
Tele vision 16 16
Radio 15 15
Hoardings 5 5
Total 100 100
Source: Primary Data

Chart showing the sources of information to the consumers

No of Respondents

News papers
Pamphlets
Tele vision
Radio
Hoardings

Interpretation: The information about the offers through News Papers has been
effective which ranges up to 42%, Pamphlets rated 22%, Television with 16%, Radio has
a low coverage with 15% and hoardings with 5% response.

Whether customers are attracted by offers:- When asked the respondents whether they
are attracted by offers and are influenced by it or not?

Whether customers are attracted by offers

No of Respondents % Level
Yes 87 87
No 13 13
Total 100 100
Source: Primary Data

68
Chart showing the attraction level of consumers to offers

100

80

60
Series1
40

20

0
Yes No

Interpretation: The table indicates that majority of them are attracted by various offers
and about 87% of the respondents are attracted and impressed by various offers.

Does an offer makes consumers buy more:- The respondents were asked whether they
buy more if certain offers are available to them.

Does an offer make consumers buy more?

No of Respondents % Level
Yes 76 76
No 24 24
Total 100 100
Source: Primary Data

69
 80

60
40
Series1
20
0
S1
Yes
No

Interpretation:- when asked the above question majority of the respondents were so
confidently responded with ‘YES’ they will buy more and out 76% of the respondents are
happy to receive various offers to buy more and 24% respondents said they will not buy
more.

What products consumers often buy at Bigbazaar:-The respondents were asked what
are the products they often buy from Bigbazaar and the suggested answers were grocery,
Clothing & footwear, electronics, furniture, food, others.

What products consumers often buy at Bigbazaar.

No of times No of respondents % Level

Grocery 33 33
Clothing & footwear 22 22
electronics 11 11
furniture 6 6
Food bazaar 20 20
others 8 8
total 100 100%
Source: Primary data

70
Chart showing various products often shopped by consumer

35
30
25
20 Series1
15
10
5
0
Clothing &

electronics

furniture
Grocery

others
footwear

bazaar
Food

Interpretation:- It is found from the above table that customers are of with different
needs and different intentions. But still we could find that Grocery’s are the goods often
been brought by nearly half of the respondents when they visit big bazaar. To be exact
33% of the respondents does the same. Clothing and food is the next priority ones with
22% and 20% respectively followed by electronics 11%, Other goods 8%, Furniture 6%.

How often consumers buy their preferred products:-The respondents were asked to
report how often they buy their preferred products from Bigbazaar and suggested answers
were once in week, once in two weeks, once in a month, once in 2 months, only when
there is special offers available.
How often consumers buy their preferred products

No of times No of respondents % Level

Once in a week 22 22
Once in 2 weeks 46 46
Once in a month 16 16
Once in 2 months 10 10
Only when offers available 6 6
total 100 100
Source: Primary data

71
Chart showing how often consumers buy at bigbazaar

Once in a week

Once in 2 weeks

Once in a month

Once in 2 months

Only when offers

available

Interpretation:- From the above chart we can find that nearly half of the total
respondents, exactly 46% of them buy their preferred products from Bigbazaar once in 2
weeks, followed by 22% on every week, followed by 16% only on every month, 10% buy
their products once in 2 month and 6% buy their preferred products only on special
offers.

Most effective offers as per consumers opinion:- The respondents were asked to
suggest the most effective offer operated Bigbazaar and the suggested answers were the
some of the successful offers like get more for less, Get Big for small, Buy one get many,
Special offers, Discount offers.

Most effective offers

offers No of Respondents % Level

Get more for less 12 12
Get big for small 5 5
Buy one get many 34 34
Special offers 21 21
Discount offers 28 28
Total 100 100
Source: Primary Data

72
Chart showing the most effective offers suggested by respondents

40
30

20
Series1
10

0
Get more Get big Buy one Special Discount
for less for small get many offers offers

Interpretation:- When analyzed the above data we could find that Buy one get many
was the most successful offer suggested and appreciated by majority of the respondents
34% of them supported this particular offer. It proves that every customer is looking to
get more out his or her spending. Discount offers are the next priority offers suggested by
28% of the respondents followed by special offers with 21% and get big for small with
5% of the respondents respectively. With respect to Bigbazaar they always operate this
buy one get many offer in regular intervals mainly in the clothing and garment
department.

Suitability of offers for various departments form consumers point of view.

The customers were asked to select the best department for certain offers followed by
various departments, is explained in the form of a graph shown in chart 5.20

73
 Foodbazaar
Electronics
Footwear

Furniture
Clothing

Grocery
Offers

Get more for less 33 23 20 25 27 45

Get big for small 8 15 20 17 20 14
Buy one get many 37 28 17 30 18 16
Special offers 22 34 43 28 35 25
Total 100 100 100 100 100 100
Source: Primary data

120
100
80
Get more for less
60
40 Get big for small
20 Buy one get many
0 Special offers
Total
re
ng

ry

ar
r

cs
ea

ce

itu

za
ni
i
th

t ro

ro

rn

ba
lo

ot

Fu
G
C

ec
Fo

od
El

Fo

Interpretation: The rated advantage for offers like buy one gets many and special offers
has a high level of suitability for the departments. The best suitability of offers are given
below

• About 37% of consumers opined buy one get many offers to Clothing

• 34% of consumers opined special offers are suitable for Foot wear

• 43% of consumers opined special offers are suitable for Electronics

• 35% of Special offers for furniture

• 45% of Get more for less for Food bazaar is suitable for the departments.

74
Summary of Findings based on consumer survey regarding perception towards
sales promotion, Bigbazaar as a case.

“Sales promotion increases the sales”

Sales promotion is one of the important marketing activities that has got a very
significant role in the making a product success or failure. As a tool of sales promotion
Bonus packs, many companies have reported success with bonus pack sales promotion
Sales promotion is a proven tool to increase sales in all format of the trade. All the above
mentioned sales promotion techniques are widely used in all the retailers to boost up their
sales. The effects of sales promotion also can be viewed from the weekly sales graph of
Bigbazaar. Bigbazaar is operating a sales promotion campaign called the ‘Concept of big
day’ on every Wednesday, on this day special discounts and offers are given in huge
scale, this has changed and increased the weekdays sales turn over. Hence when we look
at the sales graph we can see a ‘W’ shape diagram instead of ‘U’ shape diagram. The
following figure shows the weekly sales turn over of Bigbasar.

sale

12

10

6 sale

0
sun mon tue wed thu fri sat

Source (Sales report Big bazaar Koramangala,Banglore)

Hence it is worth saying that through better sales promotional activity co-ordinated with
well defined and objective oriented communication system can develop and generate
better awareness among the consumers. Here the manufacturer can gain a positive

75
 perception from the respondents and can drive this particular perception in favour of a
particular brand or product. Hence we conclude this chapter by saying that Promotion
through precise communication can generate positive perception and there by driving the
perception as desired is the key to success in the modern highly competitive global
environment. Some of the other findings are as follows.

1. The pricing and offers are found to be the main attraction for its popularity and
success, the price ranges and the various products offered are very much impressed by
the consumers.

2. It is found that the majority of consumers is attracted and is interested in various

offers.

3. Another fact behind bigbazzar’s success is that it could attract the middle class
Indian crowd, which seems to be huge in numbers when compared to all other income
group.

4. It is found that Bigbazaar can cater all needs of Indian consumer

5. Promotional mix with well defined communication channel can influence and
increase the sales

6. Bigbazaar has had a very high impact on the middle class section of India, with
the price, quality, and sales strategies of bigbazaar could gain better attention from the
consumers.

7. When we analyze The percentage level of information to the consumer through

news paper is the effective one which brought certain level of coverage about various
offers.

8. Among various offers, especially discount offers have been effective on the whole

9. The majority of the consumers are satisfied with the sales promotion activities of
bigbazaar.

76
10. Clothing, garments and kids wear have made a better image over the special
offers.

11. The majority of consumers don’t know about the past offers. This is one of the
basic draw backs of big bazaar.

12. It has been found that the consumers who don’t know about any offer in big
bazaar are very few

13. The most preferred offers rated by consumers were buy one get many, special
offers and discount offers.

Suggestions and recommendation

1. Since sales figures showing noticeable growth on special offers, consumers

should be made aware about the various available offers on a regular basis through better
coverage.

2. The offers given should be of quality products and conditions should be under
profit to consumer.

3. The offers should be for the whole day.

4. More details should be included in the advertisements about the sales promotion
of big bazaar.

5. Discount offer can be allocated for a single piece rather than using the offers like
buy one get one.

6. The availability of the branded product should be heterogeneous.

7. The offer should be available to all the products in Big Bazaar.

8. The offers should be frequent.

9. Offers should be at the level of middle class people.

77
10. Since the special offer has made a great impact over the departments they can
adopt this strategy in the future concepts.

11. Consideration should be given to discount offers.

12. As the customer gives more weight age to the quality, it can be taken as a main
promotional feature for the products.

13. The coverage should be well extended since it has been the major issue related to
sales promotion activities

14. Signage’s can be positioned is those area (entry and exit) as such the customers
can easily come to know about the offers for the different products and it should be more
clear.

Above are some of the finding with regard to the research here we could see that the sales
promotional activities are widely used y various firms because its worth operating it at
any level of marketing and it guarantees better sales. That The success of Bigbazaar
alone is enough to emphasise the fact that promotion always helps increase the sale.

78
 Chapter-6

Conclusion

This chapter will present the over all conclusion and it try to assimilate the actual
objectives of the research whether they are achieved or not. The main objective of the
research was to find out the effectiveness of sales promotion programmes and to measure
how much it can influence the perception of consumers. The first objective was the
research to analyse various theories and literature reviews regarding the topic, were
discussed and analysed this also has helped the researcher to make a strong foundation to
the scope and depth of the subject. The second objective was to find out the perception
level of consumers for this first hand information is required, here the researcher has
collected the primary data from 100 respondents. and their views suggestions and
opinions are taken in to consideration to know the requirements of an ideal sales
promotion programs. and the various elements that are to be considered for designing
optimum sales promotional mix. For this study the researcher has taken the Bigbazaar
retail Unit as a case. The third objective of this research was to identify how much the
sales promotion affects the sales by influencing the perception of consumers. In the
literature review part the researcher has also discussed in detail the various sales
promotional aspects of Bigbazaar and in the latter stage the researcher has started

79
concentrating on the importance of sales promotion with respect to consumer perception
to the subject and its over all scope and significance.

The process of managing and marketing functions in Big Bazaar in relation to the sales
promotion for the consumers has been found the most effective one and is considered to
be the driving force behind every visit and every purchase at Bigbazaar.

It is learned from the research that If a promotion program has specific objectives,
precise targeted segments and a well defined communication channel, undoubtedly we
can say that that promotion effort will deliver positive results. Here the promotion mix of
big bazaar is such that it has all the above attributes well attached to it and it is the back
born for its success in gaining consumer attraction. It is this attracted segment of the
market is found to be causing the tremendous growth. The attracted the consumers in
increasing the sales of big bazaar. The Big Bazaar impact over customer response. All
The process for the Big Bazaar in relation to the sales promotion for the consumer has
been most effective concerning the sales turn over and increased footfalls. The promotion
has attracted most of the consumers in increasing the sales of big bazaar. The Big Bazaar
made use of such activities to enhance its sales turnover in a profitable way. The study
mainly focused on the promotional offers of Big Bazaar and the trend that are prevailing
in Indian retail industry as a whole. Also analyses the various promotional offers and and
its effect over the consumer. The study throws a light on the various aspects of the
consumer’s attitude towards the sales promotion of the Big Bazaar. The preference for
this study gave an actual data of the offers which are more reliable for the organization.
The Believe it or not offers which included buy one get many, special and discount has
shown a great impact over customer response. Hence the researcher can strongly say that
the sales promotion programmes increases the sale by influencing positive perception in
consumers.

80
 Chapter-7

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Communications,2nd Edition,Pearson education Ltd.

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http://www.consumerbehavior.net/powerpoint_presentations.htm.(1/8/09)
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DE C L A R A T I ON

I, Dipin Kuzhikkattumeethal bonafide student of 'Department of Business

and Law' like to declare that the report on "A Study to Evaluate the

Consumer Perception towards the Sales Promotion, Big Bazaar as case" is a

bonafide work of the project submitted by me, towards the partial

fulfilment for the completion of the course of Msc, Purchasing and

logistics, Leeds Metropoliten University.Leeds.

84
 Dipin Kuzhikkattumeethal

SELF REFLECTIVE LEARNING STATEMENT

Learning can be described a process by which we all gain some understanding. Every
individual is under going various learning process each and every day, a fact or a concept
can be learned from each and happenings. Learning is not exclusively to the education
system. But Learning begins much before the schooling days and continues to remain
much more after school days. Learning happens every day with wide number of various
ways.
The main objective of learning statement here is to discuss the areas of learning
extrapolated by the developments of this research. It provides the evidence of dissertation
learning experience. I have learned a lot from doing this research. In order to carry out
this research I was forced to read and collect as many materials as possible with special
guidance from the supervisor every now and then when I met my supervisor she could
tell me something which is really a new learning experience as far as I am concerned.

After my schooling I had developed an aim of getting a Master degree from a reputed
institution in India (M.B.A) Marketing , after being accomplished that need desire I
started aiming more an international Masters Degree which would give me better
reputation in the family and society and would also make me competitive enough. So I
took up the decision to do my second masters in UK. I selected the course as

85
Msc.Purchasing and Logistics. Which I thought for sure that it will be an added
advantage to my career. I took this course mainly because I was working for a company
called Alembic Ltd. As an Area Sales Manager where my Job profile was ‘Channel
sales’, where I was managing the Distribution network of nearly 14 distributors, both
primary and secondary sales. The territory sizes more than half of the entire UK, the
southern most and a small sate called Kerala. Since I have been working in the field of
marketing and my exact job profile is 100% sales, While handling the channel sales
(supply of goods from company and pushing it through the channel to the retailer) there
exists an aspect of ‘supply chain’ when look at things from the distributor’s point of view
and primary sales. My job was to mange distributors and to make sales for the company
therefore I thought better knowledge in the field of logistics can enhance my career along
with my experience and qualification .hence I selected Leeds Metropolitan University
and joined for Msc Purchasing and Logistics course. Which contains modules like supply
chain management, logistics application, corporate strategy, Managing people and
organization etc.

When I was about to leave India to UK for my Masters there was lots of confusions,
doubts, anxieties in my mind regarding my life in UK the culture, attitude of the people,
food accommodation etc. But things were much interesting and favourable to me people
were so friendly and the helping mentality of the people of UK should be highly
appreciated. I could feel these aspects as soon as I landed in Manchester air port airport
staffs were so helpful in guiding me for my further journey to Leeds.

Things were even better interesting, appreciable when I attended my first class I could
see lots of Indian students various parts of India and international students from all over
the world. The mixed cultural experience I felt in the campus was unique and fabulous
Unlike the what I have learnt in India I have developed a lot with my presentation skills,
communication, Managerial skills, Listening, more over the ‘team work’ I mean the
group work which was a stunning experience and was much appreciable and I would
even feel like to request the Indian institutions to adopt some of these. Apart from my
studies I have gained more aspects I felt that my career has had a great turning point
when I joined here and my approach towards life look like bit more realistic, and the
great international exposure.

86
Among the various modules ‘Corporate strategy’ was my favourite module because I
have been operating and observing varies strategies in the filed of marketing and sales as
per the directions from my company while I was working back home. Certain issues like
monitoring competitors activities etc. taught in the class were actually done by me in my
job in the filed of sales. After completion of that module I felt that I am in much better
position to handle more complicated issues in the field of marketing and sales.

During the period of research one problem I have faced is that I was supposed to go to
India for doing the survey to collect the primary data from 100 respondents. And my
passport was with the UK Border agency, for visa extension and the passport was delayed
and I could manage a visit to India in a hurry and came back with in 20 days time. This
topic was also approved and sanctioned my company back home, so I did not want to
change it. With gods help I could manage to do the study in a good manner, and to
complete my masters and to be a qualified person in my company and proud man in front
of my colleagues.

Dissertation is considered to be the core element of the course and it develops the skills
of the student as a researcher and it also enables the student to critically evaluate all
complexities of problems and issues in the field business.

I selected this course because of the scope and to enhance my current career and job. This
course has given me some better practical knowledge that I can implement and can gain
better results in my current job once I go back to my country. The scope of this subject is
very wide even with the job market due to globalisation and India being one the fastest
growing economy in the world. All the eyes are on India now with the free trade facilities
and one of the largest consumer market in the world India is being targeted by all major
players of the world therefore the need for logistic service peoples and professionals are
of having very good demand in the job market. Hence I feel that having studying for an
international master’s degree in purchasing and logistics was one of the wisest decisions I
have ever made.

But in this research I have concentrated on the sales promotion. It is considered as one of
the corporate strategies related to marketing and sales. Here in this researcher is trying to

87
understand the strategic benefits of sales promotion and how it affects the over all sales
turn over, as a researcher I could understand the fact that sales promotion is an effective
tool that can generate sales.

From this study the researcher also could understand various factors that are affecting the
perception. It is found that every consumers buying decision is followed by a process of
decision making as learned in consumer behaviour so these buying decision id highly
influential. The researcher also learned about the major influencing factors that influences
the buying decision. Hence by carrying out this research as a researcher, researcher could
develop a sales promotion strategy by taking into consideration and satisfying all the
influencing factors and can design as well as evaluate a promotion strategy.

I selected the Indian firm mainly because of the suggestion from my current company,
the researcher by being an Indian. And this work enabled me to gain huge knowledge in
the field of promotion. Such as the importance of sales promotion, demerits of promotion,
the relation between promotion and communication, how promotion through better
communication can increase sales. Etc.

The researcher could learn the significant scope of sales promotion. The success or
failure of any organisation can be the sales promotion. Here the researcher has proved
with examples that the sales promotion is a significant tool that controls the sales turn
over of any firm. Different approaches of sales promotion in different areas and how it
affects the sales.

From the above research it is learnt that sales promotion offers with regard to price is the
most effective form of sale promotion to any business. Here the researcher could learn
that in India the Middle class section of the society that determines most of the sale in
any retail firm because it is this section of the society that prevailing a lot in India. The
researcher found that this is the main factor that resulted in the success of big bazaar.
Because Big bazaar could manage to attract majority of the middle class consumers in all
the towns and this resulted in increased sales turn over increased footfalls.

The researcher has also gained some important of business ethics in the business. The
importance of time the time constraint, time limit since it is core element of the course

88
better attention and efforts are paid. And it has resulted in developing the talents, skills
and strength of the student and provide a better exposure to world of business.

Since dissertation is an independent work with the combination of qualitative and

competitive information are combined and analysed researcher as a student develops
special skills for reasoning evaluating different entities. Critical thinking, time
management, self control is the few things that I have learned by doing this research and I
feel that these are so vital in this current challenging dynamic world. These aspects make
one more competitive enough in the days to come.

Questionnaire
(Please put a tick mark (√) against your answers to the statement)
1. How often do you visit Big Bazaar?
 once a week once in 2 weeks
 once in a months once in 2 months

2. Why do you shop at Big Bazar?

 offers  convenient
 quality  price  others……………..(specify)

3. Do you know about offers?

 yes  No

4. How did you know about the _________ offers?

 News papers  Pamphlets  T.V
 Radio  Hoardings
any other (please specify) …………………….

5. Have you ever attracted by an offer to make a visit to BigBazar?

 yes  No

6. Do you buy more if there is a special offer?

89
  yes  No

7. What product do you buy at Big Bazar?

 Grocery  cloting&footwear
 Electronics  Furniture
 Food bazaar  others…………..(specify)

8. How often do you buy these items?

 once in a week  onece in 2 weeks
 once a month  once in 2 months
 only when there is a special offer

9. What was the last product you brought on special offer?

……………………………….(specify)

10. Which was the last big offer you remember?

………………………………………..(specify)

11. According to your opinion which offer is the most effective one?
 get more for less  get big for small  buy one get many
 special offers discount offers

12. According to you which offer will be best for each department (you can select
more than one attribute).

Foot Food
Clothing Electronics Grocery Furniture
wear bazaar
Get
more
for less
Get big
for
small
Buy
one get
many
Special

90
offers

13. Kindly give your suggestion for improvement of offers

_________________________________

14. Personal details

 Name:
 Gender:  male female
 Age  under 18  18 to 30
 30 to 40  40 above
 Income: below Rs10000 Rs10001-20000pm
b/w Rs20001-30000 b/w Rs30001-50000
50001 above

 Occupation: self employed private employee

govt. employee professional
student any other(please
specify)___________________

91