INTRODUCTION

MARKETING
marketing refers to the process of ascertaining consumers’ needs
and supplying various goods and services to the final consumers or
users to satisfy those needs. Basically, marketing is the performance
of business activities that direct the flow of goods and services from
producers to consumers or users.

The American Marketing Association defines marketing as an

“organisational function and set of processes for creating,
communicating and delivering value to customers and for managing
customer relationships in ways that benefit the organisation and its
stakeholders.”

BRAND
Unique design, sign, symbol, words, or a combination of these, employed in
creating an image that identifies a product and differentiates it from its
competitors. Over time, this image becomes associated with a level of credibility,
quality, and satisfaction in the consumer's mind .Thus brands help harried
consumers in crowded and complex marketplace, by standing for certain benefits
and value. Legal name for a brand is trademark and, when it identifies or
represents a firm, it is called a brand name. See also corporate identity.

BRAND AWARENESS
Brand awareness refers to the extent to which customers are able to recall or
recognise a brand. Brand awareness is a key consideration in consumer behavior,
advertising management, brand management and strategy development. The
consumer's ability to recognise or recall a brand is central to purchasing
decisionmaking. Purchasing cannot proceed unless a consumer is first aware of a
product category and a brand within that category. Awareness does not
necessarily mean that the consumer must be able to recall a specific brand name,
but he or she must be able to recall sufficient distinguishing features for
purchasing to proceed. For instance, if a consumer asks her friend to buy her some
gum in a "blue pack", the friend would be expected to know which gum to buy,
even though neither friend can recall the precise brand name at the time.

Different types of brand awareness have been identified, namely brand recall and
brand recognition. Key researchers argue that these different types of awareness
operate in fundamentally different ways and that this has important implications
for the purchase decision process and for marketing communications. Brand
awareness is closely related to concepts such as the evoked set and consideration
set which describe specific aspects of the consumer's purchase decision.
Consumers are believed to hold between three and seven brands in their
consideration set across a broad range of product categories.Consumers will
normally purchase one of the top three brands in their consideration set.

Brand awareness is a key indicator of a brand's competitive market performance.

Given the importance of brand awareness in consumer purchasing decisions,
marketers have developed a number of metrics designed to measure brand
awareness and other measures of brand health. These metrics are collectively
known as Awareness, Attitudes and Usage (AAU) metrics.

To ensure a product or brand's market success, awareness levels must be managed

across the entire product life-cycle - from product launch through to market
decline. Many marketers regularly monitor brand awareness levels, and if they
fall below a predetermined threshold, the advertising and promotional effort is
intensified until awareness returns to the desired level.

KALLIYATH STEEL TRADERS OVERVIEW

Kalliyath Steel Traders was founded in 1989. Based out of Tirur, the company
trades Iron & Steel products manufactured by all major national and international
brands. Kalliyath Steel Traders has an annual turnover of over 200 Crores. The
organization has three branches at Ernakulam, Trivandrum and Palakkad that are
well equipped with yards, cranes and trucks. The company's strong network of
over 500 dealers across Kerala helps it to do an ever increasing business in steel.
This long and strong innings makes Kalliyath Steel Traders a trusted source for
the construction industry of Kerala.
With 4 well-equipped manufacturing units spread across 8 acres, Kalliyath is the
only brand in Kerala that produces 6mm original TMT bars and also the only
brand in India to produce Fe 500 graded 6mm bars with ISI certification. At
Kalliyath, each TMT bar is made from the 100 Meter Automated High-Speed
Rolling Mill in adherence with the BIS quality standards and norms to ensure
quality consistency.

From mega infrastructure to landmark construction to individual homes, there is

an exponential demand for reinforced bars in every segment of the industry. This
paved way for many small scale and low-quality manufacturers to enter into the
industry. And the infrastructure market is now replete with low-quality TMT bars
which are made without following the necessary BIS instructions. To solve this
mounting problem, Kalliyath helps people understand what a real TMT bar is.

TMT Bar also known as Steel Reinforcement Bar or Thermo Mechanically

Treated Bar is the inner strength of construction industry. It protects the
structure’s materials from weather and extreme temperatures. Therefore from the
selection of raw materials to the manufacturing process of TMT bars, special care
and attention should be given.

SELECTING THE RAW MATERIALS

Selection of raw materials is the most important factor that determines the quality
of a TMT bar. At Kalliyath, Steel is produced using high-quality raw materials
supplied by world-class suppliers of billets from virgin iron billets like Vizag,
SAIL etc. Raw materials for making TMT are also manufactured by Kalliyath to
maintain consistency in quality. The raw materials Kalliyath uses have three main
advantages.

 The unique combination of all chemicals and substances

 No decrease in strength even after reduction
 Selected raw materials certified by BIS for the making of Fe 500 TMT bars
TEMPERATURE OF BILLET

The process utilize residual heat from the rolling process to attain the desired
mechanical properties. Billets, which are heated in the re-heating furnace, are
rolled through a series of rolling stands and progressively reduced to the final
desired size and shape. The most important factor in this stage is that the
temperature of billet should be 1,2000C.

AUTOMATED HIGH SPEED ROLLING MILL

With the help of computerized process, qualified engineers of Kalliyath passes

the 1,2000C billets to the special automated high-speed rolling mill. The process
is controlled by monitoring devices, in an all mechanized technical operational
environment. This enables the production of rebars with perfect shape, uniform
thickness and equal standard length. The rolling mill operating in tandem with the
continuous casting machine cools the billet temperature to help reduce the
material and within 40 seconds, these billets are made into TMT bars ensuring
excellent dimensional tolerance and surface finish.

Most of the rolling mills in Kerala have the manual process which takes too much
time and lacks the temperature required for processing. This leads to the loss of
quality of the TMT bar.

NECESSARY STAGES

For reduction, billets are passed through the vast automated high-speed rolling
mill units of Kalliyath. Normally, TMT bars needed for gauge are passed only 15
to 19 times. But at Kalliyath, bars are passed 21 to 25 times to ensure uniform
size, shape and strength to decrease the production time. Mills that work with
manual technology reduce the number of passes which results in the loss of
quality, strength and unique shape of the TMT bars.

QUENCHING PROCESS

The hot rolled rebar emerging from the finishing stand mill will be of 4000C.
These bars are then rapidly cooled by Quenching Process. The Quenching Process
by a special water spray system converts the surface layer of the bar to a hardened
‘Martensitic’ structure while the core remains ‘Austenitic’. The process
pressurizes and deforms the crystal structure of intermediate layers, and
simultaneously begins to tamper the quenched layers using the heat from the bar’s
core.Bars that comes out after the Quenching Process will be of 2500C. These
bars are cut into desired sizes and then passed through Automated High-Speed
Cooling Bed. This stage involves normal cooling to room temperature where the
‘Austenitic’ core is transformed to a ductile ferrite + pearlite structure. This
finished bar has a microstructure comprising of a tough outer layer of tempered
‘Martensite’ and a ductile core of ‘ferrite + pearlite’. This composite structure
gives excellent yield strength to the bar along with superior ductility and
weldability. The mechanism of automated cooling bed assures that the bars are
uniformly positioned over the toothed racks. The advanced technology helps
prevent the damages caused by the collision of TMT bars and thereby gives a
unique uniform strength and shape. But in Manually operated rolling mills,
labours do this with a hook. The increased strength and toughness of TMT bars
create problem during subsequent manual bending operation. It will affect the
shape and strength of the TMT bars.

STRINGENT QUALITY CONTROL

TMT bars made through this process are then sent to specially arranged labs to
test the quality and strength by suing the right chemical composition of F500
grade set by BIS. Also, the sectional weight and strength of each unit of TMT bar
is tested every 30 minutes to give customers the best ever.

Kalliyath TMT bars have precise, uniform and parallel rib pattern engraved
through computer controlled notch making machines, which results in excellent
bond strength with concrete. The right combination of chemicals in Kalliyath
TMT bars ensure easier and faster welding without pre-heating. This means
stronger and safer weld joints and reduction in wastage during welding at the site.
Kalliyath TMT bars are proven to have a higher resistance to cyclic loading
conditions and are recommended in earthquake prone areas due to their superior
seismic resistant properties. Due to the highly controlled process that ensures a
microstructure with a soft core, Kalliyath TMT bars have excellent bendability,
making work easier and faster at construction sites.

KALLIAYTH STEEL TRADERS KEY SEGMENTS

BY TYPES

• Best Quality TMT Steel

• Best TMT Steel Fabrication
• Steel
• Steel Fab
• Construction Steel Benders Fabrication

By APPLICATION

• Construction of roads
• Construction of railways
• Infrastructure
• Aplliances
• Buildings
• Most large modern structures

BY REGION

o SOUTH INDIA
• Andra Pradesh
• Karnataka
• Kerala
• Tamil Nadu Telangana

o UNION TERRITORIES
• Andaman and Nicobar
• Lakshadweep
• Puducherry
 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
PRIMARY OBJECTIVES

 To identify the advertisement and sales promotion activities adopted by the

Kalliyath steel traders.
 To know the brand awareness level of kalliyath steel traders.
 To know the effectiveness of advertisement on customers.

SECONDARY OBJECTIVES

 To study about the marketing mix.

 To study the quality of the product.
 To study product stability in market.
 To study the impact promotional activities.
 To study the production facilities.
 To study the demand of product in market.
 To study the pricing strategies.

SCOPE OF STUDY
• To understand the level of customer satisfaction.
• To know about competitors in the market.
• To measure customer satisfaction.
• To study dealers satisfaction levels.

LIMITATIONS OF STUDY
• The study is only done in a limited locality.
• The study is done in a limited time thus may not be perfect and accurate.
• Quality of information is highly dependent on the respondents only.
• Locality markets may not have same demand so the study cannot be done
using same approach.
 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research methodology defines how the research study was conducted or
undertaken. This includes the specifications of sources of data, research design
and the method of data collection, the sampling method and the tools used.

 The duration of the project is 21 days

 TYPES OF DATA COLLECTION-

o PRIMARY DATA- data collection by direct survey from the dealers
through questionnaire.
o SECONDARY DATA- data collection from the company profile and
industry profile and official websites.

 Research instruments used for data collection questionnaire, interviews,

internet and magazines.