INTRODUCTION

Cement Industry Cement Industry originated in India when the first plant commenced production in 1914 at Porbandar, Gujarat. The industry has since been growing at a steady pace, but in the initial stage, particularly during the period before Independence, the growth had been very slow. Since indigenous production was not sufficient to meet the entire domestic demand, the Government had to control its price and distribution statutorily. Large quantities of cement had to be imported for meeting the deficit. The industry was partially decontrolled in 1982 and this gave impetus to its pace of growth. Installed capacity increased to more than double from 27 million tons in 1980-81 to 62 million tons in 1989-90. The cement industry responded positively to liberalization policy and the Government decontrolled the industry fully on 1st March 1989. From 1991 onwards cement industry got the status of a priority industry in schedule III of the industry policy statement, which made it eligible for automatic approval for foreign investment up to 51% and also for technical collaboration on normal terms of payment of royalty. After the globalization and liberalization of Indian economy, the cement industry has been growing rapidly at an average rate of 9 percent. The country is now the second largest producer of cement in the world next only to China with a total capacity of 217.80 million tones. Additionally, in the last two decades, the industry has undergone rapid technological up gradation and growth, and now, some of the cement plants in India are comparable to the worlds best operating plants in all respects. Till a few years ago India was importing cement from other countries, as the production could not meet the demand for the whole country. Now the tables have turned as India has started exporting large quantities of cement and clinker to Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Mauritius, Africa, Seychelles, Burma, UAE, and Singapore etc. India is today the second largest producer of cement in world with an installed capacity of close to 217.80 million tons per year. 95 % is consumed domestically and only 5% is exported. Demand is growing at more than 10 % per annum. More than 90 % of production comes from large cement plants. There are a total of 146 large and more than 350 small cement manufacturing units in the country. More than 80% of the cementmanufacturing units use modern environment friendly dry process. In the cement industry there are two sectors one consisting of large plants and the other consisting of mini cement plants. A factory with an installed capacity exceeding 2,97,000 tones per annum (900 tons per day) is a large plant and with capacity up to and including 2,97,000 tons is a mini cement plant. At present, there are 146 large plants and about 365 mini cement plants. Since mini cement plants are scattered all over the country with a number of associations representing different types of processes, sizes etc. and some of them are even tiny units, it has not been possible to obtain correct data of this sector. The present installed capacity of large plants is 217.80 million tons and the estimated capacity of mini cement plants is 11.8 million tons.

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COMPANY PROFILE

History of the company The company was founded by Late Shri G.D.Birla and was incorporated on 25th August 1919, in the name and style of The Birla Jute Manufacturing Company Limited. A man of vision and enterprise, he set up the first Indian Owned Jute Mill near Kolkata which marked not only the birth of the company but also the beginning of the Birla Industrial Group in India. The company grew steadily under his guidance in the earlier years. Thereafter Shri M.P.Birla took over the reins of the company and he helped transform it from a jute mill to a leading multi-product, multi-location corporate with widespread activities. Today, the product range includes cement, jute goods, vinoleum floor covering, auto trims and steel castings. After the demise of Shri M.P.Birla in 1990, Smt.Priyamvada Birla took over as the Chairman of the company and under her Chairmanship; company crossed the Rs.1,000 cores plus turnover mark. After the demise of Smt.Priyamvada Birla on 3rd July 2004, Shri R.S.lodha took over as the chairman of the company and under his Chairmanship, company has attained new heights. The name of the company was changed to Birla Corporation Limited with effect from 27th October, 1988 to establish the size, image and conglomerate character of the company.

Credit Rating of the Company

Credit Analysis and Research Limited ( CARE ) has assigned CARE AA rating for the company long and medium term facilities of more than one year tenure and PR 1 + ( PR one plus) rating for short term bank facilities , aggregating Rs.500 crores. Further, the rating Committee of CARE has re-affirmed PR 1 + rating and CARE AA rating for short term debt and the proposed long term borrowing programme of the company.
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COMPANY PROFILE
Birla Corporation Limited is a multi- product conglomerate. It plays significant roles in the Cement, Jute, PVC floor Covering, Auto Trim and Steel casting industries. The concentric around the triangle represents this very multi-dimensional nature. The apex of the triangle is a visual representation of the force that drives the entire corporationthe unifying force in search of excellence.

Late Shri M.P.Birla

Late Smt. Priyamvada Birla

MANAGEMENT The day- to- day management of the company is being looked after by the Chief Executive Officer, Shri B.R.Nahar who is assisted by a team of highly qualified professional persons.
CHAIRMAN ED & CEO

Late Shri R.S. Lodha

Shri B.R.Nahar

Board of Directors
Shri Smt Shri Shri N.K. Kejriwal Nandini Nopany Harsh V. Lodha Pracheta Majumdar Shri Shri Shri Shri Vikram Swarup Anand Bordia B.B. Tandon D.N.Ghosh

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RATIONALE BEHIND THE STUDY

Brand Positioning

Brand positioning is a concept, which is commonly seen in marketing .A brand position is the part of the brand identity and value proposition that is to be actively communicated to the target audience and that demonstrates an advantage over competing brands. As brand positioning plays an important role in increasing the real strength of a companys brand, building great brand reputation, judging customer interest, creating distinctiveness as an competitive advantage.

OBJECTIVE OF STUDY

. There are several common objective of research as follow: -

1. To study is to make assessment of the importance of Brand Positioning as a marketing tool for the organisation. 2. To study the brand positioning of Birla Samrat in the market. 3. To compare the major cement brands in terms of Price, Preference, Quality, Packing and Color. 4. To compare the advertisement strategy of the various cement brands.

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REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

1. 2. 3. 4. Excerpt from PHD thesis brand positioning", Associated to public goods. Quaker oats-brand positioning. Brand India position of India Internationally. Segmentation-targeting-positioning. Eureka facts, the samart marketing information. BY JORGE A. RESTREPO

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research methodology is a way to systematically solve the research problem. Research methodology constitutes of research methods, selection criterion of research methods, used in context of research study and explanation of using of a particular method or technique so that research results are capable of being evaluated either by researcher himself or by others. Sampling is that part of statistical practice concerned with the selection of a subset of individual observations within a population of individuals intended to yield some knowledge about the populationof concern, especially for the purposes of making predictions based on statistical inference. Researchers rarely survey the entire population for two reasons (Adr,Mellenbergh, & Hand): the cost is too high, and the population is dynamic in that the individuals making up the population may change over time. The three main advantages of sampling are that the cost is lower, data collection is faster, and since the data set is smaller it is possible to ensure homogeneity and to improve the accuracy and quality of the data.

Sampling methods
1. Simple random sampling 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Systematic sampling Stratified sampling Probability proportional to size sampling Cluster sampling Matched random sampling Quota sampling
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TOOLS USED FOR DATA COLLECTION

Primary data will be collected with the help of questionnaire as the research instrument. Secondary data will be collected from research reports, research papers and other available literature. Questionnaire: The method of collecting data by mailing the questionnaire to respondents is most extensively. Employed in various economic and business surveys. Questionnaire are prepared and disturbed to all the selected employees with a request to return after completing the same. Dichotomous (yes or no answer),multiple chose( alternative answer listed)and open question have been used in the questionnaires. 1. Questionnaire should be short and simple. 2. Questions should proceed in logical sequence moving from easy to move difficult questions. 3. Questions affecting the sentiments of the respondents should be avoided. 4. Clarity of questions.

TOOLS USED FOR DATA ANALYSIS

Appropriate statistical tool like percentage analysis, pie chart, line charts will be used for data analysis Percentage method:- simple percentage analysis was used by research for analyzing and interpreting the collected data. The diagrammatic representation were given by pie-diagram and bar charts. Percentage method (No. of respondents / total respondents) * 100

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LIMITATION OF STUDY
1. 2. 3. 4. The Study Is Limited Is Few Companies. All the datas are not disclosed by the companies. The study is restricted to limited geographical area. The study is limited to a time period of june-july2011.

EXPECTED CONTRIBUTION FROM RESEARCH

1. Source for the further research. 2. Developing awareness for the importance of brand positioning within the organisations.

DIRECTION OF FUTURE RESEARCH

This research related to brand positioning of an organization (BIRLA CEMENT) can be used for future purpose. This study will suggest carrying out the study at grand level. Many organization can use brand positioning as an marketing tool for better result.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY
News Papers

Times of India Hindustan Times Economic Times

Web Based References

http://www.birlacorporation.comhttp://www.bcw.com http://www.birlacementworks.com http://www.cma.com http://www.amzon.com http://www.wikipedia.com http://www.answer.com

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