ORIENT CEMENT

Company Profile
Orient Cement is a member of the multi-product, multi-unit Orient Paper & Industries Ltd., -a C K Orient Group Company, and Orient cement follows the tagline A commitment to Quality.

Vision
Be amongst leading manufacturers of quality cement & related value added products at low delivered cost, using world class technology and creating preferred brand image in selected regions, with total involvement of employees, leveraging their collective wisdom and competence, while retaining environment sustainability. Company located at Devapur in Adilabad District in Andhra Pradesh along with a split-grinding unit at Jalgaon, Maharashtra, with total capacity to produce 3.4 million tones of cement pr annum. Orient cement is certified for ISO-9001, 14001 and TPM (JIPM) Japan. Devapur plant was also the first cement in A.P to be certified for ISO-14001 in recognition of its outstanding environment management system. By virtue of winning the TPM Excellence Award ( 1st category and consistency award from the prestigious Japan Institute of plant Maintenance (JIPM), Japan, Orient cement has been adjudged a world class cement unit. Orient cement is the first cement industry in south India and second on all India basis to earn this distinction. Orient cements TPM certification is a direct result of its continuous upgradation and plant modernization process with special emphasis on energy conservation, pollution control, productivity and quality of cement. With the commitment of officers, engineers, workmen and 1440 outlets and stockists, our policy is supported b the latest manufacturing facility, advanced online quality control & high consistent quality limestone. All this backed by a good distribution network system and a well thought marketing strategy. Our Commitment has given a new 1

ORIENT CEMENT dimension.to.the.construction.industry.

Introduction Promotion
Promotion is one of the four elements of marketing mix (product, price, promotion, distribution). It is the communication link between sellers and buyers for the purpose of influencing, informing, or persuading a potential buyer's purchasing decision.

There are four main aspects of a promotional mix these are:

Advertising - Any paid presentation and promotion of ideas, goods, or services by an identified sponsor. Examples: Print ads, radio, television, billboard, direct mail, brochures and catalogs, signs, in-store displays, posters, motion pictures, Web pages, banner ads, and emails. Personal Selling - A process of helping and persuading one or more prospects to purchase a good or service or to act on any idea through the use of an oral presentation. Examples: Sales presentations, sales meetings, sales training and incentive programs for intermediary salespeople, samples, and telemarketing. Can be face-to-face or via telephone. Sales promotion - Media and non-media marketing communication are employed for a pre-determined, limited time to increase consumer demand, stimulate market demand or improve product availability. Examples: Coupons, sweepstakes, contests, product samples, rebates, tie-ins, self-liquidating premiums, trade shows, trade-ins, and exhibitions. Public relations - Paid intimate stimulation of supply for a product, service, or business unit by planting significant news about it or a favorable presentation of it in the media. 2

ORIENT CEMENT Examples: Newspaper and magazine articles/reports, TVs and radio presentations, charitable contributions, speeches, issue advertising, and seminars.

Literature Review
For this project we have reviewed following article 1) A Grounded Exploration of Sales and Distribution Channel Structures in Thirteen Industries in India Leading to a Classification Scheme by Dr. Prathap Oburai, Marketing Area, IIM India. In this paper, a case was made to promote the use of innovative and novel combinations of research Methodologies to derive new insights of business phenomena. This study is an attempt to understand and explain the sales and distribution channel structures in thirteen different industries in India. The investigation adopted a mix of case research and grounded theoretic research methodologies in exploring the subject under scrutiny. Analysis is done with the help of multidimentional mapping technique (Hair et al 2002) and (Lilien and Rangaswamy, 2002). Based upon the data and output they have classified marketing channel structure into seven different clusters. This classification or typology scheme can influence both the design and management of marketing channel structure and also offer empirical support to strategic management theories that focus on diversification into related businesses downstream. 2) Analysis of Promotional channels with reference to Orient cement Industry in Warangal District by Jaya Janwani of M. P. Orient Institute of Management, India. In this paper, the promotion as one of the aspect of Marketing Mix was taken as to analyze the sales of different player in the selected area. Analysis is done on all the four aspect of promotion

ORIENT CEMENT and with only frequency distribution. Findings were in the terms of percentage share of sales, brand image and other related to promotion aspects.

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Marketing mix
4 Ps of marketing mix comprises of: Product Price Place Promotion

How to Establish a Promotional Mix

You drive sales by promoting the benefits of your company's goods or services to pools of potential buyers. The ways you promote your organization will largely determine whether you successfully plant the right messages in the minds of your target audience. This module explains how you can establish a promotional mix best suited to your company's needs and resources. Determine Your Target Market Determine Your Objectives Design Your Message Select Your Promotional Channels Determine Your Budget Determine Your Promotional Mix Measure the Results and Adjust

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Elements of promotion mix

A promotional mix is an allocation of resources among five primary elements: 1. Advertising 2. Public relations or publicity 3. Sales promotion 4. Direct marketing 5. Personal selling

Strategies of promotion mix

Push & Pull Strategies Communication by the directed towards consumers to create strategy demand. is A where push the on manufacturer is not only

manufacturer

concentrates

some of their marketing effort promoting their product to retailers to convince them to stock the product. A combination of promotional mix strategies are used at

this stage aimed at the retailer including personal selling, and direct mail. The product is pushed onto the retailer, hence the name. A pull strategy is based around the manufacturer promoting 6

ORIENT CEMENT their product amongst the target market to create demand. Consumers pull the product through the distribution channel forcing the wholesaler and retailer to stock it, hence the name pull strategy. Organizations tend to use both push and pull strategies to create demand from retailers and consumers.

Communication Model AIDA

AIDA is a communication model which can be used by firms to aid them in selling their product or services. AIDA is an Acronym for Attention, Interest, Desire, Action.. When a product is launched the first goal is to grab attention. Think, how can an organization use it skills to do this? Use well-known personalities to sell products? Once you grab attention how can you hold Interest, through promoting features, clearly stating the benefit the product has to offer? The third stage is desire, how can you make the product desirable to the consumer? By demonstrating it? The final stage is the purchase action; if the company has been successful with its strategy then the target customer should purchase the product.

Promotion through the Product life cycle. As products move through the four stages of the product lifecycle different promotional strategies should be employed at these stages to ensure the healthy success and life of the product. Stages and promotion strategies employed. Introduction When a product is new the organizations objective will be to inform the target audience of its entry. Television, radio, magazine, coupons etc may be used to push the product through the introduction stage of the lifecycle. Push and Pull Strategies will be used at this crucial stage. 7

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Growth As the product becomes accepted by the target market the organization at this stage of the lifecycle the organization works on the strategy of further increasing brand awareness to encourage loyalty. Maturity At this stage with increased competition the organization take persuasive tactics to encourage the consumers to purchase their product over their rivals. Any differential advantage will be clearly communicated to the target audience to inform of their benefit over their competitors. Decline As the product reaches the decline stage the organization will use the strategy of reminding people of the product to slow the inevitable

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Source: Orient cement sales in TPA (tones per annum) - company profile/record given by marketing officials.

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STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Analysis of promotional strategies in Orient cement factory Objectives: Primary Objectives To analyze market share of Orient cement with its competitors at Warangal region. Whether there is relation between promotion channels and sale of cement. To determine methods to generate brand loyalty.

Secondary objectives To determine the promotional tools applied by Orient cement. To determine the impact of advertising in sale of Orient cement.

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HYPOTHESIS
Success of Orient cement is directly related to its promotional strategy. Sampling Design Sample universe Warangal district Sampling unit- customers, dealers, marketing officers Sample size- 15 Sampling technique- convenience technique

RESEARCH DESIGN
(a) General Methodology: The methodology adopted for this project was completely base on primary information. The first stage included gathering information about the general cement market of the regions. That was, to find out which are major players, what is general promotion pattern, what type of incentive schemes the different brands are using. The second stage comprised determining the objective of the study and drafting the questionnaire. The questionnaire was designed keeping in mind the objective of the study. It was designed with due guidance of the company guide. It was assured that the questionnaire didnt exceed more than 10 questions. (b) Data Sources:

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ORIENT CEMENT The research called for gathering primary data only. Hence, primary sources were considered for the collection of data. Primary source The primary data is gathered for specific purpose and is collected by the researcher himself. It includes direct communication and feedback from the customers. For the purpose of collecting information from customers a structured questionnaire was formulated and is contacted directly (c) Research Approach: The research conducted was exploratory in nature and the goal was to gather preliminary data to shed light on the real nature of problems and to suggest possible solutions. For the purpose of this project, we went for a questionnaire- based survey of customers. A pilot test of this questionnaire was done for the preparation of final questionnaire. It involved, applying the draft questionnaire to a sample of 5 people. This was done to ascertain which questions are ambiguous, wrongly worded or in any way objectionable. (d) Research Instrument: 1. Personally administered questionnaire 2. Structured interview 3. Unstructured interview For the purpose of this project, a questionnaire was designed to collect data that consisted of close ended questions & open ended questions. A survey technique was used to collect the data. During the project a survey of customers was done at random. Analytical tools:

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ORIENT CEMENT The data, which was collected, was summarized and tabulated on MS-excel for further analysis. The analysis performed was mainly comparative analysis using statistical analytical tools. The tools that have been used are as follows: Bar Chart Pie Chart Line Graph The statistical analysis was being performed by researcher for finding the relation and forecasting of sales with respect to promotional aspects.

DATA ANALYSIS & FINDINGS

Comparative sales of Top 5 Cement companies in Warangal District

The graph shows that the Orient is leader in Warangal district with 51% Share. The credit for Orient success goes to the no. of dealers it has in Warangal region. Its success lies in promotional strategies adopted at Warangal.

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This graph clearly shows that people are now much more brand conscious and very few like to shift to other brands.

This graph clearly shows that most of the buyers prefer advertising followed by sales promotion.

This graph clearly shows that Orient needs improvement and it should improve on its promotion strategy at Warangal region to gain maximum share at Warangal Orient should improve its marketing strategy.

This chart shows that brand ambassador plays important role in buying particular cement as JP cement has Sachin Tendulkar as brand ambassador Orient should also think in this respect.

This chart shows that orient cement has steep growth over the years. Only in 2008-09 because of recession period it unable to achieve the growth so it decline.

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STATISTICAL TOOLS
1) Correlation

By correlation analysis we come to know about the relationship between the sales with advertising and sales promotion. In the above table it is shown as giving double stars (**) and single star (*). Double star (**) implies correlation is significant at the 0.01 level and single star (*) implies correlation is significant at 0.05 level.

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2) Regression coefficient

Here we had done the regression analysis with multi regression coefficient as there are two relation found in correlation analysis. With regression analysis we can forecast, by increasing advertisement amount or sales promotion amount, by what factor the amount of sale of cement will increase in future.

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LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY

1. The major problem of the survey was that most of the respondents being very loyal to their brands didnt give exact answers. Like they didnt talk much about what problems they are facing, what are the different marketing schemes of the brand in which they deal etc. 2. Once we got the questionnaire filled, we need to restart the conversation in a much generalized way and talk about the local market conditions. Like who is the main dealer, which cement is mostly sold in that area etc.so this survey demands a good piece of time while talking to the respondent. 3. Some of the respondents may have told they prefer promotion and were much conscious for their brands. 4. Many of the dealers/customers refused to answer any question at all. So the actual figures can be somewhat different from the one that we have found out. 5. Being a very big region, it is quite possible that I was unable to explore some of the dealers/customers.

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SUGGESTIONS
Based upon the time spent by us in the market, useful suggestions of the dealers &customers and the findings from the survey, following recommendations can be suggested for increasing sales and effectiveness of Orient Cement: What matters for most of the cement buyers is the price of the cement and then the quality as well as promotion. While visiting to market buyers not only look price also their personal touch matters a lot and Orient need to improve because most of respondents tells Orient does not care in maintain relations with customers so it should improve their customer relationship management. The second thing is that particular at Warangal region orient cement is leader with good margin of sales and it does take much interest in involving new strategies and techniques. To retain its top position and again adding new ideas for continuous improvement in its quality and promotional methods. Many of the Orient dealers used to shop other type of building materials along with cement, in the same shop. This should not be permitted by orient .Because selling of 18

ORIENT CEMENT these building materials is more profitable than cement, so the cement selling becomes less important for these dealers. They dont give proper attention to the company officials and also to the various schemes of increasing sales. Orient Cement has market image of modern cement with very good quality. It should try to encase this image. Its mainly the younger section of people who care about quality first and then the price. So Orient cement needs to give proper attention to the youngsters. May be, they are not the cement buyers at present but future possibility lies with them.

Orient Cement has market image of modern cement with very good quality. It should try to encase this image. Its mainly the younger section of people who care about quality first and then the price. So Birla group needs to give proper attention to the youngsters. May be, they are not the cement buyers at present but future possibility lies with them.

Some of the customers complained that they are not paying attention in personal selling and main competitor of orient is Ambuja as Ambuja is much more into maintaining relations with its customers.

Birla should also improve working conditions for their factory workers as they are not satisfied with their working condition so they in turn do negative publicity. Orient must plan to adopt brand Ambassador. It will give a push to their sales all over India.

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POSSIBLE ADVERTISEMENT METHODS

All of the cement brands use the similar methods of advertising like- painting walls, use banners, giving free gifts to the dealers and masons etc. There are still many possible methods of advertisement and creating brand awareness, which are untouched. Some of these methods are as below: Local cable T.V. can be used for advertising as well as to give details about the major dealer/dealers in the city. Details like address, contact no. of the dealer, different schemes, current market price etc can be shown.

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ORIENT CEMENT Banners, paintings are used mainly on the tractor trolleys, dealers shop and on walls only. We can think about using banners on rickshaws and autos also. Different type of incentive schemes, free gifts are mainly for dealers and sometimes for the masons. As a change, we can also try to attract the customers directly. For exdiscount coupons, small free gifts, scratch cards etc can be made available for the customers. A number of meetings are organized by all the cement companies with the local masons. Most of the masons are very less educated. They attend many meetings. So it may become difficult for them to recognize a particular cement brand. What we can do in this case is to take help of Handvertising i.e. we need to put the Orient cement logo on the hands of these masons. So that next time they saw this logo, they found themselves be familiar with the company.

The masons meet are organized by the company regularly. This needs some improvements. We need to decrease the frequency of these meets. What we can do is that organize a big meet with a no. of people, higher company officials, entertainment, and snacks for all. The presence of company officials in the meeting is not alone sufficient. We need to call some big personalities from that city only. The people like these masons are more impressed by the presence of Govt.officials.

A mobile service provider can be undertaken in a contract and a buzz about the company and its awareness can be made by sending regular message to their distributors.

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CONCLUSION

Orient cement has two major competitors- AMBUJA CEMENT and JP CEMENT. The company can face a lot of competition in near future due to introduction of many more competitors. ORIENT CEMENT is well established in the markets as far as quality is concerned. Introduction of new attractive incentive schemes can bring new dealers and retailers for ORIENT cement. Price & promotion are the major factors that matters for a customer while purchasing cement. Market share increases with the increase in number of dealers. Brand ambassador has also influence in sale of cement for ex sachin tendulkar of J P cement.

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ANNEXURE QUESTIONNAIRE
We, Pravalika and Rahul Donge of National Institute of Technology Warangal, are undertaking a Research Study on A Study on Promotion Channel with Special Reference to Orient Cement in Warangal District and would therefore require your help in filling this questionnaire. All the Information collected will be used for academic purposes only. Thank you. 1. Which companys cement do you buy most? Orient cement ACC cement Ultratech cement ICL cement Ambuja cement 1. Are you brand conscious? Yes No Sometimes 1. What attributes of the product / company motivates you to buy the above brand of cement? 24

ORIENT CEMENT Quality Pricing Advertising Delivery Satisfaction All of the above 1. How much are you satisfied with the above brand of cement? Highly satisfied Satisfied Moderately Satisfied Dissatisfied Highly dissatisfied 1. What is your annual consumption of cement? 10 bags 20 bags 30 bags More than that 2. How often do you buy cement? Yearly Quarterly Monthly Weekly 25

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1. In a scale of 1 to 5, rate the following aspects of the product as per their relative importance to your company (5 for max importance) Cost Quality promotion Delivery Innovation

1.

As a buyer, which promotional tool do you think is most important? Advertising Sales Promotion Personal selling Publicity

1.

Do you think that a brand ambassador would influence your buying decision in favour of a particular brand of cement? Yes No

1.

How is Orient Cements customer relationship management? Good Best Average 26

ORIENT CEMENT Poor 1. If you think Orient Cement Co needs improvement in what respect should the improvement be? Quality Price Promotion Distribution Any other All of the above

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BIBLIOGRAPY
BOOKS 1) Philip Kotler, Kevin Keller, Abraham koshi, Mithileshwar Jha Marketing Management 12th Edition, page no. from 3 to 22.

WEBSITES 1) About us. orient cement retrieved from http://www.orientcement.com 2) Overview. retrieved from http://www.cement.com/overview 3) Eco standards. Retrieved from http://www.cement.com/ecostandards 4) Product life cycle, push and pull strategy retrieved from http://www.learnmarketing.net/promotion.htm

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