NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

AGARTALA
School of Management
Summer Internship Project on the title
“Customer Service In Distribution Network: A study of
PepsiCo under Varun Beverages in Agartala Region”

NITESH RANJAN || 16MSOM016 || MBA (Marketing)

 Acknowledgement
I wish to acknowledge my sincere gratitude and indebtedness to my
project guide Mr. Chandan Mukhopadyay, Adm, Agartala from
Varun Beverages Ltd. for his valuable guidance and constructive
suggestions in this project work.
I extend my special gratitude to the Hod Dr. Anirban Dutta and my
faculty mentor Dr.Amlanbrata Chakraborty for guiding me. I
specially thank Jayeeta Nandi, Human Resources, Vbl-kolkata for
allowing me as a summer intern to work and learn at varun beverages
ltd.
I extend my gratitude to Varun Beverages Ltd., the guide Abhishek
Roy, CE, Agartala, Dr. Pradeep kumar Behra, Dr. Sonit Dutta, Dr.
Rajib Mallik, Dr. Mili kar and my friend Pritam Nath Bhowmik for
 Prologue
Customer service is the backbone of industrial or B2B marketing. This
regulates the satisfaction level of customer. To achieve the satisfaction at
high level, efforts in the supply chain are also required to be
coordinated. The concept of supply chain is very comprehensive and
connects almost all aspects of marketing. But in this instant project
customer satisfaction on basis of customer service has been explored.
 Company Profile
PepsiCo Inc. is an American multinational food and beverage
corporation headquartered in Purchase, New York, United States, with
interests in the manufacturing, marketing and distribution of grain-based
snack foods, beverages, and other products. PepsiCo was formed in
1965 with the merger of the Pepsi-Cola Company and Frito-Lay, Inc.
PepsiCo has since expanded from its namesake product Pepsi to a
broader range of food and beverage brands, the largest of which include
an acquisition of Tropicana in 1998 and a merger with Quaker Oats in
2001 - which added the Gatorade brand to its portfolio.
 Organizational Structure

Source: Varun Beverages ltd. Website (http://www.varunpepsi.com)

 Objective
• To understand the customer service in distribution network and the
aspects those affect it :-
Product profile
Pricing strategy
Communication efforts
Promotional gifts
Customer service/ customer care
Market information
 Methodology
Research Design :- Exploratory Research

Data collection:
Primary sources
Secondary Data

Population- 450 approx.

Sample Size – 40 retailers

Research Location – Agartala, Tripura, India

Source:- Website of Pepsico

 Findings
1. The salesmen visit is regular in most of the routes but somewhere
the salesmen do not visit regularly or they visit in a month or 15 days
which creates inconsistency in the relationship of distributors and
Supply
retailers.

2. There are some instances of wrong attitude of the salesman which

we found at a time of personal interview from retailers. They Not Sat iesf ied; 30.00%
complained that if the retailer are not doing business at large scale then
the salesman do not attend them at the point of time.

3. Complains handling is not proper, there are many old cases or

complaints lodged due to the frequent change of distributorship area. It
has been affecting the relationship.
Sat isf ied; 70.00%

4. Credit policy creates problem for distributor and this is because they
do not have the assured time to pay balance amount and retailer mostly
try to get the goods on credit.

Source:- Analysis of Questionnaire

 Findings
5. It has been observed that many visi-cooler
are found to be non-operative but despite
repeated reminder they were not repaired
promptly and shortly. This is why there has
been much disappointment among Pepsi
customers.

6. Due to the weather conditions like Rainy

and winter season, The Cold Drink product
demand decrease in the market, which is a
major problem in Agartala.

7. The Major problem in this area is that

Competitors do not allow the products of
Pepsi to be kept in their Visi-cooler and this is
large in number or we can say there are lack
of Pepsi visi-cooler which restrict the retailers
to deal with existing customers or new.
Source:- Analysis of Questionnaire
 Recommendations
1. Signage
2. Uniformity in the routes of sales agent
3. Communication and motivational class
4. Complaint handling and its rectification
5. Awareness policies
6. Demand & Supply Gap
7. Profit margin
8. Tie-ups with the famous hotel & restaurants
9. Supply chain
10. Use of Information Technology
 References
• http://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/simple
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marketing_channel
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distribution_(business)#Channels_and_
intermediaries
• https://www.pepsicoindia.com
• http://www.varunpepsi.com
• Basic Marketing Research: Volume 1, Scott M. Smith | Gerald S.
Albaum
• Customer Service In Supply Chain Management: A Study Of SMES Of
Jammu Region By Sanjeev Lalhotra
Thank You!