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Chapter-Ii Conceptual Framework: Meaning of Customer
Chapter-Ii Conceptual Framework: Meaning of Customer
CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
Meaning of customer
An individual or business that purchases the goods or services produced by a
business. The customer is the end goal of businesses, since it is the customer who
pays for supply and creates demand. Businesses will often compete through
advertisements or sales in order to attract a larger customer base
Businesses often follow the adage that "the customer is always right" because happy
customers will continue to buy goods and services. Companies closely-monitor the
relationships that they have with their customers, eliciting feedback to see if new
products should be created or adjustments be made to what is currently offered
A customer may or may not also be a consumer, but the two notions are distinct, even
though the terms are commonly confused. A customer purchases goods; a
consumer uses them. An ultimate customer may be a consumer as well, but just as
equally may have purchased items for someone else to consume. An intermediate
customer is not a consumer at all. The situation is somewhat complicated in that
ultimate customers of so-called industrial goods and services (who are entities such as
government bodies, manufacturers, and educational and medical institutions) either
themselves use up the goods and services that they buy, or incorporate them into other
finished products, and so are technically consumers, too. However, they are rarely
called that, but are rather called industrial customers or business-to-business
customers. Six Sigma doctrine places (active) customers in opposition to two other
classes of people: not-customers and non-customers. Whilst customers have actively
dealt with a business within a particular recent period that depends on the product
sold, not-customers are either past customers who are no longer customers or
potential customers who choose to do business with the competition, and noncustomers are people who are active in a different market segment entirely. Geoff
Tennant, a Six Sigma consultant from the United Kingdom, uses the following
analogy to explain the difference: A supermarket's customer is the person buying milk
at that supermarket; a not-customer is buying milk from a competing supermarket,
whereas a non-customer doesn't buy milk from supermarkets at all but rather "has
milk delivered to the door in the traditional British way".
Types of Customers
Customers play the most significant part in business. In fact the customer is the actual
boss in a deal and is responsible for the actually profit for the organization. Customer
is the one who uses the products and services and judges the quality of those products
and services. Hence its important for an organization to retain customers or make
new customers and flourish business. To manage customers, organizations should
follow some sort of approaches like segmentation or division of customers into groups
because each customer has to be considered valuable and profitable.
Customers can be of following types:
1. Loyal Customers- These types of customers are less in numbers but promote more
sales and profit as compared to other customers as these are the ones which are
completely satisfied. These customers revisit the organization over times hence it is
crucial to interact and keep in touch with them on a regular basis and invest much
time and effort with them. Loyal customers want individual attention and that
demands polite and respectful responses from supplier.
2. Discount Customers- Discount customers are also frequent visitors but they are
only a part of business when offered with discounts on regular products and brands or
they buy only low cost products. More is the discount the more they tend towards
buying. These customers are mostly related to small industries or the industries that
focus on low or marginal investments on products. Focus on these types of customers
is also important as they also promote distinguished part of profit into business.
3. Impulsive Customers- These customers are difficult to convince as they want to
do the business in urge or caprice. They dont have any specific item into their
product list but urge to buy what they find good and productive at that point of time.
Handling these customers is a challenge as they are not particularly looking for a
product and want the supplier to display all the useful products they have in their tally
in front of them so that they can buy what they like from that display. If impulsive
customers are treated accordingly then there is high probability that these customers
could be a responsible for high percentage of selling.
4. Need Based Customers- These customers are product specific and only tend to
buy items only to which they are habitual or have a specific need for them. These are
frequent customers but do not become a part of buying most of the times so it is
difficult to satisfy them. These customers should be handled positively by showing
them ways and reasons to switch to other similar products and brands and initiating
them to buy these. These customers could possibly be lost if not tackled efficiently
with positive interaction.
5. Wandering Customers- These are the least profitable customers as sometimes
they themselves are not sure what to buy. These customers are normally new in
industry and most of the times visit suppliers only for confirming their needs on
products. They investigate features of most prominent products in the market but do
not buy any of those or show least interest in buying. To grab such customers they
should be properly informed about the various positive features of the products so that
they develop a sense of interest.An organization should always focus on loyal
customers and should expand or multiply the product range to leverage impulsive
]
it. But consumers are very much constrained in their choices. These constraints are
defined by the consumers income, and the prices the consumer pays for the goods.
We will formally present the model of consumer choice. As we go along, we will
establish a vocabulary in order to explain the model. Development of the model will
be in three stages. After a formal statement of the consumers objectives, we will map
the consumers preferences. Secondly, we present the consumers budget constraint;
and lastly, combine the two in order to examine the consumers choices of goods
One of the key customer satisfaction techniques is the need to provide front
line employees with the ability to respond to customer situations quickly
expectations.
To provide after sale services.
Listen actively and carefully.
Anticipate that the customer will be asking questions. They may be easy, they
be hard. But encourage them anyway. If you cannot provide an answer,
Always
keep a smile on your face when dealing with customers which can
lead to customer satisfaction. This positive attitude can rub off and turn a
potentially negative situation into a positive experience.
Communication consistency
A companys brand is driven by more than the combination of promises made and
promises kept. Whats also critical is ensuring customers recognize the delivery of
those promises, which requires proactively shaping communications and key
messages that consistently highlight delivery as well as themes. Southwest Airlines,
for example, has built customer trust over a long period by consistently delivering on
its promise as a no-frills, low-cost airline. Similarly, Progressive Insurance created an
impression among customers that it offered lower rates than its competitors in the
period from 1995 to 2005 and made sure to highlight when it delivered on that
promise. Progressive also shaped how customers interpreted cost-reduction actions
such as on-site resolution of auto claims by positioning and reinforcing these actions
as part of a consistent brand promise that it was a responsive, technology-savvy
company. In both cases, customer perceptions of the brands reinforced operational
realities. Such brands generate a reservoir of goodwill and remain resilient on the
basis of their consistency over time in fulfilling promises and their strong, ongoing
marketing communications to reinforce those experiences.
Prices
This is obviously one of the more important aspects of the business world. While they
want to make a profit to stay a float in the business world, they also need to make sure
that they are still fairly competitive with other business of the same kind and maybe a
little lower with more product to offer which will offset the lower prices. Because of
the low prices the Big bazaar products attracts most of the customers.
Marketing
Big bazaar has a good marketing strategies & this is the main reason which attracts
the most of the customers .Poor marketing could not only be preventing you from
attracting customers it could be driving them away in droves. Lack of promotion
affects business in the wrong way could explain whythey not attracting enough
customers. If people dont know them exist, they wont buy from them. If their
promotional activity fails to convince them to at the very least find out more about
them,they will simply be wasting their time and money.
Quality
If a product fulfils the customers expectations, the customer will be pleased and
consider that the product is of acceptable or even high quality. If his or her
expectations are not fulfilled, the customer will consider that the product is of low
quality. This means that the quality of a product may be defined as its ability to fulfill
the customers needs and expectations.Big bazaar products is known for their best
quality of products in the market and this is the most the one advantage which attracts
the customers for buying their products.
The retail industry in India is currently growing at a great pace and is expected to go
up to US$ 833 billion by the year 2013. It is further expected to reach US$ 1.3 trillion
by the year 2018 at a CAGR of 10%. As the country has got a high growth rates, the
consumer spending has also gone up and is also expected to go up further in the
future. In the last four year, the consumer spending in India climbed up to 75%. As a
result, the India retail industry is expected to grow further in the future days. By the
year 2013, the organized sector is also expected to grow at a CAGR of 40%.
Big bazaar
Big bazaar is a name renowned in Retail. It is now a brand image in private retail
sector. Wal-Mart is the retail stores of USA and is known all over the world for its
fashionable and affordable materials and is known as one of the best in its field, big
bazaar can be said as the Wal-Mart of India running a chain of more than 100 retail
stores in India.People around the country thinks that big bazaar is inspired from WalMart and it is quite obvious to think as Wal-Mart is world leading chain of retail
shopping but actually the idea of big bazaar came to the CEO Kishore Biyani from a
25 years old store Saravana which was owned by a family and worked on the
philosophy of low margin high turnover.Following its slogan of isse sasta or achha
kahin nahi(Meaning cannot find cheaper and better than this anywhere) it provides
the consumer with the best of the materials at a rate less than rest of the market.
Big bazaar is the subsidiary of Future Group, Pantaloons Retail India ltd.The brain
behind big bazaar is the CEO of Future Group Mr. Kishore BiyaniFuture group is has
various brands like Pantaloons, F123, Copper Chimney, Etam, Staples, One Mobile,
Urbana, Brand Factory, Loot Mart, Home Town and Central. Big bazaar covers all
parts of India including the metro cities Kolkata, Delhi, Chennai, and Mumbai. Big
bazaar started with its first store in Kolkata, west Bengal in 2001 and now owns more
than 100 stores all over India making itself the fastest growing retail chain in India
and leaving all its competitors behind.
Some of the key marketing strategies and promotional activities that are successfully
employed by Big Bazaar are:-
Discount Selling
Big Bazaar sells all its products at a much cheaper price as compared to the local
markets. The range of discounts ranges from 5 to 60%. Although the store sells the
products at a cheaper rates it does not compromises with the qualities of the products.
Huge No. of Brands
Big Bazaar maintains a huge number of brands under its dispose which give the
customers the liberty of buying the product of their favorite brand. This helps the
customers as they dont go looking out for a product of a particular brand.
Large Product Line
Big Bazaar also stocks a large product line of a single brand or multiple brands which
give the customers the choice to select the most appropriate product out of many
available at the most economical prices.
CHAPTER-IV
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
From all the available results this can be concluded that people have huge
expectations from the company. They not only want all the things they are getting
from other companies but in addition they also want some other benefits which in turn
can give them security of being a part of Big Bazaar as a customer in long run.
Big Bazaar has many brands in Food Bazaar such as Big bazaar, HUL, Cadbury,
Amul, Tata, Parle, Bikaji, Marico, Adanis Suffola, etc. but after that they do not have
the large product range of these brands that is why they are losing their customers.
Since many customers have different brand preferences.In Food Bazaar they have big
brands as mentioned above but many times they do not achieve the target due to the
arrangements of merchandise is not good and employees interaction with customers
are very less.
However, Food Bazaar contributes almost 50% of daily sale of the store. But
sometimes in normal days, Food Bazaar does not achieve the target. In fact, during
festival offers and Big Days, Food Bazaar has the major contribution in attracting
customers and increasing the store sale. So we can say that customers want huge
offers and discounts. If Big Bazaar gives huge discount and offers, it will definitely
increase its sales.
All the customers know about the Big Bazaar that is:
Isse Sasta Aur Achha Kahin Nahi!
Although Big Bazaar provides many services yet there are many areas where
customers demand for more than what they should get and which is beyond company
policy like, free servicing, additional free gifts and extra term benefits.
It seems that the most of the people is satisfied with big bazaar products
quality.
This project reaveals that the people also buy this products because the Big
Limitations
One of the reasons is the lack of time to cover all the aspects regarding the
study.
As secondary data is used in this project so there may be less accuracy.
Te topic is very vast but study is limited to only up to Delhi.
As the data is from primary source, so it could be bias because of personal
likings and disliking of respondents.
Suggestion
The following suggestions could be made for the better performance of Big Bazaar:
Signages should be displayed properly on the floor and near the entrance gate.
More security gadgets and checks should be there to control thefts and
employees working.
Increase the number of supporting staff (team members) on the floor of Food
Bazaar to pay proper attention to the customers.
Increase the brand and products range in the Food Bazaar to increase the sale.
Sitting arrangement and drinking water facilities on the floor for customers
should be maintained regularly.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Books
1. Kotler , Philip Marketing Management, Pearson education , New Delhi , 13 th
edition, 2014
2. Hill , Nigel Customer Satisfaction ,Cogent Publishing , New Delhi , 12 th
edition ,2012
3. Cochran , Craig Customer Satisfaction, Scott. M. Patton, United States, 9 th
edition ,2003
4. Gupta ,S.L Marketing Research ,Excel Books , New Delhi , 2nd edition , 2006
5. Beri ,G.C Marketing Research , Mcgraw Hill , New Delhi , 4th edition, 2000
Websites
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/bigbazaar( Last accessed on 14th jan 2015)
2. http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/bigbazzar( Last accessed on
10th
feb2015)
3. http://www.satisfactionsecrets.com/tag/bigbazza( Last accessed on 25th
march2015)
4. http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/consumer_and_retail/the_three_cs_of_cus
tomer_satisfaction( Last accessed on 28th march 2015)
5. http://blog.clientheartbeat.com/why-customer-satisfaction-is-important/( Last
accessed on 10th march 2015)