Krishna Chambers, Plot

No. 11, 4th Floor Galaxy

Garden,
North Main
Road, Koregaon Park,
Pune, Maharashtra411001

effectiveness of J.K. White Cement and Wall Putty in res

ABSTRACT
Cement is an essential component of infrastructure development and most important
input of construction industry, particularly in the governments infrastructure and housing
programs, which are necessary for the countrys socio economic growth and
development. It is also the second most consumed material on the planet. The Indian
cement industry is the second largest producer of cement in the world just behind China,
but ahead of the United States and Japan. It is consented to be a core sector accounting
for approximately 1.3% of GDP and employing over 0.14million people. Also the
industry is a significant contributor to the revenue collected by both the central and state
governments through excise and sales taxes.
Competition in the cement industry is very severe and switching cost for consumers is
relatively low and sometimes almost zero. This is because the product and pricing
standards are quiet similar and identical. This indicates that to maintain the existing and
attract the new customers for the business, it is necessary to keep coming up with
attractive marketing schemes
The research project taken aims at finding various important factors that affect the
customers behavior while purchasing any product of the company. The research is
conducted in two phases - Exploratory and Primary. A questionnaire based survey will be
conducted in seven cities of Maharashtra, namely Pune, Aurangabad, Kolhapur, Nagpur,
Nashik, Akola and Solapur.
Sample size of around 60 retailers per city will be taken. Random stratified sampling
methos will be used to obtain the sample from the population.
Other methods of primary data collection will be interview and observation type. All the
three methods will be used simultaneously for the research project.

INDIAN INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT RAIPUR

INTRODUCTION
Company Background
J.K. Cement Ltd is an affiliate of the multi-disciplinary industrial conglomerate J.K.
Organisation which was founded by Lala Kamlapat Singhania. For over four decades,
J.K. Cement has partnered India's multi-sectoral infrastructure needs on the strength of its
product excellence, customer orientation and technology leadership. It is second largest
producer of white cement in India with an annual capacity of 600,000 tonnes in India.
The company exports white cement to countries like South Africa, Nigeria, Singapore,
Bahrain, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, UAE and Nepal. It also the second largest
producer of Wall putty in the country with an annual installed capacity of 5,00,000
tonnes.
J.K. Cement was the first Company to install a captive power plant in the year 1987 at
Bamania, Rajasthan. J.K Cement is also the first cement Company to install a waste heat
recovery power plant to take care of the need of green power. Today at its different
locations, the Company has captive power generation capacity of over 140.MWs which
includes 23 MW of waste heat recovery power plants.
Products
J.K. Cement produces ordinary Portland cement of 53-grade, 43-grade and 33-grade. It
markets these cements under the brand name J.K. cement and Sarvashakitman.
It also manufactures Portland Pozzolana Cement and markets it under the name J.K.
Super.
It markets white cement under the name J.K. White and Camel.
J.K. Cement has introduced water repellent material in powder form. It has also
introduced white cement based putty for plastering walls and ceiling and sells the same
under the name J.K. Wall Putty.
Operations
J.K Cement has three decades of experience in cement manufacturing. From modest
beginning in the year 1974 with a capacity of 0.3 million tonnes at Nimbahera in
Rajasthan, today J.K Cement has 6 kilns of different capacities with a combined annual
capacity of 7.5 million tonnes. The three cement units having aggregate capacity of 4.5
million tonnes are located in Rajasthan at Nimbahera (capacity 3.25 million TPA),
Mangrol (capacity 0.75 million TPA) and Gotan (capacity 0.47 million TPA) and one unit
in Karnataka at Muddapur with capacity of 3 million TPA.
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The Company has made its first international foray with the setting up of a green-field
dual process white cement-cum-grey cement plant in the free trade zone at Fujairah,
U.A.E to cater to the GCC and African markets. The plant at Fujairah has a capacity of
0.6 million tonnes per annum for White Cement with a flexibility to change over its
operation to produce upto 1 million tonnes per annum of Grey Cement. The commercial
production from Fujairah Plant started from Sep'2014.With this, J.K Cement Ltd has
become the second largest White Cement Producer in the World.
The Company also has a fully automated plant of White Cement based Wall Putty having
a production capacity of 3 lac tonnes per annum.
J.K. White Cement's plants are accredited with ISO - 9001 and 14001 Certified Company
by LRQA. Further, the plant is also OHSAS 18001 (For safety and environmental
upkeep) accredited.

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INDIAN INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT RAIPUR

PROJECT DETAILS
Project Title
Research on the market effectiveness of J.K. White Cement and Wall Putty in rest of
Maharashtra region (Whole Maharashtra excluding Mumbai).
Objectives of the project
The primary objective of this study is to perform a comprehensive market research to
understand the purchasing behavior of J.K. Cements customers and gain valuable
insights to analyze why the sales of the company are lower than its competitors. Also the
study would bring out areas to be focused upon so that the J.K. Cements sales of White
Cement and Wall Putty could be improved.
Scope of Study
Based on the fact that large manufacturers for the White Cement and Wall Putty are
limited all over India and hence the competition in these markets is almost the same, the
scope of this study is vast. But given the large area to cover, 7 cities in Maharashtra, and
limited time, approximately a month, for the research, getting a larger database for the
research was not practically possible. Though the variables chosen to base the research on
were thoroughly explored and extensively brainstormed, it cant be expected to cover all
the possible aspects of the study. The variables chosen for the study were visibility of the
companys products and services, factors affecting the purchasing pattern of the
customers, the difficulties faced by the customers and the changes that the customers
want in these products.

Problem Statement
J.K. is faced with the problem in increasing its market share even after spending
considerable resources in the market. This has resulted in the stagnation of growth of the
products. Reasons for the same are not yet found.

INDIAN INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT RAIPUR

Benefits of the project

For the Company
The study includes a primary research among the customers of the J.K.s products and
hence provides actual insights about the customers buying pattern like what are the
customer preferences, do price sensitivity play an important role in sales, what problems
did they face while ordering the product and what changes they want to be made. The
study will also address some other questions like the market potential of the company,
brand wise share of sales for the products, brand visibility in the market and competitor
distribution pattern. The study will reveal the actual reasons for the question that Why
the customers dont go for J.K. Cement and J.K. Wall Putty.
For the Intern
The study includes a real market research which provides the intern an opportunity to
have practical knowledge and experience of real market conditions and ground realities
of how the things work in business and corporate. The intern will also have a chance to
get down to know the actual consumer behavior while purchasing any product like what
all features does he looks for in a product, what tradeoffs is he is ready to make, what
quality checks he performs, what attributes he value the most etc. The learning from this
project includes knowledge about the various new marketing techniques and tactics that a
company can use to attract its customers. The intern would have a huge scope of learning
the core marketing strategy being implemented by the company to improve its customer
base and thus sales.

INDIAN INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT RAIPUR