A REPORT

ON
RETAIL STORE MANAGEMET
Submitted By:

Piyush Asthana
piyush_asthana25@yahoo.co.in
phone number: 9836899191

07bs2837

Faculty Guide: Company Guide:

Mr. Subhasis Ray Mr. Devnag Busakala

Faculty Member, Assistant Sales Manager,

ICFAI Business School HCL Front Line Division
Kolkata Kolkata
 Abstract
“Sales personnel no longer specialize solely in increasing sales volume; rather, the prospect's real needs
become the basis of the marketing plan. A mark of professionalism in sales is that sellers adopt a proble
problem-
solving approach to their work. A professional salesperson does not wonder, ‘what can I sell this
individual?" but instead asks, "How can I best solve this person's problems? Kurtz, Dodge, and
Klompmaker (1976) .The best way to hold the customers is to constantly figure out how to give them more
for less as this is exactly what they want. The report is based on “Retail Store Management
Management” This project
report basically
sically focuses on what are the steps and the processes involved and adopted for selling the HCL
laptops/desktops in order to expand the market of HCL Front line division. The sales are made based on
product’s enhanced quality. The customers need to be personally
sonally convinced that HCL is better than the
other brands in the same product segment, and for personally convincing, a HCL
HCL’s sales representative is
required because in the words of Saxe and Weitz (1982), a salesperson’s customer orientation is ‘the
degree to which he or she practice(s) the marketing concept by trying to help his or her customers make
purchase decisions that will satisfy customer needs’. Thus my work is to personally deal with customers,
increase the brand awareness, and convince them to buy the product, ultimately pushing up the sales.
The closest competitors of HCL are “Lenovo
“ &Acer”. These two brands closely resemble HCL laptops in
price and features. So the people who come to buy these two brands in mind are targeted. Even if peopl
people
come to buy different brand say “HP” or “Sony”
“Son were also tried to mould, I show them a HCL model
deeply listing out the specific advantages and features available in that product..
product.
There is another segment of customers who prefer specific brands as “Sony or Apple”. Conversion of these
customers to HCL is very difficult. Brands as “HP pavilion, Sony & Apple” are promoted to target the
premium segment of people thus these brands have segmented the society based on pricing therefore we
can say that these brands
nds have a loyal customer base.
base
Constantly dealing with the customers helped me in identifying the buying behaviour of the customer,
application of various marketing theory. the demand of the competitors are also revealed. By knowing the
customer’s requirements
ments deeply, the future trend can be analyzed and the new models can be customized
accordingly. The project teaches about inventory management customer relationship management, data
analysis and drawing inference. The project also helps in building confidence because I have to deal with
the customers directly and satisfy them. Being a trainee I have followed the learning orientation in addition
to sales orientation and customer orientation. In this project, different activities that were focused are
mentioned below:
  Competitor’s analysis
 Adopting new ways to attract customer
 Enhancing the efficiency of store
 Understanding the customers their need and desire
 Develop relationship marketing

Introduction
Let me begin with a poser, what does Indian IT means to you?
Chances are that you’ve already started thinking about our successes in the software exports arena. Amid
all the applause for Indian software exporters, achievements in the domestic market tend to get sidelined.
Agreed that software and services exports from the country have been growing at an enviable pace, but
the domestic IT market can also this. India is one of the fastest growing IT markets in the world, the fastest
growing PC market in the Asia-Pacific
Pacific region, and also the country with the fastest growth in Internet
usage in this region.IDC believes that there is tremendous momentum
momentum in the domestic IT market today,
which will help the industry tide over the minor slowdown
slowdown being predicted for the economy in the current
fiscal. Over the next five years, the domestic IT industry is predicted to grow at a CAGR (Compound
Annual Growth Rate) of 28 percent, which is among the highest in the world.
Personal Computers
What drives the Indian IT market? As is the case with most nations in the early stages of the IT maturity
curve, the Indian market is prima The hardware sector currently accounts for around 56 percent of total IT
spending and is growing faster than other sectors of this industry. Looking at the frenzy in the PCs
marketplace, it’s fairly obvious that PCs are fuelling growth hardware market. Perhaps the single largest
contributor to this impressive growth is the burgeoning home segment. Today, more than a third of all PCs
shipped in a year make their way to the home segment; and the way things are moving, this share wi
will
improve in future. This obviously means that no vendor can afford to neglect this segment. The winners of
the future will be the ones who have in place a focused consumer strategy to address the home segment.
IDC’s "Millennium Home" study reveals that the most important reason for purchasing a home PC revolve
around enhancing the family’s computer skills. In an era where people have realized the importan
importance of
being IT literate, this finding springs no major surprises. Another important finding is that while the chief
wage earner of a household is the primary decision-maker
decision maker insofar as PC purchase is concerned, family and
friends play an important role in influencing
nfluencing the decision. The survey also reveals that the average home
PC user is around 28 years old however; IDC believes that as computer education in schools becomes
more
widespread and more children start using PCs at home, the average home PC user of the future might be
younger.
Servers:
Servers both Standard Intel Architecture Servers (SIAS) and
and RISC/UNIX are another category that’s
showing impressive growth. New areas such as ISPs, Web hosting, and CRM besides the more established
applications suchh as ERP contribute to this explosive growth. Data centres and Application Service
Providers (ASPs), the latest buzzwords doing the rounds in the industry, will be the future drivers of the
Server market.. In other words, servers will transform themselves as engines to hosted application.
One expected development is the blurring of the defining line between
between SIAS and RISC UNIX servers.
While SIAS will continue to cater to the bulk of requirements, especially in the SME segment, the entry
entry-
level RISC/CISC servers (non-SIAS)
SIAS) space will see the most activity in the server market. All vendors are
investing heavily in channel build- up, training, and motivation to reach out to the SME segment and dot-
com’s the low-end
end models of this class, will see this class increasingly
increasingly fighting in the same space as the
SIAS. Increasing acceptance of UNIX for web related activities in the SME segment will also contribute to
growth in this class.
Internet Usage
The last two years have seen explosive growth in Internet usage in India. We already
lready have more than a
million subscribers, and this growth shows no sign of slowing down, thus making India the fastest growing
Internet market in the Asia -Pacific
Pacific region. The Internet boom has had a positive impact on the IT industry.
While Internet access is slowly emerging as an important criterion for the home segment, investments by
Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and other Internet companies to set up their infrastructure will remain an
important accelerator for domestic IT spending.
In the wake of the growing prominence of the internet, there has been a lot of debate on the future of PCs,
with people spelling out doom for them. The rise of thin clients and information appliances (or alternate
Internet access devices) has led to this debate.
de IDC believes that while a further away. The PC is not dead
and buried; it still has a lot of life. The PC will maintain its dominance in the commercial segment, and
will continue to have a place in homes. There has been an increase in activity Applia
Appliances arena, but
Information Appliances will not eat into PCs. Rather, they would complement PCs in a digital home. There
are a number of interrelated issues that will limit the adoption of information appliances in India. For one,
we have to consider whether users are ready to choose specialized products over a general
general-purpose
product. Most information appliance performs only one function, whereas a PC is a powerful
multifunctional device that can do a host of other stuff apart from internet access. Price and availability are
other important issues. Till these products become available in the market, users will remain confused
about their real benefits and the price associated with them. Another crucial factor that might limit tthe
Information appliances are the development and proliferation of supporting technologies such as
broadband and wireless.
One must also keep in mind that information appliances are merely enabling devices. It’s the content and
service that consumers will value. This implies that vendors must ensure availability of services and
content in order to promote the adoption of new information appliances. That, we believe, will take some
more. This implies that we believe, will take some more time, thus ensuring a prominent place for the PC
as an access devise in Indian marketplace.
During 3Q 2007, the overall India client PC market grew 25.1 per cent year on year in terms of unit
shipments to 1.8 million, says IDC. For the same period (3Q 2007 over 3Q 2006), desktop PC shipme
shipments
showed a growth of 10.9 percent,
cent, while notebook PC shipments showed a growth of 84.8 per cent (3Q
2007 over 3Q 2006). In the overall client PC (notebooks and desktops combined) market the rankings
remained unchanged. HP retained the top spot with a market share of 21.6 percent followe
followed by HCL with
12.3% and Lenovo at 10.3%,in terms of unit shipment during the third quarter of calendar year 2007 (3Q
2007). In terms of desktop PC shipments, HP retained its top position with a market share of 15.2 percent,
followed
lowed by HCL and Lenovo in second and third spot respectively during 3Q2007. In terms of notebook
PC shipments, HP retained the top spot with a market share of 37.8 per cent in 3Q 2007. Lenovo came in at
the second spot and Acer climbed up to take the third spot. According to Kapil Dev Singh, country
manager,IDC India”, “Portability, rather than mobility has emerged as the ‘Number 1’ driver for the
sustained growth in notebook PC shipments in India. Given the choice of portability, flexibility and
ease of use and the narrowing of the price-performance gap that once existed between portables and
desktops, consumers are almost overwhelmingly inclined to buy notebook PCs.” During 3Q 2007,
notebook PC shipments to the home and SOHO segments grew by 166 per cent
ent year
year-on-year(3Q 2007 over
3Q2006) and made up for 43 per cent of total notebook shipments. The next largest contributors
to this trend were the enterprise and education segments.
One of the prime factors that have been fuelling the growth of this product is the pricing criteria. Notebook
vendors have realized the importance of this factor and following this line have launched ‘economical’
notebooks. Speaking to it VAR news, GM-sales
GM & marketing, consumerr product group, Acer India,
S.Rajendran opined,
d, “The Indian customer has been very value conscious. In the past years, with the
pricing of notebooks coming down successively,
successi in tandem with growing economies of scale and reducing
duty rates, the demand has seen an upswing. The sweetener to the customer
er has been that with progress in
technology, often the products available are with contemporary features.”The brand name is another
important factor that holds the key for notebook market. This opinion was supported by Narang when he
said, “In India, big manufacturers are doing well in the laptop market. People go for brand names because
of their quality, best after sale service and stylish looks”.
This project encompasses;; managing retail store, naming G.K. Communication one of the major retailer of
HCL laptops and Desktops in Kolkata.
Kolkata My major task is to manage the IT section of the store and
understand the requirements and expectation of customer. Being the floor manager in the store I was also
responsible for determination of adequate
equate inventory level.
lev One of the greatest challenge one will face while
working in G.K. Communication is that its IT section also has the laptops of other brands such as Compaq,
Lenovo Sony etc and as a representative of HCL I was responsible to boost the sale of HCL this iis an
actual challenge as brand positioning of HCL not so strong in comparison of competitors
competitors. Another task was
to generate the database of the potential customers
customer of HCL Laptops & desktop.
HCL- AN OVERVIEW-
HCL Enterprise is a leading Global Technology and IT enterprise that comprises two companies listed in
India - HCL Technologies & HCL Infosystems. The 3-decade-old
3 old enterprise, founded in 1976, is one of
India’s original IT garage start-ups.
ups. Its range of offerings
offerings span Product Engineering, Technology and
Application Services, BPO, Infrastructure Services, IT Hardware, Systems Integration, and distribution of
ICT products. The HCL team comprises approximately 55,000 professionals of diverse nationalities, who
operate from 18 countries including 360 points of presence in India. HCL has global partnerships with
several leading Fortune 1000 firms, including leading IT and Technology firms.
 NOIDA
It’s HCL Everywhere
Chandigarh
Support
Location
Regional Noida Lucknow
Jaipur Patna
Office

Guwahati
Ahmedabad Kolkata
Bhopal Ranchi

Mumbai Raipur
Pune Nagpur Bhubaneswar

Hyderabad

Bangalore
Chennai
Coimbatore
Cochin Trichy

Direct Support from >360 Locations

Awards and Recognitions:

 HCL was ranked among the top Fast 500 Asia Pacific 2006 program by Deloitte Technology,
Media & Telecommunications.

 HCL received three Channels Choice 2007 awards forr Relationship Management, After
Sales Support & Commercial Terms from DQ Channels, based on an IDC channel satisfaction
survey

 HCL Infosystems was presented with the 'Top Organization - 2006' award by Institute of
Marketing Management (IMM) in recognition of its innovation in marketing management.

 HCL won the Amity Corporate Excellence Award in the Computer hardware category.

 India’s Most Preferred Personal Computer Brand by CNBC AWAAZ Consumer Award 2007.

 ‘The
The Most Responsive Company 2005’-IT
IT Hardware Category by the Economic Times
Times-
Avaya Global Connect.
  HCL Technologies
HCL Technologies is one of India’s leading global IT Services companies, providing software led IT
solutions, remote infrastructure management services and BPO. The company leverages an extensive
global offshore infrastructure and its global network of ofices
ofices in 16 countries to deliver solutions across
select verticals including Financial Services, Retail & Consumer, Life Sciences Aerospace, Automotive,
Semiconductors, Telecom and MPE (Media Publishing & Entertainment). For the of ending 31st March
2008, HCL
CL Technologies, along with its subsidiaries had revenue (TTM) of US $ 1.7 billion and
employed 49,802 professionals.

 HCL Infosystems
HCL Infosystems,, with revenue (TTM) of US$ 3.1 billion, is India's premier information enabling and
system integration company.
HCL Infosystems offers value-added
added services in key areas such as system integration, networking
consultancy and a wide range of support services.
services. HCL Infosystems manufacturing facilities are ISO 9001
- 2000 & ISO 14001 certified and adhere to stringent quality standards and global processes. It is rated
among the leading players in all the segments, comprising domestic IT products, solutions aand related
services, including PCs, servers, networking products, imaging & communication products. HCL
Infosystem owns the brand of indigenously developed and manufactured, most popular PC - 'Ezeebee',
'Busybee' 'Beanstalk' and 'Infiniti' - and its robust manufacturing facilities.
HCL Infosystems has long standing relationships with world technology leaders such as SUN for
enterprise computing solutions, Intel and AMD for PCs & PC Servers; Microsoft, Novell and SCO for
operating systems and software solutions;
soluti Toshiba Corp. for business automation equipment; SAP AG for
specialist ERP solutions; and Oracle, Sybase and Informix for RDBMS platform, EMC, VERITAS for
storage solutions.
 Objective Of Project
This project comprises of managing a retail store, named G.K.Communication one of the major retailer of
HCL laptops and Desktops. My major task is to manage the IT section of the store and understand the
requirements and expectation of customer. Being the floor manager in the store I was als
also responsible for
determination of adequate inventory level. One of the greatest challenge one will face while working in
G.K. Communication is that its IT section also has the laptops of other brands such as Compaq, Lenovo
Sony etc and my job is to sell the
he laptops of HCL, that poses a challenge
chal in front of me as the brand
positioning of HCL not so strong in comparison of competitors .Secondly, I had to generate the database of
the potential customers and to position the HCL Laptops & desktop in the market in such a way that it
ultimately lead to business generation vis-a-vis
vis vis making adequate profit while maintaining the image of the
store.
Scope of the project
 To position the brand in the mind of customer.
customer
 Gathering and disseminating relevant information to customers.
 Understanding and fulfilling the expressed and latent needs of customers buying behaviour.
 Building long-term
erm relationship with customers.
 To generate the business for the company while maintaining a balance with the store’s image.
 Maintenance of adequate inventory level.
 Analyzing the current environment and work culture of store and suggesting new ideas in order to
enhance the efficiency
ficiency of the store in terms of look, sale and way of working
working.
 Adaptation of different marketing strategies to promote the
the product as well as store.

Methodology
Market Analysis:
India has one of the lowest PC penetration rates in the world at less than 3% as per latest available
reports from of Information Technology, GOI. Other developed and emerging economies have much
higher PC penetration rate
Country PC Penetration
India 2/1000
China 11/1000
USA 60/1000
Norway 110/1000
Source: Median of various Industry Surveys)
India is expected to sell around 4.7 million PCs as compared to 21 million for China. In order to
reach at China’s PC penetration levels India needs to grow its PC manufacturing at CAGR of ~30%
for next 5 years. With rising income level, increasing awareness about computers through school
level education combined with GOI project the penetration level in India is set to grow many fold ‘s
readiness project the penetration level in India is set to grow many folds in coming years
PC manufacturing industry ry in India is dominated by three kinds of players:
Indian
Indian Manufacturers (Zenith, HCL, Wipro etc)
MNCs
MNCs (HP, Lenovo, Dell, Sony etc)
Unorganized assembled

India is expected to sell around 4.7 million desktops in FY2005 3.6 million in FY2004
FY2004-05. The
desktop assembled brands, which account for ~40% of sales followed by MNC brands and Indian
Laptop market is showing very high growth in recent years due to increased usage in higher
education segment (MBA colleges institutes) and surge in home usage. Bus
Business segment does not
contribute much to growth because of data insecurity issues shown a CAGR of ~100% over last 2
years. not have an unorganized assembled market. All the sales are accounted for by MNC and
Indian brands. Absence of unorganized market gives
gives this segment high pricing power as compared to
India is expected to sell around 4.7 million desktops in FY2005-
FY2005 05 as compared to 3.6 million in
FY2004-05.
05. The desktop market is dominated by unorganized assembled brands, which account for
~40% of sales
es followed by MNC brands and showing very high growth in recent years due to
increased usage in higher education segment (MBA colleges and other such educational institutes)
and surge in home usage. Business segment does not contribute much to because of data insecurity
issues related to a laptop. The laptop market has shown a CAGR of ~100% over last 2 years. Unlike
desktops, laptop market does not have an unorganized assembled market. All the sales are accounted
for MNC’s and Indian brands. Absence of unorganized
unorganized market gives branded players in this segment
high pricing power as compared to desktop segment.
 2006 2011 CAGR %
2006
2006-11
Hardware (%) 54.9 50.9 18.5

Software (%) 5.9 5.0 17.8

Services (%) 39.3 44.1 23.2

Total ICT 9,632 24,313 20.4

Market ($M)

India: hardware, software and services share of domestic ITmarket, 2006-2011 Source - Gartner

Profitability of the segment

Desktop Cost Structure

21%
35%
Monitor
6% Keyboard
Casing
9%
Motherboarxd
4%
Memory
21%
Harddisk

Manufacturing PC is essentially a business of assembling components from OEMs like Intel, AMD,
Seagate etc and branding the manufactured unit for end customers. The cost of components is the
major cost element in the price of PC to the tune of around 80%. The margin for a business is
dependent on the manufacturer relation with OEMs, whichh determine the cost of component for him.
Apart from this margin depends on branding power of the manufacturer. Prices of hard disk,
memory, and processor constitute majority
majority of the total cost. Thus relationship with OEMs of these
components is very important for any player to determine the overall margin for its final product.
 Laptop Cost Structure

Monitor
24% Keyboard&Mouse
32%
Casing

4% Processor
Motherboard
4%
8%
Memory
4%
24% Harddisk

There is substantial difference between costs of same component for a laptop as compared to the
same component of Desktop. Majority of difference lies in costs of hard disk and processor. Overall
the cost differential between a laptop and desktop based on components only is around 30% for the
same configuration. At the same time difference between a laptop and desktop of the same
configuration stands at around 60%. This enables players
players to have better margins in case of higher
proportion of laptop.. Absence of an unorganized assembled market in laptop segment enables
players to have more pricing and branding power as compared to a desktop product. This also helps
in commanding betterr margins in laptop business.

Competitor Analysis
Acer

Rival

Lenovo Compaq
RIVALRY
Arch Rival Arch Rival

Lower Threat
New entrant

Fujitsu, HP/SONY
Dell
Lenovo
Lenovo is an Innovative, international technology company formed as a result of the acquisition by
the Lenovo Group of the IBM Personal Computing division. As a global leader in the PC market, they
develop, manufacture and market cutting-edge, reliable, high quality PC products and value
value-added
professional provide customers around the world with smarter ways to be productive and They can
be ascertained as a bitter rival of HCL.

Compaq & HP
Compaq India is a subsidiary
sidiary of Compaq that was founded in 1982 in Houston, USA. Compaq in
India has huge market even after its merger with Hellwet Packard (hp). Compaq's desktop,
notebooks and accessories are the main products manufactured by Compaq in India. The Hoston
based company works with main focus on computers and servers. It captures about 25% of Indian
hardware market. The two IT giants can pose a threat to domestic conglomerates like Infosys,
Satyam Computers etc. In Bangalore Compact Computer Corporation has launch
launched an online store.
This facility will be used by Compaq India to sell its products like the Presario range Notebooks
Laptops, iPaq Desktops SB Series, fingerprint ID and smart card reader in the online store. The ee-
store is of great help to the customer
HP is a technology solutions provider to consumers, businesses and institutions globally. The
company's offerings span IT infrastructure, personal computing and access devices, global services
and imaging and printing for consumers, enterprises and small and
and medium businesses. HP itself is
not a great threat to HCL but its subsidiary Compaq has emerged as arch rival for HCL, its online
store can be a strategy that is very important to check. HCL‘s Digilife is good step but it needs a
close watch.

Acer
Acer Incorporated founded by Stan Shih ,his wife Carolyn Yeh, and a group of five others in 1976,
was renamed Acer in 1987.It is a Taiwanese multinational electronics manufacturer. It owns the
largest franchised computer retail chain in Taipei, Taiwan. Acer is the third largest computer
manufacturer in the world (by sales) after HP and Dell Inc. and its product
oduct line-up includes desktop
and mobile PCs (laptops),as
),as well as personal digital assistants (PDAs), servers and storage, displays,
peripherals, and e-business
business services for business, government, education, and home users. Its product
range has Desktop computers:
computers Notebook computers: Travel Mate,Tablet PCs,Aspre series,Extensa
series and Ferrari series.

Sony
One of the most recognized brand names in the world today, Sony Corporation, Japan, established its
India operations in November 1994, focusing on the sales and marketing of Sony products in the
country. In a span of 12 years Sony India has exemplified the quest for excellence in the world of
digital lifestyle becoming the country’s foremost
forem consumer electronics
ectronics brand, with relentless
commitment to quality, consistent dedication to customer satisfaction and unparalleled standards of
service. Sony India is recognized as a benchmark for new age technology, superior quality, digital
concepts and personalizedd service
With brands names such as BRAVIA, Xplod, Sony hi-fi,
hi Handy cam, cyber
cyber-shot, WEGA, VAIO,
Walkman, Memory stick‚ PlayStation an AIWA, Sony has as a value leader across its various
product categories of Audio/Visual Entertainment products, Information and Communications,
recording
ecording media, business and professional products. Sony cannot be considered as major problem
for HCL as its target segment is different than that of HCL but very soon in the future HCL can
easily upgrade to cater the needs
nee of this segment.

Dell
Dell, Inc. is a multinational company based in Round Rock, Texas struggling to settle down in Indian
market and it develops, manufactures, sells, and supports personal computers and other computer-
related products. it held thee second spot in computer-sales
computer within the industry behind the Hewlett-
Packard Company.. The company currently sells personal computers, servers
servers, data storage devices,
network switches, software,, computer peripherals and televisions. Inspiron, Studio, XPS, Alienware
are some brands from Dell.

Fujitsu
Fujitsu is a company, that is a new entrant in Indian Market, specializing in semiconductors,
computers (supercomputers, personal computers,
computers servers), telecommunications
telecommunications, and services, and is
headquartered in Tokyo. Internationally, Fujitsu considers IBM to be its main competitor. Some of its
major products are Lifebook notebook computers, Mobile Phones. Tablet personal compu
computers, pen
based computers.
 Sources and methods of data collection
Data that is collected for the project on the basis of Judgemental sampling method respondents were
asked to fill up a questionnaire. Later an analysis of the response is done so that we can understand
the basic buying behaviour, their needs, their demand, awareness, and expectation they have with the
Brand.

Action Steps Taken:

 Determined the inventory level by observing the trend of store from past data. Maintained the
record of stock availability and its important attributes in computer.
 Started a follow up program for the customers by maintaining their complete database.
 Making the store pop’s so attractive that their temptation compel them to inquire about the
PC’s so that they can make up their mind for the purchase point of sale with large LCD on it,
this step has enhance the look of the counter as well as it creates an image of high value in the
mind of customer as it shows al all the specifications
 Several times leaflets were arranged and were distributed so that customer can get aware
about the product and a good brand image can be created.
 After
fter sales service is very
ver important in this sector because most of the customers are not
educated enough to use computers,
computers hence they need a continuous support so I had started a
free of cost assistance for our customer to solve all the issues related to computer.
 To understand the different needs for each customer a survey was conducted. Taking a small
survey in a place like GK communication is quit beneficial because we can know why the
customers are shifting
hifting toward the competitors. A questionnaire was prepared for this purpose.
Result of survey could also be used for the further growth of the company as HCL can
understand the gaps that is present in between the perception of customer and management.
Secondly by using the database generated in the survey can also be used to help the store to
determine the prospective customer.

Key Findings
After working for nearly 16 weeks I came to the conclusion that marketing not only comprises of
4P’s (Price, Place, Product,
t, Promotion) but there is still scope for more. Since working in rretail store,
there are huge opportunities to interact directly with customer. Secondly a huge price pressure is
there, one can easily watch how 4P’s is applicable in market. Being there as HCL’s representative I
not only followed 4P’s but also tried to find something else that is more applicable to the retailer of
consumer durables and ultimately I landed on 4A’s (Analysis, Attention, Acceptance, Action)
 Analysis Time needs to be earmarked to determine the drivers, emotional and logical needs, and
traditional and psycho graphic nuances of the intended audience. This step allows focus and micro
micro-
segmentation and a significant decrease in marketing cost.

Attention.. Once you've identified who are the core prospect for your products or services is, creative
efforts must be taken to get and maintain their attention.

Accept.. You must use the tools of copy, design, social networks psychology and repetition to get the
intended audience to accept that your solution is the best one to take. This acceptance must take
place despite the fact that your solution is just one of many options available in an increasingly
saturated marketplace.

Action The prospect has to act on their acceptance of your proposition by doing whatever it is you
want them to do Generally, this might be making one or more purchases (be sure your marketing
strategy includes opportunities for buyers to evangelize their positive purchasing experiences to
others). It may also be picking up a phone or responding to a direct mail offer or fundraising effort or
petition drive. The 4As, used correctly and consistently, result in measurable, traceable return on
marketing investment

Result of Survey
I. Male Preserve: The fact that over 82% (compared to 18%) of the respondents
respondents were male shows that
computers are still largely a male preserve.
II. Computers – The Technology of the Youth: 50% of the respondents were under 24 and 22%
between 25 and 30 years. Clearly, then, computer use based knowledge is limited to the young and
very young. In terms of marital status, 63% of the respondents are single and 36% are married
married—yet
another statistics that youth.
III. Expertise: About 27% of the respondents consider themselves as “expert” users, while another 53%
say they are quite “knowledgeable” about computers
IV. Desktop versus Laptop: 73.9% respondents like to buy laptops than desktop as there is very less
price difference in between them.
V. Hours of Use per Week: According to the self-report
self report data, the household uses the computer on an
average 27 hours per week. However more than 50% of the computer using households use it for
more than 20 hours per week.
week
VI. Internet Use: The Internet is most frequently used for sending and receiving ee-mail. Gender
differences in the usage of Internet exist in the areas of online chatting, which is significantly higher
for women. Men on the other hand exhibit higher usage for sports information
information and also to do job
related work, sending faxes etc.
 VII. Computer Non-Owners: About 42% of the households who do not own a computer currently intend
to buy computer in the near future. Among those intending to buy, about 55% intend make a
purchase within
hin the next 6 months.
VIII. Rating of HCL as a brand:. About 52% of respondents rated HCL as a good brand whereas 30%
said it as a very good brand
IX. Mode of payment: Around 65% of the people said that they will buy laptop if price of the laptop
can be paid in instalments.
X. Effect of configuration: about 44% respondents said the configuration matters highly for them
whereas 18% said it doesn’t matters.
XI. After sales services:65%
65% respondent feel that after sales service plays a very important role in
purchase of computer.
XII. Looks and price: Majority of people said that there choice of laptop doesn’t depend on look but it
depends on price
XIII. Attitude Toward Computers:: The commonly held attitudes / belief’s among all computer owners
with regard to the role of computers at home
hom are:
 Knowledge of computers is essential to keep-up
keep with the changes.
 Computers are not at all difficult to use and contribute time savings at home.
 Computers have become part of the daily routine in the family and are essential as any other
as any other appliance at home
 It is difficult to imagine life without computers at home.

Discussion:
Marketing has got four pillars on which it is standing but no structure can stand only on foundation
but it needs several more things that makes a building live and four more thing encompass 4A’s that
is analysis, attention, accept, action these four A’s are verb that must be considered by every
marketer 4P’s are noun that make
mak him to understand the quality, but only thinking had never taken
anyone to anywhere. Understanding
nderstanding must be accompanied by appropriate action. First three ,analysis,
attention, accept are invisible
nvisible but before taking any action it must be proceeded by understanding the
problem, thinking about all the alternatives attentively and then taking appropriate action. No two
problems are exactly alike
ke one must see all the available option. Another model to decide about the
charm of any industry is given by well known management guru, Michael Porter
Porter, and it is famous in
the world of management as “Michael
“Michael Porter's Five Forces of Competitive Position Model
Model”
Let us first understand what this model says:
 Threat of
New Entrant

Rivalry
Bargaining
Among Existing
Bargaining Power of
Power of Competitor Buyers
supplier

Threat of
Substitute
Michael Porter's Five Forces of
Product
Competitive Position Model

The Competitive Forces analysis is made by the identification of 5 fundamental competitive forces:

1. Entry of competitors: How easy or difficult is it for new entrants to start competing, which
barriers do exist.

2. Threat of substitutes: How easy can a product or service be substituted, especially made

cheaper.

3. Bargaining power of buyers:: How strong is the position of buyers? Can they work together?

in ordering large volumes.

4. Bargaining power of suppliers:
suppliers: How strong is the position of sellers? Do many potential

suppliers exist or only few potential suppliers, monopoly?

5. Rivalry among the existing players:

players Does a strong competition between the existing players

exist? Is one player very dominant or are all equal in strength and size.

Threat of New Entrants depends on: Economies of scale, Capital / investment requirements, Customer
switching costs, Access to industry distribution channels, Access to technology. Brand loyalty. Are
customers loyal? The likelihood of retaliation from existing industry players. Government regulations.
Can new entrants get subsidies?

Threat of Substitutes depends on: Quality.. Is a substitute better? Buyers' willingness to substitute.
The relative
ive price and performance of substitutes. The costs of switching to substitutes. Is it easy to
change to another product?

Bargaining Power of Suppliers depends on: Concentration of suppliers. Are there many buyers and
few dominant suppliers? Branding, is the brand of the supplier strong? Profitability of suppliers. Are
suppliers forced to raise prices? Suppliers threaten to integrate forward into the industry. Buyers do not
threaten to integrate backwards into supply. Role of quality and service. The in
industry is not a key
customer group to the suppliers. Switching costs. Is it easy for suppliers to find new customers?

Bargaining Power of Buyers depends on: Concentration of buyers. Are there a few dominant buyers
and many sellers in the industry? Differentiation,
Dif are products standardized? Profitability of buyers. Are
buyers forced to be tough? Role of quality and service. Threat of backward and forward integration into
the industry. Switching costs. Is it easy for buyers to switch their supplier?

Intensity of Rivalry depends on: The structure of competition. Rivalry will be more intense if there
are lots of small or equally sized competitors; rivalry will be less if an industry has a clear market
leader. The structure of industry costs. Industries
Industries with high fixed costs encourage competitors to
manufacture at full capacity by cutting prices if needed. Degree of product differentiation. Industries
where products are commodities (e.g. steel, coal) typically have greater rivalry. Switching costs. Ri
Rivalry
is reduced when buyers have high switching costs. Strategic objectives. If competitors pursue
aggressive growth strategies, rivalry will be more intense. If competitors are merely "milking" profits in
a mature industry, the degree of rivalry is typically
ally low. Exit barriers. When barriers to leaving an
industry are high, competitors tend to exhibit greater rivalry.Now
rivalry.Now letus see how porter model works in
real life situations.

Entry of competitors:

A PC maker does not require very high investment because the parts of desktops are procured from
other manufactures most of the unorganised assemblers does this thing only. Therefore we can say that
the entry barrier for this industry is low. Secondly after liberalisation of Indian economy various MNCs
have entered in India they have huge pool of resources resulting a tough competition is laid this has
made the Indian economic very turbulent..

Threat of substitutes:

Technology changes very rapidly in some of sectors and personal computing is one among them
them, the
product life cycle in this type of industry are very small therefore no one can guess when the current
technology is going to be outdated and a substitute can replace the product.

Bargaining power of buyers:

Every organisation whether government, public or private are going for computerisation hence they
require PCs in bulk so they have high bargaining power. Individual customers are also there but they
have
ve low bargaining power results a balance in the market

Bargaining power of suppliers:

Supplier also have high bargaining power as the number of players are less and plc is low
low, since
manufacturing requires heavy investment, so these companies i.e. OEMs creates extra pressure over the
PC makers.

Rivalry among the existing players:

players

Since the margin in this sector especially, laptops and notebooks, is quite good therefore this sectors
have many players. And presences of many players create a cut throat competition among players and
because of tough rivalry the amount of margin are going lower day by day.

Application of Five Forces on Retail Store

While working in retail store again we can realize the validity of “Five Forces”. Retail store is once
again much lower investment therefore each day there is possibility of neighbourhood jumping in the
same business as yours. Secondly big Malls and Super Stores are also posing great challenge to the
retailers and many time the company owned showrooms also opened whose wide recourses can cause
fatality to small retailers.

Being a small retailer they don’t have much threat for substitute as the exit barrier is low for them. But
the company whose retailer was he might come in problem as the loyalty of retailer is changed, this may
cause important information too be passed to the competitor of the company.

Being a retailer they don’t get the benefit of economy of scale resulting the overall cost is not as low as
it is with big retail store chain or with company owned shops. therefore the end user or customer has
much more bargaining power. This results lowering the margin and again the chances of switching the
loyalty or either to quitting the business becomes more.

Since the retailer is small they have very less bargaining power against the company that looks lik
like
giants in front of them. Most of the companies don’t give price protection to them.

Many small accessory are required with a personal computer therefore the retailer has chance to utilise
the impulse buying behaviour, that can be seen very commonly in any retail store, therefore he needs
some products as mouse, pen drives,
drives headphone etc.

Types of customer and Non customers:

To succeed in any business a firm should understand the psycho of customers, they should understand
what is going inside the mind of customer because marketing is a game of brain where heart can also be
combined to see the full scale application of various principle. A customer should be offered a product
that makes him delighted. Every company should understand
derstand why a customer is switching towards the
products of another company. Human psychology tells that it resist change that means humans mind
resist any type of change, therefore we can conclude that customer turning towards other company is
not satisfied
ied with the current offering of company, his requirements as not met. Then a question arises
how one can find what customer wants? The answer to this question is hidden in market research. It
reveals the various attributes of demands by customer and company
ny should align itself and its product in
that direction similar to thinking of customer.
customer For e.g. Sony offers its laptop in different colours whereas
all the products of HCL are in one single colour (with
with different shades of it) but our survey pointed out
that customer is highly conscious about the looks of notebook. When Dell understood this requirement
of customer they introduced XPS series of notebook in various colours. When a company takes such
 type of steps customers think that company is taking care of them and it create a feeling of association
in the customer’s mind.

Now let us talk about noncustomers, these are those people who don’t buy product of our company.
They can be segmented into three tiers first tier is the group of people who are actually our customer but
they are on verge of being lost as they can switch any time to our competitor if this segment is not taken
due care the company is going to lose them at any momentand
and we all know that retaing old customer is
8 times less costly than getting new customer.Therefore company must consider seriously why they are
in first tier.

Third Tier

Second Tier

First Tier
Our customer

The Three Tiers of Noncustomers

First Tier: “Soon-to-be”

be” noncustomers who are on the edge of your market, waiting to jump ship.
Second Tier: “Refusing” noncustomers who consciously choose against your market.
Third Tier: “Unexplored” noncustomers who are in markets distant from yours.

Second Tier are those customer who had never tried our product since they are the refuser
refusers who
consciously choose against our product,
product therefore they are the segment that cannot be convinced as
whatever our offering will be they will surly find some of the other fault in it. They are the most
difficult to convince hence they will eat up most of the resource of company therefore in the favour of
company it is better to leave them.

The third Tier is the most promising segment as they are the unexplored customer distant or far from the
company and they are required to be explored or developed. This is called the market space generation
that is reaching to those segments who have never been offered anything from us. It can be compared
with the Blue Ocean strategy by W. ChanKim Renée Mauborgne who suggested that the blue ocean
has the lowest rivalry resulting a better opportunity for the growth. As it reduces some of the forces in
porter’s model up to substantial degree therefore the growth of company is revitalise. Another benefit is
that we gain a large portion of customer loyalty in favour of us. Chances are there that we can also gain
the first mover advantage.

SWOT ANALYSIS OF
Hindustan
industan Computers Ltd
td

Capable of developing technology and

engineering solutions in both the system and
application software areas
Inadequate marketing skills
Experience in working on large projects
Unsatisfactry After Sales Service
Indian MNC
No Motivational factor for sales employee
Only vendor that provide driver cd with leaptops
Largest service network in India
Cheapest laptop in India

HCL

Microsoft tie-up.
up. brand name
New Entrant
Indian government’s thrust towards
Price War
increased computerization of offices, banks
Competitor has substitute product
PC Penetration is low in India
PC Maker Not PC Manufacturer
 SWOT ANALYSIS OF
G.K.COMMUNICATION

Relationship Less-efficient
efficient Management
Prime Location Costs
Brand Power Low Inventry

G.K.Communication

LAN, Company owned showroom

Internet, Presence of Local Computer
Training, Market(Chandini)
Service Assembled Computer
Conclusion
From the project that I had undergone during my Summer Internship program I can conclude that to
succeed in the business we must not only depend on 4p’s that is Product Price Place and Promotion
but also develop a way to differentiate we must try to develop a new value curve and if this is
achieved the whole exercise to differentiate will give its fruit in term of higher sales. After working
for several weeks I concluded that Retail stores are more vulnerable against the competitor. In this
era of high rivalry it is quite difficult to sustain in the business without havi
having a good and loyal
customer base. Whole responsibility lies in the hands of customers and to keep them on our side it is
necessary to understand the customer. We should try to make a harmonious and a relationship of
trust, when a retailer will be honest towards his customer and try to solve the problem of customer
with an honest feeling to help him he can make a better relationship. Since G.K.Communication is in
retailing of PCs, mobiles, consumer durables, satellite television it had diversified its risk up to some
extent but to survive in PC market that has got a good margin he must try to create personal
relationship with the customers. Abetter relationship is maintained only when he is helping out
customer by providing him at least basic service to the customer such as installation of OS and
various other small issues. This action creates goodwill of retailer in the heart of customer.

From the techno giant HCL it can be concluded that other way to succeed
succeed in the business is to make
the distribution channel very very efficient that each individuals unit can push the product in the
market and ultimately results in a higher sale. By following this strategy HCL had managed to get on
rank two with HP at number
umber one .HCL is also trying to gain the in-depth insight of retailing for the
promotion of its DIGILIFE stores this step of HCL will reduce its dependency on individual retailers
and will also increase its bargaining power over its distribution channel. But this can create a channel
conflict resulting the faith of retailers will go down as they can see HCL itself as threat against them.
A better margin will provide a boost to retailers for selling the product of HCL as much as they can.
The major drawback
ck in HCL’s marketing plan is that do nothing to aware their customer about their
products .HCL’s current position is at number 2 but if they don’t take any action soon they will be
shifted to lower ranks and history proves this, when BSNL was the largest they didn’t thought to
accommodate with the changing business environment and they lost their number one position within
a short span of time and they are now not within the top three
Recommendations
For HCL

 HCL says that it has got a wide network of service centre and they can solve any problem
within six hours but they fails on this commitment, this act make the customer to lose his trust
 HCL should understand that push strategy is not always good but they should try to win the
confidence and heart of customers by providing them value for money.
 Promotional activities are very less therefore they should invest a considerable amount in
advertisement and as a result their brand awareness will be created or will increases
 Brand Image of HCL is very low and it is considered as cheap brand with lower quality.
 HCL is an Indian company and they should design their product according to the customer’s
requirements of India .i.e. reliability should be considered as major attribute as we Indian
like the things that last long
 Most of their products of HCL are standard product whereas now the age of customise
product is coming, its competitors area trying to provide customised products
 HCL should try hard rd to increase its Brand Equity
 HCL should make strategic alliance with several financial organisations that can provide
instalment facilities to the customer as it can be seen from the results of survey that customers
are generally interested buying PC on instalment.
 ISDD (In Store Demonstrator) provided by HCL must be given some type of sales based
incentives and also training so that so that he can be motivated for more selling.
 HCL should create some factors that the industry never offers such as free training about
using the product, as most of customers don’t know how to use the computer this will
definitely creates a brand differentiation or customers can be given subsidise adadmission in
HCL CDC.
 HCL should try to raise at least some attributes of PCs that can be projected as best buy. For
e.g. sound or graphic or any other part of the visible system.
 HCL can come up some new exiting brand name that should sound technical or jazz. This
type of brand name will enable HCL to stand in front of Sony VIAO or DELL’s XPS
 HCL should add a good tag line to its name that can make the association of customer to the
company
For G.K. Communication:

 They should continue the follow up program.

program
 They should start relationship marketing
 Strategic alliance with some local players will improve the network of its customer base.
 They should put some glow sign, banner etc of HCL so that customer can understand that
PCs are also sold here
 They should provide some selling based incentives to motivate the sales boy
 They should keep separate records of stocks available with feature; this will create an exact
idea about the inventory level.
 They should use computer to keep all these records this will increase the image of store in the
eyes of customers
 Leaflets must be distributed several times in a month.
 They should try to reduce the attrition rate of their employee
 Sales girl should also be employed
 It should look like they are selling technology product by making maximum use of modern
technology products, this will increases the value of store and will be considered as the store
up-to-date
date information and chances of making error is least.
 Several time a month they should arrange canopy, and seminars etc
 Reference
Non Electronic sources-
sources
 Book References-

 Philip Kotler, Kevin Lane Keller(2006).Marketing Management.India

Management.India- Dorling
Kindersley Pvt. Ltd.

 ICMR(2005).Business Research Methods.ICFAI Press.

Electronic sources-
 Websites-

 www.google.com (For getting the address of sites)

 www.scribd.com (Documents on branding)

 www.attitudedesign.co.uk(For the articles/journals related to branding)

www.attitudedesign.co.uk(For

 www.ezinearticles.com (For the articles/journals related to marketing)

 www.nasscom.in (For the information related to IT industry)

 www.hcl.in (For the information related to

t HCL)

 E- Articles/Journals -

 The importance of brand image in start-up companies.

 Brand Positioning-
Positioning Brand Image.
Annexure

ABC OF NOTEBOOK

Blue tooth technology: It is used for transmission of data for short distance up to 30 feet in
notebooks

Docking station A cradle for notebook it provides space for extra drives and connections.

PC Card slots A space in a notebook where you can insert credit card
cards accessories such as
modems, network adapters, wireless network adapters, security cards, and memory cards, as
well as connection points for some external disk drives

Port replicator A hardware device that connects the cables (modem, printer, power, and
mouse) that you would otherwise have to be attached one by one to the noteboo
notebook's ports.

Travel weight The total weight of a notebook package

package for computing on the road including the
notebook, transformer, battery, and possibly an adapter module

Universal Serial Bus (USB) An all-purpose

all input/output connector a digital camera, audio player,
memory key, mouse, external drive, or printer.A notebook has one to four USB ports (two are
adequate for most users).

Pointing Devise:: either a touchpad or pointing devise

DVD-Rom/CDRW
Rom/CDRW Combo Drives Slowly being phased out but some budget and business
notebooks. Reads CDs and writes CDs
FORMAT OF THE QUESTIONAIRE HCL Info systems Ltd

4 Floor, 4 Floor, Regency Hotel,6 Hungerford street, Kolkata- 700071

th th

Personal Details:

Name

Age

Sex

Address & phone no.

Email address if available

1. How much you know about computers? Rate yourself on the given scale
If you think you are expert give yourself 5 and if you think you don’t know anything give
yourself1
Expert (5) .............................................................................................................. Know nothing ((1)

2. Are you interested in purchasing Computer?

Compute If yes, then you will be buy
a) Laptop b) Desktop
3. How many hours you uses computer in a week
10 hrs/week b) 20 hrs/week c) greater than 20 but less than 27 hrs/week d) don’t know
4. Internet is used for
a) Online Chatting b) sending and receiving mails c) surfing sport, job and informative sites
5. If you don’t on’t have computer or if you are planning to buy a next computer when you are going
to buy
a) Instantly b) next week c) within a month d) in next 6 months
6. How you can rate HCL in PC vendors as Lenovo, Acer, Compaq in terms of quality of product,
reliability of product etc
a) very good b)good c) neutral d) bad e) worse
7. How you prefer to pay for your new PC
a) Cash b) Personal Loan c) Instalments
8. Major consideration while purchasing computer is
a) Configuration b) Looks c) Price d) all e) whatever
whatever sales person offer
9. After sales service effect your purchase decision
a) Strongly agree b)agree c)neutral d) disagree e) strongly disagree
10. Comment on the role of computer in home
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Thank you for your support. This information will be kept confidential and will be used only
for research purpose.