INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY

A masala is any of the many spice mixes used in Indian cuisine. The name
comes from the Hindi word for spice. Spice mixes are blended spices or herbs.
When a certain combination of herbs or spices is called for in many different
recipes (or in one recipe that is used frequently), it is convenient to blend these
ingredients beforehand. Blends such as chili powder, curry powder, herbs de
Provence, garlic salt, and other seasoned salts are traditionally sold pre-made by
grocers, and sometimes baking blends such as pumpkin pie spice are also
available. These spice mixes are also easily made by the home cook for later use

ABHISHEK PROVISION was small turmeric trader, from a village called

Pusad. He founded ABHISHEK PROVISION in 2003. Now ABHISHEK
PROVISION manufactures over 50 varieties of Pickles, Appalams, ghee and
sunflower oil. ABHISHEK PROVISION gives value addition to the agricultural
product which helps and encourages the farming community to market their
products also generates lot of employment opportunities to the agriculture labours
and rural people. The company employs mostly women and differently able
persons from the rural areas and makes them to lead an honorary life. The
company has bagged with IS/ISO 9001; 2008 certification from Bureau of Indian
standards, New Delhi.

The customers of are the house wives and those who want quick and easy
cooking solution, restaurants, hotels, canteens are the other consumer.
ABHISHEK PROVISION research the houses located in the nook& corner of the
country through its strong marketing network. Success of ABHISHEK
PROVISION in the innovation of manufacturing procedures, as there were no
define machineries for specific production of spice and spice mixes with the
growing experience suitable change were made to suit the requirement that made,
all the difference in manufacturing spice powders and a piece mixes which retains
the aroma and flavor.

"ABHISHEK MASALA" the Queen of spices as the household name among the
millions today, Mr.P.C.DURAISAMY, the Founder of the Company was a small
time turmeric trader, from a village called PUSAD. He found ABHISHEK
PROVISION in 2003 and was doing Turmeric Trading for some time. Later, he
entered into the arena of pure spice powders like Turmeric, Chilli and
Coriander. His inquisitiveness let him to enter into masala world with
dauntless. He encountered a lot of hurdles, since selling masala powders during
those days to the oriental women who are traditionally conservative, was not that
easy. It was the concept selling on "Easy Cooking" rather than marketing food
products. With self -determination and persistent attempts he was able to get into
the kitchens of our country and the rest of the world.

The story may look like a miracle, but the hard work, the pot holes and the bumps
on the way and the stormy inclement weather are known only to him. The person
who stood behind him for all his achievements was his business partner and
understanding life partner Dr.SanthiDuraisamy, the Director of the Company.
 In marketing only project report is not required there must be some
objective or goal because without any goal and objective , no project Report can
be completed in true sense so the main objective of doing this project Report is
confined to completion of some work that is assigned to you for some reason : -

What the subject or papers that is being taught in classroom at Project

program is completely theoretical so during the summer training you can compare
and learn how the marketing activity in an organization varies with theory and
how this theoretical knowledge is being applied in an organization and how much
they are being applicable so its quite helpful to know and understand.

To create the contact with working of an organization and see the

different types of marketing activities. It also helps us to take knowledge about
product distributor promotion and buying behavior. It also helps in knowing how
various tools and techniques are being used

Followings are the objectives of the project-

 To find out the opinion of the customers of ABHISHEK Provision

products.
 To analyze the factors that affects the purchasing patterns of the customer
in ABHISHEK PROVISION products in Coimbatore District.
 To find out the customer satisfaction level of taste, price, quality,
availability, reliable of ABHISHEK Provision products.
 To analyze the most effective media of Advertisement.
 To offer suggestion to improve the customer satisfaction.
Methodology includes the overall research procedures, which are followed in
the research study. This includes Research design, the sampling procedures, and
the data collection method and analysis procedures.

Research Objective

Objective of the report is to learn the facets of marketing and do the monitoring
and counter selling for ABHISHEK PROVISION. Along with I will also work
in the following areas:-

 Market visit for retail shops

 Research on “customer satisfaction”
 Sales & Distribution
 Promotional strategy

Sample Design

A sample design is a definite plan for obtaining a sample from a given

population. It refers to the technique or the procedure the researcher would
adopt in selecting items for the sample. For these investigation

Sample size: -

 For market visit- 100 retail outlet.

 For consumer survey – 100 customers
 Trending- previous 2 year data
Type: Exploratory research design using secondary data analysis

Descriptive research design using survey method

Survey using personal interview (face to face) interview

method

Sources of information: survey by means of structured undisguised and

general face to face interaction with outlet holders and distributers and used

some secondary data

Methods of data collection: - It can be obtained either through direct

communication with respondents in one form or another or through personal
interviews. Questionnaire and interviewing are main weapons to collect
data. There are mainly two types of data –

 Primary Data
 Secondary Data

Primary research entails the use of immediate data in determining the survival
of the market. The popular ways to collect primary data consist of surveys,
interviews and focus groups, which shows that direct relationship between
potential customers and the companies. Whereas secondary research is a means
to reprocess and reuse collected information as an indication for betterments of
the service or product. Both primary and secondary data are useful for
businesses but both may differ from each other in various aspects.

Type of data to collect-

 Categorical
 nominal-observations that can be coded
 ordinal-observations that can be ranked
 Continuous

-Observations that can be counted or measured

 Mixed
 matrix of categorical and continuous data

Following are the ways through which data can be collected

 Observations
 Interviews
 Reports
 Records

Tools of data analysis: - Excel and Well – structured questionnaires might be

referred for data analysis.

TYPE OF RESEARCH METHOD-

Four types of research methods:

 Qualitative-
 Quantitative
 Mixed (qualitative and quantitative)
 Critical and action oriented
 In these report data is collected by means of survey. A format was made for
collecting the data in which important questions was being prepared for

collecting the data e.g. to know the market share of ABHISHEK total demand
existing in the market what’s the share of competitor. consumers preferences
tastes and age group which mainly use the products of ABHISHEK class of
people mainly using ABHISHEK products. What are tools and techniques that
are being used by the company to increase the sales of company?

Field works

For interviewing the retailers & distributors went to each and every shops &
outlets where namkeens Masala and other things of company was sold school,
college, hospital, Dhabas, restaurant of Pusad. Thus I interview about 100
retailers canteen owners and the entire distributor over the entire Pusad. I asked
them to help me in filling the format of questionnaires for collecting data.

MEETING WITH THE DISTRIBUTERS

We have taken prior appointment with the distributors who supplies

ABHISHEK’s products in the various areas of Pusad. We fix our appointment
on different dates with different distributors. The Distributors which we have
covered are:

 Madhur traders
 R.S. Distributors
 Balaji enterprises
 Dhanshree enterprises
 Sanchar System
We have covered these 6 Distributors and work with them in selling &
distribution of ABHISHEK Provisionfor the purpose regarding the retail
penetration of the ABHISHEK’s Western Masala for fulfilment of our project

objective and to know the various aspects of distribution and the pros and cons
of the ABHISHEK’s products.

We met these Distributors and discussed about the following things:

 Which types of Packaging he is supplying in the market?

 How many retailers he is covering?
 Which packaging account highest sales?
 What schemes you are getting and what type of schemes you are offering
to the retailers.
 What is the frequency of reorder?
 What are the profit margin they gets?
 Market penetration of products.
 Storage and transportation issue.
 Replacement they get and provide to the retailers.

PROS AND CONS OF ABHISHEK’S ACCORDING TO THE

DISTRIBUTORS

After taking the interview with distributors there are few pros and cons which
comes to account and which contribute a very important positive and negative
things about the ABHISHEK’s. The various pros and cons of ABHISHEK’s are
as follows:

Pros:

 Quality of ABHISHEK’s is quite good as compared to the other brands

available in the market.
 The Brand equity is high.
 The Price is at par with the other running brands in the markets.
 The weightage of packaging is good
 The Taste is very good.
 Products are available in a large variety.
Cons:

 The profit margins are less

 Company does not give sales person for the distribution.
 The distribution is uneven, not supplying the demanded products on time.
 Very less promotional activities
 No schemes provided.
 No incentives offered to the Distributors.
 The replacement of expired products takes a lot of time.
 The Masala manufactures in different batches taste different from every
batch.
 Irregular supply of SQ’s to the distributers
 Frequent changes in the packaging
 lot of packets without air in the case

SUGGESTIONS GIVEN BY DISTRIBUTORS

After discussing various things with the distributors, they have given few
suggestions how ABHISHEK’s can improve distribution and other important
things to increase the sales and satisfaction level with Distributors and retailers.
There are following suggestions:

 ABHISHEK’s should give sales person support to the distributers

 ABHISHEK’s should improve their promotional strategies to make the

local people more aware of its entire range of its products.

 ABHISHEK’s should provide motivating incentives schemes.

 ABHISHEK’s should replace the expired products and rat cutting also in
less time.

ABHISHEK’s should improve the supply of products from the C&F agents to the
distributors.
 DATA ANALYSIS
The Table Showing Gender of The Respondents

Gender No. Of Respondents Percentage

(%)

Male 25 28

Female 65 72

Total 90 100

The above table shows that 72%(65) of the respondents are female category and the
28%(25) of the respondents male category.

The majority of the respondents 72%(65) are female.

THE CHART SHOWING GENDER OF THE RESPONDENTS

80%
72%
70%

60%

50%

40%
28%
30%

20%

10%

0%
male female
 The Table Showing Occupation Of The Respondents

Occupation No of Respondents Percentages(%)

Students 17 19

Employee 15 17

Business 26 29

House wife 32 35

Total 90 100

The above table showing that 35% (32)of the respondents are house wife and 29%(26) of the
respondents business and 19%(17) of the respondents students and 17%(15) of the
respondents employee.

The most of the respondents 35%(32) are housewife

THE CHART SHOWING OCCUPATION OF THE

RESPONDENTS

40%
35%
35%
29%
30%

25%
19%
20% 17%
15%

10%

5%

0%
Sudent Employee Business House wife
 The Table Showing The Brand Of Masala Product Of The Respondents

Brand Of Masala No.Of Respondents Percentage (%)

Aachi 11 12

Aachi 52 58

Others 27 30

Total 90 100

The above table shows that 58%(52) of the respondents using the Abhishek Provision
product. And the 30% (27) of the respondents using the other masala product. And
12%(11)of the respondents using the Abhishek Provision product.

The majority of the respondents 58%(52) are Abhishek Provision.

The Chart Showing Brand Of Masala Product Of The Respondent

40%

35%
35%
30%
30%
25% 27%

20%

15%

10%

5% 8%

0%
Less than 5000 5001-10000- 10001-20000- Above 20000
The Table Showing the Normaly Buying masala Product of the Respodents

Normally Buying Masala No.OfRespodents Percentage (%)

Product

Grocery Shop 15 17

Departmental Store 50 55

Whole Sale Shop 17 19

All Others 8 9

Total 90 100

The above table shows that 55%(50) of the respondents buying the masala product
department stores category and the19 % (17)of the respondents the purchase of the product
to wholesale shop category and 17%(15) of the respondents the purchase of the product
grocery shop .. And 9% (8)of the respondents the purchase of the product to all others.

The majority of the respondents 55% (50) are buying masala in departmental stores.

The Chart Normally Buyingmasala Product Of The Respondents

60% 55%

50%

40%

30%
19%
20% 17%

9%
10%

0%
Grocery shop Department store Wholesale shop All others
 Absolute sales figures obtained from the survey through retailers may be
inflated.

 The brand level penetration study is limited because the project is only
dealing with Western Masala products and not the entire range of Masala
products available.

 Absolute sales figures for competitor brands obtained from sample space
of retailers are insufficient to draw an analysis of sales performance for
competitor brands.

 Given the time limit and scope of the project Market Penetration of
Abhishek’s Western Masala has not been calculated using the method of
Total Sales to Total Consumer Base. Penetration percentage of
Abhishek’s Western Masala in the study will denote only an estimate of
the availability of the product line in the Retail market.

 Given the time limit and constraints Competitive Analysis does not
include identification of Indirect Competitors (substitutes).

 Interviewer’s judgment is used to fill the questionnaire according to the

responses given by the retailers.
 Company should consider the problems of retailers and canteen’s

owner.

 Company should problems of distributors.

 Resettlement of dispute like non payments and wrong commitment

problems is necessary by another executive.

 Stand should be provided to needy retailers because another

company’s executive creates problem.

 Company should give the stands and racks to each and every

counters where its product is sold.

 Company should prevent the interference of distributor in each

others areas.

 Company should prevent the undercutting in market.

 Company should prevent the wholesale disturbance.

 Company should give the incentives to its executives as extra

benefits after salary.

 Company should listen and care of sales executive.

 Company should recognize the problems in market.

Books-

 PHILIP KOTLER, GARY ARMSTRONG, PRAFULLA Y.

AGNIHOTRI, ESHAN UL Haque 2010. A South Asian Perspective, 13th
Edition.

 Pallant, Julie (2007). SPSS Survival Manual, 3rd edition, Open

University Press, The McGraw-Hill Companies

 Malhotra, N. K. (2004). Marketing research: an applied orientation, 4th

edition, Prentice-Hall International, London

 William G Zikmund, Barry J Babin, Jon C Carr(2009). Business

Research Methods, 8th Edition, South Western Educational Publishing,
United States.
Websites-

 http://www.AbhishekProvision.com
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sampling
 http://www.emeraldinsight.com/
 Dr. Pankaj Madan, Gurukul Kangri, Retail industry: Next growth engine
for Indian Economy. Available from :
http://www.scribd.com/doc/18286308/Retail-Industry
 http://www.indiainbusiness.nic.in/
 http://www.slideshare.com/
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retailing_in_India
 http://www.bizmove.com/general/m6j.htm
 http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/modern-format-stores-
growing-strongly-acnielsen/262342.