Summer Training Report

On
“A STUDY ON CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR
TOWARDS OLA IN LUCKNOW CITY”

For the Partial Fulfillment of Requirement for

The Award of Degree of

BACHELOR OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

(BBA)
Submitted to
SHRI RAM SWAROOP MEMORIAL UNIVERSITY,
LUCKNOW

UNDER GUIDANCE OF: SUBMITTED BY:

Dr. Pragati Malik Harsh Vardhan Singh
Associate Professor Roll no.: 202110702110077
Institute of Management, BBA, 5th Semester
SRMU, Lucknow

SESSION - 2023
 DECLARATION

I, Harsh Vardhan Singh hereby declare that the project topic “A STUDY ON

CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR TOWARDS OLA IN LUCKNOW CITY” has been

personally done by me under the guidance of Dr. Pragati Malik in partial fulfillment

of Graduation Program during academic year-2023-2024. All the information in this

project is true & correct to the best of my knowledge & belief.

This work has not been submitted for any other degree / diploma exam

elsewhere.

Date: -
Place:
Harsh Vardhan Singh
Roll no.: 202110702110077
BBA, 5th Semester

i
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

It is really a matter of pleasure for me to get an opportunity to thank all the

persons who contributed directly or indirectly for the successful completion of the project

report.

First of all I am extremely thankful to my college Shri Ramswaroop Memorial

University, Lucknow for providing me with this opportunity and for all its cooperation

and contribution. I also express my gratitude to my Project mentor and also to my guide

under whom I completed my training schedule Dr. Pragati Malik. I am highly thankful

to my respected project guide for suggesting this topic and I learned a lot under her

valuable guidance and assistance.

I am also grateful to all my faculty members for their valuable guidance and

suggestions for my entire study.

I would also like to thank the Parag Milk Foods team for extending their valuable

time and cooperation.

Harsh Vardhan Singh

Roll no.: 202110702110077
BBA, 5th Semester

ii
 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

For a management student, internship report plays an important role during his

study. Research provides a corporate or real world platform to learn practically. BBA

degree without any research or corporate world experience is just like food without salt.

So research provides a great learning experience about management concepts and its

applications.

This project entitled “A STUDY ON CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR TOWARDS

OLA IN LUCKNOW CITY” aimed at studying the training & development of any

organization is very important functions because these decide the most suitable function

which steers the industry to its desired goals.

This project was undertaken as a part of the curriculum of BBA course, which is

compulsory for each student to have the research in any organization to their respective

specialization, as to gain first-hand knowledge of the organization. This exposure enables

the trainees to learn effective and efficient ways and means to solve the real problems

faced by the organization and also to understand its dynamics.

iii
 CONTENTS

Chapter No. Contents Page No.

1. INTRODUCTION 01 – 16

2. COMPANY PROFILE 17 – 26

3. OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY 27

4. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 28 – 32

5. DATA ANALYSIS & INTERPRETATION 33 – 43

6. FINDINGS 44 – 45

7. RECOMMENDATION & SUGGESTIONS 45

8. LIMITATIONS 45

9. CONCLUSION 46

10. BIBLIOGRAPHY 47

ANNEXURE – QUESTIONNAIRE 48 – 50

iv
 INTRODUCTION
Consumer behavior

Consumer behavior is the study of when, why, how, where and what

people do or do not buy products. It blends elements from psychology,

sociology, social psychology, anthropology and economics. It attempts to

understand the buyer decision making process, both individually and in

groups. It studies characteristics of individual consumers such as

demographics and behavioural variables in an attempt to understand people's

wants. It also tries to assess influences on the consumer from groups such as

family, friends, reference groups, and society in general. Customer

behaviour study is based on consumer buying behaviour, with the customer

playing the three distinct roles of user, payer and buyer. Relationship

marketing is an influential asset for customer behaviour analysis as it has a

keen interest in the re-discovery of the true meaning of marketing through

the re-affirmation of the importance of the customer or buyer. A greater

importance is also placed on consumer retention, customer relationship

management, personalisation, customisation and one-to-one marketing.

Social functions can be categorized into social choice and welfare functions.

Each method for vote counting is assumed as a social function but if

Arrow‟s possibility theorem is used for a social function, social welfare

1
function is achieved. Some specifications of the social functions are

decisiveness, neutrality, anonymity, monotonocity, unanimity, homogeneity

and weak and strong Paretooptimality. No social choice function meets these

requirements in an ordinal scale simultaneously. The most important

characteristic of a social function is identification of the interactive effect of

alternatives and creating a logical relation with the ranks. Marketing

provides services in order to satisfy customers. With that in mind, the

productive system is considered from its beginning at the production level,

to the end of the cycle, the consumer (Kioumarsi et al., 2009).

Belch and Belch define consumer behavior as 'the process and activities

people engage in when searching for, selecting, purchasing, using,

evaluating, and disposing of products and services so as to satisfy their needs

and desires'.

The black box model shows the interaction of stimuli, consumer

characteristics, decision process and consumer responses.[1] It can be

distinguished between interpersonal stimuli (between people) or

intrapersonal stimuli (within people).[2] The black box model is related to the

black box theory of behaviorism, where the focus is not set on the processes

inside a consumer, but the relation between the stimuli and the response of

2
the consumer. The marketing stimuli are planned and processed by the

companies, whereas the environmental stimulus is given by social factors,

based on the economical, political and cultural circumstances of a society.

The buyers black box contains the buyer characteristics and the decision

process, which determines the buyers response.

The black box model considers the buyers response as a result of a

conscious, rational decision process, in which it is assumed that the buyer

has recognized the problem. However, in reality many decisions are not

made in awareness of a determined problem by the consumer.

Information search

Once the consumer has recognised a problem, they search for information on

products and services that can solve that problem. Belch and Belch (2007)

explain that consumers undertake both an internal (memory) and an external

search.

Sources of information include:

 Personal sources

 Commercial sources

 Public sources

 Personal experience

3
The relevant internal psychological process that is associated with

information search is perception. Perception is defined as 'the process by

which an individual receives, selects, organises, and interprets information

to create a meaningful picture of the world'

The selective perception process

Stage Description

- Selective exposure consumers select which promotional messages

they will expose themselves to.

- Selective attention consumers select which promotional messages

they will pay attention to

- Selective comprehension consumer interpret messages in line with

their beliefs, attitudes, motives and experiences

- Selective retention consumers remember messages that are more

meaningful or important to them

The implications of this process help develop an effective promotional

strategy, and select which sources of information are more effective for the

brand.

4
INFORMATION EVALUATION

At this time the consumer compares the brands and products that are in their

evoked set. How can the marketing organization increase the likelihood that

their brand is part of the consumer's evoked (consideration) set? Consumers

evaluate alternatives in terms of the functional and psychological benefits

that they offer. The marketing organization needs to understand what

benefits consumers are seeking and therefore which attributes are most

important in terms of making a decision.

Purchase decision

Once the alternatives have been evaluated, the consumer is ready to make a

purchase decision. Sometimes purchase intention does not result in an actual

purchase. The marketing organization must facilitate the consumer to act on

their purchase intention. The provision of credit or payment terms may

encourage purchase, or a sales promotion such as the opportunity to receive

a premium or enter a competition may provide an incentive to buy now. The

relevant internal psychological process that is associated with purchase

decision is integration.

Post purchase evaluation

The EKB model was further developed by Rice (1993) which suggested

there should be a feedback loop, Foxall (2005) further suggests the

5
importance of the post purchase evaluation and that the post purchase

evaluation is key due to its influences on future purchase patterns.

BUYING

Buying in have several meanings:

 In the securities market it refers to a process by which the buyer of

securities, whose seller fails to deliver the securities contracted for,

can 'buy in' the securities from a third party with the defaulting seller

to make good.

 In poker it signifies the up-front payment required to participate in a

given game or tournament.

 In management and decision making, buy-in (as a verb or noun)

signifies the commitment of interested or affected parties to a decision

(often called stakeholders) to 'buy in' to the decision, that is, to agree

to give it support, often by having been involved in its formulation.

Securities market use

On the English stock exchange, a transaction by which, if a member has sold

securities which he fails to deliver on settling day, or any of the succeeding

ten days following the settlement, the buyer may give instructions to a stock

exchange official to "buy in" the stock required. The official announces the

6
quantity of stock, and the purpose for which he requires it, and whoever sells

the stock must be prepared to deliver it immediately. The original seller has

to pay the difference between the two prices, if the latter is higher than the

original contract price. A similar practice, termed "selling out," prevails

when a purchaser fails to take up his securities.The practice is not limited to

the UK Stock Exchange but is found in various forms on most stock

exchanges. The rules vary according to the local regulations, and the party

which fails to deliver is usually penalised and may even be suspended.

Alternatives to short selling available on the SGX:

1. Borrow the share and proceed to sell a stock.

2. Buy a put warrant

3. Short a CFD.

4. Sell a Single Stock Future (SSF) in the futures market.

MANAGEMENT

The process of lobbying for support for part of the influential group before

suggesting an idea, arguing a case or submitting a report.

In the sports world, buying in is a significant aspect of players/participants

accepting goals and direction from a coach, leader or program. "Buying in"

becomes synonymous with commitment and dedication. In the Spring of

7
2007, two film makers, Tim Breitbach (Dopamine) and Ralph Barhydt,

started producing a film entitled, "Buying In" that explores the social issues

of buying in based on the success of the boys' and girls' high school

basketball teams at The Branson School, in Ross, California, who each won

the State Championship in their division in 2007.

Purpose

A business Outlook Magazine carlly is continually seeking feedback to

improve Customer Behavior.

"Customer Behavior provides a leading indicator of consumer purchase

intentions and loyalty." "Customer Behavior data are among the most

frequently collected indicators of market perceptions. Their principal use is

twofold:"

1. "Within organizations, the collection, analysis and dissemination of

these data send a message about the importance of tending to

8
 customers and ensuring that they have a positive experience with

the company's goods and services."

2. "Although sales or market share can indicate how well a firm is

performing currently, satisfaction is perhaps the best indicator of

how likely it is that the firm’s customers will make further

purchases in the future. Much research has focused on the

relationship between Customer Behavior and retention. Studies

indicate that the ramifications of satisfaction are most strongly

realized at the extremes."

On a five-point scale, "individuals who rate their satisfaction level as '5' are

likely to become return customers and might even evangelize for the firm.

(A second important metric related to satisfaction is willingness to

recommend. This metric is defined as "The percentage of surveyed

customers who indicate that they would recommend a brand to friends."

When a customer is satisfied with a product, he or she might recommend it

to friends, relatives and colleagues. This can be a powerful marketing

advantage.) "Individuals who rate their satisfaction level as '1,' by contrast,

are unlikely to return. Further, they can hurt the firm by making negative

9
comments about it to prospective customers. Willingness to recommend is a

key metric relating to Customer Behavior."

Theoretical Ground

"In literature antecedents of satisfaction are studied from different aspects.

The considerations extend from psychological to physical and from

normative to positive aspects. However, in most of the cases the

consideration is focused on two basic constructs as customers expectations

prior to purchase or use of a product and his relative perception of the

performance of that product after using it.

Expectations of a customer on a product tell us his anticipated performance

for that product. As it is suggested in the literature, consumers may have

various "types" of expectations when forming opinions about a product's

anticipated performance. For example, four types of expectations are

identified by Miller (1977): Outlook Magazine carl, expected, minimum

tolerable, and desirable. While, Day (1977) indicated among expectations,

the ones that are about the costs, the product nature, the efforts in obtaining

benefits and lastly expectations of social values. Perceived product

performance is considered as an important construct due to its ability to

allow making comparisons with the expectations.

10
It is considered that customers judge products on a limited set of norms and

attributes. Olshavsky and Miller (1972) and Olson and Dover (1976)

designed their researches as to manipulate actual product performance, and

their aim was to find out how perceived performance ratings were influenced

by expectations. These studies took out the discussions about explaining the

differences between expectations and perceived performance."

The Disconfirmation Model

"The Disconfirmation Model is based on the comparison of customers‟

[expectations] and their [perceived performance] ratings. Specifically, an

individual‟s expectations are confirmed when a product performs as

expected. It is negatively confirmed when a product performs more poorly

than expected. The disconfirmation is positive when a product performs over

the expectations (Churchill & Suprenant 1982). There are four constructs to

describe the traditional disconfirmation paradigm mentioned as expectations,

performance, disconfirmation and satisfaction." [3] "Satisfaction is

considered as an outcome of purchase and use, resulting from the buyers‟

comparison of expected rewards and incurred costs of the purchase in

relation to the anticipated consequences. In operation, satisfaction is

somehow similar to attitude as it can be evaluated as the sum of satisfactions

11
with some features of product." "In the literature, cognitive and affective

models of satisfaction are also developed and considered as alternatives

(Pfaff, 1977). Churchill and Suprenant in 1982, evaluated various studies in

the literature and formed an overview of Disconfirmation process in the

following figure:"

Customer Behavior measured

Organizations need to retain existing customers while targeting non-

customers. Measuring Customer Behavior provides an indication of how

successful the organization is at providing products and/or services to the

marketplace.

"Customer Behavior is measured at the individual level, but it is almost

always reported at an aggregate level. It can be, and often is, measured along

various dimensions. A hotel, for example, might ask customers to rate their

experience with its front desk and check-in service, with the room, with the

amenities in the room, with the restaurants, and so on. Additionally, in a

holistic sense, the hotel might ask about overall satisfaction 'with your stay.'"

As research on consumption experiences grows, evidence suggests that

consumers purchase goods and services for a combination of two types of

benefits: hedonic and utilitarian. Hedonic benefits are associated with the

12
sensory and experiential attributes of the product. Utilitarian benefits of a

product are associated with the more instrumental and functional attributes

of the product (Batra and Athola 1990).

Customer Behavior is an ambiguous and abstract concept and the actual

manifestation of the state of satisfaction will vary from person to person and

product/service to product/service. The state of satisfaction depends on a

number of both psychological and physical variables which correlate with

satisfaction behaviors such as return and recommend rate. The level of

satisfaction can also vary depending on other options the customer may have

and other products against which the customer can compare the

organization's products.

Work done by Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry (Leonard L) between 1985

and 1988 provides the basis for the measurement of Customer Behavior with

a service by using the gap between the customer's expectation of

performance and their perceived experience of performance. This provides

the measurer with a satisfaction "gap" which is objective and quantitative in

nature. Work done by Cronin and Taylor propose the

"confirmation/disconfirmation" theory of combining the "gap" described by

Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry as two different measures (perception and

13
expectation of performance) into a single measurement of performance

according to expectation.

The usual measures of Customer Behavior involve a survey from software

providers such as Confirmit, Medallia and Satmetrix[8] with a set of

statements using a Likert Technique or scale. The customer is asked to

evaluate each statement and in term of their perception and expectation of

performance of the organization being measured. Their satisfaction is

generally measured on a five-point scale.

"Customer Behavior data can also be collected on a 10-point scale."

"Regardless of the scale used, the objective is to measure customers‟

perceived satisfaction with their experience of a firm‟s offerings." It is

essential for firms to effectively manage Customer Behavior. To be able do

this, we need accurate measurement of satisfaction.

Good quality measures need to have high satisfaction loadings, good

reliability, and low error variances. In an empirical study comparing

commonly used satisfaction measures it was found that two multi-

14
item semantic differential scales performed best across both hedonic and

utilitarian service consumption contexts. According to studies by Wirtz &

Lee (2003), they identified a six-item 7-point semantic differential scale (for

example, Oliver and Swan 1983), which is a six-item 7-point bipolar scale,

that consistently performed best across both hedonic and utilitarian services.

It loaded most highly on satisfaction, had the highest item reliability, and

had by far the lowest error variance across both studies. In the study, the six

items asked respondents‟ evaluation of their most recent experience with

ATM services and ice cream restaurant, along seven points within these six

items: “pleased me to displeased me”, “contented with to disgusted with”,

“very satisfied with to very dissatisfied with”, “did a good job for me to did

a poor job for me”, “wise choice to poor choice” and “happy with

to unhappy with”.

A semantic differential (4 items) scale (e.g., Eroglu and Machleit

1990), which is a four-item 7-point bipolar scale, was the second best

performing measure, which was again consistent across both contexts. In the

study, respondents were asked to evaluate their experience with both

products, along seven points within these four items:

“satisfied to dissatisfied”, “favorable to unfavorable”,

“pleasant to unpleasant” and “I like it very much to I didn‟t like it at all”.

15
The third best scale was single-item percentage measure, a one-item 7-point

bipolar scale (e.g., Westbrook 1980). Again, the respondents were asked to

evaluate their experience on both ATM services and ice cream restaurants,

along seven points within “delighted to terrible”.

It seems that dependent on a trade-off between length of the questionnaire

and quality of satisfaction measure, these scales seem to be good options for

measuring Customer Behavior in academic and applied studies research

alike. All other measures tested consistently performed worse than the top

three measures, and/or their performance varied significantly across the two

service contexts in their study. These results suggest that more careful

pretesting would be prudent should these measures be used.

Finally, all measures captured both affective and cognitive aspects of

satisfaction, independent of their scale anchors. Affective measures capture a

consumer‟s attitude (liking/disliking) towards a product, which can result

from any product information or experience. On the other hand, cognitive

element is defined as an appraisal or conclusion on how the product‟s

performance compared against expectations (or exceeded or fell short of

expectations), was useful (or not useful), fit the situation (or did not fit),

exceeded the requirements of the situation (or did not exceed).

16
 COMPANY PROFILE

OLA – Company profile:

Ola initially started off as Olatrip.com a small website venture that offered weekend trip

packages. It was started as astartup business by two IIT Mumbai graduates Bhavish

Aggarwal and Ankit Bhati. Bhavish worked for Microsoft after college for almost two

years and then started a small website to sell online tour packages. Due to a bad

experience during a car rental situation they decided to mend the system of car rental and

this became the basis for the initiation of olacabs. Olacabs are now referred as Ola. Ola is

a Spanish term which means hello! This indicates that hiring a cab at Ola as well as the

services provided are easy and friendly as conveying hello. Ola cabs were founded on 3

December 2010 by Bhavish Aggarwal and Ankit Bhati. Initially Ola operated from

Mumbai as a taxi aggregator service. Now it has shifted its head office at Bengaluru and

works efficiently from there. Since Ola received its first investment there has been no

17
looking backward for this initiative venture. Until the year 2014, the company had

expanded to a widely distributed network which comprised of 200,000 cars across 85

cities. These 85 cities include all the metropolitan cities and various important cities in it.

During November 2014, along with car rental scheme Ola also tried to incorporate autos

on trial basis in Bengaluru. After its success there it initiated the same idea in Delhi, Pune

and Chennai by December 2014. In the year 2015 Ola also started its auto services in

Chandigarh, Indore and Jaipur. In March 2016, Ola started its two wheeler services in

Bengaluru as a trial venture. Until September 2015 Ola was valued at around $5 billion

market. Taxi for sure as acquired by ola in march 2015 for $200 million. The company

averages a total of about 150,000 bookings per day and has the highest market share in

India of 60%.

Swot Analysis:

A brief idea about the position of the company in the market can be estimated from the

SWOT analysis which indicates the respective strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and

threats faced by the company.

Strengths:

1. Ola is first of its kind taxi aggregator service provider in the country.

2. It achieved the no.1 rank in the sector after acquiring Taxi for sure.

3. The services offered by ola are well appreciated by the public

4. TV, online and print media marketing has helped to create awareness about the

company.

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5. Increase in customer base due to strong network effect.

6. Financial condition of the company has improved after investments by various firms.

Weaknesses:

1. Brand image can be easily influenced by the misbehavior of the drivers as they are

the ne in direct contact with the customers.

2. Monetization becomes difficult due to the demand.

Opportunities:

1. There is a huge potential for the company to penetrate deep into the market as the

unorganized market hold almost 85% of the segment.

2. As Ola coordinates through the smart phone app, increase in number of smart phone

users provides them with a great platform to increase their customer base.

3. Disposable income can be increased.

4. Convenient services create huge demand among customers.

5. Acquisition of smaller company of the market.

Threats:

1. Increasing competition.

2. Heavy usage of cash to attract customer due to strong financial root of Uber.

3. Presence of competitors at the national level.

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4. No specific regulatory body of the government.

5. Customer loyalty is rare in this segment.

The History of Ola:

Ola translates to „Hello‟ in Spanish. Probably to indicate that their services are as easy

and friendly as that, just like saying a „hello‟.

Perhaps every story of an entrepreneur starts off with a “bad”5 experience. First of all to

people who may not know, Bhavish Aggarwal and Ankit Bhati, the founders of Olacabs,

are two Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay graduates. Engineers are good at

engineering and can be good businessmen too, especially if they come from IIT6 !

Bhavish worked for Microsoft after college for two years and then left Microsoft and

started an online company to sell short duration tours and holidays online. While running

that business for a couple of months, he took a car rental from Bangalore to Bandipur and

had a very bad experience.

This is what happened - The driver stopped the car in the middle of the journey and

demanded a renegotiation of what Bhavish was paying. After being refused, he proceeded

to abandon him en-route his destination. This is when he realized how his plight was

probably similar to a lot of customers across the country who were looking for a quality

cab service, but ended up with a one that stood them up, arrived and dropped them off

late7 or did not stick to their promises, and came with drivers that were nightmares

behind wheels. For the first time, he saw the amount of potential that a cab booking

service could have, and hence, he changed his business from the earlier mentioned start-

up to the one we today know as – OlaCabs. This was in December 2010, where he was
20
joined by his co-founder Ankit Bhati in his start-up journey. His parents didn‟t agree with

his idea in the beginning of course, like all Indian Parents won‟t. They were thoroughly

displeased with his decision to become a „travel agent‟, but when OlaCabs received its

first round of funding from two angel investors, they started to believe in the change he

was planning to bring (Santosh, 2015).

Ola is now handling around 1.5 lakh booking requests per day which translates into

around 40 lakh for a full month (factoring in a few low days). With the average ticket size

(gross transaction value of ride) being Rs 320-400, it is doing Rs 130-160 crore in gross

transaction value a month, which means on an annualised basis it is on a run rate of $250-

300 million. Ola, is now planning to add on-demand auto rickshaw booking facility to its

platform, and is running a pilot with around 300 three-wheelers in Bangalore (Abudheen,

2014)

Market Share of OLA and Competition:

As previously mentioned Ola has a market share potential of 60% in India. The

other contenders in the market which fall under the organized segment include

Taxiforsure(14%), meru cabs(16%), uber(5%) and others(5%). Taxiforsure was acquired

by Ola which further increases its market share to about 74%

Being a part of the organized taxi market in the country which has the maximum

potential for growth in near future, it then becomes a fact that Ola is indeed faced by

many competitions in this sector. The major competitor of Ola is Uber. Meru and other

are not well designated competitors as the price criteria offered by Ola and the range of

car available for rent is far better and well accepted by the customer. Uber being at a

21
position of 5% market share holds tough competition for Ola as the future prospects of

Uber are to penetrate deep into the Indian market with an investment of over $400

million to take on Ola.

22
The New Concept of “Taxi Aggregator”

The aggregator or “marketplace model”4 is new in India and until now there has been a

lack of clarity about whether operators such as Uber, Ola and TaxiForSure are radio taxi

or just an aggregator. This came into sharp focus especially with the ban on Uber services

when a woman in Delhi, who used the Uber Company‟s app to hire a taxi, was allegedly

raped by the driver. Uber may face lesser liability if it is treated as a taxi aggregator and a

greater liability if it is treated as radio taxi (Vijayakumar, 2014). What or, who then, is a

taxi aggregator? The central government, vide its budget 2015-16 has now clearly

defined the term aggregator:

“Aggregator means a person, who owns and manages a Web-based software application,

and by means of the application and a communication device, enables a potential

23
customer to connect with persons providing service of a particular kind under the brand

name or trade name of the aggregator;” (Shah, 2015).

In the budget, the government has also clearly stated that if the aggregator does not have

a physical presence in the taxable territory, any person representing the aggregator for

any purpose in the taxable territory shall be liable for paying service tax.

The budget also stated that if the aggregator does not have a physical presence or does

not have a representative for any purpose in the taxable territory, the aggregator shall

appoint a person in the taxable territory for the purpose of paying service tax, and such

person shall be liable for paying service tax (Verma & Dalal, 2015).

Indian taxi market is estimated to be around $8 billion (Rs 48,000 crore) right now, out of

which only 5% is being managed under organized sector; which means that the market is

wide open right now. It is being projected that in the next 5 years, organized players such

as Uber, Meru and Ola will capture 15% of this market, which is growing at an

astounding rate of 45% per year (Ghosh, 2015).

Taxi space (market) in India is seeing a phenomenal growth in the past six years. $400

million (Rs 2400 cr) of venture capital (VC) is pumped in the last four years (2010-2014)

(Utkarsh, 2014). The major player in the taxi aggregator space is Olacabs and is

threatened by the coming of Uber. These taxi aggregator companies don‟t own cars or

even employ drivers; they simply connect users with drivers, using technology. They are

not into inventory but technology-driven marketplace business model and will make

money (not yet, though!) and how?

24
How is Ola superior to other aggregator taxi service?

Establishing a number 1 position in the taxi market and maintaining it indicates that Ola

has services to offer to the market which are better than other service providers from the

same segment.

Ola is different from other aggregator service provider or other segments in the way that

they themselves are the marketplace. This is because they list the rates and cars in their

system. This leads to price transparency and enables them to achieve customer trust.

Another feature that makes Ola superior is that they do not limit their services to the city

boundary. They offer car rental facility for outstation trips as well. Also, the ride later

option available with Ola makes it more customer friendly service. Ola also takes into

account the safety of the customer and thus has a 24*7 customer care service. The

attractive price package and variety in the fleet of cars target the moderate income

segment which increases their customer base. The GPs tracker in all the cabs to monitor

the activity of the vehicle and high visibility in terms of logo contribute in the success of

25
the cab company.

Business model:

Ola taxicabs go about as a facilitator in giving taxicab booking administrations to clients

through numerous channels. Prior, clients could book their taxicabs through the site, call

center or the application. But later on Ola reconsidered their methodology and made

appointments just through the application. The drivers have an adaptability to choose

their own particular time to login to OLA Application and acknowledge demands for

rides from clients. They may remain logged out of the framework according to their

need. The source of income for OLA is the commission for every drive and the costs they

bring about are additionally low as they significantly need to contribute just on the

technological innovation.

Ola has turned out to be an awesome innovation stage for transportation and offers

simple alternatives of booking a taxi through an application and offers adaptability to the

driver as far as readiness to work. The individuals who work more get incentives. These

companies don‟t own cars nor do they employ the drivers, they simply connect with the

drivers through the application. They are the technology driven market place. The

company thus began to grow at a speed of light due to accomplishment of ahead of its

time strategies.

Promotional and marketing strategy of Ola:

At Ola the strategy was to leave no stone unturned. They at Ola did everything

from attending the calls of the customer to providing driving facility to desired

26
destination. All this was done to sustain the market leadership in their hands. To achieve

this various strategies and promotional activities were adopted by the company. Some of

them are discussed below.

EMPOWERING THE DRIVERS:

They offered micro entrepreneurship for the drivers by helping the drivers buy their own

cars at huge discounts and affordable repayment scheme as they collaborated with

leading car manufacturers.

OLA MINI:

One of the most successful marketing campaign launched by Ola is OLA MINI.

The feature f this strategy was that the price of this service was equal to the auto fares.

The idea worked well and got accepted by the public when they offered cab rides at auto

fare price on auto strike days in 2012 and 2013. Because Ola Cabs are having deep

pocketed investors and can burn money such services can be launched to cater the dire

needs.

STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP WITH MAKE MY TRIP:

In the year 2013, la cabs launched its partnership with make my trip. Under this

partnership the customers of make my trip would receive rental car facility for pick up

and drop at desired destination. This move by Ola helped acquire large customer base as

people became more aware about the brand.

27
TREATING CUSTOMER WITH CARE:

Customer is at the centre in marketing. The main purpose of all these promotional

activities is to build customer loyalty. Thus when it comes to taking care of the customer,

Ola leaves n stone unturned. Ola makes sure that all the customers who use the service of

Ola are well satisfied. If at all any mistake occurs by the system Ola makes sure to

provide extra credit to the customer‟s account and also apologize for that matter. In this

way it makes sure that the customer base developed should not be hampered.

ADVERTISING PARTNERSHIP WITH TVF:

Ola has created partnership with TVF (The viral Fever) which is an Indian online

web series platform. TVF has a strong fan base and Ola has tried to take advantage of

this situation. Ola gets to acquire customers from TVFs existing fan base while on the

other hand even TVF gets to reach out to Ola‟s customers.

OLA BOATS DURING CHENNAI FLOODS:

During Chennai floods when people were stuck in their offices or other areas Ola

had launched its ferry service. Ola had developed this service so as to help stranded

people reach home and also to deliver essential material including food, water, etc. The

ferries had professional rowers. Each ferry could accommodate 5 to 9 people per trip.

The start up by Ola was initially meant to be for three days but later they agreed to

provide the service as per the demand of the situation. The start-up came up for much

praise on social networks with one

Twitter user cheekily describing the service as “uber cool”.

28
ECONOMIC STRATEGY:

Ola focuses on target marketing by segregating its fleet into different models

which are suitable for the demand of the customer and also fits their budget.

This includes Ola mini, Ola sedan, Ola micro, Ola prime, Ola pink, carpooling for

corporate, etc. Ola micro offers a base fare of rupees 40 with charges of rupees 6 per km.

whereas Ola sedan and mini have different package ranging between rupees 80 to 100

base fare. These are suitable for customers planning long distance journey. Ola pink

focuses on women safety and is introduced for the women. The revenue through all this

is created by supplying large volume services by the adoption of this fee tiered system.

People prefer it even more because ola offers the lowest price rate compared to all other

taxi aggregators.

SOCIAL MEDIA:

These include other means of promotion used by Ola to promote the brand in the

market. Ola cabs have used channels such as banner ads, newspaper ads, television ads

on a large scale as well as online marketing channel on Facebook, twitter as a part of its

campaign.

From the online marketing tool Ola chose Facebook to run its first campaign as

the number of users is high over it. It enabled Ola to target right people at the correct

time. The campaign over Facebook which was termed as the #chaloniklo campaign was a

huge success. Various video ads featured content of #chaloniklo over Facebook including

call to action by which people would be propelled to download Ola app. It increased the

popularity of Ola apps.With Facebook campaign, the consumer acquisition rate increased

29
and searches concerning Ola cabs also increased, sales boost up by 60% as a result.

Henceforth, Ola picked Facebook over other advanced media implies in light of

the fact that it has biggest client base crosswise over India. The focused on crusade

setting makes it more reachable and gives organizations an exceptional yield on venture.

Be that as it may, with FB advertising, application clients expanded, the organization

started getting greatest booking therefore. Remarketing focused on the individuals who

may have viewed the first campaign called #Chaloniklo.

THE PRESENT GROWTH

And with the help of such ahead of its time & long term strategies, the company

began to grow at the speed of light.

By 2014, the company was now pocketing a network of more than 200,000 cars

across 100 cities. Additionally, it was also clocking an average of more than

30
150,000 bookings per day and also was now sitting on 60% of the market share in

India.

Soon the company also brought about some huge developments which again,

benefited them greatly. Some of these included: –

They launched their Ola Mini service in Bangalore & consecutively in Delhi

(NCR) with a fleet over 250 cars and were also in preparations to grow to 800 by

2015. Their offer again was pretty unique and luring. They had started with a

introductory price of Rs12/km with a base price of Rs.150 for the first six

kilometres, making them the cheapest AC cab services available.

Next, by the end of the year, Ola also expanded to incorporate autos in Bangalore

and also expanded this service to other cities like Delhi, Pune and Chennai.

Later, they announced their biggest news so far. OlaCabs bought TaxiForSure or

TFS in March 2015 for about $200 million. Although, this wasn’t their initial

plan. Their initial purpose was to fill in their huge requirement of drivers and

hence, they had first tried to attract their drivers by paying them some Initial

Bonus + Attachment Devices Free of Cost, but since they failed, they had to buy

the company to maintain their stable growth.

Additionally, Ola who so far only had worked with Drivers, had now also begun

working with the cab operators after the acquisition.

With this acquisition in place; they also launched “Cashless Rides” which not only

worked with the cabs on their network, but was also extended to “Auto rickshaws

and Kaali-Peeli taxis” as well!

31
And lastly, Ola recently has launched “Ola Cafe”. In simple terms, through this

service one can order food, grocery, vegetables etc., and get it delivered to their

households.

And when you look at Ola today, it has gone on to become India’s most popular

mobile app for cab booking, out-beating their competitors like Uber. To add to

that, they are also the largest platform with 40,000+ cars across almost 100 cities

(2015) and growing.

Talking about their funding; Ola has raised a total of $676.8 Million so far from

investors like SoftBank, ABG Capital, Accel Partners, Mauritius Investments,

Tiger Global Management, Matrix Partners, Steadview Capital, Sequoia Capital

and DST Global. Their current valuation is roughly $3.5 Billion.

Competition

As already mentioned, Ola has 60% market share in India, the other players in organised

taxi sector being (with Market share shown in parenthesis), Taxi for Sure (14%), Meru

(16%), Uber (5%) and others (5%) (Business Standard Reporter, 2015). Taxi for Sure

was acquired by Ola (mind you, acquisition is not merger!) for $200 million i.e., Rs 1200

crore in March 2015 (Business Standard Reporter, 2015).

Why should Uber, with just 5% market share, be a competitor to Ola?! This is because

Uber8 is a San Francisco based taxi aggregator valued at $40 bn as compared Ola

valuation of $2.5 bn. Uber has a war chest of $1.5 billion for international expansion and

has committed $400 million to grow and expand its services in India; according to some

estimates, Uber is likely to plough in as much as one billion $ in India in this year 2015 to

32
take on Ola. The money will be used to improve the operations, expand into newer cities,

develop payment solutions and establish a robust support network according to Amit jain,

President, Uber India (Team VCC, 2015).

The relevant question, therefore would be, how is Ola responding the challenge? What is

the strategy of Ola?

Making all the difference

Ola driver can never refuse service to a customer. When the driver wants to take a break,

he has the freedom to turn off the GPS tracker. But, once the booking is made, he cannot

back-out. Similarly, Ola, as a policy, does not ask where a customer wants to get

dropped. Be it 100 meters or 100 kilometers, our goal is to ensure that the customer‟s

journey from point A to point B is an experience by itself, and has nothing to do with

how far he/she is travelling.

To help maintain its service quality, the company has put in place quite a few criteria to

bring an operator or driver on board. As a first, the Olacabs team holds an operational and

functional level audit to assess if the car is worthy of being on the road. Secondly, it

holds a training session for the drivers, to bring them up to its standards. Thirdly, the Ola

team conducts planned and surprise audits from time-to-time, to ensure that the service is

being delivered as per the company‟s expectations.

FINANCIAL PLAN

Funding

It raised $330k in its initial round of funding on April 21, 2011. The company

received Series A funding of $5 million from Tiger Global Management; Series B

33
funding of USD 20 million from Matrix Partners and Tiger Global; Series C funding of

$41.5 million from Steadview Capital, Sequoia Capital and its existing investors. In

Series D round of funding on Oct 25, 2014, it raised $210 million from SoftBank Internet

and Media Inc. and its existing investors. It is back in process to scoop between $300-500

million morein its series E funding.

REVENUE

For 2013-14, ANI Technologies, which runs Ola Cabs, reported a 50 per cent jump in net

loss at Rs 34.21 crore, against Rs 22.80 crore in 2012-13, according to filings with the

Registrar of Companies (RoC).

In terms of revenue, Ola Cabs, backed by private equity funds Tiger Global and Matrix

Partners, has reported solid growth. Its Rs 51-crore revenue in 2013-14 was 219 per cent

higher thanRs 16 crore the previous financial year.

34
 OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

 To study on Consumer Behaviour towards OLA Cab.

 To study about OLA cabs and its services provided in India.

 To study whether demographic has any significance.

 To study whether OLA is only preferred by traveler.

35
 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This chapter describes methodology of the study. This project is based on

information collected from primary data sources. After a detailed study, an

attempt has been made to present comprehensive analysis of customer‟s

perception towards OLA traveler products. The has been used to cover

various aspect such as customer‟s perception, preference and behavior

towards traveler offering of OLA.

1. Formulating the research problem – A research is a framework or

blueprint for concluding market research project. There are two types of

research, viz., those which related to state of nature and those which are

related to relationships between variables. At the very outset the researcher

must single out the problem, he wants to study. Initially the problem may be

stated in a board general way and then ambiguities must be worked upon.

The formulation of general topic into a specific research problem thus

constitute the first step in a scientific approach. Mainly two steps are

involved in formulating the research problem, viz. understanding the

problem thoroughly and rephrasing the same into meaningful terms from an

analytics point of view.

2. Preparation of research design – after formulating the research problem

the researcher is required to prepare a research design, i.e. he will have to

36
state the conceptual structure within which research would be concluded.

The main function of research design is to provide collection relevant

evidence with minimum expenditure of efforts, time and money. But

achievement of all these depend on the research objective. Research

purpose may be grouped into four categories, viz.

a) Exploratory

b) Descriptive

c) Causal

In this project the research purpose applied is Descriptive.

Descriptive research - Descriptive research is used to describe

characteristics of a population or phenomenon being studied. It does not

answer questions about how/when/why the characteristics occurred. Rather

it addresses the "what" question (what are the characteristics of the

population or situation being studied?). The characteristics used to describe

the situation or populations are usually some kind of categorical scheme also

known as descriptive categories. For example, the periodic table categorizes

the elements. Scientists use knowledge about the nature of electrons, protons

and neutrons to devise this categorical scheme. We now take for granted the

periodic table, yet it took descriptive research to devise it. Descriptive

research generally precedes explanatory research. For example, over time

37
 the periodic table‟s description of the elements allowed scientists to explain

chemical reaction and make sound prediction when elements were

combined.

Hence, descriptive research cannot describe what caused a situation. Thus,

descriptive research cannot be used to as the basis of a causal relationship,

where one variable affects another. In other words, descriptive research can

be said to have a low requirement for internal validity.

The description is used for frequencies, averages and other statistical

calculations. Often the best approach, prior to writing descriptive research, is

to conduct a survey investigation. Qualitative research often has the aim of

description and researchers may follow-up with examinations of why the

observations exist and what the implications of the findings are.

3. Determining sample design – All items under consideration in any field of

inquiry constitute a „universe‟ or „population‟. A complete enumeration of

all those items in the population is known as a census inquires. It can be

presumed that in such a enquiry when all the items are covered no element

of chance is left and highest accuracy is obtained. Besides, this type of

inquiry involves a great deal of time, money and energy. Not only is this

census inquiry not practically possible under many circumstances. Hence,

38
 quite often we select only the few items from the universe for our study

purpose. The item so selected constitutes what is technically called a sample.

The researcher must decide the way of selecting a sample or what is

popularly known as the sample design. Sample design is mainly done

through various methods.

Sample size – This refers to the number of items or respondent to be

selected from the universe to constitute a sample. The size of sample should

neither be excessively large nor too small. It should be optimum. Here in this

survey sample of 50 people was taken on the basis of simple random.

In this project the sample collection is done through random sampling

technique.

Simple random – The principle of simple random technique is that every

object has the same possibility to be chosen. A simple random sample is

subset to individuals (a sample) chosen from a large set (a population). Each

individual is chose randomly and entirely by chance, such that each

individual has the same probability of being chosen at any stage during the

sampling process and each subset o k individuals. A simple random sample

is an unbiased surveying technique

4. Data collection – The data can be collected by two methods namely:

39
Primary data – primary data is one which is collected by investigator itself

for the purpose of a specific enquiry. Such data is original in character and is

generated by survey conducted by individuals or research institutions.

Secondary data – secondary data are all those which are already been

collected by someone else and which have already been passed through the

statistical process.

In this project the data is collection is done from primary source.

In dealing with any real problem it is often found that data and hand and

inadequate and hence it becomes necessary to collect data that are

appropriate. There are several ways of collecting the appropriate data which

differ considerably in context of money cost, time and other resources at the

disposal of the researcher.

Primary data can be collected either through experiment or through survey.

If the researcher conducts an experiment, he observes some quantitative

measurements or the data with the help of which he examines the truth

contained in his hypothesis. But in the case of survey, data can be collected

by any one or the more following ways:

a) Interview method

b) Questionnaire method

c) Schedule method

40
 In this project data collection is done by questionnaire method.

5. Designing questionnaire – A questionnaire consist of a number of

questions printed and typed in definite order on a form of set of forms. The

respondents have to answer the question on their own. In general,

questionnaire can be either structured or unstructured. The form of

questionnaire can be in the following ways:

a) Close ended questions

b) Open ended questions

c) Mixed questionnaire.

In this project the questionnaire designed is based on mixed

questionnaire method.

Relevance of study

 OLA will come to know about their competitors in Lucknow.

 OLA will come to know whether people in Lucknow know

about their traveler offering.

 After survey they can change their strategy accordingly.

 This study will help to understand the perception of consumer

(traveler/traveler) separately.

41
 DATA ANALYSIS & INTERPRETATION

1. Gender

Male 78

Female 22

22%

Male
Female
78%

42
2. Age Group

18 years 47

19-29 36

30-40 12

40 above 5

5%
12%

47% 18 years
19-29
36% 30-40
40 above

43
3. Occupation

Students 36

Salaried 34

Business man 17

Other 13

13%
36%
17% Students
Salaried
Business man
34% Other

44
4. Which FMCG Companies services you are using?

UBER 35

Rapido 23

Ola 16

Dabur 14

Zoom Car 12

INTERPRETATION

Out of respondent 35% UBER prepaid Ola Cab service, 23% Rapido service are using,

16% Ola, 14% Indriver & 12% Zoom Car services are using.

45
5. Where did you get the information about the services?

Newspaper 26

Friends 18

Relations 15

Colleges 17

Online 12

TV Ads 8

Other 4

4%
8% Newspaper
26%
12% Friends
Relations
17% Colleges
18%
Online
15%
TV Ads
Other

INTERPRETATION

Out of respondent 26% news paper get the information about the services, 18% friends

information, 15% relations get the information, 17% colleges, 12% online, 8% TV ads &

4% other information about the services.

46
6. Why have you chosen your service provider?

References 22

Prior experience 28

Excellent service 18

Price promise 16

Location 13

Availability 3

3%

13% 22% References

Prior experience
16%
Excellent service
28% Price promise
18%
Network
Availability

INTERPRETATION

Out of respondent 22% references has chosen service, 28% prior experience, 18%

excellent service chosen provider, 13% Location & 3% availability.

47
7. Would you like to change your service provider?

Yes 40

No 60

40%

Yes
60%
No

INTERPRETATION

Out of respondent 40% like to change your service provider & 60% not.

48
8. Why do you want to change your Cab service provides?

Comfort 25

Change Offers 23

Change Location 40

other 12

INTERPRETATION

Out of respondent 25% Comfort change the Cab service, 23% change offers, 40% change

Location, 12% other services provides.

49
9. To which prepaid Ola Cab services you want to make on?

UBER 16

Rapido 23

Ola 35

Indriver 12

Zoom Car 14

INTERPRETATION

Out of respondent 16% UBER prepaid use make on, 23% Rapido Cab, 35% Ola, 12%

Indriver & 14% Zoom Car.

50
11. Rate the following factors responsible for Customer Behavior on the sale of 1-5?

Strongly Agree Natural Disagree Strongly

agree disagree

Strong Location 12 24 30 32 2

Taste 12 18 24 22 24

Cheapest 17 22 29 23 9

Customers support 22 15 24 29 10

Information 28 22 16 18 16

advisement

35
30
25
20
15 Strongly agree
10
Agree
5
0 Natural
Disagree

51
 FINDINGS

 Out of respondent 35% Ola Cab service, 23% Rapido service are using, 16% Ola,

14% Indriver & 12% Zoom Car services are using.

 Out of respondent 26% news paper get the information about the services, 18%

friends information, 15% relations get the information, 17% colleges, 12% online,

8% TV ads & 4% other information about the services.

 Out of respondent 22% references has chosen service, 28% prior experience, 18%

excellent service chosen provider, 13% Location & 3% availability.

 Out of respondent 40% like to change your service provider & 60% not.

 Out of respondent 25% New Comfort change the Cab service, 23% change

Offers, 40% change Location, 12% other services provides.

 Out of respondent 16% UBER use make on, 23% Rapido Cab, 35% Ola, 12%

Indriver & 14% Zoom Car.

52
 SUGGESTIONS AND RECOMMENDATION

The recommendations are:

 The brand loyalty for more Ola Cab can be increased if the Quality and

appearance of the products are given due attention because Ola has

captured a major share of Cab market.

 The switch over of the customers can be prevented if more of new

products are launched more frequently like Ola which launches new

products with slight variations from the previous.

 Quality are good but it still needs improvements.

53
 LIMITATION

Though, best efforts have been made to make the study fair,

transparent and error free. But there might be some inevitable and inherent

limitations. Though outright measure are undertaken to make the report most

accurate.

The limitation of the survey is narrated below:

 The project is valid for Lucknow city only.

 It was not possible to cover each and every respondent due to time

constrains.

 There may be some biased response form the respondents

 Some respondents did not provide the full data.

 Unwillingness on the part of the customers to disclose the information as

per the questionnaire.

 The decisiveness on the part of the customers regarding some question

hence difficulty faced in recording and analyzing the data.

54
 CONCLUSION

Ola has seen a tremendous growth in the taxi market sector. There is

surely no looking back for Ola as it is improving day by day in every

prospect. Revenue of Ola has increased almost 10 folds over the past four

years. Today, it is the largest cab service provider in the country. Ola has

successfully achieved public support and has created a buzz about its brand

in the market. Furthermore if some more technological advancement is done

at Ola then the customer base can be increased by providing better

experience to the customer. Ola now has shifted its focus on target markets

and is focused on providing desired service to the people in the target

market. The economic segregation depending upon the income group and

requirement of the people is well appreciated. On one hand Ola promotes its

brand by traditional methods and on the other hand it also uses the modern

techniques of promotion. At the same time it does not forget to highlight its

name in social safety, creating social awareness and promoting acts of

humanity. The key element in making Ola a successful brand is the efficient

and quick accessibility which is offered by the firm. The firm not only

improves through its intense promotional activities but also due to the

services and comfort offered to users and employees. Ola is making you

55
sluggish. A single tick gets you a taxicab. Habits are less demanding to

develop when the change required in conduct is minor. What's more, once a

habit is shaped, it‟s difficult to backtrack.

So OLA has been and will be a great technology platform for

transportation and offering flexible options of booking and payment to

customers and flexible timings and facilities to drivers. And shortly, we are

going to experience a big boom and great facility of getting our grocery

delivered to us with ease. Kudos to the idea of the founders and something

more to make us proud is that it has been started in India by two genius

Indians.

56
 BIBLIOGRAPHY

BOOKS AUTHORS

 Marketing Management : Philip Kotler

 Marketing Research : D. D. Sharma

 Research Methodology : C. R. Kothari

WEBSITES

 www.olacabs.com

 www.google.com

57
 QUESTIONNAIRE

1. Gender

Male

Female

2. Age Group

18 years

19-29

30-40

40 above

3. Occupation

Students

Salaried

Business man

Other

4. Which prepaid Ola Cab services you are using?

UBER

Rapido

Ola

Indriver

58
Zoom Car

5. Where did you get the information about the services?

Newspaper

Friends

Relations

Colleges

Online

TV Ads

Other

6. Why have you chosen your service provider?

References

Prior experience

Excellent service

Price promise

Location

Availability

7. Would you like to change your service provider?

Yes

No

59
8. Why do you want to change your Cab service provides ?

New Comfort

Change Offers

Change Location

other

9. To which prepaid Ola Cab services you want to make on?

UBER

Rapido

Ola

Indriver

Zoom Car

10. Rate the following factors responsible for Customer Behavior on the sale of 1-5?

Strongly Agree Natural Disagree Strongly

agree disagree

Strong Location

Taste

Cheapest

Customers support

Information
advisement

60