Project Report on

INTERNATIONAL MANAGEMENT OF FUTURE GROUP

In partial fulfilment of requirement for the

Award of Degree of M.Com

Subject:

International Marketing

Submitted By:

Mr. Hitesh Rohra

Roll No. 117

M.Com. Part – II, Semester - IV

Under the Guidance of:

Prof. Mr. Prakash Mulchandani

SMT. CHANDIBAI HIMATHMAL MANSUKHANI COLLEGE

ULHASNAGAR – 421003

UNIVERSITY OF MUMBAI

2015 – 2016

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International Management Of Future

Group

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DECLARATION

I, Mr. Hitesh Rohra student of SMT. CHANDIBAI HIMATMAL

MANSUKHANI COLLEGE, ULHASNAGAR studying in M.Com Part –

II, Semester – IV, hereby declare that I have completed this project on

“International Management Of Future Group” for the subject

“International Marketing” in the academic year 2015-16.The information

submitted is true and original to the best of my knowledge.

_______________

Mr. Hitesh Rohra

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ACKNOWLEGEMENT

To list who all have helped me is difficult because they are so numerous and the depth is so enormous.

I would like to acknowledge the following as being idealistic channels and fresh dimensions in the completion of this project

I take this opportunity to thank the University of Mumbai forgiving me chance to do this project.

I would like thank my Principal, Dr. Manju Lalwani Pathak for providing the necessary facilities required for completion of this

project.

I would also like to express my sincere gratitude towards my project guide Prof. Mr. Prakash Mulchandani whose

guidance and care made the project successful.

I would like to thank my college library, for having provided Various reference books and magazines related to my project.

Lastly I would like to thank each & every person who directly or indirectly helped me in completion of the project especially my

parents & peers who supported me throughout my project.

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The Indian retail industry, one of the fastest growing industries in the country over

the past couple of years is no exception. There is no doubt that the Indian retail scene

is booming. India’s retailing boom is the result of rapid globalization and the

recognition of being a very potential market by big giants and foreign companies

making the market more competitive. This has caused existing retailer’s tore-tailor

their strategies to suit the new landscapes.

This retail industry deals Food Bazaar and various sections which help the society

with their daily needs. After interaction with customers I found that they are more

satisfied with the food bazaar rather than any other products.

While working on this project various topics and concepts came to the knowledge

which was unheard and unknown before. A survey was also conducted for this project

which mainly focuses on the consumer behaviour towards Big Bazaar. It would also

help in knowing the various factors that are influence consumer behaviour and

understand consumer behaviour towards Big Bazaar. Big Bazaar has brought about

many changes in the buying habits of people.

It has created formats, which provide all items under one roof. Big Bazaar has

maintained that uniqueness& succeeded in attracting customers.

Big Bazaar is not just another hypermarket. It caters to every need of your family. Big

Bazaar scores over other stores is its value for money proposition for Indian

Customers. With the ever-increasing array of private labels, it has opened doors in the

world of fashion and general merchandise, including home furnishings, utensils,

crockery, sport goods and much.

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OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

The main objective is to determine the current consumer behavior levels of the customers with regards to Big Bazaar.

 

To study and analyze consumer shopping behavior towards Big Bazaar.

To assess the behavior level of different type of customers shopping at Big Bazaar.

To identify what type of strategies are suitable for the company to reach the targeted customers.

To find out the factors which influence the consumption of the products in Big Bazaar.

To identify effective advertising sources which are influencing customer purchasing behavior at Big Bazaar.

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Sr no. Title Page no.

1 INTRODUCTION OF COMPANY 02

2 PRODUCT PORTFOLIO 07

3 COMPANY ORIENTATION TOWARDS

MARKET PLACE

08

4 ANALYZING THE

MACROENVIRONMENT

13

5 CUSTOMER PERCEIVED VALUE 16

6 ANALYZING CONSUMER BEHAVIOR 19

7 BASES FOR MARKET

SEGMENTATION

21

8 FIVE PATTERNS OF TARGET

MARKET SELECTION

26

9 BRAND ELEMENTS 27

10 PRODUCT LIFE CYCLE 31

11 PRODUCT STRATEGIES 36

12 PRICING STRATEGIES 47

13 DISTRIBUTION STRATEGIES 49

14 PROMOTION MIX 50

15 PACKAGING AND LABELING 51

16 FINDINGS , CONCLUSION &

REFERENCES

52

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INTRODUCTION OF COMPANY

Future Group is India’s largest retailer and one of the leading CEO is Mr. Kishore

Biyani.

  Future Group India was established in 1994 with a vision to provide diverse

services in Indian and Global markets. The business areas of Future Group cover BPO

(Business Process Outsourcing), New Media, Security Management, and Construction.

Through their strategic investment and services, the future of Future Group shows a

rising star in the business sky of India.

                                           

Led by its flagship enterprise, Pantaloon Retail, the group operates over 16

million square feet of retail space in 73 cities and towns and 65 rural locations across

India. Headquartered in Mumbai (Bombay), Pantaloon Retail employs around 30,000

people and is listed on the Indian stock exchanges. The company follows a multi-format

retail strategy that captures almost the entire consumption basket of Indian customers. In

the lifestyle segment, the group operates Pantaloons, a fashion retail chain and Central, a

chain of seamless malls. In the value segment, its marquee brand, Big Bazaar is a

hypermarket format that combines the look, touch and feel of Indian bazaars with the

choice and convenience of modern retail.

Lines of Business

The company is present across several lines of business which have various formats

(stores) operational under it. These include:

Food - Food Bazaar, Chamosa, Spoon, Brew Bar, Sports Bar & Sports Bar Express,

Cafe Bollywood.

Fashion - Pantaloons, Central, aLL, Brand Factory, Blue Sky, Top 10, Fashion

Station, Big Bazaar, Lee Cooper (JV),

General Merchandise - Big Bazaar, Shoe Factory, Navras, Electronics Bazaar,

Furniture Bazaar, KB'S FAIR PRICE

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Home & Electronics - Home Town, eZone, Collection i

E-tailing (Online Shopping) - www.futurebazaar.com

Books & Music - Depot

Leisure & Entertainment - Bowling Co., F123

Wellness - Star & Sitara, Tulsi

Telecom & IT - Gen M, M Bazaar, M-Port, ConvergeM

FUTURE RETAIL:

The retails businesses of Future Group in India are divided into three main categories:

Retail forms the core business activity at Future Group and most of its businesses in the

consumption space are built around retail. Future Group’s retail network touches the lives

of more than 200 million Indians in 73 cities and 65 rural locations across the country.

The group currently operates around 1,000 stores spread over 16 million square feet of

retail space. Present in the value and lifestyle segments, the group’s retail formats cater to

almost the entire consumption expenditure of a wide cross-section of Indian consumers.

Pantaloon Retail India Limited

The leading retail formats under this include:

Pantaloons Stores -lifestyle segments and fashion segment.

Big Bazaar - a uniquely Indian hypermarket chain

Central - a chain of seamless destination malls

Food Bazaar - a supermarket chain that blends the look, touch and feel of Indian

bazaars with aspects of modern retail like choice, convenience and quality

Home Town - , a large-format home solutions store

E Zone  - consumer electronics

Depot - consumer electronics

Health & Beauty Malls

Online retail through futurebazaar.com

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Aadhaar- India’s leading rural retailing chain, that is present in over 65 locations in

rural India. Aadhaar, an agri-service cum rural retail initiative, provides a complete

solution provider for the Indian farmer.

Furniture Bazaar - specialized formats for home furniture and home furnishing

Ethnicity - India's first concept store, which recreates the experience of a traditional

ethnic market in a modern retail format, 

Joint Ventures with International Brands

Indus League Clothing that owns leading apparel brands like Indigo Nation, Scullers

and Urban Yoga

Galaxy Entertainment Limited that operates Bowling Co, Sports Bar, F123 and Brew

Bar

French retailer ETAM group, US-based stationary products retailer, Staples and UK-

based Lee Cooper.

Franchisee of international brands like Marks & Spencer, Next, Debenhams and

Guess in India.

Indian Joint Venture Partners

Manipal Healthcare

Talwalkar's

Blue Foods

Liberty Shoes.

FUTURE CAPITAL HOLDINGS

The financial services of Future Group are taken care by Future Capital Holdings. These

include:

Asset Management and consumer credit are the prime focus financial services.

Around 1 billion USD have been invested in retail real estate and consumer brands

outlets and hotels.

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Future Money - It is a financial supermarket format providing consumer credit

Joint venture with Italian insurance major General Insurance for providing general

insurance services.

Venture Capital Funds and Private Equity Funds through kshitijfund.com

Capital Holdings, the group’s financial arm provides investment advisory to assets

worth over $1 Billion that are being invested in consumer brands and companies, real

estate, hotels and logistics.

 It also operates a consumer finance arm with branches in 150 locations.

BPO (BUSINESS PROCESS OUTSOURCING)

Future Group has made major investments in BPO industry as a venture into the

Information Technology Enabled services (ITES) industry. Future Group has subsidiaries

offering IT based solutions. These include:

Language Services

Software Development

Content Engineering

NEW MEDIA

Future Group has invested in digital media and computer technology for creating

innovative and interactive multimedia presentations. These include:

Multimedia Production

Broadcasting

Publishing

Designing

SECURITY MANAGEMENT

Future Group is considered as a reliable tailor-made business and security services

provider. They develop their own software and machines for security services. These

include:

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Access Control Systems

Time Attendance Systems

CCTV

Alarm Management Systems

CONSTRUCTION

Future Group brings to you their past experience in quality construction for building and

renovating buildings for leasing to business. Future Group is also involved in the

designing, financing and legal considerations of the project undertaken. The construction

activities of Future Group in India include:

Leasing

Landscaping

SUPPLY CHAIN

Future Supply Chain Solutions Limited (FSCS), a specialized subsidiary, offers

strategic, focused and consolidated approach to meet the group’s large supply chain

requirements as well as those of select supply and business partners.

The Future Supply Chain Solutions team currently oversees the operations of an

existing fleet of over 600 dedicated trucks, contracted from established regional and

national transport carriers, most of which are now equipped with GPS sets.

  In addition it provides integrated end-to-end SCM, warehousing and distribution,

multi-modal transportation and container freight station.

The total consolidated warehouse space that the company intends to have

operational by 2010-11 is nearly 7.50 million square feet.

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PRODUCT PORTFOLIO OF FUTURE GROUP

As mentioned in the introduction of the company, Future Group’s core business

activity is retail, along with BPO (Business Process Outsourcing), New Media, Security

Management, and Construction. So here below are the logos of their various brands.

Please see the IMPORTANT NOTE given below the brand images.

IMPORTANT NOTE:- From the various brands of the company we have mainly

focused on BIG BAZAAR in relating the marketing management concepts.

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COMPANY ORIENTATION TOWARDS MARKET PLACE

There are mainly five concepts related to company orientation towards market place

which are:

1. The Production concept

2. The Product concept

3. The Selling concept

4. The Marketing concept

5. The Holistic marketing concept

The concept which applies to Big Bazaar is The Selling concept.

The concept says that the consumer if left alone will not buy enough. This is true and

Big Bazaar applies this concept by displaying all the product of different brand and its

private brand on the shelves.so that the customer have a huge variety of products and

can select the best out of it and some schemes are also available which attracts the

customer to buy more and even purchase other product.

Their need to be aggressive communication with the customer. There is sales person

at the counter which helps the customer in finding out the best product for himself.

Sometimes the customer might be in confusion whether to buy a product or not, at

that time the salesperson tell them about the product and its requirement in their lives.

After communicating all this about the product the customer then finally makes a

decision of making a purchase. So aggressive communication is required with the

customer.

This concept also says that their needs to be aggressive marketing of the product so

that buyer make a purchase.

The main purpose of this concept is to sell more and earn more.

This concept overall means that sell what you want to instead of what the customer

want to buy.

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Another concept which relates to Big Bazaar is The Marketing concept.

The concept says that “Create the best and deliver the best” and Big Bazaar does the

same through their SACH brand. They try to create the best by the name of Sachin

Tendulkar and deliver the quality product.

Next concept comes the “HOLISTIC MARKETING” which means “Everything

matters in this market”

It is an approach to recognize the scope of Marketing Activities.

These are the four major themes on which any companies' overall position can be

judged.

This concept helps companies to have a complete approach towards their

requirement.

The integrated marketing includes all the following:

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Holistic Marketing

Integrated

Marketing

Relationship Marketing

Performance Marketing

Internal Marketing

The integrated marketing includes the four P’s i.e. Product, price, Place and

Promotion. Big Bazaar takes due care of its product quality, it provide the product

lower than its cost to the customer, Big Bazaar is set up at such a place which is

convenient for the customer and for the business and it does promotion through

different media i.e. television, print etc.

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Integrated

Product

Price

Place

Promotion

Performance marketing :-

Performance includes sales revenue of Big Bazaar, Legal that is the legal aspects of

the business, ethics which they follow and environment of the business.

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Performance

Sales Revenue

Legal

Environment

Ethics

Relationship marketing :-

Relationship:- which includes maintaining relationship with the customers,

employees, partners and the channel.

Internal marketing :-

Internal :- which means one department share profit with other departmental of same

organisation is called profit internal sharing.

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Relationship

Customers

Employees

Channel

Partners

Internal

Marketing Department Senior Management Other Departments

ANALYZING THE MACROENVIRONMENT

NEEDS and TRENDS

Successful companies recognize and respond profitably to needs and trends which

could not be carried out earlier.

Enterprising individuals and companies manage to create new solutions to unmet

needs. Similarly, Big Bazaar identified the need for cheap and discounted products.

They started the operation with the tag line “Is se sasta aur accha kahin nahin” by

providing best products at best price.

We distinguish among fads, trends and megatrends.

A fad is unpredictable, short-lived, and without social, economic, and political

significance. A company can cash in on a fad, but this is more a matter of luck and

good timing than anything else. E.g. Beanie Babies.

A trend is a direction or sequence of events that has some momentum and durability.

Trends are more predictable and durable than fads. A trend reveals the shape of the

future and provides many opportunities. The percentage of people who value physical

fitness and well-being has risen steadily over the years, especially in the under-30

group, the young women and upscale group.

Mega trends have been described as large social, economic, political and

technological changes that are slow to form, and once in place, they influence us for

some time between seven and ten years, or longer.

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From the above, study we would say that the concept of Mega Trends applies to Big

Bazaar as people of India are not used to Big Bazaar (Retail Model). It takes time to

adopt it. People are still buying the products from the open market in traditional way.

Identifying the Major Forces

Companies and their suppliers, marketing intermediaries, customers, competitors,

publics all operate in a macro environment of forces and trends that shape

opportunities and pose threats. These forces are not controllable but the company

must monitor and respond timely to these forces. In the economic arena, companies

and consumers are increasingly affected by global forces.

The beginning of the new century brought a series of new challenge: the steep decline

of the stock market, which affected savings, investment, and retirement funds;

increasing unemployment; corporate scandals; and of course, the rise of terrorism.

These dramatic events were accompanied by the continuation of other, already-

existing longer-term trends that have profoundly influenced the global landscape.

Within the rapidly changing global picture, the firm must monitor six major forces:

demographic, economic, social-cultural, natural, technological, and political-legal.

Technological:

One of the most dramatic forces shaping people’s lives is technology. Technology has

released such wonders as penicillin, open-heart surgery, and the birth-control pill.

Big Bazaar planning and design used advance technologies like scenario-planning

and story-telling. These techniques were mainly used for store-design layout, store-

location selection. The strategy to use user-focused, prototype-based development

tool made the brand adapt to the fast-changing external environment.

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Social Cultural:

Society shapes our beliefs, values, and norms. People absorb, almost unconsciously, a

worldview that defines their relationship to themselves, to others, to organizations, to

society, to nature, and to the universe.

Similarly, Big Bazaar launched a campaign Des Badla Ab Vesh Badlo (nation is

changing, so change the way you dress), Sone ki Chidiya two years ago. It also

follows consumer segmentation according to social-cultural factors. It also promotes

environment friendly carry bags with easy to dispose. It also undertakes various

activities for the welfare of the society popularly known as corporate social

responsibility.

Political-Legal:

Marketing decisions are strongly affected by developments in the political and legal

environment. This environment is composed of laws, government agencies, and

pressure groups that influence and limit various organizations and individuals.

Sometimes these lows are creating new opportunities for business.

Big bazaar is following various laws like labour law and consumer law. It also

regulates various safety measures in the store.

Big bazaar is also following various government policies, tax policies with regularly

paying tax and filling return.

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CUSTOMER PERCEIVED VALUE

Consumers are more educated and informed than ever, and they have the tools to

verify companies’ claims and seek out superior alternatives.

How then do customers ultimately make choices ? they tend to be value

maximizers, within the bounds of search costs and limited knowledge, mobility and

incomes. Customers estimate which offer will deliver the most perceived value and act on

it. Whether the offer lives up to the expectations affects customer satisfaction and the

probability that the customer will purchase the products again.

Customer-perceived value is the difference between the prospective customer’s

evaluation of all the benefits and all the costs of an offering and the perceived

alternatives.

Total customer benefits is the perceived monetary value of the bundle of

economic, functional and psychological benefits customers expect form a given market

offering because of the products, services, personnel and image involved.

Total customer cost is the perceived bundle of costs customers expect to incur in

evaluating, obtaining, using and disposing of the given market offering, including

monetary, time, energy and psychological costs.

CONSUMER INSIGHT AND PERCEPTION

Big Bazaar is based on 3-C theory of Kishore Biyani. The three C symbolize Change,

Confidence and Consumption and according to this theory “change and confidence is

leading to rise in consumption”. They divided Indian customers in three categories:-

India One

Consuming class, constitute only 14% of Indian Population

They are upper middle class and most of customers have substantial disposable

income

Initial focus of Big Bazaar

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India Two

Serving Class which includes people like drivers, household helps, office peons,

washer man etc.

For every India One, there are at least India two and have around 55% of Indian

population.

India Three

Struggling class, remaining population of India.

Cannot afford to inspire for better living, have hand-to-mouth existence.

Needs cannot be addressed by current business models

The potential customers of Big Bazaar are India One and India Two. The customer

insights were developed by close observation of the target set. The insights that came out

were:-

The clean and shiny environment of modern retail stores creates the perception that

such store are too expensive and exclusive, and are not meant for India two.

India two find moves and find a lot of comfort in crowds, they are not individualistic.

They prefer to be in queues.

Indian-ness is not about swadeshi, it’s about believing in Indian ways of doing things.

Indian customers prefer to purchase grains, grams etc. after touching them, so it’s

better not to sell in polythene packs. Big Bazaar has counters where you can touch

wheat, rice, sugar etc. before purchasing.

Advertisements about schemes and offers through local newspapers, radio in local

languages inspires customer more than the traditional ways.

The guards, salesman at the Big Bazaar outlets should not look smarter than

customer, so they prefer not to have tie etc. in their uniform.

Hypermarkets in India should be situated in city unlike western countries where they

are located away from city.

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Purchased Bags/goods should be sealed at checkout as customer can enter and exit

multiple times.

For Indians, shopping is an entertainment; they come in groups, with families so Big

Bazaar should offer

something to every section of family. That also led separate section for clothes,

vegetables, food etc. i.e. Multiple clusters within a bazaar.

Developed a diversity tracing.

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ANALYZING CONSUMER BEHAVIOR

Consumer behavior is the study of how individuals, groups and organizations select,

buy, use, and dispose of goods, services, ideas, or experiences to satisfy their needs and

wants.

A consumer’s buying behavior is influenced by cultural, social, and personal factors.

Cultural factors exert the broadest and deepest influence.

Factors affecting consumer behaviour :-

Cultural factors :-

Culture, subculture and social class are particularly important influences on consumer

buying behaviour.

In the case of big bazaar, the frequency of visits by the customer and the kind of

products they buy influence their buying behaviour pattern.

The cultural values of the customer also influence their visit to buy the required

products at the big bazaar.

Social factors :-

Social factors such as reference groups, family and social roles, statuses affect our

buying behaviour.

Reference groups involve family, friends and neighbours.

Customers of big bazaar might influence others persons of their reference groups to

buy products from big bazaar.

Social status of the people influences their buying behaviour.

For example, high class people go to big bazaar for shopping.

Personal factors :-

Age and stage in the life cycle are the personal factors which influence customer

buying behaviour.

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Children will buy different products from big bazaar according to their choice and

middle-aged persons and old-aged persons buy different products.

So the products for all the groups of the family are available at big bazaar, this

influence their buying behaviour.

Lifestyles of the people also influence buying behaviour.

Some people are uneasy to go to the small kiryana shop for their shopping.

Buying Behaviour process :-

The above chart shows the buying behaviour process of the customers.

From the total set of Big bazaar, V-mart, Star bazaar, Reliance super and a local

departmental store.

The customers are aware about Big bazaar, Reliance super, V-mart and Star bazaar.

To buy their required products and for shopping they consider Big bazaar, Reliance

super and V-mart.

Finally customers have a choice to make either to visit Big bazaar or Reliance super.

At last consumers take the decision to visit Big Bazaar for the shopping.

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Total setBig BazaarV-martReliance superStar BazaarLocal departmental store

Awareness setBig BazaarV-martReliance SuperStar Bazaar

Consideration setBig BazaarReliance Super

V-mart

Choice set

Big BazaarReliance Super

Decision

BIG BAZAAR

BASES FOR MARKET SEGMENTATION

1. GEOGRAPHIC SEGMENTATION:- In this segmentation company calls for

division to the market into different geographical units such as nation, state, regions,

countries, cities, or neighborhoods. As we are taking one product of our company

future group we are going to discuss various segmentations on big bazaar.

I. City:- big bazaar is situated in different city like it is in Ahmedabad, Vapi,

Vadodara, Rajkot, Surat, Nashik, Nasik, Bharuch, Bhopal, Hyderabad. It is

most of situated in metro city where the population is more.

II. Rural areas and Urban area:- future group has segmented its retail into two

area rural and urban area for rural area they made aadhaar retail by this they

targeted that market also those people who all are living over there.

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Rural area

Now in urban area big bazaar is there so that people can get all things in

one place by saving their precious time and by giving attractive discount on so

much durable and non-durable goods plus they are offering service also.

These two segmentations are related with future group so that they can

target mass of people easily.

2. DEMOGRAPHIC SEGMENTATION :- Big bazaar has done full segmentation on

demographic bases they are as follows:-

Age

Family size

Gender

Income

Occupation

EXPLANATION:-

Age:-

Big bazzar has targeted there customer age wise for kids like they have different

section for kids toys, shoes, garments etc. For teenagers they have different

section they have café shops in big bazzar malls so they that can refresh them self

by doing shopping. For house wife they give different discount or they have

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different type days like sabse sastein 4 din or 5 din maha bachat. In this way they

segmented it age wise.

Family size:- big bazaar also consider family size in its segmentation they

provide all quantity of product there were 10 kgs bags are also available and 5 kgs

1kgs bags are also available so that neutral family can also fulfill their need and

joint family people will also satisfied there need and if customer want more

quantity then they also give different discount our they give buy one get one free

offer to them.

Gender:- big bazaar fulfill the need of both gender they get things whatever they

need whether they are male or female they had also celebrate some special days

for male and female that is “sabse chikna kaun campaign”, “ detergent mela”, “

india beverage league”, “ dal chawl mela” etc.

Income:- big bazaar target higher, middle and lower class people so that all

kind of people come in there segmentation in India higher class people are

less then lower class people so for them big bazaar brings some days so that

mass of people get attracted and buy many things from there retail shop. Like

sabse sastein 3 din, 5 din maha bachat.

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Occupation:- big bazaar specifically targets working women and home

makers who are the primary decision makers. The large and growing young

working population is a preferred customer segment. So that they get

convenience goods for them easily and at one place.

3. Psychographic:-

Lifestyle:- big bazaar enrich the life style of the people they can fulfill needs

of whole life in less price by getting different discounts nd skims for them

and they fell their status has also been increase by doing shopping in mall.

4. Behavioral:-

Occasions

User status

EXPLANATION:-

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Occasions:- big bazaar celebrates days and give special offer for the customer

like on every last week of the year the clear there stock or they give special winter

or summer offer for their customer to buy more and spend less.

User status:- there were some user status who came to big bazaar for first time

and there were some people who go many time big bazaar. Like they go every

weekend or some go in one month.

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FIVE PATTERNS OF TARGET MARKET SELECTION

Single segment concentration

Selective specialization

Product specialization

Market specialization

Full market coverage

In big bazaar there prevails full market coverage and market specialization. They

cover full market by income, age, gender, family size.

Full Market Coverage:-

M1 M2 M3

Age

Gender

Income

Market Specialization:-

M1 M2 M3

Retail

In market specialization big bazaar has their market specialization in retail.

~ 32 ~

BRAND ELEMENTS

Meaning of Brand:-

“A brand is a name, term, sign, symbol or design or combination of them,

intended to identify the goods or services of one seller or group of sellers and to

differentiate them from those of competitors”.

A brand is a product which has earned a place in consumer’s life through

perception, experience and beliefs .It is the sum of how consumers feel about a

product.

Brand Elements:-

Brand elements are those trademark devices that identify and differentiate the

brand.

Brand elements are mainly brand name, slogan, character, symbols, URL, person

and logos.

Our company “FUTURE GROUP” consists of the following brand elements

which differentiate it from others.

1. Brand Slogan: ‘India Tomorrow’ and ‘Udna hai aj, abhi’ of Future Group and ‘Is

se sasta aur accha kahin nahi!, of Big bazaar.

2. Character: Future group, Big Bazaar

3. Logo: Bird

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4. Person: Cricketer M.S Dhoni and Bollywood actress Asin for Fashion at big

bazaar.

There are some private brands of future group which includes FUTURE

GROUP’s tie up with Sachin Tendulkar for the brand “SACH” and some of its

private brands.

Future Group has successfully launched a series of private brands ranging in

foods with Tasty Treat, Home and personal care range with Clean mate & Care

mate, staples with Fresh & Pure and Premium Harvest, and Sach is a big leap for

the company in the direction building its private brands portfolio through its

association with an iconic figure like Sachin Tendulkar, will be setting the tone

based on Sachin’s values and mass appeal.

Future Group private brands have always launched their products keeping

“Indianness” in mind through consumer insights. Launch of Tasty Treat soups

with a mug and Tasty Treat Cornflakes with a bowl are some of the success

stories in past . Past one year has seen aggressive roll-outs from private brands

with products like Sach toothbrush, Clean mate Diapers, Tasty Treat noodles and

~ 34 ~

soups with both classic and Chinese range, Fresh and pure Desi ghee  which has

helped in giving consumer quality products at great value.

Future group also have tie up with other companies which are as follows:

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~ 36 ~

PRODUCT LIFE CYCLE

A company’s positioning and differentiation stratergy must change as the product,

market and competitors change over the Product life cycle (PLC).

Prodcut life cycle is made up of four things:

1) Products have a limited life.

2) Product sales pass through distinct stages, each posing different challenges,

opportunities and problems to the seller.

3) Profit rise and fall at different stages of the product life cycle.

4) Products require different marketing, financing, manufacturing, purchasing and

human resource stratergies in each life-cycle stage.

The life of a product passess through four different stages mainly:-

1. INTRODUCTION STAGE:-

The seller tries to stimulate demand regarding his product.

He makes promotion campaigns to increase public awareness regarding his

product.

He tries to explain the consumers how the product is to be used and also explains

the product features, advantages and benefits (FAB).

The seller at this stage might lose money, but can expect to make profits in the

future. As the product is just introduced in the market there are chances that it

might be a failure or a winner.

Sales are low and profits are below the line because the costs incurred by the

seller on the product at this stage are greater than the amount of money he makes

after selling the product.

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The seller might have “negative” profit i.e loss. Mainly the product at this stage

faces more of loss then earning profit for as the product is just introduced and

people are unaware regarding the product.

Need to spend a lot of money on promotion. For the product which is just

introduced in the market it is impossible to compete which the similar type of

product, so it is important to make people aware of the product by promoting it

through different mediums and heavy expenditure is incurred on promotion at this

stage.

Limited Product Model

At this stage their might be penetration pricing which means low price of the

product or skimming pricing which means high price of the product at its

introduction stage.

2. GROWTH STAGE:-

Next comes the growth stage wherein the cosumers are aware of the

product, its usage, benefit, features etc.

At the growth stage the seller tries to sell a lot and he tries to sell as much

as he can to cover up his loss incurred at the introduction stage .

As the product is well known by the consumer other competitor companies

watch it and tries to introduce a competitor product.

E.g. Men’s Cosmetic. When the company firstly introduce the Men’s

Cosmetic cream many people were not aware of it but slowly and gradually

as people became aware another company launched the competitor product

of it to capture the market.

Growth of a product continues until too many competitors are in the market

- and the market is saturated.

At the end of the growth stage, profits start to decline because when

competition arises seller spends more money on promotion to keep sales

going.

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Spending money on promotion cuts into your profit. As a competitor

product comes in the market its important to keep our product sales go and

for that promotion of it becomes important which ultimately cuts our profit.

Large company may acquire small pioneering firms.

Gaining wide distribution is a key goal.At this stag it is important that our

product is available at every place, so that our consumer don’t find any

difficulty in getting it.

At this stage the product achieves sales volume which createseconomies of

scale.

3. MATURITY SATGE:-

When a product achieves the growth which includes increase profit and sales the

next stage from which it passes through is the MATURITY STAGE.

At this stage there are many competitors who have joined and the market is

saturated.

The only way to sell the product is to lower the price and so the profits decrease.

It is difficult to tell the difference in our product since most of the competitor

product has the same F.A.B. - Features, Advantages & Benefits.

At this stage competition can get “Horrible” and commercials are intense.

That is to say, we have commercials almost begging the customer to still buy your

product because you still make it just as good.

An emphasis on product style rather than function.

The marketplace is approaching saturation.

4. DECLINE STAGE:-

Newer products are now more attractive - even a low-low price does not

make consumers want to buy.

Profit margin declines - and so the only way to make money is to sell a high

volume.

The rate of decline is governed by:

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How rapidly consumer testes change or

How rapidly substitute product are adopted

To increase volume you try to

Increase the number of customers - get new customers

Increase the amount each customer uses

The above is the chart showing the four stages of product life cycle. Big Bazaar

comes under the RETAIL head of Future Group and it is at the maturity stage. The

following points can be considered:-

1. Big Bazaar keeps many offers to attract its potential customer like “Buy one, get

one free”, ‘Best deals’ and ‘sabse saste 3 din’.

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2. It does more of promotional campaigning through print media, television media to

get it customer aware regarding the offers available by them. It also does

promotion through celebrities like Dhoni and Asin for the fashion at big bazaar

which help them to increase their sales and the other points are explained above.

3. There’s an increased competition of big bazaar with its competitors.

4. Big bazaar after coming at this stage want to stabilize it profit without making any

losses.

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PRODUCT STRATEGIES

Product Levels: customer value Hierarchy

Product is not only an offering but it is something beyond that. Is is something

which can satisfy the wants and need, which includes special services or goods,

events, persons, etc.

Product Levels are categorized in five levels which any marketer has to follow

which adds more value to customers and these five create customer value

hierarchy.

These four are the first four levels of customer value hierarchy. Core Benefit is

what actually a customer wants. It is also known as fundamental level. Marketers

have to see themselves as benefit providers and thus this first step is called core

benefit.

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Augmented Product

Expected Product

Basic Product

Core Benefit

Basic Product is the job of marketer to convert core benefit into basic

requirement. Providing any service or product with more facility is the role of

basic product.

The third level is Expected Product. Wherein marketer is serving the product with

those particular conditions & expectations which customer have when they buy

any product.

At the fourth level stands Augmented Product. It is that level where it exceeds all

the expectations of the customers. On this level tough competition starts and the

main focus of marketers is to survive in this competition and give their product a

position in the market.

The fifth level is Potential Product. This stage is where a product exceeds even

augmentation. It transforms the product in the future in such a way that customer

had never expected or even thought of it. Potential Product is a stage where

companies have to continuously find something new for the customers to be

served so as to satisfy them. In the above mentioned chart we have not shown

potential product as still many companies are trying to reach this level. Future

Group’s Big Bazaar is on the fourth level. Let us see in more detail:-

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Here we can see that the first level core benefit of Big Bazaar is to provide daily

needs of the people at one place. As we know that Big Bazaar is very wide and

has all products like food items, perishable products, clothing, apparels etc.

Second is Basic Product wherein Big Bazaar tries to serve all these with wide

range of options to choose. For e.g. If a customer wants to buy a shampoo, in Big

Bazaar they will have lots of choices of all the brands like Head & Shoulders,

Pantene, Dove etc… Customer here gets wide range of any product what they

want to buy.

The third is Expected Product. Here the customer expects discounts, allowances,

additional benefits as they think that this is such a big place wherein all the

products are available, so some discounts can be offered to them. For e.g. If a

customer purchases many items of his home needs and personal needs, then they

will expect to get some discounts and off on some products.

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Exceeding the expectations

Discounts & Allownaces

Serving them more widely

Providing Daily Needs

Fourth is Augmented Product. Here Big Bazaar is on the level of serving the

Augmented Product. As we know something which exceeds customer

expectations that is known as Augmented Product. Here Big Bazaar give the

facility of home delivery to the customers at their convenient time at their home.

This is something which customers of Big Bazaar had never expected. And they

are very well satisfied with this service provided to them.

And now Potential Product, which is not shown in that diagram because still Big

Bazaar has not yet reached that level of exceeding the Augmented service

provided by them to their customers. In future they can undergo some more

transformations of their products and services and then it can reach the fifth level.

There many companies including Big Bazaar who are trying to find something

new for the customers. Potential Product is something very different from what

they provide. Companies are still between Expected & Augmented product level.

As any company including Big Bazaar reaches the Augmented Level that is very

soon accepted by the customers and they start expecting to get this service for the

lifetime and thus this augmented product turned into expected product. Thus again

they have to search for new Augmented product to be served to the customers

which exceed their expectation.

On this level continuous competitions is to be faced by the marketers to sell their

product and maintain their position in the market. Also they have to maintain trust

and expectations of their customers. They cannot afford to lose their customers on

this level.

Product Classifications

Marketers have classified the product into different categories:-

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As we can see in the above diagram that products are classified in three categories

that is Durability, Tangibility and Consumer or Industrial. All these have an

appropriate marketing strategy.

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Product

Durability Tangibility Consumer or Industrial

Durability

Durable Nondurable Service

Tangibility

Nondurable Goods: These are tangible goods and are consumed in one or few

uses, for e.g. Soft Drinks, Juices, Soaps, Shampoos, Milk etc…

These goods are purchased more frequently and therefore marketers decide to

make them available in lots of quantity and with lots of options available to

customers. This helps customers to choose from wide range available.

Durable:- These also are tangible and survive for many uses. Like Refrigerator,

tools, clothing etc…

Services :- These are intangible.

Big Bazaar provides all the kind of products durable and non durable. Food items,

perishable products, clothing, apparel etc…

Then use of goods that is consumer or industrial. Big Bazaar provides goods

which are Consumer goods. Convenience goods are purchased more frequently by

customers as it takes minimum effort to buy. Also it provides shopping goods

which customers buy after comparing the price, quality, style. Then comes

unsought goods which customer knows about but they don’t think much of buying

those kind of goods. For e.g. Life Insurance.

Product Mix

A product system is a group of different but related items that function in a

compatible manner. Under this product system there is product mix.

A Product Mix is set of all the product and items a particular seller offers to sell.

It is also called Product Assortment. A company’s product mix has certain length,

width & depth of its products.

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Firstly let us see what is length, width and depth of the product with an example.

Here we will take the example of Future Group.

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Product Mix

Length Width Depth

Width of Future Group

Retail

Services

Finance

Partnership

As we can see in the above diagram that there are four things in width of future

group.

Now let us see Length of each:-

Length of Retail:

Lifestyle includes Brand Factory, Central, Home Town, Planet Sports, Pantaloons

fresh fashion.

Value includes Big Bazaar, Food Bazaar, Fairprice.

Digital includes Future Bazaar.com. This is online shopping facility provided to

the customers to get more benefit.

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Lifestyle

Value

Digital

Length of Finance:-

Finance has different section that is Future capital holdings. In this capital is

provided to small companies who require finance.

Future Generali has two sectors General Insurance & Life Insurance.

Future Venture has tie ups with many other brands to make it more popular and

give customers a wide range to choose from. The most popular venture of Future

Group was with Aadhar Retailing Limited. This was a venture for rural areas and

to serve people of rural areas.

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Finance

Future Capital

Holdings

Future Generali

Future Venture

.

Length of Services:-

Future Group has many learning programs for the people in tie up with IGNOU.

It has also launched India’s first owned retail channel named Future Tv

Also it has launched a magazine named My World.

It has tie up with many Brands to widen the range and give people many options.

It has tie up with Tata Docomo and is serving T24.

Length of Partnership:- This is different types covered of future group in which ways

they carry over their partnerships.

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Logistics & supply

Learning & Development Media

Brands Telephony

Here they Collaborate with many service providers & other big names of

products. They join hands to build the brand and widen the range of their product

list.

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Collaborations

Assistnace

Brand Building

PRICING STRATEGIES

PRICE MIX:-

Value pricing

Psychological pricing

Loss leader

Explanation:-

Value pricing:- value pricing means company wants to win loyal customers by

changing a fairly low price for a high-quality offering. Same way big bazaar do

the same thing big bazaar give lots of discount to attract the customer so that they

can get good quality product in low price.

Psychological value:- psychological value pricing means that the seller use this

to attract its customer by keeping less numerical value so that psychologically

customer thing that there they are saving some amount then other place eg they

are getting thing in 111,999,9999 or they use that by giving high and low price of

the commodity and saying save Rs 2 or 3 there they are playing with the mind of

the customer very easily.

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Loss leader:- big bazaar is also applying loss leader value in loss leader the

company is bearing loss of one product for selling the another product like big

bazaar give so many time offer like buy one get one free and they are doing this

because some time they have to clear there dead stock so that by not getting any

price of the commodity at least they get something of the commodity or prod

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DISTRIBUTION STRATEGIES

The producer and the final customer are part of every channel. We will use the

number of intermediary levels to designate the length of a channel. Figure illustrates

several consumer-goods marketing channels of different lengths.

A zero-level channel (also called a direct-marketing channel) consists of a

manufacturer selling directly to the final customer through Internet selling, door-to-

door sales, home parties, mail order, telemarketing, TV selling, manufacturer-owned

stores, and other methods.

A one-level channel contains one selling intermediary, such as a retailer.

A two-level channel contains two intermediaries; a three-level channel contains three

intermediaries. From the producer’s point of view, obtaining information about end

users and exercising control becomes more difficult as the number of channel levels

increases.

Big Bazaar is following one level distribution channel in which it performs role of

retailer and purchase goods directly from producer and then sell it to the customer.

Distribution channel is one of the reason why Big Bazaar is able to sell product at

lower cost. The chart given below shows the following:-

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PROMOTION MIX

Promotion Mix is a system wherein different types of methods are followed to

promote a product and make it popular. Future Group also undertakes Promotion

Mix for Big Bazaar. There is thin line difference between Advertisement and

Promotion. Let us see each in detail:-

For Advertisement Big Bazaar choose Television Ads, pamphlets, FM radio in

metro cities. They keep showing about new offers for the customers. Also with

the help of Internet, Brochures & Direct Mail Big Bazaar try to attract their

customers more and more.

The second is Promotion of the product. It has to be decided how to promote the

product in what ways and with different tools available. Big Bazaar choose to

promote themselves by providing its customers discount coupons, Membership

Cards, On time Home Delivery, cash refund offers, Price Packs, Gifts, Points

redeem option to get more discount, Organizing different contest, Product

warranties. All these are opted by Big Bazaar to promote themselves.

Big Bazaar provides some or other scheme and offers for the customer every time

one after other to attract the customers and maintain their value with them.

Promotion Mix plays a very important role for any companies development. This

helps to establish themselves and maintain their position in the market.

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PACKAGING AND LABELING PACKAGING:-

Packaging is defined as all the activities of designing and producing the container

for a product. Packages might include up to three levels of material. Like big bazaar have

their packaging of their polybag which they give to their customer when they shop from

there store and go home packaging is also a sign of remembrance or for promotion of the

shopping centre name or product name. For some company they take packaging very

seriously and they say that packaging is very crucial part of their product.

LABELING:-

The label may be a simple tag attached to the product or an elaborately designed

graphic that is part of the package. It might carry only the brand name, or a great deal of

information. Even if the seller prefers a simple label, the law may require more. As big

bazaar has some of their brands name sach, treat etc. They also contains label on the back

side which is shown in picture of sach toned milk label helps the customer to now that

whether the product is healthy or not and what kind of ingredients it contain.

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FINDINGS

Fbb have a very vast scope in future ,It has built very emotional & cordial relationship with its customers.

Customer’s are looking for more of premium brands in store.

Sometimes customers gets confused in the store as the store layout is ambiguous and no one is there to help them.

Most of the Customers are unknown about the special offers , so more advertisement is needed for them.

Many customers are dissatisfied with the unsupportive behavior of staff members.

Salesmen are not approaching to the customers as they are always busy with maintenance of their sections.

Stock for various sizes is not sufficient.

CONCLUSION

The conclusion of my one week research is that fashion at Big Bazaar stores have a very wide scope for future in India. Fbb stores have cordial relationship with customers . Most of the customers are satisfied with Fbb products and people like its schemes very much. Fbb have created a very good image in the minds of its customers so they have a very high expectation level from Fbb. Moreover Fbb can fly on the path of ultimate growth if they can bring more premium brands and variety of quality products at a decent cost. Fbb stores can retain customers if they use many loyalty programs & IT techniques. Customers will only become loyal if they would be provided with more pleasant and satisfactory service experiences in stores and Fbb will be able to bring it by adopting more innovative strategies as recommended.

REFERENCES

Search engine :- WWW.GOOGLE.COM

WEBSITES :- WWW.FUTUREGROUP.IN

HTTP://EN.WIKIPEDIA.ORG/WIKI/FUTURE_GROUP

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