Ntcc Lakshay Merchant.docx

AMITY UNIVERSITY NOIDA IMPACT ON BRANDING AND SALES IN AUTOMOBILE INDUSTRY B.M.W

UNDER THE GUIDANCE OF

SUBMITTED BY

MRS MONA CHAUDHARY

LAKSHAY MERCHANT

STUDENT’S DECLARATION I hereby declare that the project report IMPACT ON BRANDING & SALES IN AUTOMOBILE INDUSTRY W.R.T. BMW is based my own work carried during the course of my study under the supervision & guidance of _MRS MONA CHAUDHARY.

I further declare that the information presented in this project is true and original to the best of my knowledge.

___________________ ________________

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT This project has been a great learning & experience for me and I would like to express my gratitude towards all the people who guide me throughout and without whose guidance & support this project would have not been completed successfully. I express my sincere gratitude to my faculty guide__MRS MONA CHAUDHARY for her able and continuous support & cooperation throughout my project without the project work would have not been possible. Also I am thankful for my family, faculties and friends for their continued guidance and immense support as well as invaluable encouragement.

TABLE OF CONTENTS 1.

INTRODUCTION

2.

LITERATURE REVIEW

3.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

4.

CONCLUSIONS RECOMMENDATIONS & LIMITATIONS

ABSTRACT The Automobile Industry is on a high rise. There are many opportunities in the sector, and especially in the emerging economies like China, India. It has become imperative for companies to have a unique plan on place to attract the potential customers, who are having a wide array of options to choose from. This research study is meant to understand effect of branding and promotional activities on one of the Auto sector giant, BMW. This era is marked by cut throat competition, and branding has always been a prime factor from where not only you get business, but also you may end up paying to competitors due to bad decisions. A brand normally helps product of a company to stay different from other competing products available in the product. Brand has several dimensions like name, logo, image, slogan, picture or a combination of all these.

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

The Automobile Industry is on a Roller-Coaster ride with high growth rate; it’s looking as if different stakeholders of the industry like suppliers, manufacturers, retailers and others are mining gold (Erich, 2000).

In Automobile Industry, firms promote their brands by following a number of methodologies. If we talk about Automobile industry, there are number of methodologies used by firms to promote their brands. In branding department, the initiatives taken are the major attraction of marketing mix. The Automobile Industry is not something very different and follows a number of different channels of promotion like newspaper, television, Internet. Moreover, it’s mostly preferred to connect to the consumers by following below line methods. In this customer is approached on a more personal level. The activities that automobile industry is using these days are personal selling, placing in malls, direct contacting (Holt, DB, 2004). The Automobile Industry is on a high rise. There are many opportunities in the sector, and especially in the emerging economies like China, India. It has become imperative for companies to have a unique plan on place to attract the potential customers, who are having a wide array of options to choose from. This research study is meant to understand effect of branding and promotional activities on one of the Auto sector giant, BMW.

Brand Equity: Brand Equity can be defined as something attached to a brand like assets and liabilities that enhances or depreciates it’s value. Some of the factors that determine brand equity of a product or a service are quality, trademarks, patents, loyalty and perception. Companies usually try to leverage the equity of an established brand to enter other categories. A study conducted to analyze the important factors that influence the most powerful brands in the world, revealed that developing and maintaining strong brand names has been the top most priority for most corporate across the world, since a well-established brand results in higher customer loyalty and improves the profitability and value of the firm. In the research, ten factors were identified that the world’s most popular brands share. They are discussed below: 1. The brand offers more than what customer expects: Customers normally buy branded goods, because they expect some tangible and intangible benefits in a branded product along with the product attributes that make a product desirable. A brand which exceeds this minimum expectation of the customers makes a powerful brand. 2. The brand stays associative: most of the brands associate themselves with some intangible benefits apart from the tangible factors one seeks from a brand. For instance, people look for associations, like who is using the brand, when they are using these brands i.e. on what occasions, what the brand personality is, and what type of relationship the brand is trying to develop with the target customers.

3. Customers Perception rules the pricing of brands: It must be understood before setting price of a product that it must be in accordance with the perceived value of a brand. Thus firms should try to opt a strategy that should precisely match customer’s expectations. 4. Right Positioning of the Brand: It’s very necessary for any brand to stay in the mind of customers for a longer time. For this it’s necessary that a brand should be positioned well. The brands which are positioned well differentiate themselves from other brands and are always close to the customers. 5. The Brand maintains consistency: Consistency is one of the most important aspect brands are looking to attain. Most of the marketing efforts are viewed according to the needs of modern times and preferences. Industry has seen many examples when some brands failed as they lost the relevance in spite of large amount of marketing efforts. This not only badly affects the sales, but also the brand loses its consistency. 6. The portfolio of brands are well maintained: Sometimes companies develop and maintain several brands so as to gain a greater market share. These companies maintain their portfolio as brands in the most efficient way. They ensure that the brands do not overlap or leave strategic gaps that competitors can take advantage of in the market. 7. The firm utilizes all its marketing efforts: Brands make use of all their marketing efforts to develop their image in the consumer’s mind. The marketing activities directed at answering questions such as why and how a product should be used, who should use it and when, enhance use of marketing efforts to build their brand equities. 8. What any brand stand for is known by the companies: The managers in a firm who build the brands have to clearly understand how the customers analyze a brand. This will help them to make effective decisions regarding the brands. If the managers are able to understand what customers like and dislike in their brands, it will become easier for them to develop suitable brand strategies. 9. The brands are supported by customers for longer duration: Companies should support their brands for longer period of time by educating customers about all their features and benefits. Building a brand takes time and a company cannot expect to reap the benefits immediately. A brand ensures long-term benefits. Thus a company should strive to support and build the brands sacrificing short-term benefits. This helps the firm enhance brand value to the maximum extent in the long run. As a result, the profitability of a firm improves. 10. Checking performance of brand on timely basis: Firms have to evaluate the performance the performance of their brands at frequent intervals to ensure that they are on the right track. Evaluating the brands with proper brand audits and analyzing all the brands’ attributes at regular intervals will help the company to build strong and sustainable brands. (Czerniawski et al, 1999) Brand Strategy Decisions: Every brand in world conveys some meaning and stand for something for its customers. A brand follows some steps in order to deliver this value to the customers. Some of these steps are company’s commitment to make things better and improve quality over time. To check the availability of resources that ultimately help in order to build brand and accordingly allocate the budget for expenditure on sales promotion, marketing and branding. All of these are part of branding and in any case organization fails to follow such steps, brand becomes liability

not an asset. The implications branding should concentrate to improve sales of company. Its a clear fact that each and every product in the market cannot be branded, so one of the important decisions is what product should be branded and what should not. Companies also adopt comprehensive family branding i.e. same brand name or part of the brand name for all the products. Line family branding is another branding strategy where a company brands only a particular product category. Brand licensing is also one of the strategies where some of the authorized producers use a company’s brand name for their products for a licensing fee.

1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE RESEARCH STUDY

The change in the dynamics of Socio-Economic that took place in Europe in past decades have contributed a lot in giving a shape to the success of the Automotive Industry. Thus, the revolutions that broke out at that time are still continued, and are felt by the industry even now in form of advancements year on year. This revolution started way back during Second World War, which helped in uniting the divided automobile industry. It’s not a hidden fact that the after effects of Second World War were very disastrous and the world economy suffered a lot. But it’s a fact that strong performance of Automobile Industry was one of the major reasons for immediate recovery of badly struck world economy. Some other factors which were imperative for growth and expansion of the industry were presence of quality roads and nice infrastructure. All of these factors helped the Automobile Industry to grow exponentially after the Second World War. This was supported by the huge volume of sales in the Automobile Industry (David, 2001). The Auto motive Industry has several processes like procuring raw material, product design, development of prototype, producing actual product, product selling and finally after sales service. There is a noticeable shift in the paradigm of Global Economy, where emerging economies such as China, India and Brazil are proving to be major drivers of growth. There is an increasing demand of different parts from Automobile Industry in these Countries. These thriving economies have an ever increasing potential for two wheelers and four wheelers. The growth rate of China has attracted the focus of every company towards its lucrative and expanding market. The presence of a large number of potential buyers in China has made it one of the most preferred of all the options available for Automobile Industry.

MAJOR COMPANIES IN THE AUTOMOBILE SECTOR A major portion of Automobile Sector is dominated by some leading Automobile Giants. In order to reduce costs and attain economies of scale, all of these have opened their manufacturing and assembling facilities in developing nations where labor is cheap. Some of these nations are China, India, Brazil, Africa, etc. Presence of manufacturing and assembling facilities in such nations would help to make its distribution network more efficient and reduce overall costs due to cheap labor cost and increase profit margin. Toyota As per production, the Japanese Automobile giant Toyota is the leading automobile company across the globe. Its spread at different places in the World and provides employment to more than 300000 employees. It has total assets worth 100 billion USD and total revenue of Toyota is approximately above than 200 bn USD. Ford Motors The contribution of Ford Motor in shaping the automobile industry is really marvelous. It was founded by great leader and innovator Mr. Henry Ford, a very respectable figure and is credited as pioneer of the innovation in the automobile industry. The first car of Ford was launched by Mr. Henry Ford. The automobile giant has a number of brands under its roof, namely Volvo, Mazda of Japan, and Aston Martin of UK. Maruti Suzuki Maruti Suzuki was started as a joint venture between Maruti of India and Japanese automobile company Suzuki. It’s a listed company on Bombay Stock Exchange. It’s one amongst leading company operating in the South East Asian Region. According to the facts, the revenue generated by Maruti Suzuki in 2009 is estimated close to 5 billion USD. Maruti Suzuki at present is source of employment for more than six thousand people in India for its operation. All of these automobile biggies play a major role in the way industry is progressing. These players lead in the global production and sales and govern the market in different continents.

1.3 MAJOR ELEMENTS OF THE AUTOMOBILE INDUSTRY The spare parts used in the automobiles carry a major portion of demand. There are a wide variety of spare parts that are used in the automobiles ranging from electrical parts used in automobiles to steering. It’s a fact that spare parts are used for many purposes. The spare parts have an overall share of thirty percent in the industry. A major portion of this is ruled by electrical parts used in the automobile industry. The steering used in automobiles commands around 20 percent of demand in the industry.

FACTORS THAT PUSH FORWARD THE AUTOMOBILE SECTOR There are several growth parameters in the automotive sector. There are many first of its own kind in the automobiles sector which are stated below: 

Every industry is related to one or the other industry in any manner. There are number of industries that depend on a major extent on the automobile industry. The products manufactured by these industries are consumed wholly or partly, either directly or indirectly to fit in the automobiles or providing facility. Some of the industries that are majorly affected are paint industry, rubber, steel, aluminum, petroleum and glass.

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The automobile industry has always proven to be a growth generating sector. It has an unprecedenting capability to take out as many investments from foreign countries as possible. This is the only reason why it’s growing at a much rapid speed.

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The automobile industry has been a fore runner in the growth of technology and use of new technologies for operations. The automobile industry every year invests a large amount of money in Research and Development, which benefits the companies to come out with a meaningful product and gives an edge over its competitors.

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The world is witnessing a change in the dynamics of economy across the globe. Due to increase in the income levels of people living in developing nations like India and china, there is a huge demand of low cost two-wheelers and four-wheelers.

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The automobile sector proves to be a major employer for countries. According to recent facts, the industry is employing 19 mn employers across the globe.

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Like other industries, automobile industry also depends on other industries for growth. Some sectors such as infrastructure, roads being one of the major concern. The availability of easy finance for purchasing, price of diesel and petrol, also are one of the major concerns (Holt, DB 2004).

These days, automobile industry is seeing a change in dynamics, with South East Asian Markets emerging as one of the growth avenue. The automobile industry is slowly and steadily shifting from developed nations to developing nations. Thus countries like Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia are proving and emerging as a great market for the automobile industry. Some of these countries have a huge demand for low cost two-wheelers and four-wheelers. The growth in Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia As per the estimates, the automotive industry of World would reach a level of 1.9 trillion USD. There is a high probability that industry would advance at a higher rate close to forty percent/ year.

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW In the case related to the automobile industry, the prime concern is to assess the earlier researches carried out, and how the value can be added by understanding the problems involved or limitations in the research. Thus, the first step is to assess the sales promotion strategies by taking care of automotive industry.

Today brand communication is one of the major aspects, and automobile industry pays much greater concern to enhance sales by communicating their brand to the customers. Thus making a brand famous and letting others know about product and offerings is a major factor in automobile industry. Around 75% of money is invested by companies to communicate this message to the customers. This planning to invest a particular amount of money is done during budget allocations. Manufacturers encourage their marketing and branding team to create an image, a quality, style and personality amongst customers that influence customers to make a purchase (Kotler, Gary Armstrong, Veronica Wong, John Saunders: 2008).

The sales promotion strategies followed by companies such as offering coupons for purchasing or discounts, discounts on price and attaching gifts with product. The companies try to make customers aware of these offerings by help of different medium of communication like advertisements, billboards, signboards, internet, etc. This helps the customers and if they like the offering, they consider it as a value for deal offer. This is just like adding something extra to the offered product to the customers. This has no effect on quality, neither on quantity, but only focus is to increase sales (Kotler,Gary Armstrong, Veronica Wong, John Saunders: 2008).

2.1 BRANDING AND PROMOTION INITIATIVES

The increasing use of technology in the Automobile Industry by major players at various locations throughout the world has increased the competition to a large extent. Thus customer is posed to a wide array of options to choose from. The Automobile players such as Mercedes, Porsche, Audi operate in the same premium segment in which BMW operates.

Thus any aspect that gives a competitive edge to any player over others become of prime importance. Industry has understood the importance of branding and promotional activities, hence firms are paying more attention to these aspects. A number of brands competing in the segment pay a more attention to create a strong brand name, and follow correct targeting and positioning mechanisms, so that they can attract customers in more efficient manner. The presence of World Wide Web has opened a new era for branding and promotional activities, by help of which a very strong and clear message can be send to the target customers. Firms try to stimulate demand for short term by offering discount, which lures customer to make a purchase instantly.

The prominence of internet cannot be underestimated in today’s era as it’s proving one of the strongest communication media, and companies can run a variety of promotional activities for the product they want to sell. It’s a known fact that every automobile company is carrying one or the other promotional campaign to stimulate demand through internet and increase the visibility of the product in the eyes of customer. The other major factor present in the markets is the availability of several financing options in the form of automobile loans. It’s imperative for the success of automobile industry to have good finance options at place, as majority of people prefer to purchase car on loans (Holt, 2004).

2.2 Brand Management:

BMW is very particular that the brand management function should be carried in a professional manner. The brand management helps to project correct image of the brand in the mind of the customers. It’s responsibility of senior management to make sure that the customers get a consistent amount of exposure from several communication mediums to strengthen the image of brand.

2.3 Customer Relationship Management

The role of customer relationship management in the automobile sector is of significant importance. It’s the duty of Customer relationship manager to fulfill the emerging needs of customers within time. This can be done by following a proper communication medium through which information can be exchanged amongst several entities. The role of after sales service is also very important in automobile industry and it can be improved further by following CRM.

2.4 Management of Core Competency

The companies have come to know that in this competitive world, it’s necessary to have a competitive advantage and have core competency. Developing such core competencies will ensure huge amount of profits for longer time. It’s necessary on part of company to carry a detailed survey about its practices and understand its strengths and weaknesses, and hence develop core competency.

2.5 Managing Innovation

Innovation is a key to stay above competition. If the company is high on innovation, then it can easily survive during tough competitive time in the industry. The innovation factor is cashed by companies when their products stand apart from competing products. The customers not only appreciate the product, but also company gets result in the form of high sales figure.

2.6 Quality Control Systems

The automobile industry has a number of players, hence it becomes very important for companies to have standardized spare parts and other entities (Andrew, 1991).

2.7 BUSINESS-to-BUSINESS (B2B) STRATEGY:

Any brand in world wishes to win the confidence of customer, and they remain loyal towards the brand. This enforces brands to design business tactics which are in favor of customers and they

enjoy their support for longer run. A loyal customer is just like an asset of a company and help brand managers to finally reach the right product line (Adcock, Dennis, Al Halborg, Caroline Ross: 2001).

A deep study must be done before selecting any promotional activity in order to increase sales from Industrial Marketing perspective. A number of strategies are considered and in the meantime the most befitting technique is opted, and is customized as per the needs of target segment (Kotler, and Pfoertsch, Waldemar: 2006).

Finance Deals: Sometimes you wonder what stops people to buy some very good quality products instantly? Well the answer to this question is the lack of ready finance at hand. In this competitive world, if any company provides attractive deals on financing the services, then it can definitely come up as a major benefit for the company. Some of the options like flexible financing may also help customers to select the best deal of the options available to them (Miller & Muir, 2004).

Trade Sales Promotion: The retailers are normally the people who directly face customers. So, if the company is targeting high end sales then it can motivate the retailers to increase the sales volume and hence enhance the targets. For this companies try to come up with very good and attractive schemes for retailers like monetary gifts, holiday packages, tours, etc. Some of the methods used under this are:

Trade Allowances: The trade allowances are normally given to retailers that maintain a well calculated amount of inventory, and do not go out of the stock at the time of peak demand, due to lack of supply. It’s a reward to distributors for saving the huge loss of the company in the form of customer loss (Miller & Muir, 2004).

Dealer Loader: This technique is used by companies to motivate dealers to purchase more vehicles from company and participate in all promotional activities carried by company and push these products towards customers so that they can buy more. The companies accordingly provide handsome incentives to the dealer for their efforts. Such acts on the part of company keep the motivational level among the dealers and hence prove beneficial.

2.9.1 NEED FOR PRODUCT PROMOTION:

In this competitive world where many brands are competing to attract the eyeballs, it becomes important for every company to go for product promotion. Some of the reasons for product promotion are: Promotion is very important for every industry because with the help of these activities product gain its recognition in the mind of the consumers. In this competitive era these activities gained top most priority. Necessity for promotion attains its peak when:

1) when an automobile major is going to launch a new car in a selected segment. 2) To attract new customers and keeping them aware of the new offers. 3) When company want to attain a particular brand image and increase sales volume. 4) To remain competitive in the market and creating a competitive edge over others. 5) To keep distributors updated and aware of the new offerings (Joshi, Rakesh Mohan: 2005).

2.9.2 EFFECTS OF PROMOTION: According to the present situation, we cannot underestimate the importance of promotional activities. There must be a proper promotional plan at place. Some automobile giants like Toyota, BMW, Volkswagen, Daimler, Nissan, Honda,have almost same target segment, where competition is really tough. In order to outperform competition and stay above others its really necessary that firm should have a promotional plan and marketing department should work hard to implement them successfully. Today customers are well aware and want to assess all the options in the market before purchasing a product. Thus promotional campaign works in order to present product in the right manner in front of target segment, so that it always remain at the top of the mind of customers. The promotional campaigns also try to assure customers that they are getting value for money and had all the desired features. The promotional mix of company tries to increase sales which directly result in increase in the revenue of the company. (Joshi, Rakesh Mohan: 2005). 2.10 PROMOTIONAL STRATEGY 1. DECIDING THE RIGHT PROMOTIONAL MIX: While formulating the right promotional strategies many things should be taken into consideration like 4P’s of promotional mix. So it is first responsibility of the company to designed effective promotional strategies so that there should not be any deviation and purpose of these activities should be fulfilled for which segment it is designed. An effective promotional strategy is one which helps in generating revenue, increases its sales and helps in reduction of cost. Company need to do continuous record that how much they have spent and how much revenue they have generated. They can do this analysis by calculating ratios. Many factors that should be taken into account those are: Nature of Automotives should be taken into consideration. There are certain groups of customers, if the strategy is not planned well according to the needs of the customer, then its evident that company would lose out to its competitors. So, marketing department should work hard to devise strategy that concentrates more on different product and their segments. (Joshi, Rakesh Mohan: 2005).

2.11 BRANDING: As mentioned earlier, brand is the name, sign or symbol that is designed to differentiate one organization’s offerings from others. This will enable the organization to attain sustainable competitive advantage over competitors. It’s because of this fact that branding becomes a parameter of high strategic importance. In today’s competitive world, strategic brand management includes of carving and sustaining high margins of brand equity in relatively measurable terms (Gregory, James: 2003). Currently, it is needful to differentiate your product from other products. It is an important tool for the companies not only to differentiate its product but also to create positive image and tend customer to purchase their product. And the most important thing is to cater which will satisfy them. All product offered by the company should be branded and utilize proper methods of segmentation, targeting and positioning (David, 2001). It’s brand value that helps the capture the market which they are targeting & helps in collecting premium. If all the marketing activities are carried in a desired manner it will result in increase the profitability of the company. Main of effective management of brands are:1. Messages should reach to the target consumer in the right manner at the right time. 2. To maintain high level of credibility in the market. 3. To emotionally connect target prospects with the brand. 4. To achieve a high level of customer loyalty. 5. To motivating the target segment to buy the product. It’s necessary to understand the fact that success of branding to a greater extent depends on the needs of the intended customers. Source: (darkmattermatters.files.wordpress.com) It can be concluded that brand is all about how your customer perceives your product. ( Joshi, Rakesh Mohan: 2005). 2.12AIMING AT THE TARGET USER GROUP: If company understand that to whom they want to target their product that to be produced by them than they will be able to cater that market with augumented product that will satisfy their customer. In case they have selected wrong target market that they should reconsider their strategy. They must understand its boundaries, identify and then mention target customers which it’s targeting (Aaker, 2004).

2.12.2 Brand Strategy:

Brand strategy is applies to product & service which is offered by the company for customer whom they want to serve. Marketing department must understand entire process of branding carried out by the company. There are a number of barriers that restrict companies in successfully branding a product or a service, and it’s essential that marketer should have a complete knowledge of these barriers. Such hindrances should be tackled properly, so that organization progress in the accurate path (Miller & Muir: 2004). In branding and promotion activity of the company there are different types of hindrances these are as: Financial constraints limit companies to invest more amount of money into the sales, marketing, promotional activities, etc. Location: The preference and taste of the customers change according to the location. Thus customers at one place might prefer one product over other, while customers at some other location might prefer some other product. Thus location is one of the most important considerations while formulating the brand strategy. Timing: For formulating brand strategy product and services of the industry plays a crucial role. In performance of industry, the strategies may have longer effect on the company if product was not launched at right time. Competition: Today’s era is competitive era in which many companies are competing on this arena because of this competitive environment effect the branding strategies. If competitors are doing well and offering more services, then it becomes extremely tough on the part of first company, as they also have to offer services or else suffer by losing out to the competitor. It really becomes very tough to out play the competing company. Demand rate: All the branding and promotional activities have to suffer if there is a decline in the demand of the product or service of the company in the global economy. Thus decrease in demand will badly affect branding and promotional activities of the products (Holt, DB: 2004). In case company fails to meet their target, than they should try to make some necessary changes, in order to be on track. To achieve their in this global competitive arena & maintain the image of their brand. Selecting right channel to reach the potential customers and finally implementation of the strategy (Holt, DB, 2004). 2.13FINDING THE OJECTIVES OF THE BRANDS: Most important is to consider the goal of the company in order to achieve the targets and effective management of brand. Thus identification of the goals helps in the proper management of the brand. Image that companies want to emphasize should be able to clearly outline personality of the company in a right manner. When companies do branding of their product and services than it must depict the core competencies of the brand (Holt, DB: 2004). Effective management in an organization is required, if the firm wants to create a strong brand image for it and positions it correctly. A strong brand image acts as an asset for the company. Therefore companies must do complete analysis before taking any decision related to management of their brand. Which will result easily achieve its goals. (Holt, DB:2004).

CHAPTER 3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY RESEARCH METHODOLOGY AIM OF THE STUDY 

The main aim of carrying out this research is to collect data, study and then analyze that data.

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To find out the effect of branding and promotional strategies used by BMW and on its sales.

OBJECTIVES OF RESEARCH 

To carry out a research, in order to find out the correct processes used for branding of the spare parts of BMW

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To understand the effects of branding at the overall sales of BMW.

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To find the ways in which BMW does branding of its products.

PURPOSE OF THE STUDY

Every research has to find out answer of some questions. There may be many reasons for conducting research at the first place. The actual reason of conducting such research is to answer

questions like finding the true potential of branding on the offerings of company. The other questions that need to be answered are to understand the strategies used in the automobile industry in accordance to branding of the product. These things help a lot in order to increase the profit levels as well as profit margins (Bridson, 2004).

The analysis of methods and strategies of branding would prove helpful for the companies, as there is a direct correlation between branding efforts of company and methodologies which are used to increase the sales. A company should follow right practices, and hence the sales of the companies start to rise and transform into results in the form of profits collected by company.

Quantitative method is one of many methods that are classified under quantitative techniques, and is this method has a method full of mathematical data and calculations. Hence we are provided with a tangible set of data which we can easily manipulate.

Advantages of Quantitative method:

It’s very efficient method, when it comes to approve or disapprove the research hypothesis. The statistical tools are used in order to analyze the set of quantitative data. It would help us in reaching out to the results with confidence. It shows how much unbiased are the results obtained from quantitative research. It would help us in testing and verifying the qualitative research.

3.3 QUALITATIVE METHODOLOGY

The qualitative methodologies unlike quantitative methodologies do not have numerical calculations. In qualitative methodology major concentration is at various levels that interact with each other and are reached through interviews, sometimes personal, telephonic or in some other form. The non numeric data can be handled in a better fashion by following this method. The data can be gathered and assessed through number of ways. Some of these qualitative methodologies are stated below:

Action Research: This is the research method in which main concern is on the number of conditions that cause problems for users. Accordingly, the solutions for these problems are found that from a part of behavior.

Benefits of using the Qualitative method: 

The researcher can easily transform the questionnaire, as per the answers of the previous person interviewed. This is one of the most enduring facilities of using this method. The researcher can use his own thoughts on how he can interrogate with the respondents in effective manner and can get response of some tough questions. Apart from this, he/she is independent to provide some inputs by making some necessary changes in the set of questions asked from the respondents.

Sampling method used for this research: The sampling method used for the research method is Deliberate Sampling. Deliberate Sampling is also known as Non-Probability Sampling. In this method some units are deliberately selected from the units of universe for making a sample, the unit selected can be considered to represent the universe. In Deliberate sampling, when the selection is based on the ease of access to the sample it is known as Convenience Sampling. This method is basically used for knowing the perception of the consumers of BMW. . 3.5 PURPOSE OF RESEARCH In this research, the characteristic has descriptive properties. When the research was performed, several research tools would be used at various other levels to find one or the other thing. The techniques like explanatory or exploratory can be used to analyze the data. The prime objective of this research is to find out the effect of branding and sales promotion from the design point of view, while purpose of this research from humanistic point is to increase the amount of services provided by companies. The research would help to get a better view of the automobile industry. It would also help to unleash some facts that how the strategy is implemented by any company. In how many layers this planning of strategy is done. Some of the sections like literature review would help to provide some thorough understanding about the strategies devised by the company (Paul, 2006).

CHAPTER 4 CONCLUSION 5.1CURRENT SITUATION OF THE AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY

Starting from the Second World, it’s evident from the data collected about the Automobile Industry that it’s going through rapid phase of transition. As per the data, around 70 million products were offered in market in 2008. These products ranged from personal cars to the vehicles used in commercial market. During last year, around seventy nine million vehicles were sold. But, soon the major markets for automobile industry like Japan and USA started to slow down due to global downturn. But as the dynamics started to change, demand in BRIC nations started to blossom at an unimaginable pace (The Economist, 2006). According to the facts, there are 750 million automobile industry around the World, and for this approximately 250 million gallons of fuel are utilized. There is an ever unprecedenting increase in the income level of people living in developing nations like India and China. So running a large number of vehicles is one of the main reasons for increment in the pollution levelsResult of Analysis of data: If any company wants to compete in the Global market place, it’s very important for them to develop core competency, and that is possible only by devising effective strategies. Companies these days rely heavily on branding and promotional activities to increase their market share. Around 77% of consumers are opined that branding and promotional activities are really very important for any firm to survive. Around 15% consumers opined that it’s fairly important. Around 85% of consumers think that branding strategies of BMW is effective, and very few believe that it’s less effective. Most of all, consumers have set a mindset that branding and promotional activities lure customers towards themselves. Thus, it’s proved that promotion and branding efforts attract the attention and remain in customer’s mind.

CHAPTER 5 RECOMMENDATIONS RECOMMENDATIONS The automobile giants which are performing in the industry must know the changing demands, needs and trends of customers, so that they can come up with an augmented product. This force the companies operating on older technologies and following older methods to shift to new technologies which are far superior are able to cater the demands of customers on time. Due to increasing awareness and internet, consumers are well aware of the competing products in the same group. It’s compelling companies to gain competitive advantage over other competitors. Companies have understood the importance of branding and promotional activities in the bottom line of firms. The company wants to reassure a fact that all of its branding and promotional efforts are aimed to cater to the needs of customers. Thus for long term benefits, it’s essential that product

must be branded effectively. Firms can lure their potential customers by providing attractive financing options, giving discounts sometimes off seasonal discounts and after all providing them with a nice after sales service.