Capstone Project On TO STUDY THE IMPACT OF PROMOTIONAL ACTIVITIES ON THE SALE OF MOBILE HANDSET IN DOABA REGION

Submitted to Lovely Professional University In partial fulfillment of the Requirements for the award of Degree of Master of Business Administration

Submitted by: Abhishek Kumar (7020070025) Ketki Jain (7020070005) Ashish Pandey (3020070068) Navpreet singh (3020070124)

DEPARTMENT OF MANAGEMENT LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY JALANDHAR NEW DELHI GT ROAD PHAGWARA PUNJAB

TO WHOMSOEVER IT MAY CONCERN

This is to certify that the project titled ________________________________________________________________ carried out by Mr/Ms_________________(student Mr/Ms_________________(student Mr/Ms_________________(student Mr/Ms_________________(student name), name), name), name), S/o S/o S/o S/o or or or or D/o____________(Fathers D/o____________(Fathers D/o____________(Fathers D/o____________(Fathers Name). Name) Name) Name)

has been accomplished under my guidance & supervision as a duly registered MBA student of the Lovely Professional University, Phagwara. Their project represents his original.

___________________________________ (Name & Signature of the Faculty Advisor) Date:

DECLARATION

sWe,"______________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________ (student's name), Hereby declare that the work presented herein is genuine work done originally by us and has not been published or submitted elsewhere for the requirement of a masters program. Any literature, data or works done by others and cited within this synopsis has been given due acknowledgement and listed in the reference section.

_______________________ _______________________ _______________________ _______________________ (Students name & Signature) Date:__________________

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

All things are possible with God.

Modern education system is incomplete without the professional education. So, I am studying in MBA (Master of Business Administration).we have done our capstone project on topic To study the impact of promotional activities on the sale of Mobile handset in DOABA region

Firstly, I wish to express my profound gratitude to the Almighty god with whose is great blessing I have been able to complete this chapter of my life. I feel great pleasure in acknowledge contribution of those who helped me in the preparing and completing my project report. During this project duration, firstly, I would like to thanks to my educational institute lovely professional university, Phagwara specially, Mr. Vivek Chaturvedi (project guide) and my MBA Teachers. How can I forget my parents who gave me permission and encouragement for this task. I also thank to my family

Great gain makes work easy

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The main advantages associated with promotional sales are-an easy way to learn customer response and it work fast. It also an inexpensive marketing technique, Sales promotion does not always bring positive impact to business, sometime this type of promotion cause negative brand impact to customers mind in the long-term. So, a promotional campaign needs to be designed taking into account the consequences of losing brand value. A PIMS study of 1991 suggests that overuse of sales promotion brings low ROI, almost 15% less, in comparison to balanced and calculated promotional offers. It is advisable not to use sales promotion as a tool of brand imaging, advertising is always the best way as far as branding is concerned. So, marketers need to be careful and must understand the difference between the sales promotion and advertising.

Objective of sales promotion: Before designing a promotional campaign, you must identify the target groups. This is done by breaking up of your product markets and identification of small groups of consumers whose wants and needs are not the same as the mass market as a whole-this is one of the key to success in sales promotion. For finding the target group you need to take a qualitative research on the market to determine your groups of customers, if the target group exists then find out their needs & wants, and what drives them to buy your product. After learning about the target groups, you must set the objectives of sales promotion which is all about why you want to achieve in sales promotion campaign and how your customers will be benefits. Other aspects of sales objectives are: budget of the promotion and duration of the promotional offer.

Examples of Sales objectives

Many marketers use the promotional sales as a tool to learn the response of the first time users, by offering reduced price, sales coupons, or money-back guarantees.

To increase the repeat purchase from the existing users. It can work as an introductory platform for a new product. But a hosing plan and get a domain name free.

Sales promotion is a vehicle to defend your business against your competitors. By giving your users free coupons upon buying every products so as they can get considerable discount on the next purchase with a specified time will certainly bind your customers with your products and it will unlikely that they will switch on a new brand, even if it being highly competitive.

Try to target and find a new segment in the market by focusing geographic and psychology of users such as users with high and low purchasing needs. Normally, arranging a competition or contents are very helpful for targeting a specific interest group.

INDEX TOPIC PAGE NO

Chapter 1 Introduction....1
1.1 Indian telecom industry....2 1.2 Sales promotion.4 1.3 Evolution of telecom industry...6 1.4 Factors facilitating growth.....7 1.5 Mobile phone brands in India10 1.6 Current scenario.....11

Chapter 2 Review of Literature..12 25 Chapter 3 Research Methodology...26 29 Chapter 4 Data Interpretation..30 47 Chapter 5 Findings and Recommendations.48
5.1 Findings..49 5.2 Limitations..50 5.3 Recommendations...51 5.4 Conclusion...52

Chapter 6 References.....53 Chapter 7 Annexure.56

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

Indian telecom industry:

The telecom industry has been divided into two major segments, that is, fixed and wireless cellular services for this report. In todays information age, the telecommunication industry has a vital role to play. Considered as the backbone of industrial and economic development, the industry has been aiding delivery of voice and data services at rapidly increasing speeds, and thus, has been revolutionising human communication. Although the Indian telecom industry is one of the fastest-growing industries in the world, the current teledensity or telecom penetration is extremely low when compared with global standards. Indias teledensity of 36.98% in FY09 is amongst the lowest in the world. Further, the urban teledensity is over 80%, while rural teledensity is less than 20%, and this gap is increasing. As majority of the population resides in rural areas, it is important that the government takes steps to improve rural teledensity. No doubt the government has taken certain policy initiatives, which include the creation of the Universal Service Obligation Fund, for improving rural telephony. These measures are expected to improve the rural tele-density and bridge the rural-urban gap in tele-density.

Introduction - Evolution Indian telecom sector is more than 165 years old. Telecommunications was first introduced in India in 1851 when the first operational land lines were laid by the government near Kolkata (then Calcutta), although telephone services were formally introduced in India much later in 1881. Further, in 1883, telephone services were merged with the postal system. In 1947, after India attained independence, all foreign telecommunication companies were nationalised to form the Posts, Telephone and Telegraph (PTT), a body that was governed by the Ministry of Communication. The Indian telecom sector was entirely under government ownership until 1984, when the private sector was allowed in telecommunication equipment manufacturing only. The government concretized its earlier efforts towards developing R&D in the sector by
9

setting up an autonomous body Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DOT) in 1984 to develop state-of-the-art telecommunication technology to meet the growing needs of the Indian telecommunication network. The actual evolution of the industry started after the Government separated the Department of Post and Telegraph in 1985 by setting up the Department of Posts and the Department of Telecommunications (DoT). The entire evolution of the telecom industry can be classified into three distinct phases.

Phase I- Pre-Libralisation Era (1980-89) Phase II- Post Libralisation Era (1990-99) Phase III- Post 2000

Until the late 90s the Government of India held a monopoly on all types of communications as a result of the Telegraph Act of 1885. As mentioned earlier in the chapter, until the industry was liberalised in the early nineties, it was a heavily government-controlled and small-sized market, Government policies have played a key role in shaping the structure and size of the Telecom industry in India. As a result, the Indian telecom market is one of the most liberalised market in the world with private participation in almost all of its segments. The New Telecom Policy (NTP-99) provided the much needed impetus to the growth of this industry and set the trend for libralisation in the industry.

10

Sales promotion
Sales promotions are marketing strategies companies use chiefly to increase sales temporarily to gain sales volume and market share. They are occasionally used to clear out year-end inventory before new models arrive in showrooms as is often done in the automobile industry. Sales promotions are also used as a competitive strategy to undercut competition by offering a lower price or other incentive. Although sales promotions usually produce sales volume over and above what is typically the case, they do not build brand identity and loyalty.

Types of Sales Promotion

Many types of sales promotions can induce a consumer to buy your goods or services. A product sample delivered to the consumer's door is a good way to introduce a new product, but also one of the most expensive. Coupons offering a discount off the usual price, cash refunds or rebates redeemable after purchase, and prizes or sweepstakes are also ways of attracting consumer attention.

Measuring Effect of Sales Promotion

Measuring the effect of a sales promotion is relatively easy but requires careful analysis of sales data before and after the promotion. You will also need to keep track of what other marketing and communication efforts and dollars your firm is undertaking at the same time as the sales promotion. Because sales promotions deal in tangible things, such as redeemed coupons or cash refunds and rebates, you can count those and see how many sales were a result of those promotions. Next, compare those sales figures to those your company had before the promotion to see if the promotion resulted in increased sales. To understand the true effect of the promotion, keep other media expenditures and types the same during the promotion as before. That way you are only measuring the effect of the sales promotion itself.
11

Effectiveness Vs. Goals

Deciding whether your promotional campaign was effective depends on what goals were established. This varies by the established strategy at the start of the campaign. For example, if the goal of the campaign was to garner an increase in market share of 2 percentage points and the campaign yielded 3, then the campaign was successful. But, this also has to be examined in light of cost. If the cost of the additional market share was well beyond the budget set aside for the promotional push, then the campaign's effectiveness is mixed.

Short- Vs. Long-Term Impact

Although an effective sales promotion will increase sales in the short-term, generally there no longer-term impact. For established brands, many customers will wait for the promotion to buy and to take advantage of the lower price. And, for many brands, most buyers were already familiar with the brand before the promotion. The promotion may have done little to attract new buyers or to encourage brand switching. Sales Promotions in Highly Competitive Markets Sales promotions have their place in marketing even though they tend to instill a higher degree of price sensitivity among consumers. For new product introductions in competitive markets where there is a need to familiarize a group of consumers with a new product, sales promotions are a highly effective tool. And, in established competitive markets where gains in market share count for the bragging rights the increased share might offer, sales promotions are also an effective method to increase sales volume.

12

13

Factors Facilitating Growth of the Sector

The phenomenal growth in the Indian telecom industry was brought about by the wireless revolution that began in the nineties. Besides this, the following factors also aided the growth of the industry.

Liberalisation
The relaxation of telecom regulations has played a major role in the development of the Indian telecom industry. The liberalisation policies of 1991 and the consequent influx of private players have led the industry on a high growth trajectory and have increased the level of competition. Post-liberalisation, the telecom industry has received more investments and has implemented higher technology.

Increasing Affordability of Handsets

The phenomenal growth in the Indian telecom industry was predominantly aided by the meteoric rise in wireless subscribers, which encouraged mobile handset manufacturers to enter the market and to cater to the growing demand. Further, the manufacturers introduced lowerpriced handsets with add-on facilities to cater to the increasing number of subscribers from different strata of the society. Now even entry-level handsets come with features like coloured display and FM radio. Thus, the falling handset prices and the add-on features have triggered growth of the Indian telecom industry.

Prepaid Cards Bring in More Subscribers

In the late nineties, India was introduced to prepaid cards, which was yet another milestone for the wireless sector. Prepaid cards lured more subscribers into the industry besides lowering the credit risk of service providers due to its upfront payment concept. Prepaid cards were quite a phenomenon among first-time users who wanted to control their bills and students who had limited resources but greater need to be connected. Pre-paid cards greatly helped the cellular market to grow rapidly and cater to the untapped market. Further, the introduction of innovative

14

schemes like recharge coupons of smaller denominations and life time incoming free cards has led to an exponential growth in the subscriber base.

Introduction of Calling Party Pays (CPP)

The CPP regime was introduced in India in 2003 and under this regime, the calling party who initiated the call was to bear the entire cost of the call. This regime came to be applicable for mobile to mobile calls as well as fixed line to mobile calls. So far India had followed the Receiving Party Pays (RPP) system where the subscriber used to pay for incoming calls from both mobile as well as fixedline networks. Shifting to the CPP system has greatly fuelled the subscriber growth in the sector.

Changing Demographic Profile

The changing demographic profile of India has also played an important role in subscriber growth. The changed profile is characterised by a large young population, a burgeoning middle class with growing disposable income, urbanisation, increasing literacy levels and higher adaptability to technology. These new features have multiplied the need to be connected always and to own a wireless phone and therefore, in present times mobiles are perceived as a utility rather than a luxury.

Increased Competition & Declining Tariffs

Liberalisation of the telecom industry has fuelled intense competition, especially in the cellular segment. The ever-increasing competition has led to high growth of subscribers and has put pressure on tariffs, which have seen a sharp drop over the years. When the cellular phones were introduced, call rates were at a peak of Rs 16 per minute and there were charges for incoming calls too. Today, however, incoming calls are no longer charged and outgoing calls are charged at less than a rupee per minute. Thus, the tariff war has come a long way indeed. Increased competition and the subsequent tariff war has acted as a major catalyst for attracting more subscribers. Apart from these major growth drivers, an improved network coverage, entry of CDMA players, growth of value-added services (VAS), advancement in technology, and growing data services have also driven the growth of the industry.
15

The telecom industry in India has experienced exponential growth over the past few years and has been an important contributor to economic growth; however, the cut-throat competition and intense tariff wars have had a negative impact on the revenue of players. Despite the challenges, the Indian telecom industry will thrive because of the immense potential in terms of new users. India is one of the most-attractive telecom markets because it is still one of the lowest penetrated markets. The government is keen on developing rural telecom infrastructure and is also set to roll out next generation or 3G services in the country. Operators are on an expansion mode and are investing heavily on telecom infrastructure. Foreign telecom companies are acquiring considerable stakes in Indian companies. Burgeoning middle class and increasing spending power, the governments thrust on increasing rural telecom coverage, favourable investment climate and positive reforms will ensure that Indias high potential is indeed realised

16

MOBILE PHONE BRANDS IN INDIA

17

Nokias success is mainly attributed to distribution deals they inked of the estimated 79,000 retail outlets in India selling mobile phones, Nokia had a presence in 72,000 of them. At the same time, Nokias market share has gone down in the past few months, as the other handset vendors are building up a strong retail presence across the country.

References
http://www.ciol.com/Technology/Mobility/News-Reports/Indian-mobile-handset-mkt-grows-15pc-in-FY-2011/151639/0/ http://www.google.co.in/imghp?hl=en&tab=wi

18

CHAPTER 2 REVIEW OF LITERATURE

19

Review of literature
Alvarez B. A., & Casielles R.V. (2005) described in their study that that it is necessary to consider the product's promotional state at the moment of purchase as an explanatory element of the process. Promotion is a tool that can help manufacturers and/or retailers in the achievement of their objectives (try the brand, help to decide what brand to buy, etc.). Immediate price reduction is the technique that exerts greatest influence on the brand choice process. It is possible that the consumer perceives a promotion, for example, coupons or rebates, but does not modify his or her behaviour. In this case, manufacturers and/or retailers will be investing their resources in promotional actions that do not have any effect on the consumer. American Marketing Association (1995) A GOOD general dictionary tells you that advertising simply means making as thing widely known by circular, etc., but a scrupulously careful scientific handbook tells you that advertising means "the process of notifying or persuading people without personal solicitation" (italics ours). The difference between the two statements makes all the differencenotifying, yes, by all means; persuading, a much more hesitant yes. The kind of thing that bothers most people about advertising is the patent-medicine advertisement that blurs the distinction between palliatives and cures, the advertisement for pills that vulgarly disfigures a lovely landscape, the window-dressing that induces people to buy what they do not need and cannot afford. Evidently advertising touches psychology, ethics and sthetics as well as economics. Of all this the author of this fine book is perfectly well aware. He promises to deal later on with "the various ethical and social problems raised by the practice of commercial advertising". In this volume he adheres to his purpose as indicated in the title. The book is packed with information and suggestions coming from one who is obviously master of his subject, who has lived it as well as studied it, and who helps the reader to form a judgment as to the immediate future of advertising. Borges A., Cliquet G. , & Fady A. (2005) have stated in their study that if a sales promotion attracts consumers to the store, the hi-lo performance will be uncertain if these consumers buy only promoted categories. Retailers need to pay attention to avoid promoting categories that are frequently bought together in the same promotional action, or be faced with a strong redundancy effect. This paper proposes a method to decrease redundancy effect without reducing overall
20

promotion utility (and store traffic). The results suggest that grocery stores can avoid redundancy effects by introducing categories with weak conjoint probabilities, resulting in a higher share of full priced products on the consumer baskets without reducing the global utility of the promotion. Chia-Hui Chan, Kuan-Hua Hu (2010) Mobile devices (e.g. smart phone, PDAs, vehicle phone, and e-books) are becoming more popular. However, mobile broadband subscriptions are only 20 percent of the mobile subscriptions. Part of the reasons is due to the high payments requirement for broadband subscriptions. On the other hand, US mobile ad spend will exceed US$1 billion in 2011 according to emarketer.com. Therefore, the idea of this paper is to increase broadband subscribers by providing free or discounted fees through the deployment of mobile advertising framework by the telecommunication system. Telecom operators can run the ads agent platform to attract investments from advertisers. Subscribers read promotional advertisements that are sent to subscribers mobile phones to get discounted payment. While the advertisers pay a reasonable price for advertising, the possible commercial activities will bring revenues to advertisers. As a result, this framework is a triple-win for telecom carriers,

advertisers and subscribers. We describe a framework for delivering appropriate ads of the ideal time at the ideal place to the ideal subscriber is the three key issues on how to show the ads, when to show the ads, and what potential ads to be clicked by the subscribers. We take user velocity and user location into considerate. Chu-Mei Liu (2002) Branding is important to manufacturers, retailers and consumers. Brands with higher brand equity have higher sales. The growth of mobile phone subscriptions is considerably faster in the Philippines. Advertising and promotion are undertaken through cooperation between the service providers and mobile phone manufacturers. The study tries to find out the effects of the different activities on consumer choice of mobile phone brands. A total of 800 respondents participated in the survey. Results of the stepwise regression analysis indicate the initial effect of advertisements of service providers is felt during the third iteration but moved during the next iteration phase. The consumers relate information about the service provider with a combination of brand concept and unit usage flexibility. The relationship of variable to choice is significant with only price upward difference with current model showing an inverse relationship and the brand concept commanding the highest positive contribution.
21

Enid (2010) The promotional mix has been used for many years to help explain the promotional activities undertaken by organizations. Promotion is considered to be one of the 4Ps on the marketing mix. The Marketing Communications Mix is the specific mix of advertising, personal selling, sales promotion, public relations, and direct marketing a company uses to pursue its advertising and marketing objectives. In order to decide how too properly to utilize the mix is important to consider the relative strengths and weakness of each component of the mix. The objectives of the promotional mix must be realistic and reasonable. Each promotional element has a different communication capacity, is effective at different stages in the buying process and there is a different level of control over each one. The decision for choice of promotion mix will depend upon several factors such as, the target audience, objectives, complexity of the product, and monetary restraint. The advertising we have known in the past couple of decades has been about interruptions, and the advertising in the future need to be more about engagement (Hughes & Fill, 2007). It is not enough for a business to have good products sold at attractive prices in order to generate sales and profits, the benefits of products have to be communicated to customers.

Ghingold M. (1988) described in his study that Business marketers' sales and promotional costs continue to escalate. These marketers face complex problems in identifying and reaching key influencers in targeted prospect organizations. This article links current developments in industrial buying behavior theory and research to the problem of allocating sales and promotional resources. It defines a customer-driven approach, specifying that marketer actions be linked to the prospect organization's buying activities. Specifically, the phase or stage of the buying process, the makeup of the decision-making unit over time, and the roles played by buying participants, particularly stakeholders, should all dictate the content, timing, and targeting of sales and promotional efforts. An outline framework for allocating these resources is proposed and an overview of how buying and selling activities interact is presented.

Ghosh A. K. (1998) has elaborated in his study that allocation of promotional dollars has moved increasingly from advertising to sales promotions, such as couponing. However, a short-term focus on brand performance could jeopardize long-term brand prospects unless promotional dollars are carefully targeted and based on the needs of the target market. Using scanner panel
22

data, which are widely available, suggests how managers could evaluate current promotional strategies, identify potential opportunities and threats, and refocus promotional efforts to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of promotional plans.

Gilbert D.C., & Jackaria N. (2002) have illustrated in their study that UK supermarkets need to be able to assess the current efficacy of the budget they allocate to promotional activities aimed at boosting sales. Therefore, the main objective of this article is to investigate consumer response to the four different promotional deals most commonly used in UK supermarkets: coupons, price discounts, samples and buy-one-get-one-free. Multi discriminant analysis was used on a study of 160 respondents to analyse whether there was an association between the four consumer promotional approaches and respondents reported buying behaviour. The findings indicate that only price discount promotions proved to be statistically significant on consumers reported buying behaviour. Purchase acceleration and product trial are found to be the two most influential variables related to a discount. For buy-one-get-one-free, while the result is not significant, the two variables, brand switching and purchase acceleration are statistically significant.

Hartley S. W.,& Cross J.(1988) have enumarated in their study that Expenditures for sales promotion activities have increased dramatically during the past decade. Along with this added emphasis, however, have come some undesirable effects. This article considers some of the key issues that influence sales promotion decisions. It describes current sales promotion activities, identifies some of the negative consequences of these activities, introduces a cost-benefit philosophy for sales promotion decisions, and proposes a specific method for making those decisions.

Jianan Wu ,Victor J. Cook Jr. , Edward C. Strong (2005) Internet firms frequently employ a two-stage approach to promotional activities. In Stage 1, they attract customers to their websites through advertising. In Stage 2, firms generate sales transactions or sales leads through their website.

23

Comprehensive assessment of the promotional performance of pure online firms requires the study of Stage 1 and of Stage 2 jointly. In this paper we develop a joint two-stage conceptual and econometric model for assessing website promotion on three important dimensions: (1) How advertising response can be measured by linking media schedules to website log files; (2) How advertising and website characteristics jointly affect the desired system outcome of the promotion; (3) Whether the joint investigation of advertising response and desired system outcomes is essential to assess the results of website promotion. Three general findings follow from application of our model to a pure online firms campaign to generate sales leads through print advertising. First, advertising and website characteristics affect sales leads in different ways. A characteristic may influence sales leads directly, or indirectly, or both. Second, assessing advertising effectiveness in an online environment may not require costly survey research data. Instead, secondary data available from website log files may be used for such assessment. Third, the interaction between the first and second stages of our two-stage model can lead to misspecifications that produce misleading inferences. This occurs because the unobserved characteristics in generating website visits and sales leads may be correlated.

Kimball R. (1989) described in his study that Investigates the role and management of sales promotion in US companies. Reports on a study intended to identify factors that influence sales promotion management. Concludes that the product category and the firm's position within the category are related to sales promotion behaviour, with similarity in sales promotion behaviour among firms in similar product marketing environments. fulltext.ausport.gov.au/fulltext/1997/cjsm/v1n1/wthomas1.htm Leppniemi M., Karjaluoto H.(2008) have described in their study that the results suggest that women are more active than men in their responses to SMS call-to-action campaigns. In addition, the results indicate that mobile advertising is not only for teenagers. For instance, consumers in the 36-45 age group were most likely to respond to SMS calls-to-action in a television program and participate in SMS sweepstakes and other competitions. However, the youngest consumers most actively ordered mobile services using SMS. In addition, it was found that employment status had a substantial impact on consumers' SMS campaign activity.
24

Liu S.S. (1995) stated in her study that The pharmaceutical industry applies the marketing dichotomy of industrial/consumer goods in formulating its marketing strategies. Hong Kong has both prescription and dispensing markets, whereas China is mostly a prescription market with regard to Western medicine. Although the patient is generally the ultimate user in both cases, medical practitioners in each of these countries have a rather unique and often multiple role in the purchasing process of pharmaceutical products. Examines the relative importance of various factors which influence the prescribing decisions of medical practitioners in Hong Kong and China. Findings indicate a similar perception about the extent of influence for interpersonal/organizational factors but different perceptions regarding marketing/promotional tools among medical practitioners in different types of practice/market segment.

Liu C.M. (2002) has elaborated in his study that Branding is important to manufacturers, retailers and consumers. Brands with higher brand equity have higher sales. The growth of mobile phone subscriptions is considerably faster in the Philippines. Advertising and promotion are undertaken through cooperation between the service providers and mobile phone manufacturers. The study tries to find out the effects of the different activities on consumer choice of mobile phone brands. A total of 800 respondents participated in the survey. Results of the stepwise regression analysis indicate the initial effect of advertisements of service providers is felt during the third iteration but moved during the next iteration phase. The consumers relate information about the service provider with a combination of brand concept and unit usage flexibility. The relationship of variable to choice is significant with only price upward difference with current model showing an inverse relationship and the brand concept commanding the highest positive contribution. Md. Hussain(1999) The effectiveness of a sales promotion can be examined by decomposing the sales "bump" during the promotion period into sales increase due to brand switching, purchase time acceleration, and stockpiling. The author proposes a method for such a decomposition whereby brand sales are considered the result of consumer decisions about when, what, and how much to buy. The impact of marketing variables on these three consumer decisions is captured by an Erlang-2 interpurchase time model, a multinomial logit model of brand choice, and a cumulative logit model of purchase quantity. The models are estimated with
25

IRI scanner panel data for regular ground coffee. The results indicate that more than 84% of the sales increase due to promotion comes from brand switching (a very small part of which may be switching between different sizes of the same brand). Purchase acceleration in time accounts for less than 14% of the sales increase, whereas stockpiling due to promotion is a negligible phenomenon accounting for less than 2% of the sales increase. Martnez-Ruiz et al (2006) have stated in their study that an estimation of the shape of the deal effect curve, indicating which temporary price discounts are more effective to increase sales and showing the existence of different threshold and saturation levels. Confirms that promotional price discounts accelerate sales especially during week ends. Evidences that promoting highpriced (high-quality) brands has a stronger impact on sales of low-priced (low-quality) brands than the reverse and that cross-price effects are stronger on the sales of brands with similar prices. Suggests the convenience of the use of the proposed semiparametric methodology to the study of the promotional effects considered. McGoldrick P. J., Betts E. J.,& Keeling K.A. (2000) have described in their study that In spite of importance of promotion within pricing strategies, seasonal sales have received little attention within the literature. The recent interest in high-low pricing has, however, increased the attention given to temporal shifts in store-wide, rather than item level, prices. Following a brief review, this paper draws upon two case studies of leading retailers of apparel in the UK. Evidence is also presented from audits of pricing and markdown activities over a three-year period, illustrating some contrasts between stated strategies and actual pricing activities. A costbenefit analysis of high-low pricing requires knowledge of consumer preferences and attitudes. Results are drawn from a study of over 2,600 sale shoppers, indicating stated preferences for markdown frequency, depth and coverage. In general sale shoppers appear to prefer a variety of markdown levels, increasing their scope to succeed as bargain hunters.

Nrhinen M., Nissinen A.,& Puska P. (2000) illustrated in their study that To test the feasibility of the use of supermarket sales data in evaluating a local point of purchase intervention and to assess the impact of the intervention six and 12 months later. Staged point of purchase intervention pilot study followed by a longitudinal observational study. The study was carried out in one supermarket in Mikkeli, Finland. Foods were classified as healthier or
26

reference products based on their labelled content of salt and saturated fat. The sales of packaged foods containing reduced amounts of salt and/or saturated fat were promoted with a stepwise increasing intervention culminating in a heart week. In addition all unplanned promotional activities during the intervention were surveyed. Information on the sales of both the promoted products and reference products was collected daily from the supermarkets computer system. Direct and proportional sales of both single products and whole food groups were analysed during the intervention and at follow-up. In addition the supermarket environment and the supermarkets advertising in the local newspaper were checked. Short-term variations in the sales could be seen related to the promotion activities. During the heart week the sales of actively promoted healthier products increased by 37-49 per cent. Variations in the sales of reference products could also be seen; the proportional sales of some healthier products declined significantly when the reference products were actively promoted. The supermarket environment was still affected by the intervention at both follow-ups. The mean percentage salt content of the weekly sales had declined in all food groups and the mean percentage fat content had either declined or remained unchanged. Computerised sales data provide a useful and rapid means of evaluating supermarket based interventions. The intervention had an impact on the supermarket environment which was visible at follow-up.

Norwood McMillian, Stephen R. Lucas, Benton E. Miles (2010) This paper presents the effectiveness of a promotional effort to increase target-market awareness. The marketing activities included survey design and implementation, conducting focus groups, developing ads, and evaluating the promotional activity. In an effort to acquire knowledge and experience, the students in a class (Promotional Management) were given the opportunity to offer a research service to a clients products and services. The knowledge obtained by the students will enhance them as they enter the workforce and the experience will aid the students in competing for positions in marketing. The service provided to the client is invaluable because of the pertinent information that was gained about non business majors and the exposure that was gained from the promotional campaign activities. Parsons A. G., & Ballantine P. W. (2004) have revealed in their study that shopping malls is the sameness of them. Despite this, shopping mall groups are increasingly using group
27

branding as the basis for promotional activities, emphasising the security for the customer of knowing that they will receive the same level of mix, no matter which branch is shopped at. This research examines the effectiveness of group versus local promotional activities, with the premise that level of local market dominance will impact on the effectiveness of both promotional types. The two key performance indicators of sales and foot traffic were used to measure effectiveness. Findings suggest that promotional type and level of market dominance have significant effects on sales and traffic. Managerial implications are offered, along with suggestions for future research extending this study to other retail groups.

Paulo Albuquerque , Polykarpos Pavlidis, Udi Chatow, Kay-Yut Chen, Zainab Jam(2010) We develop a modeling approach to explain demand for an online platform of user-generated content, and measure the impact of marketingactivities on decisions to visit the platform and on decisions to create and buy content. The model explains individual-level choices as a function of consumer characteristics and marketing activities, allowing for interdependence of decisions within and across users. We apply our model to the Hewlett-Packard's (HP) print-on-demand service of user-created magazines, named MagCloud. We use two distinct data sets to show the applicability of our approach: an aggregate-level data set from Google Analytics and an individual-level data set from HP. Our results compare four types of marketing activities: price promotions, firm online activities, content creator referrals, and public relations efforts. We show that price promotions have strong effects on purchases, while content creator referrals and public relations have significant effects on all user decisions. We provide recommendations to the level of the firm's investments and quantify the benefits of free promotional activities from content creators. According to our findings, marketing actions from content creators generate about half of the business of MagCloud. This free marketing campaigns are likely to have a substantial presence in most online services of user-generated content.

Peattie K. & Peattie S. (1995) elaborated in their study that Below-the-line sales promotion as part of the communication mix is virtually ignored within the services marketing literature, in comparison with personal selling and above-the-line advertising. However, below-the-line techniques have been growing in their extent, credibility and sophistication during the last two decades. They have now reached the point where they deserve consideration in relation to other
28

areas of marketing practice beyond their fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) origins. The different tools which make up the promotional toolkit have also reached a point where they deserve individual consideration instead of being bundled together. Seeks to demonstrate how one such tool, the promotional competition, represents a significant opportunity for services marketers. Reviews the literature relating to sales promotion to build a case for the suitability of competitions for services marketing, and presents the findings of a survey of 188 servicessponsored competitions to explore the nature and extent of competitions' use in practice.

Peattie S. (1998) illustrated in her study that Although the food retail market has continued to grow steadily during the 1990s, the number of retail outlets forced out of business has also increased. In order to remain competitive, the food retailer needs to make full use of all the tools within the marketing management toolkit. Sales promotion, although a popular marketing tool, has never enjoyed the academic scrutiny afforded to the more glamorous field of advertising. Research that has been done has tended to concentrate on price-based promotions. These have been the most popular among food retailers, as in many other markets, but there is growing awareness that non-price-based promotions can add value for the consumer while meeting a range of marketing communications objectives. This article looks at the use of consumer competitions, one of the most popular non-price promotional tools, with a survey of 1,232 competitions which were jointly or wholly sponsored by food retailers.

Rowley J. (1998) has illustrated in her study that Promotion is used to communicate with customers with respect to product offerings. This article explores the role of promotion in the information marketplace. Promotion has a key role in determining profitability and market success and is one of the key Four Ps of the marketing mix. The tools that can be employed in the promotional mix include: advertising; direct marketing;sales promotion; public relations and publicity; personal selling and sponsorship. The article reviews the stages in the design of communications strategies and thereby explores concepts such as target audiences, marketing messages, communication channels, promotional budgets and monitoring promotional performances.

29

Shrotriya & Kaore(2002) Promotional activities of IFFCO started ahead of the commercial production and fertiliser sales activities. Promotional programmes were reoriented from time to time to accommodate emerging needs. Spectrum of field activities were also enlarged substantially to cover varying local situations. Mass contact with farmers through meetings, demonstrations, training's, village adoption and special projects remained the core activities in the promotional programmes. Balanced fertiliser application and increased fertiliser use efficiency has been the main plank of fertiliser promotion strategy of IFFCO. In the recent past, cropping system/farming system approach, integrated nutrient management, water use efficiency and use of IT have been identified as the thrust areas of promotional activities. Multi agency collaborative efforts are also emphasised to undertake promotional programmes needing diversified expertise.

Tasic, Ivan (2003) The usual theoretical assumption that the retailer's promotional activities serve the purpose of attracting customers into stores lacks empirical verification. The relationship between promotional activity and customer count is examined empirically in just a few studies, and no significantly positive association is found. This dissertation is a comprehensive empirical study of a unique time series cross section dataset, which contains scanner data representing 28 product categories in a large supermarket chain over two and a half year long period. The main result of this dissertation is that retailer's promotional activities are positively related to customer count. Two constructed measures of the promotional activity have a positive significant effect on store traffic that is comparable with the customer count effect of an average holiday. Some 55 percent of the positive long-run promotional activity effect is felt immediately, and the remaining 45 percent is spread over a five week long period. The promotions have prolonged effects that last until the next promotional peak the next holiday. It is also found that promotional discounts have positive and significant effect on store profit. University of New South Wales (UNSW) - School of Marketing (2003) There is considerable interest and debate over the effectiveness of sales promotion. Previous studies have shown that sales promotions are more effective when they provide benefits that are congruent with those of the promoted product. This study explores and extends the congruency framework by analysing the impact of cultures at an ethnic group level. The purpose is to investigate the popular
30

assumption that cultural differences exist at this level and to see whether these differences have an impact on sales promotion effectiveness. A quasi-experimental design is used to test a series of hypotheses based on a sample of Anglo-Australians and Chinese-Australians. It is found that despite the existence of cultural differences at an ethnic level, culture does not appear to have a significant impact on consumer responses to sales promotion. It is also found that the congruency effects between product and promotion type are weak and may be non-existent in some cases. Finally, the study also provides evidence that further validates a scale used for the measurement of culture. Varadarajan P. R. (1986) stated in his study that The use of various forms of cooperative sales promotions such as intracompany and intercompany multibrand promotions is on the ascendance, particularly among manufacturers and marketers of frequently purchased packaged consumer products. This article provides an overview of various forms of cooperative sales promotions, objectives that firms strive to realize through cooperative sales promotions, and other issues. In addition, from the standpoint of improving marketing productivity, the need for greater focus on the consumer franchise building potential of various sales promotion tools is highlighted.

Vilcassim N. J.,& Wittink D. R. (1987) described in their study that Promotional expenditures for manufacturer coupon distributions have increased rapidly during the last decade. Marketing professionals have criticized this trend. We discuss how coupon distributions allow manufacturers to price discriminate between market segments. Such discrimination should allow a firm to increase the shelf price of the brand. We find that instant coffee prices reflect this idea, and show that coupon distributions can be profitable for mature brands.

WilliamAbbott (2009)All business and corporate houses hand out different types of promotional gifts to their clients and customers as an act of gratitude, market building and appreciation. However, many business organizations are afraid of the costs associated with this type of investment. Advertising through promotional products offer wide range of advantages. Running a flourishing business requires a lot of decision-making and activities. It is as if you have to play with several marketing strategies at appropriate times to stay ahead in this
31

competitive world. Planning the right strategy and deciding the best time to use it are some of the important decisions. Of all the advertising and marketing strategies, you can never doubt on the efficacy of promotional items. Such gifts provide many benefits and successfully take your business to towering and new heights. If you are someone dealing with sales and marketing business, you are very well aware about the importance of brand recognition and brand visibility. Following are some major benefits of distributing these products: Weatherston (2008) Mobile advertising seems to be an industry thats beginning to explode, chasing the billions already being spent on Internet advertising. Some of those in the burgeoning mobile advertising industry, which has been making money mostly through text-driven ads, expect advances in networks and advertising capabilities to reach the hugely exploding mobiles user base in all countries especially India and China where minimum 8 million subscribers are adding every month. Like internet ads, mobile ads work best when they are relevant and useful to the user and created for that particular device. As the most personal electronics device most consumers own, and rarely leave home without, the mobile phone offers the potential for both the greatest choice and greatest convenience in media consumption. The forms that Mobile Advertising takes are in many cases similar to online advertising. There are display units such as text links, banners, and video ads. There are search models that enable text ads to be shown in response to keywords entered on user queries. There is a messaging medium that is much more instantaneous and personal than email, although not yet as rich. Additionally, there are models that are unique to the device such as use of the idle screen and click-to-call Xiaoning Zhu; Qun Zhang; Jiaqin Yang (2011) As mobile communication becomes the future of people's daily communication, for job or in life, the competition for mobile device market has been intensified during recent years. This paper is an attempt to investigate the current issues and development of online promotion and marketing in the mobile device industry, specifically the mobile phones in a specific market - China. The primary data for this research are collected through a comprehensive website evaluation by a pre-designed observation sheet. Fuzzy tops is is employed to evaluate the current online promotion implemented by all major mobile phone manufacturers in China. The managerial implications and suggestions for future research are also discussed.

32

CHAPTER 3 RESEARCH METHODOLGY

33

NEED OF THE STUDY

There is the clutter in the market of mobile handsets so there is a challenge for marketing team at each and every step to create awareness as well as remind the customer about the product. For the success of any new product in market, company needs good promotional strategies. Good promotional strategies help us to attract attention of potential customers; therefore, large numbers of telecom companies do a number of such promotional activities. Promotional strategies always remain an integral part of any new launch and a good promotional strategy can guarantee success of product. Promotional activities create awareness among prospects towards the product. In the present competitive world, any company cannot make any product successful without holding good promotional activities for it. So this project has been undertaken to analyze the various aspects of promotional activities which impact the sales of mobile handsets.

34

Objectives of study: To study the impact of promotional activities on the sales of mobile handsets. What are the components of a promotion which lead to increased sales of mobile handset

35

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY: 1. RESEARCH DESIGN- Causal research is done.

2. RESEARCH TOOLS: A well organized and structured questionnaire was prepared for making the research beneficial for the capstone.

3. SAMPLING : Sampling unit-The sampling unit is the individual unit containing the elements of the population to be sampled. Sampling unit for the study include the people of Doaba region as the promotional activities are done for end consumers ultimately. Sample size: -The sample size include 200 respondents. Sampling method: -Convenience sampling. Sources and types of dataPrimary data: Primary data was collected after doing the survey with the respondents. The survey was based on questionnaire which contained both open ended and close ended questions. Secondary data: Secondary data will be collected from articles available on internet, journals, magazines, television shows (Name of television show and channel) and projects.

METHODS OF DATA ANALYZING: Average Mean Pie chart through SPSS

36

CHAPTER 4 DATA INTERPRETATION AND ANALYSIS

37

Interpretation of questions of questionnaire

Q1) when did you purchase your mobile? A) In last 1 month B) In last 3 months C) In last 6 months This question is a general question to warm up the customer and give a nice start up. This is an introductory question which is a general question for the knowledge of purchase. Q2) which brand of mobile do you have? This to know which brand of mobile handset is customer having the most. This is to check out which brand of mobile is most preferred by customer. Q3) which feature of mobile do you prefer the most in your handset? A) B) C) D) E) F) G) Appearance Video Quality Sound Quality Camera Applications Dual Sim Others ..

This question is to check that which feature of mobile handset drives the customer more according to their needs. So that we can see that on feature the company can focus more. Q4) was any promotion offers going at that time?s A) If Yes Specify B) No

This question is to have knowledge that weather the customer has availed the promotion offer or not. This will help us to know that when customer purchased mobile handset promotion was going on that time or not. Q 5) which one of them attracted you more? A) Advertisement B) Promotion 38

This is to know that toward which thing customer is attracted more. Is advertisement on television or magazines more effective or promotional schemes which are given to customer are more effective. Q 6) Was your decision of purchased based on? (You can tick more than one option) A) Promotion Offer B) Price C) Personal choice/liking This is a very important question by which we can get idea that what is most desirable by customer either people go for prices, or promotions which attract them or they go by their own choices. Q 7) How many stores have you visited before purchasing the mobile? A) B) C) D) 1 2 3 More

This question is to know that weather customer thinks more for purchasing the mobile handset. Is it a low involvement product or high involvement product. We can get idea that if customer thinks before buying then he/she must be searching for the constraints like price or promotion (offer & discounts). Q 8) Did retailer gave you proper information regarding the mobile handset and promotional activities? A) Yes B) No This is a very general question by which we can see that customer is satisfied and second thing that whether retailer is communicating properly the offers made by company or not. Q 9) Did you wait for the offers before purchasing the handset? A) Yes B) No C) Cant say This question is put to check the perception and priority of customers that weather they wait for promotions.

39

Q 10) How did you came to know about the offer? (Multiple options to be ticked) A) B) C) D) E) F) G) H) I) News Paper Journals Magazine Television Radio Retailer Internet Reference Group Other

By this question we can conclude that what are the ways which the company needs to focus to reach the customers. Q 11) Choose the best three type of Promotion you want to benefit from: A) Free accessories B) Warranty C) Assure Gifts D) Discounts E) Free Sims F) Lucky draws G) Other This is the most important question of our research by which we can know that what are the promotional schemes that customer wants more. Q 12) Is there any particular occasions on which you prefer to buy handsets? A) Yes B) No This is to check that weather people wait for the occasions for buying the handset Q 13) which of the following occasion will you prefer to buy handset? A) On Birthday B) On Festivals C) Entering College D) On Joining of Job E) Anniversary F) Other To see that on what occasion we can give maximum promotion. Q 14) Any Suggestion . This is an open ended question so that customer can give his/her own view. 40

DATA ANALYSIS & INTERPRETATION

Q1) When did you purchase your mobile? A) In last 1 month B) In last 3 months C) In last 6 months

Q2) Which brand of mobile do you have?

41

Q3) Which feature of mobile do you prefer the most in your handset? A) B) C) D) E) F) G) Appearance Video Quality Sound Quality Camera Applications Dual Sim Others ..

Featuresound Cumulative Frequency Valid yes no Total 151 49 200 Percent 75.5 24.5 100.0 Valid Percent 75.5 24.5 100.0 Percent 75.5 100.0

Featurecamera Cumulative Frequency Valid yes no Total 124 76 200 Percent 62.0 38.0 100.0 Valid Percent 62.0 38.0 100.0 Percent 62.0 100.0

Featureappearance Cumulative Frequency Valid yes no Total 96 104 200 Percent 48.0 52.0 100.0 Valid Percent 48.0 52.0 100.0 Percent 48.0 100.0

42

Featurevedio Cumulative Frequency Valid yes no Total 101 99 200 Percent 50.5 49.5 100.0 Valid Percent 50.5 49.5 100.0 Percent 50.5 100.0

Featuredualsim Cumulative Frequency Valid yes no Total 27 173 200 Percent 13.5 86.5 100.0 Valid Percent 13.5 86.5 100.0 Percent 13.5 100.0

Featureother Cumulative Frequency Valid yes no Total 8 192 200 Percent 4.0 96.0 100.0 Valid Percent 4.0 96.0 100.0 Percent 4.0 100.0

Featureapplication Cumulative Frequency Valid yes no Total 72 128 200 Percent 36.0 64.0 100.0 Valid Percent 36.0 64.0 100.0 Percent 36.0 100.0

43

Q4) Was any promotion offers going at that time? A) If Yes Specify B) No

Q 5) Which one of them attracted you more? A) Advertisement B) Promotion

44

Q 6) Was your decision of purchased based on? (You can tick more than one option) A) Promotion Offer B) Price C) Personal choice/liking

Q 7) How many stores have you visited before purchasing the mobile? A) B) C) D) 1 2 3 More

45

Q 8) Did retailer gave you proper information regarding the mobile handset and promotional activities? A) Yes B) No

Q 9) Did you wait for the offers before purchasing the handset? A) Yes B) No C) Cant say

46

Q 10) How did you came to know about the offer? (Multiple options to be ticked) A) B) C) D) E) F) G) H) I) News Paper Journals Magazine Television Radio Retailer Internet Reference Group Other

Offerjournal Cumulative Frequency Valid yes no Total 14 186 200 Percent 7.0 93.0 100.0 Valid Percent 7.0 93.0 100.0 Percent 7.0 100.0

Offernewspaper Cumulative Frequency Valid yes no Total 71 129 200 Percent 35.5 64.5 100.0 Valid Percent 35.5 64.5 100.0 Percent 35.5 100.0

47

Offermagazine Cumulative Frequency Valid yes no Total 30 170 200 Percent 15.0 85.0 100.0 Valid Percent 15.0 85.0 100.0 Percent 15.0 100.0

Offertelevision Cumulative Frequency Valid YES no Total 103 97 200 Percent 51.5 48.5 100.0 Valid Percent 51.5 48.5 100.0 Percent 51.5 100.0

Offerradio Cumulative Frequency Valid yes no Total 12 188 200 Percent 6.0 94.0 100.0 Valid Percent 6.0 94.0 100.0 Percent 6.0 100.0

Offerinternet Cumulative Frequency Valid yes no 87 113 Percent 43.5 56.5 Valid Percent 43.5 56.5 Percent 43.5 100.0

48

Offerinternet Cumulative Frequency Valid yes no Total 87 113 200 Percent 43.5 56.5 100.0 Valid Percent 43.5 56.5 100.0 Percent 43.5 100.0

Offerretailer Cumulative Frequency Valid yes no Total 33 167 200 Percent 16.5 83.5 100.0 Valid Percent 16.5 83.5 100.0 Percent 16.5 100.0

Offerreferencegroupo Cumulative Frequency Valid yes no Total 38 162 200 Percent 19.0 81.0 100.0 Valid Percent 19.0 81.0 100.0 Percent 19.0 100.0

49

Q 11) Choose the best three type of Promotion you want to benefit from: A) Free accessories B) Warranty C) Assure Gifts D) Discounts E) Free Sims F) Lucky draws G) Other

Typefreeaccessories Cumulative Frequency Valid yes no Total 156 44 200 Percent 78.0 22.0 100.0 Valid Percent 78.0 22.0 100.0 Percent 78.0 100.0

Typewarranty Cumulative Frequency Valid yes no Total 178 22 200 Percent 89.0 11.0 100.0 Valid Percent 89.0 11.0 100.0 Percent 89.0 100.0

Typegifts Cumulative Frequency Valid yes no Total 61 139 200 Percent 30.5 69.5 100.0 Valid Percent 30.5 69.5 100.0 Percent 30.5 100.0

50

Typediscounts Cumulative Frequency Valid yes no 11 Total 153 46 1 200 Percent 76.5 23.0 .5 100.0 Valid Percent 76.5 23.0 .5 100.0 Percent 76.5 99.5 100.0

Typefreesims Cumulative Frequency Valid yes no Total 22 178 200 Percent 11.0 89.0 100.0 Valid Percent 11.0 89.0 100.0 Percent 11.0 100.0

Typeluckydraw Cumulative Frequency Valid yes no Total 26 174 200 Percent 13.0 87.0 100.0 Valid Percent 13.0 87.0 100.0 Percent 13.0 100.0

51

Q 12) Is there any particular occasions on which you prefer to buy handsets? A) Yes B) No

Q 13) which of the following occasion will you prefer to buy handset? A) On Birthday G) On Festivals H) Entering College I) On Joining of Job J) Anniversary K) Other

Occasionbirthday Cumulative Frequency Valid yes no Total 72 128 200 Percent 36.0 64.0 100.0 Valid Percent 36.0 64.0 100.0 Percent 36.0 100.0

52

Occationfestival Cumulative Frequency Valid yes no Total 59 141 200 Percent 29.5 70.5 100.0 Valid Percent 29.5 70.5 100.0 Percent 29.5 100.0

Occasionentercollege Cumulative Frequency Valid yes no Total 19 181 200 Percent 9.5 90.5 100.0 Valid Percent 9.5 90.5 100.0 Percent 9.5 100.0

Occasionjob Cumulative Frequency Valid yes no 22 Total 15 184 1 200 Percent 7.5 92.0 .5 100.0 Valid Percent 7.5 92.0 .5 100.0 Percent 7.5 99.5 100.0

Occasionother Cumulative Frequency Valid yes no Total 1 199 200 Percent .5 99.5 100.0 Valid Percent .5 99.5 100.0 Percent .5 100.0

53

Occationanniversiry Cumulative Frequency Valid yes no Total 11 189 200 Percent 5.5 94.5 100.0 Valid Percent 5.5 94.5 100.0 Percent 5.5 100.0

54

CHAPTER 5 FINDING & CONCLUSION

55

Findings:
1. Approx. 70 % respondent have purchased mobile handset in last six months, 20% respondent have purchased in last three month and rest of them have purchased in last month. 2. Nokia having the leading shares of respondent after that Samsung is there with the second leading shares of the respondent. 3. Respondent have choose the sound quality 75% that they want in their mobile handset after that camera with 62% then video with 50% and appearances 48% and applications with 36% and dual sim with 13.5%. 4. Mostly respondent (70%) have sad that there was not any promotion when they purchased their mobile. 5. 18% respondent are attract through promotion and rest were attract through advertisement. 6. Mostly the decision of purchase is based on personal choice then the price will come because the respondents are price sensitive and some of the respondent says that their decision of purchase on promotion based. 7. Mostly respondent have chosen the option that they have visited only one or two shop. 8. Mostly respondent have said that the retailer have give proper information about the promotion offers. 9. Almost more than average respondent said that they do not wait for promotion offers. 10. Mostly respondent said that they have got awareness through television after that through internet and reference groups. 11. Discount warranty accessories are the thing that the respondent prefers in the promotion schemes after that some of respondent have also shown interest towards free gift and lucky draw etc. 12. Half of the respondents have said that they have purchase on some occasion and half said they are not purchase. 13. Most of the respondent purchase mobile handset on festival secondly on their birthday.

56

Limitations Information bias may be constraint for my project. The research would not represent the whole population so the scope of research is limited. Some customer fills questionnaire without understanding it. Some respondents may refuse to answer the questions due to lack of time and the other reasons. It is possible that the information supplied by the informants may be incorrect. So, the study may lack accuracy. Time constraint.

57

Recommendation
Sound, camera, video quality, application and appearance these are some of the factors which should be included & improved more. Promotional schemes should be increased by the company in order to attract more & more customers. People are more attracted towards advertisement because they get knowledge what is going on in the market so the advertisement telecasted should so the promotion which are going on in the market. So its necessary to do promotions and that promotional schemes should be known to the people. A regular use of promotional tools should be done till the products get good exposure in the market. Effective promotional schemes should be launched to differentiate the product than others and to interact the customers. The company should make tie-ups with more shopping malls and multiplexes for promotional activities. The company should also make tie-ups in residential areas organize game shows & canopy shows and contest etc Advertisement campaign should be made more effective for increasing the sales. The information of the promotional activities should be given through television and internet as according to research conducted. Majority of the people get information through these Medias. The most preferred schemes by the customers are warranty, free accessories and price discount. So the company should focus more on these types of schemes. The company should give special promotions in the festival season as this is the time when people purchase handsets more.

58

CONCLUSION
From the report we have found that the people at present basis are not much attracted towards promotional activities. The reason may be that the company is not giving much promotion or the people are not much aware about the time to time promotional schemes. The companies should give promotional schemes so as to increase sales but it is very essential to give proper information regarding the schemes. we have suggested many recommendations by which the companies can take advantage.

59

CHAPTER 6 REFERENCES

60

References
1. http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v156/n3974/abs/156765b0.html 2. http://www.emeraldinsight.com/journals.htm?articleid=1500342&show=html 3. http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/beijing/events/ia2011/n6.pdf 4. http://www.emeraldinsight.com/journals.htm?articleid=857779&show=html 5. http://www.termpaperwarehouse.com/essay-on/The-Promotional-Mix/25719 6. https://researchspace.auckland.ac.nz/bitstream/handle/2292/60/02whole.pdf?sequence=8 7. www.emeraldinsight.com/journals.htm?articleid=857367 8. www.aphis.usda.gov/wildlife.../pdf/Nutria%20in%20Louisiana.pdf 9. www.emeraldinsight.com/journals.htm?articleid=856643&show... 10. http://www.cellstrat.com/images/Mobile_Advertising_Trends_-_An_Abstract.pdf 11. http://isr.journal.informs.org/content/16/4/334.abstract vol. 16 no. 4 334-351 12. www.emeraldinsight.com/journals.htm?articleid=856643&show...s 13. www.economicswebinstitute.org/essays/mobilefin.pdfs 14. herkules.oulu.fi/isbn9789514288159/isbn9789514288159.pdf 15. www.emeraldinsight.com/journals.htm?articleid=1545855&show... 16. www.emeraldinsight.com/journals.htm?articleid=870538&show.. 17. http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1538887 18. files.placemanagement.org/newsletter/cpd_mail/new.../KR1.pdf 19. www.emeraldinsight.com/journals.htm?articleid=870439&show... 20. http://repository.tamu.edu/handle/1969.1/5880 21. www.emeraldinsight.com/journals.htm?articleid=1659230
61

22. 131.251.0.86/carbs/faculty/peatties/index.html 23. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1538887 24. http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/freeabs_all.jsp?arnumber=5914478 25. http://journals.cluteonline.com/index.php/JABR/article/view/293 Vol 26, No 3 (2010) 26. http://www.iffco.nic.in/applications/brihaspat.nsf/0/82c2a24768bde32665256ba30026f0f 8/$FILE/fertnews0402.pdf 27. http://scholar.google.co.in/scholar?q=Vilcassim+N.+J.,%26+Wittink+D.+R.+%281987% 29+promotion&hl=en&as_sdt=0&as_vis=1&oi=scholart 28. http://eurowine.vintagemaster.com/mod/pdf/m10-a.pdf 29. http://ezinearticles.com/?Top-Five-Benefits-of-Promotional-Products&id=3154664 30. http://journals.cluteonline.com/index.php/JABR/article/view/283

62

Chapter 7 Annexure

63

Questionnaire

Dear sir, madam We are conducting the survey as a part of our MBA programs from LPU. The purpose of this survey is to study the Impact of Promotional Activity on Sale of Mobile Handset in Doaba Region. Please spare some time to answer the following questions. Your responses shall be used for the purpose of research only and shall be kept confidential.

Name: Gender: Male Female City:

Age: Contact No.:

______________________________________________________________________________

Q1) When did you purchase your mobile? D) In last 1 month E) In last 3 months F) In last 6 months

Q2) Which brand of mobile do you have?

..

Q3) Which feature of mobile do you prefer the most in your handset? H) I) J) K) L) M) N) Appearance Video Quality Sound Quality Camera Applications Dual Sim Others ..

64

Q4) Was any promotion offers going at that time? C) If Yes Specify D) No

Q 5) Which one of them attracted you more? A) Advertisement B) Promotion

Q 6) Was your decision of purchased based on? (You can tick more than one option) D) Promotion Offer E) Price F) Personal choice/liking

Q 7) How many stores have you visited before purchasing the mobile? E) F) G) H) 1 2 3 More

Q 8) Did retailer gave you proper information regarding the mobile handset and promotional activities? C) Yes D) No

Q 9) Did you wait for the offers before purchasing the handset? D) Yes E) No F) Cant say (If the answer to the above question is yes, answer the next question otherwise skip it. )

65

Q 10) How did you come to know about the offer? (Multiple options to be ticked) J) K) L) M) N) O) P) Q) R) News Paper Journals Magazine Television Radio Retailer Internet Reference Group Other

Q 11) Choose the best three type of Promotion you want to benefit from: H) Free accessories I) Warranty J) Assure Gifts K) Discounts L) Free Sims M) Lucky draws N) Other Q 12) Is there any particular occasions on which you prefer to buy handsets? A) Yes B) No (If yes then answer next question) Q 13) which of the following occasion will you prefer to buy handset? A) On Birthday L) sOn Festivals M) Entering College N) On Joining of Job O) Anniversary P) Other

Q 14) Any Suggestion .

Signature:

Date:

****Thank you for taking the time and effort to complete this questionnaire.****

66

67