Consumer Behaviourists

Consumer pre-purchase expectations & Actual outcomes after purchasing.

Introduction:

Background to research:

Until recently, consumer behaviourists had many theories of satisfaction. Rather, a post decision phenomenon known as cognitive dissonance (Festinger1957) was thought to provide a sufficient framework for understanding post purchase responses. Researchers later expanded the theories more recent theoretical and empirical works (Andreasen 1977; Day 1977; Oliver 1977) generally agree that satisfaction results from a subjective comparison of the expected and received product attribute levels, as originally proposed by (Engel 1968), but that the exact nature of satisfaction process is unknown. In addition psychological concept remains in dispute.

Why the customer would seek out one -and only one-branded object or brand set to fulfil his or her needs? This is the pertinent question because the present era of global competition seemingly would enable the customer to move to better alternatives as soon as they materialised. Product improvements, refinements, and innovations are new product introductions are predicted. (See cooper 1993,p.4).Satisfaction research has been “king” spawned by the widespread adoption of the marketing concept, efforts to align marketing strategy with the goal of maximizing customer satisfaction have been pursued in earnest by the product and service providers (post purchase research 1993 wylie, p.1).( Richard L Oliver journal of marketing; 1999; 63, p. 33)

Context of research:

The purpose of Research:

1. The purpose of this study is to balance service quality and product quality into an integrated model.

2. The management of the company can make different strategies to make the customers satisfied to full extent.

3. The outcomes of the research helps the top level managers to make their strategies in production and servicing for their products for the new and existing customers.

4. To explore the effects of the three consumer perceptions (product quality, service quality and price fairness) on satisfaction and loyal behaviour. Automobile industry maintenance service is chosen as an examined object because both “technicians, skills and parts” quality are essential to consumers.

Perceived quality:

As stated by Parasuraman, Zeithaml, and Berry (1985), quality has been a complex but vague construct which demands further investigation for the industries to highlight product and service quality as satisfaction management. It should be defined as the consumer's judgement about a product's overall excellence or superiority. Consumer product perceived quality is positively related to consumer loyalty.

Perceived service quality:

Parsuraman, Zeithaml, and Berry established the five-gap model in 1985, which established the structure and measurement of the methods to measure service quality and consumer satisfaction were basically the same, with both based on comparisons of expectation and performance. Perceived service quality is positively related to customer satisfaction. (Journal of consumer satisfaction, dissatisfaction and complaining behaviour; 2001; 14, p 125)

(Parsuraman Zeithaml, and Berry, vol 52 April 1988, p39) they indicate that consumers' quality perceptions are influenced by a series of four distinct gaps occurring in organisations. The gaps on service provider's side, which can impede delivery of services that consumers perceive to be of high quality, are:

1. Difference between consumer expectations and management perceptions of consumer expectations.

2. Difference between management perceptions of consumer expectations and service quality specifications.

3. Difference between service quality specifications and the service actually delivered.

4. Difference between service delivery and what is communicated about the service to consumers.

The mangers of service providers need to know how to measure the service quality, and whether consumers actually purchase from the firms that have the highest level of perceived service quality or from those with which they are most “satisfied.” (Cronin, j.joseph, jr July 1992.)

Expected outcomes:

The aim of the proposed research is to:

Develop an attractive environment in the dealer's service station.

Develop a good media and communication in solving the queries of the customers.

The actual response of satisfaction from the customers on the company products and services.

LITERATURE REVIEW:

Executive summary:

All marketers need to be aware of the effect of globalization, technology, and deregulation. Rather than try to satisfy everyone, marketers start with market segmentation and develop a market offering that is positioned in the minds of the target market. To satisfy the target market's needs, wants, and demands, marketers create a Product, one of the 10 types of entities (goods, services, experiences, events, persons, places, properties, organizations, information, and ideas). Marketers must search hard for the core need they are trying to satisfy, remembering that their products will be successful only if they deliver value (the ratio of benefits and costs) to customers.

Every marketing exchange requires at least two parties—both with something valued by the other party, both capable of communication and delivery, both free to accept or reject the offer, and both finding it appropriate or desirable to deal with the other. One agreement to exchange constitutes a transaction, part of the larger idea of relationship marketing. Through relationship marketing, organizations aim to build enduring, mutually satisfying bonds with customers and other key parties to earn and

Retain their long-term business. Reaching out to a target market entails communication channels, distribution channels, and selling channels. The supply chain, which stretches from raw materials to the final products for final buyers, represents a value delivery system. Marketers can capture more of the supply chain value by acquiring competitors or expanding upstream or downstream. In the marketing environment, marketers face brand, industry, form, and generic competition.

The marketing environment can be divided into the task environment (the immediate actors in producing, distributing, and promoting the product offering) and the broad environment (forces in the demographic, economic, natural, technological, political-legal, and social-cultural environment). To succeed, marketers must pay close attention to the trends and developments in these environments and make timely adjustments to their marketing strategies. Within these environments, Marketers apply the marketing mix—the set of marketing tools used to pursue marketing objectives in the target market.

The marketing mix consists of the four Ps: product, price, place, and promotion. Companies can adopt one of five orientations toward the marketplace. The production concept assumes that consumers want widely available, affordable products; the product concept assumes that consumer want products with the most quality, performance, or innovative features; the selling concept assumes that customers will not buy enough products without an aggressive selling and promotion effort; the marketing concept assumes the firm must be better than competitors in creating, delivering, and communicating customer value to its chosen target markets; and the societal marketing concept assumes that the firm must satisfy customers more effectively and efficiently than competitors while still preserving the consumer's and the society's wellbeing. Keeping this concept in mind, smart companies will add “higher order” image attributes to supplement both rational and emotional benefits.

The combination of technology, globalization, and deregulation is influencing customers, brand manufacturers, and store-based retailers in a variety of ways. Responding to the changes and new demands brought on by these forces has caused many companies to make adjustments. In turn, savvy marketers must also alter their marketing activities, tools, and approaches to keep pace with the changes they will face today and tomorrow.

Receiving service:

The convenience of receiving service is presumably lowest when a customer has to come to the service organisation and must use specific outlet. Offering service through several outlets increases the convenience of access for customers but many start to raise problems of quality control as convenience of access relates to the consistency of the service product delivered. For some type of services the companies come to customer. This is, of course, essential when the target of the service is some immovable physical item (such as a building that needs repairs or pest control treatment, or a garden that needs land-scaping). But since its usually more expensive to take service personnel and equipment to the customer than vice versa, the trend has been away from this approach to delivering consumer services.

The key to generating high customer loyalty is to deliver high customer value. A company's value proposition is much more than it's positioning on a single attribute. Most of the successful companies are raising expectations and delivering performances to match. These companies are aiming for TCS - Total Customer Satisfaction. Customer satisfaction is both a goal and a marketing tool. Companies that achieve high customer satisfaction ratings make sure that their target market is known. After sales support management system is apart of ERP Enterprise Resource Planning solution dealing with the support module after the sales of product. It creates an advanced environment to the organization, which are in to technical support after sales e.g. Companies offering electronic goods and motor vehicles etc.

The functional features include:

Customer complaints tracking

Service engineers information tracking

Job scheduling for the complaints

Spares management

Online support

Reports.

Customer complaints tracking:

Complaint is the starting point of any technical support system. With out a client request the technical support is not initiated. Complaint tracking is done as follows:

Client may come down or make a phone call or complaint online

The client is validated. The client may have an annual maintenance contract or may have a product in warranty or of warranty.

The intensity of the complaint is to be estimated to allocate resources.

Expected service type has to be finalized. It may be online assistance indoor or onsite assistance.

Service Engineers Information tracking:

Information about the engineers is inevitable in job scheduling. Information about the engineers has to be added, deleted or modified in the database. It may contain the following: The name, id of the engineer; the skill set of the engineer; the status of the engineer.

Job scheduling for the complaints:

Job scheduling means sequencing the request with respect to its intensity, Assignment of a service engineer and creating a job card. It is done to optimize the technical resources and to render the best service to the customer. Minor problem are processed by technicians and complex requests are handled by the expert team.

The job card includes the following:

The complaint id, the assigned engineer id, the data and time of service, the spare details, no. of man hours required etc.

Ø The spare part name and serial number.

Ø The available quantity of each spare part.

Ø The prize, warranty and other specifications.

Ø The supplier's information.

Online support:

The service is done online also. The client may visit the website to obtain basic support information about the product and FAQ. He can chat with the service engineer on phone or online.

Report:

The report reflects the current status of the system. The reports that can be generated are as follows:

Customer request report and status of the system.

Service engineer report provides the information about the skills and strengths of the support team.

Job scheduling report states the allotment of the engineers to jobs.

Spares report discloses the availability of all the spares in the system.

Receipts and payments report gives information about the cash flow in the System, generation of bills:

Customer satisfaction tracking:

Customer satisfaction is the key concept to dictate the future of the organization. In order to maximize the customer satisfaction along with quick response and efficient service some other activities are to be performed.

They may be as follows:

Ø Reception of the customer with hospitality.

Ø Entertaining environment to the customer.

Ø Providing guidance about the usage and maintenance of the product.

Ø Offering gift and discounts.

Toyota company profile and Feedback and Control:

As it implements its strategy, the firm needs to track the results and monitor new developments in the internal and external environments. Some environments are fairly stable from year to year. Other environments evolve slowly in a fairly predictable way. Still other environments change rapidly in significant and unpredictable ways. Nonetheless, the company can count on one thing: The marketplace will change. And when it does, the company will

Need to review and revise its implementation, programs, strategies, or even objectives. A company's strategic fit with the environment will inevitably erode because the market environment changes faster than the company's 7-Ss. Thus a company might remain efficient while it loses effectiveness. Peter Drucker pointed out that it is more important to “do the right thing” (effectiveness) than “to do things right” (efficiency).

The most successful companies excel at both. Once an organization fails to respond to a changed environment, it has difficulty recapturing its lost position. This happened to the once-unassailable Motorola when it was slow to respond to the new digital technology used by Nokia and others, and kept rolling out analogue phones.17 Similarly, Barnes & Noble did not immediately recognize the threat posed by Amazon. COM's Internet-based book retailing model; then, as a latecomer to e-commerce, it had more of a struggle establishing itself. Clearly, the key to organizational health is the firm's willingness to examine the changing environment and to adopt appropriate new goals and behaviours. High-performance organizations continuously monitor the environment and use flexible strategic planning to maintain a viable fit with the evolving environment.

Toyota Motor Corporation, Japan's #1 carmaker, has a driving ambition to become greener. The company makes a hybrid-powered (gas and electric) sedan -- the Prius -- that isbeing snapped up in US and European markets. Its gas-powered cars, pickups, minivans, and SUVs include such models as Camry,Corolla, 4Runner,Land Cruiser, Sienna, the luxury Lexus line, the new Scion brand, and a full-sized pickup truck, the V-8 Tundra. Toyota also makes forklifts and manufactured housing, and offers consumer financial services. Once a dark horse in the global automotive game, Toyota has begun to close the gap on General Motors and DaimlerChrysler, and has already passed Ford Motor.

While most of its North American and European competitors are contracting their operations due to falling demand and overcapacity, Toyota is growing to meet increased global demand. The company has an expressed plan of gaining a global 10% share of the automotive market by the early 2010s. To do this, Toyota feels it must build the cars where, or very near where, they will be bought. To this end Toyota opened new vehicle plants in the Czech Republic in 2005 and is scheduled to open its 11th US plant in San Antonio, Texas in 2006.

The greatest focus of Toyota's overseas strategy is currently in China, a country that is expected to become the second-largest car market (behind the US) by 2010. By that year Toyota wants to have a 10% market share in China. Like its competitors, Toyota is beefing up its Chinese operations by joining forces with local automotive players. With its Chinese partner China FAW Group Corporation, Toyota builds Land Cruisers and Corollas in China. Through another agreement with Guangzhou Automobile Group, Toyota began jointly developing engines in 2005. Also in association with Guangzhou Automobile, in 2006 the first Chinese-built Camry rolled off the assembly line in Nansha near Hong Kong. The Camry is the best-selling car in the US and has been a leading import in China. The Chinese-built Camrys are priced to move in an effort to quickly boost Toyota's market share. Late in 2006 Toyota fired a salvo over the deck of GM when it said it aimed to build 9.8 million vehicles by 2008. GM sold 9.2 million vehicles in 2005 -- the second-largest volume the company has ever produced in a single year. The announcement came at a time when GM and its equally bedraggled US counterpart Ford are desperately trimming capacity to stay competitive.

Toyota out-built Ford back in 2003 and now has GM in its sights. While growing its worldwide production base; Toyota has committed itself to leading the charge toward the development of more efficient, environmentally friendly vehicles, primarily powered by hybrid gasoline-electric technology. Toyota's global production of hybrids in 2005 totalled 151,000 units, or two-and-one-half times' production levels of the previous fiscal year. Toyota's hybrid plans going forward are even more ambitious. The company says it wants to build one million hybrids by the early 2010s. In addition to the Prius, Toyota currently offers hybrid versions of the Highlander SUV and the venerable Camry. Late in 2006 Toyota bought a 5.9% stake in Isuzu Motors.

The two companies plan to cooperate on engine technologies with Isuzu concentrating on small diesel engines and diesel emission controls while Toyota will focus on environmental improvements for gasoline engines and alternative fuels. The move marks the second time in as many years that Toyota has taken advantage of a broken GM alliance with a Japanese partner. Toyota bought an 8.7% stake in Fuji Heavy Industries from GM in 2005.

History

In 1926 Sakichi Toyoda founded Toyoda Automatic Loom Works. In 1930 he sold the rights to the loom he invented and gave the proceeds to his son Kiichiro Toyoda to begin an automotive business. Kiichiro opened an auto shop within the loom works in 1933. When protectionist legislation (1936) improved prospects for Japanese automakers, Kiichiro split off the car department, took it public (1937), and changed its name to Toyota. During WWII the company made military trucks, but financial problems after the war caused Toyota to reorganize in 1950. Its post war commitment to R&D paid off with the launch of the four-wheel-drive Land Cruiser (1951); full-sized Crown (1955); and the small Corona (1957).

Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., debuted the Toyopet Crown in the US in 1957, but it proved underpowered for the US market. Toyota had better luck with the Corona in 1965 and with the Corolla (which became the best-selling car of all time) in 1968. By 1970 Toyota was the world's fourth-largest carmaker.

Toyota expanded rapidly in the US. During the 1970s the oil crisis caused demand for fuel-efficient cars, and Toyota was there to grab market share from US makers. In 1975 Toyota displaced Volkswagen as the US's #1 auto importer. Toyota began auto production in the US in 1984 through NUMMI, its joint venture with GM. The Lexus line was launched in the US in 1989 Because of the European Community's restrictions on Japanese auto imports until the year 2000, Toyota's European expansion slowed. Toyota responded in 1992 by agreeing to distribute cars in Japan for Volkswagen and also by establishing an engine plant (later moved to full auto production) in the UK.

The sport utility vehicle (SUV) mania of the 1990s spurred Toyota's introduction of luxury minivans and light trucks. Hiroshi Okuda, a 40-year veteran with Toyota and the first person from outside the Toyoda family to run the firm, succeeded Tatsuro Toyoda as president in 1995. The next year Toyota consolidated its North American production units into Cincinnati-based Toyota Motor Manufacturing North America.

In 1997 Toyota introduced the Prius, a hybrid electric- and gas-powered car. The next year Toyota boosted its stake in affiliate Daihatsu (mini-vehicles) to about 51% and started Toyota Map master (51%owned), to Make map databases for car navigation systems. Okuda became chairman in 1999, replacing Shoichiro Toyota, and Fujio Cho became president. Also that year Toyota agreed to form a joint venture with Isuzu to manufacture buses, and it announced plans to invest $800 million to boost US auto production by 16% (200,000 vehicles) to about 1.45 million.

In 2000 Toyota launched the Will VI, a sedan aimed at young people. It announced that it was building an online replacement parts marketplace with i2 Technology and that it had formed a financial services company (Toyota Financial Service) and a brokerage firm (Toyota Financial Services Securities Corp.). Toyota also bought a 5% stake in Yamaha (the world's #2 motorcycle maker) and raised its stake in truck maker Hino Motors from about 20% to almost 34%. International developments included Toyota's agreement with the Chinese government to produce passenger cars for sale in China. The cars are to be built by Tianjin Toyota Motor Corp., a joint venture between Chinese carmaker Tianjin Automobile Xiali and Toyota. Early in 2001 Toyota opened a new plant in France.

Later that year the company formed an agreement with PSA Peugeot Citroën to begin joint car production in Europe (production began in 2005). Toyota also increased its stake in Hino Motors to 50% with partners Toyoda Gosei, Ltd. and Horie Metal Co., Ltd., Toyota formed a joint venture in 2002 to manufacture resin fuel tank systems. In 2004 Toyota announced that it would establish 14 Lexus dealerships in China; the dealers were all open by mid-2005. Later in 2004 Toyota forged a joint venture agreement with Guangzhou Automobile Group Co., Ltd. to build engines in China In 2005 Toyota bought just fewer than 9% of General Motors' 20% stake in Fuji Heavy Industries -- the Japanese maker of Subaru passenger vehicles.

Satisfaction as defined:

The satisfaction was “the buyer's cognitive state of being adequately rewarded for the sacrifice he has undergone” (Howard and Sheth 1969, p.145). Hunt (1997b) summarised the feelings of a number of speakers at the first consumer satisfaction conference among the definitions offered were need fulfilment, pleasure/displeasure, expectation-performance interactions, evaluation of the purchase or Consumption experience, evaluation of the benefits of consumption, comparison of actual with ideal outcomes, and the

Attribute “deficit/ surplus” obtained from the purchase. On the basis of the diverse views, Hunt concluded that satisfaction is an evaluation rendered that the product experience was at least as good as it was supposed to be,” in effect an “evaluation of an emotion”(pp.459-460). Satisfaction may be best understood as an evaluation of the surprise inherent in a product acquisition and/or consumption experience. In essence, it is the summary psychological state resulting when the emotion surrounding disconfirmed expectations is coupled with the consumer's prior feelings about the consumption experience. (Richard L. Oliver.)

When you visit your favourite restaurant, you expect to have a nice meal.
That positive expectation, in itself, is a form of satisfaction. We call it anticipation-satisfaction. When the host sees you and remembers your name, that's recognition-satisfaction. Of course, once you've had that tasty, filling meal, and you feel a warm glow, that outcome is also a satisfaction. It's called need-satisfaction. What happens when you're so pleased with a restaurant that you go out of your way to rave about it to your friends? That's referral or recommendation-satisfaction. And when the restaurant manager says, “Come again,” and you reply, “You can bet on it!” you've expressed a recommitment, or what we call, pledge-satisfaction. What happens when the owner gives you a free dessert just for being a great patron, and you're surprised and delighted about it? That's what we refer to as surprise-satisfaction. Seeing and being seen in a trendy eatery confers an additional perk: status-satisfaction. As you can see, dining out can lead to several forms of customer satisfaction, and I haven't listed half of them. Whatever our business is, we need to know whether we're serving our customers as capably as we can, so which satisfaction definitions and measures should we use?

Defining customer satisfaction is a very important undertaking—one that even the most customer-focused companies, fail to do. If we don't define it carefully, how can we monitor and measure it, let alone produce it on a consistent and reliable basis? If you ask most business owners how they define satisfaction, sooner or later they'll mention repeat business. They'll ask, do customers come back and buy again? This is retention-satisfaction. Retention-satisfaction is especially significant because it can be rather easily monitored, and it can be measured in dollars and cents. But it isn't foolproof.

This article entitled, “Just Because They Buy Again Doesn't Mean They're Satisfied.” I pointed out that clients might feel they have no other viable choice than to buy from you. Cable television customers used to fit this profile before they could sign-up for satellite-television. Customer service departments are known to track dissatisfaction more than satisfaction. They'll carefully note every angry letter that comes in the mail, believing that there are perhaps 50 or 100 people who feel the same way, but who didn't bother to write. Paying attention to letters is fine, but the inferences we make about how many silent customers they represent, is little more than a wild hunch.

Moreover, service providers shouldn't infer that the absence of angry letters implies the presence of happy customers. Instead of counting letters, I'd rather monitor and interpret customer satisfaction behaviours as they occur. The best time to do this is when service transactions conclude. Why wait days or weeks to receive a letter, which only one-in-ten thousand people might write? When you monitor actual transactions, you can tap into a large, continuous universe of customers that is much more representative of feelings-at-large.

For instance, we monitor and measure at least three customer behaviours: (1) Their voice inflections; (2) The language they use to express gratitude; and (3) Their pledges to do additional business after being subtly cued to indicate this intention.(To learn more about this system, please refer to my book, Monitoring, Measuring, Managing Customer Service: Jossey-Bass/JohnWiley:2000).

How do you measure customer satisfaction? Is it connected to real customer value? When was the last time you seriously explored alternatives? By taking a fresh look at these questions you can create true breakthroughs. You can systematically deliver today's satisfactions while inventing tomorrow

Market Definition:

The automotive aftermarket is valued according to the retail selling price (RSP), including taxes, of service parts, wear & tear parts, mechanical parts, tires, crash repair and consumables & accessories. Service parts include filters, wiper blades, ignition plugs and engine oil components. Wear & tear

Parts include batteries, emission systems, brake pads & discs and ride control. Mechanical parts are defined as those parts which are neither changed as part of a service are considered to be wear & tear parts. These include transmission and power train parts. Crash repair includes body parts, lighting, glass, paint and solvents. Consumables include cleaners, waxes, polishes, windscreen washes and antifreeze. Accessories include in-car entertainment, alarms & security, alloy wheels, storage, interiors (mats etc.) and exteriors (spoilers etc.). Labour charges and wholesale-related revenues are not included. The data only relates to the market for the repair of light vehicles (cars & light commercial vehicles of up to 3.5 tonnes in weight).

Any currency conversions used in the creation of this report have been calculated using constant 2004 annual average exchange rates.

Market analysis:

The European auto aftermarket sector reported disappointing results for 2001-2005.Annual growth remained marginal at the outset of the review period in 2002-2003, before entering a decline that is expected to last until the end of 2010.The European auto aftermarket generated total revenues of $89.7 billion in 2005, representing a compound annual rate of change (CARC) of -0.2% for the five-year period spanning 2001-2005. The slump in the market was primarily driven by decline in the German, UK and French markets. Positive growth was exhibited by the Spanish and Italian markets. Sales of mechanical parts form the leading segment in the market, generating total revenues of $27.9 billion in 2005, equivalent to 31.1% of the overall market value. In comparison, the crash repair sector was worth $19 billion, which represented a 21.1% share of the market's value. Looking forward, the European auto aftermarket is expected to decelerate from its current value growth position. With an anticipated CARC of -0.5% over the 2005-2010 periods, the market is expected to reach a value of $87.5 billion by the end of 2010. Further decline in the French and German markets will act to undermine total revenue for the region; however, the UK market is expected to recover.

Competitive landscape:

In 2002, the German-based Volkswagen had the largest market share in Europe, with18.4%of new registrations. However, this was almost half a point lower than in the previous year. The company managed to keep revenues and operating costs stable over the period despite lower sales, due to price increases above inflation as well as cost-cutting measures.

PSA Peugeot Citroën is close behind Volkswagen, and increased its market share by more than half a point in 2002. Indeed, in 2002 the Peugeot 206 overtook the VW Golf as the best-selling car in Europe.

The market is highly competitive at the top end, PSA are only than three points ahead of Ford, a company which could well bounce back if its cost-cutting measures fulfil their initial promise. For all three companies, the necessity is to keep on churning out bright and successful new models, and PSA currently looks like it has the edge in terms of technology and design. Below these three companies, Renault, GM and Fiat have been loosing market share, or in Renault's case hanging on to what they have with only a thread. Fiat has suffered from flooding in one of its main parts factories, which has further set back the already beleaguered Italian car maker, but the company has not yet released details of its long-term recovery plans, if it has any. Despite the openness of European car markets, national loyalty still plays a great influence. In France, PSA and Renault lead, whereas in Germany, Italy and Spain, Volkswagen, Fiat and Seat respectively have strong positions. The smaller countries in Europe provide an exception to this rule, as Belgium and the Netherlands have no substantial car manufacturers of their own but instead act as distribution hubs for other countries. The UK market is led by the large American companies, which cynics may say illustrates where its loyalties lie.

Leading companies:

Volkswagen AG

Volkswagen is Europe's largest car manufacturer, providing a wide variety of vehicles. For the fiscal year ended December 2002, the company generated revenues of E86.94 billion. The company produces passenger and commercial vehicles. It produces passenger vehicles under the Volkswagen brand and through Audi, Seat, Skoda, Bentley, and Lamborghini. Volkswagen produces around five million vehicles a year with the

Volkswagen brand accounting for around three million sales. It is headquartered in Wolfsburg, Germany.7.2 PSA Peugeot Citroen S.A.

PSA Peugeot Citroen is primarily an automobile manufacturer. The company makes cars and light commercial vehicles under the Peugeot and Citroën brands. For the fiscal year ended 31 December 2002 the company generated sales of €54,436 million, a 5.4% increase since the previous year.

In addition to automobiles the group manufactures light armoured vehicles (Pan hard- Levassor), motorcycles and automobile components (ECIA), equipment, engines and spare parts (Peugeot Citroen Moteurs), provides transportation of vehicles and goods by railway, road, sea and air (Gefco) and offers financial services (PSA Finance Holding). The company is headquartered in Paris; France.7.3 Ford Motor Company Ranked number four in the Fortune 500, Ford specializes in the production of vehicles. It also offers other services such as auto-loans and leases through subsidiaries. For the fiscal year ended December 2002, the company generated revenues of $163.4 billion. Ford's business is segregated in four primary operating segments: Automotive; Visteon Automotive Systems; Ford Motor Credit; and the Hertz Corporation. Ford is the world number two manufacturer of cars and trucks, behind General Motors, and it has a presence in more than 30 countries. Its brands include Aston Martin, Ford, Jaguar, Lincoln, Mercury, and Volvo. The company is based in Dearborn, Michigan.

European - Automobile Manufacturers.

Data monitor (Published 05/2003) Page 16

Renault S.A.

Renault is a globally recognized automobile manufacturer. It is one of six global leaders in the sector through its alliance with Nissan and its acquisition of the Dacia and Samsung brands. For the fiscal year ending 2002, revenues were E3 6,336 million. Renault deals with the design, production, and marketing of passenger cars, light commercial vehicles, and

Agricultural machines. The company operates through two divisions, Finance and Automobiles. Headquartered in Boulogne-Billancourt, France, the company has a presence throughout Europe, the US, Africa and South America.

General Motors Corporation:

General Motors is the world's number one car and trucks manufacturer. The Company's brands include Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, Pontiac, Saab and Vauxhall. For fiscal 2002, revenues were $186.8 billion, up by 5% on the previous year. The company develops and markets its cars under an array of brand names. The company has manufacturing operations in 50 countries, and has a global presence in more than 200 countries. Along with designing, manufacturing, and marketing of vehicles, General Motors has substantial interests in digital communications, financial and insurance services, locomotives, and heavy-duty automatic transmissions. The company has more than 260 major subsidiaries, joint ventures, and affiliates around the world. General Motors is headquartered in Detroit, Michigan.

Fiat:

Fiat operates primarily in the automotive industry and related services. In the year ending December 31, 2001, revenues fell 5.2% to $54.7 billion.

The company's automotive division operates under the Fiat, Alfa Romeo, Maserati and Ferrari brands. It produces a range of vehicles from cars and agricultural vehicles to construction equipment. The group also has operations in insurance, publishing and aviation.

Customer Satisfaction:

There exists an interaction between the desired results and customer satisfaction, customer loyalty and customer retention. They may go by other names such aspatients, clients, buyers, etc. Without the customer it is impossible for any business to sustain itself. Achieving the desired results is
frequently a result of customer actions. Any business without a focus on
customer satisfaction is at the mercy of the market. Without loyal customers eventually a competitor will satisfy those desires and your customer retention rate will decrease.

There are several levels of customers:

1. Dissatisfied customer--Looking for someone else to provide product or service.

2. Satisfied consumer open to the next door and the opportunity.

3. Local customers return despite offers by the competition.

For every one that complains there are at least 25 who do not. Dissatisfied customers by word of mouth will tell eight to sixteen others about their dissatisfaction. With the web some are now telling thousands. 91% of unsatisfied customers never purchase goods or services from the company again. A prompt effort to resolve a unsatisfied customer's issue will result in about 85% of them as repeat customers. Depending upon the business, new customer sales may cost 4 to 100 times that of a sale to an existing customer. There has been less research on satisfied customers to determine what it takes for a satisfied customer to change. Why take a chance on mere satisfaction? Loyal customers don't leave even for an attractive offer elsewhere. At the very minimum they will give you the opportunity to meet or beat the other offer. Maintaining loyal customers is an integral part of any business. One of the ways to help obtain loyal customers is by having products and services that are so good that there is very little chance that the customer requirements will not be met Of course one of the difficulties is understanding the true customer requirements. Even when you have the requirements in advance the customer can and will change them without notice or excuse.Having a good recovery process for a unsatisfied customer is necessity.

When I found this it was attributed to Sam Walton founder of Wal-Mart.

A customer is the most important person in any business
A customer is not dependent upon us. We are dependent upon him.
A customer is not an interruption of our work. He is the sole purpose of it.
A customer does us a favour when he comes in.

We aren't doing him a favour by waitingon him. A customer is an essential part of our business--not an outsider.

A customer is not just money in the cash register. He is a human being with feelings and deserves to be treated with respect. A customer is a person who comes to us with his needs and his wants.It is our job to fill them.

A customer deserves the most courteous attention we can give him. He is the lifeblood of this and every business. He pays your salary. Without him we would have to close our doors. Don't ever forget it.

Several surveys have been done on why customers do not give a business repeat business. Reasons given by customers for not returning for repeat business:

Moved 3%
Other Friendships 5%
Competition 9%
Dissatisfaction 14%
Employee Attitude 68%

Dealer's service:

Most of today's dealers are very sensitive to customer problems. Many manufacturers tie dealer incentive plans to a dealer's customer satisfaction index or rating. Given the chance, the dealer usually can resolve most problems. If the service department does not handle the problem to your satisfaction, speak with the service manager first. Going to the new car sales person with a service or warranty problem will generally get you nowhere. Explain the problem to the service manager and request a written copy of the proposed resolution. If the service manager is unable to resolve your problem, speak with the dealership's owner or general manager. Remember, it is to your advantage to keep your composure and remain businesslike, even in a frustrating situation.

If you are still unsatisfied after giving the dealer a reasonable opportunity to fix your car, contact the manufacturer's customer relations department. You can find the phone number and address in the owner's manual. Ask to meet with the manufacturer's representative responsible for that dealership. You may experience a delay, since the area representatives typically call on the dealers once a month.

If you meet with the manufacturer's representative and you are still not satisfied, you may present your problem to a third party complaint handling panel or arbitration program. Their function is to review and arbitrate consumer grievances. The panels are made up of people who are independent of the manufacturer and dealer in the dispute. All manufacturers are REQUIRED to participate in one of these programs.

Contact the Better Business Bureau in your area. It can tell you which arbitration program the particular manufacturer belongs to.

You may have certain rights under your state's LEMON LAW. For specific information on this law, contact your STATE ATTORNEY GENERAL'S office. Lemon laws are very complicated and contain specific qualifiers on your part. These laws are designed to help the consumer in extreme cases and usually only apply to vehicles purchased new.

Customer's product evaluation:

Decisions about product characteristics or attributes are important elements of marketing strategy, since by changing the product attributes, marketers can make their products more attractive to consumers(peter and Olson, 1996;

Stephen and Simon son, 1997). In this context, marketers are often interested in identifying the product attributes that are considered as most important by the consumers during their evaluation and purchase of products. By doing so, they can identify different target audiences with different attribute importance structures (chao, 1989a). They can then position their brands on the basis of attributes that are relevant, meaningful and valuable to each of the target audiences.

Consumer researchers have long been interested in exploring the evaluative criteria (or product attributes) against which each choice alternative is evaluated by a consumer (Betttman, 1970; Fishbein, 1963). The evaluative criteria can include objective attributes such as price, brand name, country of Origin or subjectivity attributes such as quality, comfort and design (see, for example, Grape tine, 1995; Myers and Shocker, 1981). In particular name is a significant product attribute in product evaluations as consumers are more likely to be familiar with the brand name than with all other product attributes. For instance according to Fishbein and ajzen (1975), there are two important components that influence attitudes towards a product: belief structure and evaluative criteria (Lee and Um, 1992).

First a consumer might believe that a product possesses certain characteristics, which in turn could be influenced by his or her direct personnel experience with the brand and indirect means such as interpersonal and mass media sources. Secondly, the consumer could judge a product by certain product attributes that he or she feels are pertinent to the

Purchase decision of that product. This constitutes the primary evaluative criteria for consumers' attitudes towards a product. In this context, it is often argued that consumers make their choices on the basis of their evaluation of,

Knowledge about; the product attributes (Geistfeld, et al., 1997; peter and Olson, 1996; Wahlers, 1982). In certain cases, consumers can compare

Alternatives across various product attributes and choose the one they most

Prefer. In other situations, consumers may evaluate each option separately and then pick the one that suits those best (Stephen and Simon son, 1997).

Maintaining the corporate image:

Corporate brand helps to maintain the image and integrity of a company. “Corporate success is often directly linked to the perception that the public has regarding that company. Image is a key, and appropriate, high quality stationery creates a favourite impression,” says jenny Bell, a director of business card.co.za, which offers its printing services in an expanding number of countries around the world. “The importance of corporate identity (CI) compliance within big companies such as BMW south Africa remains an important aspect of brand values associated with the company,” says Allan Nissenbaum, manager of corporate identity and facility planning at BMW Group SA. The BMW Group SA, as well as fiat auto Africa and most recently, General Motors S.A. have all adopted the company's solutions for consistent branding and have extended the system to their dealers.” The consistency we gain from the adoption of this businesscard.co.za solution is extremely important to us especially as we have the dual brands of Alfa Romeo and Fiat to handle nationality together with the associated dealer network,” commented Mari Kershaw, general manager of network development of Fiat Auto South Africa.

The need of this system was one of the key reasons for our decision to go with businesscard.co.za. It is so easy for any of our retailers to log in and place orders,” said a General motors South Africa's dealer development representative, “this new solution eliminates one of our major administration nightmares, thus increasing our effectiveness and efficiency; and does much to enhance our image in the market place.

Adapting to changing environment:

Global product development (GDP) is transforming the motor industry. Automotive industries discusses some of the changes with jim Heppelman, executive vice president, software products and chief product officer of PTC. The environment in the automotive industry is very challenging. Experts have used the term “perfect storm” to characterize the gravity of the situation. The connotation is that a confluence of factors is causing an unprecedented level of hardship. Broadly speaking, these can be categorized

as (a) innovation pressures, wherein the consumer desires a higher level of functionality while the manufacturer is faced with ever increasing safety and environmental regulations and (b) cost pressures, wherein prices are deflationary and the consumer is unwilling to pay a premium for new technologies.

There are few strategies adapted by the manufacturers.

One is expansion of distribution into emerging and fast growing markets such as Eastern Europe, china and India. Another is to improve their productivity, thereby exciting innovations and yet demanding a large price premium from consumers. This strategy is applicable from both a sourcing components and an engineering perspective, and our customers are turning to the same countries for such activity. Specifically, we see many of our customers adopting a global product development (GDP) model to access talented engineers wherever they reside, modify designs for new, rapidly growing markets, re-balance their product development costs and activities, and drive higher levels of innovation, and improve time-to-market. The globalization of product development follows the same trend as manufacturing about a decade ago.

Strategic marketing Insights:

Developing professional skills in marketing management requires the ability to look across a broad cross-section of marketing situations to understand their differences and commonalities, and to identify appropriate marketing strategies in each instance. In the manufacturing sector many experienced marketers have worked for a variety of companies in several different

Industries, often including both consumer goods and industrial firms. As a result, they have a perspective that transcends narrow industry boundaries.

But exposure to marketing problems and strategies in different industries is still quite rare among managers in the service sector. Not only is the concept of a formalised marketing function still relatively new to most service firms. Consumers buy manufactured goods at discrete intervals, paying for each purchase separately and rarely entering into a formal relationship with suppliers and sometimes receive almost continuous delivery of certain supplies.

Marketer Responses and Adjustments:

As the environment changes and companies adjust, marketers also are rethinking their philosophies, concepts, and tools. Here are the major marketing themes at the start of the new millennium:

➤ Relationship marketing: From focusing on transactions to building long-term, profitable customer relationships. Companies focus on their most profitable customers, products, and channels.

➤ Customer lifetime value: From making a profit on each sale to making profits by managing customer lifetime value. Some companies offer to deliver a constantly needed product on a regular basis at a lower price per unit because they will enjoy the customer's business for a longer period.

➤ Customer share: From a focus on gaining market share to a focus on building customer share. Companies build customer share by offering a larger variety of goods to their existing customers and by training employees in cross-selling and up-selling.

➤ Target marketing: From selling to everyone to trying to be the best firm serving well defined target markets. Target marketing is being facilitated by the proliferation of special interest magazines, TV channels, and Internet newsgroups.

➤ Individualization: From selling the same offer in the same way to everyone in the target market to individualizing and customizing messages and offerings.

➤ Customer database: From collecting sales data to building a data warehouse of information about individual customer purchases, preferences, demographics and profitability. Companies can “data-mine” their proprietary databases to detect different customer need clusters and make differentiated offerings to each cluster.

➤ Integrated marketing communications: From reliance on one communication tool such as advertising to blending several tools to deliver a consistent brand image to Customers at every brand contact.

➤ Channels as partners: From thinking of intermediaries as customers to treating them as partners in delivering value to final customers.

➤ Every employee a marketer: From thinking that marketing is done only by marketing, sales, and customer support personnel to recognizing that every employee must be customer-focused.

➤ Model-based decision making: From making decisions on intuition or slim data to basing decisions on models and facts on how the marketplace works.

Market penetration with proper implementation of plans:

We will address the following questions:

■How is strategic planning carried out at the corporate, division, and business-unit levels?

■what are the major steps in planning the marketing process?

■how can a company effectively manage the marketing process.

How do companies compete in a global marketplace? One part of the answer is a Commitment to creating and retaining satisfied customers. We can now add a second part: Successful companies know how to adapt to a continuously changing marketplace through strategic planning and careful management of the marketing process. In most large companies, corporate headquarters is responsible for designing a corporate strategic plan to guide the whole enterprise and deciding about resource allocations as well as starting and eliminating particular businesses. Guided by the corporate strategic plan, each division establishes a division plan for each business unit within the division; in turn, each business unit develops a business unit strategic plan. Finally, the managers of each product line and brand within a business unit develop a marketing plan for achieving their objectives.

However, the development of a marketing plan is not the end of the marketing process. High-performance firms must hone their expertise in organizing, implementing, and controlling marketing activities as they follow marketing results closely, diagnose problems, and take corrective action when necessary. In today's fast-paced Business world, the ability to effectively manage the marketing process— beginning to end—has become an extremely important competitive advantage.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Research is the plan structure & strategy for investigation conceived to answer to research question & control variance. It is the overall operation pattern to framework of project that stipulated the information to be collected from which sources by word procedure. What are the two possible sources of data for securing in the above mentioned information in the primary & secondary data?

Research design: The study undertaken to access the after sales service and to get feed back regarding their experiences with the vehicles of the existing customers and to improve their product from the customer advices.

Research procedure: The questionnaire designed for the study in the structured & disguised in nature. It consists of multiple choice & short questions.

Data: Information required for the project is mainly primary data. The information was collected by survey method with the help of questionnaire by meeting various customers.

Secondary data is collected from the company journals, magazines, broachers & websites. Mainly from the journals of consumer affairs from lynn.edu.

Sample design: the sampling unit was confined to end consumers of the product i.e. product owners to know there satisfaction level regarding performance of the product and the services provided by the company.

Sample universe: the survey will be done in not mentioned only according to my convenience. It will give the complete picture of the area of the research. Sample frame/unit: professionals, business people, employees etc, who are using the product.

Sample size: the total sample size is 100 only.

Sample method: the information is planned to be collected by sample method, the sample method followed is random sampling method. The probability random sampling method is stratified random sampling.

Analytical Method: simple percentage method is used for the analysis purpose and the key results are interpreted in spss

Period of study: study is during the month of April & May 2007.

Data collection:

The information is collected through questionnaires and personal interviews. And the information of customers I found with them in the crystal clean car vale-ting bay in the Nassau street setanta car park in Dublin-2. A direct structure questionnaire has been asked to all the respondents in the sample followed by direct personal interviews.

Descriptive Studies:

In descriptive studies, when the researcher is interested in knowing the characteristics of certain groups such as age, Sex, educational level occupation or income, a descriptive study is necessary. Descriptive studies are well structured. It is therefore, necessary that the researcher gives sufficient thought to framing research questions and deciding the types of data to be collected and the procedure to be used for this purpose-The Objective of such a study is to answer the '"who, what and how" of the subject under investigation.

Sources of data:

A classification of data is very important procedure in this concept. The collected data can be classified into two types.

1. Primary data

2. Secondary data

Primary Data :

The primary data is very important source for to make suggestions to the title obtained. This data can be collected in various methods like survey, interviewing, feedback, i.e. Group Discussion etc., for collection of primary data the survey method is used, which involved predetermined questions. The structured questionnaire contained a form list of question framed so as to get the facts. But it involves high risk and huge expensive method to get the facts.

Secondary Data

Collection of secondary data is very easy compared with primary data. But this data is also very important for the growth of an organization, to predict the future and will help to make the future plan regarding sales and improve the measures of sales. This data can be collected from the magazines. Annual reports of the organization and other published data.

Sample Procedure

The sample size consists of 100 consumers. The sample consists of Businessman, Doctors, Engineers, Officers and Contractors etc. The survey was conducted in the form of an interview among randomly chosen sample of 100 consumers of company products.

ANALYSIS & INTERPRETATION

1. What is the model of cars used by customers?

S. No

Models

No. of Respondents

Percentage

1

Corolla

37

37%

2

Yaris

37

37%

3

Innova

14

14%

4

Avensis

12

12%

Total Number of respondents

100

100%

Interpretation:

It is observed that 37% of the total respondents use Corolla and 37% of the respondent's use Yaris and 14% of the respondents use Innova and 12% of the respondents use Avensis model.

2. Which type of Car have you bought?

S. No

Buyers

No. of Respondents

Percentage

1

2

New

Pre Owned

94

06

94

06

Total. No. of Respondents

100

100%

Interpretation:

From the survey conducted it is observed that 94% of the respondents' purchased new cars and 6% of the respondent's purchased Pre Owned cars.

3. The Car you bought now will be your?

S. No

Bought

No. of Respondents

Percentage

1

2

3

First

Additional

Replacement for Previous

65

27

08

65

27

08

Total. No. of Respondents

100

100%

Interpretation:
From the study it is observed that 65% of the peoples it's a first car, 27% of the people it's an additional car and 8% of the people replaced for its previous car.
4. Whether the Price of the Vehicle is?

S. No

Price

No. of Respondents

Percentage

1

2

Affordable

Not Affordable

90

10

90

10

Total. No. of Respondents

100

100 %

Interpretation:

It is observed that 90% of the people feel that the price of vehicle is affordable, and 10% of people feel that the price of vehicle is not affordable.

5. What is the Purpose of buying this Car?

S. No

Purpose of Buying

No. of Respondents

Percentage

1

2

3

Personal Use

Rental Use

Other Use

87

00

13

87

00

13

Total No. of Respondents

100

100%

Interpretation:

From the data collected it is observed that 87% of the customers use their vehicle for Personal Use and 13% of customers use there vehicle for other use.

6. Who influenced in buying this Car?

S. No

Influenced

No. of Respondents

Percentage

1

2

3

4

Yourself

Family

Friends

Advertisement

48

36

6

10

48

36

6

10

Total No. of Respondents

100

100%

Interpretation:
From the study it is observed that 48% is influenced by themselves, 36% feel that the family place a vital role to purchase there vehicle, and then comes to friends 6% and then advertisement 10%.

7. What does this Car Convey?

S. No

Car Conveys

No. of Respondents

Percentage

1

2

3

4

Status

Necessity

Comfort

Other

24

57

18

01

24

57

18

01

Total No. of Respondents

100

100%

Interpretation:
From the data collected it is concluded that 24% of the consumers purchase the vehicle to maintain the status, where as 57% of the consumers purchases the vehicle because of their necessitiy.18 % of the consumers purchases as it gives Comfort,1% of the consumers purchase the vehicle for other reason.

8. What are the reasons for buying this Car?
S .No

Crucial

No. of Respondents

Percentage

1

2

3

4

Price

Mileage

Service

Brand Image

34

53

7

6

34

53

7

6

Total No. of Respondents

100

100%

Interpretation:

It is concluded from the study that 34% of them say that price is crucial, 53% of them say mileage and7% & 6% of them say service and brand image.

9. You use your Car mostly for?

S. No

Car Used For

No. of Respondents

Percentage

1

2

3

4

Office

Family

Long Drives

Shopping

44

45

9

2

44

45

9

2

Total No .of Respondents

100

100%

Interpretation:

It was observed that 44% of the respondents use there vehicle for going to office, 45% of the respondents use there vehicle to take there family out and 2% and 9% of the respondents use there vehicle for shopping and long drives.

10. How long you will use this vehicle?

S. No

How Long You Will Use

No. of Respondents

Percentage

1

2

3

4

1-2 Years

2-4 Years

4-8 Years

8 Years & above

5

15

68

12

5

15

68

12

Total No. of Respondents

100

100%

Interpretation:

From the study it is observed that 5% and 15% of the consumers keep their vehicle 1-2years and 2-4years, and 68% and 12% of consumers keep their vehicle for 4-8years and 8years & above.

11. Rate your satisfaction for the service provided by the Organization?

S. No

Satisfaction Level at Service Station

No. of Respondents

Percentage

1

2

3

4

Excellent

Good

O.K

Poor

7

61

24

8

7

61

24

8

Total No. of Respondents

100

100%

Interpretation:

From the survey conducted satisfied level at service center show at X-axis and no. Respondents at Y-axis. 7% of the consumers said excellent, 61% said good and 24% and 8% of the consumers said ok and poor.

12. What type of service do you opt? (Service Centre)

S. No

Service Opt at Service Station

No. of Respondents

Percentage

1

2

3

4

5

Routine Checkups'

Service

Repairs

Body Shop

Warranty

35

55

5

3

2

35

55

5

3

2

Total No. of Respondents

100

100%

Interpretation:

From the data collected it is concluded that 35% of the consumers opt Service of routine check up's, 55% and 5% of the consumers opt service and repairs, 3% and 2% opt for body shop and consumers opt warranty covered repairs.

13. Whether the problem is being resolved completely at service stations?

S. No

Problem Being Resolved

No. of Respondents

Percentage

1

2

Yes

No

88

12

88

12

Total No. of Respondents

100

100%

Interpretation:

In the survey it was observed that 88% of the respondents said that the problem has been resolved 12% of the respondents said the problem has not resolved.

14. Are you satisfied with mileage given by your car?

S. No

Satisfied With Mileage

No. of Respondents

Percentage

1

2

Yes

No

81

19

81

19

Total No. of Respondents

100

100%

Interpretation:

It is observed that 81% of the respondents are satisfied with mileage given by there car, 19% are not satisfied with mileage given by there cars.

15. Express your satisfaction level on performance of your vehicle?

S. No

Performance of Your Vehicle

No. of Respondents

Percentage

1

2

3

Satisfied

O.K

Not Satisfied

80

20

00

80

20

00

Total No. of Respondents

100

100%

Interpretation:

It was observed that 80% customers are satisfied on the overall performance of the vehicle and 20% of the customers are at constant (o.k.)

16. Comment on the prices charged at service station?

S. No

Comment On Prices

No. of Respondents

Percentage

1

2

3

4

High

Medium

Reasonable

Low

4

38

58

0

4%

38%

58%

0%

Total No. of Respondents

100

100%

Interpretation:

It was observed that 4% of the respondents feel that the prices charged at service station was high and 38% feel it is medium and 58% of the respondent's feel that the prices are reasonable and 0% feel that the prices are low.

17. Is the vehicle delivered on time?

S. No

On Time Delivery

No. of Respondents

Percentage

1

2

Yes

No

80

20

80

20

Total No. of Respondents

100

100%

Interpretation:

It is observed that 80% of the respondents said that vehicle is delivered on time and 20% of the respondents said that the vehicle is not delivered on time from service station.

18. How often does company executive's contact you?

S. No

Company Contact You

No. of Respondents

Percentage

1

2

3

4

Once In a Month

Quarterly

On Occasion

Never

40

27

23

10

40

27

23

10

Total No. of Respondents

100

100%

Interpretation:

In the survey it was observed that 40% of the customer says that company contact them once in a month, 27% and 23% of the respondents says that company contact them once in a quarter and every occasion and 10% of the respondents said that they had never contact them till now.

19. What will you prefer?

S. No

Prefer Discount/Service

No. of Respondents

Percentage

1

2

Discount

Good Service

28

72

28

72

Total No. of Respondents

100

100%

Interpretation:

It was observed that 28% of the respondents preferred for discounts and 72% of the respondents preferring good service.

20. How is the Performance of the executives?

S. No

Performance of Executives

No. of Respondents

Percentage

1

2

3

4

Excellent

Good

O.K

Poor

8

62

23

7

8

62

23

7

Total No. of Respondents

100

100%

Interpretation:

It is observed that 8% of the respondents feel that performance of executives is excellent, 62% of the respondents said that performance of the executives is good, 23%the respondents said the performance of the executives is ok and 7% of the respondents said that performance of the executives is poor.

21. Based on your overall experience will you like to purchase or refer anybody this brand/ dealer?

S. No

Purchase/ Refer

No. of Respondents

Percentage

1

2

3

Definitely

May Be

Never

80

20

0

80

20

0

Total No. of Respondents

100

100%

Interpretation:

It is observed that 92% of the respondents would like to purchase one more if require and even prefer there friends, relatives and 8% of the respondents said might or might not.

Spss interpretation:

The main aim of the research is to get the clear idea from the existing customers of Toyota motors. The preferences we collected and filled in 100 questionnaires, the purpose was to gauge consumer's preferences when it comes to choosing the car and the brand image. It based on comparing the services provided by the company and the nearest dealers. We used SPSS for the quality of the data collected, analyzed and inputted into spss. The data that we entered to SPSS all came from responses to questionnaires. Before starting to analyse it we did screening and cleaning process, we checked our data for errors. The break down showed us that our minimum and maximum values make sense; they are within the range of possible scores on that variable. After, there were few of them but not because we made errors in entering data. There were no errors in the data file. Analysis of data not necessarily to be statistical. To the extent the interest centres on the individual case rather than on the characteristics of the aggregate, non-quantitative methods of analysis may be preferred; and, even in surveys concerned chiefly with aggregates, non-quantitative methods can play an important part.

The ordinary methods of describing survey data are quite straight forward. The schedule reproduced consists of 100 questions and was answered by 100 customers. And then each completed schedule can thus be looked upon as a series of 21 observations denoting the traits of that particular customer: whether or not he has paid attention on the performance of the vehicle and the services provided by the company: whether he prefers quality or performance. Survey analysis begins typically by taking these traits one, two or possibly three at a time and how the respondents are distributed on them. One might start by constructing a frequency distribution of the answers for each question (i.e. a table stating how frequently each answer is given) it might show, for instance, that 22 of the respondents get an attention on the discounts, 78 respondents on quality of the performance. The next step might be to convert these in to proportions (example: 78/100=0.78) or percentages (E.g.:- 78*100/100 =0.78%). They don't know category apart, the answers will be in numerical form. Again the first step would be to tabulate how many people said once, twice and so forth in fact to make a frequency distribution. The frequencies could then be converted to two proportions or percentages and above, but one might also want some measure of average, of what is typical of sample respondents. Several kinds of average or available are and the researcher must decide which is most

Suitable to his purpose to this point once an average has been calculated, the question arises how representative a it is - that is, How closely the answers are bunched around it are most of them very close to it or is there a wide range of variation? This calls for one of the several measures of dispersion, and the choice between them again demands judgement.

These do not mean that such analysis proceeds necessarily by taking one variable or question at a time. Quite the contrary; usually it will involve the cross -classifications and consequently a study of relationships. The researcher wants to know whether the respondents prefer the brand vehicles for further purchases and to recommend others about the car manufacturer. On the whole who thinks the company quality, price and service are better than the other prevailing companies in the international market. The choice of respondents within such basic breakdowns there may be further cross classifications of variables can be computed as means of comparison. But, over and above these one often wishes to have a measure of the degree and direction of the relationship between two or more variables. For this purpose again several types of measures are available, and the survey analysts intending to use one of the several coefficients must be familiar with its characteristics and sure of suitability.

The study of the relationships between two or more variables is straight forward so long as one is content merely to state the extent and direction of the survey. All the respondents are filled in all the questions in the questionnaire. The frequency of table shows most of the respondents preferred to buy an new car from the company.( the frequency is 20:5, percentage= 80:20,Valid percent80:20, cum percentage= 80:100.The response on the second question on the response from the respondents 90 prefer and 10 disagree with the price of the car= (90:10=100%). If we take the question number 9th and 13th the respondents are moderately supported in equal proportions to the domestic and international brands of food.

Pearson correlation and relationship between the independent and dependent factors: The thing is to consider in the output is the size of the value of Pearson correlation®. This can range from -1.00 to 1.00. This value will indicate the relationship between your two variables. A correlation of 0 indicates no relationship at all. A correlation of 1.0 indicates a perfect positive correlation and a value of -1.0 indicates a perfect negative correlation. The survey exhibits with the dependable and independent variables depicts the negative correlation of-.183 and sig2 tailed=0.393.

There is a strong negative relationship between the two variables (r=-.183, n=.393). Which high levels of perceived control associated with lower levels? of perceived stress? Correlation is also used to explore the relationship among a group of variables, rather than just two as described above. In this case it would be awkward to report all the individual correlation coefficients.

As with the output from most of the SPSS procedures, there are lots of rather confusing numbers generated as output from regression. “The impact of brand image on cars” as variable and “The dependent variable as the quality of the service” regression residual statistics results sum of squares .188 = regression, residual = 5.438, total 5.652. If we go with the charts of regression standardised residual dependent variable. The expected cumulative probability is 43 respondents and observed cumulative probability is 67 respondents.

The people are very much interested in the Toyota brand of vehicles and the results are familiar for the company performance and the quality of the cars. The above survey give clear ideas of different people o the Toyota cars selected to fill the questionnaires. The survey exhibits the opinions of the same selected population. We can get the different preferences of the people having the experiences with the vehicles of the Toyota. The results are

biased in our statistical results. The opinions either fully supported neither the performance nor they are dissatisfied. The interests depend on the affection with the preferred brand. The survey results as the middle class people are very much interested in the performance of the company. Most of the people prefer the international reputation and reasonable with wide variety of choice. The respondents who are the second owners are very much satisfied with the cars. Finally the survey tells us the sample population prefers the quality of the service and the warranty and the delivery of the cars on time. They contradict some features like price and the mileage, if they don't feel reasonable.

CONCLUSIONS

Ø 80% of the respondents Purchase new cars only.

Ø Nearly 65% of the people bought Toyota as there first car, 8% of the people replaced for there previous cars and 27% of it's as an additional car.

Ø About 90% the customers feel that the price and the mileage are excellent. Most of the buyers are professionals and business people using the Toyota cars.

Ø 94% of the respondent's feel vehicle is affordable.

Ø About 87% of the respondents use Toyota cars for there personal use.

Ø The reason for purchase only Toyota car is necessity for 57% of the customers, 24% of the consumers feels status and 18% feel comfortable.

Ø Many of the respondents are satisfied with regard to mileage, price.

Ø 45% of the respondents use there vehicle to take there family out and 44% use for going to office.

Ø Many of the Toyota car buyers are high middle class people, like to keep there vehicle 4years above. But professionals and business people like to change there vehicle after 2years.

Ø 61% of the respondents were satisfied with service provided by the dealer at the service centre, 24% and7% of the respondents said ok and excellent, and 8% of the respondents were not satisfied with service at service station.

Ø More than 50% of the respondents come to service centre for service and 35% of the respondents come for routine check up's

Ø 12% of the respondents are not much satisfied with service due to not clearly identifying or resolving the problem at service centre and 88% of the respondents are satisfied with the service.

Ø Consumers are tested there cars with regard to mileage and satisfied with it. 80% of the respondents are satisfied with overall performance of the vehicle and 20% of the users are constant.

Ø Above 58% of the respondents feel the prices are reasonable at the service centre. . Where as 4% and 38% of the respondents feel that the prize are high and medium respectively.

Ø 80% of the respondents said that the vehicle is delivering on time and 20% of the respondents are not satisfied with vehicle delivery at service centre.

Ø The maximum members i.e. 40% of the respondents said that the company had contacted once in a month,23% and27% of the respondents said they contact them every occasion and once in a quarter. And 10% of respondents said that company never contacted them.

Ø Many of the respondents prefer for good service rather then discounts.

Ø 62% of the respondents said the performance of the executives was good, 23% of the respondents said ok.

Ø The maximum member's i.e 80% of the respondents said they definitely suggest and even purchase one more car if they require. 20% said that they may or may not be suggested.

SUGGESTIONS

Ø It is suggested that some more place should be provided for luggage in the boot.

Ø The company should finance the cars on low interest rates than the bankers.

Ø They should provide the gift vouchers and special offers on sales and on the service and repairs.

Ø The manufacturing and designers of car models should develop the advanced and the sports cars to attract the customers cheaply.

Ø They should increase the speed and the quick jet pickup in their small and sports models like in pirus cars.

Ø The official and executives must be in contact to their concerned area of customers and also the sales and service personnel should be in touch with the customers. Now-a-days many of the non branded garages are operating in all corners of the world to fix the repairs and services cheaper than the company.

Ø To improve the shape of vehicle especially for avensis.

Ø To provide better service to customers at work shop

Ø To make the vehicle more spacious inside.

Ø To improve the convenience in the vehicle.

Ø Skilled and experienced persons should be provided at service centre, so that problems of the vehicle should be resolved completely.

Ø Engine capacity should be altered; this leads to increase mileage and pickup once when A/C on.

Ø To increase the places for parking at work shop.

Ø The company should consider the customer recommendations and the needs of them.

Ø The management should make the necessary alterations to the service and the workshop facilities.

Ø The management should consider the actual needs of the customers and to their convenience.

Ø The market in the globalisation is very competitive and the manufacturer must consider the up-to-date techniques and should be exceptional.

Ø Most of the respondents are very much interested in the brand of the Toyota and to be with the Toyota vehicle.

Ø The servicing and the workshops are not available with all Toyota dealers.

Ø The price and the delivery of the vehicle should reduced behind the brand value because of the competitors are providing the cars of same features cheaper than the Toyota.

References:

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