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Marketing Research On Branded Shirts

Paper Type: Free Essay Subject: Marketing
Wordcount: 4336 words Published: 1st Jan 2015

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In this assignment I was doing Marketing Research on branded shirts of Indian market to know recently which brands are on top among several brands and for this I was taking top five brands which is more popular and used by people. For this I took a decision to follow Questionnaire method to give best result to my assignment. so I made a Questionnaire and on basis of that my survey was through the medium of phone calls to know the views of customer and to know which brand is on the top as per my assignment topic and the aim of my assignment is also to make the companies aware about the growing competition in the garment industry and what their products lacks in comparison to their competitors products.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INDEX PAGE NO.

INTRODUTION…………………………………………………….4

LITERATURE REVIEW……………………………………………7

MARKETING RESEARCH……………………………………..7

QUESTIONNAIRE DESIGN…………………………………….7

BENEFITS OF MARKEYING RESEARCH………………………9

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY……………………………………10

ANAYSIS OF QUESTIONNAIRE…………………………………11

PROBLEMS ENCOUNTERED…………………………………….24

CONCLUSION………………………………………………………25

REFERENCES………………………………………………………27

APPENDIX………………………………………………………….28

INTRODUCTION

Indian men are increasingly looking for newer trends and design in the outfits that they choose to spot. Earlier kurtas were preferable as essential Indian garb where as shirts considered as product of the western influence. But today, in the corporate world, shirts become the norms of formal attire almost universally across all nations. From the last twenty years the shirts garments industry has grown in thousand fold and it throws up an estimated turnover of 7 to 8 crores for every transaction day. The shirts market constantly attracts the largest no. of manufacturers and the estimated of Rs.200 crores businesses and continuously increasing day by day and not only this Indian host for the 5000 shirts manufactures both in branded and unbranded segments. The ready made shirts story began in the 50s triggered off by liberty and that was the first branded shirts in industry and since then the business continuously growing. (S.Kadiwala, 2004)

And my assignment is to know recently which brands of shirts are on the top of the demand from the brands more commonly used by people. So there are five brands I have selected for comparison and they are as follows:

PARK AVENUE

Park Avenue was launched in 1986. Providing innovative & stylish wardrobe solution to well dressed gentlemen. They are catering customer who needs formal clothing for various occasion. Not only this, in year 2008, it had also won the “Most Innovate Brand” in Fashion Awards at the Lycra. A range of distinct & structural formal wear, chic & contemporary day wear as well as elegant wear are some of the collection features of it.

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ZODIAC

For the last 50 years, in fashion garments it has been a quality manufacturer and also considered as a one of the finest quality shirt makers. They are using a finest fabric for all shirts to give quality, value for money products and also at affordable prices. In year 2000, at the prestigious ‘Images Fashion Awards’ it was also awarded for the most admitted neckwear brand. Zodiac is the most popular as a fine brand in shoppers stop in India. Now zodiac shirts are also dealing in rest part of the world like Bijenkorb in Holland, across the Middle East and selected retailers in Canada & Germany and considered to be international distributor’s co. (Zodiac clothing ltd., 2010)

PETER ENGLAND

In year 1889 under the name of Peter England, the Modest Factory was built in Londonderry, Ireland and comes with the hall mark “HONESTY IMPRESSIVE” for all products to boasts the selling of the internationally styled garments and offering value for money to its customer.

It was also awarded as Honest-to-goodness prices for supplying the British troops khaki uniform for the highest quality. In year 1997, Aditya Birla Group brought Peter England to India and a major milestone to embark up. It was launched as a ‘HONEST’ shirt to astounding success by providing an Indian male a decent shirt who wants to look good by paying a little and now in India, it becomes the fastest selling ready made shirts brand. And also from the last few years, the brand becomes a full fledged wardrobe solution by extended its range to Trousers, Casuals & Suits.

It also offering three distinct quality clothing as a name Peter England, Peter England Elements & Peter England Elite. It was one of the earliest brands offering office wear and now offering a complete range from everyday to special day and in future it also wishes to enter in new geographical area in other part of the world to create consumer experience of unique and relevant.

APPLE PLUS

Apple Plus providing wide range of products like gentle cotton shirts, long shirts, short shirts, polyester shirts, casual shirts. It also provide customers a finely stitched formal wear to enhance their personality and in varied pattern and colors. Striped cotton, plain are ranges available in formals and they have specialization in custom designing and manufacturing. They provide top class fabric & classical styles as a range. For the fashion concerned men, they having a specially fine quality skin friendly fabric and also made according to the latest fashion so that

these shirts are widely demanded and not only this, they all are available in market at very affordable price to capture wide range of market.

WILLS

Wills classic work wear, Wills sport relaxed wear, Wills clublife evening wear and Wills signature designer wear for special occasion are the Wills garments coming in exclusive labels.

In 2007, by Time Magazines it considered the Top luxury brands of India. And not only this, in 2nd loyalty summit & Awards, it was crowned for customer & brand loyalty in the retail sector. It was also launched an innovative designs that requisite in style & comfort to wear as per market grew and demand for high quality.

LITERATURE REVIEW

MARKETING RESEARCH

Marketing Research is the process to make the customer, consumer and public to the marketer through information. It is based on improving the information about a particular product and also to improve our understanding of marketing as a process. It also generates the formal communication links between the customer and environment.

Marketing research also provides the information about the marketing problems and opportunities and develops a general understanding of marketing phenomena and processes. (Gilbert A. Churchill, 2008)

QUESTIONNAIR DESIGN

After referring the below case, I was taking the decision to choose the Questionnaire method in marketing research as it is quite practical and simple to get the data we want.

Case-Critiquing Questionnaires

Questionnaires are more preferable than any other type of survey as instead of answering the marketing researcher’s questions, you’ll be looking at the question thinking, “I could have worded that better.” It is a good measure of knowledge as this includes your views about a particular product and can be known better practically than by the theoretical way.

What are the survey’s strengths?

It’s short and obviously so, so consumers know immediately that filling out the survey won’t take too much of their time.

Short surveys enhance response rates.

Better response rates mean more representative samples.

There is an open ended section so that the consumer may say whatever is on his/her mind, whether anticipated by the rating scales of quality, timeliness, etc.

What are the survey’s weaknesses?

The trade-off on length is that the survey will yield little information and a complaint about marketing research that you always want to avoid is, “we can’t do anything on the basis of these data.” (Gilbert A. Churchill, 2008)

BENEFITS OF MARKETING RESEARCH

The survey has enabled me to come to a conclusion that survey is highly integral part of market research. With survey we come to know about the presence that particulars brand has which we are targeting. As survey give us a comparative analysis of different brands in a market and how any particular brand can be more sellable among other competitive brands. It helps us to keep up to the mark of the quality as quality is a long term of the investments. It adds to the brand value. It enables us to understand which features attract to the customer for impulsive buying of our product through effective advertisement.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Generally two methods were taken for this research i.e. Questionnaire and Statistical tool.

Questionnaire was design in such a way so that the survey report could be quiet near to reality or the truth on which we can rely upon. In questionnaire the questions were mainly framed on the basis of Dichotomous, Open ended questions, Multiple choices and Rating scale. Whereas Statistical tool help me to analyze in graphical manner which is much easier to understand.

ANALYSIS OF QUESTIONNAIRE

Which brand of shirt would you like to buy?

Shirts

Park Avenue

Zodiac

Peter England

Apple plus

Wills

No. of users

42

27

63

6

12

Fig .1 Most preferable brands

According to the survey results and the graph it is clear that Peter England is the market leader in shirts followed by Park Avenue. Zodiac has a good chance of growth in the market as it is in the growth stage of its PLC. Wills and Apple Plus captures a very small markets the reason being that consumer’s may not be aware of such brands as they don’t advertise heavily. The next reason being that their prices may be high as far as Indian market and Indian consumers are concerned because such brands don’t have an average price for their product which suits the Indian consumers.

Peter England covers the Indian market mainly because it knows the needs and tastes of Indian consumers.

In which range would you like to buy?

Range

500-600

600-700

700-800

800 and above

No. of buyers

51

33

51

15

`

Fig.2 Preferable ranges of brand

As far as the prices of the shirts are concerned Indian consumers are price conscious. They generally look for the price which is the lowest among the brands which they prefer. Since maximum consumers in the Indian market are middle class so they can’t afford to go for high range of products but on special occasions they prefer to buy products of high range. As the research reveals that the preferred price is between 500-600 and 700-800. The reason being that the product is bought as per the occasional demands.

How often do you buy?

Situation

Festivals

Discounts

Occasions

Regularly

No. of buyers

24

45

45

36

Fig.3 Customer’s buying behavior

The results of survey reveal that discount and occasions are major factors which influence the buying behavior of Indian consumers. Since most Indian consumers are average class people they prefer to buy products specially garments when it is mostly required. As an example on some occasions. Since Indian consumers are price conscious so discount has a major influence to motivate them to buy shirts.

It was also observed that during occasions and discounts offered by company the sales growth was high for the product. In times of discount the customers buy more number of products and on regular basis as compared to when these offers were not there from the company side.

The consumers who buy these products on regular basis were mostly of esteem class since buying garments is a must in the mindset of Indian consumers so this also tend to increase the sale of garments for the company.

Who else buy these shirts in your family?

Person

Father

Brother

Cousin

No.

45

69

36

Fig. 4 Buying behavior of customer’s family

The graph above clearly shows that apart from the person surveyed their brothers were the major buyers of the brand of shirts which he preferred. Next to him was his father who was motivated to buy the same brand of product.

Since his father was his family member it was usual that he was the person who will take interest in buying the brand of shirt which the surveyors use to buy.

“Expensive shirts are trust worthy”

Issue

Strongly disagree

Disagree

Agree

Strongly Agree

No. of respondents

15

33

72

30

15%

20%

22%

48

48%

Customer views on “Expensive shirts are trust worthy”

According to the survey it is clear that most of the consumers agree to the fact that expensive shirts are trust worthy. They are of the opinion that expensive shirts quality is quite different from that of average priced shirts. The percentages of consumers who disagree to the facts are less as compared to agreed consumers.

In the section of strongly agreed it comprises of those consumers who are brand loyal, who have full trust on their brands and in any condition they are not going to become brand switchers.

How would you rank these brands from 1 to 5?

Brand/ Rank

1

2

3

4

5

Pak Avenue

42

60

39

6

3

Peter England

66

18

27

27

12

Wills

18

24

15

51

42

Zodiac

24

42

60

15

9

Apple Plus

0

6

9

51

84

Fig.6.1 Ranking of Park Avenue Fig.6.2 Ranking of Peter England

Fig.6.3 Ranking of Wills Fig.6.4 Ranking of Zodiac

Fig.6.5 Ranking of Apple Plus

As far as the popularity of the brand is concerned among the Indian consumers the market research has revealed that Peter England is the most popular among the Indian consumers. It means that peter England is the market leader and has able to gain confidence among the Indian consumers. Next to it is Park Avenue which covers a good market as for as branded shirts are concerned. So inference can be drawn from the fact that Peter England has all the good qualities which Indian consumers want and they have been able to provide all the features which good branded shirts should have and which fulfills the requirements of Indian consumers.

Why do you wear these shirts?

Purpose

Smartness

Comfortable

Professional

Other

No.

51

54

36

9

Fig.7 Reason of Wearing Branded shirts

According to the survey conducted we could reveal that the branded shirts are mostly preferable for the purpose of comfort and smartness. The branded shirts due to its high price and quality gives the consumers the comfort which they need using the product. The consumers too demand smartness from the product they use.

Which brands ads do you like the most?

Brand

Peter England

Park avenue

Wills

Zodiac

Apple plus

No.

51

33

27

21

18

Fig.8 Brands ads like the most

As for influencing Indian market is concerned it is greatly affected by the type of advertisements displayed by these companies. Ads are the major source to make the Indian consumers aware of the product and to motivate them to buy these

products. Since Peter England advertise heavily and their ads are very attractive so, people like their ads and then think of buying these products

In which media you have seen the ad?

Media

Television

Newspaper

Magazine

No.

99

39

12

No.

Television

Magazine

66%

26%

8%

66%

Fig.9 Media in which people viewing the ads

Electronic media especially television is a major source through which consumers can be made aware of the product. Since branded shirts are generally bought by high class people and everyone has a TV set in their home so for the branded shirts TV is the major source of advertisement. Since a TV is watched for maximum number of hours so the consumers see the ad repeatedly and gets motivated to buy these products. Also the reason being that the frequency of advertisement shown in television is higher as compared to any other media and people feel that they are watching a live show.

Next to it is the news paper through which advertisements are displayed and newspaper also reaches to that place where TV don’t. Ads in the newspaper are represented in the form of pictures and displays.

As the magazines are weekly or fortnightly or monthly issued so it can’t make aware the maximum number of consumers.

How would rate this ad.?

Rate

Excellent

Good

Fair

Poor

No.

17

25

7

50

Fig.10 Rating of ads

Have these ads motivated you to purchase these shirts?

Motivation

Yes

No

Respondents

105

45

30%

70%

Fig.11 Motivating of ads to purchase

As you can see from the above graph how or to what extent Indian consumers are affected by the ads they watch in various media. In the survey conducted among 150 consumers, 105consumers which are approximately 70% get motivated by the ads newspaper or magazines they watch or read.

The other 45 consumers are not at all motivated by one reason or the other to buy these products. The reason may be that either they are brand loyal or they don’t take interest in watching these ads or may be that range may be too high as compared to their purchasing power.

What is your occupation?

Occupation

Student

Business

Service

Others

No. of respondents

63

12

60

15

Fig.12 Customer’s Occupation

The researches were conducted among people who were either students, business men, service men or others. Amongst these majorities of them were either students or service men.

What is your monthly income?

Income

Nil

Rs.

5000-10000

Rs.

10000-15000

Rs.

15000-20000

Rs.

20000 & above

No.

78

3

3

18

48

Fig.13 Customer’s monthly income

Since the research was conducted for the branded shirts, it was observed from the research that these shirts are more commonly bought by people who are in the income group of Rs.20,000 and above. This also reveals the fact that branded shirts are preferred by Indian consumers. People who are in the income group of Rs.5000-10000 cannot afford to buy branded shirts as the price ranges of these shirts are too high for them.

What do you think your brand shirts should do to attract you more?

Suggestions

Yes

No

Required

114

36

24%

76%

Fig.14 Customer’s views on improvement of brands

When the customers are asked about any recommendations required in their brands, maximum of them recommended some suggestion or the other for the improvement in their brands. This also made us clear that customers take interest in giving suitable suggestions to attract them more.

PROBLEMS ENCOUNTERED

In research we faced lot of hurdles like customer did not have knowledge how to give answer to questionnaire , few of them were not cooperative enough they were actually not comfortable with the idea of giving the personnel details like their actual income , their age , their spending capacity .

Hardly, anybody could identify their brand advertisement. Few of that could not figure out that what actually they want from their brand. As the research was conducted among 150 people so a clear and confirm conclusion could not be drawn.

CONCLUSION

Today is the market of branded shirts and it covers maximum market area as far as garment industry is concerned. From the research a conclusion can be drawn that branded shirts are market leaders and Peter England is the market leader among all branded shirts. Brands have able to gain confidence and trust of their customers and they provide with all the comforts a branded shirts should have. Once you gain the customers trust you no longer need anything to do to motivate customers to buy your brand and even if the prices of the products are increased it does not effect in the sale of the products provided you fulfill the conditions of the customer.

Park avenue and Peter England runs neck to neck in this competitive market and if a little mistake is committed by Peter England there is every chance of park avenue becoming the market leader it means there is very little margin of error.

Case overview of Peter England

Earlier the insights of customers were not up to the mark for Peter England as lack of benchmark brands were there. There was no standardization of quality. People used to face embarrassing feeling to publicly reveal their budget to shopkeeper. And also belief premium shirt brands were overpriced. Peter England sold shirts mostly on retail push. Peter England background was that the store brands had weak customer relationships and also there were no distinct brands image or emotional connect. Then Peter England applied a strategy to improve their brand and to be the most durable and best brand among the others. For this they gained share from store promoted /local/regional labels and build a national image. Also carved out the national foot print. They provided extensive range of office & casual wear. Provided good quality label and branding, contemporary designs, colours and fabrics. Wide distribution of products and decided to give easy availability of products. They advertised the quality shirts at an affordable price and also established Peter England as an international brand. The brand situation of Peter England today is on the top. It is a largest selling shirt brand in the country. Customers now have overall brand satisfaction and there are many Peter England clones in the market. (Rangrekar, 2008)

REFERENCES

Apple plus, 2010. tradeindia.com. [Online] Available at: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:Y9hP68r_W2AJ:www.tradeindia.com/Seller-2124906-APPLE-PLUS/+apple+plus+shirts&cd=6&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=in [Accessed 19 september 2010].

Apple Plus, 2010. tradeindia.com. [Online] Available at: http://www.tradeindia.com/suppliers/men-formal-wear.html [Accessed 19 september 2010].

Gilbert A. Churchill, J.a.D.L., 2008. Marketing Research. ninth ed. New Delhi: Cengage Learning India pvt. ltd.

Kotler, K., 2009. Marketing Management. 13th ed. Delhi: Dorling Kindersley (India) Pvt. Ltd.

Rangrekar, D.A., 2008. scribd.com. [Online] Available at: http://www.scribd.com/doc/2302942/Case-Peter-England-The-Honest-Shirt- [Accessed 22 september 2010].

Raymond, n.d. Raymondindia.com. [Online] Available at: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:3IaEoQ2cxTUJ:www.raymondindia.com/off_brnd_pk.asp+park+avenue+shirts&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=in [Accessed 18 september 2010].

S.Kadiwala, 2004. indianchild.com. [Online] Available at: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:0UD3cJfUVGIJ:www.indianchild.com/shirts/shirts_index.htm+market+condition+of+branded+shirts+in+india&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=sg&client=firefox-a [Accessed 18 september 2010].

Sawyer, M., 2010. plussize.about.com. [Online] Available athttp://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:jAJDfn7t1OMJ:plussize.about.com/od/stylebasics/ht/dressshirtapple.htm+apple+plus+shirts&cd=3&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=in[Accessed 18 september 2010].

The Information Company Pvt Ltd, 2009. adityabirlanuvo.com. [Online] Available at: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:BUmyJbZigl4J:www.adityabirlanuvo.com/maduragarments/peter_england_menswear.aspx%3Fid%3D7c6nT9QP0bM%3D+history+of+peter+england+shirts+india&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=in [Accessed 18 september 2010].

William G. Zikmund, B.J.B., 2009. Marketing Research. 3rd ed. New Delhi: Cengage Learning India Private Limited.

Zodiac clothing ltd., 2010. zodiaconline.com. [Online] Available at: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:CyGyaMQmF0MJ:www.zodiaconline.com/aboutus.asp+zodiac+shirts+history&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=in [Accessed 18 september 2010].

 

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