Branding refers to use of a name, term, symbol or combination of these to distinguish a product from the competitors. Ori-plast is a well-known brand for its quality in the business circle.
7) Quality :
Quality means, totality of feature & characteristics of a thing that bear on its ability to satisfy implied needs. Ori-plast ltd. is maintaining the no 1-quality product. It offers products after testing 5 times. It uses best quality raw materials with sophisticated machineries. For last 41 years, it supplying the best quality pipes with least defects. b) Pricing Strategy of Ori-plast ltd.:
The second major variables, that a marketing manager controls is ‘price’. Price level decisions are especially important because they effect both the number of sales firm
makes & how much money it earns. Price is simply the amount of money that consumers are willing to pay for a product or service. It is the only mix, which generates a turnover for the organization. Pricing is difficult & must reflect supply & demand relationship. Pricing should take into account the following factors :
• Fixed & Variable costs.
• Competitors.
• Company Objectives.
• Proposed Positioning Strategies.
• Target Group & Willingness to pay.
There may be differences in price based on variables such as age of the customers, location of sale, season etc. Companies usually adjust their basic prices to account for various customer differences & changing situations. There are seven price adjustment strategies, they are: Psychological Pricing, Discount & Allowance Pricing, Geographical Pricing, Segment Pricing, Promotional Pricing, Value Pricing & international Pricing.
Pricing objective should be explicitly stated because they have a direct effect or pricing policies as well as the method used to set prices.
The Ori-plast company looks after the price at the retailer’s level. Its price commensurate with the perceived value of the offer. The ori-plast is changing its pricing strategy from time to time. Few years back, it was fixing the prices normally lower than competitors were. Now company offers reasonable price with quality products & on time delivery.
Pricing objectives Profit oriented Sales Oriented Status Oriented Target Return Maximize Profits
Unit Sales Growth
Growth In Market Share
• Psychological Pricing :
Psychological pricing means a pricing approach that considers the psychology of prices & not simply the economics. Here the price is used to Jay something about the product. Another aspect of psychological pricing refers to the price that buyers carrying in their minds & refers to when looking at a given product.
• Discount Pricing :
Most companies adjust their basic prices to reward customer’s responses, such as early payment of bills, volume purchase & off-season purchasing. This price adjustment is termed as discount.
Ori-plast offers discount to distributors & customers through dealers. It gives 15- 20% discount on the MRP from deals.
• Promotional Pricing :
With promotional pricing, companies will temporarily price their products below the list price & sometime over below cost.
• Ori-plast prices some of its products below the list price.
• Price is subject to change without notice.
• Allowance :
It is one types of reduction from the list price. Ori-plast gives promotional allowances. Promotional allowance is given as rewards for participating in advertisement & sales support programmes. In addition, financial & non-financial benefits are provided to distributors, dealers based on their annual turnover.
c) Place Strategy of Ori-plast :
Forms of Discount
The third element of the marketing mix is place. Place refers to having the right product in the right location at the right time to be purchased by the customer. This proper placement of products is done through middle people called the channel distribution.
The channel of distribution comprised of interdependent manufacturers, wholesalers & retailers. These groups are involved in making a product or service available for use or consumption. Distribution management consists of two major tasks :
• Physical Distribution.
• Management of Distribution.
Ori-plast ltd. was established 41 years ago now it is spread over all the important places like, Kolkata, Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, Visakhapatnam, Pune etc. in India. Similarly, it also has regional offices at Secunderabad, Delhi & liadioning agents at Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata & Kathmandu.
At present, the registered office of the company is situated in Howrah ( 52, N.S.Road Howrah, 711101 ). Hence, all the plastic pipes & water storage tank are distributed by direct marketing. There is also a very good communicational link in between these offices & every dealer.
Or-plast ltd. has also advocated non-personal communication channels carrying messengers without personal contact or interaction. They include media, atmosphere & events. The company uses print media ( Newspaper, Journals, Periodicals), display materials effectively. The company also participates in industrial exhibition, trade fairs at National & International level.
d) Promotional Strategy of Ori-plast Ltd :
Promotion is the fourth element in the marketing mix strategy. ‘Promotion’ is a communication process that takes place between a business & its various publics. Publics are those individuals & organizations that have an interest in what the business produces & offers for sale. Thus, in order to be effective, the business need to plan promotional activities with the communication process in the mind.
Marketers use many methods of sales promotion. Company can use some of the most common used methods for sales promotion.
• Sales Promotion.
• Public Relation.
• Sales Force.
• Advertising.
A Customer:
A customer refers to individuals or households that purchase goods & services generated within the economy. The word ‘customer’, historically derived from, ‘custom’, which implies that, a customer was someone who frequented a particular shop, who made it a habit to purchase goods there, & with whom the shopkeeper had to maintain a relationship to keep his or her ‘custom’, which implies expectation of future purchase.
Customer needs may be defined as the goods or services a customer requires to achieve specific goals. Different needs are of varying importance to the customer. Customer expectations are influenced by cultural values, advertising, marketing & other communications. Both customer needs & expectations may be determined through interviews, surveys, conversations, data mining or other methods of collecting information. Customers at times do not have a clear understanding of their needs. Assisting in determining needs can be a valuable service to the customer. CUSTOMER SATISFACTION:
‘Customer Satisfaction,’ is a business term. It is a measures of how products & services supplied by a company meet or surpass customer expectation. It is seen as a key performance indicator within business. In a competitive market place, where business competes for customers, customer satisfaction is seen as a key differentiator & increasingly has become a key element of business strategy.
Organization are increasingly interested in retaining customers, while targeting non- customers. Measuring customer satisfaction provides an indication of how successful the organization is at providing products or services to the market place.
‘Satisfaction’ is a psychological state. In general, ‘satisfaction’ is a person’s feelings of pleasure or disappointment resulting from comparing a product’s perceived performance in relation to his or her expectations. If the performance matches the expectations, the customer is satisfied. If the performance exceeds expectations, the customer is highly satisfied or delighted.
A company would be wish to measure customer satisfaction regularly because one key to customer retention is customer satisfaction. A highly satisfied customer generally stays loyal longer, buys more as the company introduces new products & upgrades existing products, talks favourably about the company & its products, pays less attention to competing brands & is less sensitive to price, offers product or service ideas to the company & costs less to serve than a new customer, because transactions are routine.
A number of methods exist to measure customer satisfaction, such as-
• Periodic survey.
• SERVQUAL method etc.
BUILDING CUSTOMER VALUE, SATISFACTION & LOYALTY
Today, companies face their toughest competition ever. Moving from a product & sales philosophy to a marketing philosophy, however, gives a company a better chance of out performing competition.
John Chambers, CEO of CISCO systems, put it well; “Make your customer the centre of your culture”.
Therefore, companies in order survive in this competitive Era must give importance to following factors in order to deliver customer satisfaction & became the market leader. These are :