A project report pepared on the basis of 2 months' training at Force Motors Ltd. explaining the channels used to make ourselves visible in the eyes of the customer, i.e. creating a Brand Image. The project involves my work as an intern at FOrce Motors, Ajmer.
3. An
Internshiptrainingproject report on
BrandMarketing of
“FORCEMOTORS”
Submittedto
DezyneE’cole College
Towards
The partialfulfillment of
3rd Year of Bachelorof Business Administration
By
AvinashSingh
DezyneE’cole College
106/10 CivilLines, Ajmer
www.dezyeneecole.com
4. GRADE SHEET
DEZYNE E’COLE COLLEGE
106/10 CIVIL LINES
AJMER- 305001 (RAJ)
TEL: - 0145- 2624679
This project report of Mr. Avinash Singh of Bachelors of Business
Administration of 3rd year program of BBA has been graded
as______________________
Thanking you
Principal
(Seal & Signature)
6. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I, Avinash Singh, student of Bachelor of Business Administration 3rd Year
of Dezyne E’cole College, would like to express my gratitude to each and
every person who has contributed in stimulating suggestions and
encouragement which really helped me in successful completion of my
project.
I express my sincere gratitude to Mr. B.K. Aggarwal, (GM, BK Force
Motors), Mr. Prashant Thakur (Regional sales manager, Rajasthan), Mr.
Nishant Aggarwal, Mr. Anil Srivastav, Mr. Nitesh Singh Shekhawat, Mr.
Amit Saxena and all the staff of BK Force, Ajmer for supporting me and
guiding me throughout my internship.
I also take this opportunity to express my indebtedness to Mrs. Vinita
Mathur principal “Dezyne E’Cole College, Ajmer” for her cooperation
and affectionate encouragement. I also thank to my all faculty
members for their suggestion and advice.
I thank Dezyne E’cole College who provided insight and expertise that
greatly assisted the project. Also, a special thanks to my teachers,
parents and colleagues who have supported me at every step. Not to
forget, the almighty who blessed me with good health because of which
I worked more efficiently.
Thanking you
With regards,
Avinash Singh
7. INTRODUCTION
Management is not a new concept to us. Since the times of Ramayana
and Mahabharata, we have witnessed its presence. However, earlier
management was defined as a person’s quality. This doesn’t surprise us
considering the fact that earlier the sons had to follow in their fathers’
footsteps and had to do what their fathers did. The ability of efficient
management was considered as a hereditary gift. However as the world
kept evolving, various authors, philosophers and theorists put in a
viewpoint that management can be learnt as well.
Today, management studies is considered a necessity for the
development of small and big organizations and for the growth of great
economies.
There has been a constant realization by the industries that the current
manages are not competent enough to meet the industry requirements
as graduates today are more into bookish knowledge. Thus, the
education system shifted towards acknowledging the need for practical
on-field learning so the study patterns were altered.
The new educational pattern in BBA involves the student to undergo an
on the field training in an organization under the close supervision of a
superior in the organization . This training will help him develop a
perspective of wholesome management of business activities and see
how they are interrelated. Thus a student will have on the field
knowledge so when he enters the industry, he will provide efficient and
skilled management.
8. SYNOPSIS
This project was undertaken during my internship at Force Motors for
a period of 2 months. I worked on the topic “Brand Marketing” of
Force Motors.
The project is focused upon what various means are available to Force
Motors and which ones they are using so as to let the customers know
about their existence.
This project is a reflection of what I learnt throughout my internship
with Force Motors. It involves the customer interactions I did, varying
from the rural market cover to the semi-urban segment, which will
help Force Motors to understand it’s market and the customer with
whom it deals.
Force Motors deals in commercial vehicles which involve lots of
investment of time as well as customer interaction and follow back.
Durable products are harder to sell where there is a tough competition
among the sellers and where there are so many competitors. This is
why I chose Force Motors as I was given the opportunity to interact
with customers of all levels and sectors. It provided me with challenges
and helped me learn customer behavior from person to person.
This project is an attempt to understand how to pitch in your product
to different customers in a different way. It is not possible to include all
the points as marketing is a vast subject. I will focus upon the major
factors involved. Through this project, I am showcasing what I learnt
from my internship.
9. CONTENT
1. THE INDIAN COMMERCIALVEHICLES INDUSTRY
2. INTRODUCTION TO FORCE MOTORS
• History
• Current Position
• Market Competition
• Products
3. BRAND MARKETING
• Importance of Brand Marketing
• How Branding Works
• Branding Channels
• Customer Satisfaction
4. MY WORK AT FORCE
• Market Segmentation
• PersonalMeeting
• FollowUp
• Additional Work
• SWOT Analysis
• Conclusion
• Bibliography
5. ANNEXURE
10. 1 THE INDIAN
COMMERCIAL
VEHICLES INDUSTRY
According to the 2017 government data, the Indian automobile
Industry is the 4th largest automobile industry in the world with sales
increasing year-on-year to 4.02 millions (excluding two-wheelers).
Even though there was a temporary decrement in sales of vehicles
during the last and first quarters of FY 2017-18 and 2018-19
respectively, the industry is set to further improve its performance in
FY 2018-19.
The industry forecasts the sales growth of passenger vehicles in FY19
at 8-10% with utility vehicles growing at 14-15% and cars up between
8-9% in the domestic market.
Commercial vehicles are pitted to continue the growth of double digits
at 10-12%, with Medium & Heavy Commercial Vehicles (MHCVs) up by
9-11% and Light Commercial Vehicles (LCVs) growing at 11-12%. Buses
however, will continue to grow at less than 10%.
The revival of the economy post demonetization and GST enforcement
are putting back on track. For instance, the GDP of economic reforms
of the government are showing positive signs. The global economic
growth projected at 3.7% in 2018 would also aid up in it. The two
successful monsoon years have put the rural economy on growth track,
boosting Utility Vehicles and Small Commercial Vehicles sales in the
rural market.
The following graph represents the sales trends of commercial vehicles
in the last six years.
11. 0
200000
400000
600000
800000
1000000
2012-13 2013-14 2014-15 2015-16 2016-17 2017-18
Annual Vehicle Sales
There was a constant decline in the marginal sales per year of the
commercial vehicles in India till the year 2014-15 but the sales have
seen growth since then. Experts have predicted the entry of global
competitors in the Indian market which could prove tough for the
domestic players. For that the domestic players have to adapt to the
ever changing environment and have to make their presence felt in the
eyes of the customers. They have to create their brand image if they
want to survive which is possible only when the customers know them.
12. 2 INTRODUCTION TO
FORCE MOTORS
Ranked 327th among India’s
Fortune 500, Force Motors
is commercial vehicle
manufacturing company,
established in 1958 by Shri
N. K. Firodia..
His vision was to provide affordable commercial transport for the
masses by harnessing the best available technology and offering
economical, reliable and efficient products. Today, its range includes
Small Commercial Vehicles, Multi Utility Vehicles, Light Commercial
Vehicles, Special Utility Vehicles and Agricultural Tractors. Force Motors
is fully vertically integrated, making its own engines, chassis, gear
boxes, axles, bodies, etc. Through well differentiated products, Force
Motors has been able to create an image of its own in the urban as well
as the rural market. Not just the domestic market, it exports its
products to various countries in the Middle East, Asia, Latin America
and Africa. Force Motors consists of 8500 employees working together
to provide the customer the best product with the best experience with
it
13. History
The foundation of the Group was laid by Late Shri. N. K. Firodia freedom
fighter and pioneering industrialist.
He gave India two paradigms - the concept of 'low cost public transport' -
the Autorikshaw a word he coined that now finds a place in the Oxford
Dictionary). The Tempo Matador was the first diesel light commercial
vehicle in India. The word Tempo (a registered trade mark of Daimler) is
now generic for any small goods carrier in India. The whole story of Force
Motors can be summed-up with the major milestones that Force Motors
have passed since the year of its establishment.
Productionof
Hanseat Started
1958
1964
1969
1987
The manufactureof
tempo Viking
commences
The production of
MATADORbegins
The Tempo Traveller-
productionbegin.
14. 1988
1997
2008
2011
2014
2017
2017
The Tempo Trax
is introduced.
The company enters the
field of agricultural
tractorswith Balwan.
ForceMotors launched
new Traveller models.
ForceMotors launched
TravellerSchool Bus with
ChildBus Tracker feature.
ForceMotors enters in
PersonalVehicles
segment through Force
One.
ForceMotors launched
KARGO KING.
ForceMotors
introducedAll-new
ForceGurkha range.
15. CurrentPosition
Currently, Force Motors is working as a true market competitor. Its sales
are highest in the Madhya Pradesh and the vehicles, especially Traveller
and Toofan (Trax Cruiser) are the ones responsible for the most of its
sales. The one drawback before with Trax was that it wasn’t AC which
was harming the company as India is considered as a warm country with
majority of the time being hot days. The launch of Trax Deluxe in the year
2015 opened up new opportunities for the company. Following figure
shows the annual turnover of Force Motors for the last 5 years.
2081.56
2429.5
3131.23 3153.93
3491.32
0
1000
2000
3000
4000
2014 2015 2016 2017 2018
YearEnding March
Turnover(In Crores)
The above figure clearly shows that throughout the years the turnover
of Force Motors has increased on a gradual basis. Since the year 2014,
the sales have been increasing, even though the margin is not very big
but constant growth is there which is the proof that the company is on
the right track.
16. Market Competition
Force Motors deals primarily in Commercial vehicles segment which
constitutes 3% of total vehicles segment. In this 3%, there are several
big and small players and Force is one of the 5 big players in the
Segment. However, the segment in which Force Motors primarily deals
is 6-20 seater commercial vehicles in which it is far ahead of any other
player. In this segment, Force Motors has more than 50% of the total
market share. The following pie shows the market share of the big
players in the Commercial Vehicle Industry.
Market Share
TataMotors
Mahindra&
Mahindra
Ashok Layland
Eicher
Force Motors
Others
Tata Motors is the biggest player in the commercial vehicle segment with
46.46% share of the total market, followed by Mahindra & Mahindra and
then Ashok Leyland which is followed by Eicher. Force Motors has got
challenges from all these players, especially from Tata Motors, the
leader as Tata has products similar to Force’s Traveller base. However in
the passenger segment of 6-20 seaters, there is no near competition
with Force Motors in the Indian market.
18. 3 BRAND
MARKETING
A brand is a unique design, sign, symbol, words, or a combination of
these, employed in creating an image that identifies a product and
differentiates it from its competitors. Over time, this image becomes
associated with a level of credibility, quality, and satisfaction in the
consumer's mind.
In simple terms, a brand is how the customers see you and what they
perceive about you. A brand simply consists of two messages that are
conveyed to the customers about you:
1. It is the mental picture your prospects get hen they think about you.
It represents your values, your qualities and features that make you
unique among your competitors.
2. A brand is a promise. It tells the prospects what they can expect
when they buy your product or even just interact with your
executive. It is an implied covenant between a service provider and
a customer that makes the customer believe, “Every time I see this
logo or name, I will receive a certain quality of product, service and
care.”
MENTAL IMAGE PROMISE
19. For example, Apple’s customer are among the most fiercely loyal in the
world. They hang on every new product release and line up for blocks
to get new gadgets like iPhone because they expect a certain set of
valuable qualities from apple, i.e. beautiful design,
intuitive functionality, and innovative features.
That’s Apple’s brand promise. AS long as it
successfully delivers on that promise, its brand
will remain strong. Look at yourself only. The logo
on the left clearly gives you the image of a high
quality service.
Branding is all about perception- how your
customers, the society and other individuals
perceive your business. Sure, the people who
have interacted with your company know about
you but what about the majority who have
never dealt with you? Do they know your
company’s name, or do they know a perception
of you constructed from ads in the newspaper
or TV, maybe on a hoarding or road sign, or
maybe some hearsay?
The image you want people to have about your company is not the
same image that the other people perceive about before they become
your customers. That image is a perception made up of a hundred parts
assembled randomly over which you have very little control. People
perceive your company before they come into direct contact with your
business. You already have a brand. People already have a perception.
Brand management helps you to take control of how perception about
your business, even if it is “just another Smartphone company” or “that
automobiles dealer on the highway.” That’s a brand you have built
accidentally without even being aware of it. But managing your brand
will help you to create a brand of your own and having control over
what people perceive about your business.
ImportanceBrand Marketing and management
20. Once you have established or launch a business, you are committed.
From there on, anything you do will affect your brand. Every brand is
like a ship under sail, constantly in the state of equilibrium between the
force of the wind that moves it forward and that same force that wants
to tear out the masts and sink the ship.
The same way, your brand is also like a ship, in a delicate equilibrium
between the promise you make to your customers and your daily
actions. Once you’ve established your brand, everything you do will
either confirm that promise or contradict it. If your company pledges an
incredible customer service experience, you’ve got to deliver that
experience at least 90 percent of the time. Every time you fail, you dent
your brand slightly. Enough failures-enough contradictions to your
promise and you will wreck your brand. Then people will start to
assume that your promise is a lie.
For example, if Force Motors promises to provide services and repairs
instantly as soon as the vehicle reaches the service centre, each time
the services are done on time and with efficiency, it would create a
positive perception and thus confirming the promise which will
improve the brand but each time there is a compromise in the services
being provided, this will make a dent at the image of Force Motors.
PROMISE
CONFIRMATION CONTRADICTIONOR
21. How Branding Works
The main reason to set your brand is to make the customers come to
you. But to do so you have to make them realize that you care about
them. Your services and products should be such that they can sync
with the values of the customers who are your target group. Following
steps will show how branding works, that each client coming to your
doorstep, reaching to your retail store, your showroom, your
dealership passes through these four steps and this is how branding
works:
1. Awareness: This is the first time that your prospects come into
contact with your brand and your message. Up to this point, they
have no idea if you exist, who you are, or what you stand for. So,
the first job of any brand is to get the attention of your prospects
and tell them who you are, what you do, that you’re in the area, to
let the customers know about your existence.
2. Affinity: If the branding work is done right, after repeated
exposures to your message, prospects begin to have a positive
feeling about your company, even if they don’t know much about
what your business is all about. Affinity takes time, which is why it
is so critical that you be persistent in your brand marketing, even if
there is no short-term results. Affinity is silent and you don’t know
where and when it is growing in your market.
3. Understanding: When the prospects have developed a positive
enough feeling that override their natural sales resistance, or some
urgent need has compelled them to make a decision. They will
start checking you out on the internet, your company website,
calling to have a brochure or scheduling an in-person appointment.
This is the stage where the information about he company
background can be very useful. Now your prospects are trying to
find out if you have the right product or service for them.
4. Decision threshold: Finally comes the stage where the customer
has to choose your product or service. He has made up his mind
about you and has attached to you a set of permanent qualities.
This is the good part where you get the business.
22. Take an example of yourself to understand these stages. Firstly you did
know about a Smartphone brand that it existed in the market and you
came to know by watching ads in TVs and newspapers or some
hoardings. May be some of your friends also told you about it or you
read about it on your Facebook or Instagram feed. A continuous
interaction with the ads about the Smartphone compels you to know
more about the company and its background. You go on and check on
its website if the company is legitimate and how genuine the product
is. Then you come to know through the website about a showroom
nearby and you go visit it for the Smartphone. This is how branding
works. It makes the customer come to the doorsteps of the seller.
AWARENESS
AFFINITY
UNDERTANDING
DECISION THRESHOLD
23. Brand Marketing Channels
To make the customers aware of your brand, to manage how people
perceive your business you have to be in the driving seat and have to
follow the branding channels through which you can reach your target
market. The branding channels are means through which you can
control how your customers perceive you. These are of two types:
1. Inclusive: With inclusive channels, you don’t have much control
over who sees the message, so even though you will gain lots of
people’s attention it is not certain that your target market sees it.
2. Exclusive: With these channels you can control who can see your
message, but you reach fewer people. These channels are ideal for
target marketing and times when you need to focus your message
on covering a smaller group.
Consider this example as you are a puppet master with customer
perception as your puppet. In exclusive channels, you have the control
over the puppet but in in inclusive channels, the strings that control the
puppet are broken so you can’t control the acts of the puppet.
Advertising
Sponsorship
Internet
Print Media
Television
Referrals
Networking
Direct Mail
Telemarketing
Canvassing
INCLUSIVE EXCLUSIVE
24. Let’s understand all these channels and how they
work.
1. Canvassing: It means from door to door and
meeting your customers face to face. In this, you
get to ask questions and form an impression about
the person thus you will know his wants and can
provide him with services according to him.
However it is very time consuming.
2. Referrals: No ad or brochure would get you
in the door with a new prospect faster than a
referral. There’s nothing better to create
trust in a new prospect than a referral from
someone he or she has known for years. It’s
also cheap.
But the problem with it is that there is no control over what your
customers say about you. You can only assure that your
customers are satisfied but the clients who remain unhappy
would be speaking negative about you to a lot. There is a popular
saying in business that the satisfied customer would remain silent
but the unsatisfied customer would tell 100 more about his bad
experience. So your best bet is to satisfy your customers at most
and ask them to refer to someone close to him.
3. Direct Mail: Direct mail can be the most
strategically important channel for developing
your brand. But it can also be a money pit that
costs a lot. It gives you a tool to create a regular
flow of branding and service information to
your entire target market.
4. The Internet: In today’s business world, if you don’t have a strong
online presence you are handicapping your business in a huge way.
Having an easy to use site with information that can be accessed
by the customer 24x7 is something very powerful. It itself can
promote ways for another channels as well. Today being on the net
is a must.
25. 5. Networking: Networking involves making
contacts with colleagues and influencers in
your field. It is all about letting people
know that you are out there. It’s about
building relationships that can later turn
into business generators. It is a great
opportunity to tell people about your
business and what makes you different.
But don’t expect anything from
networking in the short run.
6. Advertising: Advertising can be billboards,
building signage, transit advertising like bus
benches or boards, lawn signs, posters and
paybills, stickers and bumper stickers, flyers
and banners. It creates visibility for your
company, name and brand better than
almost any other tool but is quite expensive
and hard to target. It’s tough to motivate people who come into
contact with your ad to make the leap to contact you. It’s only good
if you want to make people know that you exist in the market.
7. Print Advertising: Print advertising means
display advertising in a newspaper or
magazine, classified advertising, Yellow pages,
and inserts or circulars “blown in” to
periodicals. Print advertising can be more
targeted as you can choose the type of
publication, section of the publication and thus
can make the customers look at your brand.
However, if the publication is too cheap, this
will create a poor image but quality
publications can prove costly.
26. 8. Sponsorships: In sponsorships, you buy an ad in the program for
any community related activity or any show or program being
conducted. Look at the TV ads between the cricket matches being
played In the IPL. Sponsorships create brand awareness as well
associate you with community involvement and generosity. Thus
you get to be associated with what people like. But sponsorships
can cost you a ransom.
9. Telemarketing: Cold calling today is not
preferred as we hate them. But we can call
those customers with whom we already
have some relationship or have some leads.
If used properly, telemarketing is a way in
which you can target your customer in many
ways and lead to finally buying your product
or service.
10. Television Advertisement: Television has been a great source to
make the customers aware about your product since long. An
average Indian sits around 3 hours 44 minutes sitting in front of
the Indian box according to Times of India. However, choosing the
right time is important as well, also the right channel considering
that there are so many TV channels being broadcasted today.
If the channel and time is not
right then it would not be
targeted towards your target
market at all and thus it would be
a bad investment. However,
Television advertisements are
good credibility builders.
27. To build and maintain a successful brand, you must have multiple
channels working together with coordination. It is like attacking the
same target from many directions, so the chances of you hitting it
would be more. For example, you have brochures, a web site and you
advertise through print media, direct mails and TV advertisements. It
should be in such a way that these all channels are linked together.
When a customer sees your advertisement, he should be provided
with your website or your company’s dealers’ contact names with
address. If he visits your website then he should be provided with
mails and brochures. Thus, wherever he goes, he sees your company’s
name, your logo or your product and thus whenever a need occurs
your company’s name would be the first one.
C1
C2
C3
C4
C5
28. CustomerSatisfaction
Doesn’t matter how many channels you use to market yourself but
your brand is what you do and how well you satisfy your customer.
The experience you provide your customer will either support or
contradict your promise. You will only satisfy a customer when you
complete and exceed your promise again and again, thus creating a
trust into the customer for you.
Efforts to continually reach to your customers has certain benefits
that cannot be acquired by any branding channel. These are as
follows
1. Proper customer satisfaction means the customer are happy with
you and thus are easy to deal
2. Your customers are your sales force. In fact, they are your
greatest and most dominant sales force. Even a single good
review about you by your customer is 100 times better than a
sales person continuously shouting the benefits of buying your
product.
3. By providing customer satisfaction you would create a group of
people loyal to your company. Like that of Apple.
4. When the customers are satisfied, they will not bargain a lot
about the prices and would be happy to pay more for your
product or service.
5. In case there are some issues and some errors in your service, he
would tolerate the inconvenience.
Easyto Deal
Brand
Loyalty
Tolerance to
inconvenience
Tolerance to
change
UnpaidSales
ForceBenefits of
Customer
Satisfaction
29. The best way to satisfy a customer is the rule of “Under promise and
Over delivery.” take for example you sold a mobile phone which was
in the warranty period and stopped functioning. The customer comes
to you and asks for a repair. He would definitely ask for the time by
which the handset will be returned to him. You gave him a time of 10
working days. The customer agreed and left. Now if you repair the
smartphone in 5 days and return it to the customer before your given
time, this will make the customer have trust in you and this is how
you create a brand image for your business. The satisfied customer
will tell other 10 friends about your service and thus will lead to more
customers. However the unsatisfied customer can tell his friends
about his bad experience with you and those, who could have been
future customers, you will lose them.
WHAT YOU DELIVER
WHAT YOU PROMISE
WHAT YOU AVOID
30. 4 MY WORK AT FORCE
MOTORS
During my Internship at Force Motors, I attended more than 100
schools across the Ajmer district covering the ones located in the heart
of the city to the ones located in the rural parts. It also included
attending customers at the showroom of Force Motors. This helped me
understand the brand and marketing of Force Motors, one of the
market leaders in the commercial vehicles industry. For every day I was
given he task to visit the schools that are under the territory of the
Force dealership in Ajmer and understand about the needs and wants
of the customers in the schools segment.
Market Segmentation
There is a saying in business, “A product for everyone is a product for
no one.” It means that when you make a product, you have to decide
first, the segment of the market for which the product is. Segmentation
can be done on the basis of the following:
1. Demographic segmentation: Demographic Segmentation involves
variables such as age, gender, family size, income, occupation,
religion, race and nationality.
For example, when Maruti Suzuki launches a product, it launches it
in different variants for different income groups. Each variant of
the same model of car has a difference of about 1 to 2 lakhs.
2. Geographic Segmentation: This type of market segmentation
divides people on the basis of geography. Your potential customers
will have different needs based on the geography they are located
in.
31. 3. Psychographic Segmentation: Psychographic segmentation is
one which uses lifestyle of people, their activities, interests as well
as opinions to define a market segment. Psychographic
segmentation is quite similar to behavioral segmentation. But
psychographic segmentation also takes the psychological aspects of
consumer buying behavior into accounts. These psychological
aspects may be consumers lifestyle, his social standing as well as his
AIO. Do refer more to Activities, interests and opinions.
4. Behavioral Segmentation: This type of market segmentation divides
the population on the basis of their behavior, usage and decision
making pattern. For example, The buying patterns of youngsters
would be different from the buying patterns of old people. Also,
during the festival seasons, our buying patterns change as
compared to normal days.
I had to collect the data from the private sectors and for that I have to
segment the schools through their geographic and demographic criteria.
Schools in
Ajmer
Government
Schools
Private
Schools
Rural Urban
32. Once the market is segmented, you get the idea of what the customer’s
wants are and how you would pitch your product. For that I had to take
an appointment with the person I was about to meet. Today, the
Internet has made things easy and those who don’t take use of it are at
loss. I took the help of Google Maps to find out the schools I had to visit
for my appointments. Also with their locations, it provides us with the
contact details of the school so this made it easy for me to get
appointments with the school owners and administrators. The following
picture is a depiction of how I used internet to connect with my
customers.
After getting the contact details, I called in all these schools first to get
an appointment with the respective authorities and made a schedule of
how I will visit the schools. For that I had to introduce myself and also
my company then ask them for an appointment with the concerned
authority to discuss upon the conveyance means for the students.
33. PersonalMeeting
When meeting the authority of the school, I had to make my mark from
the first word I speak. As someone has rightly said, first impression is the
last impression. Firstly after introducing myself I would have a set of
questions which I asked them each, that is are they aware of the name
Force. 90% of the customers I visited were aware of the brand so this
made it easy for me to make them understand why I am there and what
I am going to talk about. I had a set of questions framed which I had to
ask in any sequence, sometimes directly and sometimes in an implied
form. I had to remember these details so that as soon as I leave the
meeting, I would write them down in a diary. The diary was maintained
with the format being like the picture below
Date: __/__/2018
Location:_____________
Name of Institution:___________________
Person Contacted:____________________
Designation:_________________________
ContactNumber:_____________________
E-mail:_____________________________
Strength of Institution:_________________
Number of Fleet:_____________________
Are they Interested: ____________
EnquiryType (Warm/Hot/Cold):____________
34. The way we deal with the customers in the urban area is different than
how we deal with the customers living in the cities. The rural areas in
Ajmer face the problems of proper facilities with customers having
different mindset. Also the language varies. The financial situations of
the two different class of customers varies as well as their choices of
products. However, the good part about both the segments is that the
customers which I had to deal with were either school owners or school
administrators so the language gap didn’t make much of a difference as
the customers in both segments were educated. To support my point, I
used brochures to explain what difference our product makes in
comparison with the competitors. The brochures were for two different
models, that is Trax Cruiser school van and Traveller School bus with 15-
seater, 17-seater, 20-seater and 26-seater versions.
Trax Cruiser School Van
Traveller26-Seater School Bus
35. FollowUp
95% of the customers will say “No” if you ask them whether they want
the product. The rest 5% will tell you they are not sure. The thing is that
you have to hit them where it hurts the most. Some of the features of a
Traveller bus includes it’s monocoque design which reduces the extra
weight that other competitors do not offer in a commercial vehicle or a
school bus. This thus reduces the overall maintenance cost of the vehicle
as well as the fuel efficiency increases b a whopping 12%. Now that we
know that each school owner wants two things- Children safety and low
overall costs. That is where we hit them. And that is what makes Force
Motors the largest seller in the 6 to 20-seater segment. We have only
one product that is more than 20 seater, i.e. the 26-seater Traveller. And
what we specialize in, we are the market leaders in that.
Once I have pitched in that
our product is better, I have
to keep the track of the
customer at a constant rate.
So I had to be in contact with
him and build relationship for
the future needs that may
arise.
Commercial vehicles require heavy investment thus they involve more
customer interaction. Sometimes, you have to follow back the
customer for years to get some lead as when you are in contact,
whenever the need arises, they will contact you.
36. Out of the 105 schools visited, 100 schools disclosed their strengths. The
ones who didn’t disclose their strengths were considered as obsolete as
the data was incomplete. Hence, I had selected 100 fit samples of data
to analyze.
Based on the data collected trough out my internship period of the
schools that I visited, certain facts were disclosed as mentioned below:
Analysis
Based on my working at Force Motors, I have conducted a research with
the objective to understand
•How much are the customers aware of Force Motors
•What percentage of schools use vehicles of their own
•What are the competitions that Force Motors is facing in the school
segment
•What are the upcoming opportunities for Force Motors in the school
segment
Urbanor Rural No. of Schools
Urban 81
Rural 19
Total 100
81% of the schools visited were in the urban region of Ajmer. These
schools showed the different share of demographics as the students
coming to study have parents working in the fast moving environment of
cities with easy access to service facilities and quality of education. The
19% of the schools, that belong to the rural segment have a basic
educational approach as the parents of the students mostly consist of
laborers and farmers. Following are certain tabular representations of
various other findings during the research.
Table 1
37. School Strengths No. of Schools
< 100 21
100-200 26
200-500 34
500-1000 13
>1000 6
Total 100
Table 2
Table 2 shows the segmentation of the schools according to their
strengths. There are not many large schools and the schools having
more than 100 students only consist of 6% of the total schools visited.
However, schools with between 500 to 1000 students occupy 13% of the
total schools. There are a good amount of small schools with strengths
below 100. These mainly consist of the Play Group schools. It is the
school segment of 200-500 that takes away the majority of shares, that
is a whopping 34%. This pretty much clears up exactly how the schools
in Ajmer comprise.
However, Table 3 clearly signifies that even though there are schools
with good strengths, yet the students in 37% of these schools have to
use there own means of vehicle. 41% of these schools have their own
vehicles.
Table 3
Way of Transport No. of Schools
Students’ own means 37
Contract basis 22
Own fleet 41
Total 100
38. Force Products No. of Schools Percentage
Force Motors 6 14.6
No Force product 35 85.4
Total 41 100
Number of fleet No. of Schools Percentage
(Approx.)
1 13 31.7
2 13 31.7
3 5 12.2
4 2 4.4
5 and Above 8 20
Total 41 100
22% of the schools have given the transportation job on contract basis
as no school wants to get indulged into the burden. That makes 59% of
the schools without any conveyance facility of their own. One must
also consider this point that having vehicles doesn’t mean that every
student is coming through the school transport. Most of the schools
visited had vehicles that account for transport around 20% of their
total strength.
Table 4
Out of the schools that owned students conveyance vehicles,
approximately 15% of them owned a Force Motors product, as
depicted in Table 4. One major reason is that schools usually go for big
buses and the maximum range for Force is Traveller 26-seater.
However, since its launch in 204 in the school segment, it is a good
start for Force Motors.
Table 5
39. AdditionalWork
During my internship, in addition to visiting schools, I also visited Taxi
Stands across Ajmer to get the feedback of customers who use Trax
Cruiser and Traveller for commercial purposes. I also attended the
customers visiting the showroom and gave the demo of the various
vehicles when asked. I visited the tourist places like Pushkar where I
enquired with the taxi and drivers about the vehicles they drive and
what they think about Force Motors. As per their feedback and as per
what I observed I have done a SWOT analysis of Force Motors.
SWOT Analysisof Force Motors
Strengths
• Force Motors has a good support
base from the customers as its
biggest strength is customer mouth
publicity
• The Trax Cruiser version is a rural market leader and better
thanits competitors on typical Indianroads
• The dealers have a good networking with the customers
andsimilar businesses
• Good Financing Companies are available on collaboration
with Force Motors
40. Weakness
• The customers have
complained about the finishing
of the vehicles
• There is no camper range of
vehicles as compared to the
competitors
• It is not in the government
sectors yet
• There are just more than 50
Force dealers across India
Opportunities
• There is no other monocoque
design manufacturer in India
• Force is has a chance of
maintaining it’s majority by
tapping the more than 20-seater
segment
• The new tie up with Rolls Royce
would help exchange of
technologies
Threats
• High competitionfrom existing players
• Economyslowdown
• High inflationrates
• Increase in the cost of raw materials
41. Conclusion
During my internship of two months with Force Motors, I
learnt how companies create their brands and how they
create an impact in the customer’s perception. I learnt how
customers are dealt and how to introduce our products. I
learnt that the no in the first is not the final no. The customer,
whether he is from a rural segment or urban, whether he is
educated or not, he has become smart and businesses are
becoming smarter as well. Irrespective of his education or
financial status, the customer is the king to a business. And to
create a positive image is one of the toughest job today.
However, positive image has a benefit that no other means of
advertisementor promotion can offer.
I learnt the use of Internet in the business to communicate
with the customers and to create our image as well. Use of
social media and applicationscannotbe ignored today.
So many products are launched everyday. Some fail to impress
the customer while some earn big. If you can provide
customer the satisfaction he wants, you will always be on the
winning side of the equilibrium. That’s what Force Motors has
been doing since the last 60 years. It has created a goodwill of
its own. The experience of a market leader clearly speaks
throughthe way the customers speak about it.
42. 5 ANNEXURE
Sl.No. Institution Address Strength
Person
Contacted
Designation CurrentFleet
1 VidyaBharti School Srinagar 221
VinayGupta Principal
1xForce(17+D)+1xVan(rent)Ramavatar
Sharma
Owner
2 IdealPublicSchool Srinagar 45 SarikaYadav Principal NIL
3
MayoorPublic
School
Srinagar 400 OP Bindra Owner 1xVan+1xBus(36-Seater)
4
LakshyaPublic
School
Srinagar 450
Surendra
Saraudi
Principal 1xBus(Tata)
5 MS Academy Srinagar 600
Prabhat Principal
2xBus+1xVan
ShwetaRai _
6
ShriChandmal
School
Srinagar 130
Mahendra
Yadav
Principal 1xBus(Eicher42-seater)
7 SunShine School Srinagar 650 JitendraSingh Principal 1xTrax+2xEicher+1xMahindra
8 AnkurPublicSchool
Kundan
Nagar
325
Rajshree
Chandawat
Principal 1xVan(Rent)
9
MotherTouchPlay
School
Kundan
Nagar 20
NirbhaySingh
Shekhawat Owner NIL
10 SpringDale School
Kundan
Nagar 40 V G Pednekar Owner NIL
11
SaraswatiGirls
PublicSchool
CRPF
100 Meenakshi
Tandon
Principal NIL
12
Bansilal Public
School 200
13 Jack& Jill School ShastriNagar 90
Dr.Nisha
Shekhawat
Principal
2xVans(Rent)
Pradeepa Admin
14 StarPearls ShastriNagar
Not
Disclosed
Dr.
Mrityunjay
Deputy
Director
NIL
15
The Ajmer
Kintergarten
Opposite
RamBhavan
100 NishaAgarwal Owner NIL
43. 16
KhwajaModel
School
ShastriNagar 1700 G H Patel Principal
1x(51-seater)+3x(41-
seater)+1x(21-seater)+1x(14-
seater)
17 Apex School ShastriNagar 50 Sachin Principal ContractBasis
18
ShriGurunanak Sr.
Sec.School
Makrwali
Road
250 TaaranSingh
Administr
ator
2 damagedvans
19 St.StephensSchool Vaishali 2500
Ashok
Peshwani
Estate
Manager
NIL
20 FirstStepSchool
Makarwali
Road
300 RajeshMittal
Principal/
Owner
15 vans oncontract
21 HKHSchool Vaishali 2500
AjayKumar
Thakur
Admin
Head
1x (56-seater+2x42-seater+2x28-
seater+2x28-seater)
22
Orange PlaySchool
AndDayCare
Vaishali 80 NehaSehgal Principal NIL
23 TSN School Lohagal 850 DrLavika Tak Director 1xForce(17+D)+5xBus(Swaraj)
24
GyanKiranPublic
School
Lohagal 100
YagyaNarayan
Singh
Owner NIL
25 Gurukul,The School Lohagal 100 Ashish Sharma
Assistant
Director
2xVan
26
AryanPublicSchool
&Aryan College
Lohagal 1100
SanjaySingh
Rathore
Administr
ator
1xForce(17+D)+1xBus(Tata)
27 Raghav PublicSchool LohagalRoad 400 ML Kaushik Director NIL
28
MeeraSr.Sec.
School
Chachiyawas 450 Prakash
Administr
ator
2xVans+1xBus
29
WingsAcademy
PublicSchool
Vaishali
Nagar
150
VijayaSingh
Sikarwal
Peincipal 1xVan+3xAuto(Allbyparents)
30 GujaratiSchool
Kutchery
Road
1000 SanjaySharma
Administr
ator
NIL
31 Maharaja Agrasen Ajmer 1200 Rajesh
Administra
tor
1xForce(26-seater)
32
Arunodaya Public
School CRPF 550 Veena Sharma
Administra
tor 1xBus(Tata 36-seater)
33
MD Public School
Ekta Nagar,
CRPF, GC-1 450 Manju Sharma Principal
2xBuses(Starline)
34 Lawrenceand Mayo
Makarwali
Road
300 Leena Singh
Administra
tor
4xBuses(Tata)+2xVans
35
Shri Ajmer Academy
Sec.School
Makarwali 200 Sunil Principal 3xVans
36
BhagwanMahavir
Public School
Panchsheel 450 Mamta
Administra
tor
NIL
37 Kidzee Panchsheel 55 Amisha Balesha Teacher 2xVans(Contract)
38 TheSanta Kidz Dhola Bhata 50
Ruchi Sharma
Administra
tor
1xVan(Contract)
Priyanka Arora
Administra
tor
39 Kinderjoy School Christianganj 25 Abhilash Owner NIL
40 BlossomSchool Christianganj 500 RenuKashyap
Administra
tor
1xBus(28-seater)
41
Bachpan,The Play
School
Christianganj 20 SantoshYadav Principal NIL
42
MissionGirlsSr. Sec.
School
NearAjmer
BusStand
160 Ms.Kaushik Principal NIL
44. 43 Apple PlaySchool Christianganj 150 Alvira
Administr
ator
_
44
MountMaryPublic
School
Subhash
Nagar
200
Amardeep
Sharma
Owner NIL
45 Little AngelsSchool Ramganj 22 Rahul Owner NIL
46
SunShine Kids
School
Ramganj 50
ManishKumar
Sharma
Owner NIL
47 Aarambh Christianganj _ Sanjay Owner _
48 SadhviThe School Ramganj 50 _ Owner Private Vans
49 SR Global School Ramganj 80 _ Owner _
50
Vrindavan
Sr.Sec.School
Makarwali
Road
700 _ Principal 7xBuses(Tata)
51 TurningPointSchool
Vaishali
Nagar
400
Dr.Anant
Bhatnagar
Principal 1xBus(36-seater)
52
NewNoble
SecondarySchool
Vaishali
Nagar
200
OmPrakash
Kashyap
Director Vans(Contract)
53 SamratPublic School SundarNagar 1000 _
Receptioni
st
4x(42-seater)
54 MaharajaSchool LohaKhan 550 NarayanSingh Principal NIL
55
PeerBabaSiksha
Sansthan
Kayad 250 RajkumarSen Owner NIL
56
ShriSai International
School
KayadRoad 450
TeenaSuman
Jodha
Administr
ator
3xBus(Tata)
57 DivyaPublic School KayadRoad 350 Hitesh Owner 1x Bus(Tata)+1xVan
58 KlapsPlaySchool LohaKhan 120 _ Director Vans(Rent)
59 BrainyKids LohaKhan 80 MinishaJain Director NIL
60
SacredHeartPublic
School
Kayad 250 _ Principal
1xBus(Tata26-seater2009
model)+Vans(Pvt.)
61
KesarKidsPlay
School
JaipurRoad
(Kayad)
150 AjeetSingh Director NIL
62
Oxworld
InternationalSchool
KayadRoad 50 _ Owner NIL
63 AgrasenSchool Kishangarh 250 _ Owner NIL
64 CJ Academy Kishangarh 600 PraveenJi Director 1xBus(17-Seater)
65 ShriGanesh Bharati Kishangarh 350 _
Administr
ator
NIL
66
BhartiSanskriti
School
Kishangarh 400 _ Owner NIL
67 CS Memorial Kishangarh _
Raju
Chaudhary
Director 1xBus(Mahindra)
68 EuroKids Kishangarh 250
OP
Khandelwal
Owner Vans(Rent)
69
Shree KrishnaBal
Niketan
Kishangarh 350 GhanshyamJi Owner Private Vans
70 The SantaKids Kishangarh 150 SanjayJi Director NIL
71 SagarSchool Kishangarh 200 Ajit Principal Private Vans
72
StarKids,The Play
School
Kishangarh 100 _
Administr
ator
NIL
73 SaintTeresaSchool Ladpura 600 _ Principal Private Vehicles
74 Bal Public School Ladpura 250 _
Administr
ator
NIL
