C ONTENTS

1.

A C K NO W LE D GE M E N T

2.

T I T LE

3.

O BJ E C T I V E

4.

SUMMARY

5.

I N T RO D U C T I ON

6.

S C O PE

7.

C O M PA N Y P RO F I LE

8.

M A RK E TI N G R E SE A R C H

9.

R ES EA R C H M E T HO D O LO GY

10.

M A I N B OD Y

11.

D A TA A N A LY SI S

12.

SUMMARY

13.

C O N C LU SI O N

14.

S U GGE S T I O N

15.

B I B LI O GR A P H Y

OF

THE STUDY

OF

F IN D IN G

Acknowledgement

I would like to take this opportunity to extend my deep

gratitude to Area Sales Manager, TVS Motor Company, for
giving me an opportunity to carry on my project study in TVS
Motor and for sparing his valuable time for the same.
I would like to express my sincere thanks to Mr. Susant
Sahoo, Director IMAGE, and Bhubaneswar. I am also
thankful to Mr. Rabinarayan Pattnaik (Faculty Marketing)
my internal guide for his valuable and unconditional
assistance.

Last but not the least my whole hearted token of thanks

to all respondents who helpfully contributed their time
and information and answered questions based on which
valuable

information

for

the

derived.

making

of

report

was

T ITLE
It is not consumers who absorb strategies . Rather they
respond to the brands that companies project. A strong
brand is a hieroglyphic that evokes many emotions,
holds deep meanings for consumers at both conscious
and

subconscious

levels.

Such

responses

from

consumers are a reflection of all the experiences that

they may have had with the brand. These brands in
turn borrow heavily from the corporate identities of the
companies that own them. That is why carrying a new
corporate identity in a highly competitive market needs
to be a cautious well through out algorithmic process.
This project report entitled as A project on Consumer
Bihavior and Marketing Research of TVS Motor
Company Limited, Bhubaneswar is an indication of
the competitiveness that has already therein especially
when one talks about the consumer goods The need of the
hour is to make an image that is everlasting and buzzing
through

the

air

as

message

of

goodwill

and

professionalism.
However issues like customer satisfaction quality cost
control technology and supply chain management came
to the forefront and restructuring became the mantra.
Another paradigm shift was the new focus on export as
opposed to the traditional reliance on a protected local

market. Thus the attempt is to go global with due

importance to the region of operation as well.

OBJECTIVE
As the whole activity was concentrated on the partial
fulfillment of my MBA course as well as some real
contribution from me towards this esteemed organization,
in my opinion the objectives of the study are as follows :
The organization in my view in its attempt to reach to
the channel partners has given me this responsibility.
As the major changes in customer satisfaction

are

affected mostly at retailer level the study was very

vital looking at the vigorous competition in the fast
growing Consumer goods industry.
I as an individual had accepted this study because of its
feature of getting interacted at the grassroots level of
business.
As the area chosen the traditional areas of Orissa, in my
point of view it was generally targeted at penetrating
and exploring new markets.
It was a generous attempt by a corporate like TVS
Company Ltd to uplift the standards of management
students to become aware of the real business
scenario of Orissa and getting oneself acclimatized
with the working environment one is supposed to
come across in the very near future.

SUMMARY
The fundamental concepts, which lead to the strategic
thinking and policy formulation in any, corporate what so
ever can be any and if not all of the entities as motioned
in the following line.

The Company

The power Brands

Growth and sustaining of power brands

Challenges of competition and overcoming them

New growth areas

Focus on ultimate sales

Consideration of competitors

Legistics edge

Deeper commitment to a major segment of the

local market

Strategic alliances.

The list above is not to be misunderstood to be the ultimate

list as the entities are numerous and entirely dependent on
the variable factors like the time, competitors and the
situation in the market as a whole. One needs to look at it
from the customers angle. Thereby it can make an insight into
its position rather its share of market of its power brand. One

needs to have a very broad brand portfolio covering several

areas, which needs to be restructured and focused. Going
forward the major thrust is on driving the stimulation of the
consumer brands primarily to other sectors of the company
from whom one receives considerable support. This is an area
where one must see enormous potential for growth given the
clear competitive advantage.
The report presented here is just a representation of the
findings and analysis along with the recommendations made
in the light of the study undertaken by me keeping in eye the
above facts.
The study was undertaken in and nearby areas of the city of
Bhubaneswar to know Consumer Bihavior and Marketing
Research of TVS Motor Company Limited
house of TVS Motor Company, BHUBANESWAR

from the
The several

features of this report can be summarized in the following

paragraphs.

The figures appendices etc used in the report are

mentioned page wise in the section titled as list of
figures charts and appendices.

The objective and background on which the project

work and the relative activities are undertaken are
outlined in the introduction section.

Various information regarding TVS Motor Company

LTD, like
The Back ground and history of the Company

10

 The

information

regarding

its

manufacturing

facilities
The organizational hierarchy
Outlined in the Company Profile section

The section named Main Body is the prime section

of the report where just everything in terms of

Concepts behind the report title

Research Methodology

Finding and thereby the analysis has been

describe in a illustrative manner

The Suggestions derived from the findings and

analyses

have

been

outlined

in

the

Recommendations section.

The conclusion section is the end mark of the

report, which contains the remark or the comment
on the whole activities and these are generally
derived from the comments of the interviewee
and

represented

in

the

current

business

environmental language.

The bibliography section contains a details list of

books articles etc. used for giving the report a
complete shape in terms of thesis of reference
note for future purpose.

11

The appendices section serves as the annexure

and contains a sample of the questionnaires used
for the purpose of interview with the customers.

12

13

INTRODUCTION
In this world of buyers market where the consumer gets
options just available at the doorstep in just millionth
part of a second, it is essential for any corporate to
focus

on

the

attributes

of

the

product

or

service

offerings in a ways which distinguishes itself from just

anybody. This focus definitely leads to judgment of
several

factors

several

techniques

and

several

dimensions of measuring strengths and annihilating the

weakness thereby TVS COMPANY LIMITED, as company
also needs to compete with competitors of several kinds
by playing to its strengths using the strangest brands
backed by superior technology and the lowest cost
supply chain. One of the most sought after methods is to
take the help of different media to male in impression in
the minds of the customers via several interesting and
innovative messages, which in the simplest marketing
Jaguar, is known as Advertising.
The

Company offers

an energizing and empowering

environment enabled by creating small teams focused on

key initiatives. Todays market is very competitive and
increasingly dynamic. One should have the confidence in
its

strategy.

The

enablers to build

company

is

putting

in

place

key

the capability for sustained high

performance.

14

The first step towards this time calling strategy needs a clear
focus on the brand capabilities and the uniqueness in the
market. In addition to this the company must look at the
share of the market it caters to. The underlying vision is that
the credibility of the form can easily be predicted from the in
looks at the market. The tool is always regarded as one of the
best weapons any professional can have. The in-depth
knowledge of the market and the market forces leads to the
understanding of the changing scenario of the market namely
the buying patterns of the esteemed customers the style and
trend in the market the psychology of the customers the
competing and multinational brands and so on.
Thus a company like TVS Company LIMITED, which has
been doing business in the state of Orissa with almost a big
success needs to analyze the ever changing scenario of its
core business, i.e. TVS Two wheleer. This is because of the
competition due to the flourishing of giants like Hero Honda,
Bajaj, LML, Kinetic , Yamaha .
Thus it has become essential for every company in this region
to study on the current market scenario of the two wheeler
market of Orissa , especially in this advertising conscious
region of the state via the effectiveness of advertising
campaigns.
Since

competition

consumers/

intensifies

retailers

tend

to

and

brands

differentiate

proliferate
between

brands in their win way positioning is a conscious

15

attempt on the part of marketer to accentuate this

natural tendency and in the Process, impart a distinct
identify to his own brand to make it stand out among
the

competitors.

The

markets

through

diverse

and

coordinated action try to influence this process.

The modern marketing executives try to understand the
customers, their perception and response to certain new
product message and the basic characteristics of their
behaviour. Because the ultimate judge of the correctness of
the market analysis and decision is the buyer the final choice
belong to him/ her.
Unlike past today in the

competitive

market

for

product to exist it must find a place in an individual

consumers / retailers perception of the products around
him/her.

Perception

is

subjective

governed

by

the

individual consumers / retailers values attitudes beliefs

needs experience and environment.
Customer as the kind selects the goods determines the
fate of the producer. There fore in order to attract him
more and more the marketing personnel should know
their customer well so that could treat them in a way
they like to be treated and present them good in an
appropriate manner.

16

Growth of Two Wheeler Industry :

India is the third largest producer of Two-wheelers after Japan
and Chine. And the second largest consumer after china.
Despite

the

poor

road

infrastructure

and

the

meager

purchasing power. The two-wheelers industry in India has

enjoyed a wider appeal with the masses as a means of private
transportation.
Two Wheelers

are usually classified in to three

types

SCOOTERS, MOTORCYCLES & MOPEDS.

A look at the post independence era reveals that the two
wheelers industry has witnessed three distinct phases of
growth.
Phase-1:
The Indian two wheeler structure was quite monopolistic
during the first 37 tears since independence. When
volumes grew at a slow pace. Bajaj auto had an
undisputed leadership over market. Consumers had to
literally wait for years before acquiring a Bajaj vehicle.
The Industry registered a compounded growth rate of
12% during the seventies.
Phase-2 :
The second phase began in Mid-eighties when the sector
was

partially

Deregulated.

This

phase

saw

Japans

companies trying up with domestic players and newer

models were introduced in specific segments. Even

17

through the demand was apparently strong for scooter.

Most of the Japanese ventures opted to produce Motor
cycles

except

for

kinetic

Honda

which

chose

to

manufacture scooters.
The annual growth rate for the Two-wheeler industry
during this phase stood at 16.4% this phases extended
till the early nineties. And there was a decision during the
last part of this phase. That is 1992-93. The production of
scooters fell by a step 16% in 1991-92 and by 8% the
following year.
Phase-3:
This phase began in 1994 when sales started picking up.
The market saw a step increase in the demand . In 1995
the industry produced about one million scooters 6 lakh
motorcycles

and

lakh

mopeds.

The

motor

cycle

segment has been sales grow by 27.08% from April 1995

to December 1995 during the same period scooter sales
grew by 17.26 % and mopeds by 20.70% almost all
companies are going in for capacity expansion.

Then the demand for motorcycle increased at a faster rate

than Scooters, Different companies are came out different
styles models of bike in the market.

18

19

SCOPE OF THE STUDY

The geographical jurisdiction of the research study in
the city of Bhubaneswar. The data were collected the
middle class , upper middle class, higher income group
people.
bikes

The research study in TVS Motor company

compared to other leading Bike available in the

present market scenario.

Lastly all the findings and recommendations are based

on the analysis of the respondents opinion which were
collected through carefully planned questionnaires.

20

21

Introduction to Marketing:
Marketing is a comprehensive term and it includes all
resources and a set of activities necessary to direct and
facilitate the flow of goods services from producer to
consumer in the process of distribution.

Definition of Marketing:
According to phillip Kotler marketing is defined as a Social
and managerial process by which individuals and groups
obtain what they need and want through creating offering and
exchanging products of value with others.
So Marketing rests on the following core concepts needs
wants and demands values cost and satisfaction exchange
transactions and relationships market and marketing and
marketer.

Core Concepts of Marketing

Marketing is an ongoing process of;
a)

Discovering and translating consumer needs and

desires into products and services (through planning
and producing the planned products.

b)

Creating demand for these products and services

(through promotion and pricing).

22

c)

Servicing the consumer demand (through

planned

physical distribution ) with the help of marketing

channel.
d)

Expanding the market even in the face of keen

competition.

Marketing Covers;
I)

Seeking:
The purpose of seeking is to discover the customer and
customer needs.

II)

Matching :
Marketing as a matching process, customer demand has
to

match

with

organizational

resources

and

environmental limitation such as competition, govt.

regulation general economic condition and so on.
III) Programming:
The marketing programme called marketing mix will be
formulated

and

implemented

to

accomplish

the

twin

objective of customer satisfaction and profit abilities.

Marketing Management Process:

Marketing management is the process of planning and
exciting the conception, pricing promotion and distribution
and ideas goods and services to create exchanges that satisfy
individual and organizational objectives.

23

The Marketing management is directly in-charge of

a)

Setting marketing goals and objectives

b)

Developing the marketing plan

c)

Organising the marketing function

d)

Putting the marketing plan into action.

Marketing process brings together producer and consumer the

two main participants in the exchange. The first step of the
marketing process is to formulate strategic planning and
marketing planning. It has a mission and set of objectives &
goals. The producer uses marketing research as a tool to
anticipates market demand. The study of consumer behaviour
is also one of the important step in marketing process.
Consumer behaviour is defined as All psychological social and
physical behaviour of potential

customer as they become

aware of evaluate purchase, consume and tell others about

products and services.

Marketing Research Process:

Marketing research requires the application of the systems
approach to the task of collecting , organizing analyzing and
interpreting desired marketing information. This means that
each step in the research process must be carefully planned,
effectively coordinated with all other related steps so that all
the steps are properly integrated and executed as pacified at
the proper time and in the desired sequence. Each important

24

division or segment of the process of investigation and

analysis plays a vital role in the efforts of the research team
to achieve the stated goals.

Marketing Mix of
1.

Product planning

2.

Price structure,

3.

Promotional Programme

4.

Distribution system

Marketing Mix is the marketing effort to reach the customer

market
The output of the marketing mix is the customers service and
satisfaction.

Research Design Development

1.

Define the population of universe.

2.

Assess the relevant existing data.

3.

Decide the method of collecting primary data.

4.

define the sampling unit

5.

Decide the sampling size

6.

decide the sampling procedure.

7.

Decide the sampling method e.g. probability or

non-probability sampling.

8.

Decide the analytical aspects.

9.

Pin point the limitation & scope of the study.

25

10.

Decide

the

scheme

of

cauterization

for

presentation of results.

Field Work
1.

Conduct the research using the instrument and

data collected already decided.

2.

Adjust the problems of not at home refusal to

cooperate bias of interview bias of respondent.

Analysis & Interpretation:

1.

Edit the Collected data.

2.

Code the collected data.

3.

Tabulate the data.

4.

Analyse the data using statistical tools.

5.

Interpret the data drawing inferences.

6.

Draw summary and conclusion.

7.

Recommend

and

suggest

improvements

in

the

existing system.

Presentation
1.

Arrange

the

research

results

according

to

as

approved reporting format.

2.

Get report typed and bound.

3.

Present the copies of the report to the concerned

authority.

26

27

COMPANY PROFILE
TVS MOTOR COMPANY LTD.
TVS Motor Co. Ltd earlier known as TVS Suzuki Ltd. Was
started in the year of 1979 under sundaram clayton ltd. For
manufacturing the ungeared mopeds. The first plant was
established in 1979 at house. In 1987 Indian motorcycles Pvt
Ltd was incorporated for manufacturing of Motorcycles in
collaboration with M/s Suzuki Motor Corporation of Japan.
The company was converted into public Ltd. Company and the
name was changed to Ind-Suzuki motorcycle Ltd. The
company started production of Motorcycles in September
1984.
The mopeds and motorcycle division were merged to form
TVS-Suzuki Ltd. Became the second largest Two Wheeler
Company in India and also the fastest in terms of market
share.
It Launched TVS Scooty the new generation scooter in 1994.
Launched Fiero in 1999 which went on to become no.1 in the
upper end premium segment bikes.
In Nov 2001 TVS and Suzuki ended their joint collaboration
and the company was named was TVS MOTOR Company Ltd.

28

Launched the 100% indigenous bike TVS-VICTOR which

changed the total scenario of the motorcycle industry in India
which can be judged by the simple fact that there are over
40000 booking of victor all over India as of today.
Then in 2003 December lunched the 24 th centurys indigenous
Scooty Named Scoosty Pape & it also Lunched the advance
bike TVS Centra for the New Generations bike
Today TVS Motor company ltd. Is a 2000 crore plus company
having a complete range of every two wheeler i.e Mopeds.
Motorcycles and scooty to satisfy every customer walking
inside their dealer ships all over India.
Customer

care is the credo at TVS, one it has lived up to

since its inception to become Indias leading manufacturer of

automotive components two wheelers and other diversified
business.

Achievement of Company Owner:

1911:

Initiated by Mr. T.V. Sundaram Iyengar, the first

ever- rural bus service played between Madurai
and Devakkottai in the state of Tamil Nadu.

1919:

An automobile spare parts and service unit was

set up in Maduria which diversified into a veriety
of trading and service lines. Effective marketing
and

distribution

29

of

these

products

firmly

established the dominance of the Group in the

automobile Industry.
1943:

During the war years TVS mewt the critical

shortage of spares and rubber by setting up a
service station for reconditioning vehicles as well
as a tyre-retreading Unit. In the same year the
shortage

of

petrol

was

overcome

by

the

development and manufacture of a gas plnt,

which produced charcoal gas as a substitute for
petrol.
1946:

TVS merged the transport companies acquired

earlier to form The Southern Roadways a road
transport and parcel service company.

1960:

TVS entered the field of manufacturing providing

support to the emergence if indigenous vehicle
manufacture. This led to the selection of a wide
range of critical automotive components for
production, in technical collaboration with world
leaders like Dupont Hitachi Cherry Corporation
and Eaton to name just a few.

1979:

TVS initiated a new phase in its growth with its

foray into two wheelers. This move was a result
of the vision of the late Mr. T. S. Srinivasan, the
founder Chairman of Sundaram Calyton- a TVS
Group

company.

The

company

began

manufacturing MOPEDs an enterprise that paved

30

the way for the future development of new

generation,

high

performance

fuel

efficient

motorcycles.
1979-80:

A MOPED designed for the family rode out from

the plant at House. This was the TVS50.

1982:

Indian Motorcycles Pvt. Ltd was incorporated in

1982

to

manufacture

motorcycles

in

collaboration with Suzuki , Japan.

1984:

The company went public under the name IndSuzuki

Motorcycles

Ltd,

Which

was

later

renamed as TVS-Suzuki Ltd.

1987:

This year the launch of new MOPED the TVS

Champ. It was considered a land mark in Indian
moped design.

199-94:

A range of new vehicle

included the

Scooty,

were launched. This

Samurai,

Shogun

and

Max100.
1993:

Expansion of the existing activities and ventures

into new areas of manufacture was initiated
year. TVS the first in their country to introduce
computerization achieve high productivity, low
cost and consistent high quality now included
extensive programme to install computers at al
workstation.

31

Success can be Measured by Time:

1979:

Mopeds Division of M/s Sundaram-Clayton was

set up in Houser to Manufacture un-geared
Mopeds.

1982:

Indian Motorcycle Pvt. Ltd. Was incorporated to

Manufacture Motorcycle in Collaboration with M/s
SUZUKI MOTOR CORPORATION , JAPAN.

1984:

The Company was converted into a public limited

company and the name was changed to TVS
Suzuki Limited.

1986:

The Moped and Motorcycles division merged to

form TVS Suzuki Limited.

1992-93:

TVS Suzuki Limited introduced five models in a

year.

1994:

TVS Scooty The new generation indigenously

designed and developed scooterette launched.

1995-96:

TVS Suzuki Becomes 2nd Largest Two wheeler

company in India.

1996-97:

TVS Suzuki wins three Major Awards including

the prestigious Emerging Giant Award awarded

32

by the Economic Times and Harvard Business

School Association of India.

1997-98:

TVS-Suzuki

Crosses the Rs. 1000 crore mark on its turnover

Crosses the 1 Million Motorcycle mark
Mysore factory for the manufacture of scooters takes
shape.
Declares its highest every dividend at 50%.
Declared as No.1 by Business India on Return to
Shareholder.
Leadership in the Moped segment is reinforced with a
49% market share and in the sub 100cc segment
with Scootys 43% market share.
Is India second Largest Motorcycle seller
Launches Indians first High performance Moped, The XL
Supper, With a 70cc Engine.
Launches Indias first 5 speed Motorcycle the Suzuki
Shaolin
Introduces

Indias

first

catalytic

converter

enabled

motorcycle the 110cc Suzuki Shogun.

1998:

TVS Suzuki launches the 4 stroke, 4 speed TVS

Spectra Developed indigenously and styled on
the lines of a truly international design. The

33

Grand launch for this vehicle also witnessed

franz Hararys Illusion Show Hype Relitile at
Delhi.

Historical Industry Development

India is the second largest manufacturer of two-wheelers in

the world. It stands next only to Japan & China in terms of the
number of two-wheelers produced and sold respectively. This
distinction was achieved due to variety of reasons like
respective policy followed by the Govt. of India towards the
passenger car industry rising demand for personal transport
inefficiency in the public transportation system etc.
The India two-wheeler industry made a small beginning in the
early 50s when Automobile products of India (API) started
manufacturing scooters in the country. Until 1958 API and
Enfield were the sole producers.
In 1948, Bajaj Auto began trading in imported Vespa scooters
and three wheelers. Finally in 1960, it set up a shop to
manufacture Bajaj Auto began trading in imported Vespa
scooters and three wheelers. Finally in 1960, it set up a shop
to manufacture them in technical collaboration with Piaggio of
Italy . The agreement expired in 1971.

34

In the initial stages API dominated the scooter segment Bajaj

Auto Later overtook it . Although various government and
private enterprises entered the fray for scooters the only new
player that has lasted till today is LML.
Under

the regulated regine foreign companies where not

allowed to operate in India. It was a complete seller market

with the waiting period for getting a scooter from Bajaj Auto
being as high as 12 years.
The Motorcycle segment was no different with only three
manufactures viz; Enfield, Ideal Jawa and escorts. While
Enfield bullet was a four stroke bike, Jawa and the Rajdoot
were two stroke bikes. Enfield 350CC bikes and Escorts 175CC
bike initially dominated the motorcycle segment.
The Two-wheeler market was opened to foreign Companies in
the mid 1980. And the then market leaders Escorts and
Enfield were caught unaware by the onslaught of the 100CC
bikes of the four indo-Japanese joint ventures While Enfield
bullet was a four stroke bike, Jawa and the Rajdoot were two
stroke bikes. Enfield 350CC bikes and Escorts 175CC bike
initially dominated the motorcycle segment.
The Two-wheeler market was opened to foreign Companies in
the mid 1980. And the then market leaders Escorts and

35

Enfield were caught unaware by the onslaught of the 100CC

bikes of the four indo-Japanese joint ventures with the
availability of fuel efficient low power bikes, demand swelled
resulting in Hero Honda then the only producer of four stroke
bike (100CC Category) gaining a top slot.
The first Japanese motorcycles were introduced in the early
eighties TVS Suzuki and Hero Honda brought in the first two
stoke and four-stroke engine motorcycle respectively. These
two players initially started with assembly of CKD kits and
later in progressed to indigenous manufacturing. In the 1990s
the major growth for motorcycle segment was brought in by
Japanese motorcycles, which grew at a rate of nearly
25%CAGR in the last five years.
The industry had a smooth ride in the 50s, 60s and 70s
assembly of CKD kits and later in progressed to indigenous
manufacturing. In the 1990s the major growth for motorcycle
segment was brought in by Japanese motorcycles, which grew
at a rate of nearly 25%CAGR in the last five years.
The industry had a smooth ride in the 50s, 60s and 70s when
the Government prohibited new entries and strictly controlled
capacity expansion. The industry saw a sudden growth in the

36

80s. The industry witnessed a steady growth of 14% leading

to a peak volume of 1.9mn vehicles in 1990.
The entry of kinetic in mid-eighties (1980) with a barometric.
Scooter helped in providing ease of use to the scooter owners.
This helped in inducing youngsters and working woman ,
towards buying scooters, who were earlier inclined towards
moped purchases, in the 90s this trends was reversed with
the introduction of scooterettes . Inline with this the scooter
segment has consistently lost its part of the market share in
the two wheeler market.
In 1990, the entire automobile industry saw a drastic fall in
demand . This resulted in decline of 15% in 1991 and 8% in
1992 resulting a production loss of 0.4mn vehicles . Barring
Hero Honda all the major producers suffered from recession in
FY93 and FY94 Hero Honda showed a marginal decline in
1992.
The reasons for recession in the scooter were the incessant
rise in fuel prices,

high input costs and reduced purchasing

power due to significant rise in general price level and credit

in consumer financing. Factor like increased production in
1992 due to new entertains coupled with the recession in the

37

industry in companies either reporting losses or a fall in

profits.

Industry Structure
The Indian two-wheelers industry can be broadly classified as
scooters motorcycles and mopeds. The domestic two-wheeler
sales of 3.4mn in FY 1999 is constituted by these segments as
shown below:
YEAR

SCOOTER

MOTORCYCLE

MOPED

TOTAL

1992

769,955

428118

408022

1606095

1993

709725

379060

414567

1503352

1994

840173

472582

457471

1770226

1995

1033524

652012

523700

2209236

1996

1223425

809527

627079

26660031

1997

1031051

978,689

68.756

2078496

1998

1262699

131314

648842

2042855

1999

1325868

1395657

681902

3403427

2000

1252969

1796734

726075

3775778

2001

1523453

1823925

850090

4197468

2002

1659654

1920960

900,110

4480724

In

the

last

seven

years

the

domestic

two-wheeler

industry has been structural changes. This can be seen

38

from the change in composition of two-wheeler sales

where the motorcycles have consistently gained market
share from the scooter and moped segments to carnera
share of 41% of total two wheeler sales . This trends is
expected to continue in the next two year still the four
stroke

scooters

make

their

presence

felt

in

the

segment. The tube below gives an idea about the

strides made by the motorcycle segment in the last six
year.
(in %)
YEAR

SCOOTER

MOTORCYCLE

MOPED

1993

47.2

25.2

27.6

1994

47.5

26.7

25.8

1995

46.8

29.5

23.7

1996

46.0

30.4

23.6

1997

43.9

33.0

23.1

1998

41.5

37.2

21.3

1999

39.0

41.0

20.0

2000

33.2

47.6

19.2

39

MAJOR PLAYERS IN
TWO-WHEELER INDUSTRY

The following companies are taking a major role in the

industry of two wheeler. They are now all over India
and trying to capture the two-wheeler market.

Bajaj Auto Ltd

Kinetic India Ltd

LML

TVS Motor Ltd

Hero Honda

Yamaha

Honda

Basically total two-wheeler industries are segment zed

into 7 categories. These are;

Geared Scooter

Ungeared Scooter

Moped

Step-through

Entry- level bike

Executive- level bike

Premium- level bike

40

The

following

are

the

products

of

the

following

companies coming under the categories.

Entry Level Bike
Hero Honda

Kinetic

Bajaj

TVS

Yamaha

CD100

BOSS

BOXERAT

MAX100

CRUX

CD100SS

BOXERAR

MAXDLX

DAWN

BOXERCT

MAX R

Executive Level Bike

Hero
Honda

Kinetic

Bajaj

TVS

LML

Yamaha

Splender

Challenge
r

Victor

VECTOR

FRE
EDO
M

YBX

Calliber

CENTRA

Passion
Freedom

BOSS

Aspire
Libero

Premimum Level Bike

Hero
Honda
CBZ
Ambition

Kinetic Bajaj
Pulsar
Eleminator

41

TVS

Yamaha

Fiero

Entier

VECTOR

PAST TWO- YEARS SCENARIO OF TWO-WHEELER

INDUSTRIES IN ORISSA
Orissa

2001-2002
Model

Segment

Annual
Sal

2000-2001

Contribut

Annual

Contribut

ion

Sale

ion

e
BAL

6119

60170%

7656

8.75%

LML

2145

2.000%

3384

3.86%

TOTAL

8264

8%

111000

12.69%

BAL M/C

17331

18%

15336

17.53%

TVS

13126

13%

7572

8.65%

HH

35054

35%

26808

30.65%

YAMAHA

4024

4%

3360

3.84%

RAJDOOT

246

6%

468

0.05%

LML

908

1%

1460

1.69%

KINETIC

1100

1%

300

0.34%

ENFIELD

78

1%

96

0.11%

TOTAL

71867

80%

54600

62.43%

BALSCRT

514

1%

792

0.90%

TVS

4201

5%

3676

4.30%

KH

442

0%

1068

1.22%

KINETIC

580

1%

1644

1.88%

HERO

114

0%

108

12.00%

LML

80

312

35.00%

TOTAL

5931

7%

7680

8.78%

STEP-

BAJAJ

1664

2%

2532

2.89%

THRU

HH

625

1%

660

75.00%

SCOOTER

MOTOR
CYCLE

UGSCTR

42

MOPED

HERO

1612

2%

1844

2.10%

KINETIC

0%

252

28.00%

TOTAL

3908

4%

5328

6.09%

KINETIC

7826

7.690%

6744

7.7%

TVS

1313

1.320%

1992

2.27%

TOTAL

9139

9%

8736

8.81%

99109

100%

87444

100%

GRAND TOTAL

THE FOLLOWING SHOWS THE COMPARISON OF

SALES OF DIFFERENT LEVEL OF BIKE SEGMENT
Segment

2000-2001

2001-2002

Entry Level bike

29424

32760

Executive level bike

16308

21072

Premium Level- bike

1680

7680

BUYING GUIDE TO TWO-WHEELERS

Two wheelers are most convenient and economical mode of

transport in India. In a congested place like ours where traffic
is dense and parking is a problem, Two Wheelers are a
blessing in disguise. The Indian two wheeler sector is the
largest in terms of volumes among all the segments in the
automobile industry. The segment can be categorized into
three

main

sub-segments

scooters,

motorcycles

and

mopeds. Lately, however, some products like scooterettes and

43

step-thru's have been introduced in the market, which have

features of more than one segment. Purchasing a two wheeler
looks very easy as a wide range is available, but it is always
better to be well informed to make a smart choice. This guide
will help you choose the right two wheeler for your needs. All
models currently available in the market fall in one of the
categories:

Mopeds
These are the most basic, cheapest and simplest
available in the country today. All of them are powered
by a 50 cc two stroke engine, giving mileage between
55 - 70 kms per litre. They are light weight (55kg),
have a cruising speed of 40-45 kph, easy to ride as no
gears

and

cost

below

Rs.

20,000..They

are

recommended for teenagers who are just moving up

from the bicycle stage. These are also recommended for
people in there 60s and above, who do not travel more
than 2-3 kms per trip. Most modern mopeds feature
electric start, excellent styling and reliable engines.
Some mopeds have pedals, which serve as a starting
mechanism and also assist in getting the moped climb
very steep hills. They have a larger wheel base than
scooters

which

makes

easier

road

handling

and

maneuvering. The fuel capacity on many of these bikes

is only about 1 gallon and that makes for a smaller
range of travel. Mopeds usually do not include any
storage

compartments

unless

44

basket

has

been

attached like a saddle bag or a basket attached upon

the rear rack above the tire. LUNA, TVS 50 XL, TVS
Champ, TVS XL 70, TVS Super Champ, Kinetic Safari,
Escorts Toro Jazz etc fall under this category.

Scooters
If you are looking for a two-wheeler thats easy to
maintain and more importantly, light on the pocket, a
Scooter is the best choice. The advantages in a scooter
are the presence of a spare wheel & availability of
lockable storage space. The disadvantages are the
engines on one side, which makes for unsafe braking &
small wheels, which makes it less stable than a
motorbike on bad roads. Scooters are fast, reliable and
practical. Many sport automatic transmission and often
feature built in locks, disc brakes and plenty of storage.
There are some with four stroke engines as well. All
these scooters can do speeds of 80 kph and are equally
suitable for city traffic as well as long rides. Fuel
average is in the 40-45 kms per liter range and prices
vary from Rs.24,000/- 45,000/.
The

models

are

with

or

without

electric

start.

Four stroke scooters are the newest and latest class of

two wheelers launched in India. Currently there are only
two models in this category. One is the Bajaj LEGEND,
which has a 150 cc four stroke engine developing 9 BHP
having a top speed of 90 kph. In its styling, Bajaj have
stuck to the old Vespa format in as much as it looks

45

very similar to the existing Bajaj two stroke scooters.

The thrust being on economy, Bajaj plans to sell this
scooter at Rs.34,000/- on road in Pune and claims it will
give a mileage of around 60 kms per liter. The other
four stroke scooter is TVS -Suzuki's SPECTRA. This one
too features a 150 cc engine. Power has been kept low
at

7.5

BHP

in

order

to

get

into

the

economy

sweepstakes. The thrust in on economy not on power or

top speed. The SPECTRA has a large, very strong
metallic dickey under seat which can accommodate
large amount of luggage. The reason why this dickey is
so solid is that it is a stressed member, i.e., it is part of
the chassis. TVS plans to sell this scooter for close to
Rs.40,000/- . This scooter should give a mileage of 65
kms per liter.

Motorcycles
Before purchasing a motorcycle you should decide what
type of riding you would be doing, whether it is street
riding or off road riding or both on and off road riding.
Another important thing to be considered is the riding
experience. An experienced rider will be able to handle
a motorcycle with a larger engine and a higher
performance motorcycle. A person that is a beginner
could get seriously injured or even killed if he or she
tries to ride a high performance motorcycle. Pick a

46

motorcycle that is within your ability range. If you are

an inexperienced rider, choose a smaller engine size to
increase your safety. If you are an experienced rider,
choose a motorcycle that you know does not exceed
your limits.
Brakes

are

incredible

important

on

motorcycle.

Stopping is the most important thing to do so you

should make sure that the brakes on the motorcycle are
good

quality

and

how

long

they

will

last.

Most

motorcycles have disc brakes on one side the front

wheel. Some have disc brakes on both the front and
back wheels. Disc brakes on the back wheel are nice to
have but are not nearly as important as the front
brakes. Most of the stopping power comes from the
front brake. High performance motorcycles have dualdisc front brakes. This means that there are two discs
(one on each side of the front wheel) to help you stop
more quickly.
Other important things are engine stoke and engine
size. A 4 stroke motorcycle will be of better use for
street riding. A 2 stroke engine is more of a racing
engine and is made for closed course riding. A mistake
in the choice of engine size could result in your bike
having too much or too little power for you needs.
The 100 cc Indo Japanese two stokers like the Bajaj KB,
TVS Shaolin, and Shogun and other models, Yamaha RX
models and Escorts Rajdoot (175-cc) model and four-

47

stroke models such as Hero Hondas, Splendour and

other models, Bajajs 4S /Champion and Caliber models
and the Enfield BULLET (350cc-500 cc) belongs to these
category. All these have large wheels and foot operated
gears. Prices vary from about 35,000 - upwards of
75,000.
The Royal Enfield Diesel Bullet is the only diesel
powered bike made in India. (other than backyard
assemblers). Costing in the region of Rs. 65,000, this is
the most reliable and rugged bike made in India. It is
also the cheapest to run, giving at least 66 km/ litre of
diesel, no matter how hard you ride it. It has a top
speed of 80 kph and has the brightest headlight (55
watts) headlight among all two wheelers in India.
Suspension is hard, and it needs a tough man to ride it.

STEP THRUS
Bikes in this category are essentially intended for cityriding, and for the occasional long distance trip if one is
up for it. They can be 2 to 4 stroke engine, giving
mileage between 55-70 km/liter and price ranging from
Rs. 15,000 to Rs. 40,000. Bikes in this category are
convenient for ladies wearing saris or long dresses. All
these bikes give excellent value for money, except that
none of them have a lockable dickey for carrying things.
Popular step-thru's available in India are Hero Honda
Street, Kinetic K-4 100, Bajaj M 80, Hero Puch etc.

48

Scooterettes
Also termed as mini scooters, are powered by two
stroke engines of size between 60 and 70 cc, give
around 55 km/liter and have a top speed of 65 kph. The
price range is between 16,000 - 30,000. All these bikes
also have excellent, large, invisible, lockable dickey
space under the seat, except Bajaj Sunny Zip. Scooters
such as TVS Scooty, Hero Winner, Bajaj Sunny Zip and
Bajaj SPIRIT, and LML trendy scooterettes fall in this
category.

Stroke vs 4-Stroke
Four stroke engines as they are more fuel efficient and
environment friendly. There are mechanical differences
between 2-stroke and 4-stroke engines. A 4-stroke
engine gets its oil from a sump while a 2-stroke needs
oil mixed with the fuel. If you own a 4-stroke you'll
need to change the oil at service intervals and only put
unleaded petrol in the tank, while a 2-stroke will
normally have a separate 2-stroke oil tank which should
be kept topped up at fuel stops. Most 50 cc bikes use 2stroke engines, because they are light and powerful.
The down side is that the oil/petrol mix results in a
slightly smoky burn, which is not too environmentally
friendly .

49

OTHER FEATURES
SAFETY:
Braking, road holding, balance, lights, suspension, are
some of the things that should be looked upon
seriously. Pay special attention to the Braking system in
a vehicle before going in for one. Instant locking of
wheels upon applying of brakes is not a good sign.
Brakes must act gradually rather than instantly. Choose
a more powerful engine, as it can get you out of any
difficult positions. Check out the Balance and Road
holding of the bike. If the bike proceeds without
wobbling or pulling to one side, for at least 40kms the
balance and road holding is good. Go in for a twowheeler with a longer wheelbase as it gives more
stability and is less prone to skidding. Here it is
interesting to note that bikes score over scooters in
terms

of

larger

wheelbase.

Weight

&

Ground

Clearance should be the other deciding factors while

going in for a two-wheeler.

COMFORT:
Take the bikes you are planning to buy for a long ride.
Have a look at the seat dimensions, cushioning and
style. Make sure it is comfortable for you. Check if your
legs are comfortably resting on the footrests, the brakes
are within easy reach, the riding position comfortable,

50

you don't have to lean forward to reach the handlebar

and brakes. and the steering is comfortable. Make sure
the motorcycle fits you. Your feet should reach the
ground when you're sitting on the seat. If you wear a
sari, lungi or skirts, you might prefer a two wheeler with
a step-thru frame like a scooter or a moped.

Storage:
If you are going use your scooter for shopping or
carrying things frequently check for luggage space.
Scooters are well endowed in this department.

STARTING:
If you find Kick starting your scooter or bike a tiresome
task, go in for a two-wheeler that offers an, Auto-Start
option.

LIGHTS

AND

INSTRUMENTATION:

Make sure the headlight and taillight, the front and rear
brakes, the turn signals and the horn are working
properly before making a purchase. Note that you need
mirrors on both sides to survive in traffic.

BUDGET:
The only point left out now is the money aspect, about
which only you can decide. However, with the plethora
of bank schemes available, even that is not a major

51

barrier.

Each

and

every

vehicle

is

available

on

instalment plan. You do not even have to go the finance

company, your dealer will do that for you. Sign on the
dotted line and the vehicle is yours.

CHECKLIST:
Check out the manufacturers reputation before going in
for a vehicle. Is it a name that spells trust? If the
particular vehicle has encountered bad roads in the past
you should be more cautious when deciding on that
particular bike or scooter. Inquire about the Warranty
and after sales service. Any company that offers the
longest warranty period and maximum number of
services is the best choice. Make a note of the dealers
attitude towards you. How he treats you is an indication
of the services to follow: Read the owners manual
carefully and then use it. Clear any technical doubts you
may have at the dealers place before taking the
plunge.
Once the deal is done, make a list of all the features
and options agreed upon, including any "extras" the
salesperson may have thrown in to sweeten the deal.
Check for spare parts both in terms of availability and
price. Enquire whether the parts will be readily available
as and when required and the price you would have to
pay.

52

Make it a point to visit all the dealers in your area and

test-drive the vehicle you wish to purchase. If you feel it
passes the test, go ahead and negotiate a deal. It is
important to separate test drives and price negotiations.
They need to be two different efforts and should be
done on separate visits to the dealership.

Service Network:
Apart from the above personal and vehicle factors,
service and spares is another very factor to consider.
This covers the strength of the dealership network and
spare parts prices of a particular brand in your town. In
order to gauge the availability of the spare parts, it will
be wise to ask a few people regarding the availability
and pricing of spare parts of that model.

Drive Safely:
Motorcycles, as you may well know, are very dangerous
vehicles. There are no air bags or seat belts to protect
you from an accident. Safety equipment should be worn
at all times while riding a motorcycle. Basic street safety
equipment includes a helmet, motorcycle boots, gloves,
and goggles or a face shield.
The helmet is the most important piece of safety
equipment.

It

provides

protection

for

the

most

important organ in your body, your brain. The helmet

53

must

meet

the

department

of

transportations

requirements and a full-faced helmet is much safer than

an open-faced helmet. The full-faced helmet provides
protection not only to the skull, but also the face in the
unfortunate incident of an accident. The boots give
support to the ankles and because they have no
exposed laces, the risk of getting a boot caught up in a
part of the motorcycle is greatly decreased if not
eliminated. Regular shoes should not be worn because
stray shoelaces can become very dangerous if they get
caught on the chain or wheel or any other moving part.
Gloves provide protection for the hands from gravel or
anything that could be thrown up off the ground. A
small piece of rock hitting a persons hand at 55 mph
could cause serious injury. Gloves also keep the hands
warm by blocking out wind. Goggles or a face shield are
extremely important in motorcycling. A tiny speck of
sand can cause serious injury to the eye and perhaps
blindness when it comes in contact with the eye at high
speeds.
Additional safety equipment is recommended such as
leather outfits for street riding, chest protectors for off
road riding, and knee guards to protect against falls.
Before you go out on the road or on the trail, make sure
you are properly dressed and that you have all the
necessary safety equipment.

54

Shop around There are hundreds of dealers offering all

sort of bargains, check out your local yellow pages or
Motorcycle press to find dealers. Phone them and ask
for their best price'. If you're not 100% sure of the
model arrange a test ride. Be sure to ride a variety of
roads including round town and fast roads. Aim to ride
for at least 30 minutes to be sure the bike is
comfortable and what you want negotiate It is rare that
bikes are so in demand that you can't knock 10% off
the list price. Haggle the price down and then see what
extras they'll throw in. Dont get hooked with a load of
stuff that you already have or don't need fancy features.
If you're paying top price make sure your getting the
latest model, your dealer may be selling off last years
model, which may only have a slight change, but it will
affect the resale price.

THESE ARE SOME BASIC FUNDAMENTALS.

Dont let the terminology used to describe features of the
product confuse you. Consult our Technical Terms Glossary
to find out what these terms really mean and how they would
be useful for you. If you still need to know about something
not explained here:

55

GLOSSARY
Air Filters/ Air Cleaner:
Even during low speed operation, the engine pulls in a
tremendous volume of air. This air has a great deal of
abrasive particles, which must be prevented from
entering the engine. The air cleaner traps the abrasive
particles before they can enter the engine.

Belts:
Many accessories including the alternator, fan and
coolant pump are operated by drive belts. If these belts
break or slip the components they drive will fail to work.

Brakes:
Drum brakes are cheap and easy to maintain. Disk
brakes are more powerful and are often used on more
powerful vehicles.

Brake Fluid:
There are two styles of master cylinder reservoirs. One
type has a wire bail holding the reservoir cover in place.
These master cylinders are typically made from cast
iron and the reservoir and cylinder are made as one
piece. Clean the top of the cover and the surrounding

56

area. Unsnap the bail and check the fluid level. You will
find a rubber diaphragm attached to the underside of
the cover. The diaphragm prevents dirt, water, or other
contamination from entering the fluid.

Carburetor:
The part of the engine that controls the engine speed.
This is done by controlling the amount of air and fuel.
The basic amount of fuel is normally controlled by the
needle valve.

Coolant:
Engines get hot in all kinds of weather. Engine coolants
keep them from overheating. To make sure that doesn't
happen, check the coolant level in your radiator every
time you check your oil. Like your oil, coolant should at
least be checked every 3,000 miles.

Clutch:
This drive train component is found between the engine
and the transmission (gears). It acts as a coupling
device which is used to engage and disengage the
transmission from the engine when shifting gears. It is
necessary to do this joining and detaching because the
engine is rotating and attempting to change the gear
could damage the gears and the compartment.

Cylinders:

57

The hollow shafts at the top end of an engine, inside of

which internal combustion occurs.

The pistons move

inside of the cylinders.

Displacement:
The volume 'swept' by the piston of an engine as it
moves downward in its cylinder. The 'CC' of a vehicle is
the displacement in one stroke. If CC of an engine is
more, then the amount of A/F fuel sucked in will be
more; more power will be developed; but the mileage
(fuel consumption) will be affected

Electronic Mufflers:
In

an

electronic

muffler

system,

sensors

and

microphones in the exhaust system sense the pattern of

exhaust pressure waves. This information is sent to an
on-board computer that controls loudspeakers in the
muffler. The computer operates the loudspeakers to
generate sound waves that oppose and cancel the
original exhaust sound waves produced by the engine.

Ground Clearance:
This is the amount of space between the lower most
hanging part of your vehicle's undercarriage and the flat
ground. Higher ground clearance makes the it easy to
ride on uneven and potholed roads. It is desirable for
rural conditions.

58

Exhaust:
The muffler is an oval-shaped or cylindrical component
made from coated and aluminised steel or stainless
steel. Inlet and outlet pipes extend from the ends of the
muffler. Inside the muffler, the exhaust gas flows
through a series of perforated tubes.

Headlights and Taillights:

There are three basic types of headlights used on
automobiles today: standard sealed beam, halogen
sealed beam, and composite. The most common service
performed on the headlights is lamp replacement and
aiming. These procedures vary depending on the type of
headlights

used.

Lights

with

higher

wattage

are

brighter.

Headlight Replacement:
One of the most common lighting system repairs is
replacing the headlight. After a period of time the
filament may burn through or the lens may be broken.
Before the headlight is replaced, however, check the
condition of the fuse. If it is good, you may also want to
use a voltmeter to test the circuit.

Kerb Weight:
This

is

the

weight

of

the

vehicle

without

any

passengers. Heavier vehicles add to stability, especially

59

at high speeds. Lighter vehicles are easy to manoeuvre

and also more fuel efficient. Lighter vehicles are more
suited to city driving.

Payload:
This is the maximum weight that the vehicle is designed
to carry.

Power Steering Fluid:

Most cars today are equipped with a power steering
system. Many power steering systems use hydraulic
power. These systems use a power steering pump
driven by a belt from the crankshaft as shown below.
The pump moves fluid under pressure through hoses to
the steering gear. The pressure is used in the steering
gear to reduce steering effort. A reservoir for fluid is
attached to the rear of the pump.

Strokes:
The term which refers to the up and down strokes of the
piston.

A two-cycle or two-stroke engine has an

intake / compression cycle, and a power / exhaust

cycle,

which

provide

one

revolution of the motor.

60

power

stroke

for

ever

A four-stroke or four-cycle

engine has an intake cycle, a compression cycle, a

power cycle, and an exhaust cycle, providing one power
stroke for every two revolutions of the motor. The use
of stroke and cycle are interchangeable. A 2-stroke
engine gives better pick up and performance, and is
easy to maintain, but is less fuel efficient. A 4-stroke
engine very fuel efficient and is more environmentalfriendly. But it suffers in pick up and performance.

Tachometer:
Device used to measure the rotational speed (e.g. of an
engine) in revolutions per minute (rpm).

Torque:
Turning force which is developed in the engine. It
depends upon the power developed in the cylinder, the
length of connecting rod & the crank radius

Tail Pipes:
The tail pipe carries the flow of exhaust from the muffler
to the rear of the vehicle. Some vehicles have an
integral resonator in the tail pipe. This resonator is
similar to a small muffler, and it provides additional
exhaust

silencing.

In

some

exhaust

resonator is clamped into the tail pipe.

Tyre Pressure:

61

systems,

the

The correct tyre pressure is printed on the sidewalls -or the outside, non-tread part -- of your tyres. It's also
listed in your manual, and is often listed on a sticker in
the glove compartment or on the door jam. The
pressure is listed in pounds per square inch, or PSI.

Transmission:
The basic work of transmission ("gears") is to convert
the high RPM, low-torque power of the engine into a
lower-speed, higher-torque output, which ultimately
drive the wheels. The possible different gear ratios
("first gear", "fourth gear") let you have different torque
as needed along the ride. Lower gears allow fast
acceleration, higher gears provide better fuel mileage.
Transmissions are basically divide into two categories:
Manual and Automatic. Manual transmission uses a
system of gears to create the high torque output. A
clutch is used to disengage the transmission from the
engine

when

transmission,

shifting
the

shifting

gears.
is

In

automatic

accomplished

by

hydraulic oil system. No clutch is required. Hence it

becomes very convenient during city driving, though
fuel consumption increases a bit.

Transmission Fluid:
A lubricant that is splashed throughout the transmission
by

the

moving

gears

lubricates

the

manual

transmission. The lubricant must be at the correct level

62

or the transmission parts could wear out in a very short

time. The interval for lubrication level check is specified
in the maintenance schedule in the owner's manual.
Automatic transmission or automatic transaxle fluid
should be checked at regular mileage and time intervals
as specified in the owner's manual.

Turning Radius:
A tighter turning radius, makes the vehicle easy to
manoeuvre. This is useful especially in cramped spaces
such as parking lots and narrow streets.

Washer Fluid:
The windshield washer system must have enough
windshield washer fluid to properly clean the windshield.
Anytime you service the windshield wipers or are under
the hood, inspect and refill any lost windshield wiper
fluid.

63

TVS PRODUCTS

TVS Suzuki 50 XL
49.9 cc, 2stroke, Moped

Frame

Welded tubular, step-through

construction

Start Type
Fuel Tank

Manual engagement
3.25 litres (includes 0.75 litres
reserve)

Engine
Type

Single Cylinder air-cooled 2stroke petrol engine

Stroke

Two (2)

Cylinders

Displacement

49.9 cc

Max Power

2.13 bhp @ 5000rpm

64

Max Torque

3.6 Nm @ 3250 rpm

Max Speed

Around 42 Km/hr.

Bore x Stroke

38.9 x 42.0 mm mm

Carburettor

SPACO TYPE-SHA 13/11L

Lubrication

Petrol mixed with 2-stroke

self-maxing oil, HP Super 2T

Compression Ratio

8.3:1

Brakes
Front

Internally expanding doubleshoe drum type

Rear

Internally expanding doubleshoe drum type

Electricals
Ignition

Flywheel magneto-6V 35W

Head Lamp

6V 25/25W double filament

Tail Light

6V-3W 12V 5W

Horn

6V-AC

Battery

12V 5 AH

Dimensions / Weight
Dimension (LxHxW)

1750 x 930 x 700 mm

Wheelbase (mm)

1185 mm 1208mm

Transmission
Clutch
Transmission

Automatic twin-plate dry

clutch
Variomatic V belt transmission
& gear reduction. Automatic
centrifugal clutch.

Suspension
Front

Telescopic spring type

Rear

Swinging arm, hydraulic shock

absorber with coaxial springs.

Wheels / Tyres
Tyre Size

2.5 x 16" (Front & Rear)

65

TVS Suzuki Champ

49.9 cc, 2stroke, step-thru

Start Type

Electric start and also Kick start

Type

Single Cylinder, Forced air

cooled Two stroke gasoline
engine

Stroke

Two (2)

Cylinders

Displacement

49.9 cc

66

TVS Suzuki Max 100 R

100cc, 2stroke, 7.8 BHP motorcycle

Fuel Consumption

67kmpl under test conditions

Start Type

Primary Kick

Type

2 stroke, air cooled

Stroke

Two (2)

Displacement

98.2 cc

Gear Type

All down, heel-toe shift

67

TVS Suzuki Samurai

98.2cc, 2stroke, motorcycle
more >>
Type

2 stroke, air cooled

Stroke

Two (2)

Displacement

98.2 cc

Gear Type

All down, heel-toe shift

68

69

TVS Suzuki Scooty ES

59.9 cc, 2stroke, step-thru

Start Type

Electric start and also Kick start

Type

Single Cylinder, Forced air cooled

Two stroke gasoline engine

Stroke

Two (2)

Cylinders

Displacement

59.9 cc

70

TVS Suzuki Shaolin

140cc, 2stroke, 5 speed motorcycle

a
Start Type

Primary Kick

Type

2 stroke, air cooled

Stroke

Two (2)

Displacement

108.2 cc

Gear Type

One l down, 4up, heel-toe shift

71

TVS Suzuki Shogun

110cc, 2stroke motorcycle

Start Type

Primary Kick

Type

2 stroke, air cooled

Stroke

Two (2)

Displacement

108.2 cc

Gear Type

All down, heel-toe shift

72

Market Value of Two-Wheeler:

It will be useful to start this section with the market for two
wheeler. While the two-wheeler market

has grown at

compound annual rate of 11.7 per cent between 1994 and

2003 motorcycle sale exploded at a rate of 41 percent per
year. Consequently from a market share of under 22 per cent
in 1993-94 motorcycles now account for over 74 per cent of
Indias two wheeler sales. Indeed this share of motor cycles
grew by over 8 percentage points between 2001-02 and
2002-03 from 66.2percent to 74.3 percent Simply put
motorcycles is the name of the game . The Critical role of
motorcycles it is important to share what TVS Suzuki

has

done and proposes to do in this market segment. Since

1997-98 we had to shrug off our image of being
manufacture

of traditional metal bodied geared scooter by

systematically introducing motorcycles that could combine the

companies

historical

selling

points

of

ruggedness

fuel

economy and price competitiveness with style performance

and comfort . Between 1997-98 and 2002-03 we have
increased

our

share

in

an

explosively

growing

highly

discerning market from under 15 per cent to over 23 percent .

Having shown that TVS Suzuki

has been steadily gaining

market share for motorcycle, it is necessary to go into greater

details of this important segment. In last years Annual Report
we had segregated the market in four broad segments.

73

In 2001-02 the industries average sales in the entry level

segment was a bit over 99,000 per month, and accounted for
42 percent of the number of motorcycles sold. Despite an 8
per cent growth in the volume of sales in 2002-03 the overall
market share of this segment dropped to 34 per cent.
No doubt poor monsoons of 2002 and lower farm incomes
played a role in declining sales in this segment especially
since November 2002. Nevertheless even in the best case
scenario it is unlikely that the market share of the entry level
category will exceed 40 percent. That would still make it a
market

ranging

between

1.4

million

and

1.5

million

motorcycles. However we at TVS Suzuki believe that is will be

an increasingly competitive market especially at the upper
end of this segment. As the clear leader accounting for 42
percent of this market how do we propose to fight competition
and further increase our share.
In 2002-03 it is the largest selling brand in the entry level
category and the second largest selling two-wheeler brand in
the country.
We dont propose to gain market share in this segment by
needlessly triggering debilitating price wars Instead we are
going to further cut

manufacturing costs work ion scale

economies, improve efficiencies and pass in the resultant

price benefits to our entery level consumers.
Lets now move on the very top end of motorcycles the
premium category in 2002-03, almost 325,000 motorcycles

74

were sold in this segment and accounted for 43 percent of the

market share. We are comfortably placed here as the clear
market leader.
This machine is designed to set new benchmarks in engine
performance fuel economy handling braking and ergonomics.
With the TVS Spectra & TVS Suzuki Shaolin range we aim to
increase the market size of this premium segment and also
further increase our share.
That brings us to the hug middle the executive segment. The
market has grown by a staggering 37 per cent from an
average sales of 25000 units per month in 2001-2002 to well
over 95000 unit per month in 2002-2003. Today this market
accounts for over 54 per cent of the volume of motorcycle
sales. And three factors higher disposable urban income for
progressively younger people the desire to ride smartly styled
well performing, fuel efficient bikes and extremely attractive
retail finance schemes have made this a very large attractive
and robustly growing segment.
In 2002-03 the executive segment accounted for the overall
sales of 2.04 million motorcycles. TVS Suzuki Ltd. accounts
for 7 per cent of the total sales in this market and we clearly
need to substantially ramp up our presence in this segment.
This will be further supplemented by another model designed
in house slated for a launch towards the end of 2003-04. With
these products TVS Suzuki Ltd. will operate at three distinct
price points in the executive segment which should allow the
company to increase its presence in this category.

75

The Philosophy that we have been following in in three parts.

The first was Do what do able. That led to the development
production and

marketing

of the

Vector models

which

eventually resulted in our being the market leader in the

entry-level. The second part was Do whats Unexpected.
That led to the top of the line Spectra and our quest top
capture the high-end market with international quality. Now
the stage is set to Do what Necessary to Focus on
population the executive segment and gaining market share in
this major category.

Operations
Research and Development:
With rapid changes in customer preferences and shorter
product life cycles the ability to consistently develop and
market top class products will become a key differentiator
between manufacturers who win and those who do not. In
this race TVS Suzuki Ltd. is convinced of the need to develop
world

class

in

house

engine

and

product

research

development and testing capability. To this end, the company

has in the past years built a young, talented and motivated
team with skills in styling engine and product design and
testing and efficient and reliable development practices.

76

Recognizing the need to allocate specific resources to research

and

product

development three

focus

areas

are

being

developed:
Engine research , development and testing
Product development and testing
Product styling
In 2002-03 we embarked on the creating of two new centres
at the Akurdi complex one which will house the engine
group and the other for the product development group. The
Research and Development Centre provides a completely
offices engine design testing and prototyping facilities. The
second centre includes a world class vehicle testing area and
supplements the existing space for the product development
teams.
We propose to significantly enhance the styling studio in the
coming years. In 2002-03 TVS Suzuki Ltd. spent Rs. 55
million as capital expenditure on Research and Development.
To build the above centres TVS Suzuki Ltd. set aside a further
capital investment of Rs. 76 million which will be spent over
the next year. This is in addition to investments already
earmarked for other Research and Development initiatives in
the next year.
TVS Suzuki Ltd. commitment to in house

Research and

Development has begun to yield results. Either solo or in

collaboration with other Research and Development, the

77

company has designed developed and launched a strung of

successful models.
While the company will continue to build its own Research and
Development capabilities, it also recognizes the contribution
of its partners particularly Suzuki and Tokyo Research and
Development.

Employment
To be competitive in todays business environment requires
flat lean and decentralized organisation that facilitate fast
decision-making. Over the past few years TVS Suzuki Ltd. has
transformed

from

being

an

employers

of

over

11,000

employees to around 8,000 employees today.

2002-03 was marketed by a major exercise undertaken
towards eliminating one entire management level in the
organisation. Role differentiation across management layers
was reviewed. Span of control was increased. Supervisory
roles were enriched to add value addition by moving from an
era of workforce control to facilitation. This new structure
meant greater degree of delegation to individual employees,
coupled with greater accountability.
The reduction in managerial levels has provided opportunities
to re-staff positions with managers turned to the future.
Competence and potential were the ky drives that went into
the remaining exercise. The competency mapping exercise

78

also resulted in identifying people whose skill sets did not

meet current and future requirements. In 2002-03, 862 staff
members were released through a voluntary retirement
program. This was in addition to 844 workers who accepted a
voluntary retirement scheme.
Development

of

leadership

competencies

using

Grid

Methodologies continued during the year. A post training

effectiveness survey indicated a positive shift in the leadership
competency of the managers who were a part of this exercise.
A new initiative in bringing about customer orientation will
start in 2003-04 and will involve a significant proportion of the
companys employees.

Information Technology Update

During 2002-03, TVS Suzuki Ltd. upgraded its information
systems with the installation of mySAP an ERP solution
from SAP A.G.. The project was implemented in stages and
the final module was rolled out.
The implementation runs right across

all three plants

engineering, materials finance and sales and marketing

functions and extends to our regional offices and warehouses.
The Key objectives were to consolidate diverse business
activities into a single, coherent and consistent framework, to
improve cross- functional information co-ordination, identify
and intervene on critical business operating parameters as it
happens and not after it happens and to monitor key

79

performance indicators of individuals and functions. The

implementation

exercise

on

single

centrally

located

infrastructure of computer systems is enabled by connectivity

across all plants sales offices and deports across the country
on line using fibre optic lines radio and V-SAT links.
The IT system also extends to our dealers with the creation of
a dealer interface where early improvements have been made
through decentralization of the order management process
and information exchange via an internet based information
exchange portal. This allows us to book orders online provide
detailed order information and get real time updates on the
status of delivery and accounts. The application also simplifies
information exchange on product release after sales service
and other related issued between the company and its
dealers. In 2003-04 we will add internet based operations
management software at dealerships to enable seamless
information exchange on presales retail sales and service
related issues.

Supply Chain Management

Vendors:
Rationalisation across TVS Suzuki Ltd. vendor base, continued
during the year and resulted in further aggregation of
purchases. These exercise will result in having a consolidated

80

base of 80 vendors supplying components to all TVS Suzuki

Ltd. plants.
A large number of vendors are now located either near
Chennai, Those that are further away are encouraged to tie
up with third party logistic providers who along with local
vendors are already supplying multiple deliveries daily. TVS
Suzuki Ltd. has extended its TPM mission to vendors details
of which have been discussed earlier.

Dealers;
TVS Suzuki Ltd. has a network of 242 dealers and over 1100
authorized service centre. To widen its presence and get
closer to customers new dealers are proposed to be added in
the current year which should take the total dealer network to
around 500 by the end of 2003-04. A large number of these
new dealerships will be in semi-urban and rural locations.

Research & Development Technology Adsorption;

The

Companys

R&D

facility

supplemented

by

foreign

technology input is equipped to undertake a variety of R&D

assignment in the design and development of two and three
wheeled vehicles and their engines.

81

During the year under review the company embarked on a

major project to upgrade its R&D facilities including two
totally new design and test centres. This facility is under
completion and is slated to be in operation in the beginning of
the current financial Year. The company has also hired
international consultants in the area of design, metallurgy and
process improvements to support its development efforts.
Major initiatives taken during the year under review were the
following:
The company has through internal efforts designed and
launched a sub 100cc motorcycle and launched a sub
100 cc motorcycle the BYK for the entry level market.
With its high fuel efficiency and smart looks the product
has attracted many customers.
The company also launched TVS Spectra model, which
has received a good response in the market due to its
superior performance in both power and fuel efficiency.
The company has upgraded the Moped series with
various new vehicle features. The XL Supper series has
a newly developed Swize engine which is popular among
the customers.
The Company has designed and developed a 125 cc
motorcycle

in

collaboration

with

Swizerland

Heavy

Industries Ltd. The product, which has been designed

keeping in view the needs of the global market, is also
expected to do well in the domestic market. The

82

development activities are completed and the pre-mass

production trials are in the final stages.

Impact of Measures Taken

Due to measures taken to conserve electrical energy there
was an overall reduction o 3 percent in electric units in
average power consumption per vehicle.
Due to continuous efforts in reducing water consumption
there was an overall 11 per cent reduction in total water
consumption in spite of an overall increase of 6.16 per cent in
vehicle producing during the year.
By adopting appropriate control measures and more effective
utilization of the equipment, there was an overall 11 percent
reduction in consumption of LPG and 8 per cent reduction in
consumption of light diesel oil.
Saving effected in the three plants by way of various steps
taken during the year under review is estimated at Rs. 28.5
million.

83

84

Main Body
CONSUMER ?
The term Consumer is often used to describe two different
kinds of consuming entities the personal consumer and the
organizational consumer.
The Personal consumer buys goods or services for his or
her own use (e.g. toothpaste or soap), for the use of
households (a television) or as a gift for a friend (a
purse). In each of these contexts, individuals who are
referred to as end-users or ultimate consumers buy the
goods for final use.
The second category of consumer the organizational
consumer includes profit and not for profit businesses
government agencies (local state and national) and
institutions (e.g. colleges etc) all of which must buy
products equipment and services in order to run their
organizations. Manufacturing companies must buy the
raw

materials

manufacture

and

other

and sell

components

their own

needed

products;

to

service

companies must buy the office products needed to

operate

their

agencies

institutions

must

buy

the

materials they nee to maintain themselves and their

populations.

85

CUSTOMER SATISFACTION
The extent to which a products perceived performance
matches

buyers

expectations.

Thus

consumers

expectations about the value of marketing offers

form

and make

buying decision s based on these expectations. Customer

satisfaction with a purchase depends on the products actual
performance relative to a buyers expectations. A customer
might

experience

various

degrees

of

satisfaction.

If

performance matches expectations the customers is satisfied.

If performance exceeds expectations the customer is highly
satisfied or delighted.
Today in the customer driven economy all firms are engaged
in a rat race to attract customers and build a long long-term
relationship with their loyal customer. The key to customer
loyalty is through customer satisfaction. A satisfied customer
will

act as a spokesperson

of the companys product and

bring in more buyers. There is also a high correlation between

loyalty and profitability. There is the pareto principle or the
80/20 rule, it says that 80 percent of one thing comes from
20 percent of another. That is to say a small percentage of
loyal

customers will lend a large weight to the companys

sales . So marketers have to ensure customers value

satisfaction. For this they have to ensure:

Products

are

developed

to

meet

consumer

requirements.

Brands are positioned so as to convey distinctiveness.

86

Communications are used to convey to consumers to

experience that

goes on using a value added product.

Delivery to reinforce the promptness in making available

to the consumers a value added product.

Relationship are built to offer lifetime customer value to

enable the consumer to experience value satisfaction.

All the efforts of the marketers at trying

to understand

buying motives, organizing buying behavior and working out

suitable promotional strategy to suit the consumer behavior is
to

ensure

consumer

satisfaction

in

todays

competitive

environment were companies are adopting various methods to

woo the prospective consumers, marketers have to make all
efforts to understand all the complexities which go into the
buying behaviour and frame marketing programmes suitable
to the target market.
Customer

Satisfaction

performance

in

depends

delivering

on

value

products
relative

perceived
to

buyers

expectations. If the products a performance falls short of the

customers

expectations

the

buyers

is

dissatisfied.

If

performance matches expectations the buyer is satisfied. If

performance exceeds expectation the buyer is delighted.
Outstanding marketing companies go out of their way to keep
their customers satisfied. Satisfied customers make repeat
purchase and they tell others about their good experiences
with the product. The key is to match customer expectations
with company performance. Smart companies aim to delight

87

customers by promising only what they can deliver then

delivering more than they promise.
Customer satisfaction is closely linked to quality. In recent
years

many

management

companies
(TQM)

have

adopted

programs,

designed

total
to

quality

constantly

improve the quality of their products services and marketing

processes.

Quality

has

direct

impact

on

product

performance and hence on customer satisfaction.

The key to building lasting relationships is the creation of
superior customer value and satisfaction. Satisfied customers
are more likely to be loyal customers and loyal customers are
more likely to give the company a larger share of their
business. Attracting and retaining customers can be a difficult
task. To days customers face a vast array of product and
brand choice process and suppliers.
But how do buyers from their expectation? Expectations are
based on the customers past buying experience the opinions
of friends and associates and marketer and competitor
information and promises. Marketers must be careful to set
the right level of expectations. If they set expectation to low
they may satisfy those who buy but fail to attract enough
buyers. In contrast, if they raise expectations too high buyers
are likely to be disappointed.

88

Principles Customer Satisfaction:

The goal is to exceed customer expectation.

The more the employee satisfaction, the more the

customer satisfaction.

Customer satisfaction is necessary, but not sufficient.

How many times do satisfied customers switch brands?
Answer, a lot.

All initiatives must be derived from defined problems.

For instance, dissatisfied customers don't buy. That's an
example of a clear problem.

Initiatives

must

produce

conceptual

benefits.

either

Distinguish

measurable

between

the

or
two

benefits types.

Rather than blanket initiatives for everyone, outline

initiatives

for

each

level

of

management.

Keep

expectations in line with the manger's span of control.

Distinguish between goals and objectives.

The plan must resonate with the VP and at least a

minority of managers who agree with the objectives and
initiatives.

The plan must be clear and congruent (achievable, walk

your talk).

89

Main Punch of Customer Satisfaction:

Quality of a company's product and services

Quality of the relationship between the company's

agent(s) and the customer(s)

Responsiveness

Thoroughness

Creativity

Demonstrations of the company's value to someone

whose opinion counts

For Regulate Customer Satisfaction:

Quality of competitor's products and services

Quality of the relationship between the competitor's

agent(s) and the customer(s)

Responsiveness

Thoroughness

Creativity

Demonstrations of the competitor's value to someone

whose opinion counts

90

Customer loyalty as opposed to mere customer satisfaction,

can be a factor of established trust. Knowing there is an
aligned mutual benefit in the relationship and a mutual
understanding gives your customer service a head start of the
competition, whether there is a problem currently or not.
Knowing that there is a mutual foundation for problem solving
should a problem occurs is a basis for loyalty.

ATTITUDE:
As consumers each of us has a vast number of attitudes
toward products services advertisements direct mail and
retailers. Whenever we are asked whether we like or dislike a
product a service a particular retailer a specific direct
marketer, or an advertising theme we are being asked to
express out attitudes.
Within the context of consumer behaviour an appreciation of
prevailing attitudes has considerable strategic merit. For
instance there has been very rapid growth in the sales of
natural

ingredient

bath

body

and

cosmetic

products

throughout the word. This trend seems linked to the currently

popular attitude that things natural are good and things
synthetic are bad. Yet in reality the positive attitude favoring
things natural is not based on any safer or better for
consumers.
To get at the heart of what is driving consumers behaviour
attitude research has been used to study a wide range of
strategic marketing questions. For example attitude research

91

is frequently undertaken to determine whether consumers will

accept a proposed new product idea to gauge why a firms
target audience has not reacted more favorably to its new
promotional theme or to learn how target customers are likely
to react to a proposed change in the firms packaging.

FACETS :
As the opening paragraph of this chapter implies attitudes are
an expression of inner feeling that reflect whether a person is
favorably or unfavorably predisposed to some object .
Because they are an outcome of psychological processes,
attitudes are not directly observable

but must be inferred

from what people say or what they do.

Consumer researchers assess attitudes by asking questions or
making

inferences

from

behaviour.

For

example

if

researcher determines from question a consumer that the

individual consistently buys suave products and recommends
them to friend the with respect to a given object. Each part of
this definition describes an important property of an attitude
and is critical to understanding the role of attitudes in
consumer behaviour.

92

THE MEANING AND SIGNIFICANCE

MARKETING STRATEGY

OF

Marketing strategy is the complete and in beatable plan,

designed specifically for attaining the marketing objectives of
the firm/ business unit. The marketing objectives indicate
what the firm wants to achieve, the marketing strategy
provides the design for achieving them. For example if the
marketing objectives of a business unit stipulate that next
year, it should achieve a sales revenue of Rs. 1000 crore and
net profit of 15 percent on sales revenue, it is the job of
marketing strategy to indicate how and wherefrom this sale
and profit will come, which product lines/ products brands will
accomplish this task and how.
Specifies the position the Unit will seek in the industry and
how it will compete therein:
What position does the Unit seek in its industry?
What market segment to serve? And what product
offers to make?
The

Growth

path

Market

penetration

Market

development ? Or product development?

Who are my competitors ? Whom to compete whom to
avoid ?

93

 On what differentiation strength to compete ?

On what competitive advantages will the

fight be

based?
It is the marketing strategy that realizes the units income and
profits :

It is the marketing strategy that brings the

targeted sales income and profits of a brand and
hence of the business unit / corporation as a
whole.

Which are the markets geographically and other

characteristics-wise, it is going to cultivate to
achieve this sale ?

What type of customers it will approach ?

At what price will it sell ?

What are the product features colour, fragrance

base, etc. the brand will have ? is the ongoing
formulation ok ?

How many variants will it accommodate ?

What kind of packaging will it resort to ?

How will it reach the consumer ?

What kind of shops will stock the product?

How will it be promoted ?

94

MARKETING STRATEGIES FALL UNDER TWO CATEGORIES:

1.

Price- oriented strategies

2.

Differentiation oriented strategies

PRICE- ORIENTED STRATEGIES :

Firms taking to the price route in marketing strategy compete
on the strength of pricing. They use price as their competitive
lever. They

juggle the price of their products to suit the

prevailing competitive reality. They can afford to offer lower

pries and still make the targeted profits. They elbow out
competition with the cushion they enjoy in the matter of
pricing. Evidently, a firm

opting for the price route has a

substantial cost advantage in their operating vis-a vis the

competition. It should be enjoying an overall cost leadership
in the given industry and its lower cost should enable it to
secure above average returns in spite of strong competition.
In the absence of such cost advantage, it cannot continuously
offer a lower price compared to competition. The cost
advantage can emanate from different factor like scale
economics early entry a large market share built over a period
of time location advantage or synergy among the different
businesses. The firms whole strategy if fact will revolve
around building such cost advantage it will always be looking
for opportunities for cost reduction. It have consciously taken
to the idea sufficiently early in its evolutionary process and
prepared itself for adopting such a strategy. The firm cannot
opt for the strategy midway, after getting stuck in the face of

95

competition. Right from beginning, it must have voted for cost

effective technologies / processes, cost reduction programme
a steady pursuit of automation a constant vigil to exploit
learning curve effects basic inventory practices and company
wide commitment to cost reduction. Without obtaining a cost
leadership in the industry though resorting to such step early
on it is difficult for a firm to compete on the basis of price.
DIFFERENTIATION- BASED MARKETING STRATEGIES :
The differentiation route to strategy revolves around aspects
other than price. It works on the principle that a firm can
make its offer distinctive from all competing offers and win
through the distinctiveness. And a firm adopting such route
can price its product on the preferred value of the attributes
of the offer and not necessarily on competition parity basis.
The interesting point is that the offer can be differentiated on
any of the multitude of attributes that normally from part of
any offer. Any of the ever so many activities performed by the
firm tangible and intangible can also constitute a source of
differentiation. The product with its innumerable features the
service and the other functions performed by the firm are all
possible sources of differentiation.
In the market place today companies do try to achieve
marketing success through differentiation of anything. They
not only differentiate on the unique features of their product,
but even on plain facts like the collaboration with a valuable
Partner, or the location of plant as differentiation themes.

96

They use any particular fact / theme that gives them a

relative advantage. This type of differentiation is generally
based on the multitude of attributes of the offer.
The differentiation route is a more dynamic and powerful
route in competitive strategy. Most business battles are
fought on the strength of differentiation rater than price. The
major temptation as well as benefit in differentiation strategy
is that it allows a firm to move away from the disadvantages
of a wholly price- based fight. In other words differentiation
allows a firm the flexibility for fighting on the non-price front
on the strength of the uniqueness and specialty of its offer.
Differentiation therefore is a crucial option for a firm in its
search for a rewarding competitive strategy and thereby it
helps a firm move away from price competition.
To resort to differentiation a firm should possess relevant
competitive advantages. It is evident that to fight on the
differentiation route, the firm should have the relevant
competitive advantage. Brand image channel clout strong
collaborations unique process integrated production facilities
flexible production facilities and advanced R&D facilities are all
competitive advantages.

97

98

M EASUREMENT

IN

R ESEARCH

In our daily life we are said to measure when we sue some

yardstick to determine weight, height, or some other feature
of a physical object.

We also measure when we judge how

well we like a song, a painting or the personalities of our

friends.

We, thus, measure physical objects as well as

abstract concepts. Measurement is a relatively complex and

demanding task, specially so when it concerns qualitative or
abstract phenomena. By measurement we mean the process
of assigning numbers to objects or observations, the level of
measurement being a ruction of the rules under which the
numbers are assigned.
It is easy to assign numbers in respect of properties of some
objects, but it is relatively difficult in respect of others.
instance,

measuring

such

things

as

social

For

conformity,

intelligence, or marital adjustment is much less obvious and

requires much closer attention than measuring physical
weight, biological age or a persons financial assets. In other
words, properties like weight, height etc., can be measured
directly with some standard unit of measurement, but it is not
that easy to measure properties like motivation to succeed,
ability to stand stress and the like. We can expect high
accuracy in measuring the length of pipe with a yardstick, but
if the concept is abstract and the measurement tools are not

99

standardized, we are less confident about the accuracy of the

results of measurement.
Technically speaking, measurement is a process of mapping
aspects of a domain onto other aspects of a range according
to some rule of correspondence.

In measuring, we devise

some form of scale in the range (in terms of set theory, range
may refer to some set) and then transform or map the
properties of objects from the domain (in terms of set theory,
domain may refer to some other set) onto this scale.
When in addition to setting up inequalities and forming
differences we can also form quotients (i.e., when we can
perform all the customary operations of mathematics), we
refer to such data as ratio data.

In this sense, ratio data

includes all the usual measurement (or determinations) of

length,

height,

money

amounts,

weight,

volume,

area,

pressures etc.
The

above

stated

distinction

between

nominal,

ordinal,

interval and ratio data is important for the nature of set of

data may suggest the use of particular statistical techniques
(when

data

can

be

measured

in

units

which

are

interchangeable e.g., weights (by ratio scales,), temperatures

(by interval scales), that data is said to be parametric and can
be subjected to most kinds of statistical and mathematical
processes. But when data is measured in units, which are not
interchangeable: e.g., product preferences (by ordinal scales),
the data is said to be non-parametric and is susceptible only
to a limited extent to mathematical and statistical treatment).

100

A researcher has to be quite alert about this aspect while

measuring properties of objects or of abstract concepts.

Measurement Scales
From what has been stated above, we can write that scales of
measurement

can

be

considered

in

terms

of

their

mathematical properties. The most widely used classification

of measurement scales are (a) nominal scale: (b) ordinal
scale: (c) interval scale: (d) ratio scale.

(a) Nominal Scale:

Nominal scale is simple a system of assigning number
symbols to events in order to label them.

The usual

example of this is the assignment of numbers of

basketball players in order to identify them. Such
numbers cannot be considered to be associated with an
ordered scale for their order is of no consequent: the
numbers are just convenient labels for the particular
class of events and as such have no quantitative value.
Nominal scales provide convenient ways of keeping
track of people, objects and events.
much with the numbers involved.

One cannot do

For example, one

cannot usefully average the numbers on the back of a

group of football players and come up with a meaningful
value.

Neither can one usefully compare the numbers

assigned to one group with the numbers assigned to

another. The counting of members in each group is the
only possible arithmetic operation when a nominal scale

101

is employed.

Accordingly, we are restricted to use

mode as the measure of central tendency. There is no

generally used measure of dispersion for nominal
scales.

Chi-square test is the most common test of

statistical significance that can be utilized, and for the

measures of correlation, the contingency coefficient can
be worked out.
Nominal

scale

measurement.

is

the

least

powerful

level

of

It indicates no order or distance

relationship and has no arithmetic origin. A nominal

scale simply describes differences between things by
assigning them to categories. Nominal data are, thus,
counted data. The scale wastes any information that we
may have about varying degrees of attitude, skills,
understandings, etc In spite of all this, nominal scales
are still very useful and are widely used in surveys and
other

ex-post-facto

research when data are being

classified by major sub-groups of the population.

(b) Ordinal Scale:

The lowest level of the ordered scale that is commonly
used is the ordinal scale.

The ordinal scale places

events in order, but there is no attempt to make the

intervals of the scale equal in terms of some rule. Rank
orders represent ordinal scales and are frequently used
in research relating to qualitative phenomena.

students rank in his graduation class involves the use of

an ordinal scale. One has to be very careful in making

102

statement about scores based on ordinals scales.

For

instance, if Rams position in his class is 10 and Mohans

position is 40, it cannot be said that Rams position is
four times as good as that of Mohan.

The statement

would make no sense at all. Ordinal scales only permit

the ranking of items from highest to lowest.

Ordinal

measures have no absolute values, and the real

differences between adjacent ranks may not be equal.
All that can be said is that one person is higher or lower
on

the

scale

than

another,

but

more

precise

comparisons cannot be made.

Thus, the use of an ordinal scale implies a statement of
greater than or less than (an equality statement is
also acceptable) without our being able to state how
much greater or less.

The real difference between

ranks 1 and 2 may be more or less than the difference

between ranks 5 and 6. since the numbers of this scale
have only a rank meaning, the appropriate measure of
central tendency is the median. A percentile or quartile
measure is used for measuring dispersion. Correlations
are restricted to various rank order methods. Measures
of statistical significance are restricted to the nonparametric methods.

(c) Interval Scale:

In the case of interval scale, the intervals are adjusted
in terms of some rule that has been established as a
basis for making the units equal.

103

The units are equal

only in so far as one accepts the assumptions on which

the rule is based. Interval scales can have an arbitrary
zero, but it is not possible to determine for them what
may be called an absolute zero or the unique origin.
The primary limitation of the interval scale is the lack of
true zero; it does not have the capacity to measure the
complete absence of trait or characteristic.

The

Fahrenheit scale is an example of an interval scale and

shows similarities in what one can and cannot do with it.
One can say that an increase in temperature from 30 0
to 400 involves the same increase in temperature as an
increase from 600 to 700, but one cannot say that the
temperature of 600 is twice as warm as the temperature
of 300 because both numbers are dependent on the fact
that the zero on the scale is set arbitrarily at the
temperature of the freezing point of water. The ratio of
the two temperatures, 300 and 600, means nothing
because zero is an arbitrary point.
Interval scales provide more powerful measurement
than ordinal scales for interval scale also incorporates
the concept of equality of interval.

As such more

powerful statistical measures can be used with interval

scales.

Mean is the appropriate measure of central

tendency, while standard deviation is the most widely

used

measure

of

dispersion.

Product

moment

correlation techniques are appropriate and the generally

used tests for statistical significance are the t test and
F test.

104

(d) Ratio Scale :

Ratio

scales

have

measurement.

an

absolute

or

true

zero

of

The term absolute zero is not as

precise as it was once believed to be. We can conceive

of an absolute zero of length and similarly we can
conceive of an absolute zero of time. For example, the
zero point on a centimeter scale indicates the complete
absence of length or height.

But an absolute zero of

temperature is theoretically unobtainable and it remains

a concept existing only in the scientists mind.

The

number of minor traffic-rule violations and the number

of incorrect letters in a page of type

script represent

scores on ratio scales. Both these scales have absolute

zeros and as such all minor traffic violations and all
typing errors can be assumed to equal in significance.
With ratio scales involved one can make statements like
jyotis typing performance was twice as good as that of
Reetu. The ratio involved does have significance and
facilitates a kind of comparison which is not possible in
case of an interval scale.
Ratio scale represents the actual amounts of variables.
Measures of physical dimensions such as weight, height,
distance etc. are examples.
techniques

are

usable

with

Generally, all statistical

ratio

scales

and

all

manipulations that one can carry out with real numbers

can also

be

carried

out with

ratio scale

values.

Multiplication and division can be used with this scale

105

but not with other scales mentioned above. Geometric

and harmonic means can be used as measures of
central tendency and coefficients of variation may also
be calculated.
Thus, proceeding from the nominal scale (the lest
precise type of scale) to ratio scale (the most precise),
relevant information is obtained increasingly.

If the

nature of the variables permits, the researcher should

use the scale that provides the most precise description.
Researchers in physical sciences have the advantage to
describe variables in ratio scale form but the behavioral
sciences are generally limited to describe variables in
interval scale form, a less precise type of measurement.

Sources of Error in Measurement

Measurement should be precise and unambiguous in an ideal
research study.

This objective, however, is often not met

with in entirety. As such the researcher must be aware about

the sources of error in measurement.

The following are the

possible sources of error in measurement.

(a)

Respondent:
At times the respondent may be reluctant to express
strong negative feelings or it is just possible that he
may have very little knowledge but may not admit his

106

ignorance.

All this reluctance is likely to result in an

interview of guesses.

Transient factors like fatigue,

boredom, anxiety etc. may limit the ability of the

respondent to respond accurately and fully.
(b)

Situation:
Situational factors may also come in the way of correct
measurement. Any condition which places a strain on
interview can have serious effects on the interviewerrespondent rapport.

For instance, if someone else is

present, he can distort responses by joining in or merely

by

being

present.

If

the

respondent

feels

that

anonymity is not assured, he may be reluctant to

express certain feelings.
(C)

Measurer:
The interviewer can distort responses by rewording or
reordering questions.

His

behaviour

style and looks

may encourage or discourage certain replies from

respondents.

Careless mechanical processing may

distort the findings. Errors may also creep in because of

incorrect coding, faulty tabulation and/or statistical
calculations, particularly in the data analysis stage.
(d)

Instrument:
Error may arise because of the defective measuring
instrument.

The use of complex words, beyond the

comprehension

of

the

107

respondent,

ambiguous

meanings, poor printing, inadequate space for replies,

response choice omissions, etc., are a few things that
make the measuring instrument defective and may
result

in

measurement

errors.

Another

type

of

instrument deficiency is the poor sampling of the

universe of items of concern.
Researcher must know that correct measurement depends on
successfully meeting all of the problems listed above.

He

must, to the extent possible, try to eliminate, neutralize or

otherwise deal with all the possible sources of error so that
the final results may not e contaminated.

Tests of Sound Measurement

Sound measurement must meet the tests of validity, reliability
and

practicality.

In

fact,

these

are

the

three

major

considerations one should use in evaluating a measurement

tool. validity refers to the extent to which a test measures
what we actually wish to measure . Reliability has to do with
the

accuracy

and

procedure.Practicality

precision

of

measurement

is concerned with a wide range of

factors of economy, convenience, and interpretability.: We

briefly take up the relevant details concerning these tests of
sound measurement.
1.

Test of Validity

108

Validity is the most critical criterion and indicates the

degree to which an instrument measures what it is
supposed to measure.
as utility.

Validity can also be thought of

In others words, validity is the extent to

which differences found with a measuring instrument

reflect true differences among those being tested. But
the question arises: how can one determine validity
without direct confirming knowledge ? The answer may
be that we seek other relevant evidence that confirms
the answers we have found with our measuring tool.
What is relevant evidence often depends upon the
nature of the research problem and the judgment of the
researcher. But one can certainly consider three types
of validity in this connection:

(i) content validity; (ii)

Criterion-related validity and (iii) Construct validity.

(i)

Content Validity : Content validity is the extent to

which a measuring instrument provides adequate
coverage of the topic under study. If the instrument
contains a representative sample of the universe, the
content validity is good. Its determination is primarily
judgmental and intuitive. It can also be determined
by using a panel of persons who shall judge how well
the measuring instrument meets the standards, but
there is no numerical way to express it.

(ii)

Criterion-related : Criterion-related validity relates

to our ability to predict some outcome or estimate
the existence of some current condition. This form of

109

validity reflects the success of measures used for

some empirical estimating purpose.

The concerned

criterion must possess the following qualities .

Relevance:

A criterion is relevant if it is defined in

terms we judge to be the proper
measure.

Freedom from bias: Freedom from bias is attained when

the criterion gives each subject an
equal opportunity to score well.
Reliability:

reliable

criterion

is

stable

or

reproducible.
Availability:

The

information

specified

by

the

criterion must be available

In fact , a Criterion-related validity is a broad term that
actually refers to

(i)

Predictive Validity:
The former refers to the usefulness of a test in
predicting some future performance whereas the latter
refers to the usefulness of a test in closely relating to
other measures of known validity.

Criterion-related

validity is expressed as the coefficient of correlation

between test scores and some measure of future

110

performances or between test scores and scores on

another measure of known validity.
(ii)

Construct Validity:
It is the most complex and abstract. A measure is said
to possess construct validity to the degree that it
confirms to predicted correlations with other theoretical
propositions.
scores

on

Construct validity is the degree to which

a

explanatory

test

can

constructs

be
of

accounted
a

sound

for

by

theory.

the
For

determining construct validity, we associate a set of

other propositions with the results received from using
our measurement instrument. If measurements on our
devised scale correlate in a predicted way with these
other propositions, we can conclude that there is some
construct validity.

If the above stated criteria and tests are met with, we may
state that our measuring instrument is valid and will result in
correct measurement otherwise we shall have to look for
more information and/or resort to exercise of judgement.
2.

Test of Reliability
The test of reliability is another important test of sound
measurement. A measuring instrument is reliable if it
provides

consistent

results.

Reliable

measuring

instrument does contribute to validity, but a reliable

111

instrument need not be a valid instrument.

For

instance, a scale that consistently overweighs objects by

five kgs., is a reliable scale, but it does not give a valid
measure of weight. But the other way is not true i.e., a
valid

instrument

is

easier

to

assess

reliability

in

comparison to validity. If the quality of reliability is

satisfied by an instrument, then while using it we can be
confident that the transient and situational factors are
not interfering.
Two aspects of reliability viz., stability and equivalence
deserve special mention.
concerned

with

The stability aspect is

securing

consistent

results

with

repeated measurements of the same person and with

the same instrument.

We usually

determine the

degree of stability by comparing the results of repeated

measurements.
much

error

The equivalence aspect considers how

may

get

introduced

by

different

investigators or different samples of the items being

studied.

A good way to test for the equivalence of

measurements by two investigators is to compare their

observations of the same events.

Reliability can be

improved in the following two ways:

(i)

By standardizing the conditions under which the

measurement takes place i.e., we must ensure
that

external

sources

of

variation

such

as

boredom, fatigue, etc., are minimized to the

extent possible. That will improve stability aspect.

112

(ii)

By carefully designed directions for measurement

with no variation from group to group, by using
trained and motivated persons to conduct the
research and also by broadening the sample of
items used. This will improve equivalence aspect.

3.

Test of Practicality
The practicality characteristic of a measuring instrument
can be judged in terms of economy, convenience and
interpretability. From the operational point of view, the
measuring instrument ought to be practical i,e., it
should be economical, convenient and interpretable.
Economy consideration suggests that some trade-off is
needed between the ideal research project and that
which the budget can afford. The length of measuring
instrument

is

an

important

pressures are quickly felt.

area

where

economic

Although more items give

greater reliability as stated earlier, but in the interest of

limiting the interview or observation time, we have to
take only few items for our study purpose.

Similarly,

data-collection methods to be used are also dependent

at times upon economic factors.

Convenience test

suggests that the measuring instrument should be easy

to administer.
attention

to

For this purpose one should give due

the

proper

layout

of

the

measuring

instrument. For instance, a questionnaire, with clear

instructions (illustrated by examples), is certainly more
effective and easier to complete than one which lacks

113

these

features.

specially

Interpretability

consideration

when

other

important

persons

is

than

the

designers of the test are to interpret the results.

The

measuring instrument, in order to be interpretable,

must be supplemented my (a) detailed instructions for
administering the test;

(b) scoring keys: (c) evidence

about the reliability and

(d) guides for using the test

and for interpreting results.

Technique of Developing Measurement Tools

The technique of developing measurement tools involves a
four-stage process, consisting of the following:
(a)

Concept development:

(b)

Specification of concept dimensions:

(c)Selection of indicators: and

(d)

Formation of index.

The first and foremost step is that of concept development

which means that the researcher should arrive at an
understanding of the major concepts pertaining to his study.
This step of concept development is more apparent in
theoretical studies than in the more pragmatic research,
where

the

fundamental

concepts

established.

114

are

often

already

The second step requires the researcher to specify the

dimensions of the concepts that he developed

in the first

stage. This task may either be or by empirical correlation of

the individual dimensions with the total concept and / or the
other concepts. For instance one may think of several
dimensions such as products reputation customer treatment
corporate leadership concern for individuals sense of social
responsibility and so forth when one is thinking about the
image of a certain company.
Once the dimensions of a concept have been specified the
researcher must develop indicators for measuring each
concept element. Indicators are specific question scales or
other devices by which respondents knowledge opinion
expectation etc., are measured. As there is seldom a perfect
measure of a concept the research should consider several
alternatives for the purpose. The use of more than one
indicator gives stability to the scores and it also improves
their validity.
The last step is that of combining the various indicators into
an index, i.e. formation of an index. When we have several
dimensions of a concept or different measurements of
dimension we may need to combine them into a single
index.

One simple way for getting an overall index is to

provide scale values to the responses and then sum up the

corresponding scores. Such an overall index would provide
a better measurement tool than a single indicator because of
the fact that an individual indicator has only a probability

115

relation to what we really want to know. This way we must

obtain an overall index fore the various concepts concerning
the research study.

Scaling
In research we quite often face measurement problem
(since we want a valid measurement but may not obtain
it ), specially when the concepts to be measured are
complex and abstract and we do not possess the
standardized measurement tools. Alternatively, we can
say that while measuring attitudes and opinions, we
face the problem of their valid measurement.

researcher may face similar problem, of course in a

lesser degree, while measuring physical or institutional
concepts.

As such we should study some procedures,

which may enable us to measure abstract concepts

more accurately. This brings us to the study of scaling
techniques.

Meaning of Scaling
Scaling describes the procedures of assigning numbers
to various degrees of opinion, attitude and other
concepts. This can be done in two ways viz., (i) making
a judgement about some characteristic of an individual
and then placing him directly on a scale that has been
defined

in

terms

of

that

116

characteristic

and

(ii)

constructing questionnaires in such a way that the score

of individuals responses assigns him a place on a scale.
It may be stated here that a scale is a continuum,
consisting of the highest point (in terms of some
characteristic e.g., preference, favorableness, etc. and
the lowest point along with several intermediate points
between these two extreme points.

These scale-point

positions are so related to each other that when the first

point happens to be the highest point, the second point
indicates

higher

degree

in

terms

of

given

characteristic as compared to the third point and the

third point indicates a higher degree as compared to the
fourth

and

so

on.

Numbers

for

measuring

the

distinctions of degree in the attitudes/opinions are,

thus, assigned to individuals corresponding to their
scale-positions.

All this is better understood when we

talk about scaling techniques(s).

hence the term

scaling is applied to the procedures for attempting to

determine quantitative measures of subjective abstract
concepts. Scaling has been defined as a procedure for
the assignment of numbers (or other symbols) to a
property of objects in order to impart some of the
characteristics

of

numbers

to

the

properties

in

question.

Scale Classification Bases

The

number

assigning

procedures

or

the

scaling

procedures may be broadly classified on one or more of

117

the following bases:

(a) subject orientation; (b)

response form; (c) degree of subjectivity;(d) scale

properties; (e) number of dimensions and (f) scale
construction techniques.

We take up each of these

separately.
(a)

Subject Orientation:
designed

to

measure

Under it a scale may be

characteristics

of

the

respondent who completes it or to judge the stimulus

object which is presented to the respondent.

In

respect of the former, we presume that the stimuli

presented are sufficiently homogeneous so that the
between-stimuli variation is small as compared to
the variation among respondents. In the latter
approach, we ask the respondent to judge some
specific object in terms of one or more dimensions
and

we

presume

that

the

between-respondent

variation will be small as compared to the variation

among the different stimuli presented to respondents
for judging.
(b)

Response form: Under this we may classify the

scales as categorical and comparative.

Categorical

scales are also known as rating scales. These scales

are used when a respondent scores some object
without direct reference to other objects. Under
comparative scales, which are also known as ranking
scales, the respondent is asked to compare two or
more objects.

In this sense the respondent may

118

state that one object is superior to the other or that

three models of pen rank in order 1,2 and 3.

The

essence of ranking is, in fact, a relative comparison

of a certain property of two or more objects.
(c)

Degree of Subjectivity:
data

may

be

based

on

With this basis the scale

whether

we

measure

subjective personal preference s or simply make

non-preference judgments. In the former case, the
respondent is asked to choose which person he
favours

or which solution he would like to see

employed, whereas in the latter case he is simply

asked to judge which person is more effective in
some aspect or which solution will take fewer
resources without reflecting any personal preference.
(d)

Scale Properties: Considering scale properties, one

may classify the scales as nominal, ordinal, interval
and ratio scales.

Nominal scales merely classify

without indicating order, distance or unique origin.

Ordinal scales indicate magnitude relationships of
more than or less than, but indicate no distance or
unique origin.

Interval scales have both order and

distance values, but no unique origin.

Ratio scales

possess all these features.

(e)

Number of Dimensions: In respect of this basis,

scales can be classified as unidimensional and
multidimensional scales.

Under the former we

measure only one attribute of the respondent or

119

object; whereas multidimensional scaling recognizes

that an object might be described better by using the
concept of an attribute space of n dimensions,
rather than a single-dimension continuum.
(f)

Scale Construction Techniques: Following are the

five

main

techniques

by

which

scales

can

be

developed.
1.

Arbitrary approach: It is an approach where

scale is developed on adhoc basis.

This is the

most widely used approach. It is presumed that

such scales measure the concepts for which they
have been designed, although there is little
evidence to support such an assumption.
2.

Consensus approach: Here a panel of judges

evaluate the items chosen for inclusion in the
instrument in terms of whether they are relevant
to

the

topic

area

and

unambiguous

in

implication.
3.

Item analysis approach: Under it a number of

individual items are developed into a test, which
is given to a group of respondents.

After

administering the test, the total scores are

calculated for every one.
then

analyzed

to

Individual items are

determine

which

items

discriminate between persons or objects with

high total scores and those with low scores.

120

Cumulative

scales:

Cumulative

scale

are

chosen on the basis of their conforming to some

ranking of items with ascending and descending
discriminating power.

For instance, in such a

scale the endorsement of an item representing

an extreme position should also result in the
endorsement
extreme

of

position

endorsement

an

item

should

of all

representing

also

items

result

indicating

in

an
the

a less

extreme position.
(5) Factor scales:

It may be constructed on the

basis of Interco relations of items, which indicate

that

common

factor

accounts

for

the

relationship between items. This relationship is

typically

measured

through

factor

analysis

method.

Important Scaling Techniques

We now take up some of the important scaling techniques
often used in the context of research specially in context of
social or business research.

Rating Scales:
The rating scale involves qualitative description of a limited
number of aspects of a thing or of traits of a person. When
we use rating scales (or categorical scales), we judge an
object in absolute terms against some specified criteria i.e.,

121

we judge properties of objects without reference to other

similar objects. These ratings may be in such forms as likedislike, above average, average, below average, or other
classifications with more categories such as like very much
like some what neutraldislike somewhat---dislike very
much;

excellentgoodaveragebelow

averagepoor,

alwaysoftenoccasionallyrarelynever,

and

so

on.

There is no specific rule whether to use a two-points on a

scale

provide

an

opportunity

for

greater

sensitivity

of

measurement.
Rating scale may be either a graphic rating scale or an
itemized rating scale.
(i) The graphic rating scale is quite simple and is
commonly used in practice.

Under it the various

points are usually put along the line to form a

continuum and the rater indicates his rating by
simply making a mark (such as) at the appropriate
point on a line that runs from one extreme to the
other.

Scale-points with

brief descriptions may be

indicated along the line, their function being to assist

the rater in performing his job. The following is an
example of five-points graphic rating scale when we
wish to ascertain peoples liking or disliking any
product:
This type of scale has several limitations.

The

respondents may check at almost any position along

the line which fact may increase the difficulty of

122

analysis.
much

The meanings of the terms like very

and

some

what

may

depend

upon

respondents frame of reference so much so that the

statement might be challenged in terms of its
equivalency.

Several other rating scale variants

(e.g., boxes replacing line) may also be used.

(ii)The itemized rating scale (also known as numerical
scale) presents a series of statements from which a
respondent

selects

evaluation.

one

These

as

best

statements

reflecting
are

his

ordered

progressively in terms of more or less of some

property. An example of itemized scale can be given
to illustrate it.
Suppose we wish to inquire as to how well does a worker get
along with his fellow workers?

In such a situation we may

ask the respondent to select one, to express his opinion, from

the following.
(1)

He is almost always involved in some friction with

a fellow worker.

(2)

He is often at odds with one or more of his fellow

workers.

(3)

He sometimes gets involved in friction.

(4)

He infrequently becomes involved in friction with

others.

123

(5)

He almost never gets involved in friction with

fellow workers.

The chief merit of this type of scale is that it provides more

information and meaning to the rater, and thereby increases
reliability. This form is relatively difficult to develop and the
statements may not say exactly what the respondent would
like to express.
Rating scales have certain good points. The results obtained
from their use compare favorably with alternative methods.
They require less time, are interesting to use and have a wide
range of applications. Besides, they may also be used with a
large number of properties or variables.

But their value for

measurement purposes depends upon the assumption that

the respondents can and do make good judgments.

If the

respondents are not very careful while rating, errors may

occur.

Three types of errors are common viz., the error of

leniency, the error of central tendency and the error of hallow

effect. The error of leniency occurs when certain respondents
are either easy raters or hard raters.

When raters are

reluctant to give extreme judgments, the result is the error of

central tendency. The error of hallo effects or the systematic
bias occurs when the rater carries over a generalized
impression of the subject from one rating to another.

This

sort of error takes place when we conclude, for example, that

a particular report is good because we like its form or that
someone is intelligent because he agrees with us or has a
pleasing personality. In other words, hallo effect is likely to

124

appear when the rater is asked to rate many factors, on a

number of which he has no evidence for judgment

Ranking Scales:
Under ranking scales (or comparative scales) we make
relative judgments against other similar objects.

The

respondents under this method directly compare two or

more objects and make choices among them. There are
two generally used approaches of ranking scales viz.,
(a)

Method of paired comparisons under it the

respondent can express his attitude by making a choice

between two objects, say; between a new flavour of soft
drink and an established brand of drink.

But when

there are more than two stimuli to judge, the number of

judgments required in a paired comparison is given by
the formula:
N=

n (n-1)
2

where

N = number of judgements

n = number of stimuli or objects to be judged.

For instance, if there are ten suggestions for bargaining
proposals available to a workers union, there are 45
paired comparisons that can be made with them. When
N happens to a big figure, there is the risk of
respondents giving ill considered answers or they may
even refuse to answer. We can reduce the number of
comparisons per respondent either by presenting to

125

each one of them only a sample of stimuli or by

choosing a few objects which cover the range of
attractiveness

at

about

equal

intervals

and

then

comparing all other stimuli to these few standard

objects. Thus, paired-comparison data may be treated
in several ways. If there is substantial consistency, we
will find that if X is preferred to Y, and Y to Z, then X
will consistently be preferred to Z.

If this is true, we

may take the total number of preferences among the

comparisons as the score for that stimulus.
It should be remembered that paired comparison
provides ordinal data, but the same may be converted
into an interval scale by the method of the law of
Comparative Judgment developed by L.L. Thurston.
This technique involves the conversion of frequencies of
prefer4ences into a table of proportions, which are then
transformed into Z matrix by referring to the table of
area under the normal curve. J.P. Guilford in his book
Psychometric Methods has given a procedure, which is
relatively

easier.

The

method

is

known

as

the

Composite Standard Method and can be illustrated as

under:
Suppose there are four proposals, which some union
bargaining committee is considering.

The committee

wants to know how the union membership ranks these

proposals. For this purpose a sample of 1000 members
might express the views as shown in the following table.

126

(b) Method of rank order:

Under this method of

comparative scaling, the respondents are asked to rank

their choices. This method is easier and faster than the
method of paired comparisons stated above.

For

example, with 101items it takes 45 pair comparisons to

complete the task, whereas the method of rank order
simply requires ranking of 10 items only. The problem
of transitivity (such as A prefers to B,B to C, but C
prefers to A ) is also not there in case we adopt method
of rank order. Moreover, a complete ranking at times is
not needed in which case the respondents may be asked
to rank only their first, say, four choices while the
number of overall items involved may be more than
four, say, it may be 15 or 20 or more.

To secure a

simple ranking of all items involved we simply total rank

values received by each item.

There are methods

through which we can as well develop an interval scale

of these data.

But then there are limitations of this

method. The first one is that data obtained through this

method are ordinal data and hence rank ordering is an
ordinal scale with all is limitations. Then there may be
the problem of respondents becoming careless in
assigning ranks particularly when there are many
(usually more than 10 ) items.

127

Scale Construction Techniques

In social science studies, while measuring attitudes of the
people we generally follow the technique of preparing the
opinionnaires (an information form that attempts to measure
the

attitude

or

belief

of

an

individual

is

known

as

opinionnaires.) in such a way that the score of the individual

responses assigns him a place on a scale.
approach,

the

respondent

expresses

his

Under this

agreement

or

disagreement with a number of statements relevant to the

issue. While developing such statements, the researcher must
note the following two points.
1 That the statements must elicit responses which are
psychologically

related

to

the

attitude

being

measured.
2 That

the

statements

discriminate

not

attitude

also

but

need

merely
among

be

such

between

that

they

extremes

individuals

who

of

differ

slightly.
Researchers must as well be aware that inferring attitude
from what has been recorded in opinionnaires has several
limitations.

People may conceal their attitudes and express

socially acceptable opinions. They may not really know how

they feel about a social issue.

People may be unaware of

their attitude about an abstract situation; until confronted

with a real situation, they may be unable to predict their
reaction. Even behaviour itself is at times not a true indication

128

of attitude.

For instance, when politicians kiss babies, their

behaviour may not be a true expression of affection toward

infants. Thus, there is no sure method of measuring attitude;
we only try to measure the expressed opinion and then draw
inferences from it about peoples real feelings or attitudes.
With

all

these

sociologists

have

limitations

in

developed

techniques for the purpose.

mind,
several

psychologists
scale

and

construction

The researcher should know

these techniques so as to develop an appropriate scale for his

own study.

Some of the important approaches, along with

the corresponding scales developed under each approach to

measure attitude are as follows:

Different scales for Measuring Attitudes of

People
Arbitrary Scales
Arbitrary scales are developed on ad hoc basis and are
designed largely through the researchers own subjective
selection

of

items.

The

researcher

first

collects

few

statements or items, which he believes are unambiguous and

appropriate to a given topic. Some of these are selected for
inclusion in the measuring instrument and then people are
asked to check in a list the statements with which they agree.
The chief merit of such scales is that they can be developed
very easily, quickly and with relatively less expense.

They

can also be designed to be highly specific and adequate.

129

Because of these benefits, such scales are widely used in

practice.
At the same time there are some limitations of these scales.
The most important one is that we do not have objective
evidence that such scales measure the concepts for which
they have been developed.

We have simply to rely on

researchers insight and competence.

Differential scales (or Thurston-type Scales)

The name of L. L. Thurston is associated with differential
scales which have been developed using consensus scale
approach. Under such an approach the selection of items is
made by a panel of judges who evaluate the items in terms of
whether they are relevant to the topic area and unambiguous
in implication. The detailed procedure is as under:
(a)

The

researcher

gathers

large

number

of

statements, usually twenty or more, that express

various points of view toward a group, institution,
idea, or practice (i.e., statements belonging to the
topic area).
(b)

These statements are then submitted to a panel of

judges, each of whom arranges them in eleven
groups or piles ranging from one extreme to another
in position. Each of the judges is requested to place
generally in the first pile the statements which he
thinks are most unfavorable to the issue, in the
second pile to place those statements which he

130

thinks are next most unfavorable and he goes on

doing so in this manner till in the eleventh pile he
puts the statements which he considers to be the
most favorable
(c)

This sorting by each judge yields a composite

position for each of the items.

In case of market

disagreement between the judges in assigning a

position to an item, that item is discarded.
(d)

For items that are retained, each is given its median

scale value between one and eleven as established
by the panel. In other words, the scale value of any
one statement is computed as the median position
to which it is assigned by the group of judges.

(e)

A final selection of statements is then made. For this

purpose a sample of statements, whose median
scores are spread evenly from one extreme to the
other

is

taken.

The

statements

so

selected,

constitute the final scale to be administered to

respondents. The position of each statement on the
scale is the same as determined by the judges.
After developing the scale as stated above, the respondents
are asked during the administration of the scale to check the
statements with which they agree. The median value of the
statements that they check is worked out and this established
their score or quantifiers their opinion. It may be noted that
in the actual instrument the statements are arranged in

131

random order of scale value. If the values are valid and if the
opinionnaire deals with only one attitude dimension, the
typical respondent will choose one or several continuous items
(in terms of scale values) to reflect his views.

However, at

times divergence may occur when a statement appears to tap

a different attitude dimensions.
The Thurston method has been widely used for developing
differential scales which are utilized to measure attitudes
towards varied issues like war, religion, etc. Such scales are
considered most appropriate and reliable when used for
measuring a single attitude.

But an important deterrent to

their use is the cost and effort required to develop them.

Another weakness of such scales is that the values assigned
to various statements by the judges may reflect their own
attitudes. The method is not completely objective; it involves
ultimately subjective decision process. Critics of this method
also

opine

that

some

other

scale

designs

give

more

information about the respondents attitude in comparison to

differential scales.

Summated Scales ( or Likert-type Scales )

Summated scales (or likert-type scales ) are developed by
utilizing the item analysis approach wherein a particular item
is evaluated on the basis of how well it discriminates between
those persons whose total score is high and those whose
score is low. Those items or statements that best meet this
sort of discrimination test are included in the final instrument.

132

Thus, summated scales consist of a number of statements,

which express either a favourable or unfavourable attitude
towards the given object to which the respondent is asked to
react.

The

respondent

indicates

his

agreement

disagreement with each statement in the instrument.

response

is

given

numerical

score,

or

Each

indicating

its

favourableness or unfavourableness , and the scores are

totaled to measure the respondents attitude. In other words,
the overall score represents the respondents attitude.

In

other words, the overall score represents the respondents

position on the continuum of favourable-unfavourableness
towards an issue.
Most frequently used summated scales in the study of social
attitudes follow the pattern devised by likert. For this reason
they are often referred to as Likert-type scales.

In a Likert

scale, the respondent is asked to respond to each of the

statements in terms of several degrees, usually five degrees
(but at times 3 or 7 may also be used ) of agreement or
disagreement.

For example, when asked to express opinion

whether one considers his job quite pleasant, the respondent

may respond in any one of the following ways: (i) strongly
agree, (ii) agree (iii) undecided, (iv) disagree, (v) strongly
disagree.
We find that these five points constitute the scale.

At one

extreme of the scale there is strong agreement with the given

statement and at the other, strong disagreement, and

133

between them lie intermediate points. We may illustrate this

as under:
Each point on the scale carries a score. Response indicating
the least favourable degree of job satisfaction is given the
least score (say 1) and the most favourable is give en the
highest score ( say 5). These scorevalues are normally not
printed on the instrument but are shown here just to indicate
the scoring pattern.

The Liker scaling technique, thus,

assigns a scale value to each of the five responses. The same

thing is done in respect of each and every statement in the
instrument. This way the instrument yields a total score for
each respondent, which would then measure the respondents
favorableness toward the given point of view.

If the

instrument consists of, say 30 statements, the following score

values would be revealing.

Procedure:The procedure for developing a Liker-type scale is

as follows:
(i)

As a first step, the researcher collects a large number

of statements whichare relevant to the attitude being
studied and each of the statements expresses definite
favourableness or unfavourableness to a particular
point of view or the attitude and that the number of
favourable

and

unfavourable

statements

is

approximately equal.
(ii) After the statements have been gathered, a trial test
should be administered to a number o subjects.

134

In

other words, a small group of people, from those who

are going to be studied finally, are asked to indicate
their response to each statement by checking one of
the categories of agreements or disagreements using a
five point scale as stated above.
(iii) The response to various statements ar scored in such
a

way

that

response

indicative

of

the

most

favourable attitude is given the highest score of 5 and

that with the most unfavourable attitude is given the
lowest score, say, of 1.
(iv) Then

the total score of each respondent is obtained

by adding his scores that he received for separate

statements.
(v) The next step is to array these total scores and find
out those statements which have a high discriminatory
power.

For this purpose, the researcher may select

some part of the highest and the lowest total scores,

say the top 25 percent.

These two extreme groups

are interpreted to represent the most favourable and

the least favourable attitudes and are used as criterion
groups by which to evaluate individual statements.
This way we determine which statements consistently
correlate with low favourability and which with high
favourability.

135

(vi)

Only those statements that correlate with the total

test should be retained in the final instrument and all
others must be discarded from it.

Advantages: The Likert-type scale has several advantages.

Mention may be made of the important ones.
(a)

It is relatively easy to construct the Likert-type scale

in comparison to Thurstone-type scale because likerttype scale can be performed without a panel of judges.

(b)

Likert-type scale is considered more reliable because

under it respondents answer each statement included
in the instrument.

As such it also provides more

information and data than does the Thurstone-type

scale.
(c)

Each statement, included in the Likert-type scale, is

given an empirical test for discriminating ability and as
such, unlike Thurstone-type scale, the Likert-type
scale permits the use of statements that are not
manifestly related (to have a direct relationship) to the
attitude being studied.

(d)

Likert-type scale can easily be used in respondentcentred and stimulus-centred studies i.e., through it
we can study how responses differ between people
and how respons3es differ between stimuli.

(e)

Likert-type scale takes much less time to construct, it

is frequently used by the students of opinion research.

136

Moreover, it has been reported in various research

studies that there is high degree of correlation
between Likert-type scale and thurstone-type scale.
Limitations: There are several limitations of the Likert-type
scale as well. One important limitation is that, with this scale,
we can simply examine whether respondents are more or less
favourable to a topic, but we cannot tell how much more or
less they are.

There is no basis for belief that the five

positions indicated on the scale are equally spaced.

The

interval between strongly agree and agree, may not be

equal to the interval between agree and undecided. This
means that likert scale does not rise to a stature more than
that of an ordinal scale, whereas the designers of Thurston
scale claim the Thurston scale to be an interval scale. One
further disadvantage is that often the total score of an
individual respondent has little clear meaning since a given
total score can be secured by a variety of answer patterns. It
is unlikely that the respondent can validly react to a short
statement

on a printed form in the absence of real-life

qualifying situations.

Moreover, there remains a possibility

that people may answer according to what they think they

should feel rather than how they do feel.

This particular

weakness of the Liekrt-type scale is met by using a

cumulative scale which we shall take up later in this chapter.
In spite of all the limitations, the Likert-type summated scales
are regarded as the most useful in a situation wherein it is
possible to compare the respondents score with a distribution

137

of scores from some well-defined group.

They are equally

useful when we are concerned with a programme of change or

improvement in which case we can use the scales to measure
attitudes before and after the programme
Of change or improvement in order to assess whether our
efforts have had the desired effects.. We can as well correlate
scores on the scale to other measures without any concern for
the absolute value of what is favourable and what is
unfavourable.

All this accounts for the popularity of Likert-

type scales in social studies relating to measuring of attitudes.

Cumulative

Scales:

Cumulative

scales

or

Louis

Guttmans scalogram analysis, like other scales, consist of

series of statements to which a respondent expresses his
agreement or disagreement. The special feature of this type
of scale is that statements in it form a cumulative series.
This, in other words, means that the statements are related to
one another in such a way that an individual, who replies
favourably to say item No.3, also replies favourably to items
No.2 and 1, and one who replies favourably to item No.4 also
replies favourably to items No. 3, 2 and 1, and so on. This
being so an individual whose attitude is at a certain point in a
cumulative scale will answer favourably all the items on one
side of this point, and answers unfavorably all the items on
the other side of this point. The Individuals score is worked
out by counting the number of points concerning the number
of statements he answers favourably. If one knows this total

138

score, one can estimate as to how a respondent has answered

individual statements constituting cumulative scales.
Procedure: The procedure for developing a scalogram can be
outlined as under:
(a)

The universe of content must be defined first of all.

In other words, we must lay down in clear terms the
issue we want to deal with in our study.

(b)

The next step is to develop a number of items

relating the issue and to eliminate by inspection the
items that are ambiguous, irrelevant or those that
happen to be too extreme items.

(c)The third step consists in pre-testing the items to

determine whether the issue at hand is scalable.
(The pretest, as suggested by Guttman, should
include 12 or more items, while the final scale may
have only 4 to 6 items.

Similarly, the number of

respondents in a pretest may be small, say 20 or 25

but

final

scale

should

involve

relatively

more

respondents, say100 or more).

In a pretest the respondents are asked to record their
opinions on all selected items using a Likert-type 5-point
scale, ranging from strongly agree to strongly disagree.
The strongest favourable response is scored as 5, whereas the
strongest unfavourable response as 1.

the total score can

thus range, if there are 15 items, in all, from 75 for most

favourable to 15 for the least favourable.

139

Respondent opinionnaires are then arrayed according to total

score for analysis and evaluation. If the responses of an item
form a cumulative scale, its response category scores should
decrease in an orderly fashion as indicated in the above table.
Failure to show the said decreasing pattern means that there
is overlapping which shows that the item concerned is not a
good cumulative scale item i.e., the item has more than one
meaning. Sometimes the overlapping in category responses
can be reduced by combining categories. After analyzing the
pretest results, a few items, say 5 items, may be chosen.
The next step is again to total the scores for the various
opinionnaires, and to rearray them to reflect any shift in
order, resulting from reducing the items, say, from 15 in
pretest to, say, 5 for the final scale.

140

141

METHODS

OF

D ATA COLLECTION

In any research process broadly two types of data are

collected. They are :

1.

PRIMARY DATA:
Those data, which are collected at first hand, either by

the researcher or by the researcher or by someone else

especially for the purpose of the study are known as primary
data. Any data, which have been gathered earlier for some
other purpose, are secondary data in the hands of the
researcher.
Thus the primary data collected by one person may
become the secondary data for another for example the
demographic statistics collected every ten years are the
primary data with the Registrar General of India but the same
statistics used by anyone else would be secondary data with
that individual. There are certain distinct advantages as also
the limitations of using secondary data. As a researcher, one
should be fully aware of both the advantages and limitations.

2.

SOURCES

OF

SECONDARY DATA:

Secondary data can be obtained internally i.e. within the

firm or externally i.e. from one or more outside agencies.
Internal secondary data are those data, which are generated
within the firm. These include the financial accounts and sales
and other records maintained by the firm. The financial data

142

originated from the accounting system through extremely

useful to financial decision makers may not be very helpful to
the marketing management. It may be desirable to reclassify
such data into a form suitable for producing marketing data.
The external secondary data do not originate in the firm and
are obtained from outside sources.

SYNDICATED SERVICES:
These are provided by certain organizations which
collect and tabulate marketing information on a containing
basis. Syndicated services are normally designed to suit the
requirements of many individuals or firms. Such services are
particularly useful in the spheres of TV viewing magazine
readership and the movement of consumer goods through
retail outlets. Organizations providing syndicated services
may also engage themselves in other types of research work
for their clients. In India some agencies are engaged in
syndicated services a brief discussion of which are given
below;
1.

Operation Research Group (ORG): It was the first to

introduce the concept of syndicated research in India on
a continuing basis ORG carries out periodic validation of
data generated through the following studies with the
active participation of its clients
Retail Audit
Pharmaceutical Audit
Consumer Products Audit

143

 Prescription Audit
Advertisement Audit
2.

Indian Market Research Bureau (IMRB): It has

worked in the following areas

Media Research

National Readership Survey

Panel

Research

Perhaps

the

most

interactive and multi-focused it covers divers

diverse spheres of activity.
3.

The Cold Beverage Barometer (CBB) : It provides

information which helps in both strategic as well as
tactical market planning and acts as a database for
a)

Identifying new marketing opportunities

b)

Market segmentations

c)

Monitoring

the

performance

of

new

product

launches
d)

Measuring competitive strengths and weaknesses

EVALUATION

OF

SECONDARY DATA:

The use of secondary data by the marketing researcher

imposes an implicit responsibility on him that he has satisfied
himself as to their accuracy and reliability. In view of this he
has to be extremely careful when deciding to use any
secondary data. To help him take a decision, he has to seek
answers to such questions as: what sample design was used

144

for collecting data? What questionnaire was used? what was

the extent of non-response and how was this problem handled
by the organization? These are some of the questions, which
are pertinent while deciding the reliability of secondary data.
As information on some of these questions is not readily
available, the researcher may have to spend quit some time
to get it. In the final analysis, it is the reputation of the
organization collecting and publishing such data and its
regularity in their publication that would carry more weight
than anything else.
The approach comprises eight steps which are grouped into
three categories namely
1.

Applicability to the project objectives

2.

Cost of acquisition

3.

Accuracy of data

Under each of these categories answers to specific questions

are sought. Thus some of the basic questions are:
a)

Do the data apply to the population of interest?

b)

Do they apply to the time period of interest?

c)

Can the units and classifications presented

apply?

COLLECTION

OF

PRIMARY DATA:

As mentioned the research should first of all explore the

secondary data from various sources and examine the

145

possibility of their use for his study. In several cases he may

find the data inadequate or unusable and therefore he may
realize the need for collecting first hand information on any
happening or event he either ask somebody who knows about
it or he observes himself or he does both. Thus the two main
methods by which primary data may be collected are
observation and communication.

OBSERVATION:
This is one of the methods of collecting data. It is used to get
both past and current information for example instead of
asking respondents about their current behaviors; one may
observe the results of such behaviour. In a way secondary
data reflects the results of the behaviour. In a way secondary
data reflects the results of the behaviour of people as also of
past occurrences.
In marketing research the observational method is not used
frequently. All the same as it is especially in marketing
experimentation, a brief discussion is provided here. Some of
the examples indicating the uses of observation are given
below:
1.

One of the factors influencing the sale of a branded

product is how readily it is kept in stock. An
interested manufacturer may send some observers to
a sample of stores to find out how frequently the
product is out of stock. Likewise, sales are also
influenced by its display position in a store. A

146

prominently displayed product will receive greater

attention of the people visiting the store as against
another product displayed in an obscure corner. Here
to a manufacturer can ascertain from observers what
sort of display his product is getting in selected
stores and with what results.
2.

In order to ascertain what prices competitors charge,

a manufacturer may depute some observers to go
round the stores.

3.

Today certain mechanical devices are used for

observation. For example the eye camera the pupilmeter camera and the motion picture camera. A
device knows as the audiometer is attached to radio
sets for recording automatically the station to which
the radio set is turned. This is supposed to give an
idea of the size of audience watching a particular
television programme can be ascertained through
mechanical devices, which enable the manufacturer,
who has sponsored the programme analyze whether
it has been viewed by a sizeable number or not.
Furthermore he can ascertain the reaction of those
who actual viewed the programme by interviewing a
sample of them. Thus the observation method in
conjunction

with

interviewing

provides very useful information.

147

the

respondents

METHODS

OF

OBSERVATION:

There are several methods of observation of which any one or

a combination of some of them can be used by the observer.
Thus there are structured or unstructured methods disguised
or undisguised methods or observations made in a natural
setting or laboratory setting direct-indirect observation, or
human-mechanical observation. These are briefly discussed
below:

1.

STRUCTURED-UNSTRUCTURED OBSERVATION:
Structured observation is used when the research

problem has been formulated precisely and the observers

have been told specifically what is to be observed. They may
be

given

simple

form

to

record

their

observations.

Unstructured observation implies that observers are free to

observer what ever they think is relevant and important.
While structured observations are free from subjective bias,
unstructured observations are subject to this limitation. The
extent of the bias may very to the extent an observation is
unstructured.

2.

DISGUISED- UNDISGUISED OBSERVATION:

In the case of disguised observation the subjects do not

know that they are being observed. In some cases the

observer may make disguised observation by posing as one of
the

shoppers

who

are

being

observed.

This

type

of

observation is often preferred because it is feared that people

148

may behave differently when they know they are being

observed. It may be difficult to completely disguise an
observation through this apart it poses an ethical question of
its desirability when those who are being observed are kept in
the dark.

3.

OBSERVATION

UNDER

NATURAL

SETTING-

LABORATORY SETTING:
Another way to classify observation is on the basis of
their setting, i.e. natural or laboratory. Observations in field
studies are in their natural setting and are therefore,
undertaken in extremely realistic conditions. Sometimes an
experimental manipulation may be introduced in a field study.
Observation in a laboratory setting on the other hand enables
the observer to control extraneous variables, which influence
the behaviour of people. Observational studies in Laboratory
setting have certain advantages over field studies. They
enable the collection of data promptly and economically and in
addition permit the use of more objective measurements.

4.

DIRECT-INDIRECT OBSERVATION:
In the case of direct observation the event or the

behaviour of a person is observed as it occurs. In contrast

indirect

observation

behaviour itself is
observed.

An

implies

that

some

not observed rather

observer

engaged

in

record

of

its effects

indirect

past
are

observation

generally looks for physical traces of behaviour or occurrence

of an event. Suppose he is interested in knowing about the

149

liquor bottles in the garbage. Similarly the observer may seek

the permission of the housewife to see the pantry. He may
carry out a pantry audit to ascertain the consumption of
certain types of products. It may be noted that the success of
an indirect observation largely depends on how best the
observer is able to identify physical traces of the problem
under study. Direct observation is far more common than
indirect observation.

5.

HUMAN-MECHANICAL OBSERVATION:
Another way of classifying observation is whether they

are made manually or by machines. Most of the studies in

marketing research are based on human observation wherein
trained observers are required to observe and faithfully record
their observations. In some cases mechanical devices such as
eye cameras and audiometers are used for observation. Once
of the major advantages of electrical / mechanical devices is
that their recordings are free from subjective bias. As against
this advantage such observations may be less valid than
human observations. This is because the observers power of
integration can lead to a more valid evaluation of the
observation.

MANAGING

THE

FIELD WORK :

Good management can play a large role in the success (or

failure) surveys. The greatest demands on management are
found in personal interviewing studies, where distance and
the number of personnel employed magnify the possibilities of

150

error and inefficiency. Therefore, we will speak in terms of

those studies although one notices that many ideas, which are
applicable to telephone and mail communication in the field.

Several phases of field work are :

1.

Pre-testing

2.

Simplifying procedures

3.

Interviewer recruitment and selection

4.

Instructing field workers

5.

Supervision

6.

Control

Pre-testing of every important project should be a standard

procedure. Minor and repetitive projects may be conducted
without pretests or with a quick and dirty testing

of a

questionnaire on some convenient subjects. An adequate

pretest is much more than that for it applies the complete
methods of data collection to a simple of persons similar to
those specified for the full study. Pretests may reveal to those
directing the gathering of primary data various planning
errors that otherwise would have gone unnoticed. Errors
frequently result from what the interviewer is requested to do
rather than from mistakes on the part of interviewer or the

151

person interviewed. Obscure intent and wrong order of

questions awkward expressions leading questions and weak
stimulation of response are among many inadequacies that
may lie in the questionnaire. Sampling plans may be
inappropriate to field conditions instructions may be vague
and other deficiencies may exist that are unrecognized. They
should come to light when the interviewers who typify those
who will do the field work conduct a thorough pre-testing of
the procedures and questionnaire.

INTERVIEWER RECRUITMENT

AND

The

in

data-collection

process

SELECTION :

which

interviewers

are

entrusted to gather the data is a crucial stage in the research

process. The research project will be no better than the data
gathered in the field by the interviewers. Interviewer error is
of

significant

compromised

concern.
by

Data

incurrent

quality
recording

can
of

be

severely

responses,

inappropriate probing skipping questions or stating a question

in such a way that it leads or unjustly influences a
respondents answer. As a result interviewer recruitment
remains a key to controlling interviewer error. Therefore it is
extremely important that the research administrator selet the
most capable individuals to administer the data collection
instrument. The characteristics of a good interviewer have yet
to be defined for job requirements for different types of
research situations may vary. However, based on their

152

experience with many surveys and interviewers project

administrators have developed screening factors as part of
their

interviewer

selection

process.

Some

of

the

characteristics taken into consideration include the following:

1.

EDUCATION:
Interviewers must have reasonably good reading and
writing skills . A majority of field service organization
require a high school education and many now require
or prefer Interviewers to have some college experience.

2.

GENDER:
In most cases woman are recruited for Interviewing
positions. Men are successful as interviewers, but their
participation is not as great as that woman. One
explanation for this is that Interviewing is an occupation
that often calls for part-time or sporadic work and that
seems to satisfy the preference of many woman.

3.

VOICE QUALITY:
The voice of the Interviewer must be such that it is free
of any heavy ascents harshness or features that could
be irritating or could make it difficult to understand or
listen to comfortable over a period of time to conduct
the interview.

153

4.

EXPERIENCE:
An advantage of hiring experienced Interviewers is that
they are likely to do a better job : at following
instructions obtaining respondent cooperation, being
able to record accurately and guiding respondents
through the interview in a smooth and flowing manner.
Therefore additional training will increase their skills
making them a more effective interviewer. However
many research organizations prefer Interviewers who
have had no previous training or experience for they
want to train their Interviewers to use their own
procedures and standards.

5.

ETHNICITY:
For most surveys topics a research should send the
most

capable

However,

Interviewer,

regardless

of

ethnicity.

if the subject matter directly bears on

ethnicity or any demographic characteristic then the

research should consider the interaction of the subject
matter and the characteristics of the Interviewer and
respondent. If the interaction is salient to the responses
to be given the researcher should consider some kind of
matching of the interviewer and the respondent.

154

THERE ARE FOUR

INTERVIEWERS
1.

BASIC

METHODS

TO

TEACH

Written materials are used in two ways : 1) It is wise

to

provide

complete

written

description

of

interviewer procedures. This is usually found in a

general interviewer manual. In addition for each
particular research project there should be a project
manual.

There

is

an

overwhelming

amount

of

material and information to learn during training.

Having the procedures in a written form enables the
interviewers to review the material when necessary.
It also enables the designer of the training to present
the material in a clear and accurate way by using the
written word.
2.

Lectures and demonstrators offer the trainees the

opportunity to ask questions on procedures that are
not clear or they do not understand. Most trainers
have found that demonstrating and interviewers a
feel of how to administer an interview.

3.

Role-playing

is

becoming

as

integral

part

of

interviewer training programs. The trains take turn

playing the interviewer and the respondent, which
gives them the opportunity to handle different
interview situations set by the trainer. For example
those who play the respondent may be asked by the
trainer to be difficult of complaint in their response
patterns. This gives the interviewer trainee a chance

155

to practice persuasion and handling un-anticipative

questions during a training session the trainer would
stop the interview periodically to discuss the situation
with the interviewer and answer any questions that
might arise at that point.
4.

Field practice is a phase designed to acquaint

interviewers

with

the

actual

procedures

from

knocking on the door to leaving the household after

the completed interview. This method allows the
supervisor to accompany the trainee as an observer
in which he or she can give immediate evaluation.

Training should be given personally to the firmed staff

whenever possible. Mailed instructions commonly are the only
means of training interviewers in many national surveys and
this may be the only practicable medium. Where there is
nothing unusual in the interviewing techniques and the
interviewers are experienced in similar work the lack of
personnel training may be no appreciable determent.
The amount of training required will very from project to
project. Some companies spend several days educating
interviewer trainees; other spend a few hours. It is not
possible to set a clear standard of the appropriate amount of
time required to train an interviewer. However the length of
most formal training would not usually be les than two days
or more than five. There is evidence that field interviewers

156

trained for less than a day produce more survey errors than
do those trained for a longer period of time.
It is also recommended that no training session last longer
than two-and one half to three hours. If session go beyond
this time frame fatigue will set in summary, training sessions
should cover every

aspect of the work and give the

interviewer ample understanding of the surveys objectives

and how to meet contingencies.

SUPERVISION:
Interviewers should be under a field supervisor whose duties
would include
1)

Training assisting and overseeing

2)

Mapping and perhaps prelisting address for the

specific sample selection in the field

3)

Hiring local interviewing help when distant from the

central office

4)

Editing

the

questionnaires

turned

in

before

forwarding them to the central office.

The

supervisor

interviewers

should

working

in

maintain

regular

dispersed

locations

contact
and

with
handle

correspondence and reports to the home office. To be familiar

with interviewers current problems the supervisor should also
do some interviewing. However the key to good supervision is
acquiring the needed information to evaluate an interviewers

157

performance. The interviewer can be evaluated on several

factors. The more important ones are cost response rate
quality of data and quality of data and quality of interviewing.

COSTS:

Supervising costs consist of in formation about :

(i) how time is spent broken down into categories such as

actual interviewing , travel and administrative time, (ii)
Productivity, usually measured by completed interviews (iii)
Mileage charges.

RESPONSE RATES:

It is important to monitor response

rate on a timely basis for if the supervisor is not notified of a

refusal within a reasonable period of time, there will be no
chance for a corrective action. Therefore periodic response
reports to supervisors are needed to monitor ongoing rates of
refusal. This report will alert the supervisor to any refusal
problems
interviewer
supervisor

encountered
with
can

an
listen

by

the

inordinate
to

the

interviewer.

To

number

refusals

of

introduction

used

help
by

an
the
the

interviewer and provide immediate feedback. For the field

interviews the supervisor has two methods in monitoring this
problem: (I) Accompanying the interviewer and being an
observer or (ii) Listening to the interviewer give a sample
introduction. For the telephone interview, the supervisor can
monitor the telephone conversation itself. In either case the
supervisor can offer helpful hints to correct the situation once
he or she knows that it exists.

158

QUALITY

OF

DATA:

The

supervisor

should

sample

completed questionnaires from each of the interviewers to

assess the quality of the data. Some factors to look for as
indications of the quality are whether (1) the recorded data
are legible (2) the skip instructions were appropriately
followed (3) the interviewer is recording answer verbatim as
compared to summarizing or paraphrasing the respondent
and (4) the answers recorded are complete enough to permit
adequate coding of the data.

QUALITY
about

OF

the

INTERVIEWING:

way

the

To

interviewer

obtain

obtained

information
the

data

the

supervisor must directly observe the interviewing process.

The

supervisor

must

directly

observe

the

interviewing

process. The supervisor should gather information on such

things as the appropriateness of the interviewers introduction,
the preciseness with which they are asking the questions their
ability to probe without directing the respondent to a
particular answer and the general approach taken by the
interviewer in handling the many interpersonal aspects of an
interview situation. For the field study, the supervisor must be
able to monitor the interviewer on location. This can be
accomplished in two ways. The supervisor can accompany the
interviewer and directly observer the performance or the
supervisor can request that the interview be tape recorded for
later evaluation.

VALIDATION : It refers to verifying that the interviews are

submitting authentic interviews of acceptable quality. When

159

there is no field supervision the home office has primary

responsibility in checking the field work. This check has three
aspects : (1) determining that the instructions were studied
and

understood,

(2)

determining

whether

the

reported

interviews are genuine and (3) appraising the quality of the

interviewing and reporting. Formerly cheating was widespread
among interviewers but this type of fraud has been greatly
reduced partially through the checks that research agencies
have developed as deterrents,. One check consists of calling
persons who were identified as interviewees on the returns to
acquire whether the interviewer actually did call. This check is
more accurate when the workers have left cards to identify
themselves.
There has been serious abuse on the part of persons posing
as interviewers to gain sales leads or for more deplorable
purposes, so such identification is important.
Another type of check is to have interviewers give the persons
called upon a postcard on which to indicate that the call was
made. Cheating may also be revealed by a close scrutiny of
returned interviews. It is not easy to take interviews so that
they resemble the genuine responses and peculiar patterns in
particular interviewers returns may spotlight cheating.
Evaluation of the quality of interview reporting is fully as
important . Interviewers should be told in advance that their
work is to be evaluated and graded.

160

ESSENTIAL PARAMETERS OF A GOOD QUESTIONNAIRE:

Following

elements

in

balanced

manner

make

good

questionnaire:
The questions must be relevant to subject matter and
the set of the questions must able to cover the topic of
research.
The questions should not be indicative specific answers
i.e. the biasness to be avoided.
Lengthy & difficulty questions would loose customer
attention and hence short and easy questions to be
posed.
Each and every question should try to create interest in
the minds and respondents should feel the importance
of questions asked and then he is likely to give answers
seriously.

161

Table - 1
Revises the classification of the respondents based in
Income Per Month :
Monthly Income
in Rs.

No. of
Respondents

% percentage

Below 3,000/-

Below 5000/-

35

34

Below 10,000/-

50

50

More
10000/-

10

10

100

100

than

Total

50
50
45

35

40
35
30
25
20

10

15

10
5
0

Below 3,000/-

Below 5000/-

Below 10,000/-

Inference :

162

More than 10000/-

From the above table we find that % of the responds on

below 3000/- is6%, of the response in below 5000/- is
50% of the response 10000/- is 10%.

Table - 2
No. of
Respondents

% percentage

From TV

39

39

From Newspaper
/ Print Media

16

16

From Friend

33

33

100

100

Response

Any other
Total

Any other
8%
From TV
41%
From Friend
34%
From New spaper /
Print Media
17%

Inference :

163

From the above table we conclude

that 30% of the

people are watching the advertisement of TVS Suzuki

Motorcycle on the TV, 39% from News paper/ Print Media
16%, from friends, 33 %, another is 8%.

Table - 3
No. of
Respondents

% percentage

YES

60

60

NO

40

40

100

100

Response

Total
Inference :

From the above table we conclude that 60% of the

yes
no

people watch the advertisement and 40% of people

dont watch the advertisement.

164

Table - 4
Sources of advertisement of TVS Suzuki Motorcycle
No. of
Respondents

% percentage

TV

32

32

Newspaper

18

18

Magazine

15

15

Hoarding /
Banners

26

26

Any other

100

100

Response

Total
Inference :

From the above table we conclude that the sources

advertisement on the TV is 32%, Magazine is 15%,News
paper is 18% Hoarding /Banner is 26% & other is 9%.
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0

rd
i

ng
/B

165

O
th
er

an
ne
r

pe
r
Pa
Ho
a

az
in
e
M
ag

TV

Series1

Table - 5
Effectiveness of Advertising of TVS Suzuki Motorcycle
No. of
Respondents

% percentage

Highly

52

52

Effective

38

38

Poor

Ineffective

100

100

Effectiveness

Total

Inference :
From the above table we conclude that the sources

60
50
40
30

Series1

20
10
0
Highly

Effective

Poor

Ineffective

advertisement on the TV is 32%, Magazine is 15%,News

paper is 18% Hoarding /Banner is 26% & other is 9%.

166

Table - 6
Impact of the advertisement of TVS Suzuki Motorcycle on
its sales
Impact of
Advertisement

No. of
Respondents

% percentage

YES

70

70

NO

30

30

100

100

Total
Inference :

From the above table we conclude that Impact of

Advertisement

on its sales positive thinking of people

is 70% and Negative thinking of people is 30%.

NO
30%

YES
70%

167

Table - 7
Method

of

publishing

as

adopted

by

TVS

Suzuki

Motorcycle
Publishing
Method

No. of
Respondents

% percentage

YES

40

40

NO

60

60

100

100

Total

70
60

60
50
40

40
Series1

30
20
10
0
Yes

No

168

Table - 8
Attribute behind the selling of TVS Suzuki Motorcycle :
Attribute TVS
Suzuki
Motorcycle

No. of
Respondents

% percentage

Looks

24

24

Style

51

51

Varity

10

10

Other

Total

100

100

Brand Name

Inference :
From the above table we get that the attribute behind the
selling of TVS Suzuki Motorcycle 24% selling for Looks, 51
selling for Style, 7% selling for Varity, 10 selling for Brand
name & 3% selling for any other reason .
60

51

50
40
30

Series1

24

20

10

10

0
Looks

Style

Varity

169

Brand
Name

Other

Table - 9
Plus point of TVS Suzuki Motorcycle on selling
No. of
Respondents
1
23

Plus Point
Millage
Power
Safety & Power
break
Style
Other
Total

% percentage
1
23

52

52

20
4
100

20
4
100

Inference :
From the above table we get that the Plus point of TVS Suzuki
Motorcycle 1% is millage, 23% in Power, 52% in Safety &
power break, 20% Style & 4% in others.

60
52
50
40
30

Series1

23

20

20
10

1
0
Millage

Power

Safety &
Breake

170

Style

Other

Table - 10
After the sale service of TVS Suzuki Motorcycle
After Sale
Service

No. of
Respondents

% percentage

Very
Satisfactory

32

32

Satisfactory

43

43

Reasonable

20

20

100

100

Poor
Total

50
45
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0

43
32

171

or
Po

Re
as
on
ab
le

ry
tis
fa
ct
o
Sa

at
is

fa
c

to
ry

Ve

ry
s

Series1

20

Table - 11
Mode of Payment is most suitable for a two wheeler ?
No. of
Respondents

% percentage

Direct

62

62

Indirect

38

38

100

100

Mode of Payment

Total
Inference :

From the above table we get that the mode of payment is

most suitable for a two wheeler is 62% is direct payment
& 38% is indirect payment.

38
Direct
Indirect
62

172

Table - 12
Balance between the advertisement and the actual
performance.
No. of
Respondents

% percentage

Maximum

48

48

Minimum

42

42

No

10

10

100

100

Balance

Total
Inference :

From the above table we get that the balance between the
advertisement

and

the

actual

performance

is

48%

maximum , 42% of minimum & 10% of Bo balance.

10

48
42

173

Maximum
Minimum
No Balance

of

Table : 13

How far the Customers are rating of their vehicle:

Parameter

Total

Rank

Power

70

120

125

20

14.60

10th

Pick up

84

138

130

32

18

15.78

9th

Style

84

90

140

40

15

14.07

12th

Driving
Comfort

56

120

75

60

14.25

11th

Fuel
Economy

175

150

60

24

45

16.85

5th

Durability

182

120

75

28

30

17.03

4th

Reliability

140

132

60

40

27

15.96

8th

Brand name

210

150

100

12

17.75

2nd

Cheaper
Spare parts

140

150

125

80

12

16.64

6th

Price

126

72

150

40

30

16

7th

Company
name

210

192

50

48

15

18.96

1st

Maintenance

175

120

125

32

17.6

3rd

Suspension

14

120

60

40

45

11.64

13th

174

Table : 14
Customers are given reasons about comfort as compared to
Bike / Scooter:
Responses

No of
Respondents

Percentage

Light Vehicle

32

32

Good Pick up

30

30

Less Maintenance

23

23

Cheaper Spare
parts

No Idea

10

10

100

100

Total
Inference:

From the above table we find that 32% of respondents

are saying their vehicle is lighter than bike / scooter,
30% of respondents are saying their vehicle is having
good pick up, 23% of respondents are saying their
vehicle is having less maintenance, 5% respondents are
saying their vehicle is having cheaper spare parts, 10%
respondents are saying their vehicle is having no idea .

175

ck
up

176

No

id

ea

nt
en
he
an
ap
ce
er
sp
ar
e
pa
rts

m
ai

pi

eh
ic
le
r

32

Le
ss

ht
V

G
oo

Li
g

35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
30
23
10

5
Series1

Table : 15
Customers are the discomfort reasons as compared to Bike /
Scooter:
Responses

No of
Respondents

Percentage

More fuel
consumption

25

25

No stepin facility

35

35

Less durability

12

12

Less Reliability

No Idea

25

25

100

100

Total

Inference:
from the above table we find that 25% of respondents
are saying their vehicle is more fule than bike / scooter,
35% of respondents are saying their vehicle is having no
stepin facility, 12% of respondents are saying their
vehicle is having less durability, 3% respondents are
saying their vehicle is having less reliability, 25%
respondents are saying their vehicle is having no idea .

177

Le
ss

Le
ss

St
ep
in

fu
el

No

Id
ea

re
lia
bi
lity

du
ra
bi
lity

No

M
or
e

40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
35

25
25

12
Series1

178

Table : 16
Customers are the interested to purchase the following
vehicle:
Responses
4s geared scooter
Ungeared scooter (2s & 4s)
Entery level bike
Executive level bike
Premium level bike
Step through
Moped
Total

No of
Respondents
5
21
31
10
2
10
21
100

Percentage
5
21
31
10
2
10
21
100

35
31
30

25
21

21

20

15

10

10

10

5
5
2

0
4s geared
scooter

Ungeared
Entery level bike Executive level
scooter (2s &
bike
4s)

179

Premiumlevel
bike

Step through

M oped

180

C ONCLUSION

After conducting detailed study found that consumers

think much before purchasing a product like bikes. There
are confused which brand he should choose, because
there is lot of brands in the market. In this competitive
market survival of any brand is possible, if the company
advertise their product in TV, newspaper, magazine,
hooding & banners regularly. When he want to purchase
before purchase he must remember that advertisement
and the plus point of that bike.

181

182

R ECOMMENDATION

Maximum two wheeler customers means step through ,

moped , geared scooter ungeared scooter entry level ,
executive level premium level bike are shifting towards
premium level bike and next to executive level bike. The
company should look upon their premium segment of bike
and try to come out with good bikes in premium segment of
bikes.
If we consider the student customer their first choice is good
looking of the bike and pickup as well. If any middle class
body is taken in our consideration, then he might prefer the
characteristics as good mileage cheaper spare parts and less
maintenance. But the upper class customers really prefer the
executive level and premium leave bike. I think the TVS
Suzuki Ltd. should take care of the middle class family,
because this class really will be a great consumer.
TVS Suzuki Ltd. has to increase the advertising expenses in
Orissa because it is very less as compare to HERO HONDA.
Maximum customer like Bajaj companys Pulsar, which is a
bike of premium segment. TVS Suzuki Ltd. company should
advertise to the earning member of the family. TVS Suzuki
Ltd. should study the advertisement strategy adopted by
leader and its other competitors. TVS Suzuki Ltd. company

183

should increase the advertisement for executive level bike for

increase his share in the market.

184

B IBLIOGRAPHY

Books:

1.

Marketing Management.

Kotler Philip

2.

Research Methodology

Kothari C.R.

3.

Production Management

Majumdar Ramanujam

in India PHI
4.

Foundation of Advertising S.A Chunnawal,.

theory and practice.

Websites:
http://www.tvssuzuki.com

185

186

QUESTIONNAIRE

Name & Address: __________________________________

________________________________________________
Tel. No: ____________ E-Mail ID (If any)________________
Your Income per month in Rupees :
I)
iv)

>3000
ii)
<10000

>5000

iii)

>10000

Please answer the question by putting ( ) mark

against appropriated boxes .
1.

Do you have TVS Suzuki Motorcycle ?

I) Yes (

2.

II) No (

How did you know about TVS Suzuki Motorcycle ?

3.

a)

From TV

b)

From Newspaper / Print Media

c)

From Friends

d)

Others

( )

Do you watch advertisement of TVS Suzuki Motorcycle ?

I) Yes (

4.

) ii) No (

Where do you generally find the advertisement of TVS

Suzuki Motorcycle?
a)

Television

b)

Magazine

c)

Newspaper

d)

Hoarding and Banners

e)

Any other

187

5.

How do you rate the advertising of TVS Suzuki

Motorcycle?

6.

a)

Highly effective

b)

Effective

c)

Poor

d)

Ineffective

Do

you

think

the

advertisement

of

TVS

Suzuki

Motorcycle has an impact on its sales ?

a) Yes
7.

b) No

Do you think the current method of publishing as

adopted by TVS Suzuki Ltd. is sufficient?
a)

8.

Yes (

b) No

If No in your opinion how do you think this present

condition can be improvised

9.

a)

By more promotional schemes

( )

b)

By more product focus than advertising

c)

Flexible payment option.

( )

d)

Any other

( )

What are the attribute behind the selling of TVS Suzuki

Motorcycle?
a)

Looks

b)

Style

c)

Varity

d)

Brand name

e)

Any other

188

10.

What are the plus point TVS Suzuki Motorcycle over its
close competitors ?

11.

a)

Millage

b)

Power

c)

Safety & Power Breaking

d)

Style

e)

Any other

In your opinion who are the main competitor of TVS

Suzuki Motorcycle ?

12.

a) ..
b)
c) ..
d)
e) .
How do you find the after sale service

(
(
(
(
(
of

)
)
)
)
)
TVS Suzuki

Motorcycle ?

13.

a)

Very Satisfactory

b)

Satisfactory

c)

Reasonable

d)

Poor

In your opinion which mode of payment is most suitable

for two wheeler?

14.

a)

Direct Payment

b)

Installment

Do you find a balance between the advertisement and

the actual performance
a)

Maximum Balance

b)

Minimum Balance

c)

No Balance

189