International Monthly Refereed Journal of Research In Management & Technology
Volume II, February’13
ISSN – 2320-0073
CONSUMER BEHAVIOR FOR SMALL CARS: AN
EMPIRICAL STUDY
Shiv Prasad Joshi
Assistant Professor, JIET- School of Management, Mogra, Jodhpur, India
Email: shiv.joshi@jietjodhpur.com
ABSTRACT
The small car market in India is soon going to be one of the biggest in the world, as major automakers are investing here in this segment. There is Tata Nano ready to be launched and many others who are eyeing the Indian consumers to keep up their global sales figures.
There is increasing competition with the entry of many new foreign as well as Indian players in the market. The war has begun and the fate of these firms will be decided by the consumers in the market. Only if the marketers could understand consumer behavior, they would be able to predict how customers are likely to react to various options available to them. Also, a marketer is expected to find out whether or not the customer’s consumption motives and purposes have been met. The present paper seeks to identify the factors that influence the consumer behavior with special reference to small cars. The findings of the study can be helpful to marketers in dealing with the customers in a better way.
INTRODUCTION
The small car market in India is increasing by leaps and bounds. The main players in the car market like Tata Motors and Maruti Udyog are fiercely competitive and more or less all the automobile companies in India that have forayed into the production of small cars are trying to out-do each other in terms of design, innovation, pricing and technology. Tata Motors have decided to launch a mini car ‘NANO’ in 2009 which will cost much less. Tata Motors is also going through a process of decision making, to launch a variety of mini-cars in association with Fiat. Also several global brands like Suzuki, Hyundai, Daewoo, Ford etc. have entered in the Indian car industry while some others like
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