CHAPTER I

1.1 INTRODUCTION

Marketing is essentially about marshalling the resources of an

organization so that they meet the changing needs of customers on whom the

organization depends. As a verb, marketing is all about how an organization

addresses its markets.

Marketing is “The management process which identifies anticipates

and supplies customer requirements efficiently and profitably”.

“Marketing is a total system of interesting business activities defined to

Plan, piece, promote and distribution want satisfying products & services to

present and potential consumers”

- William. J. Stantion

“Marketing is the performance of business activities that direct the

follow of goods and services from the producer to the consumer or user”

- American Marketing Association

A social and managerial process, by which individuals and groups

obtain what they need and want, through creating and exchanging product

and value with others.

Customer satisfaction begins with a difficult faith; it starts with a

commitment to deliver the result for each customer which is also a concern of

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the dealers. Hence for a manufacturing company, in order to satisfy its

customers, it is highly important to satisfy its dealers, as they are the direct

customers to them. Establishing satisfaction as the ultimate goal is like the

other ultimate goals of business pursuit of higher profits or shareholders

wealth. Perfect dealer service or satisfaction is one that meets the combined

need satisfaction is a systemized service that involves the entire organization.

But many organizations have yet to develop this kind of awareness of dealer

satisfaction strategy.

Dealer Satisfaction begins with the following specific assumptions

about company’s relationship with the customers.

1. The dealer service activities focus mainly on existing dealers.

2. Some dealers are more important than others

3. They are the assets.

4. The dealer is always specific.

The dealer needs and value should influence every aspect of the

organization strategy, employee safety and performance, product and

organization strategy, employee safety and performance, product and service

development, sales and marketing programs, operational procedures and

information and measurement system.

Understanding the dealer is critical to the success of any customer

focus initiative, the first step in understanding the dealers is to listen to them.

A company needs to hear what its dealers are saying about its people,

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product service and vision. Their information helps to develop meaningful

product and service.

Organizations need to listen to their dealer satisfied, dissatisfied

neutral and prospective. As one company executive said, “talking to a

satisfied customer is talking to myself”.

In the past, dealer satisfaction and service was the responsibility of a

separate organization that supported the dealer primarily after the sale.

Today, service is also likely to be interested with the every product

accompany offers.

High dealer satisfaction comes from providing effective services. But

giving that service is a continuous activity. It means being efficient, reliable,

courteous, curing and professional every time.

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NEED OF THE STUDY

As there are a large number of dealers dealing with Roots Products,

the study was conducted to know the retailers satisfaction towards Roots

Industries. This in turn enables the company to enhance its stringent

competitiveness in the auto parts market.

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OBJECTIVES

1. To find the Dealers’ Satisfaction Level with Roots Industries

Limited [RIL]

2. To find the factors influencing the dealers to deal with Roots Auto

Products.

3. To identity the dealers’ suggestions with respect to Roots

Industries Limited.

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SCOPE OF THE STUDY

1. The project is focused on the selected dealers in Salem city.

2. The data collection is carried out in Salem for a period of 20 days.

3. The project focuses the quality of roots horns.

4. The study enables to know the expectation of the distributors and

consequently the customers.

5. The project highlights the scope for future improvements on the

basis of present scale.

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Limitations of the study :

1) Since the survey was done only in Salem the result obtained may

not be taken as universal suggestion.

2) Quality of the information highly dependent on the knowledge of

the respondents.

3) Concern person of shop keeping in charge will always change, so

that their assessment of the product and the relationship with the

company officials could not be adequate.

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1.2 Industry Profile

Automotive spare parts and components is a lesser known

industry yet a big one. In past few years the industry has grown enormously,

even more than the automotive industry itself not only in the Indian but global

scenario.

This vast industry includes automotive components,

accessories, gadgets, spare parts and tools; the consumers being the OEM

segment and the replacement and aftermarket sector. Automotive spare parts

replacement and aftermarket have in themselves become a major industry.

In mid 1990’s the quality of Indian products increased a lot and

the prices were considerably lowered. This posed an interesting situation

where the Indian replacement and aftermarket industry had geared up to

meet the international standards and awaited an ideal opportunity for global

exposure.

Certain SME’s through their focused operations are now

serving the global automotive giants directly or through suppliers. Online

catalogs and websites have added to the online presence of our clients.

The results are quite apparent, Indian automotive parts industry makes

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original components of major automotive giants like General Motors and

Mercedes amongst others. They have, through consolidated efforts been

positioned as global players of the sector.

1.3 Company Profile

In a dynamic world that is driven by technology, a successful

presence depends on the way you mould that technology to fit popular needs.

Indigenous talent, a daring attitude, courage to accept and learn new things

and the simple spark of an idea. That is the genesis of ROOTS.

ROOTS Industries Ltd. is a leading manufacturer of HORNS in

India and the 11th largest Horn Manufacturing Company in the world.

Headquartered in Coimbatore - India, ROOTS has been a

dominant player in the manufacture of Horns and other products like Castings

and Industrial Cleaning Machines.

Since its establishment in 1970, ROOTS has had a vision and

commitment to produce and deliver quality products adhering to International

Standards.

With a strong innovative base and commitment to Quality,

Roots Industries Limited has occupied a key position in both international and

domestic market as suppliers to leading OEMs and after market. Similar to

products, Roots has leading edge over competitors on strong quality system

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base. Now, RIL is the first Indian Company and first horn manufacturing

company in the world to get ISO/TS 16949 certification based on effective

implementation of QS 9000 and VDA 6.1 system requirement earlier.

RIL has entered into technical collaboration with Robert Bosch,

SA to further enhance the technical competence. Roots' vision is to become a

world class company manufacturing world class product, excelling in human

relation.

Vision of Roots:

“We will stand technologically ahead of others to deliver world-

class innovative products useful to our customers. We will rather lose our

business than our customers' satisfaction. It is our aim that the customer

should get the best value for his money.

Every member of our company will have decent living

standards. We care deeply for our families, for our environment and our

society. We promise to pay back in full measure to the society by way of

selfless and unstinted service.”

About the Founder:

An obsessive hobby went into the making of this self-made

industrialist. Born in an agricultural family, young Ramasamy had a great

interest in repairing automobiles. This led to his getting the master's degree in

Automobile Engineering from Lincoln Technical Institute, USA in 1969 and

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developing a unique Radiator Coolant Recovery System, which is today a

standard equipment in almost all vehicles manufactured by the advanced

countries.

In 1970, Mr. Ramasamy promoted M/s. American Auto

Service, which was taken over in 1992 by Roots Industries Private Limited, a

company promoted by Mr. Ramasamy. This company entered into technical

collaboration with Robert Bosch, the world leaders in auto electrical to

manufacture all the range of Bosch Horns. Mr. Ramasamy had a very

inquisitive and innovative temperament. This led to his having many firsts in

his distinguished career.

Servo brakes were designed for the first time in India by Mr.

Ramasamy. He designed the first high frequency Wind Tone type horn which

was smaller and lighter than conventional horns. Besides all the other firsts,

Mr. Ramasamy introduced electronically controlled Musical Air Horns for the

first time in the World.

The thirst for innovation and drive to move forward, led to the

establishment of a die casting unit to meet the captive requirement of

ROOTS. In 1987, Mr. Ramasamy set up a full-fledged modern tool room

equipped with the latest machines for the manufacture of precision tools and

dies. He promoted Roots Multiclean Ltd., a joint venture in Techno-financial

collaboration with M/s. Hako Werke GmbH, Germany to manufacture world

class Industrial Floor Care and Floor Cleaning Equipments. RMCL is

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successfully spreading the concept of Mechanized Cleaning in India and also

exports its products to various countries like Australia, Britain, Germany,

Japan Singapore, etc.

Mr. Ramasamy can very proudly claim that he is a self-made

industrialist and in recognition of the same, he has been conferred the Udyog

Shree Award in the year 1990. He has also been awarded the Udyog Rattan

Award by the Institute of Economic Studies in the year 1991.

Roots group of companies:

1. Roots industries ltd Electric horns

2. Roots Auto Products (P) Ltd Air horns, switches

3. Roots Multi-clean ltd Cleaning Machines

4. Roots Precision Products Dies tools and Jigs

fixtures

5. Roots cast (P) Ltd, die cast. Aluminium and Zinc

pressure

6. Roots Digital engineering Digital engineering

Services (P) Ltd services

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7. Roots metrology lab Instrument calibration,

quality systems

8. Roots Polycraft Plastic components

9. R.K. Nature cure home Nature cure therapy, yoga

and massages

10. Satchidananda Jothi Nikethan International school

11. Crystal clean care Range of modern

cleaning techniques

Auto mobile Horns

Roots Industries specializes in the manufacture of a wide

range and line-up of automobile horns. Roots is a leading supplier to all the

major vehicle manufacturers like Ford, Daimler Chrysler, Mitsubishi Lancer,

Mahindra & Mahindra, Toyota, Tata Motors, Fiat Uno and Siena, TELCO,

TVS Motor Company, Kinetic Honda, etc.

Roots Industries Limited places a premium on original

technology and innovation. Its technical collaboration with Robert Bosch S.S

of Spain in 1995 has helped it to further strengthen its R & D activities and

technical competence. This collaboration along with Roots' indigenous talent

has kicked off a spree of growth unmatched in the history of automobile OE

manufacturers.

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It all started with just a honk. Encouraged by the response, we

kept on moving ahead. In the beginning, we did not realize that we would

make such an impact. Slowly but surely, the reverberations were felt far and

wide. Indian automobile market responded to our call. Soon the global market

too followed suit. Roots horns, in a very short span of time, got a place of

pride in millions of vehicles across the globe.

What more could we ask for? But we did ask more. We indeed

made a sound beginning but we could not rest on our laurels. The journey

has to go on. There are more miles to go. And more challenging territories, to

explore.

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CHAPTER II

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Research methodology describes how the research study was

undertaken. This includes the specifications of research design, source of

data, method of data collection, the sampling method and the tools used.

GEOGRAPHICAL AREA:

The study is conducted in Salem City.

PERIOD OF COVERAGE:

The duration of project work is about 30 days

RESEARCH DESIGN:

The research design used in this project by the researcher is the

descriptive research design.

Descriptive research design:

Determining the relationship between two are more

variables.

It is well structured.

It is more economical, we can gather more information.

Problems can be found after the questionnaire

preparation.

It needs less time.

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SAMPLE DESIGN:

Population:

Population for this research is set of dealers those who are

dealing with Roots Auto Products in Salem City.

Sample units:

The sampling units used by the researcher for this research,

are those who are dealing Roots Auto Products.

Sample size:

The number of samples collected by the researcher is 40

dealers.

Sampling procedure / Sampling method:

The sampling method used for this study is non-profitability

convenience sampling, which is selected according to the easy and

convenience of the researcher.

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METHOD OF DATA COLLECTION:

Primary data:

The researcher collected both by direct survey from the

retailers through questionnaire & interview schedule. The researcher

used structured non-disguised questionnaire.

Secondary data:

Here the researcher collected secondary data from the

company profile, industry profile and official web sites.

RESEARCH INSTRUMENT:

Research instrument used for data collecting is questionnaire

and interview schedule.

Questionnaire

The questionnaire is prepared in a well-structured and non-

disguised form so that it is easily understandable and answerable by

everyone. The type of questions include in the questionnaire are open-ended

questions, multiple choice questions and dichotomous questions.

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Interview Schedule

The interview method of collecting data involves presentation

of oral-verbal stimuli and reply in terms of oral-verbal responses. Then the

responses are filled up in the questionnaire, for further analysis.

STASTICAL TOOLS USED FOR ANALYSIS:

The researcher carries out analysis through various statistical

tools. The statistical analysis is useful for drawing inference from the collected

information.

Simple percentage analysis.

Cross - Tabulation

ANOVA Test.

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