CHAPTER-II REVIEW

OF LITERATURE

In order to appreciate the significance and an important changes brought m

the marketing scenario towards consumes car purchase behaviour, the literatures
have been reviewed in the following areas.

Randi Grossman and Joseph Z. (2000)1 assessed in their empirical

research work that a product's attributes play an important role in a consumers pre-
purchase behaviour, they applied an associative learning framework to the color
literature to help understand consumer color choices. They adopted the principles
of classical conditioning, a form of associative learning, also used to make
suggestions to practitioners who wish to create or change color associations for
their products.

Michael W. Allen (2001)2 has made an attempt to study direct and indirect
influences of human values on consumer decisions. He used quantitative method
to carry out the study using large number of samples and used widely known
statistical techniques such as correlations, regression and factor analysis. He
developed a method which could be yield useful information such as solidifying
consumers' current perceptions and evaluations of the product. He has also came
up with the implications of his on marketing professionals.

Joseph and James (2001)3 have evaluated the "quality revolution" of the
80's and the "oil crisis" of the 70's dramatically altered the automotive industry, a
new and potentially more influential issue is emerging the pursuit of an
environmentally friendly vehicle. This "green car," or "eco car," has become the
new "holy grail" of automotive achievement and has the world's largest
automakers racing to find a solution that satisfies environmental regulations,
rapidly expanding new markets. Their twin-tiered technological approach

focused on improving the traditional Interval Combustion Engine (ICE) and

developing alternative power train technologies, including Electric Vehicles (EVs),
fuel cells and hybrids (a combination of the ICE and EV). Toyota's strategy is to
establish proficiency, but not dominance, in a number of the possible alternatives
to the current automobile.

Paul Chao and Pola B. Gupta (2001)4, in their conceptual study

identified the consumer product evaluations which are presumed to occur during
the evaluation of alternative stages of the consumer buying decision process. Their
study investigates the knowledge about product attributes and information search.
The influence of purchase behaviour has also mostly been measured by purchase
intention. They examined the CO effects by incorporating the amount of
repurchase information search and the post purchase efficiency of choice measured
by the amount of loss buyers incur for not choosing the same or higher quality car
at a lower price. Finally the finding shows that while CO did not affect the amount
of pre-purchase search, but it had a significant impact on the efficiency of
consumer choices.

Meijkamp and Rens (2002)5 in their empirical paper discussed

'innovation' as a strategy to change consumer behaviour to reduce the
environmental impact of consumption. This strategy was explored through an
empirical consumer behaviour study on commercial car sharing services in the
Netherlands. Based on an inventory of the environmental effects of this approach,
as exemplified by the car sharing schemes, it was tentatively concluded that the
eco-efficient services concept offers an interesting framework for reconsidering
the current consumption practice and for generating innovative activities in
industry.
 Phillip K. Hellier, Gus M. Geursen, Rodney A. Carr and John A.
Rickard (2003)6 investigated a general service sector model of repurchase
intention from the consumer theory literature. A key contribution of the

structural equation model is the incorporation of customer perceptions of equity and

value and customer brand preference into an integrated repurchase intention
analysis. The model describes the extent to which customer repurchase intention is
influenced by seven important factors - service quality, equity and value, customer
satisfaction, past loyalty, expected switching cost and brand preference. The
general model is applied to customers of comprehensive car insurance and
personal superannuation services. The analysis found that although perceived
quality does not directly affect customer satisfaction, it does so indirectly via
customer equity and value perceptions. The study also found out that past purchase
loyalty is not directly related to customer satisfaction or current brand preference
and that brand preference is an intervening factor between customer satisfactions
and repurchase intention. The main factor influencing brand preference was
perceived value with customer satisfaction and expected switching cost having
less influence.

Odekerken, Hans Ouwersloot, Jos Lemmink and Janjaap Semeijn

(2003)7 assessed consumer segments based on relational aspects, service aspects,
or price aspects has different preferences concerning these three key decision-
making variables when buying a car. They also investigated large sample of
Mitsubishi drivers in Netherland, emphasizing consumers' trade-off between dealer
relationship, service package and price. They used conjoint analysis that showed
dealer relationships (as opposed to price) represent a very important decision-
making variable when buying a car and consumer preferences concerning
relationships provide a useful instrument for segmenting markets. they analyzed
through cluster analyses of three aspects simultaneously that revealed some
consumers do value relationships and emphasize the service package in their
purchase, both opposed to the third segment that is most probably not inclined to
be loyal to a car dealer at all. It suggested that different consumer segments can be
distinguished on the basis of preferences for relationships and service packages
rather than on the basis of pnce.

Joireman, Jeffrey, A. Van Lange, Paul A.M. Van Vagt and Mark (2004)8
examined the preference for commuting to work by car or public transportation
(PT) within an expanded social dilemma framework (i.e., one that recognizes the
importance of both social and temporal concerns). Commuters completed scales
assessing commuting preferences, beliefs regarding the environmental impact of
cars, social value orientation (SVO), and the consideration of future consequences
(CFC). Most important, a significant two-way interaction revealed that preference
for commuting by PT was positively related to beliefs regarding the harmful
environmental consequences of commuting by car only among those high in CFC.
SVO was unrelated to commuting preferences.

Sundrasen K and Ramachandren H (2004) 9 highlighted the pricing

strategy of Maruti Udyog Limited (MUL), the market leader in the Indian
passenger car industry. MUL has launched various models catering to all market
segments at various price points. The case provides a brief note on the various
models of MUL, their prices and their features. It specifically focuses on the
competition between two of MUL's best selling models M800 and Alto. MUL
reduced the price difference between these two models positioning them on an
almost equal platform, which resulted in confusion in the minds of consumers and
industry analysts. M800 had ruled the passenger car market as the only car in the
entry-level segment in the Indian automobile industry and was now facing the
danger of cannibalization from one of its own family members, Alto. The case
highlights the pricing dilemma faced by MUL and leads to a debate on the right
pricing strategy for the company and the future of its flagship product M800.The
case is so structured to enable the gain insights into the recent trends in the Indian
passenger car industry due to the changing economic and business conditions,
Examines how MUL's aggressive pricing strategy helped the company to retain its
leadership position amidst fierce competition by foreign players in India, critically
analyzed the pricing strategy of MUL and determine the rationale of having
several product models at

various price points and Arrive at possible solutions for the current pricing
dilemma ofMUL.

Vivek Gupta and Avishek Suman, (2005) 10 discussed the marketing

strategies of Korea-based Hyundai Motor Company (HMC) in India. HMC entered
India by establishing its wholly owned subsidiary Hyundai Motors India Limited
(HMIL) in 1996. Within a year of launching its first productSantro, HMIL had
emerged as the second largest car company in India. The case describes in detail
the entry, product, pricing, distribution and promotional strategies of HMIL. The
case briefs the challenges faced by the company and its future marketing plans. It
also includes a note on the Indian passenger car indust ry, the leading player and
its marketing strategy.

Bardakci and Jeryl Whitelock (2005)11, in their exploratory study

examined customers' readiness for mass-customized cars in two European
countries, Turkey and the UK. Questionnaire was developed, pre-tested and
administered in the UK and (after translation) in Turkey to potential new car
buyers. It was found a large proportion of customers from both countries would be
willing to pay extra to own a product which exactly meets their needs and
preferences. However, more respondents in the Turkish sample were willing to do
 so than in the UK sample. Additionally, Turkish respondents were keen to update
the features of their car over time, which favours mass-customization.

Vineet HK (2005)12 in his study provides an overview of Maruti Udyog

Limited's (MUL) product mix strategy since its inception to early 2000's. The case
let also describes the product mix adopted by the company during l 990's. The
researcher examines the changing competitive environment in the Indian
automobile industry during late l 990's especially in the small car segment where
MUL has a strong presence. This segment has seen the launch of three models
Matiz (Daewoo), Santro (Hyundai) , and Indica (Tata Engineering). Finally, discusses
MUL's response to the increased competition.

Kevin Turner, Geoff Williams (2005) 13 developed a research work to

extend the range of applications of simulation to investigating supply chain design,
and demonstrates the feasibility of this approach in modeling complex supply
chains. They also investigated the changes to the design of the supply chain which
potentially offer significant improvements in performance. They developed a
simulation model to assess the supply of new cars, from ordering through the
assembly plant and finished vehicle stocking to customer delivery, has been used to
develop further understanding of the dynamic performance of the supply chain.
They also found the benefits of central stocking (storing new cars in distribution
centres, rather than at dealers) for both manufactures and customers, supported by
recent industry data.

Hans H. Bauer, Andreas Herrmann (2005) in their empirical study

demarcation is based on the idea that a sales market is not an undifferentiated set
of products, but that it rather embodies an entity made up of separate groups of
 products which differ with regard to certain demand-relevant characteristics. The
procedure comprised three steps: the first aim is to define the products which make
up the overall market that has to be structured. The second task is to determine the
centre on the basis of which the overall market can be divided up into different
submarkets. Finally, these submarkets must be identified using statistical methods.

Rahul M and Sujan VS (2005)114

5
examined in their case the entry of Maruti Udyog Limited (MUL), the leading Indian car
manufacturer, into the used car market. Between the late 1990s and early 2000s, MUL
found its profit margins going down. This made it imperative for it to look for other revenue
generating avenues, and this included the entry into the user car market in India. The
case let also examines how Maruti used its customer relations practices to build customer
loyalty and word-of-mouth awareness, Evolution of the used car-market in India , Role of
word-of-mouth in developing new

business for a company and the role of changing demographics in developing new
markets.

Maria Backman, Sofia Borjesson (2006) 16 have attempted to provide an

alternative approach to working with attention of how companies in competitive
industries can learn from the attention industries, and examined a new breed of
strategic tools that are increasingly important to consider as traditional tools
become inadequate. They adopted mainly on an ethnographic study in combination
with an interview study around the project, but also on knowledge from a number
of other studies of conceptual work at Volvo Cars which have provided the authors
with in-depth contextual understanding of the practices in use. They found and
suggested how to intentionally generate attention in new ways; a media-attractive
concept may deliberately be exploited to generate attention. The mutual
dependence that is produced by media's own striving for attention from its
audience and a company's striving for visibility can generate attention of a kind,
span and duration beyond regular market activities.
 Gerald Haubl (2006)17 in his study examined the cross-national
applicability of a model of the effects of country of origin and brand name on
consumers' evaluations of a product. Specifically, investigated the structures of
country-of-origin and brand effects on the evaluation of a new automobile by
German and French car owners. Used a multi-group structural equation modeling
approach to assess the invariance of the proposed model across countries. Reports
indicated the factor structure and the structural model relationships are invariant,
thus providing support for the hypothesis of the model's cross-national
generalizability.

Van Geel, Pieter, Verheugen and Gunter (2006) 18 analyzed in their study
regarding a group of ministers led by the Netherlands' Pieter van Geel for the
Environment Council on June 27, 2006 that member states would not meet

European Union air quality limits without a clampdown on diesel car nitrogen
oxide and ozone emissions expected under a future Euro 6 directive. They
proposed a reduction for nitrogen oxide for diesel cars; Preference of most
member states regarding a Euro 6 standard for diesel cars; formulated a criteria to
which any future Euro 6 standards would have to be based according to Enterprise
Commissioner Gunter Verheugen.

Maynard, Michelin (2006)19 discusses a proposal made by the U.S.

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to overhaul the way it calculates fuel
economy ratings for cars and trucks. The EPA said that the new testing method
would reduce mileage estimates by five to 30 percent. The EPA expects to · introduce
the changes beginning with 2008 models. Consumer groups have long criticized
the EPA's ratings as too optimistic. The new calculations will have the greatest
impact on hybrid-electric vehicles.
 Yokota, M. Sasaki, K. Kamisako, K.Nagayoshi.H. (2007)2° evaluated
the utility of a hybrid car in which both power sources of an electric motor and a
gasoline engine are used and solar cells are settled on the roof and the bonnet. An
array of 1.6 kW solar cells was installed on the top of a building to charge the
batteries by solar energy, though the capacities of the electric motor and batteries
are half compared with conventional electric vehicles, they confirmed that this
hybrid car has sufficient utility for practical use. The whole electric energy
consumed in a day can be supplied by a 1.6 kW solar cell system.

Andreas Herrmann, Lan Xia, Kent B. Monroe, Frank Huber (2007)21

in their critical and creative work identified the concepts of price fairness and
customer satisfaction and empirically demonstrate the influence of perceived price
fairness on satisfaction judgments. They also conducted in the context of
automobile purchases in major German car dealerships. Based on a theoretical
conceptualization of the constructs and an empirical pretest, 246 car buyers were
surveyed and their fairness perceptions and satisfaction judgments

with the car buying process measured. The researcher shows that pnce perceptions
directly influence satisfaction judgments as well as indirectly through perceptions
of price fairness. Finally the results indicated that consumers' vulnerability, which
is induced by a perceived demand-supply relationship and the urgency of need
from the consumers' side, had a negative effect on perceived price offer fairness.

Simms C and Trott P (2007)22 adopted a consumer behaviour perspective

and investigated the extent to which BMW has repositioned the new "Mini". They
designed a two-stage approach to data collection, consisting of 66 in-depth
interviews with a cross section of important stakeholders with high brand
awareness and knowledge and developed a conceptual framework and offers a
novel way for firms to consider the effects of their repositioning strategies on
consumers perceptions of a brand. The findings revealed a substantial
repositioning of the brand's functional appeal, moving away from the car's price as
an appeal towards product build quality. Finally suggested to the firms the need to
recognise the importance of repositioning at both the symbolic and functional
level.

Turrentine, Thomas S, Kurani and Kenneth S (2007)2 3 designed their

research to help researchers and policy makers ground their work in the reality of
how US consumers are thinking and behaving with respect to automotive fuel
economy. Their data were from semi-structured interviews with 57 households
across nine lifestyle "sectors." They found no household analyzed their fuel costs
in a systematic way in their automobile or gasoline purchases. Almost none of
these households track gasoline costs over time or consider them explicitly in
household budgets. They also found that consumer value for fuel economy is not
only about private cost savings. Fuel economy can be a symbolic value as well.
Consumers also assign non-monetary meaning to fuel prices, for example seeing
rising prices as evidence of conspiracy. This

research suggested that consumer responses to fuel economy technology and

changes in fuel prices are more complex than economic assumptions suggest.

John S. Kiff (2007)24 has analyzed the central-stocking systems as the first
step in trying to make the supply systems leaner and have achieved both an
increase in customer matching (customers actually getting the exact specification
of car that they wanted) and a decrease in stock and costs. There had been very
little academic research on distribution generally and some of the points drawn
from this work in the automotive industry may have viability in other contexts with
suitable localization. The research carried out in the UK by the International Car
Distribution Programme. Showed that some franchises have instituted
revolutionary changes while others are more evolutionary. Some would seem to
have carefully considered philosophies and strategies while others appear to have
more of a "me-too" approach.

Peters, Anja, Mueller, Michel G. de Haan, Peter Scholz and Roland

W. (2008)25 analyzed whether absolute or relative fee bates encourage more

consumers to change to vehicles with lower energy consumption. They combined
an analysis of all car models on sale at the end of 2005 with survey data from 326
potential new car buyers. Analysis of the car fleet with regard to behavioural
changes assumed as realistic showed that relative systems succeed better in
offering more consumer groups cars that are eligible for incentives. The results
suggested that consumers show some, but limited willingness to change behaviour
to obtain an incentive. However, a relative system potentially allows people to
switch to cars with higher relative efficiency without actually lowering absolute
CO emissions.

Robert, Douglas G (2008 )26 identified in their research work the different
potential ways to cut carbon emissions from new cars in the short term lies in
urging consumers to buy the greenest car in its class, according to research by the
Energy Saving Trust. The Trust believes big cuts should be

achieved by increasing the amount of independent advice available to consumers

when purchasing a car. The research also revealed that 74% of drivers have no
idea how much carbon dioxide their car emits

Wilson, Nick, Maher, Anthony, Thomson, George, Keall and Michael

(2008)27 they aimed to examine the content and trends of greenhouse gas
emissions and air pollution-related information, in light passenger vehicle
advertisements. they used the methods of content analysis of the two most popular
current affairs magazines in New Zealand for the five year period 2003-2007 was
undertaken (n = 514 advertisements). This was supplemented with vehicle data
from official websites. Results found that the advertisements studied provided
some information on fuel type (52%), and engine size (39%); but hardly any
provided information on fuel efficiency (3%), or emissions (4%). Over the five-
year period the reported engine size increased significantly, while fuel efficiency
did not improve. They suggested that consumer choice and to control greenhouse
gas and air pollution emissions, governments should introduce regulations on the
content of vehicle advertisements and marketing.

Mueller, Michel G, De Haan and Peter (2009)28 in their creative research

paper presented an agent-based micro simulation capable of forecasting the effects
of policy levers that influence individual choices of new passenger cars. They
designed a two-stage model of individual decision processes is employed. In the
first stage, individual choice sets were constructed using simple, non-
compensatory rules that are based on previously owned cars. Second, decision
makers evaluate alternatives in their individual choice set using a multi-attributive
weighting rule. The presented approach was used for the assessment of policies
that influence individual purchase decisions of new passenger cars; it allows
accounting for a highly resolved car fleet and differentiated consumer segments.
Finally they found the complexity of incentive schemes can be represented in
detailed structure.

Jyothsna Priyadarsini K and Goodwin D R, (2009)29 in their

experimental study analyzed customers give importance to a brand based on the
place of its origin. They constructed 'Country of Origin' (COO) and defined in the
marketing literature as the country where a brand or product is made. The
mounting cross-border trade and rapid globalization are drawing the attention of
the researchers to explore the role of COO and its impact on various management
activi ties, specifically the cross-national consumer behaviour. Inspired by the
intellectual conclusions of the researchers, a research was outlined to investigate
the impact of COO of luxury cars on Indian metro customers , including
customer's perception of the COO of luxury cars, how the luxury car brands are
evaluated based on its COO and so on. The experiment tests the relationship
between the brand's COO and consumers' purchase decisions.

Manish k (2009)3° in his creative case study examined the advertising

strategies of Maruti Suzuki India Limited (Maruti), a subsidiary of Japan based
automobile major Suzuki Motors. Maruti, India's leading passenger car
manufacturer was founded in 1981. The liberalization of the Indian economy in
1991 resulted in the entry of several foreign automobile companies in the Indian
passenger car market beginning from the mid 1990s. To prevent the continuous
decline of its market share, the researcher analyzed the reasons Maruti started a
restructuring exercise in the year 2001. Understood and explained the dynamics of
passenger car industry in India. Studied the growth strategies of Maruti over the
years.Analyze the advertising strategies of Maruti. Finally examined the future
challenges for Maruti.

George Baltas and Charalabos Saridakis (2009)31 in their new

interesting insights the research work investigated the product characteristics,
segment differences, and brand-name effects determine the price structure of the
new car market, they adopted a research design to implement a hedonic price
model that includes functional characteristics and addresses segment and

brand heterogeneity. They found the mainstream segments automobile prices are
determined more completely by functional characteristics. In high-end segments
carmakers follow implicit premium pricing strategies. Finally it shows the brand-
name effects reflect the incremental value added to a car by its brand name.
Prestige brands not only earn brand-name premier but also seize high-margin
market segments.

George Baltas and Charalabos Saridakis (2009)32 analyzed how product

characteristics, segment differences, and brand-name effects determine the price
structure of the new car market. They adopted a hedonic price model that includes
functional characteristics and addresses segment and brand heterogeneity. They
have found the automobile prices are determined more completely by functional
characteristics. In high-end segments carmakers follow implicit premium pricing
strategies. It showed the brand-name effects reflect the incremental value added to
a car by its brand name. Finally the study demonstrates prestige brands not only
earn brand-name premier but also seize high-margin market segments.

Gutierrez, R. Gutierrez-Sanchez, R. and Nafidi, A. (2009)3 3 analyzed the

trend of the evolution of the total stock of private petrol-driven cars. They
proposed a stochastic model based on a new non homogeneous stochastic gamma-
type diffusion process which it is a stochastic version of a Gamma function type
deterministic growth model considered in Skiadas. They described its main
probabilistic characteristics and establish a statistical methodology by which it can
be fitted to real data and obtain medium-term forecasts that, in statistical terms, are
quite accurate. It was suggested that Spain constitutes a typical example of a
failure to observe the maximum emission levels assigned to it by 2012 under the
Kyoto Protocol (1992); a significant percentage of these excess emissions is
accounted for by the land transport sector.

Alan D. Smith (2009)34 in his research paper suggested the practitioners of

management and information technology a sense of how the automobile industry
 uses the internet to market its products. The researcher analyzed the data derived
from web-enabled and highly educated professionals from the metropolitan area of
Pittsburgh, PA, resulted in 60 interviews from an initial sample of over 155
professionals from three area firms. The techniques used to review include online
advertising, data mining from web sites, other conventional advertising of the
company web site and positioning their vehicles among the various search engines.
The statistical finding shows that people are using the internet with greater
regularity to gain information about vehicle purchases. And also found, the vast
majority of those surveyed still preferred to ultimately complete the purchase in
person. Finally the study gives a practical implication that dealers are forced to be
more competitive in terms of financing and pricing, dealerships are not in danger
of being cut from the vehicle purchase model, at least not in the short-term.

Lee, Jongsu and Youngsang (2009)35 have used a micro simulated

demand forecasting to address these issues and predict consumer demand for
diesel passenger cars. The model accommodated governmental policies and car
attributes such as price and engine efficiency. They found that consumers will
likely prefer diesel passenger cars to gasoline ones due to the low operation costs
of the former in spite of high purchase price when diesel is relatively cheaper than
gasoline. They also found that diesel passenger cars will capture a 42% market
penetration ratio under the pricing system suggested by the Ministry of
Environment of Korea.

De Haan, Peter, Mueller, Michel G. Scholz, Roland W. (2009)36 in

their study investigated the effects of fee bate systems based on an energy labeling
scheme using categories A to G. Very fuel-efficient (A) cars receive a cash
incentive, highly inefficient (G) cars pay additional fees. Consumers have different
price elasticity' s and behavioural options to react to fee bate. They
used an agent-based micro simulation approach particularly suited to predict
environmental and market effects of fee bates and found heterogeneous agents choose
from a choice set drawn from a detailed fleet of new cars. Incentives of
€2000 for A-labeled cars induce an additional rated CO2emission decrease of new
car registrations between 3.4% and 4.3%, with CO2abatement costs between €6
and €13 per ton, and otherwise little undesired market disturbance.

Choi, Hyundo and Oh, Inha (2010)3 7 evaluated the product efficiency of
current hybrid vehicles and suggested effective policies to promote hybrid
vehicles in the Korean automobile market and development trends of hybrid
vehicles. They measured using the recently developed discrete additive data
envelopment analysis (DEA) model that reflects consumer preference. The result
of the analysis showed that current hybrid vehicles on the market are still at lower
competitive advantage than traditional car models with conventional combustion
engines and we can suggest a mix of incentive policies to promote the
competitiveness of hybrid vehicles.

Marc Fetscherin and Mark Toncar (2010)38 in their multi-dimensional

constructive work found a new perspective of country of origin effects on
consumers' brand personality perceptions of domestic and imported automobiles.
They used the experimental design to investigate developed country consumers'
brand personality perceptions of three cars: a domestic car; a car manufactured in
a developing country by a developing country manufacturer; and a car from a
developing country manufacturer that is manufactured in the developed country.
Through a structured questionnaire the primary data was collected with
multivariate analysis they found the consumers' brand personality perceptions
varied according to the country of origin (COB) of the brand and the country of
manufacture (COM) of the brand. It suggested cars of COM exert a greater
influence on the perceived personality of a brand than the COB.

Akhilesh V and Ranjit S K (2010) 39 in their cognitive case examined the

marketing strategies of Volkswagen Group India, the Indian subsidiary of German
automobile manufacturer, Volkswagen AG (Volkswagen). Volkswagen entered the
Indian passenger car market in 2001 by launching its car brand - Skoda. In 2007,
two of its other brands Audi and Volkswagen, were also launched in India.
Volkswagen Group India emphasized on all aspects of marketing mix including
product, price, place and promotion. The company offered three brands including
Audi, Skoda and Volkswagen that together comprised of 15 different models as of
late 2009. Volkswagen Group India mainly catered to the luxury segment of the
Indian car market. The company had established presence in India through separate
distribution channels for each of its brands, their main areas of study was to
understand the dynamics of the Indian passenger car market, examine the growth
strategies of Volkswagen Group India over the years, Analyze the marketing
strategies of Volkswagen Group India and Study the future prospects of
Volkswagen Group India.

Hundal,B.S. and Saurabh Grover (2010)4° in their perceptual study

examined the Tata Nano was one of the longest awaited and most talked about
automobile debuts in India. It is known as people's car. It is an engineering marvel
to come out of India in terms of cost efficiency, fuel efficiency and space
efficiency. Their paper was attempted to study the consumer behaviour and also
their perception towards car in the post-launch period. Factors that motivate
buyers to purchase this car have also been studied.

Shailendra Dasari (2011 )41 in his case study traced the development and
launching of Tata Nano, and also provides an overview of the possible future
developments. With the launch of Tata Nano, the Indian automobile industry has
found a new place in the world's automobile landscape. India is one of the fastest
growing passenger car markets in the world and the second largest two wheeler
manufacturer; the increased demand buoyed by India's robust economic growth.
The potential for "a people's car" in the emerging

economies such as BRICS is enormous. While Germany, Italy and France have
400 to 600 vehicles per 1,000 populations, for China and India it is only 80 and 34
respectively. The favorable factors for the surge in demand for entry level cars are
the readiness of middle class/lower middle class segments (also known as
aspirers), who have traditionally patronized two-wheelers, to consider a four
wheeler as a feasible option, thanks to the reduced price barrier, coupled with an
increase in disposable income - a harbinger to their journey up the social ladder.
The study also covers diverse aspects related to Tata Nano from the new product
development, marketing strategy and business strategy perspectives.

Dr. Ajoy S Joseph and Dr. HY Kamble (2011)42 in their innovative

research work, indentified the most important factors that influences purchase of
passenger cars in India is the availability of auto finance or consumer credit. They
conducted an empirical study to analyses the behavioural pattern exhibited by
passenger car customers towards auto loan schemes and financiers when they
purchase their cars. The study was based on the data collected from 525 passenger
car owners consisting of professionals, employees of public and private sector,
businessmen and agriculturist in Dakshina Kannada district of Karnataka state.
The respondents had been broadly categorized into three groups based on the
original price range of their cars viz. cars in the price range of Rs. 2 - 4 lakhs, Rs.
4 - 6 lakhs and Rs. 6 - 9 lakhs. The study indicates that overall the most important
three factors considered by car purchasers while deciding auto finance company
were less processing time, easy documentation and explanation of the financing
scheme by the staff.
 END-NOTES

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2. Michael W. Allen,(2001), "A practical method for uncovering the direct and
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3. Joseph, James (2001), "Toyota's approach to alternative technology

vehicles: The power of diversification strategies", Corporate Environmental
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4. Paul Chao, Pola B. Gupta(2001), "Information search and efficiency of

consumer choices of new cars: country-of-origin effects Source:
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5. Meijkamp and Rens (2002), "Changing consumer behaviour through eco-

efficient services: an empirical study of car sharing in the Netherlands",
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6. Phillip K. Hellier, Gus M. Geursen, Rodney A. Carr, John A. Rickard,

(2003), "Customer repurchase intention: A general structural equation
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7. Odekerken-Schroder, Hans Ouwersloot, Jos Lemmink, Janjaap Semeijn,

(2003), "Consumers' trade-off between relationship, service package and
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8. Joireman, Jeffrey A., Van Lange, Paul A. M. Van Vugt, Mark (2004), "Who
cares about the environmental impact of cars? Environment & Behaviour;
Vol. 36, Issue 2, Pp187-206.
9. Sundrasen Kand Ramachandren H (2004), "Maruti Udyog Limited: The
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