The major factor propelling the demand for goods and services in India is the growing youth population, primarily in the country’s urban regions. India has a large base of young consumers who form the majority of the workforce. And this young workforce aspires for environment-friendly, value-for-money and healthy products. Due to the impulsive buying behavior of these young consumers, India hit a 10-year high and stood first among the 63 nations surveyed in the global consumer confidence index with a score of 136 points for the quarter ending December 2016. Further, in the discretionary spending category, 70% respondents from India indicated the next 12 months as being good to buy, thus ensuring once again that India leads the global top 10 countries in this parameter during the quarter.
In this issue the first paper, “An Analysis of the Determinants of Consumer Purchase Behavior Towards Green FMCG Products”, by Manvinder Singh Tandon and Vaishali Sethi, explores the influence of the traditional marketing-mix of green products, specifically Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG). This study has been undertaken with the objective of understanding the concept of green marketing and identifying which factors play an important role in influencing consumers to purchase green products. This is a questionnaire-based study conducted in Delhi NCR region. The findings show that maximum awareness regarding green marketing lies with the age group of 18-24 years, followed by 25-34 years. The authors have performed factor analysis to reduce the impact variables to five factors—green purchase decision and environment-friendliness, satisfaction, social appeal, accessibility and green marketing elements. The study concludes that consumers no longer remain insensitive to environmental problems. They consider whether the products they purchase are environmental-friendly or not while considering price and quality features of the product.
The second paper, “Indian Automobile Industry and Effective Advertising:
A Qualitative Analysis”, by Prateek Maheshwari, Anoop Kumar Gupta and Nitin Seth, delves into the specific drivers of effective advertising for the Indian automobile sector, in the context of print media, using the qualitative research approach. For this, a structured Delphi Technique was implemented to identify the specific drivers of effective advertising. Delphi panelists have finalized 13 dimensions out of an initial list of 32 dimensions as drivers of effective advertising in the automobile sector, in the context of print media. The insights gained through this work have valuable implications for academia, researchers and advertising industry as a whole.
The third paper, “A Study of Consumer Behavior Towards Organic Food and the Moderating Effects of Health Consciousness”, by Neha Singhal, is an attempt to find out the consumer behavior towards organic food and the role of health consciousness as the moderating variable. This is unlike other research papers which have mainly focused on factors influencing the growth of organic foods such as product acceptance, information, higher income, willingness to pay premium price and ethical consumption. Empirical results in this study indicate that the consumer concerns about health are the determinants for a consumer to form a positive attitude toward organic foods. The paper concludes that a marketer must strengthen his/her offering in terms of organic food items for the consumers who follow an organized work schedule. The author suggests that this can be done effectively by bringing out innovations in product mix and also making efficient utilization of promotion and place mix.
Automated Teller Machines (ATMs): The Changing Face of Banking in India
Bank Management
Information and communication technology has changed the way in which banks provide services to its customers. These days the customers are able to perform their routine banking transactions without even entering the bank premises. ATM is one such development in recent years, which provides remote banking services all over the world, including India. This paper analyzes the development of this self-service banking in India based on the secondary data.
The Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is playing a very important role in the progress and advancement in almost all walks of life. The deregulated environment has provided an opportunity to restructure the means and methods of delivery of services in many areas, including the banking sector. The ICT has been a focused issue in the past two decades in Indian banking. In fact, ICTs are enabling the banks to change the way in which they are functioning. Improved customer service has become very important for the very survival and growth of banking sector in the reforms era. The technological advancements, deregulations, and intense competition due to the entry of private sector and foreign banks have altered the face of banking from one of mere intermediation to one of provider of quick, efficient and customer-friendly services. With the introduction and adoption of ICT in the banking sector, the customers are fast moving away from the traditional branch banking system to the convenient and comfort of virtual banking. The most important virtual banking services are phone banking, mobile banking, Internet banking and ATM banking. These electronic channels have enhanced the delivery of banking services accurately and efficiently to the customers. The ATMs are an important part of a bank’s alternative channel to reach the customers, to showcase products and services and to create brand awareness. This is reflected in the increase in the number of ATMs all over the world. ATM is one of the most widely used remote banking services all over the world, including India. This paper analyzes the growth of ATMs of different bank groups in India.
International Scenario
If ATMs are largely available over geographically dispersed areas, the benefit from using an ATM will increase as customers will be able to access their bank accounts from any geographic location. This would imply that the value of an ATM network increases with the number of available ATM locations, and the value of a bank network to a customer will be determined in part by the final network size of the banking system. The statistical information on the growth of branches and ATM network in select countries.
Indian Scenario
The financial services industry in India has witnessed a phenomenal growth, diversification and specialization since the initiation of financial sector reforms in 1991. Greater customer orientation is the only way to retain customer loyalty and withstand competition in the liberalized world. In a market-driven strategy of development, customer preference is of paramount importance in any economy. Gone are the days when customers used to come to the doorsteps of banks. Now the banks are required to chase the customers; only those banks which are customercentric and extremely focused on the needs of their clients can succeed in their business today.
