International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications, Volume 4, Issue 9, September 2014 1 ISSN 2250-3153 www.ijsrp.org An Analysis of Factors Responsible in Making Retailer for Selection of a Cement Brand and Further Expectation from Cement Companies for Competitive Marketing of Cement Arijit Maity Research Scholar, University of Calcutta Abstract- In India, there are multiple cement brands available in the market which makes the brands selection a difficult process. The project focuses on studying the major factors retailer consider important compare to other factors in selecting cement for their retail business. This will give an insight into the market and try to identify the major product features and services expected by the retailer from the cement companies. Exploratory research was done initially with sample size 10 which include individual home builder, masons, engineer/architect, contractors, builders and dealer to get an insight into the product features and services they are aware off and the variables that influence the selection of cement. The questionnaire listing various factors affecting their selection process was further modified and administered with a sample of 100 retailers. Further, the author applied factor analysis to summarize the major factors that influenced decision making process using SPSS software. Index Terms- Cement, channel, influencers, product features, services, retailer etc. I. INTRODUCTION arious cement companies in West Bengal (ACC, Ambuja, Ultratech, Lafarge, Jaypee, Konark, Rashmi) claim to produce cement as per grade of BIS standards which are 33, 43 and 53 grade cement, so there is hardly any scope for differentiation in product of various cement companies and even they market cement and attempt to prove that they are different and better than other cement manufacturer quality wise. The multiple brands available in the market make the brands selection a difficult process. As majority of customer lack basic understanding regarding technical aspect of cement, it becomes a highly difficult task to convince the customer about the superiority of any particular brand over other brands. So there is a need to identify and understand the retailer behavior in selecting cement on basis of present product features and services being offered, and their further needs and services expected by them which will help them in offering differentiated product to the end customer. 1.1 Objective of this research The Study attempts to cover the following areas: - To explore the cement product features that a retailer looks upon - To explore the services that a retailer looks upon during selection process of cement. To factorize various cement product features and services provided as perceived by retailer. Based on those factors suggest suitable measures to improve the penetration rate to various retailer segment through specific promotion campaigns which will help in offering differentiated product. To summarize the effort, the first and second objectives involve exploring and involve reviewing the literature related to cement selection process and cement product features/services. The third part involves research design, data analysis and major interpretation of the results from a survey questionnaire administered to the respondents. Finally the analysis of the research findings, the marketing implications and inferences and limitation of the study presented and general conclusions are drawn. II. LITERATURE SURVEY Doyle P (2002) in his book „‟ Marketing Management and Strategy‟‟, states that a market consists of customers with similar needs. But customer in market is never homogenous. They differ in the benefits they wanted. Very few products or services can satisfy all the customers in a market. Not all the customers want or are prepared to pay for the same thing. Jobber, D (2007) states the objective is to identify groups of customers with similar requirements so that they can be served effectively while being of sufficient size for the products or services to be supplied sufficiently. Jobber, D (2007) explains briefly that creating a differential advantage involves using a marketing mix to create something special for the customer. Jobber presents four keys to successful positioning: a) Clarity: b) Consistency: c) Credibility: d) Competitiveness. Perceived quality of a Brand is the customer‟s judgment about a product‟s overall excellence or superiority that is different from objective quality (Zeithaml 1988, pp. 3 and 4). Objective quality refers to the technical, measurable and verifiable nature of products/services, processes and quality controls. Since it‟s impossible for consumers to make complete and correct judgments of the objective quality, they use, quality V