The document analyzes the marketing mix of Ram Lubhaya & Sons (Ralco), a bicycle and automobile tyre manufacturer in India. It finds that: 1) MRF, Dunlop and Ceat dominate the auto tyre market in Ludhiana and Patiala, with Ralco in fourth place in terms of sales and availability. 2) Ralco's product quality and designs are rated satisfactory by dealers but prices slightly higher than competitors and awareness is low. 3) Promotional activities are limited and not well known, but TV ads are seen as most effective. The study suggests increasing promotions, dealerships and offering better deals to boost sales.

1. Summer Training Project
Title: Analysis of Marketing Mix of
Ram Lubhaya &Sons (Ralco)
Under Guidance of: Presented By:
Mr. Sartaj Bajwa Taranpreet Kaur
(Faculty, PCTE) Mba-2(A)

2.  Ralson today stands tall as India's largest company in
the field of bicycle tyre industry.
 Location: Ralson Nagar, GT Road, Ludhiana.
 Led from the front in 1974 by Mr. Sanjeev Pahwa
Chairman-Cum-Managing Director, under the name
“Ralson Cycle Pvt. Ltd.”
 1982: name changed to Ralson Cycle Pvt. Ltd.
 1985: Ralson India Ltd.
 In 2003 a new plant was set up at Doraha for
manufacturing automobile tyres.

3.  Company's turnover has shot up to 500 crores in
2009.
 Presently company is producing:
1. 1.25 Lac tyres & 1.50 Lac tubes per day for bicycles
2. 1 lac tyre, tubes per month for automobile tyres.
 It currently has workforce of about 5000 workmen.
 Distribution network: 31 branches ,13 consignee
agents and 8000 dealers spread all over India.

4.  Ralson is the first Bicycle Tyre manufacturer in India to
be accredited with an ISO 9001:2008 Certification,.
 It provides the widest possible range of tyres & tubes
ensuring that customer aspirations are always and fully
met.
 It has full fledged R&D Lab. Equipped with most
sophisticated testing equipments, duly approved by
Central Govt. of India.
 Ralson’s proactive R & D department fuels momentum
for growth by continuously developing newer sizes and
designs.

5.  Ralson worldwide Export activity is also developing
very quickly.
 Ralco exports are already enjoyed in Europe, South &
Central America, South East Asia, Gulf, Middle East
& African Continent.
 Ralco auto tyres have been developed keeping in
view durability, grip & ruggedness in mind, allowing
Riders to race or ride confidently both on & off-road.

7.  Company has a very comprehensive quality policy
which ensures the production of best quality products.
 It’s a cash reach company i.e. company is 100%
internally financed. The amount of borrowed funds is
very less.
 Company is having big production base (in case of
bicycle tyres) in India company is producing 100000
tyres, 150000 tubes and 20000 hubs every day )

8.  Wide distribution network throughout the country.
 Companies are having the biggest R&D facility in the
industry. And it’s R&D department is recognized by
Department of science and technology, GOI.
 Company has employed best of the technologies
since its inception. It has adopted SAP system since
April 2001.
 It has recently become the first company to make
cycle tyres conforming ISI standards.

9.  Lack of advertisement support
 Lack of market research.

10.  Most of the labor in company comes form states like
U.P. and Bihar. Due to the industrialization in these
states, company is facing acute shortage of labor.
 Labor turnover is very high.
 Increase in prices of raw material e.g. rubber.
 Expensive power and labor.
 Incoming of foreign products and technologies, eg.
Chinese tyres now-a –days which are much cheaper.

11.  There is a huge untapped demand for Ralson tyres in
domestic market.
 Because of globalization, many opportunities for exports
have also opened up.
 Company is also having huge opportunities in other
similar segments like auto tyres as it can enter car tyres
segment.

12. Marketing Mix of Ram Lubhaya & Sons

15.  Ralco practices cost based pricing.
 Ralco prices its products according to the cost incurred on
manufacturing.
 After determining the cost, a certain fixed level of profit is
added to calculate selling price.
 Therefore the reson why prices of Ralco tyres fluctuate
according to increase/ decrease in price of raw materials.

16. The distribution channel of Ralco caters four markets. Viz.
 Export
 Branch networks
 OEM: Original Equipment Manufacturing
 Consignee agents
 Levels of Distribution Channel:
 Zero Level Distribution Channel
 PRODUCER-----------------------EXPORT AGENTS
 Three Level Distribution Channel
 PRODUCER----BRANCH----WHOLESALER-----
RETAILER---CONSUMER

17.  Zero Level Distribution Channel
 PRODUCER---------------------OEM
 Three Level Distribution Channel
 PRODUCER----CONSIGNEE-WHOLESALER--
RETAILER---CONSUMER
AGENT

19.  Ralco Auto Products is a comparatively new venture of Ralson
India Ltd. This study can help the marketing department to
know the position of Ralco Auto Products in the market
amongst its competitors.
 The results of position analysis of Ralco amongst competitors
can help the company to know how far it needs to come in
order to stand amongst the industry leaders.
 To know the perceptions of the Auto dealers in Ludhiana and
Patiala about the marketing mix elements of Ralco auto
Products.
 To help Ralco improve its marketing mix or continue with the
same if it is effective and satisfactory.

20.  To study the various factors affecting purchase preference
for any auto tyre.
 To study attributes of Ralco products viz product quality, price
and design.
 To study effectiveness of promotional tools used by Ralco.

21.  Research methodology is a way to systematically
solve the research problems.
 In it we study the various steps that are generally
adopted by a researcher in studying his research
problem along with logic behind them.
Research design:
 The research design for this research is descriptive or
ex-post facto research.
 It means reporting exactly what has been foun
without any further processing or deductions from
data.

22.  This research involves both primary and
secondary sources of data collection.
 The primary information has been collected from
auto tyre dealers in the form of Schedules.
 The secondary information was gathered from
various company manuals, annual reports,
websites and journals.

23. Research Instrument: Schedules
 In this study, each Auto tyre dealer was approached individually
and asked the questions written in the schedule. If dealer didn’t
understand something, it was explained and then responses were
noted down.
Population :
 Population refers to part of universe from which the sample
for conducting the research is selected.
 The population for this study is finite i.e. all dealers of auto
tyres in Ludhiana and Patiala.
Sampling unit:
 Sampling unit refers to smallest possible individual eligible
respondent. In this study the sampling unit is the individual
Auto tyre dealer.

24. Sampling size
 This refers to the total number of respondents
selected from the universe to constitute a sample.
The sample size of this study is 50.
Sampling frame
 Frame is the list of respondents i.e., list of all Auto
tyre dealers in Ludhiana and Patiala
Sampling technique: non probability convenience.
 This sampling method has been mainly chosen
because of lack of time, lack of my knowledge of tyre
dealers in city, difficulty in approaching very far off
dealers and lack of expertise.

25.  The research done is in a limited area only. The study represents
Ludhiana and Patiala market situation only. Whereas the company
operates not only throughout India but also abroad.
 Although there are numerous auto dealers in the two cities, but
sample size is limited to 50.
 Some dealers may have rendered wrong information about the
product either because of lack of knowledge or due to some
personal grudges with company in the past i.e.biased nature of the
respondents might have crept in while conducting the research.
 Some big wholesale dealers or even some retailers of city refused
to respond because of rush of customers at the shop. Their
response could have been really useful.

26. DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSIONS

27. No. of
Respondents
Percentage
Wholesalers 21 42%
Retailers 13 26%
Both 16 32%
Total 50
Table 4.1

28. No. of Responses Percentage
MRF 42 84%
Dunlop 40 80%
Ceat 39 78%
Ralco 20 40%
Others 22 44%
Table 4.2

29. Contribution to
total sales (in %
units)
Percentage(
%)
Position
MRF 1950 39 1
Dunlop 1145 22.9 2
Ceat 1000 20 3
Ralco 460 9.2 4
Others 445 8.9
Total sales 50000 100
Table 4.3

30. Figure 4.4(a)

31. Figure 4.4(b)
Maximum selling product for other companies’ tyres

32. No. of
Respondent
s
Contribution Mean
Score
Very good(2) 3 6 0.82
Good(1) 38 38
Average(0) 6 0
Poor(-1) 3 -3
Very poor(-2) 0 0
Table 4.5

33. No. of
Respondent
s
Contributio
n
Mean
Score
Very
good(2)
2 4 0.52
Good(1) 28 28
Fair(0) 14 0
Poor(-1) 6 -6
Very poor(-
2)
0 0
Table 4.6

34. No. of
Respondents
Contribution Mean
Score
Very good(2) 5 15 0.72
Good(1) 21 21
Fair(0) 24 0
Poor(-1) 0 0
Very poor(-2) 0 0
Table 4.7

35. Figure 4.8

36. Figure 4.9

37. Table 4.10
No. of
Respondent
s
Contributio
n
Mean Score
Available
with almost
every
dealer(1)
0 0 -0.62
Available
with few
dealers
only(0)
19 0
Available
with very few
31 -31

38. Figure 4.11

39. Figure 4.12

40. Figure 4.13

41.  Majority of the auto tyre dealers sell multiple brands and not a
single brand at their outlets.
 The tyres of MRF, Dunlop and Ceat are available with most of the
dealers in market while Ralco Products are available with less
than half the number of dealers.
 On same lines, comparing the market sales of MRF, Dunlop, Ceat
and Ralco, MRF is the leader followed by Dunlop, Ceat is at
number three while Ralco being at fourth position.
 The maximum selling product of Ralco out of its product range is
the two wheeler tyre i.e. two wheeler tyre is generating maximum
sale out of all the products.

42. Promotions:
 Awareness of promotional tools used by Ralco is pretty low in
market.
 Company salesman approach is the most effective of all the
promotions carried out by Ralco since maximum dealers are
aware of this promotional tool.
 Joint Promotional Schemes are also known to some dealers but
overall awareness of promotional tools is low.
 Most of the dealers think that TV advertisement can prove to be
the most effective promotional tool if used by company.

43.  The dealer network of Ralco in the market is very limited
according to most of the dealers. That is why the availability of
Ralco products is low in the market.
 The dealer study reveals that the dealers prefer other company’s
tyres over Ralco because of customer demand for other brands.
This means the brand awareness for Ralco amongst the customers
is very low as compared to its competitors.
 The study reveals that price is the most important factor in
generating demand for particular brand of tyre in the market.
Awareness of brand amongst customers is second most important
factor, quality being third and tyre dsign being least important.

44. A study of following attributes of Ralco revealed that :
 Tyre Designs: The tyre designs of Ralco are most satisfactory
to dealers out of the three attributes studied. The tyre designs
are nearly good.
 Product Quality- The product quality is a little less
satisfactory than tyre designs as it has been rated exactly
between fair and good.
 Prices- The prices of Ralco are rated slightly above that of
competitors

45. Study of attributes of Ralco products viz. price, design, quality

46.
 Since the customer demand is very low for Ralco , it mainly needs
to improve on its promotional tools in both volume and frequency.
 Being new in market as compared to competitors, Ralco should
make efforts to popularize its brand name in market. This means
creating more brand awareness amongst consumers which can be
done through promotions.
 Company should increase its dealer network in order to enhance
the availability of product in market.
 Company can offer lucrative deals to the dealers eg. slab
discounts, etc.so that more dealers are attracted to buy Ralco
product and hence dealership network of Ralco can be enlarged.

47.  Also this will increase the availability of product in market.,
By offering good deals to dealers, Ralco can also increase its
sales because dealers will encourage volume sales of Ralco to
earn more profits for themselves.
 The company still has huge scope of expansion as for
example, entering car tyres segment or even expansion in
currently operating segments is possible because demand is
exceeding supply in this industry.

48. Schedule
Analysis of Marketing Mix of RAM LUBHAYA & SONS
Q1. What type of business you deal in?
Wholesale Retail Both
Q2. Which out of these companies Auto Tyres do you sell?
 MRF
 Ceat
 Dunlop
 Ralco
 Others (Please Specify)
Q3. Considering your total sale to be 100%, what is the share of each of the
listed companies’ sale of auto products out of 100?
 MRF
 Ceat
 Dunlop
 Ralco
 Others

49. Q4. Which segment of Auto Products (Ralco) do you sell in maximum volumes?
1.Two wheelers 4. LCV
2.Three wheelers 5. ADV
3.E bikes 6.Tractors
Q5. How would you rate tyre designs of Ralco Products?
Very good Good Average Poor Very Poor
Q6. How would you rate Ralco in terms of Product quality?
Very Good Good Fair Poor Very Poor
Q7. How would you rate the prices of Ralco compared to competitors?
Very high High Competitive Low Very Low
Q8. What are the reasons that you go in for companies other than Ralco?
 Better margins
 Customer demand
 Better quality

50. Q9. How important are these factors in generating demand of a particular
brand of tyre in market? (1- most important, 4-least important)
 Price of Tyre
 Design of Tyre
 Quality Of Tyre
 Awareness of brand amongst consumers
Q10. What is your observation regarding availability of Ralco tyres in
market?
 1. Available with almost every dealer
 2. Available with few dealers only
 3. Available with very few dealers
Q11. Which of these promotional tools of Ralco have you come across till
date?
 Print advertisement
 Hoardings
 Tyre Stands, Calendars, Etc.(JPS)
 Company Salesman approach
 None

51. Q12. Which tool do you think can be most effective for promotion of Ralco?
 TV ads
 Hoardings
 Print Advertisements
 Joint promotion schemes
Q13. Which attributes of Ralco Auto Products need improvement?
 Product Quality
 Pricing policy
 Promotion
 Replacement policy
 None