General Questions Answered

Who buys this item ?

As a leading daily hair care product, all age groups can be a potential buyer for this item. This hair oil can be used on a daily basis and so potential buyers range across most of the age groups and genders.

What problems will this product solve?

Parachute hair oil has all the natural benefits of coconut oil known since the ancient times. It prevents hair damage and loss as pure coconut oil has high affinity for hair proteins and penetrates hair shaft easily thus repairing damaged parts. It also has cooling properties and is highly effective for people who have severe scalp sweating. Parachute oil has high moisture retaining capacity and keeps hair moist and soft, effectively preventing hair breakage. Apart from all these Parachute hair oil provides natural solutions to various hair problems like toning of dry hair, prevents breakage and split ends and helps in reducing baldness and graying of hair. Various fatty acids present in the oil serve as anti dandruff agents and provide natural hair conditioning, better than most chemical hair products available.

Which attributes are important and why? 

Certain attributes of  Parachute oil make it a highly successful product. Along with daily hair care, the oil can also be used for hair toning and hair conditioning. The hair oil also has anti bacterial and anti fungal properties. Regular application of this oil seals in hair moisture and shields hair protein against environmental impurities and heat. The pure coconut oil extracts used is a rich source of Vitamin E and Vitamin K which prevents hair falls and promotes thick hair growth.

If this decision is the first time, how will it go? If it is repeat, how will it be? 

For the first time decision to use the product is purely based on how the product is marketed and as a buyer how at one glance it can be seen as a solution to the problems that the user is facing. The product should appeal to the user as a value added one and should fit into their budget. The repeat depends on how the customer relates to the brand after using it. Its value for money, competition and its position over other products of the same genre is considered. The product will be bought again by the customer if it successfully satisfies all such conditions.

How was the deliberation in your head?

It is a daily use product which has a good potential because of its huge consumer base. Anyone and everyone uses it(any income group).

Buying Behaviour and Process

Analyzing Cosumer Behaviour:

An analysis of the factors influencing customer behaviour helps understand the customer well and the manner in which he/she can be approached with the product. Parachute hair oil is being used since ages and gives an assurance to customers about its purity and value. It is a part of social custom in the Indian society to use this product. Consumers located in extreme weather conditions particularly use Parachute hair oil. Therefore we see that understanding how a consumer behaves essentially helps establish “universal specificity”.

Consumer Buying Process:

The customer's psychology of buying the product gives useful insight about their beliefs, thoughts, feelings and perceptions about brand .This understanding tells us how they opt to buy one product over other. It also helps in identifying ways in which one can connect with your customers prompting them to relate to the goods offered.

There are five stages of Consumer Buying Process

These provide an understanding as to what goes in the mind of a potential customer before buying parachute and how far has Parachute been able to take advantage of this knowledge.

1. Need Recognition:

Oiling is a traditional habit in India. Indians have always liked long hair. However, now the trend is changing to different hair styles, the need for soft, strong, thick and healthy hair has remained constant over years. The consumer therefore wants hair oil. Parachute very successfully has satisfied this need by providing a variety of quality hair oil products. The major challenge in front of it is to find customers in younger generation. The young generation prefers using shampoos over hair oil. To bridge the gap, Parachute came out with its campaign which talks of all the goodness of hair oil with an imagery that’s young and aspiring. This was done for Parachute Advanced Hot Oil which gives deep conditioning in just 20 minutes

2. Information Search:

Customers usually buy product after doing some amount of research and information initially. This research is usually carried out by asking family, relatives, friends, dealer or suppliers, observing packaging displays, visiting websites and browsing advertising and product ratings. One interesting thing about Indian customers is that they are very choosy when it comes to buy things as they often need to physically touch and feel the product. Parachute is a popular brand due to its long presence. Parachute makes sure information about its product is reached to its potential customers by online shopping sites, social media sites which not only display the product but also provide important features about product and rate the product, TV advertisements and print . The packaging of parachute also elaborately gives import details like composition, value-add,  contact details, price, customer service details, etc so that customer  fully informed.

3. Evaluation of alternative:

Customers often purchase after evaluating all options available. Evaluation is based on beliefs; attitudes; perceived customer value; risk involved; design and packaging; present situation and socio-economic factors of an individual. Parachute provides wide range of options within hair oil section with bottles available in different sizes, volumes and prices. The packaging is attractive, travel friendly, elegant, aesthetically appealing,  and leak proof with product and customer service details at the back of pack.

4. Purchase decision:

Parachute has retained its position as high purity and quality hair oil product. In fact it has a tremendously huge base of loyal customers hence is low risk product. Parachute has always given importance to the concept of oiling for healthy long lasting hair being the favorite brand of all generations. It projects itself as a part of every household.

5. Post purchase behavior:

Sale of the product is not the end. For a brand to create loyal customers, it must give them experiences to believe that their initial decision to buy the product was correct. Every parachute package carries address, email id and phone number  of Marico Consumer Services Cell to be open to customer feed backs. The website of parachute advance hair oil also has contact details and mail id for consumer queries. The website of Parachute Advanced Hair Oil also offers its consumers an opportunity to be part of its promotion future campaigns. Customers simply need to send their experience stories about Parachute and any possible recommendation for brand.

Introduction

Introduction to Parachute:

Parachute as a name stands for an important market leader in branded hair oil segment. In fact Parachute was the first to sell coconut oil in plastic. To be successful over years, the brand had well planned market strategy which began with an understanding. Short, long, straight curly, wavy, black, blonde or colored etc, hair forms an important part of the females, hence there exists a basic need to have a healthy hair. Since people desired for shiny long hair and were willing to pay to buy the best quality product, there was a great demand in branded hair oil segment which Marico still continues to capitalize with the launch of ‘Parachute’ in 1990.

The values Parachute promises and how does it deliver?

Customer Perceived Value is the  signifies the difference between the prospective customer's evaluation of all the benefits and all the costs of an offering and the perceived alternatives.

Total Customer Benefit is the perceived monitory value of the bundle of economic, functional and psychological benefits customers expect from a given market offering because of the product, service, people and image.

Total Customer Cost is the perceived costs customers expect to incur in evaluating, obtaining, using and disposing of the given market offering, including monitory, time, energy and psychological costs.

Customer perceived Value of Parachute Hair Oil:

1. Availability and Accessibility

Parachute has a fairly good distribution channel. About 33 lac retail outlets across India are covered by it.

2. Cost

Parachute provides a various options to the customer to suit his/her pocket size.

                          

3. Quality and Compliance

Parachute always prides itself and uses 100% purity and quality motto for promotion.

4. Delivery

Parachute has a strong and most innovative distribution network which makes sure product is available to the customer on time.

5. Variety

It provides variants in the form of Parachute Coconut hair oil (hair oil with nourishing nutrients of coconut), Parachute Advanced hair oil (rich hair oil ), Parachute Jasmine hair oil (Lingering fragrance delivered in a completely non-sticky format), Parachute Therapie(A Therapeutic solution to reduce hair fall in 45 days), Parachute Advanced Starz hair oil (specially created for kids of 3-10 years).

6. Utility (Natural nourishment of hair)

Parachute uses natural ingredients mostly in pure form providing the oil with nourishing effect on damaged hair and revitalizes it so that traditional customers can boast about their long shiny hair while youth can experiment with their hair fearlessly.

7. Experience

Parachute has been able to provide customers additional goods with their product. To give an example, Parachute Advansed Personal Champi is a combination pack consisting of a Parachute Advanced 300 ml bottle and a head massager; Parachute Advanced Hot Champi is a combination pack consisting of hair oil warmer and a bottle of Parachute Advanced coconut hair oil.

8. Convenience

Parachute was the first of its kind selling oil in plastic bottles. Also it is the first brand which came up with idea of selling hair oil in small bottle shaped tubes for 1 rupee in rural market.

9. Packaging and Appeal

The Packaging of parachute has been also attractive and new which entices the customer to take notice. The packaging is done in bottles of different shapes, sizes and color. The color theme of parachute is green, blue and white. The packaging is simple and user friendly. It usually has flip-flop cap so that it can have no leakage of oil even when the bottle is flipped upside down. Packaging in certain variants make sure the oil doesn't freeze during winters while others make sure its fragrance stays long even after being opened.