IQRA UNIVERSITY RESEARCH CENTER (IURC)
IQRA UNIVERSITY-IU
RESEARCH PROPOSAL
Thesis-1
Research Title:
Controlling Grey Market Leakage to Improve Supply Chain Profitability
Introduction (literature based):
Informal sector of any economy comprises of all production of goods and service which contributes to official gross national product but not in books of government or officials. Shadow economy, black/grey economy, underground economy, parallel economy, ‘off the book’ and ‘under the table’ comes under a larger umbrella of informal sector. With every passing day economic activities are increasing and making this world a global village. Thanks to channel members that spread the product from manufacturer to final consumer with the help of set of distributors that are present worldwide. But this growing market can cause unwitting customers to buy a product from unauthorised distributor, buy the product which not made for that particular region or country, buy with warranty that is not authentic or worse is buying a counterfeit product. Concept of grey market takes under the consideration of leakage from regular (formal) supply chain inform of finished/semi-finished or raw products. This leakage is mainly done in form two ways. One is theft and other in counterfeit products. In simple word the difference between the two, is nature of the product. If original product is being sold through unauthorized distribution network, this means that its theft from formal supply chain. That is again caused by several reasons and in different forms. On the other hand if the product in not genuine, than its problem of counterfeit product (product that is replica of original)
Every year, goods being sold in grey are runnin...
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...eakage of product in grey market. Grey market is not influencing manufacturer only, brand image and consumer are also victim of this serious problem. This research primarily focuses on remedies to problem of leakage of product in grey market.
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List of References:
Myers, M. B. (1999). Incidents of gray market activity among U.S. exporters: occurrences, characteristics, and consequences. Journal of International Business Studies, 30, 105-126.
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Thesis Supervisor Head Research IURC
Office of Industries, U.S. International Trade Commission.(2009).Export controls: an overview of their use, economic effects, and treatment in the global trading system. Retrieved from United States International Trade Commission http://www.usitc.gov/publications/332/working_papers/ID-23.pdf
The presence of established competitors poses the biggest threat to Salomon. Customers create a high demand for products in the ski and snowboard equipment industry. Salomon enjoys buyer loyalty, but if they are unable to complete production in time to meet customers’ demand, customers will purchase products from other companies. The primary threat of new entrants comes from internet sellers, but Salomon has customers that are loyal and it would be difficult for new entrants to achieve the same level of brand loyalty. The threat of substitute products also provides a small threat, with the potential for counterfeit products to dilute the brand value as a
Reuter, Peter. The Organization of Illegal Markets: An Economic Analysis. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1985.
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People are buying the product which gives them prestige. Marketers have interest on consumer psychology and they are playing with every day by showing that their product will give prestige in the society. It’s true that the transparent societies now needs brands image. Marketers analyze the interest and needs of consumer than create the product according to the need of the society. Brand can attain the people attraction and the business can have the good reputation by giving satisfaction to consumer. If the brand gives satisfaction and function are according to the expectation of consumer than the brand gets good image on the mind of consumer. brand image is great weapon to use for the competitors it builds in years , at once the business gets brand image it has competitive edge from other brands in the market. When consumer rely on the brand the company can create the long term relation with the consumer, in other words (CRM) consumer relationship management. The brand image has effect on the choice of every individual there believe and attitude change their preferences. Brand image can be effected by price as price is an important part for consumer when they are making purchase decision if they find the value of brand is equal to the pricing they purchase that brand if not they refuse it. Similarly the image of brand can be effected by the attributes and features or
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...arrell, P. N. & Wood, P. A. (1994). International Market Selection by Business Service Firms: Key Conceptual and Methodological Issues. International Business Review, 3(3), 243-261.
Difficult to regain trust of existing loyal customers who expected high quality and performance when in competition with other firms in upper trade market.
...w. This is because consumers’ were not aware about these brand products due to the lack of promotion and advertising to grab the attention of consumers’ about their brand. In addition, the locations of the KR1M shops also were far from the consumers’ residents. So consumers’ were preferred nearest shops rather than wasting their time to search KR1M shop. This is because, in consumers’ mind the KR1M products have a medium of quality that not really bothers them as much as the well-known brand that have a high quality. For the manufacturer brand products, the purchase intention was high. This is because the manufacturer brand products were well known and it has their own brand image in consumers’ mind. Other than that, consumers’ also have more knowledge about these products due to aggressive promotion by the manufacturers through mass media and also printed media.
Fake brands become popular such as in electronics, watches and wear. These fake brands found in every place like in the street, store and even in malls. These fake brands consider counterfeit products of original products such as shirts, phones, shoes, headphones and headset. Fake brands should be prohibited because it is formed from low materials which will be seen as low quality, these counterfeit products make companies of the original products lose much money and it makes diseases such as counterfeit products of headset.