A PROJECT REPORT

On

"Study of Consumer Behavior regarding Fastening & Demolition Tools in the Interior Finish Trade"
At

Submitted by: Ankit D Jethani FORE School of Management

Acknowledgement
I would like to express my profound gratitude towards HILTI India Pvt Ltd for giving me the opportunity to do a Summer Internship with the company and be a part of the HILTI family. The training has been one of enlightenment and immense learning. The project report in totality is a truly satisfying experience. It carries with it a modest sense of achievement; hard work of two months has borne fruit. I extend my sincere and heartfelt gratitude to my project guide Mr. Ashutosh Kumar Rai (Trade Manager), Mr. Suresh Arora (Trade Executive, Interior Finishing & Facade) and Mr. Manek Arora (Director, Strategic Business) who have patiently and affectionately seen me through the project and without their constant monitoring and support I would have not done justice to the projects. Their able guidance has played a vital role right from day one.
I am greatly indebted to Prof. Mohita G Sharma (Faculty, FORE School of Management) for his invaluable guidance and direction provided to me in the course of the study.

A special word of thanks goes to all the interior contractors who gave their valuable time and inputs for the whole exercise of Market Research and helping me to carry out my endeavors in the right direction. I would like to express my gratitude towards everyone not mentioned, of the company for all the help and information I needed to complete this project

Thank You. Date: 06-June-2011 Place: New Delhi (Ankit D Jethani)

Table of Contents
Acknowledgement ............................................................................................................................... 2 List of Tables ........................................................................................................................................ 4 Chapter 1 Research Objective .................................................................................................................. 5 Chapter 2 Research Design ...................................................................................................................... 6 1. 2. 3. 4. Data Collection ......................................................................................................................... 6 Questionnaire Design ............................................................................................................... 8 Sampling Design ..................................................................................................................... 11 Fieldwork ............................................................................................................................... 11

Chapter 3 Data Analysis: Methodology .................................................................................................. 12 Chapter 4 Results & Findings ................................................................................................................. 13 1. Relationship between Annual Turnover (less than 50 Lakhs) and importance given to various parameters. ................................................................................................................................... 13 2. Relationship between Annual Turnover (50 Lakhs to 1 Crore) and importance given to various parameters. ................................................................................................................................... 14 3. Relationship between Annual Turnover (More than 1 Crore) and importance given to various parameters. ................................................................................................................................... 15 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. Most Preferred Tool Manufacturing Company ........................................................................ 16 Most Common Domain with respect to Interior Finishing ....................................................... 19 Sub-Contraction of Work ........................................................................................................ 20 Nature of Projects Undertaken ............................................................................................... 21 Major Tools & Systems being Used ......................................................................................... 22 Knowledge about Firestop Sealants ........................................................................................ 23 Source of Procurement of Tools & Systems......................................................................... 24 Most Commonly Used Anchors/Fasteners .......................................................................... 25 Performance Satisfaction .................................................................................................... 26

Chapter 5 Limitations............................................................................................................................. 27 Chapter 6 Conclusion & Recommendation ............................................................................................. 28

List of Tables
Figure 1: Purchase preference of Interior Contractors (Annual Turnover of less than 50 Lakhs).............. 13 Figure 2:Purchase preference of Interior Contractors (Annual Turnover of 50 Lakhs to 1 Crore) ............. 14 Figure 3: Purchase preference of Interior Contractors (Annual Turnover of more than 1 Crore) ............. 15 Figure 4: Most Commonly used Tool Manufacturing Co. ........................................................................ 16 Figure 5: Most preferred Tool Manf Co for Contractors (turnover of less than 50 Lakhs) ........................ 17 Figure 6: Most preferred Tool Manf Co for Contractors (turnover of 50 Lakhs to 1 crore) ...................... 18 Figure 7: Most preferred Tool Manf Co for Contractors (turnover of more than 1 crore) ........................ 18 Figure 8: Most common domain in Interior Finishing Trade ................................................................... 19 Figure 9: Sub contraction of Work.......................................................................................................... 20 Figure 10: Projects Undertaken .............................................................................................................. 21 Figure 11: Major Tools/Systems in Use .................................................................................................. 22 Figure 12: Knowledge about Firestop Sealants ....................................................................................... 23 Figure 13: Procurement Pattern ............................................................................................................. 24 Figure 14: Most Commonly Used Anchors/Fasteners ............................................................................. 25 Figure 15: Performance Satisfaction....................................................................................................... 26

Chapter 1 Research Objective

1. Primary Objective To understand how Contractors/Decorators in the Interior Finish Trade go about purchasing Fastening & Demolition tools/equipments and what are the critical influencing parameters in their purchase decision.

2. Secondary Objective y To find the degree of acceptance of new products in the Interior Finish Trade such as "Firestop Sealants" y y To find out the level of contraction & sub contraction of work in interior finish trade To understand the importance a contractor gives to the various parameters while purchasing a tool/equipment.

Chapter 2 Research Design

The research process undertaken to satisfy the above mentioned objectives is on the lines of an exploratory research as the purpose of this research is to provide the adequate information to the management of the company to engage in further detailed and conclusive research. The idea behind conducting this research is to find out few of the critical factors which influence the purchasing behavior of a contractor while purchasing various tools & equipments used in his trade.

1. Data Collection In order to conduct the research various sources of data gathering were considered in order to give a brief understanding required about the construction industry in India and Interior Trade in particular. Background knowledge of the Interior Finishing Industry, the various tools used, the major players in this trade, parameters used to judge the various tools and equipments and basic know how of the industry was gained through the help of colleagues in HILTI India and Secondary sources.

Few of the domains of Interior Finish were identified as follows: a) Door & Window Frames b) False Ceilings c) Dry Walls d) Raised Floorings e) Woodwork f) UPVC Installations

Also Tools & Equipments being used regularly in the interior finish trade were identified as follows: a) Laser Measuring Systems b) Laser Leveling & Aligning Systems c) Conventional / Traditional Tools (Water Tube Level, Total Station) d) Power Tools

e) Drill Machines (Hammer Drills) f) Breakers g) Grinders h) Diamond Cutting i) Electrical Saws ( For Wood, Rebar & Metal) j) Screw Fastening Tools k) Screws l) Anchors & Fasteners m) Filling Foam / Sealants

Few of the competitors of HILTI India were identified as follows: a) Bosch b) DeWalt c) Black & Decker d) Chinese Imports & Local Made

It was through a preliminary discussion with a few of the interior contractors that the following parameters were listed as critical influencing factors while purchasing tools & equipments in the interior finish trade a) Life (Durability) b) Performance c) Power d) Sound e) Energy Consumption f) Ease of Operation g) Price h) Ruggedness i) Safety j) Load Bearing Capacity

2. Questionnaire Design The questionnaire was framed keeping in mind the objective of the research. The questions covered all the important aspects such as domains currently operating in, tools & systems being used and the most significant part being required to rate the importance level of various parameters used to judge a tool. 1. Preliminary Decisions: a. Objectives: The questionnaire is framed around 2 sub-objectives of the main objective to understand the purchasing preference of Interior Contractors, which are: i. To find out which all tools do they use regularly and the source of their procurement. ii. To figure out the importance of the various parameters as mentioned above.

b. Target respondents: Interior Decorators & Contractors located in Delhi/NCR, the details of whom were gathered before hand through secondary sources and then subsequently approached in order to obtain their responses. c. Method of communication: Personal Face to Face

2. Design: Question 1: What domains do you currently operate in?

This basic reason for this question to be asked first up is that it helps to gather a brief knowledge of the contractor, as in what all domains does he operate in and this would lead subsequently in identifying which are the major areas in which Interior Decorators & Contractors usually operate in.

Question 2:

Do you sub-contract your work?

This question tries to find out how the Interior Decoration Industry operates in general with respect to the degree of contraction and sub-contraction of work to be done.

Question 3:

Which type of Projects do you primarily undertake?

This question is asked so as to find out whether the natures of projects determine the choice of tools/systems of the various Interior Decorators/Contractors.

Question 4:

What all tools / systems do you use regularly / frequently?

This idea behind this question is that it reveals the use of the various tools/systems and therefore allows us to find out the reasons/correlation, if any to other variables.

Question 5: How do you procure these tools & systems? This question helps us to see the preference of the interior decorator/contractor while purchasing his tools/equipments. If a contractor buys from a local store (dealer) this might suggest that his requirements are general in nature and his use of tools/equipments is restricted to that of day-to-day activity whereas the interaction with the manufacturing company while purchasing the tools suggests that his requirements vary a lot and tools/equipments he orders are specific to the requirements of the projects at hand.

Question 6: Which Tool Manufacturing Company do you prefer? This question is very significant as it gives the preference of the contractors with respect to tools/equipments used by them and the company can gain knowledge regarding the share of mind of its different competitors so as to know which all competitors are major threats and how much is their brand value as perceived by customers.

Question 7: Which Anchors / Fasteners do you use? The aim of this question is to find out the market potential of the anchors/fasteners segment in interior finish trade as this has been the segment with the maximum growth for HILTI India for the past few years. Question 8: Have you heard of Firestop Sealants? This question is asked in order to gain insight into the awareness among interior decorators/contractors with respect to new product segments being introduced and the acceptance of the same in the day-today operations of the customers.

Question 9: Are you satisfied with their performance? The idea behind this question is to find out what is the post purchase mindset of the contractors with respect to the tools/equipments they use. It also helps the organization to identify what all problems its customers are facing so as to work upon them in the future to increase its customer satisfactions levels. Question 10: How important are the following parameters in a Tool/Fastener for you This is the most important question of the entire questionnaire as the responses obtained from this question helps us to analyze and identify which all parameters are the most significant and how do they correspond to other variables present in the questionnaire. This question also helps us to find out the influencing factors while purchasing a tool/equipment by the interior decorator/contractor. Question 11: No of Employees This helps us to gain knowledge about the interior decorator/contractor and the size of his operations although with the degree of sub-contraction existing in this industry the measurement of the size of the organization through this variable would lead us to wrong conclusions. Question 12: Annual Turnover This variable is a far better parameter to judge the size of the organization and it also solves the purpose of the analysis since this variable is categorical in nature. However, due to the lack of trust and the notion which leads people to misrepresent their turnover and deliberate falsification of responses when it comes to income/turnover can also lead to wrong conclusions.

It should also be noted that the annexed questionnaire has gone through various major changes which have been incorporated after insights from my colleagues at HILTI India, my supervisors and also due to various recommendations made by the interior decorators/contractors that I interacted during my initial days of field visits.

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3. Sampling Design The sampling technique chosen for the market research purposes was basically Non-Probability Sampling. Further, sampling done for the research purposes can be said to be Convenience Sampling and Snowball Sampling. In the first part of my project I was required to create a database for HILTI India which comprised of the contact details of various Interior Decorators/Contractors all over India. It was from this database that I choose various interior decorators/contractors on the basis of geographic convenience. Also upon my interaction with the interior decorators/contractors during my field visits I used to gather information on any more interior decorators/contractors existing in the same locality which were not included in my database so as to increase the productivity of my field visit to that particular region of New Delhi.

In order to reduce the sampling error, distinction from Interior Designers and Architects was made. This distinction was made from the background check of the interior decorators/contractors done with the help of various online trade directories such as 'Infomedia Yellow Pages' , 'Justdial.com' , 'getit.in' & etc.

The sample size considered for the project was of 39 respondents.

4. Fieldwork This study is primarily exploratory in nature and is based on Primary Data and Secondary data. The primary data was collected by one to one interview with the respondents and secondary data was collected from various websites and reports. During the interview process, the respondents were asked questions from a predesigned questionnaire and the responses were noted down on the questionnaire. Respondents were free to add their own perspectives/remarks about the market which were noted down at end of the questionnaire. The preference of the respondents for products of a particular make was studied by observation.

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Chapter 3 Data Analysis: Methodology

In order to discover patterns and interpret the collected responses from the 39 respondents we relied mainly on the use of Bar Charts, Pie Diagrams & etc. The whole exercise of market research would go in vain if proper care is not paid to this part of the project. To make proper utilization of resources spent on this project it is was critical that the results of this study are coherent for the company and the company can make use of the findings to supplement their business strategy for the Interior Finishing Trade. In order to distinguish the purchase preferences within the sample, 3 categories were made of the annual turnover variable and then the mean scores were stacked against each other for the three categories in order to discover the difference in their purchase behavior. Based on these findings HILTI India can mould its strategies in order to increase its market share in the Interior Finish Trade. Apart from the above analysis, a series of charts and diagrams are used to figure out various patterns of sub-contraction, most preferred tool manufacturing company, knowledge about firestop sealants and etc.

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Chapter 4 Results & Findings

1. Relationship between Annual Turnover (less than 50 Lakhs) and importance given to various parameters. The following bar graph shows the preference of the 14 respondents (those having an annual turnover of less than 50 Lakhs) out of a total of 39 respondents that took the survey. As we can see, it was evaluated on a 5 point scale where 5 were given to the Most Important and 1 to the Least Important. The score of all the respondents for each field was then added up and mean was taken out. The mean score is shown in the graph below. The Y-axis mentions the various parameters and the X-axis shows the mean score that each parameter/field scored.
Figure 1: Purchase preference of Interior Contractors (Annual Turnover of less than 50 Lakhs)

Saftey Load Bearing Capacity Performance Power Life Price Ruggedness Energy Consumption Ease of Operation Sound 4.00 4.10 4.29 4.29 4.20 4.30 4.40 4.50 4.60 4.43 4.36 4.36

4.86 4.79 4.79 4.71 4.71

4.70

4.80

4.90

No of Observations = 14

As can be seen from Figure 1, the top 3 purchase influencing parameters and their mean scores are: a) Safety(4.86) b) Load Bearing Capacity (4.79) c) Performance (4.79) The mean score given to Price is 4.43 and is ranked 6th out of the 10 parameters.

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2. Relationship between Annual Turnover (50 Lakhs to 1 Crore) and importance given to various parameters. The following bar graph shows the preference of the 6 respondents (those having an annual turnover of 50 Lakhs to 1 Crore) out of a total of 39 respondents that took the survey.
Figure 2: Purchase preference of Interior Contractors (Annual Turnover of 50 Lakhs to 1 Crore)

Performance Safety Ease of Operation Load Bearing Life Power Ruggedness Sound Price Energy Consumption 0.00 1.00 2.00 3.67 3.50 3.50 3.00 4.00 4.00 4.33

5.00 4.83 4.83 4.67 4.67

5.00

No of Observations = 6

As can be seen from Figure 2, the top 3 purchase influencing parameters and their mean scores are: a) Performance(5.00) b) Safety (4.83), c) Ease of Operation (4.83) The mean score given to Price is 3.5 and is ranked last out of the 10 parameters. Through this chart we can clearly see that the importance laid on the various parameters by Interior Contractors having an annual turnover of 50 lakhs to 1 crore is quite different from those having a turnover of less than 50 lakhs. The most significant difference can be seen on the 'Price' parameter from being ranked at 6th in the previous category it shifts drastically down to the last rank.

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3. Relationship between Annual Turnover (More than 1 Crore) and importance given to various parameters. The following bar graph shows the preference of the 17 respondents (those having an annual turnover of more than 1 Crore) out of a total of 39 respondents that took the survey.
Figure 3: Purchase preference of Interior Contractors (Annual Turnover of more than 1 Crore)

Safety Load Bearing Capacity Performance Power Ease of Operation Life Price Energy Consumption Ruggedness Sound 0.00 1.00 2.00 No of Observations = 17 3.00 4.35 4.29 4.18 4.00 4.00 3.94 3.76 4.00

4.76 4.71 4.71

5.00

As can be seen from Figure 3, the top 3 purchase influencing parameters and their mean scores are: a) Safety (4.76) b) Load Bearing Capacity(4.71) c) Performance (4.71) The mean score given to Price is 4.0 and is ranked 8th out of the 10 parameters.

From the above three figures we can clearly see that parameters such as 'safety', 'performance' and 'load bearing capacity' are the most crucial influencing parameters when an Interior Contractor purchases his tools/equipments. Also the 'price' of a tool/equipment tends to move down the list of the critical influencing parameters as the turnover of the interior contractors increase.

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4. Most Preferred Tool Manufacturing Company The following column chart shows the preference of the 39 respondents that took the survey. The score of all the respondents for each field was then added up. The total count for each Tool Manufacturing Co is shown in the graph below. The Y-axis mentions the total no of interviewed respondents who preferred the particular company and the X-axis shows the various tools manufacturing companies.
Figure 4: Most Commonly used Tool Manufacturing Co.

40 35 30 25 20 15 15 10 5 4 0 Bosch DeWalt Black & Decker Hilti Chinese Imports Local Made 12 14 24 34

As can be seen from the above figure the most preferred tool manufacturing company for the interviewed respondents is Bosch which was opted by 34 respondents, next comes the imported Chinese tools which were opted by 24 of the respondents. From the above figure we can clearly see that HILTI in not among the Top 3 brands and the Brand recall Value of HILTI India is quite low. This clearly gives us an avenue which HILTI India should work upon.

To look more clearly into the preference of interior contractors regarding the various tool manufacturing companies, let us divide the above said sample size on the basis of their turnover and then look for differences among the various categories.

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Three categories are made for the same a) Less than 50 Lakhs b) 50 Lakhs to 1 Crore c) More than 1 Crore The following bar graph shows the preference of the tool manufacturing company for 14 respondents (those having an annual turnover of less than 50 Lakhs) out of a total of 39 respondents that took the survey. The preference for all the respondents for each company was summed to obtain a total count. The Y-axis mentions the various companies and the X-axis shows the total count score for each particular tool manufacturing company.
Figure 5: Most preferred Tool Manf Co for Contractors (turnover of less than 50 Lakhs)

Chinese Imports Bosch Local Made Black & Decker DeWalt Hilti
0

11 10 8 1 1 0
2 4 6 8 10 12

No of Observations = 14

As can be seen from Figure 5, interior contractors in this category clearly prefer Chinese Imported Tools and Bosch. Out of the 14 respondents none of them answered their preference for tool manufacturing company by HILTI India. However much thought should not be paid to these findings since the target market for HILTI tools is not this particular demographic.

Similar results are also seen from Figure 6, which says that interior contractors having an annual turnover of 50 lakhs to 1 Crore (6 respondents out of a total of 39) also prefer Bosch and Chinese imported tools. However, from the perspective of HILTI India only one of the respondent replied

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with preference for HILTI tools this is an area that can be looked into as the demographic having an annual turnover of 50 lakhs to 1 crore can prove to be a lucrative market for HILTI Tools.
Figure 6: Most preferred Tool Manf Co for Contractors (turnover of 50 Lakhs to 1 crore)

Bosch Chinese Imports Black & Decker Local Made Hilti DeWalt 0

6 5 4 2 1 0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7

No of Observations = 6

Figure 7: Most preferred Tool Manf Co for Contractors (turnover of more than 1 crore)

Bosch Hilti Black & Decker Chinese Imports Local Made DeWalt
0 2

16 10 10 7 4 3
4 6 8 10 12 14 16

No of Observations = 17

As can be seen from figure 7, interior contractors having an annual turnover of over 1 crore (17 respondents) have ranked HILTI and Black & Decker as a joint second below Bosch. Also the preference of Chinese imported & local made tools has taken a sharp decrease and is not amongst the preferred tools for the contractors having turnover of more than 1 Crore.

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5. Most Common Domain with respect to Interior Finishing In the following column chart we have tried to analyze the responses of the 39 respondents with regard to their current operations as in which all domains do they currently operate in. The Yaxis mentions the total count of interior contractors who currently operate in a particular domain and the X-axis shows the various domains of the interior finishing trade.

Figure 8: Most common domain in Interior Finishing Trade

35 30 30 25 20 15 15 10 5 0 17 18 23 26 26 27

As can be seen clearly from figure 8, 'Woodwork' is the most common domain of interior finishing as 30 respondents out of a total of 39 answered that they currently undertake 'Woodwork'. Apart from that 'Door & Window Frames', 'Raised Flooring' & 'False Ceilings' are also the major domains in which interior contractors operate in. UPVC Installations on the other hand have the lowest count in all domains signifying that this activity is undertaken by only a minority of interior contractors.

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6. Sub-Contraction of Work

Through the following Pie Chart we have tries to show the degree of Sub-Contraction in the Interior Finishing Trade.
Figure 9: Sub contraction of Work

10%

Yes

No

90%

As we can see from the above figure, 90 % of the respondents answered that they Sub-Contract their work; this clearly shows that the level of sub contraction in the Interior Contraction Industry is huge and almost all of the players in this industry engage in sub contraction of some or the other kind of work. However when asked specifically regarding sub contraction, the contractors said that they do not sub contract all their work but since they can't have expertise and operate in all domains they generally focus on 2-3 domains of interior finishing and for the rest they sub contract their work.

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7. Nature of Projects Undertaken The various projects in the Interior Finishing Trade can divided among two categories i.e. Residential & Commercial. Therefore with the help of the following Pie Chart we have tried to analyze the working patterns of interior contractors.
Figure 10: Projects Undertaken

20% Bot

Only Residential 54% 26% Only Commercial

As we can see from the above figure 54% of the respondents said that they undertook projects of both residential and commercial nature. However only 26% of the respondents said that there projects were only of commercial nature and the rest 20% undertook only those projects which were of residential nature.

This shows that both types of projects can be taken simultaneously and work related to both types of projects in not mutually exclusive.

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8. Major Tools & Systems being Used The following bar graph shows the major tools and systems that are in use in the interior finishing trade. The responses of all the respondents for each tool/system were summed to obtain a total count. The Y-axis mentions the various tools/systems and the X-axis shows the total count score for each particular tool/system being used in the Interior Contraction Industry.
Figure 11: Major Tools/Systems in Use

Drill Machines(Hammer Drills) Screws Anchors/Fasteners Electrical Saws Conventional Measuring Systems Screw Fastening Tools Grinders Breakers Diamond Cutting Laser Measuring Systems Laser Levelling & Aligning Systems Filling Foam/Sealants

39 37 32 31 31 28 28 28 24 24 21 10 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40

Figure 11 clearly shows us that 'Drill Machines' are the most commonly used Tool/System after that 'Screws', 'Anchors/Fasteners' are the most common tools and systems being currently used in the interior finishing trade. Also 'Conventional Measuring Systems' are preferred over 'Laser Measuring, Leveling & Aligning Systems'. This is a clear indication that despite huge benefits of the laser tools over conventional systems, the industry has still not quite adapted to these recent product introductions. The use of 'Filling Foam and Sealants' is the least in this category the reason for which would be explained later.

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9. Knowledge about Firestop Sealants As we saw earlier that 'Filling Foam & Sealants' had the least usage among the tools and systems being used in the interior finishing trade. The reason for this is due to the lack of knowledge about firestop sealants among interior contractors. Through the following Pie Chart it can be clearly seen that 72% of the respondents did not even know what 'Firestop Sealants' are.
Figure 12: Knowledge about Firestop Sealants

28%

Yes

No

72%

HILTI India in order for its Filling Foam & Sealants segment to grow should focus on educating the interior contractors about these systems and the benefits they offer. Since it is the lack of knowledge among the contractors which is the most significant inhibiting factor for the growth of this segment. Also few of the brands which the contractors could recall selling Firestop Sealants were: i. ii. Pidilite 3M

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10. Source of Procurement of Tools & Systems In order to find out the procurement pattern of contractors operating in the interior finishing trade we asked them from where do they procure their required tools/equipments. The findings can be seen from the following Pie Chart.
Figure 13: Procurement Pattern

8%

46%

Both Local Store

46%

Direct from Co.

As can be seen from figure 13, 46% of the respondents procure these tools from Local Store and the same percent of respondents procure these tools/systems from both local stores and direct from the company. Whereas only 8% of the respondents answered that they procured their tools/systems solely from the company. This can also be one of the major reasons for Bosch to have such great brand recall value.

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11. Most Commonly Used Anchors/Fasteners The following bar graph shows the level of usage of the different types of Anchors/Fasteners in the interior finishing trade. The responses of all the respondents for type of anchor/fastener were summed to obtain a total count. The Y-axis mentions the various anchors/fasteners and the Xaxis shows the total count for each particular type of anchor/fastener being used in the Interior Contraction Industry.

Figure 14: Most Commonly Used Anchors/Fasteners

Chemical Metal Plastic 0 5

11 31 33 10 15 20 25 30 35

As can be seen from the above figure, Plastic is the most preferred Anchor/Fastener in this Industry and 33 respondents out of a total of 39 said they used Plastic Anchors & Fasteners. The use of Metal anchors/fasteners is also quite prevalent in the interior finish trade. However the use of Chemical Anchors/Fasteners is the least and that too very less. Only 28% of the respondents answered that they were using chemical anchor/fastener. Also there is no significant use of branded anchors/fasteners in the industry and most contractors said that they were using local anchors/fasteners. Few of the brands associated with this segment are: i. ii. iii. Dr. FIXIT (Pidilite) BASF(German) Nitco iv. v. vi. Hettich Hafele Koif

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12. Performance Satisfaction In order to find out what are the preferences of the interior contractors while purchasing tools/equipments we also studied what sort of performance problems they faced, if any during the usage of a tool/equipment. The following figure shows us that 90 % of the respondents were happy with the tools they were using and did not feel in any way that performance of the tool was compromised.
Figure 15: Performance Satisfaction

10%

Yes No

90%

This finding was although contributed to the acceptance of the contractors that since he working conditions in the interior finishing industry is quite poor and due to the rough use wear and tear of tools & systems are bound to happen therefore they said that keeping in mind these factors they were satisfied with the performance of the tools/equipments they were using. The rest 10 % of the respondents replied that they had faced certain performance issues such as i. ii. Motor Problems Warranty Issues

However it should be noted that these 10 % of the respondents were using imported Chinese tools/equipments.

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Chapter 5 Limitations
The major limitations of this study are 1. Sample Size The sample size for the study is quite small therefore any analysis from the data collected can have a significant level of error and inconsistencies.

2. Sample not representative of the population Since the sample chosen is primarily only of Interior Contractors located in Delhi NCR, it is not representative of the whole population and any conclusions made from this study cannot be attributed to whole interior finishing industry in general.

3. Timeline of the study Also the duration for which the study was conducted was very less; this can have serious implications to the findings and recommendations mentioned in this study.

4. Also for major part of the analysis the categorical variable taken was Annual Turnover, but as is known this is one part of the questionnaire where respondents tend to misrepresent and deliberately falsify facts and information.

5. Another factor which can lead to the results of this study to be inconclusive is that interior contractors are generally busy and since they are not gaining much from this activity there was no motivation on their part to indulge in this study, hence the responses given by them can also be incorrect and not relevant to this study.

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Chapter 6 Conclusion & Recommendation

From the findings discussed above we can see how an interior contractor goes about making his purchase when it comes to the fastening & demolition tools, thus following are few of the recommendations that can be inferred from this study:

1. The most critical influencing parameters were found out to be a. Safety b. Load Bearing Capacity c. Performance Also the importance laid to 'Price' was quite low as we moved to respondents with higher annual turnover, thus HILTI should try to mould its strategies so that the need of safety, performance and load bearing capacity are very well satisfied from the perspective of the customers. Also since 'Price' for high end contractors does not seem to matter that much HILTI should try to increase its market share in that demographic (Bosch still leading in that demographic too) as being a little overpriced in comparison to its competitors should not be deterrent to its success due to its supremacy in performance and durability.

2. HILTI India should focus on tools that are used or have the capability of being of use in domains such as 'Woodwork', 'False Ceiling', 'Raised Flooring' and 'Door& Window Frames'. As these are the most common domains of work in the Interior Finishing Trade.

3. HILTI should rethink its strategy of selling its products directly from company and not being available at stores across the country. A tradeoff between positives and negatives would have to be done in order to come to a conclusion, but it is an avenue which could be looked into.

4. Also the awareness of relatively new tools such as 'Laser Measuring, Leveling & Alignment Tools' and 'Filling Foam/Sealants' is quite low amongst interior contractors, thus HILTI India would have to take some initiatives in this area in order to increase sales of these products.

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5. Interior Contraction industry has very high degree of sub contraction of work currently. So HILTI India must be aware of this pattern and should mould its strategies accordingly.

6. In order to keep growing, HILTI India should focus on products such as 'Drill Machines', 'Screws' and 'Anchors/Fasteners' as these are the most commonly used tools and would generate a lot of revenue for HILTI if the need is carefully addressed.

7. 'Plastic' & 'Metal' Anchors/Fasteners are most commonly used, thus HILTI India should focus on further increasing its market share in these areas. Also the main competition in this segment is from local made anchors/fasteners which are hugely prevalent thus HILTI India would have to tackle the benefits enjoyed by them such as being cheap & easily available.

However this study is only exploratory in nature and HILTI India should indulge into market research of the interior finish trade with much more significant resources and should then build up on the findings of this study and look for conclusive trends and patterns.

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