ASSORTMENT OF VARIANTS AND ITS ASSOCIATED POSITIONING OF SUNSILK

Abstract

Purpose-Today bulk of the products that are dispatched is the extension of brand. Often these extensions are launched as line extensions where the new product development is within an existing brand category. Line extensions can be used, not only to keep a brand a living, but additionally to underpin or extend its position. More active and prudent line extension management is needed when competition and retailer manipulation are high. Under such conditions, line extensions’ success will erode quickly and more added values should be incorporated in the line extension. Firms along side with managing ought to especially pay attention to the proliferation of supply and market disintegration. Their brands position to lose more than smaller brands. Due to line extensions which have positively affected customer’s evaluations and altered their perception and purchase behavior, and the factors impacting these are significant to consider.. The main reasons for introducing line extensions were “addressing consumers’ needs for variation” and “company growth “Addressing really new consumer needs” and “reacting to competition” were reasons of use also often cited.Our findings we discovered that successful line extensions provides variety and fulfill a customer need, line extensions easily tend to be unsuccessful if they are too unrelated from the rest of the brand’s products. As today customers are too demanding so they prefer the brand which solves their problems. The brand picture can be reinforced across marketing and promotion of the line extension. It is striking that most line extensions differ only marginally from their parent brand’s original products. It suggests that line extensions are used to incrementally improve a brand’s position and may have limited extra customer value over brands’ existing products. Design/metliodology/approach-The methodology focuses on customer preference towards sunsilk shampoo due to its assortment of variants. Type of the research conducted is a descriptive research, in which the major objective is to discover and describe the level of customer preference towards Sunsilk shampoo. The respondents who were taken in to account in terms of gathering information were randomly selected. The respondents were selected employing a non probability sampling technique, which is convenience sampling technique. The respondents were preferred based on the researcher’s convenience. Well prepared questionnaire was used in terms of gathering information. The hypothesis is then tested on data collected through questionnaire in a survey. The questionnaire was distributed among the Sunsilk shampoo preferred customers.The study adopts the SPSS software package carrying on by statistical analysis, graphic statistics and the data was analyzed through correlation. For the sake of accuracy, specification of results and limited resources, this research is restricted to single organization Unilever Pakistan circumscribed to its brands Sunsilk and its variants and constrained to the urban population of Karachi. Findings- A strong name of parent brand can minimize risk of new product launch by taking advantages on consumers’ knowledge and experiences of the established brand.. Brand transfer ability indicates how features of products in parent brand portfolio are transferable to new product extension. This paper using 375 direct consumers, and it revealed that there is a higher level of customer preference level in terms of Sunsilk shampoo brand. The customer’s perception towards Sunsilk shampoo as it satisfies their expected need. As nowadays customers are more conscious in terms of their personality so due to its assortment of variants and associated positioning induce consumer to prefer Sunsilk. The most significant variable that affect for the level of preference is need satisfaction. Originality/value- The research findings, which develop a specific literature in this association, are of significance to Marketing Practitioners, Professional Critics and Brand Managers of Unilever Pakistan since line extension, already linked with brand extension and brand loyalty and now with a line extension aspect, needs to be carefully managed and monitored. The paper prompts further investigation of the relationship between assortment of variants and customer preference acceptance in other geographic markets and with other lower involvement categories.