Measuring Customers Choice and Commitment Of Petrol Retail Outlets-Comparative Study Between Cosmopolitan City & Tier-2 City

Abstract

The Indian petrol market has two categories of players i) Government regulated organizations ii) private players like Reliance and Essar. The refining capacity of the country is increased from 187.386 million metric tones per annum MMTPA in 2011 to 213.066 (MMTPA) in 2012. Prior to globalization, Distribution was the only marketing function dominated in petroleum industry as the entire industry is fully owned and controlled by the government. Holistic marketing concept started gain the respect in petroleum industry after the privatization. Customer services started gain importance at petrol stations. There are nearly 45,000 petrol retail outlets spread across India in 2012 including public and private sectors. This study aims at identifying the factors influencing customers to prefer a specific petrol retail outlet. This also includes the comparative analysis of factors influencing preference of petrol retail outlet between cosmopolitan city and tier 2 city. This study also measures the customer commitment in petrol retail outlets. The four levels of customer expectations are also identified through this study