A PROJECT REPORT ON

A Study on Business Development Practices and Evaluating Faster Service through

Different Mediums at Medplus


Project report submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the award of
the degree

POST GRADUATE DIPLOMA IN MANAGEMENT

Submitted by

KSK KIRAN KUMAR

Under the Esteemed guidance of

M CHANDRA SHEKAR

Assistant Professor, IPE





DECLARATION

I hereby declare that the Project Report titled A Study on Business Development Practices
and Evaluating Faster Service through Different Mediums at Medplus is genuine and bonafide
work done by me and is not submitted to any other university or published any time before.
The project work is for the partial fulfillment of the requirement for the award of PGDM
degree by the Institute of Public Enterprise, Hyderabad.
Place: Hyderabad
Date: KSK KIRAN KUMAR
















ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I would like to take this opportunity to gratefully thank all the individuals who have helped me to
complete this summer internship project successfully.
I would like to thank Shri Ram Kumar, HR Managerfor providing me an opportunity to do a
project in Marketing at Medplus. I would also like to thank Shri B Saran Raju, Deputy
Manager, Marketing & Operations who helped me in all the learning activities.
I express my gratitude to Prof R K Mishra, Director, IPE for always inspiring the student
community. I sincerely thank Prof M L Sai Kumar, Dean, IPE for his ever kindling spirit to
awaken, in the young minds, the curiosity to learn much more. I would like to mention many
thanks to Dr. V Srikanth, Associate Professor and Coordinator-PGDM-RM for the help. I
would like to thank Prof Narendranath Menon and Dr. G Vidyanath for their support. I heart
fully and immensely thank my mentor M Chandra Shekar, Assistant Professor, IPE for his
continuous support and guidance in the course of this project.
Last, but not the least, this project would not have been successful without the support from my
family and friends at IPE, who gave their valuable time and suggestions during this project work.


KSK KIRAN KUMAR
1301030






NEED OF THE STUDY

The modern pharma retail chains are trying to bring a change in the buying habits of the
consumers. But will the efforts meet the desired results?

Neighborhood Pharmacists (fondly known as Chemists), labeled under the unorganized
category have been operating in the Indian market for the past many decades now. However, the
rise of modern retailing has given birth to organized retail chains in the pharma sector. In fact,
names like Apollo Pharmacy, Med Plus, and Guardian Pharmacy et al have been trying to bring a
change in the buying habits of the consumers.

During the year 2012-13, the market recorded a growth of 16.5%, as per the data from All Indian
Origin Chemists & Distributors (AIOCD). Currently valued at Rs 65,000 crore (US$ 11.58
billion), market estimates suggest that this segment will grow at a rate of 15 per cent CAGR over
the next 5 years. But have these modern retail chains have been able to attract enough consumers
to their stores? Not so far. Even after a handful of national and regional chains have tried
expanding their base in the organized space, the unorganized pharma retailers still account for
over 90% transactions in the industry. But as the Indian consumer gets more concerned about the
health issues, it is expected that there will be a gradual shift towards the modern pharma retailers.

Apart from the fact that modern retailers offer a one-stop shop for all health needs to the
consumers, it is the confidence that the consumer is getting genuine medicines which gives them
the competitive edge. Share of fake/counterfeit medicines is estimated at 15- 20 per cent of the
total Indian market, as per a report from FICCIs National Initiative against Piracy and
Counterfeiting. For the record, organized pharma retail stands at a much high percentage in
markets like China, Russia, Mexico and Brazil as compared to India. For instance, as per a
McKinsey report, Chinese organized pharma market has a 50 per cent share while Russia,
Mexico and Brazil stand at 36 percent, 35 percent and 30 percent respectively.

Even after the clear advantages these pharma retail chains holdover the conventional
pharmacists, it will take some time for the consumers to move beyond their trusted
neighborhood chemists. Clearly, there is a lot of headroom in this segment of the market and as a
result, organized players are currently in a phase to build a network that will be future-ready. In
other words, there is no doubt over the fact that the share of organized pharma retail is well
poised to go up in the coming times and one should not be surprised to see many more
established names joining this industry in the near future.

This study resulted in suggestions being made to make certain additions to already existing
business development practices. These changes were suggested on observing the existing
policies, operating procedures and identifying their areas of improvement.






























TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgement

Executive Summary

CHAPTER-1
INTRODUCTION
1.0 Introduction
1.1 Need for the study
1.2 Statement of the Problem
1.3 Objectives of the Study
1.4 Methodology of Research



CHAPTER-2
INDUSTRY PROFILE

Profile of the Indian Pharma Retail
Understanding the present status of Big Bazaar
Recent trends in Big Bazaar
Industry Perspective
CHAPTER-3
COMPANY PROFILE


Company Profile

About Big Bazaar
Objective
Vision
Activities of the Organization

CHAPTER-4
LITERATURE REVIEW
Literature Review
Definition of Key terms
Promotion
Promotion
Advertising
Personal Selling
Sales Promotion
Publicity
Public Relations
Public Relations Advertising
Importance of Promotion

CHAPTER -5
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
5.0 Research Methodology
5.1 Research Design
5.2 Survey Population
5.3 Sampling: Design, Procedure and Size
5.3.1 Sampling Design
5.3.2 Sampling Procedure
5.3.3 Sample Size
5.4 Data Collection
5.4.1 Data Collection Sources
5.4.2 Data Collection Methods
5.4.3 Data Collection Instruments
5.5 Data Processing and Analysis
5.5.1 Data Processing
5.5.2 Data Analysis
5.5.3 Limitations of the study

CHAPTER-6
PRESENTATION AND DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS








CHAPTER-7
SUMMARY, OBSERVATIONS, CONCLUSIONS ,RECOMMENDATIONS

7.0 Summary, Observations, Conclusions ,Recommendations
7.1 Summary of the main findings
7.2 Observations
7.2.1 Observations under different zones
7.3 Conclusions
7.4 Recommendations

CHAPTER-8
ANNEXURE & BIBLIOGRAPHY

8.1 Annexure
8.2 Bibliography