Study on beyond LPG; Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd.

Abstract

The main objective of the project during internship was to do a thorough study on Beyond LPG in Chennai region. Bharat Petroleum which supplies LPG to substantial percentage of Indian population like its competitors IOC, HPCL came up with Beyond LPG initiative where it plans to fully take advantage of direct access to the kitchen of Indian households. It enters into tie-ups with large number of companies which manufacture essential household, kitchenware items and sell to the customers at a reasonable price. This is a "win-win" situation for all the companies along with Bharat gas as they earn revenues without having to invest separately. Bharatgas of Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) 'Beyond LPG' initiative, aimed at using the distributor network of the petroleum corporation, has been put into effective use for marketing and delivering around 110 different kinds of kitchen and home needs at the doorsteps of customers along with the LPG refills. The initiative was only to make use of the emotional link that Bharatgas had with its consumers in reaching out to their kitchens. Through this initiative, mutually benefiting the distributors and consumers, Bharatgas was able to train its dealers/distributors in retail business entrepreneurship and in reaching branded quality products from a reliable source. The consumer was spared of the ordeal of visiting a store and checking for the purity and quality of the product since products came with the name of BPCL. Project could be divided into two parts - one was to do the market research on the performance of Beyond LPG in Chennai region and give suggestions to improve upon it; other part was to find reasons for low contribution of FMCG products towards the revenue earned through Beyond LPG and develop a strategy to increase the percentage contribution of FMCG products. Project involved a lot of travelling from going to various distributors of Bharatgas, interviewing them, doing thorough inspection of the operations at the distributors' showroom and also interacting. customers to know about their perception and attitude towards Beyond LPG. It also involved lot of discussions and meetings with the top management.