Modeling Perceived Quality: A Study on Two and Three Wheeler Battery Market of Kolkata and Hooghly District in West Bengal, India

Perceived quality of a brand, which is defined as the perception of the consumers about the overall quality of the brand with respect to its basic purpose, for which it is manufactured and its relative position among its competitors, plays an important role in the formation of brand equity. It is the perception of the consumers which provides the consumers a reason to buy and also motivates the channel members interested to supply them in the market. The demand of a particular product and / or service is also largely dependent on its perceived quality and thus producers are in eternal pursuit to create a better product for their consumers under the given constraints and marketers are also in continuous drive to create a favorable perception about their product, in the mind of the consumers. Researchers and marketing practitioners have identified several factors which play an important part in creating the perception about the quality of a particular brand of product and / or service. These factors are termed as quality dimensions of a brand, which is constituted by both product and service qualities. The following study is an attempt to identify the factors which creates perceived quality of a brand. The study was conducted on some well recognized non alkaline batteries which mainly cater to the two and three wheeler market of West Bengal. The study mainly identifies the important product and service quality dimensions for these batteries and also models the perception of consumers as a function of these factors. A comparative study is also presented to analyze the relative position of the brands.