Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Project Report On
study
(2008-10)
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Certificate
This is to certify that the summer project work of titled “Prospects of Solar charger for
handheld electronic products in India”: An Exploratory study” Is an original work and that
this work has not been submitted to AIM or elsewhere in any form. My indebtedness to other
works/publications has been duly acknowledged at the relevant places. The project work
Vinay Gupta
(DGM Operations)
Certificate of Attendance
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This is to certify that Mr. Dharmendra Kumar who was engaged in the summer project in our
organization has been regular and punctual. He has attended the training from 27March 2009
to 27 June.
DECLARATION
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I hereby declare that the project report titled “Prospect of Solar charger for handheld
own work and has been carried out under the guidance of Mr. Vijyant Kumar, Team Leader,
and Prof. Vikas Kumar, Faculty of Asia-Pacific Institute of management, Jasola New Delhi,.
All care has been taken to keep this report error free and I sincerely regret for any unintended
discrepancies that might have crept into this report. I shall be highly obliged if errors (if any)
be brought to my attention.
Thank You.
Abstract
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Solio charger, the world’s first and most unique charger that enables people to charge their
electronic gadgets at any place and at any time is the product upon which I performed my
research work. Solio is a product which originally belongs to a U.S. based firm but it is
marketed by HCL in India. My research basically focuses on two critical aspects which are
“how the customers’ think of Solio and secondly “what is the position of Solio in the Indian
market.” This report focuses on both sides of the coin, namely the customer and the
organization.
knowing the market target and the market position of my research object i.e. Solio charger.
My main area of concern was to consider and analyze all the factors that can help Medley in
making the product more feasible in India and this would terminally mean Medley getting an
insight about the perception and preference of consumers, hence giving Medley a practical
Need of Solio in India would get a much clear picture. A comparative analysis between
the conventional and non conventional energy resources could be displayed. It would also
help in encouraging industry, Government, and consumer for using non conventional
energy resources. This research will give a rough idea to companies in deciding the
segmentation, price range and product diversification. The research will also contribute to
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find out perception of people. The research will also provide a benchmark to industry for
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I would like to express my gratitude to all those who gave me the possibility to successfully
complete my summer internship project. I want to thank Medley Entertainment for giving me
the platform to commence this project on the first instance, to do the necessary research work
and to use the organizational data.
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I am deeply indebted to my supervisor Mr. Gaurav Kumar, Senior Marketing
Manager, HCL. Whose help, stimulating suggestions and encouragement helped me in all the
time of research and for writing this project report.
I would also like to thank Mr. Manish Kumar, Area Sales Manager HCL. And Mr.
Vijyant Kumar, Team Leader, for their on-time guidance and sharing their in-depth
knowledge on Marketing.
Last but not the least, I would like to thank my family and friends, specially Mr.
Prabhat Ranjan and Mr. Malay Milind for their help, support and valuable hints and for
clearing things out in difficult times.
This project could not have been possible without help from my father.
Dharmendra Kumar
Index
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Chapter2. Introduction 15
3.1 Objectives 22
3.2 Limitations 23
3.4 Questionnaire 25
5.3 Recommandations 46
Chapter6. Bibliography 47
Appendices
Company profile
Founded in April 2008 under the Group MEDLEY, in a small span of time Medley
Entertainment has built up a Strong, specialized and handpicked in-house talent pool
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comprising of over 40 professional including event planners, brand strategist, designers, CRM
It owns offices in 3 cities viz, namely Delhi, Bangalore and Kolkata with associates
presence in 21 cities. Group turnover till 2007-2008 in us $ is 60 m (300 Cr). MEDLEY not
KEY MEMBERS
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M.K.Pillania (CMD)
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KEY CLIENTS
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1.2 Better Energy System (Manufacturer)
Founded in 2001 in London, UK, BES envisions a massive shift in energy delivery and
infrastructure to combat global warming. They believe that making renewable technology
accessible to the average person will speed this shift. Solio, their flagship product, was
conceived as a 'trojan horse' for the renewable energy market; a versatile hand-held charger
that opens the lives and minds of consumers to the potential of solar. BES also stands for
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energy equality: the belief that all people - regardless of geography or economic standing - are
entitled to clean energy and light. They are engaged in the fight against poverty by finding
new ways to bring sustainable power and light to people at the bottom of the economic
pyramid.
Better Energy Systems develops and markets portable clean technology products for
travel, work, and play. Their award-winning designers and engineers think 'outside the grid' to
develop new technologies for the eco-mobility market, creating true energy independence for
people around the world. With products engineered to the highest technical and environmental
standards, BES enables customers to take a meaningful step on the path to sustainability.
Introduction
Solio, the Universal "Hybrid" Charger is powerful enough to charge all of our handheld
electronic products at home or on the move, anywhere under the sun. Manufacturer of this
device is Better Energy System from U.K. and it is marketed by H.C.L. It can be charged
by three methods. Through solar cells, USB cable. And wall charger.
Solio is a Hybrid because it can accept power from either the sun or the wall
storing this energy within Solio's internal rechargeable battery. Solio then uses this energy
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to power your gadgets at the same rate as your wall adapter. Solio also holds its charge for
up to a year.
Solio limits your need to purchase and carry around multiple chargers and is
one stop charging solution for all products from cell phones and iPods, to digital cameras,
A fully charged Solio Classic will charge a typical mobile phone more than twice or
give over 20 hours of iPod music. Just 1 hour of sunshine = 20 minutes talk time or 50
minutes of MP3 music.* Provides an emergency power source when away from power
outlets. Battery is easily replaceable and lasts for up to one year. Works with multiple
MP3 players, and portable gaming devices, digital cameras, GPS and much more (tips
for most devices come included.).It can be Reuse. Its Compact light weight design -
Solio features a fan-blade design that allows it to achieve maximum solar area
when in use. Just spread out the blades, expose them to direct sunlight either out of doors or
affixed to a window, and get ready to take your power on the road.
Solio would charge our device at the same rate as our conventional charger. Using the
included wall adapter or USB charging cable Solio would fully charge in approximately 4
hours. A fully charged Solio would completely charge an average cell phone at least twice.*
When charging a cell phone directly from the sun, 60 minutes of sunlight will provide
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approximately 25 minutes of talk time and ten hours of standby time.* When charging an
iPod directly from the sun, one hour of sunlight would provide about one hour of play time.
Solio can store energy on its internal battery for up to one year.
a. Business Travelers
b. Youth (Students)
• Nominal DC Output: 3V 2A
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Figure no.-1 Solio Classic
g) Price: - 4999Rs.
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a) Nominal DC Output: 4V- 12V, 0-1A
Solio Mono:-
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Nominal DC Output: 4V- 12V, 0-1A
Price:-2199Rs.
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Battery-draining activities
Make/Receive a call
SMS/MMS
Take photos
Record videos
Entertainment – internet, music, mp3, video clips, File sharing (Bluetooth) etc.
Environmental Benefits
• Charge from the sun as much as possible. It’s free, and it helps the
environment.
• The Solio is designed for a long life span. Handling it carefully would ensure
• Solio contains valuable materials such as copper, silver, and gold, which can
• We could carry a fully charged Solio with us at all times. Portable devices
traveling or at home. This would save packing space and reduce the energy that
• Solio is intended to achieve a net energy benefit over its lifetime. To reach
this goal, energies needed for raw materials and production have been minimized.
Solio.
• Was designated as product promoter in Gizmos, which is located in Select city Walk
• Solio was launched in the month of April in Delhi and i helped in product awareness
• Did market research on Solio whether it can penetrate easily in India or not.
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Research Mythology
Objectives
Research Design:
My jurisdiction was highly Qualitative and a less quantitative research design. For studying
the future of Solio in Indian market this research design would illustrate the growing need for
alternative energy resource and a clean energy which would not be hazardous for us. For this
research Cross Sectional Study Survey Method (Structured Questionnaire) was designed and
given to sample of population. Also I have taken feedback from customers about Solio.
Primary data:
My mode of data collection was primary, through questionnaires and personal interviews
taken by me in Delhi. I targeted people from different income level for studying their choices
Secondary data:
I collected data from website that how much no. of handheld electronic devices likes
Cell Phone iPod / MP3 Player Smart Phone / PDA Game Player GPS Digital Camera
I used Non Parametric Test as a statistical tool for qualitative analysis of survey and for
studying secondary data normal statistical tools were used, like MS-excel, MS-word
Limitations
c) The survey of this research was carried out in only South Delhi; the data of
f) Due to the financial and time constraints a cluster analysis of the population so
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STRENGTHS WEAKNESSES
• Environment friendly
• Reusable
OPPORTUNITIES THREATS
Dear Respondent,
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We would be grateful if you spare some of your time to respond to the following
questions. Needless to say your response would be treated as confidential and will be used
1. Do you have handheld electronic devices like (mobile phone, i-pod, MP3 player, GPS,
PSP, camera)?
6. Solio can save an average of 7.2 kg of carbon emission over the course of its life time. So
9. If you have never bought the Solio, could you tell us why?
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11. Which feature you want to add in Solio?
(A) It should charge laptop (B) Company should give wall charger cable (C) Company
Personal Details:
Male Female
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Questionnaire to explore future prospects
Could you please make a brief introduction about the solar charger?
Could you please introduce the developing history of mobile phone and its charger?
Could you please tell us some related promotion activities for the Solio?
As you mentioned, the company adopts the multi-channel marketing strategy, could
you please talk about it in details, such as the structure, the advantage and
Could you tell please us something about the future plan for the Solio?
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Quantitative Data Analysis:-
The above graph shows the number of mobile users in India between 1999- 2006. As it is
clearly visible from the graph that the number of mobile phone owners increased
II. Penetration of different mobile phone manufacturers in the competitive Indian market.
IV. Portability and mobility of mobile phone gave it a huge edge over the conventional
landline telephones.
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Interpretation:
• This reflects that the Indian market is highly opportunistic for solar charger
• Solio should also consider on its pricing strategy as the availability of mobile phone
handsets are present at a comparatively lower & affordable price which Solio doesn’t
possess.
Among 150 respondents there were 89 male and 61 female respondents. So male are the
major respondents.
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Age wise response:-
Among 150 respondents, 13 respondents fell in the age group of 12-18 years, 17respondents
in the age group of 19-25 years, 33 in the age group of 26-30 years and 40 in the age group of
31-35 years, 47 respondents came under more than 35 year. So most of the respondents were
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1) Do you have handheld electronic devices like (mobile phone, i-pod, MP3 player,
It is clear from above graph that every respondent have at least one handheld electronic
device. All these devices are very common now a day. Due to all these devices there is big
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2. Which is the best method of charging above devices?
Interpretation:-
It is clear from above pie chart that maximum (62%) respondents want all options of
charging in one.
Because some respondents were frequent traveler, they wished for solar as well as
Percentage of USB cable is very less (7%), it may be due to unavailability of PC,
Laptop etc.
Some respondents who were neither frequent traveler nor did they face problem of
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Figure no.-9 respondent can pay
Interpretation:-
It is clear from the graph that maximum respondents were not willing to pay more on
charger.
It may be because respondent can buy new mobile phone which comes with a new
My some respondents were foreigners like (Chinese, American, and Japanese.) They
were ready for paying more than 1000Rs. For charger. Because there is no emission of
carbon in Solio.
∑ (f0-fe) 2
χ2 = ---------------------- Equation--1
fe
(67-75)2 (83-75)2
75 75
Interpretation:-
Possible cause may be that maximum respondents were electronic shop owner
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Some of the respondents were professionals working in offices of various
companies.
Interpretation:-
They can charge their device through wall charger provided by the company.
Some respondent were villagers, they expressed their problems with electricity.
6) Solio can save an average of 7.2 kg of carbon emission over the course of its life
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Figure no.-11 contribute towards green environment
Yes 91
No 39
H0= Respondents are not significantly want to contribute towards green environment
∑ (f0-fe) 2
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fe
(91-75)2 (39-75)2
75 75
Interpretation:-
significance level.
c. Possible cause may be that they want a much greener environment due to an
warming.
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Figure no.-12 how much more you can pay for green environment
Interpretation:-
A. It is very clear from above pie chart that maximum respondent don’t want to pay
more for green environment, but they are ready to pay at most 500Rs.
B. But some respondent like Americans are ready to pay more than 2000Rs.for green
environment, because they are more conscious about clean environment when
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8. Divide 100 points among the following features of Solio.
Interpretation:-
a) Above chart shows that only few respondents were satisfied with the price of
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b) Maximum respondents were happy because this universal charger was handheld e-
9. If you have never bought the Solio, could you tell us why?
Interpretation:-
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1) As we have already seen that maximum respondent don’t want to pay more for
charger, its price should be below 1000Rs. But Solio price start from 2200Rs. This is
out of reach of common man. It means for doing business in India Company should
2) Also company should improve its advertisement strategy because some respondent
don’t know about Solio. They should follow the AIDA model for product awareness.
I want to test a hypothesis that the proportions of respondents who don’t want pay more
than 500Rs.for charger are differ from the proportion of respondent who never bought the
Solio. Testing the Null Hypothesis that the population proportion for group 1 (π 1) equals the
population proportion for group2 (π2) is same as the t-test of two means.
H1: π1≠π2
(p1-p2)- (π1-π2)
Z=--------------------- Equation-1
S p1-p2
p=.5
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q=1-.5=.5
n1= n2=150
S p1-p2= .0577
Z=------------------------------ Equation -3
S p1-p2
z= -0.3466
Interpretation:-
We will accept the null hypothesis of no difference at the 5% significance level
because the calculated Z-value is less than the absolute critical Z-value of 1.96.
It means respondents who don’t want to pay more than Rs. 500 for charger will never
buy Solio.
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Figure no.-15 respondent want to add
Interpretation:-
I. Above pie chart shows that respondents want to add lot of features. According to their
convenience, like someone wants wall charger cable, while someone looks for a direct
tip for I-pod, I-phone. But maximum wish for Solio charger for laptop, because of it’s
portability.
II. Possible cause may be that there is not many much substitute for charging laptop. Also
III. Some respondents came from foreign to India as a tourist. They wanted wall charger
cable with Solio. So that they can charge their mobile phone in Hotel.
IV. Some respondents don’t want to carry USB cable with i-pod, I-phone. Therefore they
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11. Please tell us are you satisfied with Solio price?
At 5% level of significance
X- µ
Z = ------- Equation -1
2.01- 4
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Z=--------------- Equation -2
0.969236
Z= -2.05316 (Calculated)
Z=-1.649 (Tabulated)
Interpretation:-
• Possible cause may be that respondent can buy new device in less than Solio
price.
• Also, maximum Indian people don’t want to invest too much initial.
Recommendations
i. Medley needs to make people aware about their products and the basic benefits they
ii. Medley needs to work on its image as such by promoting itself as an organization
iii. Medley should work on making its presence felt on a national level.
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iv. Medley should also offer free doorstep demonstration which can help in popularizing
the product.
v. Medley should tap the market by distributing the charger with high-end electronic
vi. In future the company should also try to tap the rural market.
vii. College students or fresh graduates from reputed colleges can be hired on part time
Bibliography
Books Author
Quantitative Methods for Decision Making Levin, Richard I. and Rubin David S.
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Websites Logins:-
1. www.indiastat.com
2. www.solio.com
3. www.betterenergysystem.com
4. www.medleyentertainment.co.in
Q2. My device is not on your compatibility list, can I still use Solio?
Q7. The LED on my Solio is blinking or flashing red very rapidly, what does this mean?
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Q8. Can I charge the Solio on a cloudy day and can it be left outdoors?
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