A Study of Indian Oil Corporation Ltd. (IOCL)'s Market Penetration Strategies for its Petrochemical Business

Abstract

One of the most important aims of a firm is to improve its business performance continuously to achieve greater scale in its operations and improve profitability. Due to this, managers always want to implement strategies which can result in improving the performance of the firm. The main purpose of this research is to study the perceptions of IndianOil Corporation (IOCL) Officers, Channel Partners (Del Credere Agent/Consignment Stocker) and IOCL Customers about various market penetration strategies adopted by IOCL for improving its performance and how these strategies are used to secure its leadership or dominance over the petrochemicals market in the National Capital Region (NCR). The perceptions regarding the effectiveness of these strategies on improving the company's performance are studied by using one sample t-tests. The study also examines the differences in opinions of IOCL Officers, Channel Partners of IOCL and IOCL Customers regarding the use and effectiveness of these strategies by using ANOVA.

It has been found that there are broadly fifteen strategies used by IOCL to penetrate into the market. The results of this study conclude that all these strategies are effective in penetrating the market according to the respondents. However, there are differences in the views of IOCL Officers, Channel Partners and IOCL Customers regarding the use and effectiveness of some of the strategies.