"MARKETING STRATEGIES vis-a-vis CUSTOMER PREFERENCE FOR AQUARIUM BUSINESS SERVICE"

Abstract

Aquarium business service in India recorded a value of US$ 1.3 million in the export trade in the year 2006 according to Food and Agriculture Organization. Internationally, Singapore ranks first with US$ 49.5 million, and Zech Republic, Japan and Malaysia stood almost equally 7% in aquarium fish trade. Robert fanner (2001) reported that the concept of running a service company in contrast with retail business is not new to many industries. The service sectors provide employment for favourable economic growth. In this direction, in order to develop market for aquarium business service, there is need to studying consumer preference and existing marketing strategies, adopted by aquarists.  The objectives of the study are to identify consumer preference for ornamental fish with profile of aquarium keeping customers and to study the existing marketing strategies adopted by ornamental fish aquarium business service providers.  Selvarasu A. and Sankaran A. (2010) have developed a marketing scale to measure consumer preference for aquarium hobby. In addition, an interview schedule have been planned to review the existing marketing strategies as on year 2010. Aquarium business service marketing scale comprises of seven dimensions, initially. As a result of the pilot study, based on the results of reliability test, five dimensions have been retained for the final study.

Key words: marketing strategy, aquarium, hobby, consumer preference, aquarium business service, pets,     

                   ornamental fish, quality, value, value for money, features, mavenism.