A Project Report On
“COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS OF ANTIVIRUS INDUSTRY”
Prepared for
QUICKHEAL TECHNOLOGIES
Prepared by
AnkitGarg
PGP - MARKETING
Roll No-PMB10008
2010-12
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
First and Foremost, I would like to express my gratitude towards QUICKHEAL TECHNOLOGIES for giving me an opportunity to work as a summer trainee for two months as a part of practical training of our course. I express my gratitude to all those who initiated and help me in the successful completion of this project.
I also take this opportunity to express my indebtedness to Prof. Mr.Amit our internal project guide “Indira Institute of career studies” for his cooperation and affectionate encouragement. I would be failing in my duties if I don’t express how grateful I am toMr. Pranav Pawar for being my mentor and for his unconditional help and guidance without which this project would have never reached its completion
Last but not the least; I am thankful to my parents and family members who are my constant source of inspiration in every field of life and due to them I am whatever I am today.
Ankit Garg
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The project is based upon theANTIVIRUS Industry.
The research work was carried out for Quickheal Industries Ltd. A market research was done in Delhi on both consumers and retailers/dealers. The project mainly concentrated on understanding antivirus market in Delhi region and also to understand consumer’s attitude and preferences towards purchase of AVs.
In order to collect data, different stores visits were made and dealers/retailers were contacted personally to get the information regarding how market of AVs is going and to understand satisfaction level and expectations of dealers/retailers. Further effort was made to understand competition in this industry and to understand competitors in context of availability, price, margin to dealers and retailers, local support, company support, supply, schemes and other related aspects. The aim was also to understand and observe what customers were demanding more and what retailers were pushing for.
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CONTENTS
1. INTRODUCTION
2. THE ANTIVIRUS INDUSTRY
3. COMPANY PROFILE
4. MARKET RESEARCH
5. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
6. KEY FINDINGS
7. RECOMMENDATIONS
8. CONCLUSION
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INTRODUCTION
In today’s connected world, anti-virus software is more than ever a necessity to protect your computer against viruses, worms and other types of malicious code. It is by far the easiest way to give your computer a minimal level of protection. Yet, the process of choosing which anti-virus software is best suited for your protection is not so easy. That task is made challenging by numerous misconceptions that surround the anti-virus world and some of the questionable claims made by some vendors.. Whether you are a home user or an IT professional in charge of security in a large corporation, it is easy to be misled by information provided by the different vendors and sometimes, even by the press. Therefore it is important that you understand how antivirus software work and what the important criteria are, when choosing of such a solution. It is also important that you know how and where to find relevant information when making your decision.
1.1 Understanding how anti-virus software workAn anti-virus software program is a computer program that can be used to scan files to identify and
eliminate computer viruses and other malicious software (malware).
Virus dictionary approach
In the virus dictionary approach, when the anti-virus software examines a file, it refers to a
dictionary of known viruses that have been identified by the author of the anti-virus software. If
a piece of code in the file matches any virus identified in the dictionary, then the anti-virus
software can then either delete the file, quarantine it so that the file is inaccessible to other
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programs and its virus is unable to spread, or attempt to repair the file by removing the virus
itself from the file.
To be successful in the medium and long term, the virus dictionary approach requires periodic
online downloads of updated virus dictionary entries. As new viruses are identified "in the wild",
civically minded and technically inclined users can send their infected files to the authors of anti-
virus software, who then include information about the new viruses in their dictionaries.
Dictionary-based anti-virus software typically examines files when the computer's operating
system creates, opens, and closes them; and when the files are e-mailed. In this way, a known
virus can be detected immediately upon receipt. The software can also typically be scheduled to
examine all files on the user's hard disk on a regular basis.
Although the dictionary approach is considered effective, virus authors have tried to stay a step
ahead of such software by writing "polymorphic viruses", which encrypt parts of themselves or
otherwise modify themselves as a method of disguise, so as to not match the virus's signature in
the dictionary.
Suspicious behavior approach
The suspicious behavior approach, by contrast, doesn't attempt to identify known viruses, but
instead monitors the behavior of all programs. If one program tries to write data to an executable
program, for example, this is flagged as suspicious behavior and the user is alerted to this, and
asked what to do.
Unlike the dictionary approach, the suspicious behavior approach therefore provides protection
against brand-new viruses that do not yet exist in any virus dictionaries. However, it also sounds
a large number of false positives, and users probably become desensitized to all the warnings. If
the user clicks "Accept" on every such warning, then the anti-virus software is obviously useless
to that user. This problem has especially been made worse over the past 7 years, since many
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more non malicious program designs chose to modify other .exes without regards to this false
positive issue. Thus, most modern antivirus software uses this technique less and less.
Other ways to detect viruses
Some antivirus-software will try to emulate the beginning of the code of each new executable
that is being executed before transferring control to the executable. If the program seems to be
using self-modifying code or otherwise appears as a virus (it immediately tries to find other
executables), one could assume that the executable has been infected with a virus. However, this
method results in a lot of false positives. Yet another detection method is using a sandbox. A
sandbox emulates the operating system and runs the executable in this simulation. After the
program has terminated, the sandbox is analyzed for changes which might indicate a virus.
Because of performance issues this type of detection is normally only performed during on-
demand scans.
Issues of concern
Macro viruses, arguably the most destructive and widespread computer viruses, could be
prevented far more inexpensively and effectively, and without the need of all users to buy anti-
virus software, if Microsoft would fix security flaws in Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Office
related to the execution of downloaded code and to the ability of document macros to spread and
wreak havoc.User education is as important as anti-virus software; simply training users in safe
computing practices, such as not downloading and executing unknown programs from the
Internet, would slow the spread of viruses, without the need of anti-virus software.
Computer users should not always run with administrator access to their own machine. If they
would simply run in user mode then some types of viruses would not be able to spread. The
dictionary approach to detecting viruses is often insufficient due to the continual creation of new
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viruses, yet the suspicious behavior approach is ineffective due to the false positive problem;
hence, the current understanding of anti-virus software will never conquer computer viruses.
There are various methods of encrypting and packing malicious software which will make even
well-known viruses undetectable to anti-virus software. Detecting these "camouflaged" viruses
requires a powerful unpacking engine, which can decrypt the files before examining them.
Unfortunately, many popular anti-virus programs do not have this and thus are often unable to
detect encrypted viruses.
Companies that sell anti-virus software seem to have a financial incentive for viruses to be
written and to spread, and for the public to panic over the threat.
THE ANTIVIRUS INDUSTRY (INDIA)
Growth and market players in the security software industry
Worldwide security software revenue totaled $16.5 billion in 2010, a 12 percent increase from
2009 revenue of $14.7 billion, according to Gartner, Inc. The 2010 results show that overall vendor
revenue demonstrated a rebound in growth after a sharp fall in performance in 2009 due to the slow
economy and tight IT budgets. ”Products within the security market are undergoing rapid evolution, in
terms of both new delivery models — with security as a service showing increasing popularity — and
new technologies being introduced, often by startup companies
Symantec retained its market share lead and accounted for nearly 19 percent of total security
software revenue in 2010 (see Table 1). Performance of the largest players varied considerably;
Symantec, Trend Micro and IBM recorded below-average growth, while other larger players,
such as EMC, experienced above-average growth.
Table: Security Software Market Share, Worldwide, 2009-2010 (Millions of Dollars)
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Company 2010 Revenue2010 Market Share
(%)
2009
Revenue2009-2010 Growth (%)
Symantec 3,121.6 18.9 2,949.5 5.8
McAfee 1,711.8 10.4 1,595.6 7.3
Trend
Micro1,036.9 6.3 981.4 5.7
IBM 814.7 4.9 759.6 7.3
EMC 626.6 3.8 498.8 25.6
Others 9,188.8 55.7 7,928.6 15.9
Total 16,500.4 100.0 14,713.5 12.0
Source: Gartner (May 2011)
Demand drivers
The growth in the antivirus numbers is fuelled by the volume and complexity of threats that have undergone exponential growth over last few years. Ajay Verma, Director-Channels and Alliances, Symantec India says, "Viral codes today are more advanced; most of these codes cannot be detected by the operating system. So you need to have some external security solution to take care of that risk." According to a report by AV-test.org (a Germany-based AV testing firm) number of malicious programs circulating over internet increased by five times in 2007 as compared to 2006. The report, released in January 2008, said that there were 5.5 million unique samples of malicious software in 2007-five times more than 0.9 million in 2006.
The evolving threats have become sophisticated in terms of both technology and social engineering. GovindRammurthy, MD & CEO Microworld Software Services, says, "Today people are becoming targets
of phishing scams and identity theft more than ever before. This has increased the awareness amongst the users about security solutions."
The growth in vectors of threat has raised security issues not only for individual but also for companies who rely on internet to remote access the data. Muasher of BitDefender says, "Organizations can no longer rely on basic network security to get the job done. The threats are more sophisticated and a company's security needs to be as well." Organizations have realized the need to protect their employees' devices from attacks that can affect the network security of the organization
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The positive side
VenuPalakirti, Sales Director, India &Saarc, F-secure, says, "We see a lot of demand from SMB segment. Currently it contributes 25 per cent to overall demand and is expected to grow to 35 per cent this year." Shahani of McAfee says that 60 per cent of McAfee's revenue comes from SMBs and the enterprises. In terms of volumes, the two segments contribute 40 per cent to the overall antivirus sales. He adds "In the past few years there has been a rise in the demand from individual customers who contribute around 60 per cent in volume terms."
Citing another reason, Verma of Symantec is says slash in prices of AV solutions has led to their growth. With the growing affordability, every organization today can adopt a solution to meet the demands. Alok Gupta, Director (Marketing), Unistal Systems, distributor of Bit Defender in India, says, "The prices in Indian market have come down during the last one year." They are estimated to further come down by 10 per cent every year.
Jagannath Delhiik, VP - Sales and Marketing, Quick Heal, believes that prices have fallen by as much as 50 per cent in the home segment, which is encouraging more and more people to buy licensed versions rather then pirated copy. Products that use to cost Rs 3,000 in the past, today cost Rs 15,00 and is bundled with more features then ever before. As Delhiik rightly points out, an antivirus product has grown to have features like anti-spam, anti-phishing, firewall, e-mail filter, adware, malware, and spyware.
Rules of the game
However, price-difference and piracy remain the biggest challenges for the antivirus industry. As Shahani of McAfee observes, "The products from McAfee and Symantec are expensive than other solutions in the market and hence we face a price-competition from other brands."
The multiple entrants in the antivirus space have ensured that the product-prices have come down. New players like QuickHeal, Trend Micro, and BitDefender have introduced products at rates lower than their top MNC competitors. Sanghrajka of Comprompt Solutions says, "Apart from reducing the prices, vendors have started offering bundled services at the same price-points."
According to a report by F-secure, globally antivirus industry faces a loss of $45 billion to $48 billion due to piracy on yearly basis. However, this figure has considerably come down from 80 per cent in 1998-2000.
Under-licensing is yet another challenge faced by the the industry. "Piracy is prevalent more in the home segment as only 25 per cent of market uses licensed products. Even in the SMB segment, where there is a money-crunch and no dedicated staff, under-licensing is a big issue. If there are 100 users, they will often buy 50 licenses and use it for 100 users," explains Shahani.
Overcoming the challenges
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Most of the vendors have taken different initiatives to tackle piracy issue by creating awareness amongst the customers.
For instance, F-Secure is planning to do a series of seven-city road shows in major cities across the country. This would allow the users to get hands-on experience with connectivity and integrated security. It has tied up with four ISP partners that includes, Reliance Communication, Tata telecommunications, Bharti Airtel and Sify to provide security as a service to the users.
F-secure along with the distributors are conducting various training programs for partners to enhance their knowledge on products and their positioning in the market.
McAfee also runs several training programs around how to position the product and provides incentives to its partners. It has two types of partners, Premium and Elite who are trained for large projects.
McAfee's Premium Program trains partners in technical, marketing, and sales aspects and also helps them with business planning and vertical specialization. The vendor stocks NFR units (not for sale), that are used for the channel training. McAfee also has DAP (deployment assistant planning) plans, where an engineer from the company assists the partner after the deployment to guide them through the processes until the customer is satisfied.
Similarly, Symantec conducts 40 to 50 sales, training, and educational workshops every quarter for its partners to help them understand the dynamics of the market and product portfolio of the company.
Khalid of Bit Defender informs, "Our attention is concentrated on the identification of the consumer's needs as and insight information coming from the end-users. Being in close ties with our local partners helps us in giving best support and solution in the market."
Doing its bit, QuickHeal carries out several schemes for its channel partners. The vendor provides toll free number, e-mail support and personal support through its 17 branch offices across India.
And last but not the least, the home-grown security giant Microworld runs educational programs for its customers channel partners to help them understand the benefits of genuine software like free support and regular updates that keep them protected proactively. Rammurthy informs, "We have strengthened our registration and activation procedures to overcome piracy."
New trends
New technology features to tackle the upcoming challenges and enhancing the user experience, is what all the vendors and partners are focusing on. Microworld's Rammurthy says, "The primary challenge is to provide faster or preventive measures against all security concerns and issues proactively. A feature-rich product with fewer complaints and good margins is what partners prefer to sell."
From just being antivirus, the product is evolving into an integrated solution today. "Initially there were only viruses, so you needed only antivirus. But today there are so many insidious threats like root attacks, malware, spyware, spam, phishing, adware, etc, and users need to
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protect their computers and data from all of them. Antivirus has now grown to full-fledged suite to protect all threats," informs Verma of Symantec.
F-Secure has introduced a mobile security solution for mobile devices. Symantec also feels that it is important to secure the mobile end-points for network security to be effective. The mobile users access information using their mobile devices from anywhere and so it becomes extremely important to protect those end-points.
The other feature in antivirus security is the parental control. "Today parents do not have time to look after the child's activity and no one wants their children to waste time over inappropriate websites. Hence, we have added parental control on our solutions," informs Palakirti of F-Secure. All these features and strong security policies coupled with the use of mobile antivirus should minimize the danger for business networks.
Emergence of multiple players has been another trend that not only gives many options to customers, but also creates a level playing field. The dynamics of the antivirus market have changed.
Today users can choose a product that suit their requirements as well as their pockets. It is not only a win-win situation for them but for the partners as well who along with their vendors can offer services and products at price that suits both of them Innovating the product technology and support model is the key to growth in the market and sustain the competition.
Antivirus products operating in India:
Here are main AVs names that can be striked for Indian market.
An attempt to list the antivirus companies’ products operating in India has been done:
Avira AntivirusAvast AntivirusAVG AntivirusBitDefender AntivirusEScan AntivirusESET NOD32 AntivirusF-Secure AntivirusK7 AntivirusKaspersky AntivirusMcAfee AntivirusMicrosoft Security EssentialsNorman Antivirus and Anti-SpywareNet Protector AntivirusQuickHeal AntivirusSophos Antivirus
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Symantec Norton Antivirus
Company Profile
QUICKHEAL
Quick Heal Technologies is India’s leading provider of Internet Security tools and is a leader in Anti-Virus Technology in India. A privately held company, Quick Heal Technologies was founded in 1993 and has been actively involved in Research and Development of anti-virus software since then. Quick Heal Technologies has established Quick Heal product family as industry benchmark for computer security. Quick Heal, an award winning security product is installed in corporate, small business and consumers’ homes protecting their computers from viruses and other malicious threats. Serving millions of users worldwide, Quick Heal Technologies employs more than 350 people in eighteen branch offices and is headquartered at Pune, India. Quick Heal Technologies was formed for catering the demand of highly reliable anti-virus software, which would successfully tackle the growing number of virus problems and give computer users reliable and affordable product option. Quick Heal Technologies is focused to
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provide products and services of high quality and adapt to the ever changing needs of consumers’. Quick Heal Technologies has firmly established its position in India and also operates through a network of dealers and channel partners in more than 50 countries worldwide.
Channels in the security software industry
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PRODUCTS OF QUICKHEAL
1. FOR HOME USERS
Quick Heal offers specialized security solutions designed for personal use on individual machines for home users. These products combine high performance with exceptional ease of use and outstanding design.
Quick Heal AntiVirus Pro 2011
Quick Heal Internet Security 2011
Quick Heal Total Security 2011
Quick Heal PCTuner 2.1
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National distribution centreIndia
Main Distribution
Sub Distribution
Dealers
Quick Heal AntiVirus Pro 2011
Quick Heal AntiVirus Pro protects your laptops and desktops and provides protection against malicious threats that can sneak into your system when you are browsing the Internet, checking mails, chatting, etc. Upon installation, it acts as a shield against viruses, worms, trojans, spywares and other malicious threats. It also provides security against new and unknown threats with Quick Heal's renowned DNAScan® Technology. It utilizes minimum system resources, thereby giving complete protection to your system without slowing it down.
Quick Heal Internet Security 2011
Quick Heal Internet Security protects your laptops and desktops and provides protection against all kinds of Internet or network-based threats. Upon installation, it acts as a shield against viruses, worms, trojans, spywares and other malicious threats. It also provides security against new and unknown threats with Quick Heal's renowned DNAScan Technology. Its improved Anti-Phishing feature ensures that you do not land on phishing sites when browsing the net. The Parental Control feature allows you to schedule Internet access for your children and its pre-configured restricted browsing ensures that children do not visit adult sites. It utilizes minimum system resources, thereby giving complete protection to your system without slowing it down.
Quick Heal Total Security 2011
Quick Heal Total Security protects your laptops and desktops and provides protection against all kinds of Internet or network-based threats. Upon installation, it acts as a shield against viruses, worms, trojans, spywares and other malicious threats. It also provides security against new and unknown threats with Quick Heal's renowned DNAScan Technology. Its improved Anti-Phishing feature ensures that you do not land on phishing sites when browsing the net. The Parental Control feature allows you to schedule Internet access for your children and its pre-configured restricted browsing ensures that children do not visit adult sites. The PC Tuner tool improves the overall efficiency of your system and the PC2Mobile Scan feature scans, detects and removes malwares from your mobile phones. It utilizes minimum system resources, thereby giving complete protection to your system without slowing it down.
Quick Heal PCTuner
With Quick Heal PCTuner, you don't need to be a computer expert to improve the performance of your system. It helps you to optimize system performance by eliminating system clutter, and its user-friendly interface, makes it easy even for novice users to maintain their system’s performance at peak level.
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FOR SMEs
Quick Heal offers specialized security solutions designed for small medium companies. These products combine high performance with exceptional ease of use and outstanding design.
Quick Heal AntiVirus Pro 2011
Quick Heal Internet Security 2011
Quick Heal Total Security 2011
Quick Heal AntiVirus 2011 Server Edition
Quick Heal Admin Console 4.5
Quick Heal Mobile Security
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MARKET RESEARCH
LITERATURE REVIEW
The Market Research Process
Marketing research often follow a generalized pattern which can be broken down and studied sequentially.
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Establishing research design and strategy
DEVELOPING YOUR APPROACH
Identifying and DEFINING THE PROBLEM
REPORTING AND PRESENTATION
PERFORMING DATA ANALYSIS
COLLECTING THE DATA
Identifying andDefining the problem
The first step in any marketing research project is to define the problem. In defining the problem, the researcher should take into account the purpose of the study, the relevant background information, what information is needed, and how it will be used in decision making. Problem definition involves discussion with the decision makers, interviews with industry experts, analysis of secondary data, and, perhaps, some qualitative research, such as focus groups. Once the problem has been precisely defined, the research can be designed and conducted properly
Development of an Approach to the Problem
Development of an approach to the problem includes formulating an objective or theoretical framework, analytical models, research questions, hypotheses, and identifying characteristics or factors that can influence the research design. This process is guided by discussions with management and industry experts, case studies and simulations, analysis of secondary data, qualitative research and pragmatic considerations.
Research Design Formulation
A research design is a framework or blueprint for conducting the marketing research project. It details the procedures necessary for obtaining the required information, and its purpose is to design a study that will test the hypotheses of interest, determine possible answers to the research questions, and provide the information needed for decision making. Conducting exploratory research, precisely defining the variables, and designing appropriate scales to measure them are also a part of the research design. The issue of how the data should be obtained from the respondents (for example, by conducting a survey or an experiment) must be addressed. It is also necessary to design a questionnaire and a sampling plan to select respondents for the study.
More formally, formulating the research design involves the following steps:
1. Secondary data analysis 2. Qualitative research 3. Methods of collecting quantitative data (survey, observation, and experimentation) 4. Definition of the information needed 5. Measurement and scaling procedures 6. Questionnaire design
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PREPRATION AND PRESENTATION OF REPORT
7. Sampling process and sample size 8. Plan of data analysis
Field Work or Data Collection
Data collection involves a field force or staff that operates either in the field, as in the case of personal interviewing (in-home, mall intercept, or computer-assisted personal interviewing), from an office by telephone (telephone or computer-assisted telephone interviewing), or through mail (traditional mail and mail panel surveys with prerecruited households). Proper selection, training, supervision, and evaluation of the field force helps minimize data-collection errors.
Data Preparation and Analysis
Data preparation includes the editing, coding, transcription, and verification of data. Each questionnaire or observation form is inspected, or edited, and, if necessary, corrected. Number or letter codes are assigned to represent each response to each question in the questionnaire. The data from the questionnaires are transcribed or key-punched on to magnetic tape, or disks or input directly into the computer. Verification ensures that the data from the original questionnaires have been accurately transcribed, while data analysis, guided by the plan of data analysis, gives meaning to the data that have been collected. Univariate techniques are used for analyzing data when there is a single measurement of each element or unit in the sample, or, if there are several measurements of each element, each RCH variable is analyzed in isolation. On the other hand, multivariate techniques are used for analyzing data when there are two or more measurements on each element and the variables are analyzed simultaneously.
Report Preparation and Presentation
The entire project should be documented in a written report which addresses the specific research questions identified, describes the approach, the research design, data collection, and data analysis procedures adopted, and presents the results and the major findings. The findings should be presented in a comprehensible format so that they can be readily used in the decision making process. In addition, an oral presentation should be made to management using tables, figures, and graphs to enhance clarity and impact.
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MARKET RESEARCH FOR QUICKHEAL
Objectives of study1. To understand AV market and demand of AVs.
2. To get knowledge about need, satisfaction level, problems and complains of retailers, dealers and customers.
3. To understand competition in market and strategies of competitors in context of margin, marketing support, schemes etc.
4. To get an idea about strategies and behavior of retailers and dealers and try to understand reason accounting to it.
5. To understand customer attitude.
Scope of research
The study involves obtaining information regarding the different AVs present in market of Delhi, and to understand their comparative standing in market. The study aims to know the customer demand and the retailers and dealers attitude towards different vendors of AVs.
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RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The Study involves the use of both
Primary Data Collection Methods
Secondary Data Collection Methods
PRIMARY DATA COLLECTION
1. The data has been collected using various questionnaires involving both closed and open
ended questions.
2. The questionnaires were filled by the respondents, those who were personally visited by
me. The respondents those were not accessible or reachable were contacted on the phone
and were asked questions.
3. The questionnaires were also mailed to some of the respondents who were requested to
fill and mail back the questionnaires at the earliest.
Secondary Data Collection Methods
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1. Various magazines were used Along with the use of various newspaper (latest and
archives)
2. An extensive use of internet sites and search engines has been done to gather data
KEY FINDINGS
Dealers and retailers approached: 100
From the surveys and interviews conducted in Delhi among variousdealers, retailers and distributors of antivirus softwares, the following have beenfound out:
1. PRODUCT PERFORMANCE(Perception of dealers/dealers)
When asked to comment on performance of different AVs, the following conclusion could be drawn
Product PerformanceName of the companyQuick heal 25Norton 29KaspersKey 31Guardiain 2Macfee 6Mid defender 2E-scan 2Trust Port 1Trend Micro 2
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Interpretation
Kasperskey is considered is one of the best product in the market.
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1. PRICING AND DEALER MARGIN
Pricing(Margin)
Quick heal 18Norton 20KaspersKey 25Guardiain 15Macfee 18Mid defender 4
Interpretation
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According to price margin which is given to the dealer, kasperskey is leading way ahead of QH.
Company Support
Company Support
Quick heal 45Norton 30KaspersKey 15Guardiain 2Macfee 7Middefender 1
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Interpretation
According to company support QH leads the market and there is no one to hold its hand.
Customers demand
Customer Demand
Quick heal 24Norton 27KaspersKey 39Guardiain 3Macfee 4Mid defender 1E-scan 2
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Interpretation
The main focus of the customers in Delhi is mainly on the low cost they don’t like to spend much on an antivirus. As per the low price in the market and good quality kasperskey can be declared as the market leader.
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Training by Companies
Training by Companies
Quick heal 30Norton 4KaspersKey 38Macfee 14E-scan 14
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Interpretation
Training to the dealers is led by kasperskey and is really setting the example for the competitors in the market.
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Maximum selling brand
Maximum selling Brand
Quick heal 20Norton 22KaspersKey 35Guardiain 12Macfee 4Mid defender 3E-scan 2Trust Port 1Trend Micro 1
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Interpretation
The main reason for Kasperskey for leading the market is its low price, because of low price and high quality Kasperskey is way ahead in the market.
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OTHER IMPORTANT FINDINGS
1. There is nothing much to cheer for quick heal, it can’t be declared as MARKET LEADER in Delhi REGION.
2. Quick heal really need to do something as it is losing its opportunity to be the market leader. However, Retailers are also happy in selling quick heal because they agree that its performance is best so they rarely get complains from quick heal users.
3. A big reason to worry was related to supply of QUICK HEAL and even more of its low price version GUARDIANwhich is not properly promoted to compete with Kasperskey.
Guardian can be used to fight kasperskey as it is low priced but it is neither advertised nor supplied properly.
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4. Some retailers admitted that as guardian was not supplied properly they shifted customers of guardian to Kasperskey.
5.Many dealers said that even Norton total security is cheaper than QH total security.
RECOMMENDATIONS
1. Supply chain Management- Improper supply of Guardian, hence opportunity of
increasing market share is dipping.
2. Pricing- QH total security is much above the Price of the nearest competitor Norton total
security it needs to lower down its prices to match the prices of the competitor and to
enhance its market share.
3. Promotions and Advertisements can be done on the stores.
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4. Awareness among the users can be increased.
5. As e-scan is giving free trial version to most of the customers during promotion, QH can
do same to increase the awareness among people.
6. Most of the customers are depended on retailers and dealers so the emphasis should be
given to them like increasing their profit margins.
7. QH can conduct seminars and thus win an opportunity to earn business
8. Also dealer meets can be conducted so that there is mouth-to-mouth publicity of QH
among the dealer community.
9. Remote installation of the antivirus software must be possible. It can be done through
SMS or on the phone(as in Net Protector). However authentication must be made
possible to avoid repetition of issue of licenses.
HOW to make brand Quick Heal familiar?
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10. Create a replica of Girl which must have some motion in it to attract most of the passers
by. The eyeballs of the Girl must be made of rotating lasers. Also it must have moving
hands and the logo of QH antivirus in bold. The word antivirus must be deliberately
included on the QH logo.
11. The motion will be a better choice over a stationary Girl as it would certainly grab the
attention of majority of passers even if they are in a great hurry to head home after work.
12. The location can be Nehru Place, Palika Bazar, Karol Bagh, New Delhi railway station.
All the locations are crowded as it is the point of intersection of railway station,
Municipal transport busses and rikshaw stand.
Location: Nehru Place
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This place is the software hub of Delhi we can set canopy here and advertise QH.
Location: Palika Bazar
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This is one of the major markets which keeps software’s and is surrounded by Metro station and nearby it is KP.
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Location: New Delhi Railway Station
This place is one of the most crowded place in Delhi and it is surrounded by Metro Station and lot of Auto Rikshaws. So lot of people attention can be gathered here and QH can easily be marketed here.
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13. QH can be promoted by painting the local buses commuting on various routes.
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Budget estimation
In order to create awareness about QH we need to carry out promotional activities. The estimated
budget is calculated below.
Activity Rate Qty Total Remark
Magazine ads 15,000 6 ads 60,000 6 top IT mag
BS rate for color ad 366/sqcm** 2 ads 1,87,392 1 ad/2 weeks
ET Classified display 350/sqcm 2 ads 1,79,200 1 ad/2 weeks
TOI 2,500,000 4 ads 1,00,00,000 ½ page ad/ week
Events 3,00,000 3,00,000 Conference, Seminars
Sundry 20,000 5 1,00,000 Bills, couriers, etc.
Total 1,10,26,592
Sales 30,00,000
Budget for promotions 10% of sales 3,00,000
CONCLUSIONS
The project gave us the understanding about the familiarity of QH. It also helped us find
the opportunities for QH in its untapped market segment. After considering the dealer’s
preferences we can carry out promotional activities. The estimated budget and actual budget for
promotion is calculated and feasibility of promotions is checked if possible.
QH as a brand is yet to be evolved in the Indian markets. Brand awareness of QH is not
very good. However after knowing the awards QH has backed it helps to create a positive
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impression in the minds of the dealers. As compared to the existing market players the position
of QH is very natïve.
Also the competitors have adopted various strategies to continue loyalty and kill
competitors. It is very important to aggressively market the QH flagship products by creating
awareness among the masses. To create a demand for QH has become the need of time. Thus QH
has to evolve better and increase its market share in the Indian market.
By doing this project I was able to conclude that AV industry is a promising industry with continue good growth and future also seems to be promising.
Quickheal is not doing very well in the market because of its high price. However, Customers as well as retailers are very happy with the effectiveness of quickheal. This effectiveness is driving QH towards success in market.
Quickheal faced competition from Kasperskey which actually was low priced brand of AV. Guardian, which was low priced brand of QH, can be used to fight kasperskey and K7. Availability is an important factor for an AV, and guardian lacked on this criteria only. Microsoft AV with genuine OS, could have been a problem, but as per now, retailers did not have much believe on its effectiveness and not much people were using genuine OS, which was good news for AV industry.
REFERENCES
antivirus.about.com
anti-virus-software-review.toptenreviews.com
www.pcantivirusreviews.com
reviews.cnet.com/software
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www.antivirusware.com
www.consumersearch.com/antivirus-software
www.infosecurity-magazine.com/
www.antivirusworld.com/articles/antivirus.php
www.channelbusiness.in/index.php
www.kaspersky.co.in/reading_room
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Market_research
www.polarismr.com/resources/marketing-research-overview/
Apart from these, individual official websites of the following Antivirus and software companies have been referred for secondary help in the compilation of this report:
• QuickHeal Antivirus Technologies Pvt. Ltd.• Kaspersky Antivirus• Symantec Norton Antivirus• K7 Antivirus
ANNEXURE
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QUESTIONNAIRE Research on Competitive Analysis of Anti-Virus as Product
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Customer satisfaction survey for Anti-virus as product.
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