Do-it-yourself (DIY) is the practice of household members undertaking home improvement or maintenance on their own, instead of hiring professional help. While DIY is a substantial and steadily growing cultural and economic phenomenon in several developed countries, in India, it is still in a stage of infancy. The objective of this research is to understand whether DIY can be introduced and developed in India as a significant consumer activity based on an understanding of the DIY markets in developed countries (like USA, UK & France) and the business models in place to service them. The concept of DIY started sometime in middle of the 20th century in the USA and it eventually spread to UK and rest of Europe in the later part of the century. Currently, in most developed countries DIY constitutes a significant portion of the Home Improvement and repair Market and there are specialized organized retail chains to cater to the DIY demand.
In India and most developing countries, DIY is not an established practice and does not contribute at all to the Home Improvement and repair Market. Organized retail in most developing countries is very small and most of the Home Improvement Market is serviced through local decorative and hardware distribution outlets. Brazil is an exceptional case due to its large organized retail structure for servicing the home improvement market. Organized retail to service the Home Improvement and repair Market in China has started in a big way and is witnessing exponential growth year on year. Similar phenomenon has started in India as well. However, both in China and India, there is no specific demand for DIY products and the same clearly needs to be created. Existing research literature on DIY, focuses mainly, on the determination of variables that influence the decision to take up a DIY or a home improvement project. Apart from this, a large number of business reports and studies profiling specific DIY markets are available over the internet. Work has also been done to trace and record the history of DIY and its impact on culture and society.
While there has been some research work carried out that deals with the development of strategy for DIY markets in developed countries, no such work has been done in the context of developing countries. The purpose of this research is to do just that but the scope is limited to household painting and carpentry. The pilot study (focussed group discussions) and the questionnaire survey reveal that, in India, there is a clear bias against DIY mainly on account of perceived lack of time and knowledge. But it is possible to define a demographic profile of people that will show the highest inclination towards DIY. The survey reveals that this profile varies depending on the type of the DIY activity (Electrical, Plumbing, Indoor Painting, Outdoor Painting, carpentry and Gardening). The final part of the research involves the formulation of a holistic marketing strategy, based on the research findings and the understanding of prevalent business models to service DIY in developed countries, to create and service demand for DIY products related to household painting and carpentry in India.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:IISc/oai:etd.ncsi.iisc.ernet.in:2005/748 |
| Date | 03 1900 |
| Creators | Sarup, Vidosh |
| Contributors | Gurtoo, Anjula |
| Source Sets | India Institute of Science |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Relation | G22356 |
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