APPLICATIONS DUE: June 30, 2010

Terms of Reference

1.0 Background

Energy efficiency standards and labels (S&L) shift appliance, lighting and equipment markets toward more energy-efficient technology while dramatically reducing national climate change impacts. The Government of India introduced the Energy Conservation (EC) Act 2001 and created the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) as a statutory body to implement the Act. S&L are two major program areas being implemented by BEE. BEE works through committees of experts and stakeholders, including representatives from industry, consumer organizations, and industrial associations, who determine how the program should be implemented on a product-by-product basis. BEE launched the first voluntary comparative energy label for refrigerators in May 2006. Other labeled domestic products to-date are air-conditioners, tubular florescent lamps, storage water heaters (geysers), colour televisions, ceiling fans and cooking gas stoves.

The Collaborative Labeling and Appliance Standards Program (CLASP) is a non-governmental organization (NGO) that promotes energy efficiency S&L on a global basis.  CLASP and its partners in India have provided technical support to BEE on various aspects of the Indian S&L Program, including the design and implementation of the 5 Star Comparative Label.

Energy efficiency labels are informative labels that are affixed to manufactured products and describe a product’s performance (usually in the form of energy use, efficiency, or energy cost) to provide consumers with the data necessary for making informed purchases. The labels allow consumers to select efficient appliance models. Labels also provide a common energy efficiency benchmark that makes it easier for governments to offer consumers incentives to buy energy efficient products. The effectiveness of energy labels is highly dependent on the awareness of consumers about the labels.

This Term of Reference requests proposals for a consumer, retailer and manufacturer awareness survey, as part of a larger impact assessment analysis of the Energy Efficiency Standards & Labeling program implemented by BEE, Government of India.

This market research is a part of the second phase of analysis undertaken by CLASP. CLASP and its partners in India conducted similar research in January 2009 during the first phase of the study, which included consumer, retailer and manufacturer surveys specifically for refrigerators and air conditioners.

2.0 Objective of Market Research

The focus of the study is on consumer awareness and education and retailer/manufacturer perception about the energy efficiency labeling program for:

1. Refrigerators
2. Room air conditioners
3. Colour televisions
4. Ceiling fans
5. Geysers
6. Tubular florescent lamps (tube lights)

It is intended to identify the impact that BEE’s voluntary labeling program has had on the consumers, retailers and manufacturers.

The selected market research company will assist BEE, CLASP, and CLASP’s partners to conduct a survey for assessing consumer awareness, retailer and manufacturer participation in the appliance labeling program. A secondary and more holistic goal of the study is to observe the annual trend in the consumer awareness of the labeling program. A similar survey was conducted in January 2009. This proposed market research is expected to build upon this survey and demonstrate the growth/decay of the awareness of the labeling program.

The consumer oriented research will look into the following qualitative as well as quantitative criteria:  

1) Current priorities of consumers while buying specific appliances – refrigerators, ACs, tube lights, ceiling fans, colour televisions and geysers – including economics, efficiency, size, visual appeal, and after sales service.

2) Attitude towards energy and environment (awareness).

3) Influencing factors in purchase decision, including labels, advertisements, selling technique, information sources and price.

4) Importance of energy cost saving in making purchase decisions.

5) Awareness of energy issues.

Findings from qualitative research will be used to develop the survey instrument, which need then be administered to a large section of consumers to get statistically measured and validated recommendations.

BEE already has a list of company wise labeled models sold in the market, along with respective star rating and total number of units sold. The support from BEE required for manufacturer survey includes:

1) Data related to measures undertaken by manufacturers for attaining energy efficiency:

• upgrades being done to produce labeled or high efficiency products
• research & development investments for energy efficiency
• new models being introduced with higher energy efficiency    

2) Data related to quantification of market transformation effect in India for labeled appliances:

• Total number of various appliances (labeled and unlabeled) manufactured annually
• Total number of appliances (labeled and unlabeled) sold annually and total number of labeled appliances sold annually
• Number of labeled products sold region wise. For the purpose of the study the sales data is required separately for both: urban, sub-urban, rural regions as well as geographic regions – northern, eastern, southern, western and central

3) Data related to the expenses borne by the consumer for energy efficient products – the additional cost of a particular star rating model over an unlabeled model of same capacity

3.0 Timeframe for the Study

The total time period of the study will be 8 weeks (including the reporting period) and it is expected that the participating firms should adhere to the timelines strictly. A detailed breakdown of tasks, deliverables and time frame is provided in the table in section 5.0.

4.0 Methodology

The methodology adopted for the study will be decided in consultation with BEE, the CLASP team and the selected Market Research Company. The methodology will broadly include the following:

• Finalization of sample strategy
• Designing of the survey technique so as to get the desired information from the consumers
• Designing questionnaires for the interviews with consumers
• Format of the analysis report on the consumer survey
• Soft copies of all the raw data

5.0 Tasks, Deliverables and Timelines for the Contract

The tasks are to be completed within 8 weeks from the date of commissioning. Details of the proposed activities and the tasks along with the timelines are presented below.

6.0 Deliverables

a) Report defining survey area, sampling methodology and survey techniques, due one week after the commissioning of the project.

b) Report defining the survey design for obtaining the desired data from consumer, retailers and manufacturers.

c) Summary Report on consumer survey results, including formats of survey questionnaires

d) Interim presentation on the collected data

e) Final Report

f) Soft copies of all raw data

7.0 Qualifications

The proposer should have the following qualifications:

• Be an expert in market research including both qualitative and quantitative methods with staff who are experienced focus group moderators, survey designers and interviewers. Applicants without significant track record in this area should not apply.
• The proposer should include examples of market research, media campaigns, etc. with goals and results. Experience of conducting similar Market Research for BEE is essential.
• Strong creative capabilities including concept development, copywriting, layout art and graphic design. The proposer must show demonstrated ability to communicate technical information (e.g. energy efficiency) to consumers in an engaging and motivating way, using a variety of communication tools.
• Capabilities must also include media mix/research skills to reach the target audiences.
• Should have budget/reach/frequency allocation modeling software and market prioritization model (key to market research)
• Should prescribe to industry rating reports
• Access to primary and secondary market research in relevant subject areas, and capabilities in applying research to this market research objective.

8.0 Proposal Evaluation Criteria

The proposals will be evaluated on the best value to the program according to the relative importance of each criteria indicated and its assigned value for a total of 85 points. All bidders will be invited to the bid opening, and the averaged scores from the evaluating committee will be announced. Thereafter, the financial bids will be opened and scores assigned as follows: The lowest bidder will be awarded the maximum (15) points. The rest of the bids are all awarded points based on a percentile. The study will be awarded to a company whose proposal provides the best value. The criteria and their corresponding weightage are:   

Cost factors                                                                                                              15 points
Technical factors (on the basis of proposed methodology)                                    85 points

9.0  Application Process

Interested firms are required to register as CLASP Implementing Partners at http://www.clasponline.org/clasp.online.partnership.php?partner_registration=1 before final submittal.  Any questions about CLASP’s Partner Process may be directed to Corinne Schneider via email at cschneider@clasponline.org. 

Technical proposals may be submitted electronically in pdf format to Bodhisatya Datta, bdatta@clasponline.org 

Hard copies of financial proposals should be sent to the address below.  The envelope should clearly state ‘Financial Proposal,’ the task Impact Assessment Market Research, and the bidder’s name. 

B. Datta
79 Navjeevan Vihar
Ground Floor
New Delhi 110017

All proposals must be received by June 30, 2010.  Any proposals received after this date will not be considered. 

Appendix I

Challenges faced in conducting the first phase of the consumer survey

During the first phase, it was difficult to develop a sample design and framework that could establish pan India representation at 95% confidence level within an acceptable margin of error of 5%. In order to do so, the team started with a sample of 200 per area. In targeting a total of 400 consumer interviews in each region, the same margin of error needed to be maintained across bigger and small cities. However a higher margin of error of up to 10% was assumed to be acceptable in rural areas as the overall awareness was anticipated to be low.

During execution of research in the rural areas, the actual awareness and intended purchase levels as per the definitions were far lower than anticipated. It was difficult to obtain a sample size of 60 interviews per rural area, because the team had not factored in the highly prominent incidence of gifting and resale of durables.  Moving forward, criteria for establishing rural purchasers will need to re-considered and redefined (especially time period elapsed since purchase) so that actual rural usage levels are represented.

Secondly, the research was required to test the efficacy of a communication burst for BEE that had aired for 6 months and thereafter was decayed. The instruments initially designed to study the communication burst did not cater to a detailed qualitative analysis that could delve down deep into information and messaging relays. This was attempted during the consumer focus groups post a forced exposure in order to elicit consumer speak about the advertising. However, analysis of information and messaging relays is better done with a larger pool of people and for such analysis to be done, there should be minimal communication decay. For instance, owing to considerable decay before taking recall levels, during reporting, it was found that for the Television Campaigns (TVC), stimulus comprising blind shots was not boosting recall levels. Perhaps use of blind shots as an aid for boosting TVC recalls also needs to be reconsidered.

Thirdly, in conducting the manufacturers’ survey, it was observed that contacting respondents through the conference organized by BEE for Manufacturers enabled responses, whereas contacting respondents outside of the conference did not yield positive responses within the timeframe. It is recommended that a consistent record of contacts in the manufacturers sphere is maintained for further exercises of this nature in order that such feedback is obtained within timelines set for the research.

Finally, the final figures with respect to energy consumption were estimated from secondary sources as well as validated with primary interviews with manufacturers. Sources from which the estimation is done need to be confirmed as valid by BEE/CLASP partners in order to ensure the final outputs are legitimate.