A

Synopsis Report

ON

AN ASSESSMENT

OF CONSUMER PURCHASE DECISION INVOLVEMENT

AND ADVERTISEMENT INVOLVEMENT

IN BRANDED APPARELS

Submitted to: Submitted By:

MS. MEENAL GUGLANI KULDEEP SHARMA

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR MBA- Final

MBA Programme Roll No. : 721

MAHARAJA AGRASEN INSTITUTE OFMAHARAJA AGRASEN INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT & TECHNOLOGY MANAGEMENT & TECHNOLOGY

J JAGADHRI – 135 003AGADHRI – 135 003

An Introduction to Consumer Behavior

Consumer Behavior is the study of who acquires, consumes and disposes of

products (goods, services, ideas, images, brands) and where, when, how, and why

they do so.  Marketers must understand their consumers' behaviors before they

develop marketing strategy (e.g., segmentation, targeting, positioning, and the

marketing mix).

Definition of consumer behavior is "The study of individuals, groups, or

organizations and the processes they use to select, secure, use, and dispose of

products, services, experiences, or ideas to satisfy needs and the impacts that these

processes have on the consumer and society."

Behavior occurs either for the individual, or in the context of a group (e.g., friends

influence what kinds of clothes a person wears) or an organization (people on the

job make decisions as to which products the firm should use).

Consumer behavior involves the use and disposal of products as well as the study

of how they are purchased. Product use is often of great interest to the marketer,

because this may influence how a product is best positioned or how we can

encourage increased consumption. Since many environmental problems result from

product disposal (e.g., motor oil being sent into sewage systems to save the

recycling fee, or garbage piling up at landfills) this is also an area of interest.

Consumer behavior involves services and ideas as well as tangible products.

The impact of consumer behavior on society is also of relevance. For example,

aggressive marketing of high fat foods, or aggressive marketing of easy credit, may

have serious repercussions for the national health and economy.

Consumer behavior is interdisciplinary; that is, it is based on concepts and theories

about people that have been developed by scientists, philosophers & researchers in

such diverse disciplines as psychology, sociology, social psychology, cultural

anthropology, and economics. The main objective of the study of consumer

behavior is to provide marketers with the knowledge and skills, that are necessary

to carry out detailed consumer analyses which could be used for understanding

markets and developing marketing strategies. Thus, consumer behavior researchers

with their skills for the naturalistic settings of the market are trying to make a

major contribution to our understanding of human thinking in general. 

The study of consumer behavior helps management understand consumers’ needs

so as to recognize the potential for the trend of development of change in consumer

requirements and new technology. And also to articulate the new thing in terms of

the consumers’ needs so that it will be accepted in the market well. 

The following are a few examples of the benefits of the study of consumer

behavior derived by the different categories of people :

1. A marketing manager would like to know how consumer behavior will help

him to design better marketing plans to get those plans accepted within the

company.

2. In a non-profit service organization, such as a hospital, an individual in the

marketing department would like to know the patients’ needs and how best

to serve those needs.

3. Universities & Colleges now recognize that they need to know about

consumer behavior to aid in recruiting students. “Marketing Admissions”

has become an accepted term to mean marketing to potential students.

 

Literature review

Gijsenberg (2003) introduced a systematic investigation on the evolution in the

effectiveness of two important marketing mix instruments, advertising and price, over the

business cycle. Analyses are based on 163 branded products in 37 mature CPG categories

in the UK, and this for a period of 15 years. The data are a combination of (i) monthly

national sales data, (ii) monthly advertising data, (iii) data on the general economic

conditions, and (iv) consumer survey data. Consumers are shown to be more price

sensitive during contractions. In addition, spending patterns will be less consistent,

implying smaller brand loyalty. Advertising elasticity, however, do not seem to be

affected by economic downturns. Product involvement was shown to be an influential

moderator of the final effect of advertising, price and carry-over effects on sales. Finally,

although short run effectiveness of price differs between expansions and contractions, the

long run effectiveness of both advertising and price is not altered by differences in the

general economic conditions.

Ibbotson (2005) said that Purchase-decision involvement is distinguished from product-

class involvement. Literature on consumer involvement is shown to be lacking a measure

of purchase involvement. Therefore, a scale of purchase-decision involvement is

developed. Two empirical studies are described and are shown to furnish tests of

convergent and discriminate validities. The individual items of the proposed scale are

explicitly embedded in the purchase-decision context, and the scale is simple and

parsimonious, making it especially useful to practitioners.

Jensen (2009) justified that how the degree of personal involvement in a purchase

decision affects the information needed to reduce cognitive dissonance associated with

that purchase. The authors argue that, highly involved individuals, because of their high

involvement in purchase decisions, are rigid in their preconceived cognitions that led to

the purchase. Consequently, they tend to downplay the new cognition and actively look

out for purchase supportive information, rather than changing the old cognition that led to

the purchase decision. Also, it is proposed that, to overcome the cognitive dissonance

associated with a high involvement purchase, more supportive information is needed to

overcome the cognitive dissonance associated with a low involvement purchase. Yet

another finding of the study is that the willingness of a dissonant individual to accept the

new cognition increases with the elapse of time from the time of occurrence of the

cognitive dissonance. The study also unveils that, for a typical purchase, the degree of

cognitive dissonance felt by more involved purchasers is less than that felt by less

involved purchasers. Thus, interestingly, even though the degree of cognitive dissonance

felt by highly involved purchasers is lower, the difficulty for them to grapple with it is

higher. An associated finding is that more planned and less spontaneous buying behavior

is associated with a higher degree of cognitive dissonance.

Shahabuddin (1999) said that available evidence from the literature tells that satisfaction

depends upon the consistency between expectations and performance. When product

performance is below expectations dissatisfaction is resulted, whereas satisfaction arises

when performance equals or exceeds the performance expected. We argue that

incorporating tourist's purchase involvement with the tourism product as a moderator in

the above relationship can enrich the above model. Through an empirical study we

establish that increased purchase involvement increases dissatisfaction in the event of

disconfirmation and decreases satisfaction in the event of confirmation. Likewise,

decreased purchase involvement decreases dissatisfaction in the event of disconfirmation

and increases satisfaction in the event of confirmation

Black (2006) justified about the contributions of advertising on the success of a company

or a product while it is true that the impact of advertising is evident in our socio-

economic system. Advertising is an aid to manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers in the

process of marketing commodities to a greater number of customers. It touches and

influences the live of practically every man, woman and child. Advertising is a powerful

communication force and an important marketing tool to help sell goods.

Research Methodology

Objectives of the Study

1. To study the degree of consumer purchase decision involvement and

Advertisement involvement in branded apparels

2. To study the impact of consumer purchase decision involvement and

Advertisement involvement on purchase decision for branded apparels

3. To study the consumer purchase decision involvement and advertisement

Involvement on purchase decision for branded apparels across different

socio-demographic profiles.

Hypothesis

1. There is no significant difference in the degree of consumer purchase decision

involvement and advertisement involvement in branded apparels

2. There is no significant impact of consumer purchase decision involvement and

advertisement involvement on purchase decision for branded apparels

3. There is no significant difference in consumer purchase decision involvement and

advertisement involvement on purchase decision for branded apparels across different

socio-demographic profiles.

RESEARCH DESIGN

A research design is the arrangement of conditions for collection & analysis the data in a

manner that aims to combine relevance to the research purpose with economy in

procedure. It is a plan that specifies the source & type of information relevant to the

research problem. The research is Descriptive in nature. The research will be focused on

assessing the purchase decision involvement and advertisement involvement in branded

apparels in Yamunanagar and describe the behavior of consumer that how it reflect in

decision making.

Scope of the Study

The scope of study is limited to the branded apparels only. It will be confined to the

geographical area of Yamuna Nagar. It will be limited to a small sample of 100

respondents only.

Data Collection:

There are several ways of collecting the appropriate data, which may differ

considerably in context of money costs, time and other resources at the disposed of the

researcher. Broadly data collection methods can be divided in two categories:

Primary Data Collection.

Secondary Data Collection.

Primary Data

The primary data will be collect through survey method with the help of Questionnaire.

The data will be collected using Mall Intercept Survey.

Secondary Data

In this study secondary data is used, that is collected from following sources.

Internet

Journals

Magazines

Newspapers

Sampling Design

Sampling is the process of selecting some elements from a population to represent that

population. Sampling may be defined as the selection of some part of an aggregate or

totality on the basis of which a judgment or inference about the aggregate or totality is

made. In simple words, it is the process of obtaining information about the population by

examining only a part of it.

Sampling Technique: Probability Sampling

Sampling Method: Simple random sampling

Sampling Unit: Individual Customer

Sample Area: Yamunanagar (Haryana).

Sample size: 100

Plan of Data analysis

Obj 1: To study the degree of consumer purchase decision involvement and

Advertisement involvement in branded apparels

Obj 2: To study the impact of consumer purchase decision involvement and

Advertisement involvement on purchase decision for branded apparels

This objective will be justified by Regression method.

Obj 3: To study the consumer purchase decision involvement and advertisement

Involvement on purchase decision for branded apparels across different socio-

demographic profiles.

This objective will be justified by ANOVA method

Significance of study

Consumers are the end users of any product or services and hence, study of consumer

behavior is important for the marketers to analyze the various factors which influences

consumers mind for buying products or services.

Consumer behavior is the study of when, why, how, and where people do or do not buy a

product. It blends elements from psychology, sociology, social anthropology and

economics. It attempts to understand the buyer decision making process, both

individually and in groups. It studies characteristics of individual consumers such as

demographics and behavioral variables in an attempt to understand people's wants. It also

tries to assess influences on the consumer from groups such as family, friends, reference

groups, and society in general.

Customer behavior study is based on consumer buying behavior, with the customer

playing the three distinct roles of user, payer and buyer. Relationship marketing is an

influential asset for customer behavior analysis as it has a keen interest in the re-

discovery of the true meaning of marketing through the re-affirmation of the importance

of the customer or buyer. A greater importance is also placed on consumer retention,

customer relationship management, personalization, customization and one-to-one

marketing.