International Research Journal of Business and Management IRJBM

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1 A STUDY ON FACTORS INFLUENCING POST-PURCHASE BEHAVIOUR OF PERSONAL CARE PRODUCTS IN CHENNAI CITY Dr. M.Sakthivel Murugan Principal, D.B.Jain College, Thoraipakkam, Chennai ABSTRACT Women are more likely to be emotionally involved with personal care product brands due to intrinsic (how she about herself) and extrinsic (how she is perceived by others). The female personal care product market is of high value, characterized by well established behaviours. Women continue to be a valuable customer when it comes to personal care products. A detained understanding of women consumers brand consciousness towards selected personal products would help the marketers to design strategies as well as to achieve product differentiation in this kind of challenging market. This study provides a meaningful insight into analyzing the women s attitudes and behavior when selecting branded products and also finding out the factors influencing post purchase behaviours of personal care products in Chennai city. INTRODUCTION Women consumers life style is changing with the emergence of more educated women entering the work force, and with more two income households with higher disposable incomes. The rise of working women is a growth accelerator. Women s need for appearances and materialism is increasing. That is women wanted to satisfy the need to look and feel good. This created a boom in the Personal care sector across the world. Generally Personal care products are those products which consumer uses for her personal purpose. It includes different types of cosmetic and skin care products like talc, cold cream, fairness cream, toothpaste, tooth brush, perfume, deodorant, hair oil, soap and all types of baby care and beauty care products. Now a variety of cosmetic and toiletries ranging from natural to sophisticated items are available in the market. The pattern and preference of use of these items vary according to different segments and socio-economic class. Women today are extremely aware of the various brands in the market and are conscious of the products they use or consume. They pick and choose carefully according to their needs, style, preferences, etc. They also exercise a lot of independence in decision making and influence the family buying behaviour. Most of the research conducted on Brand consciousness of womenwas done in the US or elsewhere outside India. In India extensive research has been done into the husband-wife interaction and the family as a whole under purchase decision process. Relatively few studies deal with the role of women in the family buying process. In order to bridge this gap, the present study has been undertaken with two dimensions as follows: i) To study the level of Brand consciousness existing among Chennai women ii) Its effect on family Buying behavior. Global Wisdom Research Publications All Rights Reserved. 12

2 NEED FOR THE STUDY Women are more likely to be emotionally involved with personal care product brands due to intrinsic (how she about herself) and extrinsic ( how she is perceived by others). The female personal care product market is of huge value, characterized by well established behaviours. According to the consumer outlook 2002 study by KSA techno park the overall spending of working woman is about 1.3 times that of an average housewife. However they spend much more on grooming and personal care products. Since appearance heavily correlates with self esteem. Women continue to be a valuable customer when it comes to personal care products. A detailed understanding of women consumer s brand consciousness towards selected personal care products would help the marketers to design strategies as well as to achieve product differentiation, in this kind of challenging market. Chennai is one of the fastest growing cities in the world. It has got a diversified economic base anchored by the automobile, software services, hardware manufacturing, and health care and financial service industries. According to the CII Chennai is estimated to grow to a $100 billion economy 2.5 times its present size, by the year According to the provisional population results of 2011, Chennai City has a population of 4,681,087. With a density of 26,903, making it one of the crowdest cities in the world. The sex ratio is 951 females for every 1,000 males. Slightly higher than the national average of 944. The average literacy rate is 80.1% much higher than the national average of 64.5%. From the above said fact it is evident that Chennai city has got a rich and affluent women consumer base to carry out the research work. Hence this study provides a meaningful insight into analyzing the women s attitudes and behavior when selecting branded products. OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY The underlying objectives of the study are framed, formulated and analysed for screening the existence of Brand consciousness among women for personal care products. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY Descriptive Research design was used for the study. A preliminary investigation was undertaken by contacting 50 respondents chosen randomly to identify and eliminate ambiguous terms and instructions. The required changes were made in the light of the comments received. The respondents were requested to express their opinion towards the Personal care products they use and the various attributes that influence their purchase decision. The preliminary investigation was conducted in different parts of Chennai city. Convenient Sampling method was applied to collect the preliminary samples. Reliability of the questionnaire was tested with the help of cronbach alpha coefficient. It was found that the scale had a reliability coefficient of 0.895, which showed that the respondents were well acquainted and easily understood the questionnaire. Sample Size Sample sizes of 550 respondents were taken for the study. Among the 550 respondents only 510 returned the filled in questionnaire. Out of the sample 510, it is found that 500 are usable. So the exact sample of the study is 500. Convenience sampling technique Global Wisdom Research Publications All Rights Reserved. 13

3 was used for the studying the brand consciousness of women consumers towards various personal care products in Chennai city. DATA ANALYSIS Factors Influencing Post Purchase Behaviour of Personal Care Products Any purchase decision is evaluated in the post purchase stage. The post purchase behavior is influenced by various variables, for example, the extent of set of experiences stored in memory by the customers, how well they select product etc. The present study has identified carefully 22 variables collected from previous research studies. The variables are analysed to comprehend the behavior of customers of personal care products. Factor analysis being significant in this context it is used. The application of Principal Component Factor Analysis is presented below. Table 1 KMO and Bartlett s Test for Post Purchase Decision Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure of Sampling Adequacy Approx. Chi-Square Bartlett s Test of Sphericity Df 231 Sig..000 Source : Primary Data From the above table 1 of KMO and Bartlett s Test it is found that the sampling adequacy value and the Chi-Square value for Bartlett s Test of Sphericity are statistically significant at 5% level. This means that the 22 variables concerning to post purchase decision of personal care products are adequate in representing its concept and the sampling distribution is also normal to explain the characteristic features of women consumers post purchase decision of personal care products The following communality table 1 explains the variances in the perception of women consumers post purchase decision of personal care products. Table 2 Communality Table - Post Purchase decision Initial Extraction Favourite brand Unique and Distinet Global Wisdom Research Publications All Rights Reserved. 14

4 Frequency Usage No brand Switching Affectionate to the brand Special features Loving to buy Lovable feature Attachment Delightfulness No Substitute Spearheading the brand Suitability Brand Association Brand recognition Brand Performance Enjoy the brand Brand Addiction Feeling of disloyalty Trustworthy Positive Attitude Favorable Image Source : Primary Data From the above table 2 it is found that the variance of the 22 variables relating to post purchase decision of personal care products in Chennai city ranges from to This implies that the customers perception towards purchase of personal care products in Chennai city varies from 37.5% to 61.7%. The upper limit of the variance is statistically significant and as the implication of properly segregated predominant factors as expressed in the table 4.48 below: Global Wisdom Research Publications All Rights Reserved. 15

5 Table 3 Total Variance Explained with Regard to Variable of Post Purchase Behaviour Component Initial Eigen values Rotation Sums of Squared Loadings Total % of Variance Cumulative % Total % of Variance Cumulative % Favorite brand Unique and Distinct Frequency Usage No brand Switching Affectionate of the brand Special features Loving to buy Lovable feature Attachment Delightfulness No Substitute Spearheading the brand Suitability Brand Association Brand recognition Brand Performance Enjoy the brand Brand Addiction Feeling of disloyalty Trustworthy Positive Attitude Favorable Image Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis Global Wisdom Research Publications All Rights Reserved. 16

6 Table 4 Rotated Component Matrix (a) for grouping the variables of post Purchase behavior into components Component Brand Addiction Brand Association Brand Performance Enjoy the brand Suitability Spearheading the brand Feeling of disloyalty Affectionate to use Delightfulness Positive attitude Frequent usage Favourite brand Unique and distinct Favourable Image Trustworthy Brand recognisition Special features No brand Switching Loving to buy Lovable feature Attachment No substitute Global Wisdom Research Publications All Rights Reserved. 17

7 Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis. Rotation Method: Varimax with Kaiser Normalization. a Rotation converged in 13 iterations. The variables of post purchase behaviour relating to personal care products explain % of the total variance and three factors are extracted. The first factor is termed as Brand Sensitivity consisting of the variables related to brand addiction, brand association, performance of the brand, enjoy the brand, suitability, spearheading the brand, feeling of disloyalty, affectionate to use and delightfulness. The second factor is named as Brand Image that includes the variables regarding positive attitude, frequent usage, favourite brand, unique and distinct, favourable image, trustworthy and brand recognisition. The third factor is called Attraction since it consists of variables such as special features, no brand switching, loving to buy the brand, lovable features, attachment towards the brand and no substitute. Conclusion The rigorous statistical analysis exactly measures the level of brand consciousness women consumers possess towards various personal care products. The analysis revealed that the heterogeneity among respondents is the main factor determining the level of brand consciousness existing among women consumers. It further depicts the factors influencing women consumers to purchase personal care products as well their post purchase behavior and attitude towards sales promotion and marketing mix. References 1. Aaker, D.A. (1996). Building Strong Brands. Newyork, The Free Press. 2. Jacoby, J, and Chestnut. (1978). Brand Loyalty, Measurement and Management. New York: John Wley & Sons. 3. Kavin Lane Keller, M.G. Parameswaran Isaac Jacob (2011). Strategic brand Management Third edition, Pearson, Prentice Hall. 4. Bawa, K., and Shoemaker. (1987). The Coupon-Prone Consumer: Some Findings Based on Purchase Behavior across Product Classes, Journal of Marketing, 51(4), Chernatony, L and McDonald, M (2000). Creating Powerful brands (London Butterworth Heinemann) 6. Dr. MU. Subramanian, (2011). Buying Behaviour of them Aged Indian Women, Indian Journal of Commerce and Management Studies. Vol.11, Issue 1, Jan. 2011, Pg Hareemzeb, Kashif Rashid M. Bilal Javeed (2011). Influence of Brands on female consumer s buying behavior in Pakistan. International Journal of Trade, Economics and Finance, Vol. 12, No.3, June Keller, K.L (2003). Brand synthesis: The multi-dimensionality of brand knowledge, Journal of consumer research, 29 (4), Kotler, Philip and Pfoertsch, Waldemar (2006). B2B Brand Management, ISBN Global Wisdom Research Publications All Rights Reserved. 18