MKT 344 Project

Consumer Behavior and Shopping- From Dhakas perspective

MKT 344

CONSUMER BEHAVIOR
Course instructor-NSD SEC-5

Group members:
Rusafa Obaid Mehzabin Sultan Meshkat Mahbub Tanjila Sultana 0910598030 092 0286 030 092 0242 030 093 0084 030

Letter of Transmittal

Nasira Siddika(NSD) RoomLecturer, school of business North South University Dhaka, Bangladesh Date: 5/12/12

Sub: A report on the consumer behavior of students when buying clothes from Dhakas perspective.

Dear maam, This is a report on the consumer behavior of students when buying clothes. The purpose of this report is to understand the decision making process of students in Dhaka and to give an overview what are the factors that influence them to buy clothes. It is an honor to submit this report to you and we are thankful for giving us such an interesting topic to work. This report has helped to understand the different taste of the customers and those taste effects their purchase behavior. We have enjoyed thoroughly and the knowledge we have acquired has been exceptional. Maam if you have any question please contact us at Rusafa.obaid@gmail.com

Regards, Rusafa Obaid Mehzabin Sultan Meshkat Mahbub

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Topic Pg #

Executive summary

Introduction & Hypothesis

Hypothesis cont & research methodology Significance of the study

Data analysis, Graphs, tables & charts Recommendation

4-14

14-15

Conclusion

15

Survey sample

16

Questionnaire sample

17

Executive summary 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. The target market of this report is the youth, the students of Dhaka city. The factors that were taken under consideration can help us understand how todays youth perceives products, what influences them to buy a product, what is the effect of reference groups in their decision making, where do Bangladeshi product stand from their point of view and does age has any relationship with their way of seeking knowledge and decision making. With the help of primary research and survey it is found that age has a major part in decision making. The youth is depended on their family for their expenses, true but their most decisions are taken by themselves and are very influenced through indirect reference group. Also the one with self-earning are prefer international brand. For the youth individual decision making and normative reference group play vital role. They are frequent shoppers and prioritize quality first. They are brand loyal and location comes third. However if they are given better quality products, location is not a factor than. Quality is more important, thus the two concepts which should be taken under consideration for targeting the youth are Product concept and Marketing concept. Never the less Bangladeshi products stand moderate in their point of view which gives the marketers to improve their product and cover lapse. The youth is the future buyer, user and payer which is why they should be under consideration.

INTRODUCTION 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. Our topic is Customer behavior and Shopping- from Dhakas perspective. The 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 income, customer shopping behavior, personalization, and customization and shopping partner. What does shopping mean to Dhakas students? Does quality has anything to do with the price? Does location matter? Is there any link between age and seeking advice from opinion leaders? These questions were the focus of this report. Students were the target market since a large proportion of Dhakas shopping malls focus on students and they are more updated about fashion.

HYPOTHES IS The hypothetical statement of this discussion is that, Purchasing decisions are highly influenced by many factors. There are demographic factors; location and opinion leaders, reference groups: Indirect and normative. Demographic factors play an important role in shopping. Consumer perception varies with gender, age and income.

From Dhakas perspective country of origins does not play a major role. We manage to use different products at the same time and as long as the quality is good, the consumers in Dhaka are happy. Location is important but that also varies according the demographic factors. It is seen that students with no self earning prefer to buy clothes from a nearby shop than paying extra for better quality or would rely on their normative reference group where as students with personal income are willing to pay extra for quality. Finally the last factor is the reference groups. It is seen that they like to buy clothes of their opinion and prefer going with family rather than with friends. Indirect reference group has a major role in their decision making since the youth is more exposed to the media.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

As our primary source we did a survey among the students from different universities since our target market was students of Dhaka city. We surveyed using questionnaires with a sample of 32 people. Most of them were in their early 20s and are studying in universities. As our secondary survey we went through magazines and internet and lectures given in the class on consumer behavior. Limitations Since our target market was students it was not possible to do the survey among all the universities, so our survey was limited to only private universities such as NSU, Brac, IUB as such. Our topic demanded a lot of research which we couldnt do because of students lack of interest and as well for the time limitations.

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY A perspective of marketing is about making a consumer realize that they want your product, even though initially they might not. Therefore it is important for marketers to understand how consumers behave when they are exposed to particular advertising methods and messages. Many marketers and marketing campaigns rely on people buying their product due to the self concept theories of consumer behavior. Another very important consumer behavior concept for marketers is how consumers learn about a product. Consumers are the people buying the products. Without consumer feedback of products, marketing managers would be unaware of consumers ever changing needs and requirements. Thats why it is of critical importance to marketing managers.

DATA ANALYSIS
We took a sample of 32 people and asked various questions according to our factors. How price quality relates. What is the influence of opinion leaders and does location effect their decision? The demographic factors are crucial when it comes to consumer behavior. Demographic factors: Age: a) 18-25 b) 25-30 c) 30+

Income Group: a) 8,000-12,000 earning

b) 13,000-20,000

c) 21,000-30,000 d) no self

Sales
0% 16%

18-25 25-30 30+

84%

Purpose and explanation: The majority of the respondents have a degree of HSC and A Level and now studying in undergraduate level. And remaining few is graduates and recently entered into their jobs. The purpose of this question was to identify the major age group of consumers which means the preferred target market within our sample. From our survey we can see that the majority of the consumers fall under 18-25 age group which means the college and university goers are most in number within the sample. Income Group: Income group
60 50 40 30 20 10 0 21,00030,000 12.9 13,00020,000 16.1 8,00012,000 19.4 no-self earning 51.6

Series 1

Purpose and explanation: It is seen that most of them have no-self earning, which means that they are depending on their family for their expenses. So for them normative reference group is very important, which means their family. They are likely to go shopping with their family and look upto them for decision making. The second highest was the 8000-12000 earning. It is seen that they mostly like shopping with both normative and comparative reference groups but during decision making process dependd on their decision.

Survey Question: 1) While choosing a store which do you prefer? o Local o International

International

22.60%

Local 0.00% 20.00%

77.40% 40.00% 60.00% 80.00% 100.00%

Purpose & explanation: The purpose of this question was to understand the youths choice of store. How they perceive local brands and international brands. Since most of the early 20s do not have any self-earning, they likely to rely on local brands. On the other hand the total of the self-earning are likely to prefer international stores such as rebook, Nike and as such. The results were: Local- 77.40% International- 22.6% It is found that income has a lot to do with the decision making during shopping within the students of Dhaka city.

2) Rank the following on a scale of 1-5 (5 being the highest)

Name Country of origin Price Location Quality Brand

45.00% 40.00% 35.00% 30.00% 25.00% 20.00% 15.00% 10.00% 5.00% 0.00% Country origin Price Quality Location Brand 1 2 3 4 5

Purpose and explanation: The purpose of this question was to know that while choosing stores which features are important to the students of Dhaka city and which features are less likely to influence in their purchase behavior. From the survey result it is found that, the most important feature to the people is the quality. Location and brand come second. Consumers like to buy products which have quality, nearby and also from a reliable brand. They rely on the retail store image, previous experience and by staying brand loyal. The least important is the country of origin and price. Since they emphasis more on quality and brand, price seems to the least among the 5 and country of origin is the least important when buying clothes.

3) Your feeling about Bangladeshi products:

o Good o Very good o Neutral o Bad o Very bad

50 45 40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 good very good neautral Bad very bad

Purpose and explanation: The purpose of this question was to understand the stand of Bangladeshi products among the youth. Since the youth is too much exposed to the media and magazines and foreign products, they tend to drift away from their countrys product. As a result most of them ranked Bangladeshi product to be neutral, as in moderate where as the second most vote ranked it Good in the scale. So from the above survey it can be said that our local companies should change their marketing pattern if they want to target the youth. The marketing policy is mostly targeting the mass, which is the rural area but since the youth are more updated and being a developing country the marketing actins should be altered and pay more focus to the youth.

4) How frequently do you shop?

o Often o Occasionally o Frequently o Rare

10%

22%

42%

Often occasionaly frequently rare

26%

Purpose and explanation:

The purpose of this question was to know how frequently our target market shops. Does the frequency have anything to do with their perception towards quality or Bangladeshi products? From the survey it is found that most of them like to shop often and second most like to shop occasionally. Since they often prefer shopping, it can be said that their perception play a vital role. They are exposed to more products which give them more idea and experience about different products and stores. That is why they tend to stay brand loyal and perceive products from their previous experiences.

5) With whom do you like to shop? o Alone o Friends o Family

friends

Family

Alone

10

15

20

25

30

35

Purpose and explanation: The purpose of this question was to understand the role of reference groups and opinion leaders among the youth. It is seen that the youth like to shop alone or with the normative reference group; meaning family. Age plays a major role during decision making. The youth tend to rely on indirect reference groups and prefer shopping alone or rely on their family members since majority have no-self earning. So the media can play a vital role in targeting the youth. Since indirect reference group; meaning actor, TV personalities seem to affect their decision making, they can be easily targeting through digital marketing.

6) How do come to a decision of purchasing clothes? o Own opinion o Your shopping partners choice

80 60 40 20 0 Own opinion shopping partner Series 1

Series 1

Own opinion 64.5

shopping partner 34.5

Purpose and explanation: From the above question it is seen that most of them like to shop alone or prefer family. This question is to see how much their shopping partner affects their decision making. It is a 60-30 division. 64.5% go with their own decision and the remaining depends on their shopping partners. Like said earlier they youth rely too much on indirect reference group which is why prefer to decide on their own

7) Would you pay more for better quality? o Yes o No

Yes No

Purpose and explanation:

This question was to see the relation between price and quality. Majority would prefer to pay more for quality. That means price doesnt affect their decision when it comes to quality. On the contrary they believe good quality products are expensive.

8) If you hear there are better quality products far away from your neighborhood, would you still go? o Yes o No

22.6 100 80 60 40 20 0 Result Yes No 77.4

Purpose and explanation: This question was asked to know how much location affects their decision making. It doesnt matter where a store is located, as long as they give good quality products, the youth would buy. Todays youth is more about quality and with internet they know more about products, they are well informed as a result location is not much factor for them.

RECOMENDATIONS

From the above surveys and results, it is recommended to improve Bangladeshi products quality

and to spend more attention on advertisements. They should television, internet to target the youth and their prime target should be quality. They should focus on the Product and Marketing concept both to attract the youth. Along with them they should also emphasis on the word-of mouth strategy since a big proportion does not earn money and rely on the family for their expenses.

From the 4PS , product, price and promotion come first for the youth than the place. Also being a developing country, the marketing people should not ignore the youth. They are more informed and are more fashion conscious than the mass.

CONCLUSION

Marketing is a creative and difficult subject especially if the target market is not well understood. The main purpose for targeting the youth was to understand the future buyers; they will be the future buyers, users and payers. So for establishing Bangladeshi product as premium product, the marketing strategies need to be altered. Country of origin is not a major factor for the youth and also Bangladeshi products are perceived moderate. Thus, there is hope to cover the lapse and improve our products if they want to retain the future buyers.