Factors affecting purchase of necessity brands : the influence of consumer characteristics and global vs local brand perceptions among Indian consumers

Abstract

Research context: Necessity products have gained attention in market research due to the declining growth in their sales in India. There are very few works till date that comprehensively explore the factors affecting purchase of necessity brands. Drawing on the theory of product classification based on social visibility, publicly and privately consumed necessity brands have been identified in the Indian context. The research attempts to examine factors affecting purchase of both categories of necessity brands, the influence of brand name, the ethnocentric factors and different personal characteristics i.e. demographic variables of consumers affecting purchase of necessity brands. Methodology and Results: Data for the study was collected through surveys conducted among students from various universities and premier institutes in India. Confirmatory Factor Analysis has been used to test the validity and reliability of the questionnaire items. To explore important factors affecting purchase of necessity brands Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) has been used. ANOVA is further used to explore the influence of demographic variables on these factors. Paired Sample T-Test has been used for comparative assessment of factors affecting purchase of publicly vs privately consumed necessity brands and purchase of global vs local necessity brands. Chi-Square test has been used to test the influence of ethnocentric orientation of consumers and the influence of demographic variables affecting purchase of global vs local necessity brands. The empirical findings of the study show several meaningful effects and relationships in consumer behavior. Our results show that perceived quality, emotional value, perceived prestige and interpersonal influence are important factors affecting purchase of publicly consumed necessity brands. For extrinsic factors for privately consumed necessity brands are perceived quality, emotional value, convenience, availability and brand loyalty. Results of comparative understanding of factors affecting publicly vs privately consumed necessity brands shows that social influence has a stronger influence on the purchase of publicly consumed necessity brands while brand loyalty has greater importance for privately consumed necessity brands. The results further reveal that global necessity brands are perceived higher on perceived quality, country of origin, emotional value and perceived prestige in comparison to local necessity brands. The study also provides empirical evidence of ethnocentric ideology of consumers being more related to the purchase of publicly consumed necessity brands than privately consumed necessity brands as seen from statistically significant results for consumers who scored low in ethnocentrism and gave more importance to the purchase of global publicly consumed necessity brands than individuals who scored high in ethnocentrism. There was significant effect of gender on perceived quality in publicly consumed necessity brands as well as emotional value attachment in the purchase of privately consumed necessity brands. The education level of consumer plays a significant role in influencing perceived quality, country of origin effect and perceived brand prestige for both publicly and privately consumed necessity brands. In the decision between choice of global vs local brands, females are found to have preference for global publicly consumed necessity brands. Managerial Implications of Results: The results are useful for companies involved in the marketing of publicly and privately consumed necessity products for understanding factors needing attention in promoting their brands in the Indian market. The study may also attract more work in the less researched area of necessity brands that has witnessed declining growth in sales in the post recession period. Keywords: Necessity brands, Public vs Private, Global vs Local, Ethnocentric tendency, Demographics, Consumer Behavior