COURSE WORK ON CONSUMER BEHAVIOR

NAMES OF STUDENTS
SIGNATURES

1. _Nitesh Bhardwaj______
____________________

2. _Manohar Makhija ____

____________________

3. _Umita Mehta_______
____________________
 PGDM
September 2009

INTRODUCTION-
DEFINATIONS-
According to the American Marketing Association consumer behavior is "the
dynamic interaction of affect and cognition, behavior, and environmental events by
which human beings conduct the exchange aspects of their lives." More generally,
consumer behavior is the psychology behind marketing and the behavior of
consumers in the marketing environment (American Marketing Association,
2006)."

PURPOSE OF COURSE WORK- To find out:

• The psychology of how consumers think, feel, reason, and select between
different alternatives (e.g., brands, products);
• The psychology of how the consumer is influenced by his or her
environment (e.g., culture, family, signs, media);
• The behavior of consumers while shopping or making other marketing
decisions;
• How consumer motivation and decision strategies differ between products
that differ in their level of importance or interest that they entail for the
consumer; and
• How marketers can adapt and improve their marketing campaigns and
marketing strategies to more effectively reach the consumer.

IMPORTANCE- This COURSE WORK discusses the purchasing behavior of

consumers and companies need to understand consumer behavior in order to
determine the best way to shift demand in favor of their products. When companies
are able to ascertain why consumers purchase particular goods and services, they
can tailor their marketing efforts to address the needs of consumers. It examines
the close relationship between consumer behavior, demand, and marketing.
 Method
Family ‘A’(Mittal Family)
INTERVIEWER:- Manohar Makhija
Family ‘A’ is middle class joint family and there are 7 members in family. Mr.
Manish Mittal(35) is Head of the family and he has it’s own jewelry business in
pratap nagar, Jaipur , Mrs. Anita Mittal(32) wife of Mr. Manish and their two
children. Mr. Dinesh Mittal(30) is younger brother of Mr. Manish and Vinita
Mittal wife of Mr. Dinesh. They have one kid. Annual income of this family is
350000/- per annum approx.
I Manohar Makhija have taken interview of Mrs. Vinita and Anita Mittal. I
try to get every kind of information regarding their inventory management of food
& cloths.
Family ‘B’(Chaudhary Family)
INTERVIEWER:- Nitesh Bhardwaj
Family ‘B’ is middle class nuclear family and there are 4 members in their family.
Mr. Rajendra Punia (47) is head of the family and he is working in Raj. Police as
Sub Inspector in Jaipur and Mrs. Kamla Devi(43) wife of Mr. Chaudhary is
housewife. They have two children Rajesh and Shweta, and both are student. The
approx, annual income of family is 300,000/-
I Nitesh Bhardwaj have taken interview of Mr Rajendra Chaudhary and his
son Rajesh Punia. During the interview I asked the questions related to the
acquisition, consumption and disposition habits of Chaudhary family in particular
of clothes and food.

Family ‘C’(Gupta Family)

INTERVIEWER:- Umita Mehta
Family ‘C’ is upper middle class family. There are 4 member in family. Head of
the family is Mr. A.M.L Gupta(43) is Bank Manager and his wife’s name is Mrs.
Nitu Gupta(40) and she is house wife. They have 2 children namely Nisha
Gupta(22) and Sourabh Gupta(16) The annual income of family ‘C’ is approx
10,00,000/-
I Umita Mehta took the interview of family ‘C’ During the interview I
asked the questions related to the acquisition, consumption and disposition habits
of Gupta family in particular of clothes and food.
Awareness Question we asked from all 3 families are as follow-
1. Do you always prefer to buy branded product?
2. What things influence you while purchasing?
3. Will you purchase the thing which is new in the market?
4. Do you attract towards the product in which company is giving any free offer?
5. Do you examine the expiry date the food items and medicines when you buy
them?
6. Are you aware of consumer courts and rights of the consumers?
7. How do you know about using process of the products?
8. Suppose you are in retail outlet where every brand of products is available, what
things influence you to choose a product?
9. What kind of exchange offer influence you to exchange your product and buy
new one?
10. Do you ever purchase anything during window shopping if yes, what thing
influence you for buying product?
11. Who is the person in your family most of the time decided while purchasing?
12. Is credit facility influence you to buy more and more?
13. What kind of advertisement attracts you more?
14. Do you prefer such brands those are quite costly but in good quality?
15. Would you like to share your views about product with friends and neighbor
after using it?

Clothes-
1. Do you think there should be any specific no. of cloths every individual
should have?
2. Do you ever try to alter your cloths, when it becomes not usable?
3. Does anybody exchange their cloths in day to day function with other
individual of family?
4. When cloths becomes out of use, what would you do with the cloths?
5. How do you handle seasonable cloths, after expiring the season?
6. How much part you spent on cloths of your income?
Food-
1. How do you manage perishable products of food?
2. What safety measures do you use to make food hygienic?
3. What do you do with extra food?
4. What do you do, if you find unhygienic food?
5. How do you manage things when guest comes at your home for lunch or
dinner

Analysis & Results

Family ‘A’
Mrs. Anita Mittal:-
 Quality Conscious- She prefer the quality of the product while purchasing.
 Brand Preference- She prefer brand only if it available at reasonable price.
 Innovator Customer- She does not hesitate in purchasing new product
available in the market.
 Unaware from consumer rights- She does not aware about legal aspects of
consumer right.
 Attracts toward schemes- She purchase product having offer and scheme
 Decision Maker- Mostly she takes the purchasing decision.
 Purchase occasionally- In festive season or occasions she do most of the
shopping.

Mrs. Vinita Mittal-

 Cost conscious- She prefer the cost of the product as compare of quality.
 Attracts toward schemes- She purchase product having offer and scheme.
 Unaware from consumer rights- She does not aware about legal aspects
of consumer right.
 She take the help of her family member and friends to know the using
process of technical product like Mobile handsets.
 She attract towards the T.V advertisements.
 She purchase new product once just for curiosity.

Acquisition, consumption and disposition behavior of Mittal family in

respect of cloths and food.

 As far as managing and disposing of cloths is concern they never think

about any specific no. of cloths, never do alter cloths but like other Indian
family they exchange their cloths with each other, they take care of their
seasonable cloths by keep it at safe places. They dispose cloths by give them
to needy people.
 As far as managing and disposing of food is concern they are quite
religious they do believe that it should not be extra food after
consummation, they try keep perishable food in refrigerator to keep it
hygien. And they use extra food in next recipe. They very well manage if
 guest came in family, they take them in restraint if there are 2,3 no. of guest ,
if no. of guest is more then 3 they prefer them to provide food at home.

Areas of agreement
 They both attract toward the products having scheme and offers.
 Both of them do not hesitate in purchasing new product available in market.
 They both attract towards the T.V advertisements.
 Excepts medicine they don’t check the expiry date of the products.
 Usually they both take the purchasing decisions in there respective families.
 Both of them do not like credit purchase.

Areas of disagreement
 While Mrs. Anita Mittal prefers quality on the other hand Mrs. Vinita Mittal
prefers cost while purchasing.
 Mrs. Anita Mittal purchase products during window shopping but Mrs. Vinita
Mittal don’t.
 Mrs. Anita Mittal never alter cloths but Mrs. Vinita Mittal do.

FAMILY ‘B’
Rajendra Punia-
 Attract toward product having Scheme and offer.
 Aware about his rights as consumer.
 He always check the expiry date of the product before purchasing.
 He reads carefully every information mention on the product.
 He prefers those brands having scheme and offers.
 He don’t like to purchase product on credit.
 He mostly by T.V advertisements.
 He share his experiences about the product with his family and friends.
 He does not prefer branded products.
 He like to purchase those item which are well establish in market.
 He does not purchase product while window shopping.
 He prefer economical products.
Rajesh Chaudhary-
 Attract toward product having Scheme and offer.
 Aware about his rights as consumer.
 He always check the expiry date of the product before purchasing.
 He reads carefully every information mention on the product.
 He prefers those brands having scheme and offers.
 He don’t like to purchase product on credit.
 He mostly by T.V advertisements.
 He share his experiences about the product with his family and friends.
 He prefer branded products.
 He is a innovative customer and like to purchase new product available in
the market.
 He purchase the product while window shopping if he finds it attractive.
 He does not hesitate in purchase high cost product.

Point of agreement -
 They attract toward product having Scheme and offer.
 They aware about there rights as consumer.
 They always check the expiry date of the product before purchasing.
 They reads carefully every information mention on the product.
 They prefers those product having scheme and offers.
 They don’t like to purchase product on credit.
 They mostly influence by T.V advertisements.
 They both share there experiences about the product with there family and
friends.

Points of disagreement-
 Mr. Rajesh prefer only branded product while Mr. Rajendra do not.
 Mr. Rajesh like to purchase new products available in market while Mr.
Rajendra purchase those product which are well establish in market.
 Mr. Rajesh purchase product while window shopping but it not same in
case of Mr. Rajendra.
 Mr. Rajesh don’t hesitate in purchasing high cost product but Mr.
Rajendra don’t prefer the product of high cost.
  As far as managing and disposing of cloths is concern they never think
about having specific no. of cloths, they do alter cloths but they never
exchange their cloths with each other, they take care of their seasonable
cloths by keep it at safe places. They dispose cloths by give them to
servants. As far as spending money on cloths is concern Mr. Rajesh spent
25% of his pocket money in purchasing cloths, While Mr. Rajendra spent
5% of his salary on cloths.
 As far as managing and disposing of food is concern they follow the zero
inventory concept and purchase perishable food items whenever it is need.
To keep the food hygienic they wash vegetables before use and keep food
item in refrigerator. They keep the extra food in refrigerator for next day
use.

Family ‘C’
Mrs. Nitu Gupta
 Quality Conscious- She prefers to buy quality product because she is
quality conscious. Some she likes to buy as well as non branded product.
 Innovator Customer- She never hesitates in purchasing new product
available in the market. It shows she is innovative costumer.
 Unaware from consumer rights- She does not aware about legal aspects of
consumer right.
 Intelligent customer- She always check the expiry date and content
which is mention on the product.
 Decision Maker- she takes the purchasing decision only on those product
which is related to her.
 Purchase while window shopping:- Most of the time it happen with her
that she buy product during window shopping.

Ms. Nisha Gupta-

 Brand conscious- Ms. Nisha is young girl so she prefers always brand.
 Attracts toward schemes- She does not attract much towards scheme she
buy only those which she likes.
  Aware from consumer rights- She is know all the legal aspects of
consumer right. Because she is Carted accountant.

Acquisition, consumption and disposition behavior of Gupta family in

respect of cloths and food.

 As far as managing and disposing of cloths is concern they never think

about how many no. of cloths they have and rather money they always think
about brand & quality. And they also don’t like to exchange their cloths
each other. In every season they like to buy new cloths and give old cloths to
needy people.
 As far as managing food is concern they do not prefer eat food after 4 hour
of cooking. B Instead of using extra food they prefer to give it to needy
people and servant because no family member likes to eat extra food.

Areas of agreement
 Both of them do not hesitate in purchasing new product available in market.
 Before purchasing they check the expiry date of the products.
 Usually they both take the purchasing decisions on by own.
 Both of them use credit card during purchasing.
 They both do not attract toward the products having scheme and offers.

Areas of disagreement

 Mrs. Nitu Gupta don’t influence by advertisements while Nisha Gupta influenced
by the advertisement and take the decision to buy the product.
 Mrs. Nitu Gupta doesn’t know about the consumer court but Nisha Gupta is
aware of the consumer court.
 COMPARISON BETWEEN FAMILIES-
 Income Level:-
 Age:-
 Gender:-
 Materialism:-
 Types of family:-
 Decision maker:-
 Brand Preference:-
 Attraction towards new product:-
 Awareness towards scheme & offers:-
 Quality preference:-
 Mode of payment:-

Implications-
Product Positioning- On the basis of responses we found that most of the middle
class customers not attract towards branded products because of high cost and
reason for this may be the confused or wrong positioning of product. So,
companies should position their products keeping in mind the segment they want
to target.
Product availability- On the basis of responses of respondents we can conclude
that they purchase products specially FMCG products from the shops of nearby
market and also from retail outlets and malls. Therefore, companies has to make
sure that there products are distributed through effective channels of distribution
and available in every area of market.
Time of communication- If we see the responses of the respondents we see that
family members purchase product on certain occasions specially in festival season
to attract consumers on these occasions companies has to communicate more about
their products and offerings to attract maximum consumers.
Attract Decision makers- From the responses of respondents we can conclude
that there are certain members in every family who take the purchasing decisions
on behalf of whole family so companies has to do product offerings keeping in
mind the taste and preferences of these members and try to attract them.
Channel of advertising- Since T.V. Advertisements influence most of the
consumers therefore companies should mainly focus on Television to advertise
their products on large scale. But there are customers who are not fond of watching
T.V., so for them companies can take the help of newspaper advertisements and
hoardings.
Pricing Strategy- On the basis of responses , we can conclude that Price of the
product is the main influencing factor while purchasing. Therefore, companies
when target the customer take care that price of the product suits the pocket of
consumer otherwise they fails to attract them.
Quality of the product- In interviews we found that most of the consumer prefers
quality products and if they are satisfied with it them they purchase them again and
also influence others to purchase those products. So, companies always maintain
the high standards of quality.
Sales promotion- Most of the consumers attract towards the product having
schemes and offers therefore companies should use it as a tool to attract new and
existing consumers.
Packaging- On the basis of responses we found that packaging of the products
attracts the customers specially youth therefore companies should package their
product in attractive manner.

Appendix ‘A’
How a Mittal family manages their inventory of food and clothing by
Manohar Makhija

Family ‘A’
Name Age Designation
Mr. Anita Mittal 33 Housewife
Mrs. Vinita Mittal 29 Housewife
Address- In Front of the IILM-AHL, sec. 10, Khumba Marg, Pratapnagar, Jaipur
Contact no:- 0141-2792799
Approach:-
I approach to Mittal Family who are my neighbor in Pratap nagar , Jaipur since
last one year. So I don’t find much difficulty to approach them for this research
project. I took interview at there place and aware them about my subject
“consumer behavior” .and tell them about my project. And request them to give
the interview.
Problem-
1. They were not at there home when I went there. While I took
confirmation before move. So I had to go for two time.
2. There children were creating problems during the interview.
Solutions-
1. In future I will first make shore responded confirmation about there
presence at their place then I will go for the interview.
2. When I go next time I go there when there children will not at home
or take the interview at another place.

Learning : Data collection process

Through this interview I learned that responses of the known respondents are more
reliable and authentic as compare in case of unknown families. I learned the
technique of questioner design. To learn of consumer behavior is very tough task
because it changes frequently. I learned that if already customer has need of
something they attract very quickly toward that product and advertise of that
product. Like a consumer who has problem of hair fall, they will very quick attract
toward shampoo and hair oil advertises.
Appendix ‘B’
How a Chaudhary family manages their inventory of food and clothing by
Nitesh Bhardwaj.
 Family ‘B’
Name Age Designation
Mr. Rajendra Punia 47 Sub Inspector, Raj. Police
Mr. Rajesh Chaudhary 23 Student
Address:-
263/523 Pratap Nagar, Jaipur
Mobile no. -9982338550

(A) Approach :-I Nitesh Bhardwaj took the interview of Chaudhry family
with reference of Mr. Jitendra Sharma, who is running a fruit juice centre
in pratapnagar and he is neighbour of chaudhry family.
For this interview I went to the house of Chaudhry family.
(B) Problem- Since I didn’t have any official letter from college therefore
chaudhry family had many queries regarding the course work and its
purpose.
Solution- Official letter provided by college to project team members.
(C) Learning : Data collection process:- Through this interview I learn
how to made the unknown respondents so much comfortable that they
don’t hesitate in giving responses.

APPENDIX ‘C’
How a Gupta family manages their inventory of food and clothing by Umita
Mehta.
 Family ‘C’
Name Age Designation
Mrs. Nitu Gupta 43 House Wife
Ms. Nisha Gupta 22 Accountant in Gyan Vihar
Address:-
106/118, Pratap Nagar, Jaipur
Mobile no. – 9413453241

Approach:- I Umita Mehta approach them reference of my land lord. Initially

they denied me but when I gave them reference of my landlord Mr. Jagdish Gupta
and they get to know I am student of IILM-AHL they get agreed for interview.
(A) Problem:- The only problem I faced that responses of Mrs. Gupta was
very fast while interview, I didn’t carry recorder with me so writing
everything was quite difficult for me but I try to note it down as much as
I can.
(B) Solution:- In future I would carry a recorder with me whenever I would
go for interview.
(C) Learning:- During interview I had to keep passions and I was giving
more chance to speak Gupta family because they were not liking
interruption during interview. So I was very lenient with them.