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AN ANALYSIS ON PURCHASE BEHAVIOUR TOWARDS
SELECTED WHITE GOODS
Dr.K.T.Kalaiselvi1 and Dr.D.Muruganandam2
1
Assistant Professor,
Department of Management Studies,
Erode Sengunthar Engineering College,
Thudupath, Erode - 638057, Tamilnadu, India.
Ph : 04294-232701,702
2
Associate Professor,
School of Management Studies,
Kongu Engineering College,
Perundurai, Erode - 638052, Tamilnadu, India.
Corresponding author: Dr.K.T.Kalaiselvi
Corresponding Author’s Email: [email protected]
1
AN ANALYSIS ON PURCHASE BEHAVIOUR TOWARDS SELECTED
WHITE GOODS
ABSTRACT
Consumer durables have emerged as one of the fastest growing industries in
India. Once perceived as luxury items, consumer durables today have become as
an indispensable tool of everyday use for the Indian middle class. The largest
contributing sector among durables is white goods, also known as consumer
appliances, like air conditioners, refrigerators and washing machines. Consumers’
attitude and preferences have been vastly changing all over the world for the past
a few years particularly in the Indian white goods market due to the entry of
foreign brands which create heavy competition as well as broad choice for buyers.
Every marketer is constrained to find out factors for which buyers give much
importance and how far they are satisfied with these factors. This research
examines the purchase behaviour and attitude of buyers towards selected white
goods such as refrigerator, washing machine and air conditioner. The research is
descriptive in nature and data were collected through structured questionnaires
with the sample size of 517. The study has been done in Erode district, Tamil
Nadu in India. The main objectives of the study are to find out factors which
influence buyers for the purchase of culled white goods and the importance given
for selection of retail outlet for their purchase. The satisfaction level of the
consumers towards the products, their experience in the retail outlet during the
purchase and after sales service seems to be optimistic.
Keywords: Consumer; white goods; product; service; purchase behaviour
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INTRODUCTION
Consumption trends differ from similar income households in urban areas to rural
areas significantly. The biggest attraction for Multi National Corporates is
growing in Indian middle class (Gupta, 1996). Before the liberalization of Indian
economy, in Indian white goods markets, reputed companies like Godrej,
Videocon, Kelvinator, BPL, Voltas and Allwyn had the major market share. After
liberalization, many foreign players like Whirlpool, LG, Sony, Samsung, IFB, and
Aiwa had entered into the market. This opening created a dramatic change in the
white goods market (Jeyakumar, 2010). The market has been changing and
showing extraordinary business opportunity for long time. The growth in recent
years has been obtained from several factors such as retail boom, growing
disposable income and availability of easy finance schemes. Indian rural markets
are expected to grow faster than urban markets (Tara Saini, 2012).
Now a-days the white goods market in India faces a big challenge due to
the factors such as: changing lifestyles, introduction of nuclear families, easy
financing schemes, entry of Multinational Corporations with global network,
technological advancements, emergence of double-income families, higher
disposable income, greater product awareness and increase in global temperature.
NEED OF THE STUDY
In modern days, more households have two working adults (husband and wife)
who do more or less their household tasks at night after work. So, both
refrigerator and washing machine have become an inseparable part of every
household. In a hot climate country like India, air conditioning has become a need
of modern day life in contrast to its earlier perception as a luxury product. The
purchase of these house hold products needs high involvement and has a great
influence on buyer behaviour and their way of living. This study helps marketers
understand the decision making at the choice of the buyers and develop
appropriate marketing programmes in order to enthrall the consumers.
REVIEW OF LITERATURE
Ram and Hyung-Shik Jung (1991) studied the effect of product usage on
consumer satisfaction in the perspective of consumer durables and illustrated
three dimensions like usage-usage frequency, usage function and usage situation
and found the impact of these usage dimensions on the satisfaction. The specific
dimensions of usage disconfirmation, which influence satisfaction, varied with
respect to products. Seema Gupta and Chundawat (2002) observed the roles
played by family members and the social influence on purchase of refrigerator
and found that females of the house were found to be playing a significant role in
demand initiation and husband took the final decision in the purchase of
refrigerator. Venkatarama Raju and Saravanan (2005) made a note that consumer
behaviour was the first and foremost requirement for a successful formulation and
implementation of marketing strategies. The study of consumer behaviour
involves the process of identifying i. when consumers purchase ii. what they
purchase iii. where they purchase iv. how much they purchase v. their buying
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habits and why they purchase. Barry Bayus (2006) made an attempt to identify
prime prospects and developing targeted marketing strategies for durables using a
set of home appliances. Ashok (2007) examined the influence of micro factors
which are within the organization and macro factors which are outside the
organization. The product attributes of technological superiority, brand name and
the utility of the products have immense influence in purchasing decision. Among
all policies of sales promotions, attractive price, exchange offers and free gifts
have enormous influence on consumers’ purchase. Mohanram and Mahavi (2007)
found that teenagers were influenced by updated information of the product and
collected information from different dealers on various aspects like price,
technology, etc. and influenced by peers compulsion and sales talk of the dealer.
In respect of promotion mix, various sales initiatives like store visits, stores
display and other sales promotion efforts attract the teenagers very much.
Sudharsana Reddy and Rajalashmi (2007) revealed that the electronic industry
was in its nascent stage of development till 1970. In the Age of Globalization, it is
one of the fastest growing industries in India. They analysed the buyer behaviour
in microwave ovens and found that all buyers have by nature, different tastes,
likes and dislikes and adopt different behaviour pattern while making buying
decisions. Anand Thakur and Hundal (2008) suggested that both rural and urban
consumers differed in their perception about washing machine as an item of
necessity. The urban consumers were highly influenced by the washing machine
compared to rural and preferred to put them in ‘necessity’ category. Mumtaz Ali,
Jing Fengjie and Naveed Akhtar Qureshi (2010) provided a detailed view of the
consumers’ way of thinking and investigated the degree of association of six
factors like price, family structure, country of origin, age, culture and advertising
on buying behaviour of goods and services. From the study it is understood that
price becomes associated with product. Minakshi Thaman and Priya Ahuja (2010)
analysed the consumer behaviour in the purchase of television, refrigerator and
food processor with reference to income level. Buying motives differed in various
income categories. Amutha and Nasrin Sulthana (2011) have said that that the
attitude of people in Chennai city has become changed due to various reasons
such as updated technology, improved status and influence of reference group.
Advertisement is nothing but an important sales promotion strategy. From the
findings of the study among lower income groups: Price was a major
consideration and in middle income group, brand reputation was one of the most
important influencing factors. Anilkumar and Jelsey Joseph (2012) analysed the
consumer purchase behaviour of urban and rural working women consumers
towards durables and opined that the urban and rural markets significantly
differed from each other in considering general and product-specific factors while
making their purchase decisions for durables.
The change of consumer attitude and preferences has been occurring over
the world for the past a few years especially in the white goods market. The entry
of foreign brands created a heavy competition. Every marketer is constrained to
find out the factors for which the buyers are giving more importance and their
satisfaction level also. Without such an understanding, marketers find it hard to
meet the customer’s needs and wants.
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Most of the previous studies (Slama and Williams, 1990; Carsky and
Zuckerman, 1991; Anilkumar, 2012) on consumer behaviour mainly focused on
finding out the cultural influence on buying behaviour. This research has
evaluated factors such as product related attributes, selection of showroom,
promotional offers, satisfaction on after sales service based upon consumers’
buying behaviour in the Erode district.
OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
In the present research, an attempt has been made to examine the purchase
behaviour of buyers towards selected white goods such as refrigerator, washing
machine and air conditioner. The research bears with the following objectives.
1. To identify the factors that influence the buyers during the purchase of white
goods.
2. To identify the factors which influence the buyers to choose a particular
showroom.
3. To measure the level of customer satisfaction in the retail outlet during
purchase and after sales services rendered by the service centres.
4. Based on the results recommendations will be given to the marketrs.
HYPOTHESIS DEVELOPMENT
The above objectives require the following hypothesis to be tested.
Hypothesis 1: The customers are all satisfied with the white goods (Refrigerator,
Washing machine, Air conditioner) that they own and use.
Hypothesis 2: White goods consumers are satisfied with the factors regarding
after sales services provided by the shops and service centres.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research Design
The current scenario on white goods is analyzed and therefore the present study
comes under descriptive research.
Sampling design
As the population is very large, non probability sampling of convenient sampling
method is followed. The sample size of the study is 125.
Data collection
Primary data are collected through direct oral investigation method with
structured questionnaires from Erode District with the sample size of 125.
Tools applied
The following tools are used to analyze the collected data.
i.
Factor Analysis
ii.
ANOVA and Post Hoc test
DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION
Factor analysis: Factor Analysis is a data reduction method. It is a very useful
method to reduce large number of variables resulting in data complexity to a few
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manageable factors. In this study, 14 variables are considered to identify variables
to which most importance is given while white goods are purchased. The
variables are:
1. Brand name 2. Model 3.Advanced features 4.Durability 5. Comfortable size
6. Colour 7. Price 8. Show room ambience 9. Show room location
10. Offers
and schemes 11. Guarantee 12. Credit facility 13. Maintenance 14. After sales
service
Table 1. KMO and Bartlett's Test
Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure of 0.568
Sampling Adequacy
Approx.
538.881
Bartlett's Test of
Chi-Square
Sphericity
Degrees of
91
freedom
Significance 0.000
In table 2, Eigen value represents the total variance explained by each factor and
percentage of the total variance attributed to each factor. One of the popular
methods used in exploratory factor analysis is principle component analysis,
where the total variance in the data is considered to determine the minimum
number of factors that will account for maximum variance of data depicted.
1
2
3
4
Table 2. Eigen values and cumulative % of variance extracted
Extraction Sums of
Rotation Sums of Squared
Initial Eigen values
Squared Loadings
Loadings
% of
Cumula
% of
Cumula
% of
Cumula
Total Variance tive %
Total Variance tive % Total Variance tive %
3.423 24.450
24.450
3.423 24.450
24.450 2.246 16.043
16.043
1.867 13.337
37.787
1.867 13.337
37.787 2.121 15.152
31.195
1.567 11.194
48.982
1.567 11.194
48.982 1.833 13.096
44.291
1.325 9.463
58.445
1.325 9.463
58.445 1.632 11.657
55.949
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
1.055
.983
.910
.703
.532
.465
.443
.295
.286
.145
Comp
onent
7.535
7.019
6.499
5.024
3.801
3.322
3.165
2.109
2.042
1.039
65.980
72.999
79.498
84.521
88.323
91.645
94.811
96.919
98.961
100.000
1.055
7.535
6
65.980
1.404
10.031
65.980
From Table 2, it is understood that about 66% of variance from the variables is
extracted by five factors. Table 3 gives the five factors that are obtained from the
rotated component matrix. Out of 14 variables, 5 individual factors have more
influence while purchase of white goods. The factors are:
i. Show room and Product features ii. Service and Maintenance iii. Money
value iv. Durability and Brand v. Guarantee and Offers
Table.3 Rotated Component Matrix
Component
1
2
3
4
Show room ambience
.868
-.036
.217
.145
Show room location
.718
.137
-.029
.360
Advanced features
.654
.100
-.425
-.438
Comfortable size
.539
.438
.310
.120
5
.195
.072
-.179
.221
After sales service
.073
.870
.082
.032
.020
Maintenance
.098
.841
-.082
.111
.035
Price
.128
-.108
.837
-.183
.019
Model
.251
-.462
-.582
.016
.219
Credit facility
.244
.142
.440
.324
.397
Colour
.210
.402
.433
.395
.156
Durability
-.041 -.061
.103
-.699
.345
Brand name
.173
.078
-.024
.680
.088
Guarantee
.003
-.061
-.168
.018
.822
Offers and schemes
.168
.115
.186
-.122
.495
Extraction
Method:
Principal
Component
Analysis.
Rotation Method: Varimax with Kaiser Normalization. a. Rotation
converged in 10 iterations.
ANOVA Test
In the present study, to compare three or more number of groups based on their
mean values, Analysis of variance technique is followed. In this study an attempt
has been made to analyse influence of the service factor on the basis of the mean
scores for the respondents based on their residential area, qualification,
occupation and so on.
ANOVA between residential area and satisfaction
Null Hypothesis: Respondents belonging to rural, semi urban and urban area
have an average same level of satisfaction on the white goods, shops and service
centers.
Table 4 indicates that on air conditioner and service provided, the satisfaction
level of respondents differ slightly. To find out which group differs slightly from
other, POST-HOC test was applied. From the analysis it is found that the
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respondents belonging to semi-urban and urban area have higher level of
satisfaction on air conditioner. The rural respondents have higher level of
satisfaction on shops and service centers.
Table 4. ANOVA between residential area and satisfaction
Degrees
ANOVA
Sum of
Mean
of
Frequency Significance
Results
Squares
Square
freedom
Satisfaction
Between
11.787
2
5.894
.525
0.593
on
Groups
Refrigerator Within
1358.947 121
11.231
Groups
Total
1370.734 123
Satisfaction
Between
15.058
2
7.529
1.213
0.304
on Washing Groups
machine
Within
409.579 66
6.206
Groups
Total
424.638 68
Satisfaction
Between
200.328 2
100.164 9.381
0.000
on
Air Groups
conditioner
Within
555.199 52
10.677
Groups
Total
755.527 54
Satisfaction
Between
641.791 2
320.896 9.247
0.000
on Service
Groups
Within
4337.709 125
34.702
Groups
Total
4979.500 127
ANOVA between educational qualification and satisfaction
Null Hypothesis: Respondents with the educational qualification of school level,
college level and professionals have on an average same level of satisfaction on
the white goods, shops and service centers.
Table 5 indicates that on refrigerator and service provided in the service centers
the satisfaction levels of respondents differ slightly. To find out the satisfaction of
which group differs slightly from other, POST-HOC test was applied. It is found
that the respondents with professional qualification have higher level of
satisfaction on refrigerator, shops and service centers than respondents with
school level education.
Table 5. ANOVA between educational qualification and satisfaction
Degrees
ANOVA
Sum of
Mean
of
Frequency Significance
Results
Squares
Square
freedom
Satisfaction
Between
157.396 2
78.698
7.848
0.001
on
Groups
8
Refrigerator
Within
Groups
Total
Satisfaction
Between
on Washing Groups
machine
Within
Groups
Total
Satisfaction
Between
on
Air Groups
conditioner
Within
Groups
Total
Satisfaction
Between
on Service
Groups
Within
Groups
Total
1213.338 121
10.028
1370.734 123
9.614
2
4.807
415.024
66
6.288
424.638
10.575
68
2
5.287
744.952
52
14.326
755.527
999.367
54
2
499.683
3980.133 125
.764
0.470
.369
0.693
15.693
0.000
31.841
4979.500 127
ANOVA between age group and satisfaction
Null Hypothesis: Respondents belonging to the age group of less than 30 years,
31-40 years and 41-50 years have an average same level of satisfaction on the
white goods, shops and service centers.
Table 6 indicates that the satisfaction level of respondents on refrigerator and
service provided in the service centers differ slightly. To find out the difference
level POST-HOC Test was applied. It was found that the respondents belonging
to the age group of less than 30 years have higher level of satisfaction on
refrigerator, and service provided in the shops and service centers than the age
group of 41-50 years.
Table 6. ANOVA between age group and satisfaction
Degrees
ANOVA Sum of
Mean
of
Frequency Significance
Results Squares
Square
freedom
Satisfaction Between 86.317
2
43.159
4.066
.020
on
Groups
Refrigerator Within
1284.417 121
10.615
Groups
Total
1370.734 123
Satisfaction Between 12.913
2
6.456
1.035
.361
on Washing Groups
machine
Within
411.725 66
6.238
Groups
Total
424.638 68
9
Satisfaction Between
on
Air Groups
conditioner
Within
Groups
Total
Satisfaction Between
on Service
Groups
Within
Groups
Total
16.273
2
8.136
739.255
52
14.216
755.527
803.427
54
2
401.714
4176.073 125
.572
.568
12.024
.000
33.409
4979.500 127
ANOVA between income and satisfaction
Null Hypothesis: Respondents from a range of income groups have an average
same level of satisfaction on the white goods, shops and service centers.
Analysis of variance Table 7 indicates that the satisfaction levels of respondents
on the refrigerator and service provided in the service centers differ slightly. It is
found from POST-Hoc test that the respondents with the income level of
Rs.20000-40000 have higher level of satisfaction on refrigerator, shops and
service centers.
Table 7. ANOVA between income and satisfaction
ANOVA
Sum of
Mean
Frequency Signifi
Results
Squares Df
Square
cance
Satisfaction
Between
482.865 3
160.955
21.754
0.000
on
Groups
Refrigerator
Within
887.869 120
7.399
Groups
Total
1370.734 123
Satisfaction
Between
26.145
3
8.715
1.422
0.244
on Washing Groups
machine
Within
398.492 65
6.131
Groups
Total
424.638 68
Satisfaction
Between
101.718 3
33.906
2.645
0.059
on
Air Groups
conditioner
Within
653.810 51
12.820
Groups
Total
755.527 54
Satisfaction
Between
1179.628 3
393.209
12.831
0.000
on Service
Groups
Within
3799.872 124
30.644
Groups
Total
4979.500 127
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FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
The results of the study suggest that Show room ambience and Product
features, Maintenance and after sales service, Money value, Brand, Guarantee and
Offers are the most vital factors which are highly considered by the buyers, while
purchasing the white goods. The satisfaction level of respondents on white goods,
shops and service centers becomes changable one among them. In the case of
washing machine and air conditioner, females have more satisfaction than males.
When considering the service in service centers and shops, males have higher
level of satisfaction than female. Joint family respondents possess higher level of
satisfaction than nuclear family on air conditioner and service. The semi-urban
and urban respondents have greater satisfaction on air conditioner, shops and
service centers than rural respondents. Respondents belonging to the age group of
less than 30 years have higher level of satisfaction on refrigerator than the age
group of 41-50 years. The respondents with professional qualification attain
satisfaction on refrigerator, shops and service centers rather than respondents with
school level education.
RECOMMENDATIONS
As a matter of fact, show room ambience and product features are the
most influencing factors in the purchase of white goods. So, innovation can be
made in advertising and promotions for inducing the buyers to select the best
brand and make them aware about the new added features in the white goods. The
satisfaction level of the respondents towards the products and service differs. The
product quality and after sales service are indispensable factors to be considered
during the purchase of white goods. Hence, the manufacturers have to take steps
to improve the quality of the service in the service centers. In comparison between
urban and semi-urban, rural respondents offer an enormous scope of developing
attractive and effective marketing strategies towards air conditioner.
CONCLUSION
The research corroborates that buyers’ decision depends upon analyzing
the market as well as the internal factors. The factors that influence the buyers’
are price, durability, quality, features, brand, needs, wants, search, motivation,
and satisfaction. Growing urbanization and increase in the number of nuclear
families call for white goods market. This trend is vigorously prevalent in Erode
District. The marketers may find these opportunities and subsequently they can
create positive image in the mind of the customers.
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