Title : Comparative study of buying behaviour of Subject : Consumer Behaviour

Young Married and Empty Nest I Couple

Consumer Behaviour

Executive PGDM – 2008-2009

Individual Project-1 (A)

Comparative Study of Buying Behaviour of Young

Married and Empty Nest I Couples

Submitted By-
Modak Priy (08XPGDM31)

Batch : Executive PGDM 2008-09 Page No : 1

(08XPGDM31)
Title : Comparative study of buying behaviour of Subject : Consumer Behaviour
Young Married and Empty Nest I Couple

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I am sincerely grateful to Dr. Neena Sondhi, IMI Delhi, under whose able guidance study
has been undertaken. I am thankful to her for providing me guidance and support for this
study.
I would also like to thank Mr.& Mrs Amit Singh and Mr.& Mrs Saurabh Upreti who has
been always very prompt in replying to all my queries and supported me to complete the
study.

Sincerely, Date :

Modak Priy
08XPGDM31
Executive PGDM
IMI Delhi

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Title : Comparative study of buying behaviour of Subject : Consumer Behaviour
Young Married and Empty Nest I Couple

Project Description
In this survey for our Consumer Behaviour class, examining the effect of various parameters
on consumer decision making is done. In particular, Interview of two married couple’s one
in the young married and the second in the Empty Nest I category was carried out
The three category of product purchase was selected :-
(a) Regular grocery purchase
(b) Last weekend entertainment decision
(c) Last major purchase
The report examining the demographics and lifestyle of young married and Empty nest I, it
also delineates the spending pattern of those within the group and the decision making
process, was it individual/autonomous/joint? Analyzing the differences/similarities in the
light of my conceptual understanding. Trying to find out the implications for the marketer.

Project Abstract
Young Married: The lifestyles of two young singles are greatly altered as they develop a
shared lifestyle. Joint decisions and shared roles in household responsibilities are in many
instances new experiences. Saving, household furnishings, major appliances and more
comprehensive insurance coverage are among the new areas of problem reorganization and
decision making to which a young married couple must give serious consideration.
The time spent by a young couple in this stage of the household lifecycle has grown as
couples either delay their start in having children or choose to remain childless.
This group heavily spends on theatre tickets, expensive clothes, luxury vacations, restaurant
meals.
Respondent: In the present report the young married couples are residence of New Delhi-
India, Husband & wife both are working and gaining yearly income Rs.4.5lac to 6.0lac.
They generally purchase their household items due to basic need to accumulate the
household things because their family is just in starting stage.

Empty Nest I: These household represent the married couples whose children are not
residing along with them.The household income level is comparatively more then the young
married couples. Both adults typically will have jobs, so they are very busy. However the
absence of responsibilities for children creates more free time than they have enjoyed since
their youth. They also have money to spend on dining out, expensive vacations, second
homes, luxury cars and time-saving services such as house-cleaning, laundry and shopping.
They are prime market for financial services. They are also heavy purchase of upscale
children’s products, as gifts for nices, nephews, grandchildren and friends’ children.
Respondent:
In the present report the Empty Nest I couples are residence of New Delhi-India, Husband
working gaining yearly income Rs.7.5 lac to 9.0lac, wife is homemaker. They generally
purchase their household items due to basic need as well as status oriented. Moreover
Income level enhanced by the children also sending a portion of their income to their parent.

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Title : Comparative study of buying behaviour of Subject : Consumer Behaviour
Young Married and Empty Nest I Couple

Based on the questionnaire answered by the married couple’s

Observation for Regular Grocery Item Purchased

Observation Young Married Empty Nest I

Item purchased Household kitchen items, basic Household kitchen items,basic

utilatiries like toilet soap, utilatiries like soap,washing
washing powder,shampoo,etc powder,shampoo,toothpaste etc
Frequency Weekly Monthly

Need Basic need plus few items Basic need plus few items influenced by
influenced by promotion offer on impulsive movement due to special
some products attribute of the product
Selection Joint selection Individual selection

Decision Joint decision Individual decision but admitted by

both.
Price More price sensitive, less brand Less price sensitive, more brand loyal,
sensitive/Brand loyal,brand switchers. not brand switchers
loyality

Observation for Last weekend entertainment decision

Observation Young Married Empty Nest I

Item purchased Movie theatre, Dining out Dining out, Travelling

Frequency Weekly Weekly

Need Entertainment purpose/impulsive Due to change

Selection Joint selection Joint selection

Decision Joint decision Joint decision

Effect Newspaper Word of mouth from friends

Price Littile bit price sensitive Not price sensitive

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Title : Comparative study of buying behaviour of Subject : Consumer Behaviour
Young Married and Empty Nest I Couple

Observation for Last major purchase

Observation Young Married Empty Nest I

Item purchased Bike Laptop

Need Transportation(Husband) Luxury based

Selection Individual Individual

Decision Joint Joint

Effect on Friends-opinion leader Media affected

purchase
Price More Price sensitive, could Strictly Brand loyal
Sensitive/Brand change the brand for a good offer
Loyal or discount available.

Differences of purchase decision between two category

Factors Young Married Empty Nest I

Price This category is more price This category is less price sensitive
Sensitiveness sensitive towards items either it’s for all items.
a grocery items or a heavy
purchase, more often they are
willing to respond to change or
differences in price.
Brand Loyalty Young married are not a brand Empty nest I consumer are a complete
loyal consumer, they are brand brand loyal, they do not switches their
switchers, more often they switch brand occasionally, they are in the
their brand towards price and phase where taste of a specific brand
amount or any special deal. This is developed fully.
is the time when their taste for a
specific brand is under
development.
Group impact No group influence, since they Heavy group impact, reference group
are just new for the society so no impact.
reference group.

Materialism Terminal materialism Instrumental materialism

(Acquisition of items for the sake (Acquisition of things to enable one to
of owning the item itself) do something)

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Title : Comparative study of buying behaviour of Subject : Consumer Behaviour
Young Married and Empty Nest I Couple

Differences of purchase decision between two category

Factors Young Married Empty Nest I

Influence Individuals, situational Group, impulsive

Need Need base Need / status base

Motives Basic motives Basic and advanced motives

Physiological More Physiological need More Physiological need as well as

(Food, water, sleep related
products)
Safety Less Safety need products
(Only insurance like products due
to tax saving)
Belongingness Internal belongingness feeling
(internal/external) related products like gifts,
shopping for their partners
Esteem Low tendency
materialistic need
(Food, water, sleep as well as luxury
based products)
More Safety need products
(seeking physical safety and security,
stability, familiar surrounding,
insurance like products)
Internal as well as external
belongingness like products like gift
for their niece, nephews, friends’
children etc.
High tendency
(Desire for status, superiority, self
respect and prestige)

Income level Income level low as only one Income level is very high as the
member is earning group having more income as spend
more time in job as well as children
also sending some portion of their
income to their parent.
Media effect Media exposed is Television and Media exposed is television, print as
print media well as word of mouth.

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Title : Comparative study of buying behaviour of Subject : Consumer Behaviour
Young Married and Empty Nest I Couple

Implications for the marketers:

MOTIVATION AND MARKETING STRATEGY: Purchase of each of products and brands
is caused by a different motive, each require a distinct marketing and advertising program.
Consumer do not buy products; instead, they buy motive satisfaction or problem solution.
Thus, consumers do not buy perfume or cologne. Instead they buy romance, sex appeal,
sensual pleasure, sophistication, or a host of other emotional and psychological benefits.
Managers must discover the motives that their products and brands can satisfy and develop
marketing mixes around these motives. For example, consumer often buys products and
services as gifts for themselves, though they may feel some guilt at being self-indulgent.
People make such purchases for a variety of motives, including rewarding themselves for an
accomplishment. A marketer should identify the feeling related for a particular product and
to be run advertising campaigns according to the feeling associated with the product.
Each customer will have a certain price acceptability window and different customers have
different limits in their perceptions of what price is within their range. For the marketing
professional the trick is to figure out how customers determine what "price" means. Price
Sensitivity Measurement method may be used. This method asks survey respondents to
define a possible range of prices noted in a scale called a price ladder. In order for the survey
to be valid and not become a self fulfilling prophecy, the prices represented must be
positioned on the upper or lower ends of the scale and not in the middle. Survey respondents
are ask to pick two different price points on the price scale: The point where the product is
beginning to appear "expensive" or a poor value for the money, and the point where they
perceive the product to be a "good buy".
EMOTIONS AND MARKETING STRATEGY: Marketers have to be used emotions to
guide product positioning, sales presentations and advertising on an intuitive level. For
example, salesperson and other service providers frequently must deal with consumers
displaying an array of emotions. Consumers actively seek products whose primary or
secondary benefit is emotional arousal. Marketers design and position products to both
arouse and reduce emotions. Advertisements include emotion-arousing material to increase
attention, degree of processing, remembering and brand preference through classical
conditioning or direct evaluation.
SITUATIONAL INFLUENCES AND MARKETING STRATEGY: It is important to note
that individuals do not encounter situations randomly. Instead, most people” create” many of
the situations they face. Thus, individuals who choose to engage in physically demanding
sports such as jogging, tennis or racquetball are indirectly choosing to expose themselves to
the situation of “being tired” or “being thirsty”. This allows marketers to develop products,
advertising and segmentation strategies based on the situations that individuals selecting
various lifestyle are likely to encounter.
After identifying the different situations that might involve the consumption of a product,
marketers must determine which products or brands are most likely to be purchased or
consumed across those situations. One method of dealing with this question is to jointly
scale situations and products.
Determine how products are currently used across situations can help the marketer develop
appropriate advertising and positioning strategies.
ACCEPTANCE STRATEGY :Acceptance strategy is similar to preference strategy.
However it is complicated by the fact that the target market is not seeking information about
the brand. Therefore in addition to the activities involved in the preference strategy described

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Title : Comparative study of buying behaviour of Subject : Consumer Behaviour
Young Married and Empty Nest I Couple

above the marketers must attract the consumers attention or otherwise motivate them to learn
about the brand.
Long term advertising designed to enhance low-involvement learning learning is another
useful technique for gaining acceptance. Extensive advertising with strong emphasis on
attracting attention can also be effective.

Conclusion
In order to design an effective marketing program, it is necessary to have a complete
understanding of the potential customers. It is only with such a complete understanding that
we can be sure we have correctly identified the need set. In addition, we cannot
communicate effectively with our customers if we do not understand the context in which
our product is purchased and consumed.

During the question and research on both category It was found that although these two
generations looks similar somewhat in their outlook and in some few needs like the basic
design for the vehicle they will purchased will be the same (not giving importance for
children), but the major difference between the two are the result of differing life stages and
their income level.

The survey conducted was basically in two categories low involvement and high
involvement and a entertainment based purchase.

For low involvement product like grocery items Younger married do their shopping mostly
need based and they enjoy their shopping, moreover they are price sensitive towards items
while Empty nest I do their shopping for need cum brand based, here in the low involvement
product they do rely on brand due to reliability of the items that they are using. They are not
price sensitive.

For High involvement product like technological products and heavy purchase items, there is
a similarity observed between these two categories, even young married couples have low
familiarity with the product and Empty nest I having sound knowledge about the product,
but here opinion leader plays important role in their purchase, both category have influence
with media and advertisement, more and less they rely on opinion leader for high
involvement products.

Involvement can also categorized in terms of two key perspectives-product involvement and
brand decision involvement.

While the product involvement is formed and modified by product appeal, product
hedonistic impact, and product utility, it is maintained here that certain products have
particular importance in different culture. This will have a direct impact on the involvement
process.

Brand decision involvement is formed and modified by brand appeal, brand hedonistic
impact, and brand risk. Here it is maintained again in some cultures different brand have a
different impact on consumer behavior.
Perceived risk and other mediating factors are other important forces influencing the
purchase behavior through their impact on actual involvement. Among other mediating
factors, perhaps one of the most important factor is familiarity. Finally, a distinction is made

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Title : Comparative study of buying behaviour of Subject : Consumer Behaviour
Young Married and Empty Nest I Couple

between felt involvement and actual involvement. Many of these factors like modifiers, and
mediators need to be understand by marketers. They directly influence marketers plan.

A number of factors for purchase behavior are commonly influenced by

1. Culture/subculture
2. Social status
3. Reference groups
4. Household characteristics
5. Financial status/expectations
6. Previous decision
7. Individual development
8. Motives
9. Emotions
10. Current situations.
Once managers are aware of problem reorganization pattern generated by the above factors
among their target market they can react by designing marketing mix to solve the recognized
problem.

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