Department of Business Administration

Iqra University
Research Title:
A STUDY ON CONSUMER BEHAVIOR TOWARDS FMCG PRODUCTS

Introduction:
Impulse buying behavior is an enigma in the marketing world, for here is a
behavior which the literature and consumers both state is normatively wrong,
yet which accounts for a substantial volume of the goods sold every year
across a broad range of product categories (Bellenger et al., 1978; Cobb and
Hoyer, 1986; Han et al., 1991; Kollat and Willet, 1967; Rook and Fisher,
1995; Weinberg and Gottwald, 1982). Possibly, these negative evaluations of
impulse buying behavior emanate from psychological studies of
impulsiveness that characterize impulse behavior as a sign of immaturity and
lacking behavioral control (Levy, 1976; Solnick et al., 1980) or as irrational,
risky, and wasteful (Ainslie, 1975; Levy, 1976; Rook and Fisher, 1995;
Solnick et al., 1980).
Rook and Fisher (1995) were among the first marketing researchers to
suggest that these normative evaluations act to moderate individual
impulsive traits and, thus, reduce consumer impulse buying behavior. In
other words, consumers attempt to control their innate impulsive tendencies
because they do not want to be perceived as immature or irrational.
However, this moderating effect does not conform with the high reported
incidence of impulse buying behavior in studies conducted over the last four
decades. These studies show that most people almost 90 per cent make
purchases on impulse occasionally (Welles, 1986) and between 30 per cent
and 50 per cent of all purchases can be classified by the buyers themselves as
impulse purchases (Bellenger et al., 1978; Cobb and Hoyer, 1986; Han et al.,
1991; Kollat and Willett, 1967).
Dramatic increases in personal disposable incomes and credit availability have made
impulse buying in retail environments a prevalent consumer behavior (Dittmar and
Drury, 2000). In the USA, impulse buying generated over $4 billion in annual sales
(Kacen and Lee, 2002) where about 40 percent of consumers consider themselves
impulse shoppers (Target Group Index, 1997). Impulse purchases are more likely when consumers experience
an impulse buying stimulus and then later evaluate that
prospective purchase as appropriate (OGuinn and Faber, 1989). The powerful
influence of impulse behavior on consumer buying suggests it is an important area of
study (Bayley and Nancarrow, 1998; Hausman, 2000).
Previous studies on impulse buying focused on defining differences between
impulse and non-impulse buying behavior (Cobb and Hoyer, 1986; Piron, 1991). Many
researchers have provided theoretical frameworks for examining impulse buying
related to psychological variables (e.g. personality, self-regulation), hedonic
experiences (e.g. shopping enjoyment, emotional state, mood) and situational
variables (e.g. available time, money) in a shopping context (Beatty and Ferrell,
1998; Burroughs, 1996; Rook and Fisher, 1995). Generally, researchers found impulse
buying satisfied hedonic or emotional needs for fun, social interaction, and gratification
(Hausman, 2000; Piron, 1991).
The association between human beings and luxury goes
through millennia, and it was often reserved for the elite in
society. However, with rapid globalization, purchasing luxury
items has come within the grasp of an ordinary person (Hader,
2008; Eng and Bogaert, 2010; Brun and Castelli, 2013)
throughout the world (Wong and Ahuvia, 1998). Global
spending on luxury brands has increased and is expected to
reach USD40 trillion by 2020 (ASSOCHAM, 2013). Asian
countries such as Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong and South
Korea have developed luxury markets with India and China
also growing rapidly (Chadha and Husband, 2007; Dasgupta,
2009).

Prior research in luxury buying emphasized the role of

culture and demographics in influencing luxury consumption (Hung et al., 2011; Godey et al., 2013). Although the meaning
and perceptions of luxury may vary across countries and
cultures (Miller and Mills, 2012), the motivations and
objectives behind its purchase may be similar (Hennigs et al.,
2012). Researchers have investigated the meaning and
anatomy of luxury brands, often from the practitioners
perspective (Fionda and Moore, 2009) or conceptually (Miller
and Mills, 2012; Ghosh and Varshney, 2013) and not very
often from a consumer perspective. The changing profile of
luxury consumers in Asia makes it all the more urgent to
investigate the perception of luxury and its consequences from
the consumers perspective in the Asian context. The present
study investigates the luxury consumption behavior of the
Indian consumers and develops a conceptual model of luxury
consumption that incorporates antecedents of luxury buying,
the luxury buying process, the consequences and moderating
factors influencing various relations in the model based on a
set of focus group discussions (FGDs). The rest of the paper
is organized as follows. The next section provides a review of
the literature on luxury branding and luxury consumption
followed by the research objectives. The next two sections
elaborate on the research methodology and the results.

The rapid growth of the internet over the past two decades, as a platform for buyer-seller
interaction, constituting a well-practiced dyad, is indicative of the degree of acceptance of
an online transaction. With the emergence of e-commerce there has been a considerable
increase in online transactions. Online shopping could be defined as the concept of buying
and selling of goods over the internet. From the perspective of the seller, it is the attempt on
the sellers part to attract and persuade the prospect to conduct the purchase
decision-making process, and ensure satisfaction and loyalty. From the perspective of the
buyer, online purchase behavior is the degree to which consumers access, browse, shop
and transact and repeat the behavior. With a change in the consumers mindset of purchase
made from a physical store to online buying, the industry has witnessed the ever-increasing
volumes of online transactions. Bakos (1991), describes an e-market as ... an
inter-organizational information system that allows the participating buyers and sellers to
exchange information about prices and product offerings. Meuter et al. (2000) have defined
e-retailing in terms of the internet market as a virtual realm where products and services
exist as digital information and can be delivered through information-based channels.
Jones et al. (2000) said . . . carrying out of retailing activities with customers that leads to an
exchange of value, where the parties interact electronically, using network or
telecommunications technologies. We may define online-retailing as use of an electronic
via media through which the customer and the marketer may enter into a transaction for sale
and purchase, so as to benefit both the parties in the long run. The rapid usage rate of
buyers transacting online has been due to advances in technology, to consumer
characteristics (both demographic as well as psychographic) and to situational influences.

Online retailers need to understand the basic issues that would help develop trust among
buyers in the online buying process. This paper is an attempt to conceptualize trust, as a
concept against the backdrop of online buying. The paper starts with the concept of trust,
then goes on to explain the concept against the background of online buying. Thereafter, the
determinants of online trust have been conceptualized and explained.

Background of Study:
History of consumer behavior seems to be highly intertwined with the history of marketing thought. The purpose
of this paper is to trace the historical dependence and allegiance of consumer behavior on the discipline and
practice of marketing. It then attempts to - forecast emerging trends in consumer behavior research and theory as
a consequence of new and emerging schools of marketing thought.

Over the years, marketing has shifted its reliance on other disciplines as well as its focus of understanding. for
example, the classical schools of marketing thought relied on the social sciences such as economics, sociology
and anthropology and focused oil aggregate market behavior. This gave way to the managerial schools of
marketing thought in which tire focus of attention and understanding shifted to the individual customers while
social sciences disciplines continued to dominate marketing thinking. Eventually, marketing kept its focus on
individual customers but began to borrow more and more from the behavioral sciences. This resulted in what I
will call as the behavioral schools of marketing thought. More recently , marketing has begun to shift its attention
away from the individual customers and concentrate oil the markets. In tire process, it is also relying less on the
behavioral sciences and more on tire traditional social sciences. We shall call this emerging trend as adaptive
schools of marketing thought.

It appears that each marketing era lids motivated specific types of consumer behavior research, and thereby
shape its history with respect L o t b e substantive body of knowledge, research methodology as well as theory
development. Figure 1 summarizes the parallels between marketing and consumer behavior. The rest of the
paper will enumerate elements of each of the four phases of marketing thought and its impact on consumer
behavior. jagdish N Sheth (1985)

Problem Statement:
To identify the consumer buying behavior toward FMCG products

Dependent variable:

Consumer buying behavior

Independent Variable:

Place Factors
Product Specific Factors
Price Specific Factors
Promotional Factors
 Psychological Factors
People Influences

Signifiacnce of Study:
Conclusion:
Reference; http://www.acrwebsite.org/volumes/12106/volumes/sv05/SV-05