DIFFERENCES BETWEEN MALE AND FEMALE IN BUYING DECISIONS

A System Development Study

Presented to the Faculty of
COLLEGE OF BUSINESS AND ACCOUNTANCY
UNIVERSITY OF BATANGAS

In Partial Fulfillment
Of the Requirements for the Degree of
BACHELOR OF SCIENCE IN BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION
MAJOR IN MARKETING MANAGEMENT

By:

DE SAGUN, GRACE ANN

MACARAIG, NEIL BRYANT

MANALO, LAIKA MAE

 DIFFERENCES BETWEEN MALE AND FEMALE IN BUYING DECISIONS

Abstract

Customers have many needs and wants that they must fulfill in daily life. Male and

female have their own criteria for purchasing the products that they want, they both

have different decision making. The results showed significant difference between

male and female in the purchasing behaviour, like differences of products shows that

male and female are differently. In this study, total of 133 customers response to our

survey, it showed that decision making is typically described as choosing among

alternatives, and however it is not just a simple act of choosing among alternatives.

In the store without customers, there is no income to the store, customer satisfaction

is important. Marketers, sellers want consumers to be happy after buying products,

like customers do not want to go through a complex decision process for every

purchase. This discussion about differences and similarities between women and

men is always a fashionable topic, both in the domain of scientific research and in the

public opinion, this will be the important component of customers identity and

behaves like a category of thought and behaviour.

Keywords: decision making, marketers, customer satisfaction

1.0 Introduction

There is a decade worth of scientific research in this study, which shows that there

are observable differences in how men and women behave as shoppers. It is clear,

men and women think differently about shopping and will approach the act of

shopping online or in personal in different ways. Gaining the understanding of how

gender differences influence purchase decisions and recognizing gender specific

tendencies is important for any business that sells to people and wants to do so more

effectively. Studies have shown that there are numerous physical differences

between male and female. According to The Mediterranean Journal of Sciences

(2017) research shows that customers have a range of underlying motivations

triggering their shopping behaviors, like men tend to follow utilitarian, more logic-

based approach, you need to tell them why they should buy your products and why it

makes sense for them to purchased it. Get to the point quickly, focus on the products

and use active statements that demonstrate value. While women are mostly hedonic

shoppers, to reach and to engage women, you will have to create emotive shopping

experiences that resonate with them, the purely functional approach can fall flat

pretty quickly, women want to know more about sellers brand, the lifestyle that sell

and how the products are going to make them feel.

It also found that while female respondents were more likely to find purchasing

products and discounts, the shopping process of male and female counterparts was

more efficient and quicker. Women enjoy browsing and looking through products,

offer them a user friendly interface that supports these activities and include social

shopping functionalities, high quality visuals and the customers reviews. Once a
customer recognizes the need for a certain products or services, information needs

to be gathered and processed to evaluate alternatives, this research shows that men

and women differ dramatically in their strategies for information and decision making

as well.

This doesn’t mean that men don’t value the opinions and experiences of others, but

rather that their approach is different, while men use the experiences of others with a

product they’re interested in to form their own opinion, women would want to know

the reasons and motivations to understand why others purchased an item and

whether the situation is comparable, before considering it in their decision making.

This findings suggest that when advertising to women, it is important to use

marketing to build a personal relationship with the female customers, while when

marketing to men you should high light the advantages and benefits of the products.

For men, good services mean helping them find the right item and helping them get

through checkout quickly, for women customer satisfaction is strongly linked to a

shop’s willingness to share expert advice. Privacy concerns are the major

impediments to consumers trusting, many studies have shown that in differences and

similarity framed situations, women perceive more risk than men. So, when designing

the strategies for increasing the trustworthiness, keep male and female in mind.

Price perception and decision making greatly affects a consumer's decision to

purchase a product. The perception of price explains information about a product and

provides a deep meaning for the consumers (Kotler and Keller, 2016). Hence, price

is an important factor in the purchasing decision, especially for products that are

frequently purchased, and in turn, influences the choices of which store, product, and
brand to patronize (Faith and Agwu, 2014). Consumers are very rational when it

comes to judging what benefits they wish to get from buying products or services

they pay for (Al-Mamun and Rahman, 2014).The price of a product is divided into

three dimensions: fair price, fixed price, and relative price. Fair price refers to the

adjustment of a price that offers a combination of quality and appropriate services at

a reasonable price (Kotler and Keller, 2016). Fixed price is a set price for all buyers

(Kotler and Keller, 2016). Relative price is the price set in accordance with the quality

and service provided by the seller (Kotler and Armstrong, 2014). Research by

Komaladewi and Indika (2017) indicated that most respondents consider price as an

important factor influencing their purchase decisions, similar to the finding of

Djatmiko and Pradana (2015) and Termsnguanwong (2015).

Comparing with the traditional marketing-type social media marketers can reach

much more potential customers within different user channels (smartphone, laptop,

iPad). Also they have more interaction with the customer. Customers are becoming

more and more a value creator and not only a receiver (Berthon, Pitt, Plangger and

Shapiro, 2012). Customers with big influences attain to power to the best offer they

want regarding needs and wants (Alalwan et. al., 2016).

Impact on customer satisfaction and loyalty; while tangibility did not show

significant effect on customer satisfaction and loyalty. Also, perceived price, access,

transaction, benefit, and decision convenience had significant effect on customer

satisfaction and loyalty. But post-benefit convenience did not have influence on

customer impact on customer satisfaction and loyalty; while tangibility did not show

significant effect on customer satisfaction and loyalty. Also, perceived price, access,

transaction, benefit, and decision convenience had

significant effect on customer satisfaction and loyalty. But post-benefit convenience

did not have influence on customer loyalty. In addition, customer satisfaction was

shown as mediating variable between its antecedents (except two dimensions,

tangibility and post-benefit convenience) and customer loyalty (Kaura, Durga

Prasad et al. 2015).

Objectives of the study

This study aimed to know the differences between male and female in buying
decisions.
Specifically, the study attempted to answer the following question;
1.What is the profile of the respondents in terms of:
1.1. Age;
1.2. Sex;
1.3. Occupation;
2.How do the following factors affect the male and female in buying decisions;
2.1.Price;
2.2. Quality/Brand; and
2.3. Trends?
3. What male and female mostly preferred in buying? 3.1. Needs vs. Wants 3.2.
Online Shopping vs. Shopping in-store

1.Analyze the profile of the respondents in terms of age, sex, and occupation

2.Identify the spending habits of male and female

3.Determine the factors that influence buying decisions

4.Determine the difference of gender to buying decisions and profile variables.

5.Propose a gender-sensitive development strategies to improve buying decisions

more efficiently and effectively

2.0 Methodology

Researchers used online research design, surveying the 133 customers through

online, social media. There are 21 questions in the survey under pricing,

quality/brand, and the trends, where the respondents needs to answer using through

checking those items. 1 being rated disagree while 4 denotes as strongly agree. The

research design, area of study, population, sample of the population, sampling

technique, instrument for data collection, validation of the questionnaire,

administration of the instrument and method of data analysis.

3.0 Results and Discussion

This research paper, shows through conducting the survey research from the

customer respondent by the researcher. By analyzing and interprets the data, and

this tables illustrate the findings of the study according to the objectives of the study.
Profile of the customers

Table 1 shows that 58 or 43.6 percent of the male customers sampled and

75 or 56.4 percent of the female are answering the survey in gender buying

decisions.

Table 1

Profile of the customers

Gender Frequency Percentage

Male 58 43.6

Female 75 56.4

Total 133 100

Age

16-20 58 43.6

21-25 54 40.6

26-30 10 7.5

31-40 7 5.3

41-above 4 3

Total 133 100

Educational Attainment

High school graduate 49 36.8

College graduate 32 24.1

Post graduate 14 10.5

Under graduate 39 29.3

Total 133 100.7

The customers are mainly from age 16-20 with the highest percentage of 43.6

percent . 54 out of 133 or 40.6 percent were 21-25 years old. 10 or 7.5 percent are

age 26-30 ; 7 out of 133 customers equivalent to 5.3 percent are 31-40 years old. 41-

above got the lowest percentage of 3 percent.

For the results of educational attainment most of the customers are high school

graduate with 36.8 percent followed by under graduate with 29.3 percent. College

graduate got 32 or 24.1 percent and for the post graduate with 14 or 10.5 percent got

the lowest in the survey.

Customers assessment in gender differences in buying decisions

The next table shows the assessment of the customers responding to male and

female differences in buying decisions.

Price. Marketing provides promoting and selling products or services, to advertise as

well. Pertain to all aspects in a business including product development, sales. The

term pricing usually defined as a cost or charges for products that we spent, how

much of the cost of product it is. Table 2 shows the importance of pricing or cost to

customers when buying products.

In this research, price refer to the value of money, expenditure for the product, pricing

covers all marketing aspects like the item - goods or services mode of payment

methods of distribution, currency used, money that customers must pat for a

products or services. It can be noted that there is a recorded mean average or total

of 3.50 and interpreted as Strongly Agree. This means that the customers are looking

for affordable price, by saving money than spend for buying expensive price. Saving

and valuing money is very important, it’s not about purchasing expensive stuffs but

checking first the price of how much it will be.

Findings of the study, price perception greatly affects a consumer's decision to

purchase a product. The perception of price explains information about a product and

provides a deep meaning for the consumers (Kotler and Keller, 2016). Hence, price

is an important factor in the purchasing decision, especially for products that are

frequently purchased, and in turn, influences the choices of which store, product, and

brand to patronize (Faith and Agwu, 2014). Consumers are very rational when it

comes to judging what benefits they wish to get from buying products or

services they pay for (Al-Mamun and Rahman, 2014). The price of a product is

divided into three dimensions: fair price, fixed price, and relative price. Fair price

refers to the adjustment of a price that offers a combination of quality and appropriate

services at a reasonable price (Kotler and Keller, 2016). Fixed price is a set price

for all buyers (Kotler and Keller, 2016). Relative price is the price set in accordance

with the quality and service provided by the seller (Kotler and Armstrong, 2014).

Research by Komaladewi and Indika (2017) indicated that most respondents

consider price as an important factor influencing their purchase decisions, similar to

the finding of Djatmiko and Pradana (2015) and Termsnguanwong (2015). Based on

the discussion above, we present our second hypothesis below.

H2. Price has a positive influence on purchasing

decisions.

Table 2

Mean Distribution of Respondents in Price

Price Weighted Mean VI

I always look for the affordable 3.62 Strongly Agree

price of products

I prefer the price of products who 3.57 Strongly Agree

is not too expensive

I checked first the price of the 3.77 Strongly Agree

products before they buy it

I always compared the low and 3.44 Agree

high price before I choose the

products

I always thought that the low price 3.21 Agree

of products are, the more

customer attracted to choose that

low price

I am very familiar to the products 3.24 Agree

having affordable price

I know that most of the 3.66 Strongly Agree

customers are saving money, so

they always looking for the

affordable products
Composite Mean 3.50 Strongly Agree

Table 3

Mean Distribution of Respondents in Quality/Brand

 Trends Weighted Mean VI

I use social networking sites to 3.13 Agree

spot what latest trending

products

I only buy the trending products 2.66 Agree

that suit to my personality

I prefer to buy the most latest 2.37 Strongly Disagree

and trends products

I am that kind of person who is 2.25 Strongly Disagree

always want to chose the trends

I am a loyal customer of the 2.24 Strongly Disagree

trends

I usually get inspired from to 1.27 Disagree

catch-up with life trends

I consider myself as addicted in 2.06 Strongly Disagree

buying what is trends

Composite Mean 2.28 Strongly Disagree

Table 4 shows, a composite mean of 2.28 interpreted as Strongly Disagree in terms

of trends. This means that the customers are not always purchase of what is
trending, and not really addicted when it comes to trends. Average of the

respondents shows that they’re not agree with the buying and choosing trending

nowadays.

Day-by-day taste, preference and choices are varying regarding different factors

such as the Internet emergence. However, this development needs some more

understanding related to the consumer’s behavior. Consumer behavior research

identifies a general model of buying behavior that depicts the processes used by

consumers in making a purchase decision (Vrender, 2016).

Differences of gender to buying decisions and profile variables

Gender differences in buying decisions, men are likely to be specific looking only for

the product that they wish while women were generally comprehensive, looking for

plenty information like price, brand quality, and trends toward the product they need.

Table 5
 Differences of gender to buying decisions and profile variables

Gender differences in buying p value Analysis

decisions

Respondent’s profile 0.373

Not significant

Price 0.565 Not significant

Brand/quality 0.205 Not significant

Trends 0.082 Not significant

From table 5, it can be seen the differences of gender to buying decisions and profile

variables. Respondent’s profile, price, brand/quality. And trends, all of them are

statistically not significant because they have the p value of greater than 0.05, the

value of t test for respondents profile is 0.373, for price is 0.565, for brand/quality is

0.205, and lastly for trends is 0.082.

It is the findings of the customers satisfaction and not satisfaction on a particular

product based on the overall quality and its comparability. (Weebmark 2018)

(Spacey,2015) Brand, price, quality is important on attracting customers to purchase

product it provides the amount that the customer will pay. These results may mean

that respondents profile’s observation in terms of price,

brand/quality, and trends are not really significant.

Based on the findings (Quizon 2016) The results showed that the customers

preferred to choose good products, usually associated with the level of credibility,

quality and satisfaction in the customers mind.

4.0 Conclusions

Based on the study, the conclusions in the following are formulated:

1. Most of the respondents are female ages 16-20 and they are high school

graduate who answering the survey about gender differences in buying

decisions.

2. Research study proven the prices quality and brand have a different answers

from customers opinion. It shows that the customer are choosing and looking for

affordable price and also the quality brand of the product that they would like to

purchase.

3. The customers doesn’t always choose of what is trends.

Based on the findings in this research the following are highly recommended:

1. Price perception and decision making greatly affects a consumers decisions to

purchase a product.

2. The customers have many needs and wants that they must fulfill in daily lives.

3. Marketing want consumers to be happy and satisfied with the great service.

4. Male and female have their own criteria for purchasing products they both have

different mentality and mindset.

 References

https://ejournal.unsrat.ac.id/index.php/emba/article/download/11853/11443

https://zoovu.com/blog/women-vs-men-gender-differences-in-purchase-decision-

making/

www.researchgate.net › publication

(PDF) A review of literature on consumers' online purchase intentions -

ResearchGate

www.diva-portal.org › getPDF

Web results A Literature Review of marketing and Facebook - DiVA

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/

311607113_Service_Quality_Customer_Satisfaction_and_Customer_Loyalty_A_Co

mprehensive_Literature_Review_1993-2016

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=http://buscompress.com/

uploads/3/4/9/8/34980536/riber_7-s2_k18-165_328-

337.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwj34Zmg89PtAhXvxosBHcVqBTYQFjADegQICBAB&usg=AOv

Vaw23PVenpkYg9YR1zN02UuX7

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/23311975.2018.1514940
Dear Respondents,

We are a BSBA MARKETING students searching and analyzing study our

research topic titled “DIFFERENCES BETWEEN MALE AND FEMALE IN
BUYING DECISIONS” by answering all statements in the survey research
through online survey. Thank you so much.

Yours truly

Marketing Researchers

QUESTIONNAIRE

Directions. Kindly fill up and check the following appropriately:

Part I. DEMOGRAPHIC PROFILE

Age:

___16-20
___21-25
___26-30
___31-40
___41-45

Sex:

___ Female ___ Male

Educational attainment:

___High school Graduate: ___Under Graduate

___College Graduate: ___Post Graduate:

Part II. GENDER DIFFERENCES IN BUYING DECISIONS

Instructions: Answer the following statements that listed below through checking and
rate it using number 4 up to 1.

4 - Strongly Agree
3 - Agree
2 - Strongly Disagree
1 - Disagree

Price 4 3 2 1
I always look for the affordable price of
products
I prefer the price of products who is not too
expensive
I checked first the price of the products
before they buy it
I always compared the low and high price
before I choose the products
I always thought that the low price of
products are, the more customer attracted
to choose that low price
I am very familiar to the products having
affordable price
I know that most of the customers are
saving money, so they always looking for
the affordable products

Quality/Brand 4 3 2 1
I always looking for the quality and brand
of the products that i want to buy
I check first the quality of brand before I
buy
I prefer the branded products than local
products
I like to purchase branded and quality
products any time
I buy only branded products
I am sure that if I choose the branded
products it is a quality
I will always be a loyal customer of the
branded products