AN OBSERVATOIN EXERCISE ON CONSUMER BUYING BEHAVIOUR

OBJECTIVE: Understanding Consumer Buying Behaviour through Observation

PRODUCTS CATEGORY ON WHICH THE OBSERVATION WAS UNDERTAKEN: Perfumes and Deodorants.

OBSERVATIONS ABOUT: Consumer Buying Behaviour

PRODUCT: Perfumes and Deodorant.

TECHNIQUE USED: Silent observation and slight interview (in a few cases).

PLACE OF OBSERVATION: Deodorant section of Easy Day retail store.

I visited perfume and deodorant section of Easy Day retail outlet. The buyers were mainly within the 20-40 age groups, male as well as female in nearly equal proportion. As per our inference, there were buyers who were buying it for their own use while some intended it to be used as a gift. The former category of buyers were usually more discerning, and spent a lot of time evaluating various brands across multiple price categories. The buyers in the latter category were less discerning and the purchase decision was made faster and the concern was largely in adhering to a particular price band rather than any particular quality of the product. In both categories, buyers did not seem to have much information about the various products and brands available. Buyers were however particular about the qualities of the product and described the same in their own words like “Hard Hitting”, “Fresh” etc. In some cases the buyer was accompanied by one or more friends or family members; however the presence of friends or family did not seem to influence the purchase decision significantly.

  The shopping was more impulsive than planned, as most buyers appeared undecided about what brand or type of perfume to buy. Sometimes buyers tried a lot of product across multiple, often posh, categories and settled on a cheaper product, like a deodorant. This leads us to infer that a lot of the purchases were impulsive. The buyers generally looked across multiple brands and price bands before deciding on a final purchase; only a few times I could find buyers having fixed choices. The two most important factors that the consumers seemed to be interested in were the quality and the price; the former being a more important deciding factor.

If we go round the way through the observation in terms of factors like apparently appealing packaging, effect of eye level display, time consumption in making purchase decision, pattern or randomness existing in purchase on behalf of gender, age or

psychographics. It is really difficult to relate among the outcomes of the observation exercise. The next table represents the observations made at the store:

Observation Male Female

No. of visitors 38 24

Purchase made 24 16

Pre disposition (prev.-product) purchase

17 10

Planned purchase 4 2

For self use 23 16

Impulse purchase 18 10

Purchase made as the effect of any other

factor**

1 0

** The other factor in the only existing case was a good friend’s suggestion.

From the above given glimpse of data following points may be drawn:

In the observation window the number of males was higher than number of females. Number of buyers was more than 60% of total foot fall of male consumers. Number of buyers was more than 65% of total foot fall of female consumers. 70% of males and 62.5% of females bought Deodorant before the disposition of

previous purchase. Only 8.3% of males and 12.5% of females performed a planned purchase. Only a negligible sum bought it for gifting purpose. Most of the purchases were made as impulse ones; factors being numerous as

discussed above. A male buyer was motivated to make a purchase of a particular brand by his friend’s

suggestion. There were significant linkages were found relating purchases to age, sex, time

invested or other particulars. The most affecting limitation of the observation was limited time observation

window. Only one subject was in observation at a time. Footfall in the store was higher than usual because of it being a new year’s evening. Huge number of customers was a constant disturbance during the observation process. A few consumers felt anxious being under observation.