International Journal of Advanced Research in

Management and Social Sciences

ISSN: 2278-6236

A STUDY ON FACTORS INFLUENCING YOUTHS BUYING BEHAVIOR TOWARDS

SOAPS
Prof. R. Sudhakar*
Abstract: In the present situation of the world, consumers buying behavior plays a major
role. Business performance can be improved by understanding customers preferences and
desires. In the present scenario of growing competition there are numerous brands selling
the same products. Customers have numerous options and many diverse factors influence
their buying behavior. Hence in such situations, this analysis can help in devising different
strategies for obtaining maximum profits. Consumers make purchase decisions mainly by
considering countries of origin, quality and also the brand. This study made an attempt to
find factors that affect consumers buying behavior with the main focus on commonly used
product soaps. Variables like packaging, cost, availability, ingredients, popularity, brand
value, fragrance, moisturizing feature etc were surveyed that influence the choice of a brand
among those in the consideration list. This research helps to put into practice the theoretical
aspects of the study and to create various marketing programs to reach the expectations of
customers.
Key words: soaps, customers, factors, buying behavior

*Assistant Professor, VIT Business School, VIT University, Vellore

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Management and Social Sciences

ISSN: 2278-6236

INTRODUCTION
Consumer is person with unfulfilled needs and wants. This is the reason for a business firm
to come into progress aggressively. To fulfill these consumer needs an organization is set up.
The most challenging questions for marketers are who are the customers? Why should they
buy our products and not that of the competitors? How do they perceive our product? Are
they satisfied? Such knowledge is critical for marketers, to have a strong understanding of
buyers behavior which sheds light on what is important for the consumer and also suggests
the important influences on decision making of consumer. Factors like influence on
consumer from family, friends and society occur in general. Consumers buying behavior
result from deeply held values and attitudes, their place in world from common sense, from
impulse or just plain take, personal factors such as age, stages of lifecycle, profession,
economic situation and education and also some psychological factors like perception,
motivation, learning, beliefs , behaviour and personality of the consumer.
Consumers decision process begins when he/she realizes his/her needs, wants or desires.
They will next undertake search for information on possible solutions. It may lead to a set of
options from which a choice can be made. The purchase decisions can then be made based
on the possibilities like from whom to buy, when to buy, and also not to buy. If the product
performs below the expectations then consumer reevaluates which at its extreme may
result in consumer returning the product. If the consumer is satisfied with the products
performance he/she may purchase it repeatedly.

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

To find out the buying attitudes, needs, tastes and priorities of consumers towards
the soaps

To find out which price slots are preferable.

To analyze competitors activities.

To find out the factors for selling soaps in consumer market.

To study the cross cultural behavior of the consumers.

To find out the extent of impact of media on buyers decision.

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International Journal of Advanced Research in

Management and Social Sciences

ISSN: 2278-6236

REVIEW OF LITERATURE
In order to offer an effective service, it is important to identify the segments of consumer ,
and taking into the account of the benefits which is the consumer seeks. The Consumers
seek is benefits or the solutions, but not the products (Rowley, 1997). Faber and OGuinn T C
(1992) reported a seven-items scale and assessed its reliability and validity. An earlier
version of this scale used a subset of three items (Faber and OGuinn, 1989b) while, Faber
and OGuinn (1989a) used a superset of 15 items for operational compulsivity. The second
approach is mainly used a nine-item scale(Youn and Faber, 2000) , which is developed
earlier by Rook and Fisher (1995). Thus compulsive buying is a very important aspect in
consumers behavior research. It has been defined as chronic, repetitive purchasing, that
becomes a primary response to negative events or feeling (Faber and OGuinn, 1992).
Previous studies in this area have highlighted the fact that compulsive buyers tend to have
self-esteem in lower level, and a higher level of tendency to fantasize, higher level of
depression anxiety, and obsession, as compared to other consumers .
Consumers purchasing decisions are normally based on their own perception and
representations of quality and safety. However, quality and safety are the concepts that
cannot be easily defined. (i.e., product attributes that cannot be verified by the consumer).
Consumers are most likely to derive quality or safety perceptions from other product cues,
either intrinsic (e.g., appearance of the product) or extrinsic cues (e.g., a quality label)
(Nelson, 1970).
Consumer behavior is also affected by the socioeconomic conditions of the markets namely,
income, mobility, media access (Tse et al., 1989). It has been observed that per capita
income and disposable income indicates the amount of resources consumers allocate to
consumer goods (Johansson and Moinpour, 1977). As more resources become available in
future, consumers may desire the more emotional image attributes in the products or brand
(Kim et al., 2002). Personal values have been found to be the underlying determinants of
various aspects of consumer attitude and behavior (Homer and Kahle, 1988). Thus, values
are one of the most important influential factors that affect the type of needs consumer
tries to satisfy through purchase and consumption behaviors (Tse et al., 1989).
Brand of a particular product plays a fundamental function in consumers perception of a
product. In situations when consumers are unable to defer the product choice decision, they
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International Journal of Advanced Research in

Management and Social Sciences

ISSN: 2278-6236

may have the experience of overload and anxiety at worst or develop simplifying decision
heuristics to help them to make the product choices (Swait and Adamowicz, 2001) at best.
Observing the purchase behavior of unknown or known consumers (Park and Lessig, 1977) is
one such readily apparent heuristic which will helps to simplifying the consumers decisionmaking process by providing information. (Park and Lessig, 1977). They have explained that
consumers are influenced by others mainly because of three reasonsinformational,
utilitarian and expressiveness of value . The consumer accept the source of information
only,if it enhances his/her knowledge of the environment or ability to cope up with some
aspects of this environment (Park and Lessig, 1977) e.g., purchasing of product . The
consumers is tend to observe the purchase behavior of other consumers and to incorporate
these observations while making their own decisions in purchasing, is called consumers
propensity,which is to observe. It consists direct observation of other consumers, and the
indirect observation of other consumers or both types. Direct observation is watching the
actual purchase behavior of other consumers (Price et al., 1989; and McGrath and Otnes,
1995) and indirect observation involves the analysis of trace evidence of shopping behavior.
An organization which embraces the marketing concept tries to provide products that
satisfy consumer needs through co-ordinated sets of activities that also allow the
organization to achieve its goals.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The investigation used both qualitative and quantitative research methods. The study with
207 respondents aimed at identifying the important factors that influence the buying
behavior of product soap.
The main research instrument used was a well structured questionnaire. The respondents
belong to age group of 18 to 23 years from different backgrounds. A total of 13 statements
regarding selection of a product based on various factors were rated by respondents
according to scale rated with range 1 to 10. The questionnaire also included about the
influence of popularity and availability on the purchasing decisions. Some of the
respondents were also interviewed in order to have an in-depth analysis and find out the
main reasons behind their preferences.

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International Journal of Advanced Research in

Management and Social Sciences

ISSN: 2278-6236

RESEARCH FINDINGS AND RESULTS:

Education level

10th pass

0%

12th pass

12%

graduate

73%

Post graduate

12%

phd

2%

What is your preffered size of soap?

50g

15%

100g

52%

150g

33%

Did you buy the soap on the basis of any discount offering coming
on soap?
yes

24%

no

76%

Do you purchase in bulk or single?

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bulk

73%

single

27%

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International Journal of Advanced Research in

Management and Social Sciences

ISSN: 2278-6236

If more discounts are given would you purchase soap in bulk or not?

Yes

70%

no

30%

Do you use liquid wash?

Yes

49%

no

51%

Yes

26%

no

74%

Do you share the soap with others like friends and families?

Factors (rated out of

10)
Completely reliable for
skin
No side effects
Medicated value
Freshness
Lather giving property
Fragrance
Readily availability
Popularity
Medical prescription
Moisturizer attribute
Effective for skin and
blemishes
Recommendations
Completely natural

10

6%

0%

6%

0%

2%

12%

6%

10%

18%

39%

10%
11%
6%
2%
4%
4%
2%
12%
6%
6%

2%
2%
2%
2%
2%
2%
2%
6%
4%
2%

0%
4%
2%
2%
0%
2%
4%
2%
0%
4%

2%
5%
2%
2%
2%
1%
0%
3%
0%
6%

0%
4%
0%
6%
4%
0%
1%
6%
1%
4%

2%
4%
2%
2%
6%
5%
3%
4%
3%
0%

13%
6%
6%
19%
6%
17%
15%
7%
12%
6%

15%
15%
19%
15%
22%
13%
15%
20%
27%
17%

25%
21%
21%
25%
27%
25%
38%
16%
29%
23%

31%
28%
38%
25%
27%
31%
21%
22%
18%
31%

2%
2%

4%
2%

2%
6%

4%
2%

2%
4%

8%
2%

15%
17%

23%
17%

23%
19%

17%
29%

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International Journal of Advanced Research in

Management and Social Sciences

Factors regarding wrapper (rated out of 5)

Color
Design
Paper quality
Information content

5
17%
13%
29%
17%

ISSN: 2278-6236
4
44%
47%
33%
19%

3
21%
11%
21%
9%

2
8%
17%
6%
0%

1
10%
13%
10%
6%

RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSIONS:

It can be concluded from the study that among various reported common factors which
influence a consumers mind like ingredients, cost, availability of the product, attractive
packaging, fragrance and its popularityin the market, etc., but there are few significantly
more critical problems like composition of the product, attractive packaging and the overall
look of the product. The packaging of soap seems to play a critical and significant role in
attracting customers. Also, various kinds of schemes and offers available with soaps like,
buy one get one free, or any additional products given with the soap, also influence the
customers in buying a particular soap brand. Seasonal availability of popular soap brand
combines three variables seasonal change, availability and products popularity. It has been
found in our research that consumers are more inclined towards buying popular brands.
Seasonal change is an important factor when an individual buys soap. In winters people
usually prefer soap with moisturizers while in summer they look for mild soaps. Availability
of soap is also an important factor in analyzing consumers buying behavior. We assume
that these factors may be the secondary determinant factors which may influence the
choice of a brand from among those in the consideration list in consumers mind, but may
not be the most important and primary determinants for shortlisting the brands. And it can
also be suggested that the media publicity, especially in the electronic media, which plays a
significant role in influencing the consumers mind.

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Management and Social Sciences

ISSN: 2278-6236

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