CONSUMER BUYING

BEHAVIOUR TOWARDS
DENIM JEANS

SUBMITTED TO SUBMITTED BY:

Dr. APARNA P GOYAL NAYAN SHANKAR(C-41)
UPASANA SEKHARI (C-13)
 ABSTRACT
This paper aims to study the factor affecting consumer buying behavior of Denims. The research
has been done on the sample size of 40 and the data has been collected from MBA students at
Amity University Uttar Pradesh. The research design used in the paper is descriptive research.
The duration of the study was 1 month. Considering the review of literature different variables
have been identified based on which hypothesis for each variable is constructed. The data
analysis shows that these days Denims are in trend and popular among consumer due to its
durability, comfort and quality. The data analysis also states that brand image and price factor
have less effect then other factors on purchase decision where as the country of origin has no
significance on the buying behavior.

INTRODUCTION
Consumer behavior can be defined as the decision-making process and physical activity involved
in acquiring, evaluating, using and disposing of goods and services. This means it is an behavior
that consumers display in searching for, purchasing, using, evaluating and disposing of products
and services that they expect will satisfy their needs. •Consumer behavior focuses on how
individuals make decisions to spend their available resources (time, money, effort) on
consumption related items. That includes what they buy, why they buy it, when they buy it,
where they buy it, how often they buy it, how often they use it, how they evaluate it after the
purchase, the impact of such evaluations on future purchases and how they dispose of it.

Jeans are a type of trousers, typically made from denim. The symbolic meaning of denim jeans
have evolved since the California gold rush era of the 1850’s. Initially denim jeans were adopted
for utilitarian purposes associated with physical labor and worn predominantly by ranch hands
and farmers. During the Second World War, durable work clothes were needed and denim jeans
were declared “essential commodities” for the national war effort. In the late 1940’s, denim jeans
came to be associated with the youth culture and it began to be used as a fashionable commodity.

Fashion consumption is more than just satisfying one’s physical needs such as warmth and
protection. Consumers often look for multiple attributes and benefits to satisfy their divergent
needs. The selection and evaluation process of denim jeans can be rudimentary and complicated
at the same time. In general, consumers do not merely seek for a monolithic feature of a product
but rather multi-dimensional viewpoint of overall product quality. Consumers more price
conscious and caused a dip in their apparel purchases, their spending is already on the rebound.

Consumers are quickly getting immune to the strategies followed by the companies resulting in
squeeze in margins. And in fashion sector appeals being highly fragment able in nature a denim
brands need to have a differentiable place for it products right from the initial stage. So the four
Ps can be viewed as:
Price:

In case of apparels, especially in Jeans, price is not of big importance. Gone are the times when
companies competed on price. Service is the key today which will shift to focus
on personality in the future. Innovative designs are no longer a competitive advantage.

Promotion:

It is an essential part of the marketing mix as it is a critical tool for creating an impression in the
minds of the consumer. Jeans, to become acceptable by public must first be adopted by a
reference group. Celebrities are the most influential people who can influence public opinion.

Product:

Product not only refers to tangible items but also to intangible attributes such as brand name and
customer service. Earlier it was believed that a good product will sell itself. In today’s
competitive market, there is no such commodity as bad product. So, manufacturers must focus
on creating a product or service that will satisfy the demands of the consumers. The product
characteristics must be defined with functionality, quality, appearance, brand service, support
comfort and quality.

Place:

Apart from price and quality, the place of distribution must also be taken into consideration
while creating a right marketing mix, as the Jeans industry is primarily based on perception.

LITERATURE REVIEW
The literature review is based on six intrinsic cues (quality, style, color, comfort, fit and fabric)
and three extrinsic cues (price, brand name, and country-of-origin) deliberately selected as a
vehicle to discover consumer’s perceptions toward denim jeans.

Comfort:

Many consumers had expressed that comfort and fit were important in judging satisfaction with
apparel products (Zhang et al., 2002). In defining “comfort”, it is evident that physiological and
psychological factors play a significant role. These include a garment‟s thermal effects (e.g.
warmth, breathability); sensory characteristics (e.g. tactile feeling/hand) and mobility (e.g. ease
of movement).

Fit

It can be defined as the conformance of a garment to an individual‟s body type or size.

According to previous research (Zhang et al., 2002), fit attributes were often considered as one of
the most salient evaluative criteria for jeans and pants purchases.
Design

Denim design such as color, style and fabric also play a vital role when judging the quality of
denim jeans. In many cases, the sensorial pleasures (e.g., vision, tactile feel) may drive or
stimulate a consumer’s interest to try on and purchase an apparel product. According to a study
conducted by Fiore and Damhorst (1992), the appearance, hand and weight of fabric were useful
in describing quality. It is evident that fabric plays a significant role on judging the quality of
denim jeans.

Brand name

Brand names can serve as a device to indicate overall quality (Kirmani and Rao, 2000), develop
associations (Escalas and Bettman,2005), and reduce risk and shopping effort (Gardner and
Levy, 1995). However, many studies have indicated that consumers tend to rely on intrinsic cues
such as physical quality and style to guide their judgment.

Country of origin

The effects of country of origin (COO) are not identical across product categories. COO has been
found to be more salient with expensive, sophisticated, and high-end products rather than basic,
“run-of-the-mill” ordinary goods (Rahman et al., 2008b). In addition, COO has even less effect if
consumers are familiar with the product (Han and Terpstra, 1988), or when multiple cues are
being used in a study (Zhang, 1996).

Price

Consumers use price to infer quality, especially when other cues are not available (Olson, 1977).
Other studies also indicate that there is not enough evidence to support the notion of “the higher
the price, the higher the quality” (Szybillo and Jacoby, 1974).

OBJECTIVE
The objective of the report is to understand the consumer buying decision towards denim jeans
and to put some light on the different aspects like

 To identify the factors influencing the consumer buying decision towards denim jeans
(Latent need or trigger need)

 To study the important attributes that a consumer considers before buying Jeans(price,
quality, brand name, sales promotion, design, comfort, durability)

 To understand if the country of origin influences the decision making process

 To assess which brand of jeans are most preferred by customers

 HYPOTHESIS
 H0: factors do not affect the consumer buying behavior in denims.
 Ha: durability factor affects the consumer buying behavior in denims.
 Hb: variety factor affects the consumer buying behavior in denims.
 Hc: design factor affects the consumer buying behavior in denims.
 Hd: price factor affects the consumer buying behavior in denims.
 He: The change in trends affects the consumer buying behavior in denims.
 Hf: comfort factor affects the consumer buying behavior in denims.
 Hg: quality affects the consumer buying behavior in denims.
 Hh: brand name affects the consumer buying behavior in denims.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
This study is explorative and inductive in nature. This qualitative research made use of rich data
that were collected through online survey using Google doc through students of Amity
University and working professional to study the effect of different factors in consumer buying
behavior of denims. The data collected from the response were studied and seen what where the
important factors that significantly affect the buying behavior and the preferred brand in the
trend and if country of origin do have its effect.

Sampling technique

Sample is the segment of selected population for investigation and is a convenient way of
generalization of population. (Ghauri & Gronhaug, 2010).due to financial and time constraint it’s
not feasible to collect the response of whole population so we take a sample of population who
represent the whole population and form the result on it. It is a qualitative sampling in which we
use convenience sampling technique in which members of the selected population are
homogeneous which is chosen on the basis of approachability and convenience to the researcher.
(N.Ross, 2005).

Data collection

For data collection a questionnaire was developed to record the response of the respondent so as
to get the primary data. It is a method of data collection using a questionnaire in which each
person is asked the same set of questions in the same order by the researcher. (Saunders &
Lewis, 2012).it is a beneficial way of collecting data as it is economic, accessible to many in less
time duration and doesn’t consume time in data entry.
Validity

To assure the validity and reliability of the survey questions, the questionnaire was pre-tested
with 5 persons. This helped refine the questionnaire, which otherwise would have been
underestimated and resulted with irrational findings and conclusion. It was necessary to refine
the questionnaires before it was sent to public to gain quality data and to confirm that the
research findings profess to research objectives.

It was presumed that some respondent will say no to the question of wearing denim but they can
still continue filling the questionnaire which contributes in analyzing durability, country of origin
and brand preferences, and important factors considered while opting for denim.

DATA ANALYSIS
The aim is to interpret the primary data collected through the survey and analyze the result
according to the theory and summarize the findings according to the objective.

The pies chart shows that denim is not only common in men but also have a significant level of
liking among women.
A large part of consumer population prefers to buy denims once every three months so I can be
said that denim enjoys a huge liking among the consumers.

With 62.5% of respondents opting for Levis truly justifies it as the brand in trend where as brand
like Mufti and Only do need to change their marketing strategy to make their space in the
consumer preference.
With 37.5% it can be seen that brand name and other things like being in trend,style statement
and etc drive more in creating buying needs compared to sales and promotion activity where as
brand endorsement and advertisement are the lest significant contributors.

rate these factors according to priority given while

buying a denim? [variants]
25
20
15
10 response
5
0
very high high neutral low very low

The above two factors clearly states that consumer do give a high priority to the variation in the
product which approves the hypothesis that variation do effect the buying behavior in case of
denims.
 durability variation
very high high neutral low very low very high high neutral low very low

0% 0% 0% 0%

13%
28% 30%
45%

42%

42%

design price
very high high neutral low very low very high high neutral low very low

0% 0% 0%
5%
15%
25%
39%
38%

46% 32%
 comfort trend
very high high neutral low very low very high high neutral low very low

0% 3% 3% 0%

10%
20%
35%

25%
62%
42%

quality brand name

very high high neutral low very low very high high neutral low very low

0% 0% 0% 0%

20% 15%
30%

23% 57%

55%

With the above graphs formed from the response of the sample population it can be seen that
factors like durability, quality and comfort are given top priority while making a purchase
decision and meanwhile factor like variation, design, price, trend, brand name are given a
significant amount of priority. Thus it can be concluded that the above stated factor do have a
significant impact on the consumer buying behavior in denims.
The above pie chart clearly show that country of origin doesn’t impact the consumer buying
behavior and people prefer brand, quality and etc over country of origin.
A significant part of population prefer brand suggested by the family or friends and prefer to
shop in malls more as the get to have a variety and competition in price and quality which
benefits them.

CONCLUSION
The main purpose of this study was to study the factors influencing the consumer buying
decision towards denim jeans, the attributes that affects the consumer buying decision and if the
country of origin does effect the purchase decision.

From the data it can be seen that the majority of the population belong to the age group of 18-28
and are students. Majority of the population are frequent buyers of denims which shows that
there is a good demand of denim in market and they give top priority to durability, quality and
comfort while buying over other factors like price, brand name and etc. The data also supports
that people don’t consider the country of origin of brand while purchasing denim and Levis is the
brand preferred the most now days.

Limitations

 Sample size is too small.

 There is financial constraint.
 Authentication of result is too hard

SCOPE FOR FUTHER STUDY

In terms of future threads of investigation, it would be interesting to cross the gender variable
with age, income level, professional occupation and also to expand the same study to more than a
country.

REFERENCE

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