Journal of Information and Computational Science ISSN: 1548-7741

CONSUMER BUYING BEHAVIOUR OF DURABLE GOODS WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO TRICHY AROKIARAJ K.A. Research Scholar, Department of Management, Meenakshi Ramasamy Arts and Science College, Thathanur (Affiliated to Bharathidasan University - Tiruchirappalli), Ariyalur (D.T.) - 621804.

Dr.S.SEKAR Principal, Research Supervisor, Meenakshi Ramasamy Arts and Science College, Thathanur, Ariyalur (D.T.) - 621804.

ABSTRACT ‟s consumer market is riding the crest of the country‟s economic boom. Driven by a young population with access to disposable incomes and easy finance options, the consumer market has been throwing up staggering figures. Marketing problem enhancing from the consumers‟ behaviour has a greater degree of similarity behavioral problems relating to the consumer durables. Consumer durable goods refer to various devices used in a household kitchen to reduce manual human labour content and to remove the drudgery in working place and to make household activities speedy, tidy and enjoyable. There is, in the present day, a large number and a variety of such household appliances like Air conditioners, Refrigerator, , Washing machine and, Wet Grinder. The main objectives of the study are to identify the influencing factors while purchasing durable goods. The durable goods taken for the study are refrigerators, washing machine and television. The study concluded that brand name, price and quality are the important factors which are considered while purchasing durable goods. Keywords: Consumer, Buying Behaviour, Durable Goods.

INTRODUCTION India is the second largest consumer market in the world. The Indian consumer profile has been developed and changed in terms of education, income, occupation, and reference group and media habits. There is a shift in consumer brand preference for durables products for the past decade with the influx of modern technology. The consumer buying preferences are rapidly changing and moving towards high-end technology products with acculturation. Products which were once considered luxury items have become a necessity because of the changing lifestyle and rising income levels. With growth in disposable incomes, the demand for high-end products such as television, washing machine, refrigerator, and air conditioners has increased considerably. It is also facilitated by the easy availability of finance and

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prevalence of nuclear families. Increasing in demand for consumer durable in the market the fall in prices as Indian consumers are continue to attach a high degree of importance to value for money. The consumer is brand-conscious, but not necessarily brand-loyal, and might even pick up a reliable private label if it offers good price and quality values.

CONSUMER BUYING BEHAVIOR The consumer buying behaviour can be defined as the way in which consumers or buyers of goods and services tend to react or behave when purchasing products that they like. Buyers tend to exhibit different types of buying behaviour when they are in the process of purchasing goods and services and the behaviours witnessed are influenced by the type of product he/she wants to buy. Consumer buying behaviour involves a long process where the buyer has to identify the product, study well its features, the pros and the cons and lastly deciding on whether to purchase it or not. Consumer buying behaviour would make a certain buyer to purchase product A as opposed to product B or whether to purchase a certain product or leave it alone and all that is as a result of the buying decisions made by the buyer as to whether the product suits his/her needs and requirements. The Consumers of goods and services may possess different types of consumer buying behaviour that are unique to themselves. The buying behaviour of consumer A may be different from those of consumer B and the difference may vary buying decision made by a consumer. To understand more on this let us give a definition to each of the different types of consumer buying behaviour that are associated with different buyers and consumers of products. Indian consumer durable market is well known by the foreign firms who coverage foreign products and technology as per preference of Indian consumer.

OVERVIEW OF CONSUMER DURABLE GOODS INDUSTRY IN INDIA India‟s consumer durables industry is valued at $9.7 billion as of 2015. This sector is expected to grow to $20.6 billion by 2020 and become the fifth largest in the world by 2025. The consumer durables industry can be categorized into two segments:  (brown goods) – such as , laptops, cameras, computers, and audio systems  Consumer appliances (white goods) –washing machines, kitchen appliances, microwave ovens, cleaning equipment, air conditioners, and fans

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About two-thirds of India‟s consumer durables are currently sold in urban markets. The most popular consumer electronics are colour television sets. Electric fans and air conditioners are popular due to India‟s hot climate. Other top consumer durables include refrigerators and washing machines. The majority of consumer durables production occurs in Delhi and Uttarakhand in the north, West Bengal in the east, Tamil Nadu in the south, and and Gujarat in the west. India‟s consumer durables exports include refrigerators and refrigerating equipment compressors, colour TVs, air conditioner parts and compressors, and fully automatic washing machines. The U.A.E. is a major export location. The majority of white goods are exported to the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) nations, countries which border India. Some top domestic companies in India and their products include: – central air conditioners, room air conditioners, commercial refrigerators, cold storages, and specialty cooling products such as process chillers and mortuary chambers Godrej Group – refrigerators, air conditioners, washing machines, DVD players, microwave ovens, audio-visual products, and digital-imaging products Onida Electronics – televisions, washing machines, air conditioners, microwave ovens, and mobile phones Videocon Industries Limited – televisions, DVD players, microwave ovens, refrigerators, washing machines, air conditioners, and power backup

Top foreign companies active in India‟s consumer durables sector include: Whirlpool Corporation (U.S.) – home appliances such as refrigerators, washing machines, microwave ovens, water purifiers, and power backup LG Electronics (South Korea) – televisions, audio-visual solutions, computers, mobile phones, refrigerators, washing machines, microwave ovens, air conditioners, and vacuum cleaners Group (South Korea) – mobile phones, digital cameras, camcorders, refrigerators, air conditioners, washing machines, and computers Daikin Industries, Ltd. (Japan) – air conditioners and cooling equipment Sony Corporation (Japan) – televisions, projectors, DVD players, audio systems, digital cameras, camcorders, and videogame products Philips N.V. (Netherlands) – televisions, home theater systems, DVD players, audio products, computers, and phones

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REVIEW OF LITERATURE P.Sathya, Dr.R.Indirajith (2018), the main aim of the study is TO analyse the purchase behaviour and satisfaction of the rural and urban consumer durable goods. The study indicates the level of importance attached to the various quality characteristics of the product by the different segments of consumers, who differ in economic, educational, emotional and other characteristics. The demographic variables of the consumers are not deeply associated to their attribute awareness of the product. Brand loyalty is not sufficiently found among the consumers durable goods. They expect good satisfaction from the brand they purchase. Dr. K. Veerakumar (2017), the study of consumer behavior is an attempt to understand what the consumer want, why they want. Consumer behavior reflects the totality of consumer‟s decisions with respect to acquisition, consumption and disposition of goods, services, time and idea by human decision making. It also includes whether, why, when, where, how, how much and how often and how long consumer will use or dispose of an offering.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM The study of behavioral aspect of consumers is great importance for marketers and this knowledge is applied to find out the consumers wants and needs. The study of consumer behavior helps every common man in all its practical sense. In a competitive environment one cannot thrust a product on the consumers. It is essential for marketers to understand consumers for their own survival and success in competitive marketing environments. The reason for studying consumer behaviour is to find out the role it plays in the lives of many consuming public at large and that as the institutions involved in the production and marketing of different types of consumable articles, equipment, goods and services in general. But for such studies it would be difficult to ascertain the exact needs of consumers.

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY 1. To know the demographic profile of the respondents 2. To analyse the factors that influence in purchase decision of durable goods.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY The study is based on both primary and secondary data. The researcher used convenience sampling method. To make the samples representative, as far as possible, various steps have been taken into consideration. 100 respondents have been selected from Trichy. Three

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consumer durable products have been selected i.e. Refrigerators, Washing machines and Television for this study. The collected data have been analyzed by using simple percentage and Friedman‟s rank analysis.

ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION The socio- economic profile of the Customers has been presented in the following Table no.1 TABLE NO: 1 SOCIO- ECONOMIC PROFILE OF THE SAMPLE RESPONDENTS S.No Particulars No. of Percent respondents 1 Age Upto 30 yrs 22 22 31-40 yrs 43 43 Above 40 yrs 35 35 2. Gender Male 73 73 Female 27 27 3. Marital status Married 65 65 Unmarried 35 35 4. Educational qualification HSC 15 15 UG 54 54 PG 21 21 Others 10 10 5. Occupation House wife 15 15 Agriculture 25 25 Business 27 27 Salaried 33 33

6 No. of members in the family Upto 4 71 73 Above 4 29 27 7. No. of children 1 child 59 59 2 children 25 25 3 children 16 16 8. Monthly income of family Below 20,000 45 45 20,001-30,000 38 38 Above 30,000 17 17 Source: Primary Data From the above table it is identified that most of the respondents that is 43 per cent of them are between 31-40 years of age. Majority 73 per cent of the respondents are male. Majority 65 per cent of them are married. 54 per cent of the respondents educational qualification is under graduate.33 per cent of the respondents are salaried. Majority 71 per cent of the respondents have up to 4 members in their family. 59 per cent of the respondents have 1 child. 48 per cent of the respondent‟s monthly income is below Rs.20000.

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TABLE NO.2 SOURCES OF INFORMATION ABOUT DURABLE GOODS S.no Particulars No. of Percentage respondents 1 Internet 21 21 2 Colleagues 08 08 3 Magazines/newspapers 04 04 4 Friends and relatives 15 15 5 Sales representatives/dealers 10 10 6 Wall paintings 07 07 7 TV Advertisements 35 35 Source: Primary data It is identified that 35 per cent of the respondents came to know about durable goods through television advertisements and followed by internet and so on. TABLE NO.3 FACTORS INFLUENCING BUYING BEHAVIOUR OF DURABLE GOODS S.No Factors Refrigerator Washing machine Television Mean Rank Mean Rank Mean Rank Score Score Score 1 Price 5.98 iii 6.01 ii 5.32 i 2 Brand name 6.24 i 5.62 v 5.23 ii 3 Quality 5.75 iv 6.21 i 5.11 iii 4 Colour/Design 6.12 ii 5.88 iii 4.33 ix 5 Availability of 5.42 v 5.73 iv 5.07 iv spare parts 6 Guarantee 5.10 vi 5.11 viii 4.97 v 7 Discount 4.52 viii 5.47 vi 4.50 viii 8 After Sales Service 4.93 vii 4.95 ix 4.88 vi 9 Credit facilities 4.13 ix 5.31 vii 4.72 vii Source: Primary data From the above table it is identified that brand name is the most influencing factor in purchasing refrigerator followed by colour/design and price. Quality is ranked first followed by price and colour/design in purchase of washing machine. Price is the most influencing factor while purchasing television. Followed by brand name and performance are the influencing factors in purchase of television.

SUGGESTIONS The following suggestions are made on the basis of the study under various heads.  A manufacturer may prudently aim at capturing all the income groups of consumers.  Interest free credit methods would help to increase the sales of the manufacturers.

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 Service during warranty period is mostly availed by the consumers and if done properly they are satisfied. But some of them have not availed the facility. Hence, door service may be tried for those who want it.  Quality and brand name are two important factors, which are considered purchasing durable goods. Hence, companies have to provide quality products and they have tried to build brand name.  The manufacturer may start authorized offer sales and service centres‟ for all brands.  Product improvement is very important in consumer„durable goods. If the firm continuous to make the product, it may be required to the improvement in its production or distribution so as to yield adequate returns.  Product presentation need to present based on age as youngsters do not want to have risk after purchase. Elders want to have social status because of the product.

CONCLUSION Consumer durable market analysis it can be concluded that this sector has huge potentialities to grow in near future in India. Further, the present government‟s initiative “Make in India‟ could act as a greatest opportunity to this sector. Purchase is to fully pay for a good or service to that good being delivered or service being performed. To fulfill this usage; however, the connotation of the word has started to shift to indicate a purchaser that is not creditworthy. The study indentified that brand name, price and quality are the important factors which are considered while purchasing durable goods.

REFERENCE 1. P.Sathya , Dr.R.Indirajith(2018), A Study on Purchase Behavior of Consumer Durable Goods with Special Reference to Tiruvarur District, International Journal of Scientific Research and Management (IJSRM) Volume06, Issue 02, Pages 100-107. 2. Dr. K. Veerakumar(2017), Consumer Behavior And Factors Influencing Purchase Decision Of Durable Goods, International Journal of Computational Research and Development (IJCRD) , Volume 2, Issue 2, PP. 07-10. 3. Feng Zhu, “Impact of Consumer Reviews on Sales: The Moderating Role of Product and Consumer Characteristics”, Journal of Marketing, Vol.74, No.2, March 2010, pp.133-148. 4. Guilherme Liberaliand Thomas, S. Gruca, “The Effects of Sensitization and Habituation in Durable Goods Markets”, European Journal of Operational Research, 212 (2011), pp.398- 410.

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5. Harish R., “Emerging Trend in the Marketing of Two Wheeler in India”, The Icfai Journal of Marketing Management, Vol.VI, No.2, 2007, pp.23-32. 6. Elif Akagün Ergin, “Compulsive Buying Behaviour Tendencies: the Case of Turkish Consumers”, African Journal of Business Management, March 2010, Vol.4 (3), pp.333-338. 7. Christoph Fuchs and Emanuela Prandelli, “The Psychological Effects of Empowerment Strategies on Consumer‟s Product Demand”, Journal of Marketing, Vol.74, No.1, January 2010, pp.65- 79.

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