Consumer Preferences of Global Brands Instead of Local One

7/24/2019 Consumer Preferences of Global Brands Instead of Local One

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This study was conducted in order to determine the consumer

preferences of global brands instead of local ones. It is also

designed to nd out the buying behavior patterns of youngPakistani consumers Consumer evaluates products based on

information cues, which are intrinsic and extrinsic. number of

factors a!ect the consumer purchase decisions. The results

suggest that most important factors that in"uence a consumer#s

nal decision are the price and $uality of the product in $uestion.

%ince the consumers usually associate the price of the brand with

its $uality, a brand priced too low is generally perceived as a low

$uality product. %imilarly, a product priced too high may not be

a!ordable by many.

&ther factors that have an impact on the consumer preferences

are' consumer ethnocentrism, country of origin, social status,

price relativity with the competing brands and family and friends.

The research was conducted in (arachi and the samples selected

included )** people of age +-). The data collected for the

research was through a $uestionnaire and was conducted in two

popular shopping malls of the city and two universities since thetarget audience was largely the youth. Calculations were then

analy/ed and interpreted using a percentage of respondents and

through fre$uency distribution tables and charts.

0lobali/ation is an inevitable phenomenon that is leading the

entire world towards becoming one market, a global village. 1ot

only has the process of globali/ation aided immensely in theexchange of goods and services, information and knowledge

through the reductions in international barriers, but it has also led

the world into becoming a real single universal community

comprising of people from di!erent cultures, thus resulting in the

shrinkage of the world. 2ith the world becoming a single market,


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globali/ation has had a ma3or contribution in enabling the

organi/ations worldwide to step out of the restricted domestic

markets and to set up their operations across the globe with

condence. This has largely led to a decline in the importance in

national borders and a greater emphasis on what the consumersactually demand4 be the consumers located in the very country in

which the organi/ation exists or an entirely di!erent part of the

world. 5oreover, with the rapid increase in global competition,

companies that strictly adhere to and cater to the needs of the

local markets are nding themselves at a disadvantage and

gradually loosing the competitive advantage that they so much

strived to achieve. 6owever, for some products and services 7the

tastes and preferences of consumers in di!erent nations arebeginning to converge on some global norm7 86olt )**)9.

:rom a consumer perspective, however, reactions to the

prevalence of global brands seem to vary among the di!erent

customers. &n the one hand, consumers seem to value and

admire global brands and regard such brands as a status symbol.

&n the other hand, global brands are often critici/ed for

threatening the local di!erences and imposing the western

cultures on our society, leading to a loss of cultural identity.


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Purpose of the study:

This study is aimed at determining consumer preference of the

youth of international brands instead of national or local brands inPakistan. There are various factors which in"uence consumer

purchase decision. %uch as Country of origin, price of the brand

fashion, family and friends, brand name, availability, advertising

campaigns, consumers# ethnocentrism etc. The study is also

designed to nd out the buying behaviour patterns of the young

Pakistani consumers, attitudes towards global and local brands

and the preference for foreign brands.

Consumer and his behavior is the cornerstone of success in

marketing. It includes all the physical, mental and emotional

processes and concerned behavior which are observable before,

during and after each and every purchase of goods and services.

This make us compelling to understand, observe, record and react

to such behavior, in case we want to have win-win strategy that

matter for marketer and the customer both. The research report

presented is based on the Consumer Perception towards ;randed

0arments. Through this study an attempt has been made topractically understand those emotional or rational appeals, which

drive the purchase decision toward the branded garments. lso

certain demographic and psychographic proles have been

studied and certain relation has been developed.


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5odern era provides high $uality materials and lot of variety in

Indian garment market to satisfy the desire of customers. The

customers are utili/ing the opportunity too. The results conrm

that Indian people have become highly brand conscious presently.

6ence, brand image is a not a signicant factor in choosing theproduct or brand to buy. There are other aspects like, $uality,

comfort, expectations and demographic characteristics are also

in"uence to the purchasing decision that dominate the purchase

decision of males and females. The gender di!erences do exist

with respect to build attitude towards fashionable apparels and

brands. The study gives us the information males are e$ually

interested to go for shopping as females along with they spend

excess money during shopping than their female counterparts.:re$uency of males going for shopping with their companions has

increased over times and has reached almost at par with that of

females. ttitude of males towards clothing varies from that of

females.


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Literature review

;rands have been constantly reviewed and redened in the

marketing literature and there are numerous denitions for

')9 is ?a name, term,

sign, symbol, or design, or a combination of them, intended to

identify the goods and services of one seller or group of sellers

and di!erentiate them from those of competitors.@ :or

consumers, when deciding between brands which are in the

marketplace will include brands as an element to determine the

$ualities of the product rather than employing their time to

enhance their knowledge of the product in information searching

activities. Therefore, consumers use brands as cues to make

decisions to purchase or try products 80er et al., +==A9.

5ost of the people have shown their consent that they usually

wear or are neutral regarding the wearing of branded clothes to

impress people. B people are saying that they usually prefer or

are neutral towards the price of branded clothes i,e high price is

not an issue for them. 5ost of the people show their consent that


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they wear branded clothes to look attractive. It can be revealed

that people wear branded clothes to look attractive and to

impress people. Price of branded clothes is not a big issue for

people. People prefer branded clothes over non-branded

regardless of high price.

Quality

Perceived $uality is dened as the consumers# 3udgment about an

entity#s 8service#s9 overall excellence or superiority 8Deithaml,

+=>> and Eowley, +==>9. Eesearch also indicates that consumersvalue global brands especially for their assumed high $uality and

prestigious image 8e.g., 1guyen, ;arrett and 5iller )**B4

%teenkamp, ;atra and lden )**A9. n internationally well-

established brand name can act as a 7halo7 constructs that

e!ects $uality beliefs 86an +=>=9. If a brand is perceived as

globally available, consumers are likely to attribute a superior

$uality to the brand, since such $uality is thought of as a

prere$uisite for international acceptance.

5ost of the people say that they buy well-known branded clothes,

they feel di!erent when they wear di!erent clothes, they have

much knowledge regarding branded clothes, they buy branded

clothes because they provide them more value and they buy

them because of their good $uality. :rom this factor we conclude


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that people buy branded clothes because they provide more value

for money and because of their good $uality. (nowledge

regarding the brands is also good.

5ost of the people show their consent that they give muchimportance to wear fashionable clothes, they are excited to buy

new clothes and that they buy clothes because they get bored by

wearing the same type of clothes. :rom this factor we conclude

that wearing the same type of clothes makes them bored. They

like to wear new and fashionable clothes.

Country of origin

The country of origin e!ect has been dened as ?the positive and

negative in"uence that a product#s country of manufacture may

have on consumers# decision making processes or subse$uent

behavior 8Flliott and Cameron, +==9. +==+9. Infact in the words of

1agashima 8+=G*9, C&F can be dened as ?the picture, the

reputation, and the stereotype that businessmen and consumers

attach to products or brands of a specic country. This image is

created by such variables as representative products, national

characteristics, economic and political background, history, and

traditions@. The literature on country-of-origin e!ects is $uite rich

and covers the topic from di!erent perspectives in di!erent

countries. %ome studies have shown that country of origin also


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has symbolic and emotional meaning to consumes, and it plays

an important role along with other attributes such as $uality and

reliability in shaping consumers attitudes toward products.

5oreover, attitudes and perceptions of consumers toward brands

and products will depend on categories, for instance, electronicgoods from Italy may be perceived as a poor $uality but Italian

clothing would be perceive as fashionable and high $uality 8;ikey

and 1es, +=>)9. This would be di!erently perceived with Hapanese

brands as Hapanese electronic goods would be perceive with

positive attitudes and Hapanese clothing will be negatively

perceived.

5ost of the people have shown that the brand ambassador

doesn#t in"uence their decision so much, that they usually get

recogni/ed because of branded clothes and it gives them more

comfort to wear branded clothes. :rom this factor we conclude

that they wear branded clothes because of comfort and

recognition that they give. Promotion of the brand by a well-

known personality hardly a!ects their decision.

Price

Eesearchers found out that once consumers perceive a price

di!erence between local-owned and foreignowned brands, price

dissimilarities begin to a!ect their preference for local-owned

brands. Therefore, since price is also one of the most importantextrinsic cues that consumers use when evaluating the

productbrand 86ansen, )**B9, we test the impact of price against

consumer#s ethnocentric tendencies to determine at what point

consumers are willing to forsake preference for local products for

a greater price discount with foreignowned products.


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People are less loyal towards the branded clothes. People get

in"uenced by price o!ers, design and style of products to change

the brand. :rom this factor we conclude that price, design and

style change the loyalty of people towards a particular brand.

Social status

BB uthors have stressed that consumers may prefer global

brands because of associations of higher prestige 8%chuiling J

(apferer, )**4 %hocker, %rivastava, J Eueckert, +==4

%teenkamp, et. al., )**A9. 0lobal brands may have a higher

prestige than local brands due to their relative scarcity and higher

price. :urthermore, global brands may also stand for

cosmopolitanism. %ome consumers prefer global brands because

they enhance their selmage as being cosmopolitan,

sophisticated, and modern. Conversely, according to 0er 8+===9,

local brands tend to be targeted and positioned based on a deep


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cultural understanding and therefore create ?a sustainable uni$ue

value and o!er the symbolism of authenticity and prestige@. %till,

consumers have been found to have no intrinsic preference for

global brands 8Ke 5ooi3, +==>9.

People get in"uenced by new fashion but not always. They get

in"uenced in the range of neutral to usually. 5ost of the people

usually get in"uenced by friends and family. :rom this factor we

conclude that fashion, family and friends in"uence the choice of

brand.

Friends and family

Eeference groups include groups or people whom one can look up

for guidance and ask for opinion. These are important source ofin"uencing the brand purchases. Eeference group include friends

and family who in"uence ones buying decisions due to special

skills, knowledge, personality. If a friend had a bad experience

with a product, it is more likely that one will refrain from buying it.

6owever many studies found out that, knowledge that consumers


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obtain through direct personal experience will be perceived to be

more trustworthy than information from other communications.

This results in more strongly held beliefs 8%waminathan et al.,

)**+9.

Research Questions

The reasons for consumer preference of global brands over the

local ones.

The product attributes that are mostly considered by consumers

when buying a brand.


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The demographic characteristic of consumers who buy foreign

brands more fre$uently.

Research methodology

This study is a descriptive study and more of a $ualitative nature

and was conducted to identify and analy/e the reasons why

consumers prefer international brands to national brands when

purchasing consumer goods. The sample for this research

included the )** consumers whose ages ranged from +-) years

from (arachi. %imple random sampling was used for this study.

Luestionnaires were used to collect primary data. The$uestionnaire included closed ended $uestions and Mikert scale is

used in most of the $uestions. These $uestionnaires were

distributed to collect data from the students of Institute of

;usiness dministration itself as well as the students of Institute

of ;usiness 5anagement. part from this, we also visited Park

Towers shopping mall and The :orum, the two leading shopping

malls in (arachi, with the aim of collecting data for our research

from the shoppers there. B* $uestionnaires were distributed toeach of the universities and shopping malls in e$ual proportion to

males and females. 2e mainly classied our population according

to gender. :re$uency distribution and bar charts have been used

to evaluate the results. In addition to this, the means of di!erent

factors that in"uence consumers# preferences of the local and

global brands were used to determine which factors are

considered the most by consumers when purchasing di!erent

brands


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FININ!S

People wear branded clothes to look attractive and to

impress people.

Price of branded clothes is not a big issue for people.

People prefer branded clothes over non-branded regardless

of high price.

People buy branded clothes because they provide more

value for money and because of their good $uality.

2earing the same type of clothes makes people bored. Theylike to wear new and fashionable clothes.

People wear branded clothes because of comfort and

recognition that they give.

Promotion of the brand by a well-known personality hardly

a!ects the decision.

People are less loyal towards the branded clothes.

People get in"uenced by price o!ers, design and style of

products to change the brand.

:ashion, family and friends in"uence the choice of brand.

iscussion

Question "


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o you use international #rands products$

B ccording to the data collected, G).B of the people used

international brands of which * were male and >B were females.

+>.B of the people $uestioned claimed to use international

brands occasionally, whereas, =.+ of the people claimed not to

use global brands at all. s indicated in the pie charts

above,+>.B of the people who used the global brands

sometimes included )> males and = females, and those who did

not use the global brands consisted of +) males and females.

Question %


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If an international #rand and a national #rand are priced

same& would you prefer the international #rand$

The purpose of this $uestion was to evaluate and discover howimportant a factor such as price is in determining whether the

consumers would go for the domestic brand or stick to the global

one if both the products were in the same price range. The results

found out that G of the consumers would go for the

international brands whereas ) would still purchase the

domestic ones.

Question '


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Ko you consider where a product is manufactured when

purchasing itN

This $uestion was asked to discover how much importance the

youth lay on the country of origin as a factor when making apurchase. The results revealed far di!erent results compared to

what had been stated by the review of previous researches done.

s indicated in the graph, the youth was found to be mailnly

ignorant of the country in which the brand was manufactured.

5a3ority of the consumers 8G males and >> females9 did not

consider it as signicant a factor as to a!ect his or her purchase

decision.


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Question (

It is said that people buy international products so that they can

be accepted in a particular social group. Ko you agreeN

The results to these two $uestions conrmed the generalperception that exists in our society, that is, the global are

purchased as a status symbol. The youth mainly bought foreign

branded products to be able to t in a particular social group. This

occurs largely because peer pressure tends to be high at this age,

and most of the people nd themselves being victims of inferiority

complexes. The results to the rst of these $uestions indicated

that on average GB of the youth 8G+ males and G= females9

purchased the international and local brands as a status symbol.These results were further enhanced by the results to the next

$uestion, which showed that G) of the males and > of the

females did, infact, believe that the people purchased the

international brands to be able to t in a particular social group.

The table above compares the means of the di!erent factors in

in"uencing consumer preferences of the global brands over the

local ones. The means, expressed in percentages, indicates that

amongst all the factors, the $uality of the branded product wasconsidered the most important factor in shaping the consumers#

purchase decision. The current trends and fashion were found to

be 3ust as important, but the price of the product was not found to

be more important than the prevailing fashion and styles. The

reason why >B of the people decide to buy a particular brand

was mainly because it was re"ective of the ongoing fashion and

there were only B people on average, who did not give

importance to the ongoing fashion when purchasing a product.The results revealed that price was rated as the third most

important factor in in"uencing consumer choice, whereas the

$uality of the product was considered the most signicant,

followed by the current trends and fashion. 5ean number of

people 8 in percentages9 Oes %ometimes 1o Price of the product


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G +.B G.B Country of origin .B +A.B >) Luality of the

product >G.B G.B B %tatus symbol GB +B.B =.B Current

fashion and trends >B +* B :amily and friends .B

+G.BB +> Fthnocentrism * )*.B +=.B Country of origin,

as a factor in in"uencing consumers# choice of the brand washardly a signicant factor, since >) of the people, on, average

claimed that they did not consider which country a product is

manufactured in when making purchase decisions. &nly .B

people, on average, claimed that they do consider the country of

origin when purchasing a brand. The ethnocentrism factor was

considered by * of the people $uestioned. This indicates that

most of the people believed that as a Pakistani we should buy our

local brands rather than giving preference to the global brands,however, this was what they believed to be the ideal scenario. In

practice, our people, especially the females were found to be

extremely prone to the global brands. ccording to our ndings,

G> of the females were not willing to even substitute the global

brand with a domestic if the foreign brand is not available. The

males, however, were not found to be that prone to the foreign

brand. The results also show that status symbol is also perceived

to be a ma3or factor in shaping consumer purchase decisions. Theabove table reveals that GB of the people linked the branded

product with their social status when actually purchasing it. The

table provides a summary and ratings of the factors in"uencing

consumer preferences of the national or international brand.

Documents

Consumer Preferences of Global Brands Instead of Local One