International Journal of Sales & Marketing Management Research and Development (IJSMMRD) ISSN 2249-6939 Vol.

3, Issue 2 Jun 2013, 47-54 TJPRC Pvt. Ltd. TJPRC Pvt. Ltd.,

CONSUMER BUYING BEHAVIOUR IN RELATION TO CONSUMPTION OF TEA A STUDY OF PUNE CITY

TJPRC Pvt. Ltd.,

MUNMUN GHOSH1 & ARINDAM GHOSH2

1

Assistant Professor, Indira School of Business Studies, Pune, India

2

Assistant Professor, MIT- COE, Pune, India

ABSTRACT
Tea is a part and parcel of Indian social, economic and cultural life. Indians cannot think of a day without their favorite cup of tea. It is the most popular non-intoxicating beverage in the world enjoyed by the rich and poor alike. Being most popular consumed beverage, in many cultures tea is consumed at elevated social events. But regardless of its wide consumption consumer behavioral pattern changes from time and this behavior change is influenced by many factors like popularity of a brand, loyalty, aroma, colour, price and many more. The present paper focuses on issues that influence the behavior of various tea consumers. Samples were gathered across Pune city of state Maharashtra to understand and pacify the actual need and behaviour of the consumer towards tea. Firstly the attributes were analyzed with Chi-square test of independence (2) to validate the relation of the attributes with the consumer tea consuming behaviour. Further to find out the most suitable attribute that dominates the decision making of the consumer while selecting particular tea brand parametric method of estimation is used to study the trend analysis using SPSS considering different brands and the attributes that affects the purchase of the brands. Model is primed for studying the predictive ability of the attributes like popularity, loyalty, colour and price. Thus the analysis establishes a strong platform where we can validate association of consumer behaviour with consumption pattern undergoing diverse statistical test and focus on the area and aspects of different behavior of consumer in relation to consumption of tea.

KEYWORDS: Consumer Behaviour, Attributes INTRODUCTION

Customer behaviour study is based on consumer buying behaviour, with the customer playing the three distinct roles of user, payer and buyer. Research has shown that consumer behaviour is difficult to predict, even for experts in the field. Relationship marketing is an influential asset for customer behaviour analysis as it has a keen interest in the rediscovery of the true meaning of marketing through the re-affirmation of the importance of the customer or buyer. Buying pattern of consumer varies accordingly based on type of products. There are different factors that directly or indirectly affect consumer buying behaviour. Information from Variety of Sources It includes information through advertisement in news paper and television that attracts the consumer in a lucrative way through their offers and presentations and provides the consumer with an option to select a particular brand. Group Influence Affecting the Consumer Buying Behaviour Buying behaviour of a consumer is affected through group as in of friends, neighbours family members etc. Region Buying and consumption of consumer varies across the region.

48

Munmun Ghosh & Arindam Ghosh

The present paper focuses on consumer behaviour regarding consumption of tea. Tea is indigenous to India and is an area where the country can take a lot of pride. This is mainly because of its pre-eminence as a foreign exchange earner and its contributions to the countrys GNP it is considered for our study. In all aspects of tea production, consumption and export, India has emerged to be the world leader, mainly because it accounts for 31% of global production. It is perhaps the only industry where India has retained its leadership over the last 150 years. Tea production in India has a very interesting history to it. The range of tea offered by India - from the original Orthodox to CTC and Green Tea, from the aroma and flavour of Darjeeling Tea to the strong Assam and Nilgiri Tea- remains unparalleled in the world. Since independence tea production has grown over 250% .There has been a considerable increase in export too in the past few years. Total net foreign exchange earned per annum is around Rs. 1847 crores. The total turnover of the tea industry is around Rs. 10,000 crores. The labour intensive tea industry directly employs over 1.1 million workers and generates income for another 10 million people approximately. Women constitute 50% of the workforce. India is the worlds largest producer of tea producing about 950 million Kgs. per annum. Domestic consumption of India grows @ 3.3% and per capita consumption comes to about 750 grams Thus a lot of room is available for the growth in consumption of tea in the domestic market. Due to large variation and wider adaptability of tea all across the country an effort is made to relate consumer behaviour with tea consumption which is reflected in the study. The present research is a sincere effort to establish relation between consumer behaviour and consumption pattern and to statistically establish the interrelation between consumer behaviour and consumption pattern with respect to tea.

LITERATURE REVIEW
The Indian Tea industry was founded in the first half of the 19 th century with the discovery of wild tea plants in Assam. Gradually, tea was cultivated, local tea markets came up and tea companies were formed. Tea is finally packed into wooden chests or jute bags for delivery to warehouses before being auctioned. Tea from the gardens is also packed into consumer packs and sent to distributors. Being one of the world's largest producers of tea, India acquires a large network of tea producers, retailers, distributors, auctioneers, exporters and packers. The tea industry of India acts as one of the largest workforces in the country. Tea is one of the most refreshing and popular beverages of the world. India is one the largest tea producer in the world. Indian tea is the finest quality in the world. Tea is being cultivated in the high ranges of Northern and Southern India. Tea report (2006) discussed briefly about the consumption pattern of tea in the country and consumers insight towards the consumption of the beverage. It focused on the aspect of brand loyalty and individual perception while buying and consuming tea. It also emphasized on impact of advertisement on consumer and retailer and the availability of different brands in the market. Ramanuj Majumder (2010) discussed in detail about the importance of understanding the consumer for the benefit of marketers and cited many live examples of the cities how marketers in India have utilized the knowledge of consumer behaviour to evolve it marketing strategies. He also focused on issues of decision making and the theoretical foundations of consumer behaviour and offered many practical insights of Indian Market. Ronald A. Fullerton (1994) examined one episode on the consumer behaviour research and particular attention is paid to their study, "Tea and the Viennese". The research combined quantitative and qualitative analyses and evinced an unusually high skill in interpreting consumer experience. Market Analysis report (2010) was prepared based on multiple sources of information. Its main purpose is to provide information on Peruvian consumer behaviour and attitudes and their perception toward food products. This

Consumer Buying Behaviour in Relation to Consumption of Tea A Study of Pune City

49

information may be useful in supporting Canadian companies in their export strategies and helping build competitive advantage in Peruvian markets. Moonesha Pachauri (2002) developed a framework for the study of consumer behaviour and it is helpful to begin by considering the evolution of the field of consumer research and the different paradigms of thought that have influenced the discipline. Overall, it is argued that the study of consumer behaviour is rapidly evolving as researchers recognize and implement new techniques and trans-disciplinary perspectives to understand the nature of purchase and consumption behaviour. This wider view attempts to study consumer behaviour in the light of rapidly evolving lifestyles, values, priorities, and social contexts.

OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

To conclude behavioral factors are accountable for making a choice of a tea brand and consumer buying behaviour is closely associated with the behavioural traits. To trace out the most acceptable attribute that governs the decision making of the consumer while selecting particular tea brand.

METHODOLOGY
A survey is conducted at Pune city to find out different behavioral pattern of tea consumers considering the following trait in mind like popularity of a brand, consumer satisfaction, brand loyalty, taste, aroma, colour, price and availability of a specific brand. The entire study aims to relate these behavioral traits with tea consumption and to statistically conclude that all these behavioral factors are truly responsible for making a decision while selecting a tea brand. The survey process is divided into two parts Consumer view point. Retailer view point. Both consumer & retailer are considered in our survey to understand the consumer behaviour pattern while choosing a specific tea brands for their consumption also retailers view point to understand consumers need and ensures availability of that particular brand in the market. From consumer view point the selection and consumption of tea depends on several parameters Number of people aware of tea brands available in the market. People using branded tea. Most popular used tea. Bases on which people buy tea like Quality, Price, taste, aroma etc. From retailer view point a hypothetical study is performed concerning the selection and sale of tea. The retailer mainly focuses on the sale of tea as per demand its in the market. Extensive mixtures of branded as well as unbranded tea are available with the retailers. From the survey it can be concluded that nearly 65% of the consumer select branded as well as unbranded tea and 35% of the consumer specifically prefers branded tea. The tea brands that are mostly available in retail shops are Tata Gold, Tata Agni, Tata tea Premium, Tetley, Taj Mahal, Brooke Bond Red Label, Brooke Bond Red Label Nature Care, Society tea, Wagh Bakri Chai, Surya Tea and Loose tea. The survey and interaction with the retailers

50

Munmun Ghosh & Arindam Ghosh

also validate that 80% of the retailer keeps Society tea as the demand for the particular tea is very high and 65% of them includes Tata Tea. The various brands of Tata tea are also dominating the market which covers 31% of the market share as per consumer preference while the leader is Society tea with a demand of 57% despite of the reason that the price of the tea is little high. It is found while doing the survey that brand loyalty is also an important aspect of Consumer Behavioural Study. Attractive advertisements and lucrative offers even fail to attract some population as 25% of the consumers when given a chance to change their tea are not willing to change their most preferable tea. The reason is that they are too used to their favourite tea and are not convinced with the idea of switching over to any other brand. While 21% of consumers are ready to replace their preferred tea with fresh tea brand. Loose tea is also preferred by consumer but the fraction is low. As a whole 750 samples were gathered covering almost all the directions for our study and tested for establishing an association between behaviour and consumption pattern. Statistical test such as Chi test of Independence (2) is applied to authenticate our findings. To begin with our study we have prioritized the behavioural attributes that may influence tea consumption pattern of the consumer. The attributes considered are Popularity of the Brand Brand Loyalty Colour Price. The observations are classified simultaneously according to two attributes and the frequencies are shown in a two way table (known as contingency table). On the basis of cell frequencies it is required to test whether the two attributes are associated or not. Under the null hypothesis H0 (Attributes are Independent). If the calculated value of 2 exceeds the tabulated value for the given d.f and at a specified level, the null hypothesis is rejected and we conclude that the attributes are not independent but associated. The contingency table below demonstrates behaviourial response of the consumers towards the different tea brands. Society Tea 80 75 60 70 285 Tata Tea 62 50 50 54 216 Brooke Bond 55 34 25 22 136 Loose Tea 50 23 20 20 113 TOTAL 247 182 155 166 750

Popularity of a brand Brand loyalty Colour Price TOTAL

To test whether the two attributes i.e. behavioural traits are associated while choosing tea brands or not. Let us formulate the null hypothesis that the attributes are independent. After calculation 2 calculated is 17.56. For 9 d.f the tabulated value of 2 at 5% significane level is 16.92. Since the observed value of Chi square exceeds the 5% tabulated value, it is significant. We reject the null hypothesis and conclude that all the behavioural traits that we considered for the study are not independent; i.e. they are associated. It can

Consumer Buying Behaviour in Relation to Consumption of Tea A Study of Pune City

51

further be concluded that while choosing any tea brands from retailer outlets all these attributes plays an imperative role in taking a decision for selection of any brands. Since all these attributes are closely associated while choosing any particular tea brand the degree of correlation among the attributes and particular tea brand is also very high. From the above analysis it can be easily predicted that consumer buying behaviour positively depends on various related behavioural traits. Graphical representation of attributes and the different tea brands is shown below.

Further study is done to find out the most suitable attribute that dominates the decision making of the consumer while selecting particular tea brand. Parametric method of estimation is used to study the trend analysis using SPSS considering different brands and the attributes that affects the purchase of the brands. Model is primed for studying the predictive ability of the attributes like popularity, loyalty, colour and price. Exponential model is applied for the study and the summary for all the attributes is listed in the table below and represented in graphs. Exponential Model uses an increasing or decreasing curve rather than a straight line. An exponential model is useful when it is known that there is, or has been , increasing growth or decline over per unit time and its equation is given as Yt = abt. Though this is a non linear form which can linearized by taking logarithmic transformation log (Yt) = log (a) +t log (b) or Yt = A+ Bt [where A = log (a) and B= log (b)] which is a linear form and parameters A, B can be estimated by using Ordinary Least Square (OLS) technique. Model Summary Model Exponential Attributes Popularity of a brand Loyalty Colour Price R2 0.944 1.00 0.943 0.907 Adjusted R2 0.916 1.00 0.914 0.861

52

Munmun Ghosh & Arindam Ghosh

The graphical representation above shows the observed value (the dots) and the fitted value. Exponential trend model is considered for the analysis. From the graphical representation as well as from the value of R 2 and adjusted R2shown in the table it can be clearly predicted that out all these four attributes the most dominating attribute that governs the consumer buying behaviour is the brand loyalty followed by popularity of the brand, colour and lastly the price. It indicates that while purchasing tea the consumer will firstly prefer the brand which he/she is consuming from long time. The popularity of the brand, price etc will not influence his preference or his/ her loyalty towards that brand. The present paper evidently describe the close association of behavioural attributes with consumer buying behaviour and also establishes the fact that brand loyalty is the dominating attribute that governs the decision making of the consumer while selecting particular tea brand. Despite of many popular brands available in the market, lucrative offers and attractive advertisement consumers remains loyal to their preferred brand and interestingly factor like price in addition didnt affect their preference.

CONCLUSIONS
Tea is a popular beverage and due to its extensive consumption worldwide consumer becomes very fussy or particular about the brand and quality of the tea. The consciousness about the beverage quality adds to many factors like popularity of the tea brand, colour, aroma, price etc. The entire study is made to find out whether all these factors like

Consumer Buying Behaviour in Relation to Consumption of Tea A Study of Pune City

53

popularity of particular tea brand, colour, aroma, price and brand loyalty really influences tea consumption behaviour of a consumer. All these attributes/traits are highly responsible with tea consumption. Our study proves that while considering a particular tea brand things like popularity of a particular tea brand, loyalty towards specific brand and other qualitative factors like colour, aroma etc are associated while choosing that particular brand. A consumer depends totally on these entire factors for choosing a specific brand of his/her need. The extensive study is done different regions of Pune city and a clear conclusion can be drawn from the statistical analysis that all the behavioural traits highly influence consumer s tea consumption behaviour. This study also justifies a close association of consumer behaviour with consumption pattern. The primary survey portrays significantly how attributes like brand loyalty exists supremely in consumer and the study also depicts brand loyalty as the dominating attributes amongst all. Overall the study illustrates a clear insight in the area of consumer buying behaviour.

REFERENCES
1. 2. Aaker, D. A (1991). Managing brand equity. New York: Macmillan. Banerjee Mritunjoy: Organisation Structure & Design in organization Behaviour, #rd Edition, New Delhi Allied Publishers, 1995. 3. 4. Banerjee, B (1993): Tea Production & Processing, New Delhi, Oxford & IBH Publishing Company. Blackwell, R. D., Miniard, P. W. & Engel, J. F. (2001). Consumer behavior. Orlando: Harcourt College Publishers. 5. 6. 7. 8. Blackwell, R. D., Miniard, P. W. & Engel, J. F. (2006). Consumer behavior. Mason: Thomson. Dwivedi, H. N (1999) Production of Tea in India, Kolkata. FAO (1980):- The Marketing Processing of Tea. Fullerton Ronald A (1994). Tea and the Viennese": A Pioneering Episode in the Analysis of Consumer Behavior; Advances in Consumer Research ; 1994, Vol. 21 Issue 1, p 418. 9. Gabbott, M. & Hogg, G. (1998). Consumers and services. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.

10. Majumder Ramanuj (2010). Consumer Behaviour: insights from Indian Market. 11. Misra Shib Narayan: Tea Industry in India, New Delhi, Ashish Publishing House,1986. 12. Monoharan S.: Indian Tea, New Delhi. S. Chand & Co. PVT LTD , 1972 13. Moorthy, S., Ratchford, B. T. & Talukdar, D. (1997). Consumer information search revisited: Theory and empirical analysis. Journal of Consumer Research , 23 (4), 263-277. 14. Mukley & Sharma (ed): Tea Culture, Processing & Marketing, New Delhi, Oxford University Press& B>H Publishing Co. PVT. Ltd.1993. 15. Pachauri Moonesha (2002): Consumer Behaviour ;The Marketing Review, 2, 319-355. 16. Tea Digest of Tea Board, 2006.