A STUDY OF BUYING

BEHAVIOUR TOWARDS
HANDICRAFT PRODUCTS
ON
BUDDHIST TOURIST
VISITING SARNATH

BACKGROUND & RATIONALE:

1.1 (a) BACKGROUND
The ultimate objective of all production is consumption for the satisfaction of
varied needs of man. A free market economy provides freedom to the consumers
to buy and consume goods of their choice. Buying preferences of the consumers
send signals to the producers to produce various commodities in required
quantities. Producers, therefore, produces only those commodities which are
desired by the consumers. A Tourist Behaviour is related to likes and dislikes and
expectations of the consumers. Tourist Behaviour has changed in recent years
owing to enhanced awareness, information technology and more importantly
governmental intervention through legislations. Thus, the manufacturers are
more cautious in dealing with consumers of their respective products.
In recent years, the lifestyle of a large number of consumers in India has
changed dramatically and the process of change is on. The buying Behavior of
the tourists is influenced by several factors such as socio-economic conditions,
cultural environment, literacy level, occupation, geographical location, efforts on
the part of sellers, exposure to media etc. Tourist Behavior in the

market is

perplexing because of a singular lack of consistency in groups which are

homogeneous in parameters of demographics-Age, occupation, education and

income.
The study of tourist behavior implies how & why a particular consumer reacts to
the decisions of producers. It is the study of how individual make decision to
spend their available resources (time, money, effort) on consumption related
items. It includes the study of why they buy it, when they buy it, where they buy
it, how often they buy it & how often they use it.
This study focused on understanding the Buddhist Tourist

buying

behavior of products at retail outlets. It also focused on the issue that

whether the marketing strategies are properly implemented or not. The
study would be beneficial to the Government for promoting and
positioning the products at Sarnath for Buddhist tourists .

Rationale:
The genesis for doing this study is to throw light on
Buddhist Tourist Buying Behaviour in general with
specific reference to the analysis of Sarnath as a
destination in the target market.

Introduction:
Buying behavior is the study of human responses to products or
services and the marketing of products/services. The study of
consumer behavior focuses on how individuals make their
decisions to spend their available resources (time, money,
effort) on consumption related itemsor consumption related
aspects (What they buy? When they buy? How they buy?).It
also study of individuals, or organisations and the processes
consumers use to search, select, use and dispose of products,
services, experience, or ideas to satisfy needs and its impact on
the consumer and society. Buyer behaviour is deeply rooted in
psychology with dashes of sociology thrown in just to make

things more interesting. Since every person in the world is

different, it is impossible to have simple rules that explain how
buying decisions are made. But those who have spent many
years analysing customer activity have presented us with
useful guidelines in how someone decides whether or not to
make a purchase. The evaluation of marketing concept from
mere selling concept to consumer oriented marketing has
resulted in buyer behaviour becoming an independent
discipline. The growth of consumerism and consumer
legislation emphasizes the importance that is given to the
consumer. Some consumers are characterized as being more
involved in products and shopping than others. A consumer
who is highly involved with a product would be interested in
knowing a lot about it before purchasing. Hence he reads
brochures thoroughly, compares brands and models available
at different outlets, asks questions, and looks for
recommendations. Thus consumer buying behaviour can be
defined as heightened state of awareness that motivates
consumers to seek out, attend to, and think about product
information prior to purchase.

A BRIEF OVERVIEW OF SARNATH:

Sarnath is a peaceful and holy place where Siddhartha

Gautama Buddha or Gautama Buddha revealed the truth, the
Dharma to his followers. Sarnath is near to the city Varanasi.
The Sarnath got this name by deriving Sarnaganatha who is
lord of deer. After Gautama Buddha achieved enlightenment in
Bodh Gaya, he came to Sarnath. He delivered his first sermon
that Maha Dharma chakra Pravartan or wheel of law in the deer
park. Gautama Buddha named Sarnath, Lumbini, Bodh Gaya,
and kushinagar as sacred place for his followers on the day
before his death. Ashoka, the emperor who spread Buddhas

message of love, Sympathetic pity and concern throughout his

empire.
This famous and biggest Buddhist settlement is listed under the
UNESCO heritage site. The place Sarnath is included in Uttar
Pradesh Tourist Attractions. The climate of the sarnath very
comfortable in winter and very hot in summer. Best time to visit
Sarnath is from October to September. Varanasi is the most
beautiful and important place near to Sarnath. The city is
famous for its temples, lanes, Ghats, cultural and religious
significance in the Hindu society. The town sarnath is very
peaceful and green carpeted. The major attractions of sarnath
includes Asoka's pillar, Dharma Stupa which is also known as
Dhamekha Stupa, built by the Emperor Ashoka. There is lot of
temples to visit. These are constructed in modern times. The
temples namely Thai temples, Burmese, Chinese and Korean
temples are all built recently. Other than these temples you can
also find three Tibetan temples and a Japanese temple.
Sarnath, here you can feel definite Buddhist atmosphere.
Sarnath is now become the Buddhist pilgrim center
and destination for tourists. Tourist who is looking for a change
they can visit this Uttar Pradesh Tourist Attractions. The
atmosphere is very calm and quite.
There are some other attractions are also there in Sarnath that
is Chaukhandi Stupa, Mulagandha Kuti Vihar, Sarnath Museum
and Deer Park. Buddha Purnima is a famous festival in Sarnath.
It is celebrated on the day of Buddhas birth, nirvana and
death. Tourists from all over the globe are visiting here for
peace. It is must see place in Uttar Pradesh. There are lot of
other attractions are also there in Uttar Pradesh Tourist
Attractions. Within one day you cannot
cover all the places in Uttar Pradesh. Whenever you are
planning a trip to Uttar Pradesh plan a long trip. So that you
can cover all the places. If you visit this beautiful place it will be
a unforgettable experience for you.

A number of countries in which Buddhism is a major (or the

dominant) religion, among them Thailand, Japan, Tibet, Sri
Lanka and Myanmar, have established temples and
monasteries in Sarnath in the style that is typical for the

respective country. Pilgrims and visitors have the opportunity to

experience an overview of Buddhist architecture from various
cultures

SCOPE OF THE STUDY:

To achieve the above objective I have restricted my study to just

SARNATH. In order to study about the tourists to Sarnath in Varanasi,
and to understand the scope that Sarnath has in this field, I have
extended my project to do a detailed study of Buddists pilgrims
visiting Sarnath. This study helps to the Researcher to know about the
Buddhist Travellors buying behaviour and its influencing factors.
This study will help the Researcher to know about the Tourists buying
behaviour pattern of their products.
This study will help the Tourism Offices to identify the right
marketing mix for the products.
This study helps the government regulatory body to improve their
strategic formulation and decision making process.

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

1

This study helps to the researchers to know about the Buddhist tourist buying
Behavior and its influencing factors

This study will help the Researchers to know about the Tourist buying Behavior
pattern of their products

This study will help the the retailers to identify the right marketing mix for the
products

This study helps the retailers to improve their strategic formulation and decision
making process

SCOPE OF THE STUDY

The following aspects of tourist buying behaviour have been covered in this
study.
Demographics of tourists.
Psychographics of tourist.
Marketing & Competitive environment factors influencing Tourist
buying behaviour.
Market analysis in terms of size, location, growth, potential, market
share and future business trends.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

To study the Buddhist tourists buying behaviour
and retailers perceptive of products

b) RESEARCH OBJECTIVES:
To conduct a comprehensive case study on SARNATH in the
context of consumer buying behaviour.
To study and analyse purchases and consumption pattern of
products by the consumers.
To appraise key factors which mostly influence the consumers to
buy products.
To critically analyse the marketing strategies used by govt. for
promoting the products of Sarnath as destination.

CHAPTER#2: REVIEW OF LITERATURE

1. Buying Behaviour
Definition of Buying Behaviour: Buying Behaviour is the decision
processes and acts of people involved in buying and using products.
Consumer Buying Behaviour refers to the buying behaviour of the
ultimate consumer. A firm needs to analyse buying behaviour for:
Buyers reactions to a firms marketing strategy has a great impact on
the firms success.
The marketing concept stresses that a firm should create a Marketing
Mix(MM) that satisfies (gives utility to) customers, therefore need to
analyse the what, where, when and how consumers buy.
Marketers can better predict how consumers will respond to
marketing strategies.
2) Stages of the Consumer Buying Process
Six Stages to the Consumer Buying Decision Process (For complex
decisions). Actual purchasing is only one stage of the process. Not all
decision processes lead to a purchase. All consumer decisions do not
always include all 6 stages, determined by the degree of complexity.
The 6 stages are:
i)
Problem Recognition(awareness of need)--difference between
the desired state and the actual condition. Deficit in
assortment of products. Hunger-Food. Hunger stimulates
your need to eat.

ii)

Information search Internal search, memory.

External search if you need more information. Friends and relatives

(word of mouth). Marketer dominated sources; comparison shopping;
public sources etc.
A successful information search leaves a buyer with possible
alternatives, the evoked set.

iii)

iv)
v)

Evaluation of Alternatives-need to establish criteria for

evaluation, features the buyer wants or does not want.
Rank/weight alternatives or resume search. Information from
different sources may be treated differently. Marketers try to
influence by "framing" alternatives.

Purchase decision-Choose buying alternative, includes

product, package, store, method of purchase etc.
Purchase--May differ from decision, time lapse between 4 & 5,
product availability.

vi)

Post-Purchase Evaluation-outcome: Satisfaction or

Dissatisfaction.
Cognitive Dissonance, have you made the right decision. This can be
reduced by warranties, after sales communication etc.

3) Types of Consumer Buying Behaviours

Types of consumer buying behaviour are determined by:
Level of Involvement in purchase decision. Importance and intensity
of interest in a product in a particular situation.

Buyers level of involvement determines why he/she is motivated to

seek information about a certain products and brands but virtually
ignores others. High involvement purchases-Honda Motorbike, high
priced goods, products visible to others, and the higher the risk the
higher the involvement.
Types of risk:
Personal risk
Social risk
Economic risk.
The four type of consumer buying behaviour are:
a) Routine Response/Programmed Behaviour--buying low
involvement frequently purchased low cost items; need very little
search and decision effort; purchased almost automatically. Examples
include soft drinks, snack foods, milk etc.
b)Limited Decision Making--buying product occasionally. When
you need to obtain information about unfamiliar brand in a familiar
product category, perhaps. Requires a moderate amount of time for
information gathering. Examples include Clothes--know product class
but not the brand.
c) Extensive Decision Making/Complex-- high involvement,
unfamiliar, expensive and/or infrequently bought products. High
degree of economic/performance/psychological risk. Examples
include cars, homes, computers, education. Spend a lot of time
seeking information and deciding.
d)Impulse buying, no conscious planning.

4) Categories that Affect the Consumer Buying Decision Process

A consumer, making a purchase decision will be affected by the

following three factors:
a).Personal
b)Psychological
c)Social

Roles and Family InfluencesRole...things you should do based on the expectations of you from
your position within a group. People have many roles. Husband,
father, employer/ee. Individuals role are continuing to change
therefore marketers must continue to update information.
Reference GroupsIndividual identifies with the group to the extent that he takes on
many of the values, attitudes or behaviours of the group members.
Families, friends, sororities, civic and professional organizations. Any
group that has a positive or negative influence on a persons attitude
and behaviour. The degree to which are reference group will affect a
purchase decision depends on an individuals susceptibility to
reference group influence and the strength of his/her involvement
with the group.
Social ClassAn open group of individuals who have similar social rank. US is not
a classless society. US criteria; occupation, education, income, wealth,
race, ethnic groups and possessions. Social class determines to some
extent, the types, quality, quantity of products that a person buys or
uses. Lower class people tend to stay clos etc. home when shopping,
do not engage in much pre-purchase information gathering. Stores
project definite class images. Family, reference groups and social
classes are all social influences on consumer behaviour. All operate
within a larger culture.
Culture and Sub-culture-

Culture refers to the set of values, ideas, and attitudes that are
accepted by a homogenous group of people and transmitted to the
nextgeneration.Culture also determines what is acceptable with
product advertising. Culture determines what people wear, eat, reside
and travel. Cultural values in the US are good health, education,
individualism and freedom. In American culture time scarcity is a
growing problem. IE change in meals. Big impact on international
marketing. Different society, different levels of needs, different
cultural values. Culture can be divided into subcultures:
geographic regions
Human characteristics such as age and ethnic background. Culture
affects what people buy, how they buy and when they buy.

RESEARCH DESIGN
Research design is the specification of the method and procedure for
acquiring the information needed to solve the problem.

Research Approach: Exploratory study will be done for the study of Tourist
buying Behavior

SAMPLING PLANS
Description of Population/Universe
A population is a group of individuals, object or items from which samples are
taken for measurement. All items in any field of enquiry constitute the
universe. Here population refers to the number of consumers and retailers
who are using and selling various pens. The sample population wil include
people from various categories like Business Person, Service Person,
Students, Others(Retired persons, Housewives) Etc.

Sampling Area
Is the place where the sample is drowned. Here the researchers take samples from various
Sarnath, Varanasi.

Sample Size
The number of sampling unit selected from the Population is called the size of the sample.
The sample size selected was 200 for consumers survey and 50 for retailers survey

Sampling technique
Here the researcher used probability sampling method.ie stratified sampling is used for
consumers (when subpopulations within an overall population vary, it is advantageous to sample
each subpopulation (stratum) independently. Stratification is the process of dividing members of
the population into homogeneous subgroups before sampling. The strata should be mutually
exclusive: every element in the population must be assigned to only one stratum. The strata
should also be collectively exhaustive: no population element can be excluded. Then simple
random sampling or systematic sampling is applied within each stratum. ) and non-probability

convenience method for the retailers as the sampling technique.

Method of Data Collection

The data has been collected in two ways.

Primary Data: Primary data are those, which are collected for the first
time, and they are original in character. A suitable combination of
Questionnaire techniques, & discussion with the respondents was used to
collect the required primary data. Primary data gives higher accuracy and
facts, which is very helpful for any research and its findings. The
researcher will be collecting primary data using structured questionnaire
and personal interviews with selective respondents.

Secondary Data: - The secondary data are those, which are already
collected by someone for some purpose and are available for the present
study. Secondary data will be collected from the magazines, websites
(Torrent.lnk), and other such sources.
(please refer bibliography/webliography)

Instrumentation

Research

Instrument:

Structured

Non-Disguised

research instrument used by the researcher

Questionnaire

effectively using

will

the

close ended

questions.

Administration
This will be done using self-administered questionnaire conducted through face
to face communication.

DATA PRESENTATION:

The data will be presented through charts, graphs and tables.

TABLES: A univariate table will be used to project the data.
GRAPHS: Graphical representation of data will be through- Pie chart, Column
graphs ,Bar graphs.
4.3 STATISTICAL TOOLS USED

PERCENTAGE METHOD
In this project percentage method test and used. The following are the
formula

Percentage of Respondent =

No. of Respondent

Total no. of Respondent

x 100

SCOPE FOR FUTURE RESEARCH

The present study on buying behavior of Buddhist Tourist helps to get
clear picture about the factors which influences the consumer to buy the
products at Sarnath. This in turn helps the government to formulate
suitable policy to fix the Price and to position their product properly and
effectively.
The factors that influence the tourists may change with change in time because
the needs of tourists may vary with change in time. So continuous monitoring
and close observation of factors that motivate the tourists is necessary to
maintain a effective positioning of the product A further study with in department
analysis to know to what extent these factors motivate the consumers will be
required.

BIBLIOGRAPHY & WEBLIOGRAPHY

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Kothari, C.R.( 1982). Research methodology. New Delhi: Tata Mc Graw-Hill Ltd.
Das ,Bhagaban & Das ,Debadutta (2006) .Consumer Buying Behavior In India: New
Delhi: Tata Mc Graw-Hill Ltd
Solomon,R,Michael(2010). Consumer Behavior - Buying, Having, And Being, Prentice
Hall PTR
Ali ,S.S,. Thakur,A.K,.Madhavan,K,.Palat(2009)-Models in Consumer Buying Behavior.
Deep & Deep Publication

WEBLIOGRAPHY
http://uttarpradeshtouristattractions-sarnath-121002011012phpapp02.pdf
http://sarnath-toursofbuddhistpilgrimagesites-140522063455phpapp02.pdf