CHAPTER 3

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.1 CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

The framework of this research seeks to understand perceptions of various value
dimensions of branded gold jewellery and its impact on buying decisions. The first
part gives an idea of general definitions of concepts and the models which help in
understanding and deriving the factors to be studied in this research. This research
explores to understand the factors that influence the perception of women when they
want to buy branded gold jewellery, their awareness levels about gold brands in
Bangalore. Four key psychological processes – motivation, perception, learning and
memory – fundamentally influence consumer responses. This study focuses on
perception factors. Below model were used as framework for the research purpose.
Consumer Decision Model
The Consumer Decision Model (also known as the Engel-Blackwell-Miniard Model)
was originally developed in 1968 by Engel, Kollat, and Blackwell and has gone
through numerous revisions;
Problem / Need Recognition

Information Search

Evaluation of Alternatives

Purchase

Post-purchase Evaluation

Consumer buying decision process

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 The following flow diagram narrates how a consumers’ buying decision happens
when a perceived need arises.
Problem / Need Recognition - Perceiving a Need

Information Search Seeking - Value

Evaluation of Alternatives - Assessing Value

Purchase - Buying Value

Post-purchase Evaluation - Value in Consumption or Use

When a brand is notified in the minds of consumers and when there is harmony
between the content of the message and its perception, a marketing message
reinforces the organizations or Brand Trust.

Problem / Need Recognition

Memory Search
Feedback
Intention

Purchase

Problem solving behaviour

A satisfied customer may take a shorter route while repeating the purchase. Above is
the stages. Need recognition leads to memory search which reveals clear intentions to
buy on account of previous satisfaction. Ultimately, it leads to purchase. There is an
element of brand loyalty here, which gets reinforced by continued satisfaction since
quality/ trust is maintained.

Problem / Need Recognition

Purchase Decision

Brand Evaluation

Brand beliefs formed by learning from various sources

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 The consumer involvement is high, but in his/her perception, there are minor
differences between the competing brands. Certain set of perceptions are strong and
when this is aligned with the marketer efforts, it can create a strong influence to buy
from same seller. Hence it is important to understand the factors which influence their
perception which ultimately leads to buying decisions.

Schiffman and Kanuk (2007) defines consumer behaviour: “the behavior that
consumers display in searching for, purchasing, using, evaluating, and disposing of
products and services that they expect will satisfy their needs”
A genuine brand, according to Duane E Knapp, has three basic characteristics: (1)
The internalized sum of impressions as received by the consumers (2) leading to a
distinctive position in their mind space (3) based on emotional and functional benefits

Perception is important because people selectively perceive what they want and it
affects how people see risks in a purchase

Howard-Sheth Model on Consumer Behaviour

The model clearly states that the Perceptual constructs are strongly influenced by
Input variables like: Significative, Symbolic and Social. These concepts were used
while framing the questionnaire.

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 Fig 3-1: Howard-Sheth Model on Consumer Behaviour

Input variables are the environmental stimuli that the consumer is subjected to, and is
communicated from a variety of sources.

Significative stimuli are actual elements of products and brands that the buyer
confronts (Loudon & Della Bitta 1993), while

Symbolic stimuli refers to the representations of products and brands as constructed

by marketers through advertising and act on the consumer indirectly (Foxall 1990)
(Howard & Sheth 1969). Social stimuli include the influence of family and other peer
and reference groups. The influence of such stimuli is internalised by the consumer
before they affect the decision process.

As shown in Model the Hypothetical Constructs (or Intervening Variables) can be

classified in two categories: those described as Perceptual constructs, and those
described as Learning constructs. Perceptual constructs include:

•Sensitivity to information – the degree to which the buyer controls the flow of
stimulus information.

•Perceptual bias – distortion or alteration of the information received due to the

consumers fitting the new information in to his or her existing mental set.
• Search for information – the active seeking of information on consumption choices.
In combination these perceptual constructs serve to control, filter and process the
stimuli that are received.
The model draws heavily on learning theory concepts (Loudon ANDDella Bitta1993),
and as such six learning constructs are represented:
•Motive – described as either general or specific goals impelling action.
•Evoked Set – the consumers’ assessment of the ability of the consumption choices
that are under active consideration to satisfy his or her goals.
•Decision mediators – the buyer’s mental rules or heuristics for assessing purchase
alternatives.
•Predispositions – a preference toward brands in the evoked set expressed as an
attitude toward them.
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 •Inhibitors – environmental forces such as limited resources (e.g. time or financial)
which restrain the consumption choice.
•Satisfaction – represents a feedback mechanism from post-purchase reflection used
to inform subsequent decisions

Another theoretical model of Determinants of a consumers’ luxury value perception

from Wiedmann, Hennigs, Siebels - Measuring Consumers’ Luxury Value
Perception: A Cross-Cultural Framework was used to support the research which
included:

FINANCIAL DIMENSION OF LUXURY VALUE PERCEPTION – The financial

dimension addresses direct monetary aspects such as price, and best value for money.

FUNCTIONAL DIMENSION OF LUXURY VALUE PERCEPTION – The

functional dimension of brands refers to the core benefit and basic utilities that drive
the consumer based luxury value such as the quality, uniqueness, usability, reliability,
and durability of the product

INDIVIDUAL DIMENSION OF LUXURY VALUE PERCEPTION – The individual

dimension focuses a customer’s personal orientation on luxury consumption and
addresses personal matters such as materialism self-identity value

SOCIAL DIMENSION OF BRAND – The consumption of luxury goods appears to

have a strong social function. Therefore, the social dimension refers to the perceived
utility individuals acquire by consuming products or services recognized within their
own social group(s) such as conspicuousness and prestige value, which may
significantly affect the evaluation and the propensity to purchase or consume brands

Luxury brands have three components: the objective (material), the subjective
(individual) and the collective (social).

Above models contributed in the Conceptualization for the research. The section C
part of the questionnaire is strongly driven from the factors from these models to
study the determinants of a women consumers’ value perception of branded gold
jewellery like price, resale, functional aspects, status etc.,
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 3.2 OPERATIONAL DEFINITIONS

A. General Definitions
Brand can be defined as a "name, term, symbol, logo, design, or combination of
them, aims at identifying a product or service of either one seller or a group of sellers,
and distinguishing these products or services from those of competitors". Brand
further can refer to "set of expectations and perceptions that rose from the experience
of the product or the organization" (Davis, 2002).
‘Jewellery’ is literally any piece of fine material that someone uses to adorn
themselves. Derived from the word jewel, which was anglicized / in English idiom
from the old French “Jouel” in around the 13th century. In Old English gelo, stands
for yellow.
Perception : the act or the effect of perceiving
These factors reside:
i) In the perceiver
ii) In the Object or target being perceived or
iii) In the context of the situation in which the perception is made.

According to Al Ries and Laura Ries (1998), a brand is a singular idea or concept that
you own inside the mind of the prospect.

Luxury is particularly slippery to define. A strong element of human involvement,

very limited supply and the recognition of value by others are key components
(Cornell 2002, p. 47). Defined as goods for which the simple use or display of a
particular branded product brings esteem for the owner, luxury goods enable
consumers to satisfy psychological and functional needs.

B. Operational Definitions
Assay: To test a metal for purity.
Assaying: The method of accurate determination of the gold content of the sample
expressed in parts per thousand (%).
Bullion Coin: A legal tender coin whose market price depends on its gold content,

rather than its rarity or face value.

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 Bullion: Refined gold that is at least 99.5% pure, usually in the form of bars, wafers

or ingots.

Carat: One-twenty fourth part by mass of the metallic element gold.

Consumer demand: The sum of jewellery and total bar and coin purchases for a

country (i.e. the amount of gold acquired directly by individuals).

Fabrication: Fabrication is the first transformation of gold bullion into a semi-

finished or finished product.

Fine Gold: It is gold having fineness 999 parts per thousand and above without any

negative tolerance. Gold is produced in bars up to a purity of 999.9 (often referred to

as “four nines”).

Gold Standard: A monetary system based on convertibility into gold; paper money

backed and interchangeable with gold.

Gold: The metallic element gold, free from any other element.

Grades: Gold and gold alloys shall be classified in accordance with the following

grades depending upon

Grain: One of the earliest weight units used for measuring gold. One grain is

equivalent to 0.0648 grams.

Hallmark: Mark, or marks, which indicate the producer of a gold bar and its number,

fineness, etc.

Karat: Unit of fineness, scaled from one to 24. 24 karat gold (or pure gold) has at

least 999 parts pure gold per thousand; 18-karat has 750, parts pure gold and 250 parts

alloy, etc.

Gold Bar: A Gold bar weighing one kilogram – approximately 32.1507 troy ounces.

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 Marking : The gold, gold alloys, jewellery/artifacts shall be stamped with the

Standard Mark in this case known as the “Hallmark” by BIS recognized assaying and

hallmarking centers only.

Physical bar demand: Global investment in physical gold in bar form.

Recycled gold: Gold sourced from previously fabricated products which has been

recovered and refined back into bars.

Technology: This captures all gold used in the fabrication of electronics, dental,

medical, industrial, decorative and other technological applications, with electronics

representing the largest component of this category. This includes gold destined for

plating jewellery.

Tonne: 1,000 kg or 32,151 troy ounces of fine gold.

Troy Ounce: The word ounce when applied to gold, refers to a troy ounce. 1 troy

ounce is equivalent to 31.1034768 grams.

Chapter note no. 12 of Central Excise Tariff provides that, ‘brand name’ or ‘trade
name’, whether registered or not, is a name or a mark, such as symbol, monogram or
label which is used to indicate a connection, in the course of trade, between a product
and some person using the name or mark with or without indicating the identity of
that person.

Exclusive Outlet : where only one brand of jewellery is sold and mostly these outlets
are spread in many places with their branches.
Speciality Stores: Outlets which are popular for particular designs or stlye of
jewellery.
General Jeweller : Any seller who owns the business individually , mostly caters to
smaller needs and works on personal customer network.

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 3.3 HYPOTHESIS DEVELOPMENT

With regard to the objectives mentioned, the following null hypotheses were
developed.

Hypothesis
H1: The perception of various value dimensions is same across the age levels
of respondents.

H2: The perception of various value dimensions is same across the education
levels of respondents.

H3: The perception of various value dimensions is same across the

occupations of respondents

H4: The perception of various value dimensions is same across religions of

respondents.
H5: The perception of various value dimensions is same across the income
levels of respondents
H6: The perception of various value dimensions is same across the buying
preferences of respondents
H7: There is no linear relationship existing between social status, quality
oriented value and branded gold jewellery decision making

3.4 SOURCES OF DATA

DATA SOURCES:

This is a combination of descriptive and analytical research. Data was collected from
both primary and secondary sources.

Primary source of data was majorly through questionnaires and interviews with gold
industry experts, Designers and Faculty teaching at Vogue Institute of Fashion
Technology, Bangalore were consulted to collect the primary data.

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 Secondary Data was from various Reports from world gold council , KPMG,
Jewellery research organizations were studied for the research. Numerous Journals,
Case Studies, Newsletters, Bulletins, Newspaper, Magazines and website information
were studied to collect the data for the research.

Primary Data collection instrument:

Since the study demands the collection of customer perceptions of women, a detailed
questionnaire was prepared for collecting data which contained the following aspects :

Demographic details
Preferences during buying gold jewellery
Role of brand perception in choosing branded gold jewellery
Influencers during buying decisions of branded gold jewellery
Occasions of gold purchase
Frequency of purchase
Brand awareness and marketing efforts by brands etc.,
Types of Gold jewellery purchased
Assess various well known brands

The questionnaire is divided into Section A, B and C to collect data about the above
listed factors as follows :

SECTION A - Profile of the Respondents

SECTION B - Purchase Behaviour

SECTION C - Perception towards Branded Jewellery over Unbranded

Constructs in section C were measured on Five-point Likert scales, ranging from

1(strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree).
Before the questionnaire was finalized, academic professionals reviewed the
questionnaire to assure content validity. Revisions and corrections were made

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 accordingly. The instrument was pilot-tested with a sample of 100 and later used for
the actual sample data collection.

3.5 STUDY PERIOD

A Cross sectional study was chosen and data was collected from women in the age 18
years to 45 years. Data was collected at a stretch during month of July to August,
2011.

3.6 SAMPLE DESIGN :

With an estimated population of 8.5 million in 20117 Bangalore is the fourth most
populous city in India and the 28th most populous city in the world.

As the study pertains to women consumers in the age group of 18 to 45 years, precise
data about women population in the age group of 18 to 45 years was not available.

Sample size was arrived on the following basis :

Sample Size Formulae found in most statistics textbooks, especially statistics dealing
with probability.

Sample Size – Infinite Population ( where the population is greater than 50000)

Z2 x (p) x (1-p)

SS =

C2

SS = Sample Size

Z = Z value ( e.g 1.96 for a 95 % confidence level )

P = Percentage of population picking a choice, expressed as decimal

C= Confidence interval, expressed as decimal ( e.g., .04 = +/-4 percentage points )

7
"Urban Agglomerations/Cities having population 1 lakh and above". Census India. The
Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India. Retrieved 17 October 2011
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 A Z-value ( cumulative Normal Probability Table) represent the probability that a
sample will fall within a certain distribution.

@ 95% confidence level and 5% confidence interval

= (1.96) 2 x (p) x (1-p)

C2

= (1.96) 2 x .5 x (1- .5)

.05 x .05

= 3.8416 x .5 x .5

0.0025

= 384.16

As per sample formula its 384.16

Sloven’s formula was used for calculating sample size to determine the ideal sample
size for a population, as Slovin's formula is used when nothing about the behavior of a
population is known at all.

n=

( 1 + (N*e^2))

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 Where:
n = number of samples
N = total population
e = margin of error

If a sample is taken from a population, a formula must be used to take into account
confidence levels and margins of error. When taking statistical samples, sometimes a
lot is known about a population, sometimes a little and sometimes nothing at all.

Population (18-40) Person/Male/Female//Total/Rural/Urban) in Bangalore District (Karnataka)

District Total Rural Urban
Persons Males Females Persons Males Females Persons Males Females
Bangalore
All ages 6537124 3426599 3110525 777137 406201 370936 5759987 3020398 2739589
18-40 3085963 1628987 1456976 351464 185516 165948 2734499 1443471 1291028
Karnataka
All ages 52850562 26898918 25951644 34889033 17648958 17240075 17961529 9249960 8711569
18-40 21436256 10835690 10600566 13590146 6807195 6782951 7846110 4028495 3817615

Source : Datanet India Pvt. Ltd.

As per above source women population in Bangalore is : 1291028

So its

n=

( 1 + (N*e^2))

Where:
n = number of samples
N = total population = 1291028
e = margin of error – lets decide as 5% i.e., .05

1291028

1+ 1291028 x (.05) 2
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 1291028

1+ 1291028 x .0025

1291028

1+ 3227.57

1291028

3228.57

= 399.876

ie., 400

To achieve better accuracy a sample of higher value 400 was decided.

Sample size :
The sample size is decided as 400.

The sample was covered in and around shopping malls, banks, corporate areas and
commercial zones, made the sample more relevant to the objectives. The survey was
conducted through personal interviews over a period of 40 days.

Sample Method : Multi – Stage

Stage 1 – Stratified Random sampling : Gender based – Women population in

Bangalore

Stage 2 – Judgement sampling: Women in the age group of 18-45 years [ Source :
Datanet and General formula ]

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 Collect samples using Judgment sampling i.e., women in the age group 18-45 who
have purchased both branded and unbranded jewellery are randomly selected from
different zones of Bangalore and asked to distribute that questionnaires to people
whom they know.

Stage 3 is Snowball sampling [distributing questionnaires to people whom they knew

].

525 questionnaires were collected and further incomplete questionnaires were

eliminated and arrived at 500 samples. But the sample size required to represent the
universe is 400 so selected only 400.

To avoid biasness of selection, modern MS-excel tool rand( ) was used which
generates random numbers, by sorting all 500 in ascending order and select top 400.

Remaining 100 questionnaires were used for pilot study.

Area :
The study is conducted in Bangalore city.

Respondents :
Since the study focuses on perceptions of women in Bangalore city Women within the
age group of 18 to 45 years were selected as respondents.

3.7 TOOLS USED FOR DATA ANALYSIS

Descriptive and Analytical Techniques:

Descriptive analysis was made through percentage, mean, standard deviation,

Graphs and Tables.

The following were the techniques used for analysis

An elaborate spreadsheet was constructed for data entry. Data was coded
and entered for analyses.
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 ANOVA was used to analyse the variances across various value
dimensions across demographic factors.
Reliability Test
Cronbach’s alpha value was 0.865. Going by the thumb rule, alpha value
of 0.8 ≤ α < 0.9 translates into ‘Good’ internal consistency.
Factor Analysis was done Section C part of questionnaire with 13 factors
Correlation was done to know the relation between various value
dimensions and identified attributes of Branded gold Jewellery Decision
Making
Regression Analysis was done to understand the impact of social status,
quality oriented value (Independent Variables) on branded gold jewellery
decision making ( Dependent Variables).

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