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THE IMPACT OF MARKETING MIX ON CONSUMER BUYING BEHAVIOUR

Conference Paper · December 2004

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Shanthakumary Milroy Christy Mahenthiran Aloysius

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 THE IMPACT OF MARKETING MIX ON CONSUMER BUYING BEHAVIOUR
Mrs. Shanthakumary Milroy Christy Mahenthiran Aloysius
Senior Lecturer, Dept. of. Human Resource Management, University of Jaffna
shanthamahenthiran@yahoo.com

Abstract

In the current commercial world, every organization gives high priority to satisfy their
customer expectations. Satisfied customer wills attaché with organization for a long period of
time. Organizations give promises or create expectations through their marketing mix. If the
customers feel these expectations are experience reality, they will consistently buy the
product or they will be loyal to the brand. Jaffna peninsula is experiencing a brand
competition never heard in the past. Most of the organizations give better quality products
with affordable price and discounts, use attractive displays, and advertising modes. But we
can observe one thing that these all efforts were not designed to suit Jaffna consumers only.
Here a question arises to what extents these marketing mix induce continuous buying
intention in consumers‟ mind. This research study tries to answer this question.

There were two hypotheses set out for answer this problem. The first hypothesis is the higher
the positive opinion about marketing mix leads to stronger the brand loyalty. The second
hypothesis is the lower the opinion about marketing mix leads to weaker the brand loyalty.
Both of the hypotheses were tested two different categories of four products (Toothpaste,
milk powder, television, motor cycle). Among these first hypothesis was confirmed for
motorcycle, it revealed high positive correlation (rp = 0.731) between marketing mix and
brand loyalty. But even though there is positive correlation between independent and
dependent variable for other three products the relationship is not in the expected level.

The second hypothesis was tested; the result confirmed for toothpaste, milk powder,
motorcycle, values are 0.417, 0.492, and 0.226 respectively. But correlation coefficient for
TV shows positive moderate relationship.
Importantly it was found in the research that the word of mouth has high influence than
marketing mix.
Key words: Marketing Mix, Brand Loyalty, High Involvement Products, Low Involvement
Products

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An Introduction

The aim of today‟s marketing is to satisfy the target customers‟ needs perfectly or
better than their competitors. This goal ensures survival of the firms in the market
arena. For this purpose organizations adopt a number of strategies. In that they are
spending a significant amount of money for their promotional activities as well as
paying a handsome salary to their marketing personnel. On the other hand
organizations try to understand their buyers‟ behaviour. This field of studies address
how individuals, groups and organizations select, buy, use and dispose of goods,
services, ideas or experiences to satiety their needs and desires. Understanding
consumers‟ behaviour and „knowing loyal consumers‟ are never simple task.
Consumers may state their needs what but act otherwise. They may not be in touch
with their deeper motivations. They may respond to influence that change their mind
at the last minute. Due to this increasingly, decision makers have had to turn to
summary statistics and to behavioural theory, and are spending more money and effort
today than ever before to try to understand why they buy? How do they buy? The first
two questions relate to relatively overt aspects of buyer behaviour, and can be learned
about through direct observation and interviewing. But uncovering why people buy is
an extremely difficult task. The answer will tend to vary with the investigator‟s
behavioural framework of reference. In this manner this study tries to explain the
influence of marketing mix on brand loyalty of Jaffna consumers. With opening of the
A9 route, numbers of brands of various products are available in Jaffna and various
promotion strategies and modes are used to capture consumers. On the other hand, in
the advertising side. Newspapers, T.V channels, postal and radio are functioning in
accelerated rates in creating customer awareness.
Statement of the problem

There are number of factors influencing the brand choice of consumers. Brand choice
is the function of 4 P‟s (i.e. Product, place, promotion and price) as well as buyers‟
characteristics. It is obliviously that most of the promotional efforts are not

Designed for Jaffna consumers as considered as target market. Specially

advertisements are not designed with the consideration of our cultural, social and

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psychological factors and it is observed that there is a change in brand choice of high
involvement product (specially motor cycle). In the past most of the Jaffna consumers
were strong loyal to giant Japanes brands. Now most of them switch over to Indian
brands. (TVS, Hero Honda and Bajaj). In this situations it is inevitable that to raise a
question “To what extent Jaffna consumers have positive attitude towards 4 Ps and
also to what extent these 4 Ps lead to brand choice. The following statement reflects
the problem of this study.

Does 4 Ps (Marketing mix) lead to brand choice and brand loyalty of Jaffna
consumers?
Significance of the study

Organizations in all over the world spent a significant amount of money to create and
maintain brand loyalty among their target audience. Until 2002 the northern part of Sri
Lanka totally or partially separated from the other part of the country. Consumers
choose and consume what was available brand in the market. Now the situation is
totally changed. Numbers of brands in every product are available here. Due to this
opportunity, the consumers have high level of freedom in the selection process. On the
other hand 4 Ps, especially advertisement effort are high competitive. Though
situations like this, there is no study conducted to identify the impact of 4 Ps on brand
choice. So this study will help to identify influence of 4 Ps on brand selection and
brand loyalty. Thus this research will be useful the organizations to find out the level
of brand loyalty and help to somewhat understand the black box of Jaffna consumers.
Through this study organizations can identify the suitable strategies and also redesign
their promotional campaign to attract more consumers in future.

Objectives of the study

The specific objectives of the study are set out below.
1. To find out the influence of 4 Ps on brand choice of low involvement product.
2. To find out the influence of 4 Ps on brand choice of high involvement high
involvement product.
3. To find out factors affective the Jaffna consumers‟ buying behavour.
4. To find out the level of brand loyalty among low involvement products Vs high
involvement product.

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Limitation of the study
This study is limited with Jaffna district consumers due to the problems associated
with data collection. Therefore the sample does not give proportionate representation
of all consumers in the Island and also this study was conducted in 2003. This is a
behavioural study, day to day changes are happening in the market place. Therefore a
researcher may get another result in a different period.

Literature Review
Most of the studies support the existence of positive relationship between elements of
marketing mix and brand selection and brand loyalty. Bovee and quoted by Niranjan
Wejesekera, suggest that quantity sold will be depend on the number of dollars the
company spends on advertising that product (Niranjan Wejesekera, 1996: 362). In
another study conducted on two Sri Lankan soap companies a positive correlation
between advertising expenditure and sales had been established in respect of the eight
brands analyzed (Reffai, 1998: 143)

Conceptualization

Conceptualization of this study explains the relationship between independent and

dependent variables. Consumers‟ positive opinions of marketing mix and brand choice
and brand loyalty have been accepted as positively related factors. This study
measures consumers. Positive opinion of marketing mix or elements of marketing mix
to what extent leads to brand loyalty.

Conceptual framework

Marketing
Stimuli / Brand loyalty
Marketing
Mix

In the above model marketing stimuli or marketing mix is considered as independent

variable and Brand loyalty is dependent variable.

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The terms are in the conceptual model described as follows.

Marketing mix: - The marketing mix is the set of marketing tools the firm uses to
pursue its marketing objectives in the target market.

Brand: - A name, term, sign, symbol or design or combination of them,

Intended to identify the goods or services of one seller or group
of sellers and to differentiate them from those of competitors.

Brand loyalty: Brand loyalty is defined as repeat purchase intentions and

behaviour.

Hypotheses

1. The higher the positive opinion of marketing mix leads to stronger the brand
loyalty.
2. The lower the positive opinion of marketing mix leads to weak brand loyalty.

Operationalization

The concepts are operationalized below for the purpose of measurement.

Concept Variable Indicators /

measures
Marketing mix Price Q 3, 10, 17
Product Q 3, 10, 17
Place Q 7, 20
Promotion Q 4, 6
Brand loyalty Search of the product Q 2, 6, 8, 9, 11, 12,
Postponed purchase 13, 14, 15, 18
Consumption of other brands
Consistent usage

5
Data collection technique
Selection of research sample
For this study 60 respondents are selected from various occupation and two low
involvement products (Tooth paste and milk power) and also two high involvement
products (motor bicycle and T.V) have been taken into analysis.

Questionnaire
The help of questionnaire has collected major part of the data. This questionnaire has
two parts. Part I consists of 12 questions, which helps to get general information of
consumer and identify the degree of brands awareness. Part II consists of 20 questions
that help to gather information about marketing mix and brand loyalty.
Part II questions have five options from strongly agree, agree, uncertain, disagree and
strongly disagree. The rating system was as follows.

Data presentation and analysis

Description Classification Number of Percentage
respondent
Age < 25 23 38
25 – 34 14 23
35 – 44 12 20
44 < 11 19
60 100

Sex Male 36 60
Female 24 40
60 100

Civil status Married 30 50

Unmarried 30 50
60 100

Area Town 32 53
Village 28 47
60 100

Occupation Private 11 18
Government 20 33
University 19 32
Students 10 17
60 100

Source: - Survey data

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Age:- Sample of consumers are classified into four category. 38% of them are belong
to under 25 years group 23% are under 25 – 34 age group, 20% of the respondents are
35 – 44 age group, 19% are above 44 years.
Sex:- Out of 60 consumers 60% are male 40% of them are female.
Civil status: - Among total sample 50% of consumers are married the remaining are
unmarried.
Area: - The area has been classified into two types such as town and village. Based on
this classification 53% are in town area and 47% are in village.
Occupation: - 18% of total sample are working in private organizations, 33% are
government servants, 32% of them are university staff and the remaining 17% are
students.

Number and percentage of consumers based on opinion about 4 Ps and brand

loyalty
Strong Weak opinion Strong Weak
opinion about about 4 Ps brand brand
4 Ps loyalty loyalty
Score < 30 Score > 30 Score < 41 Score > 41
No % No % No % No %

Low involvement
products
Milk powder 06 10% 54 90% 45 75% 15 25%
Tooth paste 20 34% 40 66% 39 65% 21 35%

High involvement
products
T.V 20 34% 40 66% 38 63% 22 37%
Motor cycle 36 60% 24 40% 24 40% 36 40%
Source: - Survey data

According to above table 10% of milk powder consumers have a positive perception
about marketing mix 90% of others hold a weak opinion about marketing mix. On the

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other side 34% of toothpaste users posses strong positive perception about 4 Ps 66%
of the consumers have weak opinion about marketing mix. Further 75% of milk
powder consumers and 65% of toothpaste consumers have high brand loyalty. In the
case of high involvement products (Motor cycle). Majority of respondance (60%)
revealed strong positive opinion about marketing mix. At the same time 60% of motor
bicycle holder are a low brand lower.

Summary of findings
Correlation coefficient for high involvement and low involvement products.
High involvement Low involvement
product product
T.V Motor Tooth Milk
cycle paste powder
Marketing mix and brand loyalty 0.369 0.526 0.189 0.210

Source: - Survey data

Low involvement products: Generally the findings indicated a positive low

correlation between perception about marketing mix and brand loyalty of these
products. In the case of tooth paste correlation is very low (0.189) than milk
powder (0.210). This tends to suggest that function of marketing mix is not
enough in creating loyal consumers. Because independently 75% of milk powder
consumers and 65% of toothpaste users are in high brand loyal group.

High involvement products: Both of the high involvement products have

positive correlation with marketing mix and brand loyalty. For T.V holders it was
0.369 and for motorcycle holders it was 0.526. This situation explains as
marketing mix of motorcycle has a significant impact on brand loyalty.

Hypotheses testing

High positive opinion of Low positive opinion of

Hypothesis product marketing mix and brand marketing and brand
loyalty loyalty
Tooth paste 0.219 0.417
Milk powder 0.312 0.492
Motor cycle 0.731 0.226
T.V 0.421 0.514
Source: Survey data

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According to H1 there must be a strong positive relationship between independent and
dependent variables. So H1 is accepted for Motorcycles. The correlation coefficient
value for motorcycle (0.731) explains there is a high positive relationship between
marketing mix and brand loyalty. On the other hand the correlation value for T.V
says, as there is low positive relationship between two variables. H2 is accepted to
first three products in the table.

Other findings
i) Most of the respondents say that they buy a particular brand (specially tooth
paste, milk powder, T.V) not because marketing mix of organizations because
of the influence of the word of month (their parents use this brand for a long
time, they follow them)
ii) Indian brands are bought because of the availability of spare parts, lower price
(in comparing with Japanese brand) attractive advertisement.
iii) 60% of sample consumers use signal brand toothpaste and the same percentage
of them consumes Luxpray milk powder.
iv) 76% of respondent aware more than six brands in each product (awareness set)
and 61% of them consideration set has two brands only.
v) Other than brand loyalty 20% of consumers change their toothpaste in time to
time because of the advice of dentists.

Conclusion

The research findings revealed a positive correlation between marketing mix and
brand loyalty, with the strength of this correlation being greater in respect of high
involvement products as opposed to low involvement products, there by validating the
first hypothesis (H1) that the higher the positive opinion of marketing mix leads to the
stronger the brand loyalty is greater with regard to high involvement products than
low involvement products.

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 References :-

1. Phillip Kotler, Marketing Management, 11th edi. (India : Pearson Education

Inc, 2003)

2. Richard MS Wilson and Colin Gilligan, Strategic Marketing Management,

(New Delhi : Viva Books Private Ltd, 1999)
3. Niranjan Wijesekara, “Advertising expenditure as determinant of a Brand‟s
Share of the market”, Sri Lankan Journal of Management (Vol. I Number 4,
1996)
4. Reffaim, Sales Impact of advertising., A study of two Sri Lankan
companies, (MBA Research study PIM : University of Sri Jeyawardnapura,
1998)

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