FIELD REPORT

ON
“A study on consumer buying behavior at Deep Sweets shop, Bhota ,
Himachal Pradesh”

Submitted in Partial Fulfillment for the Requirement of

award ofMaster of Business Administration (MBA)

Supervised By : Submitted By:

Name – Shubham Dogra

Mr. Desh Raj
Faculty, School of Commerce Roll no. – 20015126053
and Management, Himachal
Department – MBA (Human
Pradesh Technical University, Resource)
Hamirpur

School of Commerce & Management

Himachal Pradesh Technical

University
Hamirpur, Distt. Hamirpur – 177001, Himachal Pradesh

(Established under Act No. 16 of 2010 of Himachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly

 CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that this field report entitled as “A study on

consumer buying behaviour at Deep Sweets shop, Bhota, Himachal
Pradesh” submitted in partial fulfillment of requirement for the award of
degree of MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION from HIMACHAL
PRADESH TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY, HAMIRPUR carried out by Mr.
Shubham Dogra, Under Roll No. 20015126053 has been carried out the
successful completion ofthe 4th semester, under supervision and guidance.

2
 STUDENT’S DECLARATION

I Shubham Dogra of MBA 4th semester, Department of

Management studies, Himachal Pradesh Technical University
Hamirpur, hereby declare that field report work titled, “A study
on consumer buying behaviour at Deep Sweets shop, Bhota,
Himachal Pradesh” is submitted for the partial fulfillment in
MBA of Himachal Pradesh Technical University Hamirpur.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I am deeply indebted to many people for the successful

completion of this field project Work I would like to take this
opportunity and go on record to thank them for their help and
support. I am thankful to the HIMACHAL PRADESH TECHNICAL
UNIVERSITY for all the support provided for this project. I
express my deep sense of gratuity and sincere feelings of
obligation tomy Project Guide Mr. Desh Raj who has helped me
in overcoming many difficulties and who as imparted me the
necessary conceptual knowledge.
I wish to thank all my teachers - for their helpful inputs - insightful
comments steadfast love andsupport.

THANKING YOU
ROLL NO.20015126053

3
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Sr. No. Chapters Contents Page No.

1 1 Introduction 1-11

1.1 Consumer
2
1.2 Types of Consumers
2-3
1.3 Buying Behaviour 3

1.4 Types of Buying Behaviour

3-5

1.5 Consumer Buying Behaviour

1.6 Factor influencing

5
Consumer Buying
6
Behaviour

1.7 Consumer buying process

7-9
1.8 Consumer decision making process
10
1.9 Deep Sweets shop profile
11
2 2 Observations 12-13

3 3 Conclusion 14-16

4 4 Bibliography 17-18

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 Introduction to consumer buying behaviour

Let us take a look at the general introduction of consumer buying behaviour.

Consumer:

It generally refers to a person engaging themselves in the activities like:

decision-making process, physical activity involved in acquiring, evaluating,
using, disposing and providing the feedback of goods and services.

There are some important roles of consumer that affects the consumer
buying behaviour:

Initiator: the individual who determines that a certain need or want is not
fulfilled and purchase a product that can fulfil those needs.

Influencer: A person who by some intentional or unintentional action,

controls or changes the purchase decision of others.

Buyer: The individual who actually purchases the product but might not
consume it.

User: The person who actually consumes the product.

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Buying behaviour:

Buying behaviour is the decision-making processes and acts of people

involved in buying and using products. It is synonymous to the term
“consumer buying behaviour”, which often applies to the individual
customers in contrast to businesses. Also, a major difference between buying
behaviour and consumer buying behaviour is that consumer buying
behaviour is only focused on the set of decisions or acts people took while
buying something and then are going to consume that particular product
while buying behaviour could be used for customers’ buying behaviour too
who are not consuming the product themselves but are still involved in the
buying process for others.

Buying behaviour is the driving force behind any marketing process.

Understanding why and how people decide to purchase this or that product
or why they are so loyal to one particular product/brand is the number one
task for the companies that strive for improving their business model and
acquiring more customers.

Consumer buying behaviour:

The aim of marketing is to meet and satisfy target customer needs and wants.
The field of Consumer behaviour shows how individual, group and
organizations select, buy, use and dispose of goods, services, ideas or
experience to satisfy their needs and desires. Consumer behaviour involves
study of how people buy, what they buy, when they buy and why they buy.
It blends the elements from psychology, sociology, socio psychology,
anthropology and economics. Buyer behaviour has two aspects: the final
purchase activity visible to any observer and the detailed or short decision

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process that may involve the interplay of a number of complex variables not
visible to anyone.

Market segmentation is a critical feature of consumer behaviour since

consumers within a segment are more or less alike in commodity needs and
desires (Lantos, 2015). Demographic (age, ethnicity, social class),
geographic (regional, country differences), psychographic (personality,
lifestyle), and behavioural (brand loyalty, benefit desire, usage rates, usage
occasion) market segmentation are only a few examples (Solomon et al.,
2010). Also investigated are the influences on the consumer, from groups
such as family, friends, sports, and reference groups, to society in general,
including brand influencers and opinion leaders.

The study of consumer behaviour assumes that the consumers are actors in
the marketplace. The perspective of role theory assumes that consumers
play various roles in the marketplace. Starting from the information
provider, from the user to the payer and to the disposer, consumers play
these roles in the decision process.

What influences consumers to purchase products or services? To know

consumer behaviour and knowing customer is a complex thing. Ideology of
customer is that they may say one thing but do not another. They may
behave in a certain way, influenced by last minute change in their mind.

Definitions of consumer behaviour:

❖ According to American Marketing Association, consumer behaviour

can be defined as "the dynamic interaction of affect and cognition, behaviour,
and environmental events by which human beings conduct the exchange
aspects of their lives."

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❖ According to Engel, Blackwell, and Miniard, “consumer behaviour is the
actions and decision processes of people who purchase goods and services
for personal consumption”.

❖ According to Louden and Bitta, “consumer behaviour is the decision

process and physical activity, which individuals engage in when evaluating,
acquiring, using or disposing of goods and services”.

Characteristics of consumer behaviour:

1. Consumer Behaviour involves Products, Services, Activities, and Ideas: In

the scope of consumer behaviour, not only products (like toilet soaps), are
included but also the services (flying by an airliner), and activities (getting
children vaccinated for polio), and ideas (saying no to drugs). Thus,
consumer behaviour rotates around offerings.

2. Consumer Behaviour involves more than Buying: Consumer behaviour is

not restricted only to buying the offering. It includes buying (acquiring the
offering), using, and disposing. Usage has many connotations – first, it has
important symbolic implications for the consumer. Usage can also influence
other behaviours. Secondly, it may also influence other behaviours. Not
satisfied the product or services may lead to consumer complaints and
protests. Finally, consumer behaviour also evaluates as how do consumers
get rid of an offering, they previously acquired.

3. Consumer Behaviour is a Dynamic Process: Consumer Behaviour is

dynamic because the thinking, feelings, and actions of individual consumers,
targeted groups, and the society at large are constantly changing. The

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sequence of acquisition, consumption, and disposition can occur over time
in a dynamic sequence.

4. Consumer Behaviour involves Interactions among Many People:

Consumer behaviour does not mean action of a single individual.
Interactions may take place among a group of friends, a few co-workers, or
an entire family. The individuals may take different roles.

5. Consumer Behaviour involves Many Decisions: Consumer behaviour

needs understanding whether (to acquire/use/ dispose of an offering), what
(to acquire/use/dispose), why (to acquire/use/dispose of an offering or
not)), when (time), where (place), how (ways of acquiring, using, and
disposing), how much (volume), how often (frequency), and how long (till
what time) consumers will buy, use or dispose of an offering.

6. Consumer Behaviour involves Exchanges: Consumer behaviour involves

exchanges between human beings. People give something of value to receive
something of value. Indeed, the role of marketing is to help society to create
value through exchanges by formulating and implementing marketing
strategies.

Types of consumer’s buying behaviour:

This is to be extensively divided in four types:

1. Complex buying behaviour: When the consumers are highly

involved in the purchase and are aware of the significant differences
among the products/services/ brands.
2. Dissonance reduced buying behaviour: When the consumers are
highly involved in the purchase but sees less differences among the
products/services/ brands.

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 3. Habitual buying behaviour: When the consumers are less involved
in the purchase and their absence of awareness can be seen about the
products/services/ brands.
4. Variety seeking buying behaviour: When the consumers are less
involved in the purchase but sees the significant differences among the
products/services/brands.

Stages of the Consumer Buying Process:

There are five 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 five stages, determined by the degree of complexity:

Figure 1: Consumer decision making process

1. Recognition of need: The buying process starts with need or problem

recognition. The buyer recognizes a problem or need. The buyer senses a

10
difference between his or her actual state and some desired state. The need
can be triggered by internal stimuli when one of the person's normal
needs—hunger, thirst, sex—rises to a level high enough to become a drive.
A need can also be triggered by external stimuli.

At this stage, the marketer should research consumers to find out what kinds
of needs or problems arise, what brought them about, and how they led the
consumer to this particular product.

2. Information search: A passive consumer may or may not search for more
information. If the consumer's drive is strong and a satisfying product is near
at hand, the consumer is likely to buy it then. If not, the consumer may store
the need in memory or undertake an information search related to the need.
At one level, the consumer may simply enter heightened attention. The
consumer can obtain information from any of several sources. These include
personal sources (family, friends, neighbours, acquaintances), commercial
sources (advertising, salespeople, dealers, packaging, displays, Web sites),
public sources (mass media, consumer-rating organizations), and
experiential sources (handling, examining, using the product). The relative
influence of these information sources varies with the product and the
buyer. Generally, the consumer receives the most information about a
product from commercial sources. Those which are controlled by the
marketer. The most effective sources, however, tend to be personal.
Commercial sources normally inform the buyer, but personal sources
legitimize or evaluate products for the buyer.

3. Evaluation of alternatives: When you have variety in products and

various options for what you want to buy then there is a need to establish a
criterion for evaluation, features the buyer wants or does not want.
Rank/weight alternatives or resume search. If you are not satisfied with your

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choices then return to the search phase. Information from different sources
may be treated differently. Marketers try to influence by "framing"
alternatives.

4. Purchase decision: In the evaluation stage, the consumer ranks brands

or products and forms purchase intentions. Generally, the consumer's
purchase decision will be to buy the most preferred brand/product, but two
factors can come between the purchase intention and the purchase decision.
The first factor is the attitudes of others and the second factor is unexpected
situational factors. The consumer may form a purchase intention based on
factors such as expected income, expected price, and expected product
benefits. However, unexpected events may change the purchase intention.
So, a product might be purchased or not at this stage.

5. Post-Purchase Evaluation: The marketer's job does not end when the
product is bought. After purchasing the product, the consumer will be
satisfied or dissatisfied and will engage in post purchase behaviour of
interest to the marketer. What determines whether the buyer is satisfied or
dissatisfied with a purchase? The answer lies in the relationship between the
consumer's expectations and the product's perceived performance. If the
product falls short of expectations, the consumer is disappointed; if it meets
expectations, the consumer is satisfied; if it exceeds expectations, the
consumer is delighted. The larger the gap between expectations and
performance, the greater the consumer's dissatisfaction. This suggests that
sellers should make product claims that faithfully represent the product's
performance so that buyers are satisfied. Some sellers might even
understate performance levels to boost consumer satisfaction with the
product.

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Factors influencing consumer behaviour: The marketers try to
understand the actions of the consumers in the marketplace actions. These
motives are the factors that influence the consumer behaviour. These are:

1. Psychological factor: The human psychology plays a crucial role in

designing the consumer’s preferences and likes or dislikes for a particular
product and services. Some of the important psychological factors are:

 Motivation
 Perception
 Learning
 Attitudes and beliefs

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2. Social factors: The human beings live in a complex social environment
wherein they are surrounded by several people who have different buying
behaviours. Since the man is a social animal who likes to be acceptable by all
tries to imitate the behaviours that are socially acceptable. Hence, the social
factors influence the buying behaviour of an individual to a great extent.
Some of the social factors are:

 Family
 Reference groups
 Social roles and status

3. Cultural factors: It is believed that an individual learns the set of values,

perceptions, behaviours, and preferences at a very early stage of his
childhood from the people especially, the family and the other key
institutions which were around during his developmental stage. Thus, the
behavioural patterns are developed from the culture where he or she is
brought up. Several cultural factors are:

 Culture
 Sub-culture

4. Personal factors: There are several factors personal to the individuals

that influence their buying decisions. Some of them are:

 Age
 Income
 Occupation
 Lifestyle

5. Economical factors: The last but not the least is the economic factors
which have a significant influence on the buying decision of an individual.
These are:

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  Personal income
 Family income
 Income expectations
 Consumer credit
 Savings

Complete model of consumer buying behaviour:

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Introduction to Deep Sweets, Bhota

Shop name – Deep Sweets

Owner – Dipender Sharma

Number of employees - 5

Location – Hamirpur to Una Road, Main bazaar Bhota, Hamirpur (H.P.)

176041

Timings:

Monday – Saturday (8:00 a.m. – 8:00 p.m.) in summer.

Monday – Saturday (9:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.) in winter.

Nature of business – Retailer/Manufacturer of sweets.

City of procurement of products - Bhota

Modes of payment accepted – Cash, Google Pay, ATM transactions,

customer credit and other mobile wallets.

1.8 DEEP SWEETS SHOP PROFILE

Deep Sweets shop in Bhota, (H.P.) is the leading retail service provider for
cakes and sweets in the areas nearby Bhota and is very popular in nearby
areas too. It is known to satisfactorily cater to the demands of its customer
base.

Have you been craving sweets lately?

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Wish to buy sweets from the best one in the city then Deep Sweets shop in
Bhota (H.P.), that caters to sweet demand for all occasions and celebrations.
Since the past year 2020, due to covid they have missed several occasions,
their sweet wishes to make this year a memorable one for the customers
with their best quality sweets. The variety of sweets at their shop is to die
for. They have sweets according to the seasons as well. Their sweet shop also
sells several kinds of snacks and namkeens. They make and sell absolutely
fresh sweets and at very attractive prices. One can also buy gift boxes and
gift packs of sweets and cakes for the special occasions. They also provide
packets of milk and curd for the daily use.

As, Bhota is a pretty busy place, the opportunity to get a potential customer
is very high. Deep Sweets shop has taken this opportunity and utilized it to
the maximum and hence are now the renowned sweets shop in Bhota.

The accepted modes of payments are cash, Google Pay, customer credit and
other mobile payments to make every business transaction easy and
seamless, contributing to make the entire process even more effective.

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Observations on consumer buying behaviour at
Deep Sweets, Bhota

I, Shubham Dogra, was supposed to observe the customers while they were
buying the sweets for my field work on studying consumer buying behaviour
at Deep Sweets, Bhota. I would really thank Mr. Dipender Sharma and his
employees for letting me do the field work in their shop. I was able to
observe the buying behaviour of their consumers and here are few
observations:

1. Name – Meenal Rana

Age – 40 years

Gender – Female

Occupation – Housewife

1st Observation:

At first, I observed a consumer who came with her family. She asked for the
price of different sweets. She was very price conscious, hence ordered 4kgs
Besan altogether. Though she wanted all of those four kilograms to be put
separately in 4 packs such that each pack contains 1 kg of those Besan. As
Besan is the lowest product on the price list, hence it can be seen that the
consumer was not willing to spend enough on these items. Also, she knew
already what she wanted and in how much quantity. She was a house-wife
and was about 40 years old and just asked for her family about the choice of
variety.

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2. Name – Balak Singh

Age – 39 years

Gender – Male

Occupation – Owner of cloth house

After first observation, I waited for the other consumers. I observed one male
customer who asked for a readymade eggless cake and some candles for the
birthday party of his son who just turned 9. His son came along with him and
chose the cake irrespective of the price by just looking at the cake. Though
he was guided beforehand that the cake you need must be a medium sized
cake. The cake chosen by the kid was about 500gms and his father was happy
with the related price and the appearance of cake. So, they just bought it
along with the candles. His father worked as a consultant. Therefore, it was
clear that personal choice and the cultural factor was the factor of the kid’s
buying behaviour subjected by the price constraints.

3. Name – Raman Chauhan

Age – 26 years

Gender – Male

Then after that, a customer wanted two Curd packets for daily general use.
He was a regular customer and hence use to buy these Curd packets on credit
and would pay for these on the end of the month. His relationship with the
owner was the strongest among all the consumers as he was a local person
from Hamirpur. Hence, a trust from the side of the owner was also seen.

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4. Name – Rahul Minhas

Age – 21 years

Gender – Male

Occupation – Student

After that, I observed one young boy who came with his sister. I observed
that they came in to buy Rose water berry on the occasion of their parent’s
18th anniversary. They asked the price of 1kg then They buy 3kg rose water
berry. They both consulted each other before buying. They did the payment
by cash. Both of the customers were the students and ordered as per their
family influences with price being the factor too.

5. Name – Harish Kumar

Age – 52 years

Gender – Male

Occupation – Manager

In this observation, I observed a male consumer who came there to buy 3

packs of 1 kg Barfi each, 1 pack of 1 kg Jalebi and 1 pack of 1 kg mixed sweet.
He worked as a manager and made a call to his wife before buying these
sweets. He did the online payment. It can be seen that the buying behaviour
corresponded much around the family influence. He was not much
concerned about the price too.

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Limitation:

 The ambiance of the shop wasn’t considered to be the part of study.

 Limited number of observations.
 Nature of the employees working in the business wasn’t considered as
the part of study.
 As the interaction with the consumers was one-time interaction for me
therefore there are high chances of perceptual error.

Conclusion:

The observational study was done on the people who shared different
interests in products, using modes of payment, differ in age, occupation and
purpose of purchase. But most of them were connected by family influences,
social and cultural factors while buying the products. Price, quality also
played huge role in the purchasing decision. Digital transaction played much
more role in the younger generation as compared to the elder generation.

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