The Impact of Marketing Mix on Consumers buying behaviour

Abstract
In the current commercial world, every organization gives high priority to satisfy their
customer expectations. Satisfied customers will stay 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.
There were two hypotheses set out for the study. H
1
The higher the positive opinion about
marketing mix leads to stronger the brand loyalty. H
2
-The lower the positive 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 (r
p
= 0.731) between marketing mix and brand loyalty. But even though there is
positive correlation between independent and dependent variable for other three product the
relationship is not strong positive.Further it was found that the word of mouth has high
influence than marketing mix.

An Introduction

The aim of todays marketing is to delight the target customers perfectly better than their
competitors. This goal ensures survival of the firms in the market arena. For this purpose
organizations adopt a different strategies and spend 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 not simple tasks. Consumers may state their
needs 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 investigators behavioural frame work of reference. This study tries to explain the
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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. In the advertising side, Newspapers, T.V
channels, postal and radio are functioning in accelerated rates.

Statement of the problem

There are number of factors influencing the brand choice of consumers. According to
marketing literature, the brand rand choice is the function of 4 Ps (ie. Product, place,
promotion and price) as well as buyers characteristics. It is obliviously that most of the
promotional efforts of national companies are not designed for Jaffna consumers as to
consider them as target market. Especially advertisements are not designed with the
consideration of cultural, social and psychological factors of the people who live in Jaffna
district 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
Japanese 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 and then to lead to brand loyalty. The following statement reflects the problem of this
study.
Do 4 Ps (Marketing mix) lead to brand choice and brand loyalty of Jaffna consumers?

Significance of the study

Organizations in all over the world spend 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 in the market. Now the situation is totally changed. Number of
brands in every product is 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 among FMGs and some of durables. But there is no single study
conducted in Jaffna till 2003 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 understand the
3
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 product.
3. To find out factors influencing buying behavior of consumers in Jaffna district.
4. To find out the level of brand loyalty among low involvement and high involvement
products.

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 ). 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)
Conceptualization
Conceptualization of this study explains the relationship between independent and dependent
variables. Consumers positive opinion of marketing mix and brand choice and brand loyalty
has been accepted as positively related factors.

Conceptual framework





In the above model marketing mix was considered as independent variable and Brand loyalty
was dependent variable.
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.
Marketing Mix
Brand loyalty
4

Data collection technique
Selection of research sample
For this study 600 respondents are selected from various occupation and places in Jaffna
district and two low involvement products (Tooth paste and milk power) and also two high
involvement product (motor bicycle and T.V) have been taken into analysis.
Questionnaire
Major part of the data was collected through questionnaire. This questionnaire has two parts.
Part I consists of 12 questions, which helps to get general information about consumer and
identify the degree of brands awareness. Part II consists of 20 questions to gather information
about marketing mix and brand loyalty. The questions have five options viz as strongly agree,
agree, uncertain, disagree and strongly disagree. The rating system was as follows.
i) For a positive question to measure a particular aspect.
Strongly agree 5
Agree 4
Uncertain 3
Disagree 2
Strongly disagree 1

ii) For a negative question to measure a particular aspect.
Strongly agree 5
Agree 4
Uncertain 3
Disagree 2
Strongly disagree 1


Data presentation and analysis
Description Classification Number of
respondent
Percentage
Age < 25 230 38
25 34 140 23
35 44 120 20
44 < 110 19
600 100

Sex Male 360 60
Female 240 40
600 100
5

Civil status Married 300 50
Unmarried 300 50
600 100

Area Town 320 53
Village 280 47
600 100

Occupation Private 110 18
Government 200 33
University 190 32
Students 100 17
600 100

Source: - Survey data
Age: - Sample of consumers is 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 600 consumers 60% are male 40% of them are female.
Civil status: - Among total sample 50% of consumers are married the remaining is
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.
10% of milk powder consumers have a positive perception about marketing mix 90% of
others hold a weak opinion about marketing mix. On the 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), the majority
of respondents (60%) revealed strong positive opinion about marketing mix. At the same time
60% of motor bicycle holders are a low brand lower.
Correlation coefficient for high involvement and low involvement products.
High involvement
product
Low involvement
product
T.V Motor
cycle
Tooth
paste
Milk
powder
Marketing mix and brand loyalty 0.369 0.526 0.189 0.210

Source: - Survey data
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Low involvement products: The findings indicated a positive low correlation between
perception about marketing mix and brand loyalty of this category of products. In the case of
tooth paste correlation is very lower (0.189) than milk powder (0.210). At the same time, 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 holder it was. 0.369 And for motorcycle
holders it was 0.526. This situation explains as marketing mix of motorcycle has a positive
relationship with brand loyalty.

Hypotheses testing

Hypothesis product High positive opinion of
marketing mix and brand
loyalty
Low positive opinion of
marketing and brand
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

According to H1 there should 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 of the influence of marketing mix of the organizations
due to the influence of the word of mouth (due to the opinion of their parents, friends
and other users)
ii) Indian brands are bought because of the availability of spare parts, lower price (in
comparing with Japanese brand) attractive advertisement.
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iii) 60% of sample 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.

References: -

1. Phillip Kotler,(2003) Marketing Management, 11
th
edi. India: Pearson Education Inc

2. Richard MS Wilson and Colin Gilligan, (1999) Strategic Marketing Management,
New Delhi : Viva Books Private Ltd
3. Niranjan Wijesekara, Advertising expenditure as determinant of a Brands Share of
the market, Sri Lankan Journal of Management (Vol. I Number 4, 1996)

4. Reffaim(1998) Sales Impact of advertising., A study of two Sri Lankan companies,
(MBA Research study PIM : University of Sri Jeyawardnapura,