Attitude of Young People of India Towards Luxury Brands Essay

Introduction: A couple of generations ago, a typical purchase decision for the average Indian would be choosing between, say, clothes and electronic goods whenever they had a little cash to spare. Today, the customers’ dilemma involves making up their mind between Prada and Gucci, Merc and Lamborghini. Marie Antoinette would say, â€Å"If they can’t have bread, give them brands instead! † In a relatively short time span of 20 years, India has moved from pavement markets to swanky malls, from frugal minded consumer to who want it all and from a population largely obessed with celebrity gossip to one which yearns to gain knowledge. India is taking wing. It is not simple because India is set to become the fastest growing major economy in the world. The combination of a large young working population, rising income levels, overwhelming consumer optimism and increasingly urbanized lifestyle is driving consumption growth in India. The market potential of world’s second largest population has not gone unnoticed. International Luxury brands have India on the radar. As developed market continue to battle economic turmoil. India offers luxury brand owners unrivalled growth opportunities. The Indian luxury market is projected to reach USD 14. 72 billion in 2015(CII and A. T. Kearny, 2011). It may represents only 1-2 percent of the global luxury market, but its market growth rate of more than 20 percent per annum, promise positive returns for luxury players. A flow of international brands from Giorgio Armani to Ferrari to Sofitel Hotel have entered the Indian market to claim a share of the luxury rupee. Many others are waiting, watching and preparing. This is not just about today’s market but a key strategic market of the future. Problem Definition: * Young consumer attitudes are essential for the marketers to plan their strategy in reaching the target consumers. So in our study we have focused to segment young consumers according to attitude variables. Objectives: * The aim of the study is to segment young consumers based on their three important beliefs parameters (confidence, trust, optimism) as we know beliefs is an important attitudes of consumer Literature review: 1. THE ROLE OF CONFIDENCE IN UNDERSTANDING AND PREDICTING BUYERS’ ATTITUDES AND PURCHASE INTENTIONS * Peter D. Bennett and Gilbert D. Harrell * Journal of Consumer Research * Vol. 2, No. 2 (Sep. , 1975), pp. 110-117 * Published by: The University of Chicago Press * Article Stable URL: http://www. jstor. org/stable/2488752 This research examines the role of buyers confidence in the formation of attitudes and purchase intention. It supports current buyer behavior theory which postulates a positive relationship between overall confidence in a brand and intention to purchase the brand. It also examine buyers confidence in their own ability to judge attributes of brands. 2. NEED FOR UNIQUENESS AND CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOUR FOR LUXURY BRANDS AMONGST INDIAN YOUTH * Authors: Meenakshi Handa, Arpita Khare * JournalInternational Journal of Indian Culture and Business Management * Publisher : Inderscience Publishers * ISSN:1753-0806 (Print),1753-0814 (Online) * IssueVolume 3, Number 5/2010 * Pages489-502 The purpose of this research was to examine the Indian youth’s need for uniqueness (NFU) and their attitudes towards luxury brand as an expression of individuality. A primary research was conducted amongst Indian University students to ascertain their NFU and perception of luxury brands. It was apparent that while the NFU is not very high amongst the Indian youth, luxury brands do symbolize status and individuality to them and serve a value-expressive function. As the Indian social system is witnessing a transition from traditional family driven values to more of western and individual-centric values, NFU and expression of self-identity amongst Indian youth may also become more marked. While marketing global luxury brands in India, advertising may be focused towards conveying a new identity to the consumers yet maintaining a balance with traditional norms and value systems. 3. LUXURY’S NEW DESTINATION – CHANGING PARADIGMS OF THE INDIAN CONSUMERS – AN EMPIRICAL STUDY * DR. BUSHAN D. SUDHAKAR*; ARUN KUMAR. PARISE * International Journal of Multidisciplinary Management Studies * Vol. 2 Issue 1, January 2012, ISSN 2249 8834 * Online available at http://zenithresearch. org. in/ In this study the researcher investigate, Indian consumer migration towards Luxury brands form value middle tier brands. The findings suggest that there is significant difference with the gender difference, social status, price, quality to purchase a luxury good. There is a higher association between the annual household income and Purchase of luxury goods It clearly says that affordability, quality, availability, celebrity, self-satisfaction, image and social status are the key drivers to the migration of consumers to Luxury brands from value middle tier branded goods. It confirms the view that brand perception and purchase value is, apart from socially oriented motives of buying to impress others also affected by financial, functional, and individual aspects. It would seem that the dimensions presented in this paper are appropriate variables for segmenting the market for branded items. 4. ATTITUDES TOWARDS THE CONCEPT OF LUXURY: AN EXPLORATORY ANALYSIS * Bernard Dubois, Groupe H. E. C & Gilles Laurent, Groupe H. E. C. * Asia Pacific Advances in Consumer Research Volume 1, 1994 * Pages 273-278 In this paper is the author did an exploratory analysis of the perceptions and attitudes attached to the word (and underlying concept of) â€Å"luxury†. It is hoped that the results presented below will stimulate further research in the area and eventually contribute to the development of a theory of luxury acquisition and consumption behavior. Research Gap: The literature available on topics such as Need for uniqueness and consumption behavior for luxury brands amongst Indian youth, luxury’s new destination – changing paradigms of the Indian consumers – an empirical study, There is no study on attitude (belief like confidence, trust and optimism) of Young people of India towards Luxury brands, which will help in marketers to plan their strategy in reaching these new and promising target consumers. It is essential for the marketer to understand how consumers think and value a product. There has been a vast increase in the luxury market and attempts are being made to attract the youth through different marketing strategies. This research will identify the different belief parameter which is an important attitude of young people of India which influence them towards luxury brands and provide information for better understanding of young customer. Research Design:. Sample Design: Sample size: is hundred (100). Sample techniques: it is judgmental sampling these samples/ respondents will be selected from both NIFT students and young working professional’s i.e. young people’s working in companies like TCS, Infosys and Wipro. Observational Design: This research based on primary & secondary data. The primary data are collected through structured questionnaire. Primary data generally means those raw data which are handled first handedly and haven’t any previous meaningful interpretation. Secondary data collected from different journals, book and internet on topic of people’s attitudes and luxury brands. Statistical design: we are going to segment young consumers based on their three important beliefs parameters (confidence, trust, optimism) as we know consumer belief is an important factor of consumer attitude. Our proposed segmentation tool is Cluster analysis. We will be using Hierarchical cluster with between groups linkage as the clustering method based on squared Euclidian distance. Ward’s Hierarchical Clustering Method: Ward considered hierarchical clustering procedures basedon minimizing the ‘loss of information’ from joining two groups. This method is usually implemented with loss of information taken to be an increase in an error sum of squares criterion. ESS. First, for a given cluster k, let ESSk be the sum of the squared deviations of very item in the cluster from the cluster mean (centroid). If there are currently K clusters, define ESS as the sum of the ESSk or ESS = ESS1 + ESS2 + †¦ + ESS K At each step in the analysis, the union of every possible pair of clusters is considered, and the two clusters whose combination results in the smallest increase in ESS (minimum loss of information) are joined. Initially, each cluster consists of a single item, and, if there are N items, ESSk = 0, k = 1,2, †¦ , N, so ESS = O. At the other extreme, when all the clusters are combined in a single group of N items, the value of ESS is given by N ESS =j=1nxj-x†(xj-x’) where Xj is the multivariate measurement associated with the jth item and i is the mean of all the items. The results of Ward’s method can be displayed as a dendrogram. The vertical axis gives the values of ESS at which the mergers occur. Ward’s method is based on the notion that the clusters of multivariate observations are expected to be roughly elliptically shaped. It is a hierarchical precursor to nonhierarchical clustering methods that optimize some criterion for dividing data into a given number of elliptical groups. We discuss nonhierarchical clustering procedures in the next section Proposed Questionnaire: 1=strongly agree 2=agree 3=neither agree or disagree 4=disagree 5=completely disagree Please do tick which option you feel most†¦ Statement no 1: 3. 3. 2. 2. 5. 5. 4. 4. 1. 1. â€Å"I buy luxury products because good quality of product† Statement no 2: 3. 3. 2. 2. 5. 5. 4. 4. 1. 1. â€Å"Luxury means some extra things which is adding more value than the regular brands have† Statement no 3: 3. 3. 2. 2. 5. 5. 4. 4. 1. 1. â€Å"I buy luxury products whatever I can afford & whatever I want† Statement no 4: 3. 3. 2. 2. 5. 5. 4. 4. 1. 1. â€Å"I preferred luxury products what I like, if I like it a lot and feel like it’s worth my money† Statement no 5: 3. 3. 2. 2. 5. 5. 4. 4. 1. 1. â€Å"I preferred luxury brands because it brings higher aspiration in my life† Statement no 6: 3. 3. 2. 2. 5. 5. 4. 4. 1. 1. â€Å"I like to have BMW or Ferrari in future†.