A

Project report

on

IMPACT OF DIGITAL MEDIA ON PURCHASING BEHAVIOUR OF

CONSUMER DURABLE

In partial fulfilment of the requirements of

Post-Graduation Diploma in Business Management

conducted by

Rizvi Academy of Management

under the guidance of

Prof. Rajesh Vyas

submitted by

Mr. Mohd Asim

PGDBM

Batch: 2017 - 2019

CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that Mr. Mohd Asim, a student of Rizvi Academy of Management,
of PGDBM bearing Roll No. 21 and specializing in Marketing has successfully
completed the project titled

“Impact of digital media on purchasing behaviour of consumer durables.”

under the guidance of Prof. Rajesh Vyas in partial fulfilment of the requirement of Post-
Graduation Diploma in Business Management by Rizvi Academy of Management for
the academic year 2017– 2019.

_______________

Prof. Rajesh Vyas

Project Guide

_______________ _______________

Prof. Umar Farooq Dr. Kalim Khan

Academic Coordinator Director

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This is to express my sincerest regards to my project Guide, Prof. Rajesh Vyas for their
valuable inputs, guidance, encouragement, whole-hearted cooperation throughout the
duration of my project. I deeply express my sincere thanks to Dr. Kalim Khan, Director
of Rizvi Academy of Management for allowing me to do this project. I want to thank
each and every one wo helped me directly or indirectly in this project.

ii
Executive Summary
This project report presents a study on “Impact of digital media on purchasing
behaviour of consumer durables”. This project has been prepared as a summer project
given by the college. The study is done to know how digital media is influencing
consumers. The project gave me a great learning experience.

The first part of this project involves the study of consumer durable industry. Different
analysis is done on this industry. There is also a description on consumer buying
behaviour and different stages involved in it.

The second part of this project consist of questionnaire and the analysis based on the
responses. This questionnaire gave a vague idea about the level of influence of digital
media on consumers. The questionnaire contains various aspects. The project consists
of a qualitative study that has a combine finding of qualitative research along with the
data analysis.

With the help of this project it is found out that people do not buy much consumer
durable online. The product like mobile, they buy online but product like television,
laptop, computer, refrigerator they prefer to buy from stores.

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CONTENTS
1. Introduction: ............................................................................................................... 1
2. Need of the study: ...................................................................................................... 2
2.1 Objective of the study: ......................................................................................... 2
3. About Industry: .......................................................................................................... 3
4. Consumer Durables .................................................................................................... 5
4.1 Historical Evolution ............................................................................................. 6
5. Analysis of Industry ................................................................................................... 8
5.1 SWOT Analysis of Samsung................................................................................ 8
5.2. SWOT Analysis of LG ........................................................................................ 9
5.3. Porter’s Five Forces .......................................................................................... 11
5.4 PEST Analysis.................................................................................................... 13
6. Consumer buying decision stages ............................................................................ 18
7. Literature Review..................................................................................................... 21
8. Research methodology ............................................................................................. 23
8.1 Primary Data: ..................................................................................................... 23
8.2 Secondary Data: ................................................................................................. 24
9. Analysis.................................................................................................................... 26
9.1. Analysis & Graphical Representation ............................................................... 26
10. Findings.................................................................................................................. 32
11. Limitations ............................................................................................................. 34
12. Recommendations .................................................................................................. 35
13. Annexure ................................................................................................................ 36
13.1 Questionnaire ................................................................................................... 36
14. Bibliography .......................................................................................................... 38

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IMPACT OF DIGITAL MEDIA ON PURCHASING
BEHAVIOUR OF CONSUMER DURABLES

1. Introduction:
Internet is changing the way consumers shop and buy goods and services and has
rapidly evolved into a global phenomenon. Many companies have started using the
Internet with the aim of cutting marketing costs, thereby reducing the price of their
products in order to stay ahead in highly competitive markets. Companies also use the
Internet to convey, communicate and disseminate information, to sell the product, to
take feedback and also to conduct satisfaction surveys with customers. Customers use
the Internet not only to buy the product online, but also to compare prices, product
features and after sale service facilities they will receive if they purchase the product
from a particular store. Many feel positive about the view of online business. In addition
to the tremendous potential of the E-commerce market, the Internet provides a unique
opportunity for companies to more efficiently reach existing and potential customers.
It has been more than a decade since business-to-consumer E commerce first evolved.
Companies of consumer durables are constantly trying to gain and improve by doing
research about the behaviour of consumer that how digital media is influencing their
behaviour.

The Consumer Durable industry consists of durable goods and appliances for domestic
use such as television, refrigerators, air conditioner, laptops, mobile etc. instrument
such as kitchen appliances (microwave ovens, grinders etc.) are also included in this
category. This industry includes all those goods which are durable i.e. products whose
life expectancy is at least 3 years. These products are hard goods that cannot be used
up at once.

Segmentation of Consumer Durables Industry: The consumer durables industry can be

broadly classified into 2 segments: Consumer Electronics and Consumer Appliances.
Consumer Appliances can be further categorized into Brown Goods and White Goods.
This research is only on brown goods category products like mobile, computer,
television and laptop. This research will tell the behaviour of customer while purchasing
these products.

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2. Need of the study:
The consumer durable industry has witnessed a rapid growth from past few years. This
revolution is brought by digital media. Now it has become important to know more
about digital media and how people behave on this medium. Digital media is something
which has been evolved a lot from past ten years. Now it has become very important to
know how much a company or a business should use this platform. It is on a boom
today. A study is required to know how digital media is influencing the purchasing
behaviour of an individual. Today people are becoming more inclined towards digital
platform. One of the reason maybe because they carry this platform 24/7 with them.

Every household contains at least few consumer durables. But still there is a lots of
opportunity to grow. Still the penetration in India has not happen to the extend which
developed economy have. And this digital platform is growing day by day with the
growing technology. It is important to get used to this platform and use it to the
optimum level. The behaviour of the people is changing. The lifestyle is also changing;
they are also leveraging this platform for their benefit. Therefore, it is essential to do a
study in this area.

2.1 Objective of the study:

1. The objective of this study is to bring out various factors which influences there
buying behaviour towards a consumer durable.

2. To know how much consumer are aware of digital media. To know how much, they
use this platform.

3. What are they look into before buying any consumer durable?

4. To know what are the trends in online and offline.

5. To know how much they use digital media.

6. Where they think is better place to get the product.

7. What are the mediums to get the information?

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3. About Industry:
Indian consumer durables market is broadly segregated into urban and rural markets,
and is attracting marketers from across the world. The sector comprises of a huge
middle class, relatively large affluent class and a small economically disadvantaged
class, with spending anticipated to more than double by 2025.

Global corporations view India as one of the key markets from where future growth is
likely to emerge. The growth in India’s consumer market would be primarily driven by
a favourable population composition and increasing disposable incomes.

Per capita GDP of India is expected to reach US$ 3,273.85 in 2023 from US$ 1,983 in
2012. The maximum consumer spending is likely to occur in food, housing, consumer
durables, and transport and communication sectors.

The consumer durables market in India is estimated to have reached Rs 1 trillion (US$
15.5 billion) in 2017.The consumer durables/light electrical industry is expected to
reach Rs 3 trillion (US$ 46.54 billion) by 2020.India is one of the largest growing
electronics market in the world. Indian electronics market is expected to grow at 41 per
cent CAGR between 2017-20 to reach US$ 400 billion. Consumer electronics exports
from India reached US$ 385.15 million in FY18 (up to February 2018). India has the
world’s third largest television industry. India’s television industry, is expected to grow
at a CAGR of 9.8 per cent over CY16-20. Television industry in India is estimated to
have reached Rs 660 billion (US$ 10.19 billion) in 2017 and projected to reach Rs 862
billion (US$ 13.31billion) in 2020.

The growing purchasing power and rising influence of the social media have enabled
Indian consumers to splurge on good things.

Indian appliance and consumer electronics (ACE) market reached Rs 2.05 trillion (US$
31.48 billion) in 2017. India was the world’s third largest smartphone market in 2017
with smartphone shipments growing 14 per cent year-on-year to 124 million units.

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Government initiatives:

A new Consumer Protection Bill has been approved by the Union Cabinet, Government
of India that will make the existing laws more effective with a broader scope.

The mobile phone industry in India expects that the Government of India's boost to
production of battery chargers will result in setting up of 365 factories, thereby
generating 800,000 jobs by 2025.

The Union Cabinet has approved incentives up to Rs 10,000 crore (US$ 1.47 billion)
for investors by amending the M-SIPS scheme, in order to further incentivise
investments in electronics sector, create employment opportunities and reduce
dependence on imports by 2020.

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has revised National Policy
on Electronics 2012 (NPE) to focus on increasing competitiveness, innovation, R&D,
promoting/incentivising exports in ESDM.

The Government of India has allowed 100 per cent Foreign Direct Investment (FDI)
under the automatic route in Electronics Systems Design & Manufacturing sector. FDI
into single brand retail has been increased from 51 per cent to 100 per cent; the
government is planning to hike FDI limit in multi-brand retail to 51 per cent.

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4. Consumer Durables
Consumer durables are a category of consumer product that do not have to be purchased
frequently because they are made to last for a long period of time.

The consumer durable segment can be segmented into two main groups.

White Goods

The heavy goods come under this category.

Examples of white goods:

a. Air condition
b. Refrigerator
c. Washing machine
d. Sewing machine
e. Electric fan
f. Microwave oven

Brown Goods

The light goods come under this category.

Examples of brown goods:

a. Television
b. Audio & Video system
c. CD & DVD player
d. Personal computer
e. Laptops
f. Digital camera
g. Mobile

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4.1 Historical Evolution

The more prominent reason for the delay in the evolution of the consumer durables
sector would be the delay in the evolution of the "consumer" as a class. Till the
1970s, most household assets were regarded as "luxury" items. While the major
reason for this was the low affordability level of household, the conservative
outlook of the people was also a contributing factor. Combined with this was
traditional agrarian mind-set of most people, which created a dislike to technology.

It was only in the 1980s that this trend showed signs of reversing. With economic
growth, there was an improvement however; there was a rising desire for ownership
and possession of assets, which became an indicator of social status. Lifestyle
became an integral part of the social existence, with people trying to "Keep up with
the Jones". It was also the decade when the India audience was introduced to
number of new durables, resulting from initiatives from either the Government (e.g.
colour televisions, launched during the 1982 Asian Games) or the domestic private
sector (e.g. washing machines, launched in 1987 by Videocon Group, which took a
calculated risk by defying the results of a market research study the projected bleak
prospects for a washing machines market in India). The credit for the first steps
towards the evolution of the sector would thus go to the domestic players, since
there were still restrictions both on imports of consumer goods and on the entry of
multinational player.

The late 1980s also saw the emergence of some Indian companies like BPL, video
con, and Micro Electronics on the Indian corporate scene, which redefined the
norms of doing business. On the one hand these companies invested heavily in
brand building through innovative 57 advertisement and promotion campaigns. On
the other, sensing the importance of innovating on products, the entered into
technological collaborations with global players (BPL with Sanyo, Japan, Video
con with National, Japan).

The durables industry as a whole took off in India during 1990s after the
commencement of economic liberalization. While on the demand side, economic
growth led to higher disposable incomes and aspiration levels, on the supply side,
the Government gradually opened up the sector to foreign participation and lowered

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tariff and non-tariff barriers. The last five years have witnessed the entry of
multinational players who have stormed to market with internationally proven
technologies, either on their own or in collaboration with established India players.
However, initially, the advance of the potential as well as a lack of proper
understanding of the peculiarities of the Indian market. While the multinationals
were lured by the huge size of the Indian consumer market, they failed to gauge its
heterogeneity, not only in terms of affordability levels (which would define the
capacity to pay) but also lifestyle (indicating the willingness to pay). However, these
companies were global players with deep pockets, and this enabled them to persist
with the Indian market. They went about understanding the strange requirements of
the Indian markets and started tailoring their products accordingly. For instance, it
was found that one of the key apprehensions among a number of housewives about
washing machines was that mechanical agitator action would not be as gentle as
manual washing, and would eventually damage clothes. Hence, most of the players
came up with washing machines to take care of the longer clothes. Hence, most of
the players came up with washing machines to take care of the longer clothes like
sarees, which are prone to tangling. In the 1980s, microwave ovens had remained
mysterious product not causing much response from the market. However, the
market took off after the companies came up with models adapting the machine to
the requirements of Indian cuisine.

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5. Analysis of Industry

5.1 SWOT Analysis of Samsung

Strengths:

Samsung enjoys the widest range of product portfolio.

Samsung is one of the best in terms of design features and technology.

It is a well-known brand in the market.

Weakness:

It has launched a series of smart phone which has led to cannibalization.

Demand is mostly seasonal in nature; it is generally high in festive season.

If there is good monsoon than demand in rural areas only shoots up.

Opportunities:

The penetration level of consumer durables is low in India as compared to developed

countries.

Urbanisation is increasing on a rapid scale.

There is huge rural market yet to be tapped.

Loans are easily available.

Threats:

Changing nature of tax system.

Many competitors.

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5.2. SWOT Analysis of LG

Strength:

It offers wide range of products to consumers to serve all categories and give strong
focus on the technology and keep quality of the products.

It offers effective quality of products to the consumers in their local markets and
enhances the access of the markets in the countries like India, China and Brazil.

This brand offers the effective and sound rational appeal to customers and has good
features of each product and gets suitable money on its sale.

It offers sound after sale service with wide distribution network.

The manufacturing company has various manufacturing plants in which 100,000

employees are working in the company and make it top mobile manufacturing
company.

The company sponsors different sports and entertainment activities, which can increase
their visibility.

Weakness:

Brand has lack of capabilities to influence the early adopters.

Brand did not create awareness among the masses about their products.
Brand has limited market shares and lagging behind from others in the stock market.
Brand failed to create the environment on the social media for their users.
The effective advertising and socializing of the products could not be done effectively.

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Opportunity:

It can enhance the fast growing of the home appliances, and other electronics goods
market in the emerging economies of the world.
The quality of the products should be enhanced.
Latest technology should be introduced in the electronic products.
The company should target the emerging economies to enhance their business.
The latest mobile phones and other electronic products should be introduced in the
market.
The up-gradation of the products is necessary in the emerging technologies.
The most professional staff and team can boost the business of the company with the
new technologies and equipment and enhance the quality of the products.
It is necessary to introduce new features and apps in the mobile phones and laptop,
which can help the users to carry out their working.

Threats:

The price war with the Korean competitors can disturb their growth and they can face
problems in the sensitive markets.
The company is facing the problem of stagnant urban demand of their products.
They face very high competitive industry dynamics to enhance the business of the
company.
In the presence of false green claims, the brand value and the consumer trust can be
shattered.
The company has to face strong competitors in the market, which can produce latest
models of their electronic products and become the leader in the electronics market.

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5.3. Porter’s Five Forces

Availability of
Substitutes:
Low to Medium

Competitive
Supplier Power: Buyer Power:
Rivalry: High
Low High

Threat of New
Entrants:
Medium

Buyer Power: The buyer’s power is quite high as they have multiple brands across
different price points, hence giving them a wide variety cross both durable and
nondurable products to choose from.

They can easily compare the prices of difference brands. Similar types of goods are
present in almost all the brands. Buyers switching cost is very low.

Supplier Power: The suppliers‟ power is low because of the availability of the large
numbers of suppliers in the domestic market and cheap import options for components
from other suppliers and countries. Product differentiation is very low.

Competitive Rivalry: Presence of a large number of players in the domestic consumer

durable market in each segment leads to high rivalry. There is intense rivalry due to
continuous innovation. There is rivalry because they are tapping the same market.

Availability of Substitutes: The threat of availability of substitutes in the Indian

Consumer Durables market is medium.

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Where the white goods segment (air conditioners, refrigerators) face low threat of
substitutes, the brown goods segment and consumer electronics segment do face a threat
of substitutes.

As new technology enters the market at an increasing pace, the manufacturers need to
upgrade their products accordingly.

For e.g. the VCR got replaced by DVD player. On a different note, televisions face the
threat of multiplexes. Also, brown goods like pressure cookers face the threat of
microwave ovens etc.

Threat of new entrant: For any new company, to establish and build a new brand,
cope with the technological advancement and create a wide-distribution network is
difficult.

One the other hand, cheaper brands from Asian countries like China and the entry of
other global brands is a concern. Regular innovation is also required which is not easy.

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5.4 PEST Analysis

PEST ANALYSIS

PEST analysis is a frame work of macro level factors particularly environmental, used
in strategic management process.

Compassion of PEST analysis

Technological Political

Industrial
Environment

Social Economical

1. Political Factors: Basically show degree of government intervention in the economy

or in the industry. These are structure, legislation, pressure. Legislation, is further
divided in to environment trade, consumer competition, safety, and employment
legislation in an economy.

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2. Economic Factors: These factors included growth factor, inflation rate, incomes of
the family members, taxation interest rates, energy, costs trade cycle, and
unemployment.

Growth

Inflation

Income

Taxation
Economic
Interest

Energy

Costs

Trades

Unemployment

3. Social Factors: Social factor includes social values, distribution of income, family
norms, demographic factors, population, education, life style, living standard and health
status.

Value

Income Distribution in
Family
Demographic

Population
Social
Education

Life Style

Living Standard

Health

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4. Technological Factors: These are technological aspects involved in any economy.
Automation, research and development, product, transfers (speed and direction both)
are same important technological factors. Impact factor is further divided in to mobile
and internet effect of any industry.

R&D

Invention
Mobile
Impact
Technological Internet
Production

Automation
Speed
Transfer
Direction

PEST ANALYSIS IN DURABLE GOODS INDUSTRY

When analysing durable consumer goods industry of India impact of political,

economic, social, and technological factors on the industry were observed. It is helpful
measure to observe changes and tends in the durable goods market. Brand analysis of
all the four factors is as follows:

Political Factors

Strong hue a cry with the entry of big organized shops like Aditya Birla & Reliance
India groups in to consumer durable goods market. Strong lobbying was done to protect
the investment of unorganized retail shop. The purpose of different political parties was
to increase their vote banks.

The permissible entry of the FDI‟s was only single brand outlets.

Restrictions were imposed on the entry on new organized shops.

Low access to banking facilities had a cause of the worry for small retailers.

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Big international players in organized durable goods have a very strong financial
backup, their turnover is more than the G.D.P. of some countries (examples – Walmart
& Carrefour).

Economic Factors

Bulk of the total profit will be showed by top three organized retail players.

A shift in the consumption pattern of durable goods was observed. It was the main
course of increase in the exponential growths.

Geographical mix of consumer spending exponential growth rates will shift away from
European countries towards Asian countries. So the organized sector will be more
competitive.

Consumer durable industry as a whole suffering from the commoditization of the

durable products and services.

The rapid expansion of the different formats in Indian retail durable industry has
eventually put the consumers in perplexed state, so they do not able to differentiate
between the lucrative deals offered by different organized and unorganized shops.

Retailers want to play safe side. They are not taking interest in investing their cash in
the format which is not able to get enough foot falls and a stream of revenues.

Social Factors

Customers all over the globe including India understand the importance of corporate
social responsibility activities. Consumers of durable goods feel the gravity and have
ready to ask companies about their contribution to the nation as well as society in terms
of their environmental friendly approach.

Consumers of durable goods industry want big retailer to look after the well-being of
the nation.

Durable goods consumers are now ready to shell, extra price for their money baskets
for the environmental friendly household durable goods.

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Technological Factors

Enhancements of consumer experience and revenue drive by managing all types of

costs and improvement in operational efficiency are the major challenges in the retail
sector of consumer durable industry. To meet all these challenges durable goods
industry is heavily relying on information technology sector.

Big players of this sector have already increased their budget on information technology
to be updated in the market.

Software are the most important tool to improve operational efficiency in this industry.

Artificial intelligence, finance and accounting handled by I.T.

Implementation of SCM (Supply Chain Management) solution to core business like

global sourcing, logistics etc.

Consumer durable goods retailers are experimenting with KIOSKS (self-service

devices) and short message service based interactions and self-checkout counters.

Consumer durable goods industry also assumed that merchandize systems and point of
sale will trigger off the operational process.

The life cycle of durable consumer good industry seems to be squeezing as the giants
are laying of their staff members, particularly the middle and high level executives.
They called this process as “rationalization of employees”.

Overall picture of the growth of durable consumer goods industry is not looking very
bright in India because the cost of real estate is continuously increasing and a rapid
change in customer’s attitude. An increment in competition has forced the companies
to think and act rationally.

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6. Consumer buying decision stages

The Buying Process

Step one: Recognition of needs and wants

You can't make a purchase decision unless you actually know what you want or need.
A need is an essential product or characteristic of a product that you must obtain. For
example, you need water to survive. A want, on the other hand, is some product or
product characteristic that you desire but is not essential. For example, while you may
want to quench your thirst with soda, you don't need it - water will suffice.

Needs often arise because of problems, such as breaking the cell phone you use for
business. Wants may arise as part of your need for a product, or because you have been
influenced to want a product because of some outside influence, such as advertising or
observing someone enjoying it. For example, you may need a new cell phone, but after
watching countless colleagues use their smart phones, you really want to upgrade to a
smart phone.

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Step two: Information search

After you determine your needs and wants, you will start to search and gather
information about potential product choices that may meet them. Sources of
information may come from print, radio, television, and Internet advertising. You may
also do independent product research on the Internet, looking at product review sites
and consumer reviews on retail sites, such as Amazon. Finally, you may seek the
opinions of friends, family, and colleagues.

Step three: Evaluation of choices

If you performed your research correctly, you should have some options from which to
choose. You use your needs and wants as criteria in evaluating and comparing each
product against each other. You may find trade-offs, such as higher prices for products
that include more of your wants. In the end, you will rank your choices and pick the
product that best matches your needs and wants based upon the budget available to you
for the purchase.

Step four: Purchase

At this point, you will purchase the product. Your purchasing decision may be
influenced by the manner in which you can purchase and receive the product. For
example, you may purchase a product through a particular store because the product
can be financed, is available immediately, or can be delivered quickly.

Post purchase behaviour

After the purchase, there is the possibility that customer may change his opinion about
the purchased product or experiences dissonances by determining certain feature that
are favourable with respect to the other brands and then gather certain information that
supports his or her decision. The marketing communication is engaged in the supply of
the beliefs and evaluations that put in force to the customers to make choices and make
them to feel positive about the brand repute. It determines that the job of the marketers
is not going to an end when the customer purchases the product.

The function of the satisfaction is actually the determination of the closeness between
the perceived performance of the product and expectations. If the effect of the
performance does not meet the expectations of the customers, then it leads to

19
disappointment whereas if the performance is as according to the expectations then the
customer is supposed to be satisfied and performance level is above the expectations
then the customer feel pleasure. Such feelings of the customer make them to purchase
the same product again or their favourable or unfavourable word of mouth about that
brand.

The level of expectations is developed because of the word of mouth or from any other
source of information. The more the gap between the expectation and performance,
more is the customer dissatisfied. So it is determined that there is a direct relationship
between the expectation level and performance. The importance of the post purchase
satisfaction is that suggestions are provided about the trustfulness of the product by
appreciating the performance

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7. Literature Review
Literature available on digital media and behaviour of consumer towards consumer
durables is tremendous. Over a period, digital media has attracted lot of marketers to
learn how to use it to influence the consumers with the help of this medium.

The study analyses that how this medium has evolved over a period of time. The finding
of study reveals that, how digital media is helping companies to sell their product.

Ateş Bayazıt Hayta (2013) studied that social media is on the most important tools
communication channels. Consumers do access to information about goods and
services to be purchased as per need by means of social media to a great extent. Also
studied social media which affects our live in recent years that brings a new dimension
to Internet and determine the effects of social media networks on purchasing behaviours
of consumers.

Russell S. Winer (2008) described the different kinds of new media which was used by
companies to engage customers that is social networking sites like Facebook, Myspace,
Second Life, and You Tube etc. have generated perhaps the most publicity and also
describe challenges that these media were present from the perspectives of the
marketing manager where Marketers have been cautious in using this new medium
because of the risk that members of a community will become offended from an over-
commercialization of the site. Study also shows that the growth of these sites has led to
the notion. Importance of Web 2.0 era where user generated content and discussions
can create powerful communities that facilitate the interactions of people with common
interests.

According to Hoyer and Macllnis (2008) Consumer behaviour reflects the totality of
customer‟s decision with respect to consumption, acquisition and disposition of
products, services, tasks, people, ideas and experiences by units of decision making.
Consumer behaviour includes why they purchase, what they purchase, when they
purchase, how often they purchase, where they purchase, influence of such evaluation
on future, how they calculate it after the purchase and how they regulate it. Consumer
behaviour means more than just how an individual purchases product. Therefore, the
efforts of marketing focus on the ideas, tasks and services of customers. The manner in
which the customers purchase is extremely important to marketers. It is essential to

21
know how a customer reacts towards varied product features, advertisements and costs
in order to assure powerful competitive benefit.

Alina-Daniela Mihalcea et al (2013) studied that extensive use of SNS such as

Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn has laid the possibility of using new platforms in order
to generate more business revenue. It was demonstrated that social networking becomes
profitable for companies in terms of brand exposure, brand awareness and actual sales.
Study explored the social media characteristics and their impact on business also
provides guidelines for companies to decide about implementation of Social
Networking Sites (SNS) in three aspects like: Product development, marketing
communication and recruiting. Key findings of the research is in case of product
development companies can monitor Social Networking Sites to obtain data for their
products/services and can talk to consumer through content to build new, improved
offers that better resonate with the buyers. For marketing communication demographic
and behavioural data provided for creating targeted messages, but company should
consider the negative online word of mouth dispersion possibilities and create a strategy
accordingly. While recruiting, offers for employers a better understanding of their
potential candidates, Professional profiles on LinkedIn or adding personal information
from Facebook or Twitter accounts.

Lake (2009) in his paper, Consumer Behaviour for Dummies‟ noted that consumer
behaviour describes the study of individuals and the tasks that exists to satisfy their
identified requirements. That satisfaction exists from the processes used in choosing,
protecting and using services or products when the advantages acquired from those
processes meet or exceed customer’s expectations. In other word when an individual
identifies that he has a requirement the psychological process initiates the decision
process of customers. Through this process the individual sets out to predict ways to
fulfil the requirement he has recognized. That process consists of the individual’s
feelings, behaviour and thoughts. When the process is finished the customer is faced
with the activity of analysing and digesting entire information which decides the actions
he will take to fulfil the requirement.

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8. Research methodology

The research design and methodology is presented as follows

Data collection:

The data collection begins when there is need of a research to be perform and if there
is a problem to be solved.

While deciding about the research method, there are two type of data collection which
is used for the study

Sources of Data

1. Primary Data.

2. Secondary Data.

8.1 Primary Data:

This data is also known as original data collected by the researcher to do the research.
It is also called first hand data. Primary data is information that you collect specifically
for the purpose of your research project. An advantage of primary data is that it is
specifically tailored to your research needs. In this project questionnaire method is used,
50 online responses have been taken and 50 offline responses.

Some Advantages of using Primary data:

1. The investigator collects data specific to the problem under study.

2. There is no doubt about the quality of the data collected (for the investigator).

3. If required, it may be possible to obtain additional data during the study period.

Some Disadvantages of using Primary data (for reluctant/ uninterested

investigators):

1. The investigator has to contend with all the hassles of data collection-

 deciding why, what, how, when to collect

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  getting the data collected (personally or through others)

 getting funding and dealing with funding agencies

 ethical considerations (consent, permissions, etc.)

2. Ensuring the data collected is of a high standard-

 all desired data is obtained accurately, and in the format it is required in

 there is no fake/ cooked up data

 unnecessary/ useless data has not been included

8.2 Secondary Data:

This data is collected from various sources which is already present. Secondary data is
collected from websites and previous studies by the researchers. Data is collected from
secondary sources which is not first hand. This data is very important for this research.

Some Advantages of using Secondary data:

1. The data’s already there- no hassles of data collection.

2. It is less expensive.

3. The investigator is not personally responsible for the quality of data (“I didn’t
do it”).

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Some disadvantages of using Secondary data:

1. The investigator cannot decide what is collected (if specific data about
something is required, for instance).

2. One can only hope that the data is of good quality.

3. Obtaining additional data (or even clarification) about something is not possible
(most often).

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9. Analysis
9.1. Analysis & Graphical Representation

This is the list of people participated in the research.

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10. Findings
In this research following are the findings:

There are 80.4% male and 19.6% female in this research. The family income of 43.1%
of the respondents is less than 250000 Rs. 35.3% people’s family income is between
250001 Rs to 500000 Rs . 17.6% people’s family income is between 500001 Rs to
1000000 Rs.

Rest of the family’s income is more than 1000000 Rs.

There were more people who purchased mobile 48 people, followed by laptop 31
people, than followed by television 21 people and rest 11 people purchased computers.

Product purchased online were more than that of offline, 56.9% of the respondent said
they have purchased the product online and 43.1% of the people purchased it offline.
They purchased offline because they wanted to touch and see the product. Products like
television and laptops where purchased offline.

The major source of information about the product was internet, which is 54.9%. The
source of information from friends and store for the respondent is 19.6%. 2% of the
respondent got the information from the advertisement in newspaper. And 3.9% of the
people got the information from other sources.

Most of the people prefer to get the information from the internet as it was found in the
research, 26 people given highest priority to the internet to get the information. 19
people have given store as the highest priority. Than 14 people found out that friends
are the most reliable source of information. Only 7 people chose magazine as best
source of information.

51% of people trusted both online and offline as a trustworthy source from where they
will find no complain in quality. But 43.1% of the respondent trusted only offline source
of purchasing as trustworthy. And rest 5.9% of the people said only in online, product
will be trustworthy.

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82.4% of the people said that they will get better prices online and only 17.6% of the
people said that they will find best price in stores.

47.1% of the people told that they get the advertisement of durable goods frequently on
digital media. While 49% of the respondents said that they get the advertisement
sometimes on digital media. 3.9% of the people said they never come across these types
of advertisement.

42 respondents gave the quality the most important factors before buying the product.
32 respondents gave price as the most important factor. 28 people looked as brands the
most important factor. And 12 respondent said store is important for them.

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11. Limitations

The sample size was only 100 which is not enough for this type of studies.

Time available for the project was limited.

There are also secondary sources of data which maybe not up to date.

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12. Recommendations

People still believe in offline purchases of consumer durable.

But many are also preferring online shopping. Due to increase in digital platform the
people are shifting towards online.

Companies should find new ways to go digital. Digital media should be properly
channelized and used properly.

Social media should be used properly for the benefit of the company. Social media can
create a bad image for the company so to tackle from these problems the company
should be present on social media.

Still offline is in very much demand so the companies should not neglect that.

Companies should advertise on digital platform as the mobile user are increasing day
by day.

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13. Annexure

13.1 Questionnaire

1. Name of the respondent?

2. Gender of the respondent?

 Male
 Female

3. Family income in rupees?

 Less than 250000
 Between 250001-500000
 Between 500001-1000000
 1000001 & above

4. Have you purchased any of the items listed below? (multiple choices)
 Mobile
 Laptop
 Computer
 Television

5. If yes from where have you purchased?

 Online
 Offline

6. From where you have got the information about the product?
 Internet
 Store
 Magazine
 Newspaper
 Friends
 Others

7. From where you prefer to get the information and consider more reliable
while buying the product? Rate on the scale of 1-5. (1 for lowest & 5 for
highest)
 Internet
 Magazine
 Store
 Friends

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8. Where you think you will find the quality of the product more
trustworthy?
 Online
 Offline
 Both

9. Where do you find better prices?

 Stores
 Online Shopping
 Others

10. How often do you come across the advertisement of durable goods on
digital media?
 Sometimes
 Frequently
 Never

11. Please rate the following factors that you look before purchasing the
product on the scale of 1-5. (1 for lowest & 5 for highest)
 Price
 Quality
 Brand
 Store

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14. Bibliography
Gershon, R. A. (2016). Digital Media and Innovation.

Gibson, K. (2006). Impact of digital media. Emerald Journal, 48-51.

Hayta, A. B. (2013, March 22). Inflibnet. Retrieved from Soudhganga:

http://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/jspui/bitstream/10603/134490/11/11_chapter%2
02.pdf

Inflibnet. (2011, January 12). Retrieved from shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in:

www.shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/99335/9/09_chapter%204.pdf

Kostecki, M. (1998). The Durable Use of Consumer Products . Springer.

Kotler, P. (2015). Marketing Management. Pearson Education.

Winer, R. S. (2008, June 10). Inflibnet. Retrieved from Soudhganga:

http://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/9162/9/09_chapter%204.pdf

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