Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikode

Consumer Behavior

The Indian Mango Man Heart:

A Study on Ethnocentrism and Sustainability
 Introduction
With the recent events in mind, we can observe that there is growing sentiment of
nationalism and religious inclination. This predisposition is on the rise since the past few years
and is rampantly growing. Let Suresh Raina song be one of the key examples of such growing
sentiment for his staunch reply to a journalism question on preferring an Indian coach over a
foreign coach, who asked that he would prefer to live with his wife rather than somebody
others. However, does this sense of nationalism translate into the greener pastures (money)
is what we are trying to study. We are conducting a study to identify the affect how
sustainability and ethnocentrism affect the consumer behavior. Sustainability has been a key
issue while purchasing the any product be apparel or electronics with developing economy
such as brazil and India entering such markets there has been a spike in demand of such
products. Ethnocentrism in India and its customers is highly swayed by income, cultural
openness, collectivism and education. On individual level the attitude of a person regarding
the and his own personality are also what affect his level of commitment to the product or
the brand. Take for example, Patanjali, a brand known for its authentic Indian nature and pure
products is one of the highest selling brands in the entire country giving competition to the
like of industry behemoths such a Colgate Palmolive and HUL. Recently the brand was in
controversy for negating some of the promises it created however, its sales wee marginally
reduced, why so? Owing to its deep routed personal marketing of being an indigenous brand
that has had long term perceived benefits and its consumer expecting that these products
would help more than they can hurt.
 Problem Statement
Our primary aim is to understand effects of sustainability on ethnocentric visual print ad over
the consumer pre-buying decision and compare these decisions on the criteria of age, sex and
education over it.

We are conducting the experiment and survey to verify and disapprove the following
Hypothesis

(H1): Perceived ethical importance of fashion brand sustainability positively influences

people’s willingness to reward a sustainable fashion brand via their purchasing behavior.

(H2): Expectationsaboutfashionbrandsustainabilitypositivelyinfluencepeople’swillingness.

(H3):Socialinfluenceonfashionbrandsustainabilitypositivelyaffectspeople’swillingnesstorewar
dasustainablefashionbrandviatheirpurchasingbehaviour

Method
1. Created 4 ad; one simplistic and the rest 3 with minor changes to font, background

Base-Advertisement
 Utilized a serene theme to
perfectly distinguish the ad’s and
any change in them
 A representation that includes
the product sold the address with
lighter Font and Background
Advertisement-1
 Darker font with clear representation the
background
 No child labour sign and promotional
message with an emotional connotation
by utilisation of pictures
 Adverrtisment-2 Adverrtisment-3

 To understand the implication of  The final ad is expected to use all

Indianizing the symbol and the elements that effuse the expectation of
font of the brand the brand to be truly Indian
 The font is kept same however the
 However, the rest representation background is inspired by the Indian
is chosen to be with a white national bird with artistic expression so
background that is expected to as the beautify and depict royalty
symbolize purity

2. Create 4 different groups that are independently one ad only, for e.g. create a group
for 10 people and only show them only base advertisement and consequent ask
another group
3. Ask questions based on these segments

Does this ad create or effuse the feeling of being Indian?

 if you were to see such an ad on digital and offline platforms will it inspire
you to visit the store

 Would you buy the Kurtis, sari, lehenga and sherwani depicted in the
following picture?

 What cost (on the manufacturers end) do you associate with such a product

 How much are you willing to spend on such products

 Ethnocentric question (given in survey)

 demographic questions such as age, gender, education, etc.

4. Collect Data and Analyze to verify and disapprove the given hypothesis