Purchase decision-making has been researched in a restricted context in India although Indian families are seen to most strongly influence decision patterns and behavior of buyers (family members). Also, three-fourth of the country's population resides in the hinterland, which is considered to be poles apart from their urban counterparts on account of demographics and psychographics. Therefore, this paper attempts to identify whether any significant differences exist between the two types of families while deciding to purchase durables.
Family as a reference group for an individual has greatest effect on his preferences and decision outcomes. Family members share certain norms, values and standards that shape their personality and behavior. From marketing point of view, investigating family as a consumption unit becomes crucial since attitude towards saving and spending, and even brands and products are moulded quite often by the family. Decision making in families is a complex phenomena to understand and quantify, as a bulk of decisions are made in a group in order to have a choice suitable to all. The choice of each individual needs to be considered before the final decision outcome. Depending upon the nature of decisions and family specific characteristics, the family members exhibit different roles across product categories. They show varying involvement and participation for diverse product categories. Therefore, the role influence as regards purchase of a product depends upon who is the direct user of a product or what is the significance of a product to a family member. Although each family is seen to make decisions in a unique manner, yet, some patterns of decisions making can be observed which can help marketers direct their activities in a more effective manner.
Role-structure in decision making describes the manner in which influence, across elements of the decision process, is distributed among members of a decision making unit (Filiatrault and Ritchie, 1980). |
