THESIS TITLE

CUSTOMER DECISION MAKING STYLES IN SHOPPING BEHAVIOR

AMONG STUDENTS: A STUDY BETWEEN GENDERS

Marking Criteria

The overall criteria used to arrive at the mark reflect the ability of students to:

1. Conduct an individual geographical study

2. Think independently and creatively

3. Identify and formulate a research topic

4. Design a research programme

5. Execute the research programme

6. Present, analyze and evaluate the data

7. Discuss results in the context of existing literature

8. Communicate effectively in writing

9. Produce a research report

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS

COMPONENTS GUIDELINES/ MARKING CRITERIA PAGES

CHAPTER 1: 1.0 Introduction

INTRODUCTION 1.1 Chapter Description

1.2 Background of the study

1.3 Problem Statement

1.4 Purpose of the Study

1.5 Research question 4-51

1.6 Research objectives

1.7 Significant of the study

1.8 Scope of the study

1.9 Definition of the terms

1.10 Limitation of the study

Chapter 3: 3.0 Introduction 52-59

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METHODOLOGY 3.1 Chapter Description

3.2 Population

3.3 Data Collection

3.4 Survey Instruments

3.5 Sampling technique

3.6 Data analysis procedures

COURSEWORK 1. The leadership criteria are divided into the i-iii

following FIVE parts. Please list out all of

them.

2. Explain TEN simple facts outline that can

be learnt from the Japanese experience of

TQM.

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 CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Introduction

This chapter will discuss the background of the study and problem statement. This is

follow by the purpose of study, research questions and objectives of the research. This

chapter will also discuss the scope of research, definition of the terms, significance and

limitations of this research.

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1.2 Background of the study

People nowadays have been brought up in an era where shopping is not regarded as a

simple act of purchasing. The proliferation of retail and product choice has resulted in a

retail culture where acts of shopping have taken on new entertainment and or

experiential dimensions (Lehtonen and Maerpaa,1997). US-style shopping malls, and

their European equivalents, have become essentially giant entertainment centres

bringing together a whole new combination of leisure activities, shopping and social

encounters.

1. The establishment of shopping complexes and the trend of shoppers in this

era of globalization.

Evolution of shopping complex

The 30s-40s

But many experts consider Highland Park Shopping Village in Dallas, Texas developed

by Hugh Prather in 1931, to be the first planned shopping Mall. LikeCountry Club

Plaza, its stores were built with a unified image and managed under the control of a

single owner, but Highland Park occupied a single site and was not bisected by public

streets.

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And, its storefronts faced inward, away from the streets-a revolutionary design.

In the 1930s and 1940s, Sears Roebuck & Co. and Montgomery Ward set up large

freestanding stores, with on-site parking, away from the Malls of big cities. Nighttime

shopping was inaugurated at Town & Country Shopping Mall in Columbus, when

developer Don Casto hired Grandma Carver (a woman who dived from a 90-foot perch

into a 4-foot pool of flaming water) to perform her act in the lighted parking lot,

bringing shopping Mall promotion to a new level.

The 20s

Shopping Malls have existed in some form for more than 1,000 years as ancient market

squares, bazaars and seaport commercial districts. The modern shopping Mall, which

includes everything from small suburban strip Malls to the millionsquare- foot super

regional malls, had its genesis in the 1920s. The concept of developing a shopping

district away from a downtown is generally attributed to J.C. Nichols of Kansas City,

Mo. His Country Club Plaza, which opened in 1922, was constructed as the business

district for a large-scale residential development. It featured unified architecture, paved

and lighted parking lots, and was managed and operated as a single unit. In the later half

of the 1920s, as automobiles began to clog the central business districts of large cities,

small strip Malls were built on the outskirts. The Malls were usually anchored by a

supermarket and a drug store, supplemented by other convenience-type shops. The

typical design was a straight line of stores with space for parking in front. Grandview

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Avenue Shopping Mall in Columbus, Ohio, which opened in 1928, included 30 shops

and parking for 400 cars.

The trend of shoppers

THE URGE TO UPGRADE

Sales volumes of products priced at 20% or more above their category average have

grown by 21% in Southeast Asia and 23% in China in the past 12 months. This

emerging trend, called premiumisation, is set to accelerate as consumers hunt high-

quality and luxury products.

WANTING WELLNESS

Personal care and drug stores are becoming increasingly important, highlighting

consumers focus on products delivering health benefits.

SEEKING VALUE, ONLINE AND OFF

Spending on promotions both online and at bricks-and-mortar stores is trending

upwards across Asia. Smart retailers can appeal to this need for value but should

understand that price is an increasingly important driver of store choice.

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 2. The importance of making market segmentation as an essential element of

marketing.

Similary, a study conducted by Becker-Suttle, Weaver and Crawford-Welch (1994)

found that in term of menu variety and food portion in a full-service restaurant, senior

citizen has different expectation with the non-senior one. However, in contrary, Oh and

Jeong(1996) believed that demographic variables are not enough to understand specific

expectation. Similarly, Swinyard (1977) as well mentioned that demographic variables

are the lowest between segmentations. These reasons drive the researcher to believe that

it is important to segment market by demographic segmentation but it has to be

narrowed down. Therefore, the researcher will go to more specific segmentation which

is not only Generation Y in general but specific them by the psychographic as well as

behavioristic segmentation.

Segmentation is help in developing consumers' profiles from psychology side based on

lifestyles. (Hsu, Kang and Wolfe, 2002). It involves the evaluation of interest, activities

and opinions. (Kotler, Bowen and Makens, 1998). Furthermore, psychographic

segmentation is used in order to identify deeper consumers' psychology and to

understand consumers' way of living. (Schewe and Calantone, 1978). For instance,

Woodside and Pitts (1976) found that psychographic which include lifestyle variables

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are more useful and accurate than demographic. Same opinion mentioned by Abbey

(1979) who found that lifestyle variables are more reliable and applicable rather than

demographic. Moreover, Weaver et al. (1994) said that if psychographic research is

carried out properly, it will have a great impact on promotional effort. Proper audience

and media will be targeted by looking on their psychographic needs. Zins (1998) as well

believed that psychographics segmentation is increasing because it will explain in

various ways than demographic segmentation.

3. Types of demographic variables or characteristic that could be used to

segment consumer markets such as income, gender, ethnicity, marital status

and household size.

4. Reason of why gender is chosen as segmentation.

Gender

The marketers divide the market into smaller segments based on gender. Both men and

women have different interests and preferences, and thus the need for segmentation.

Organizations need to have different marketing strategies for men which would

obviously not work in case of females.

A woman would not purchase a product meant for males and vice a versa.

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The segmentation of the market as per the gender is important in many industries like

cosmetics, footwear, jewellery and apparel industries.

Age Group

Division on the basis of age group of the target audience is also one of the ways of

market segmentation.

The products and marketing strategies for teenagers would obviously be different than

kids.

Age group (0 - 10 years) - Toys, Nappies, Baby Food, Prams

Age Group (10 - 20 years) - Toys, Apparels, Books, School Bags

Age group (20 years and above) - Cosmetics, Anti-Ageing Products, Magazines,

apparels and so on

Income

Marketers divide the consumers into small segments as per their income. Individuals are

classified into segments according to their monthly earnings.

The three categories are:

High income Group

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 Mid Income Group

Low Income Group

Stores catering to the higher income group would have different range of products and

strategies as compared to stores which target the lower income group.

Pantaloon, Carrefour, Shoppers stop target the high income group as compared to

Vishal Retail, Reliance Retail or Big bazaar who cater to the individuals belonging to

the lower income segment.

Marital Status

Market segmentation can also be as per the marital status of the individuals. Travel

agencies would not have similar holiday packages for bachelors and married couples.

Occupation

Office goers would have different needs as compared to school / college students.

A beach house shirt or a funky T Shirt would have no takers in a Zodiac Store as it

caters specifically to the professionals.

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1.3 Problem Statement

The main focus in this research is to investigate answer the reason of decision-making

now is getting more and more important for consumers in the past. (advertising, news,

mixed messages, increasing number of goods, multi-component products, increasing

counterfeiting and look alike products and etc.)

Secondly, the problem statement in this research also to understand consumer decision

is vital for companies and marketers in developing appropriate marketing strategies

especially towards gender in much literature on consumers like the university students

shopping behavior.

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1.4 Purpose of the Study

1. The purpose of study is to investigate the consumer decision-making style in

shopping behavior across gender among the students.

2. It is believed that male and female consumers in Malaysia may also have certain

distinctive characteristic in terms of their decision orientation towards shopping

and buying that could be of equal interest and interest to both researches and

marketing practitioners.

3. There are limited studied that focused on male and female consumers shopping

behavior. This information can help or give and advantage for the company.

4. In general, the purpose of the study is to explore the decision-making styles on

shopping among MELAKA MANIPAL MEDICAL COLLEGE students and

to what extent does the decision-making styles differ across gender.

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1.5 Research question

1. Do the gender really effective to the decision-making styles on shopping among

students?

2. Which styles is the most influential to decision-making in shopping behavior

among students?

1.6 Research objectives

This research will contribute to the body of consumer behavior literature by two

objectives as follow:

1. To investigate the styles of decision-making in shopping behavior among

students.

2. To compare the styles of decision-making in shopping behavior across gender.

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1.7 Significant of the study

1. Understanding consumer decision-making behavior is important for

companies and marketing practitioners.

Categories that Effect the Consumer Buying Decision Process

A consumer, making a purchase decision will be affected by the following three factors:

1. Personal

2. Psychological

3. Social

The marketer must be aware of these factors in order to develop an appropriate MM for

its target market.

Personal

Unique to a particular person. Demographic Factors. Sex, Race, Age etc.

Who in the family is responsible for the decision making.

Young people purchase things for different reasons than older people.

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Handout...From choices to checkout...

Highlights the differences between male and female shoppers in the supermarket.

Return to Contents List

Psychological factors

Psychological factors include:

Motives--

A motive is an internal energizing force that orients a person's activities toward

satisfying a need or achieving a goal.

Actions are effected by a set of motives, not just one. If marketers can identify motives

then they can better develop a marketing mix.

MASLOW hierarchy of needs!!

Physiological

Safety

Love and Belonging

Esteem

Self Actualization

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Need to determine what level of the hierarchy the consumers are at to determine what

motivates their purchases.

Handout...Nutrament Debunked...

Nutrament, a product marketed by Bristol-Myers Squibb originally was targeted at

consumers that needed to receive additional energy from their drinks after exercise etc.,

a fitness drink. It was therefore targeted at consumers whose needs were for either love

and Belonging or esteem. The product was not selling well, and was almost terminated.

Upon extensive research it was determined that the product did sell well in inner-city

convenience stores. It was determined that the consumers for the product were actually

drug addicts who couldn't not digest a regular meal. They would purchase Nutrament as

a substitute for a meal. Their motivation to purchase was completely different to the

motivation that B-MS had originally thought. These consumers were at

the Physiological level of the hierarchy. BM-S therefore had to redesign its MM to

better meet the needs of this target market.

Motives often operate at a subconscious level therefore are difficult to measure.

Perception--

What do you see?? Perception is the process of selecting, organizing and interpreting

information inputs to produce meaning. IE we chose what info we pay attention to,

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organize it and interpret it.

Information inputs are the sensations received through sight, taste, hearing, smell and

touch.

Selective Exposure-select inputs to be exposed to our awareness. More likely if it is

linked to an event, satisfies current needs, intensity of input changes (sharp price drop).

Selective Distortion-Changing/twisting current received information, inconsistent with

beliefs.

Advertisers that use comparative advertisements (pitching one product against another),

have to be very careful that consumers do not distort the facts and perceive that the

advertisement was for the competitor. A current example...MCI and AT&T...do you

ever get confused?

Selective Retention-Remember inputs that support beliefs, forgets those that don't.

Average supermarket shopper is exposed to 17,000 products in a shopping visit lasting

30 minutes-60% of purchases are unplanned. Exposed to 1,500 advertisement per day.

Can't be expected to be aware of all these inputs, and certainly will not retain many.

Interpreting information is based on what is already familiar, on knowledge that is

stored in the memory.

Handout...South Africa wine....

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Problems marketing wine from South Africa. Consumers have strong perceptions of the

country, and hence its products.

Ability and Knowledge--

Need to understand individuals capacity to learn. Learning, changes in a person's

behavior caused by information and experience. Therefore to change consumers'

behavior about your product, need to give them new information re: product...free

sample etc.

South Africa...open bottle of wine and pour it!! Also educate american consumers about

changes in SA. Need to sell a whole new country.

When making buying decisions, buyers must process information.

Knowledge is the familiarity with the product and expertise.

Inexperience buyers often use prices as an indicator of quality more than those who

have knowledge of a product.

Non-alcoholic Beer example: consumers chose the most expensive six-pack, because

they assume that the greater price indicates greater quality.

Learning is the process through which a relatively permanent change in behavior results

from the consequences of past behavior.

Attitudes--

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Knowledge and positive and negative feelings about an object or activity-maybe

tangible or intangible, living or non- living.....Drive perceptions

Individual learns attitudes through experience and interaction with other people.

Consumer attitudes toward a firm and its products greatly influence the success or

failure of the firm's marketing strategy.

Handout...Oldsmobile.....

Oldsmobile vs. Lexus, due to consumers attitudes toward Oldsmobile (as discovered by

class exercise) need to disassociate Aurora from the Oldsmobile name.

Exxon Valdez-nearly 20,000 credit cards were returned or cut-up after the tragic oil

spill.

Honda "You meet the nicest people on a Honda", dispel the unsavory image of a

motorbike rider, late 1950s. Changing market of the 1990s, baby boomers aging,

Hondas market returning to hard core. To change this they have a new slogan "Come

ride with us".

Attitudes and attitude change are influenced by consumers personality and lifestyle.

Consumers screen information that conflicts with their attitudes. Distort information to

make it consistent and selectively retain information that reinforces our attitudes. IE

brand loyalty.

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There is a difference between attitude and intention to buy (ability to buy).

Personality--

all the internal traits and behaviors that make a person unique, uniqueness arrives from a

person's heredity and personal experience. Examples include:

Workaholism

Compulsiveness

Self confidence

Friendliness

Adaptability

Ambitiousness

Dogmatism

Authoritarianism

Introversion

Extroversion

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 Aggressiveness

Competitiveness.

Traits effect the way people behave. Marketers try to match the store image to the

perceived image of their customers.

There is a weak association between personality and Buying Behavior, this may be due

to unreliable measures. Nike ads. Consumers buy products that are consistent with their

self concept.

2. State and explains ways to focus on the decision-making on the consumers.

Integrating all customer-facing activities

In many companies, different parts of the organization undertake specific customer-

facing activitiesincluding informational Web sites, PR, and loyalty programs.

Funding is opaque. A number of executives are responsible for each element, and they

dont coordinate their work or even communicate. These activities must be integrated

and given appropriate leadership.

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The necessary changes are profound. A comprehensive view of all customer-facing

activities is as important for business unit heads as for CEOs and chief marketing

officers. But the full scope of the consumer decision journey goes beyond the traditional

role of CMOs, who in many companies focus on brand building, advertisements, and

perhaps market research. These responsibilities arent going away. Whats now required

of CMOs is a broader role that realigns marketing with the current realities of consumer

decision making, intensifies efforts to shape the public profiles of companies, and builds

new marketing capabilities.

Consider the range of skills needed to manage the customer experience in the

automotive-insurance industry, in which some companies have many passive loyalists

who can be pried away by rivals. Increasing the percentage of active loyalists requires

not only integrating customer-facing activities into the marketing organization but also

more subtle forms of organizational cooperation. These include identifying active

loyalists through customer research, as well as understanding what drives that loyalty

and how to harness it with word-of-mouth programs. Companies need an integrated,

organization-wide voice of the customer, with skills from advertising to public

relations, product development, market research, and data management. Its hard but

necessary to unify these activities, and the CMO is the natural candidate to do so.

Marketers have long been aware of profound changes in the way consumers research

and buy products. Yet a failure to change the focus of marketing to match that evolution

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has undermined the core goal of reaching customers at the moments that most influence

their purchases. The shift in consumer decision making means that marketers need to

adjust their spending and to view the change not as a loss of power over consumers but

as an opportunity to be in the right place at the right time, giving them the information

and support they need to make the right decisions.

1.8 Scope of the study

This study focuses on consumers decision-making style in shopping behavior among

Malaysian consumers. It focuses on the dimensions of decision-making from the

respondents perspectives, particularly in the university context. This research focuses on

university students because of their large consumers segments and characters of the

market.

This research is conducted to investigate and compare the decision-making in shopping

behavior or styles across gender. MELAKA MANIPAL MEDICAL COLLEGE is

selected as a place of study. The population of this study is the all undergraduate

students (full time). The study is conducted using 30 students form.

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1.9 Definition of the terms

The following key terms will be used throughout this research.

1. Consumer decision-making style

Making great decisions is a key leadership responsibility. If you choose the wrong

decision-making style, you could face a disaster. Choose the right style and youll

make decisions faster and more effectively.

When you make decisions, there are four decision-making styles that you can use.

Theres an Autocratic style, a Participatory one, a Democratic style, and a Consensus-

based decision-making style. Your choice of which of those four styles to use is driven

by two things. First, the urgency of making the decision from low urgency where

youve got plenty of time to make the call, to high urgency where you need a decision

right now.

The second dimension to consider is the size or impact of the decision, from small

decisions that wont have a large impact, to big decisions that are going to have a huge

impact. As you look at which style of decision making to use, you need to consider both

of these dimensions.

Autocratic Decision-Making

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For situations where you have low impact and theyre reasonably small decisions, but

they get larger as urgency goes up, an Autocratic decision-making style is the most

appropriate. In Autocratic decision-making, decisions are made at the top. Buy-in is not

seen as an important aspect of making this decision. And actually, it may be

counterproductive to involve a lot of people in making the call. Typically, in an

environment where youre making Autocratic decisions, work activities and roles are

very tightly structured, theyre monitored and well controlled. Command and control is

very important in these situations.

Participatory Decision-Making

For larger decisions where theres higher urgency and you need to make a call soon, but

the impact is going to be big, youre looking at a situation where you need to use a

Participatory decision-making style. This is where youre going to make a decision with

input from the people who are going to be impacted in that final call. Remember,

Participatory decisions are made when the decision is much bigger and theres a lot

more risk involved. Getting that additional information from more people is going to

reduce that decision making risk. Also by getting that buy-in, youre reducing execution

risk because people have had an opportunity to give their input and have a say in the

final call thats made.

Consensus-Based Decision-Making

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For situations where its a large decision but theres no urgency around it and youve

got plenty of time, you can be using a Consensus-based decision-making style. This is

where decisions are reached with a cross-functional team. People from different

departments have input, and buy-in is essential. You should reserve this style of

decision-making for the biggest decisions youre trying to make. However, recognize

this can take a lot of time. You have to get everybody saying yes before that decision

is made. Youre going to have individuals from multiple groups, multiple functions, all

working together, coming up with that final perspective for the final decision.

Democratic Decision-Making

And last, for mid-sized decisions where theres not a lot of urgency but you do need to

make a decision and move on, a Democratic style is the most appropriate. This is where

a decision is reached by a majority vote. Buy-in is desirable but its not essential. These

are the decisions we just have to make and move on with life. Individuals are going to

interact in this style. You may have a committee where people are going to come

together, form an opinion, but ultimately we set a deadline, we vote and we move on.

As you select a decision-making style, remember to consider the urgency of making the

call, and the size or impact of that decision.

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 2. Perfectionist/ Quality Consciousness

1.Your perfectionist tendencies also give you a bit of OCD, so small details can give

you unexplainable anxiety.

2. Sometimes you wish you could be like other people and just not care so much.

Youre proud of your accomplishments but you cant just call in sick for the day and go

to the beach for a mental health day, or other things you see your friends doing without

an ounce of guilt.

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 3. Brand Conscious

1. You judge people by the brands they use.

2. When you love a brand, their tagline becomes your life's philosophy.

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3. You save the shopping bag with the brand logo and take it office just to carry your

tiffin etc.

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 4. Novelty / Fashion Consciousness

If you take a look in the Stories section of Kage, you will find an essay by me

called Fashion Consciousness. That project came about in a rather unusual way, so I

thought I would use Chronicle to give a little behind the scenes look into how I ended

up shooting backstage at a fashion show.

Every couple of weeks I meet with two photographer friends (both called John) to put

the world right and talk about photographymainly because our other halves don't

listen to us (!). John 1 asked if we'd be interested to shoot some pictures for the fashion

department of one of the big colleges in Glasgow. There was no budget, but the deal

was that we could shoot it any way we wanted with no outside interference. John 2 and

I both saw it as an interesting opportunity, so we jumped in with both feet. Gaining

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access is the key to all documentary projects, so for me this was a way in

to who knew what.

The first visit involved shooting models wearing clothes the fashion students had

designed. These students are on their way to a career in the fashion industry, so the

standard is pretty high. I would point out here that I'm no fashion guru, but we each

chose a model and wandered off to wherever location we found interesting in the

building, with the idea that we would come back together at some point and switch

models (I think we were working with five girls that day).

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The college building was fairly new and the architecture was modern with lots of glass

and wood. I used the frosted glass of the front entrance revolving doors to frame the

shot above, moving higher or lower to get more or less of the model in shot. I had

brought lights, softboxes and umbrellas, but was lucky enough to actually get decent

natural light. There were a few areas that had floor to ceiling windows that were a

couple of floors high: combine this with white walls and you get the type of soft

beautiful light that you see in the photo below; no need for a softbox or reflectors.

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We shot for two days at the college, not only covering the models, but also the details

too. On the second day we were asked if we would like to shoot the upcoming fashion

show that the college puts on every year, to which they invite members of the fashion

world looking for new talent. This was exactly what I was hoping for. Unfortunately the

Two Johns had other jobs booked and wouldn't be available on the date of the show, so

it was down to me... And I got full access.

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I showed up on the night of the show with my small Fuji kit of two cameras and three

lenses and went straight to work. Backstage was hectic and no one could care less that I

was there with a camera, which is perfect for a documentary photographer. The two

dressing rooms were quite a distance apart. One should have been for the guys and one

for the girls, but there seemed to always be girls in both. I moved between each dressing

room, not speaking too much, just observing and getting what I felt would be useful.

Every now and then there would be a flurry of excitement as one group of girls came off

stage and had to do a quick change to be ready for the next catwalk. I cursed the

backstage lighting which was mostly fluorescent tubes, but hey, you just have to get on

with it and get the job done with whatever you're given.

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I also moved out to the front of house to shoot some of the catwalk, but to be honest, my

heart was backstage amongst all the hustle and bustle, the panic and safetypins and

anticipation. The atmosphere in the corridor where the models stood in line, waiting for

their cue to pull back the curtain and strut out into the lights was electric. It was fairly

dark, but there was a shaft of light coming from another room and each girl had to walk

through it to get to the catwalk, almost as though they were having the final touch

applied as they moved through the beam. A bit of glow. A bit of power.

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A few words about the picture above because it always manages to raise a smile. The

girl was helping put the finishing touches to the guys' clothes and one of them asked her

what was on her finger: she said that she had got a tattoo while on holiday. When they

asked her what it was, she just raised a finger under her nose to reveal a moustache

tattoo. I grabbed two shots in quick succession. This is the second one, and although

both were ok, it was this that seemed to show the humour best. The moment was over in

a flashthey always arebut I was happy to have captured it.

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I love how documentary photography takes us on a journey, not just for the viewer, but

also the photographer. We need to have our eyes and ears open at all times, ready to

pluck the slightest thing out of the air that could possibly be a story. I'm constantly

scanning everything to see if it could result in a documentary shoot. I could have looked

at this with my business head on and dismissed it because there wasn't a budget for

photography, but I looked at it in the longer term and it paid off.

My aim with this story was to show the hectic backstage pressure cooker of a fashion

show. There is no room for modesty and there is no time to be self conscious.

Everybody needs to pull together or the event won't work. I hope this won't be the last

time I shoot behind the scenes at a fashion event, as I feel I have just scratched the

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surface. I have an idea how I can move this into another phase, but I need to do some

research first. Stay tuned.

5. Recreational / Hedonistic Consciousness

What to watch out for

The usual criticism of hedonistic lifestyle hinge on the ultimate futility of a selfish, self-

indulgent lifestyle which has no place for honest labor or the notion of giving back to

the community. On a more practical note though, the biggest problem with living a

hedonistic lifestyle is the economics if you are not a rich heir who does not have to

work for a living, sustaining a hedonistic lifestyle can become difficult. Endless rounds

of partying, drinking, material pleasures and sexual indulgences with an equally

hedonistic partner can leave you with too intense a hangover or exhausted to go to work

the next day. Just like binge drinking eventually does great harm, indulging in drinking

and partying excesses even on weekends can have a negative impact on your

professional life in the long run. Most importantly as expenses pile up and your earning

potential suffers, you may find your credit card maxing out, your bank account

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depleting and maybe even your home succumbing to a foreclosure. Financial damage is

one of the main pitfalls of leading a hedonistic lifestyle.

Then again, if you are the possessive sort, dating someone with a hedonistic lifestyle

may not be your cup of tea. While dancing, partying and boozing is all very well, keep

in mind that sexual libertarianism is a basic tenet of hedonism and practitioners are far

from being strict about monogamous relationships. So if you do not like the idea of

swinging parties or your date dancing skin-to-skin with other singles, reconsider if you

truly want to date someone with a hedonistic lifestyle.

However the most dangerous outcome of dating a hedonistic partner comes with the

health hazards you may be exposed to. Experts now say that binge drinking which is a

common feature in hedonistic parties - can be as bad for your health as alcohol

addiction apart from the damage to your liver and organs, binge drinking is usually

associated with car accidents, sexual violence towards women and increased propensity

to experiment with drugs all resulting from loss of reasoning and judgment that binge

drinking induces. Then there is the prospect of contracting sexually transmitted diseases

if you or your partner have multiple sexual partners.

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 6. Price Consciousness

Sainsbury's has said price-conscious shopping by customers is here to stay and trading

will remain difficult for the big four supermarkets as the chief executive,Justin King,

unveiled his last set of annual results.

Britain's second-biggest supermarket said consumer behaviour prompted by the

recession and rising living costs was entrenched despite signs that wages were starting

to catch up with prices. Shoppers have increasingly turned to the German value

chains Aldi and Lidl for their basic shops, forsaking the big grocers' giant out-of-town

stores.

Morrisons, Tesco and Asda have all pledged to cut prices to lure customers back from

the discounters. Amid fears of an all-out supermarket price war, Sainsbury's said trading

would stay tough for the long run.

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King's final results after a decade at the top of Sainsbury's showed underlying pre-tax

profit up 5.3% to 798m, broadly in line with City forecasts, and sales at stores open a

year or more up 0.2%. The full-year dividend rose 3.6% to 17.3p.

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Sainsbury's shares rose 1.6% to 339p, making them the second-biggest gainers in the

FTSE 100 on Wednesday morning. Morrisons was the second-largest faller, dropping

3.8% to 194p. King is credited with turning Sainsbury's around by improving products

and shops, opening convenience stores and overhauling supply systems. The group

increased sales throughout the recession but itannounced its first fall in sales for nine

years in March, prompting concerns about tougher times ahead for Mike Coupe, King's

successor.

King said: "While the general economic outlook is showing some signs of

improvement, conditions in the food retail sector are likely to remain challenging for the

foreseeable future as customers continue to spend cautiously.

"Our customers have got less money left at the end of the week or the month than they

had a year ago. There are lots of encouraging economic signs but unless and until

customers see wages growing faster than inflation then you won't [see a change]."

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He said households were now in the habit of shopping around and reducing their food

waste by cooking leftovers. "These are things that won't go away just because customers

have a little bit more money in their pockets."

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Despite warning on tough trading and price pressure, King played down talk of an

unprecedented price war among the big four supermarkets. Morrisons, hit hardest by the

rise of Aldi and Lidl, has pledged to spend 1bn over three years to win back market

share.

"Price skirmishes are an ever-present part of this industry," King said. "They take place

at this time of year when people make big PR announcements about what they are going

to do on price. We always say we will look at the detail and keep doing the things that

have served our business well."

King said he was monitoring Tesco, the struggling giant of the sector, as much as the

German upstarts.

"There has been a tremendous amount of concentration on the German discounters

because they have been a good chunk of the market growth over the last two or three

years.

"Tesco are around 30% of the market so anybody competing in grocery retailing who is

not focusing very closely on what the market leader is doing is not going to compete."

King said he was confident that Sainsbury's could keep beating its rivals because it had

a "unique" combination of products keenly priced, sourced from high quality suppliers

and sold in attractive, convenient stores and online.

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He said despite tougher trading conditions Sainsbury's had maintained its market share

of 16.8% last year. The group is now neck and neck with Asda, which became Britain's

number two supermarket behind Tesco when Sainsbury's was struggling in the pre-King

era.

Phil Dorrell, director of consultants Retail Remedy, said: "Despite the brutal

environment the supermarkets are operating in, Sainsbury's continues to move in the

right direction. The rules of the game have changed irreversibly for the big four.

"The economic recovery may be happening finally but the retail market is undergoing a

fundamental transformation and the major supermarkets are not immune."

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 7. Impulsive/ Careless Conscious

Costco, the largest warehouse club in the US, uses a unique business model to

maximize impulse buying. In an interview with The New York Times, the companys

chief financial officer Richard Galanti said they work out what customers really want

and stock a small number of popular items, say the top 4,000. This contrasts with the

business models of Wal-Mart, which stocks up to 100,000 different items, or a typical

grocery, which can stock around 40,000.

This promotes impulse purchases by limiting peoples options to trendy, popular items,

which include anything from consumer electronics to packed lunches. They cater

equally to bargain-seekers and the brand-conscious. They also create a sense of urgency

by rotating items on a seasonal basis, urging people to buy on impulse because the item

may be gone when they come back.

Apple exploits impulse buying using another model, that of associated buys. The

company makes only a fraction of its fortune from hardware sales; the bulk comes from

selling content for these gadgets for as low as $1, according to marketing consultant Jeff

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Bullas, apps for the iPhone and iPad are made by third-party providers, eliminating

development costs for Apple while allowing them to charge a 30% commission on

sales. Impulse purchase fits in nicely with this setup because $1.99 for a cute little game

doesnt usually call for a lot of introspection. People just go ahead and buy it because its

just two bucks - but when there are 200 million of them, the money gets serious.

Online retailers such as Amazon have combined impulse buying psychology with

targeted marketing, recommending products based on a specific users purchase history.

While supermarkets take a slight gamble at the checkout counter - not every customer

will want breath mints - e-commerce sites make it so that the checkout is lined with

things a buyer will most likely be interested in. A perennial book buyer will be

bombarded with books from the same author or genre; one who has recently purchased

a camera may be offered lenses, filters, and bags. And by eliminating the physical task

of walking to the counter, these sites make impulse buying all the more effortless,

according to Main Street, an online financial magazine.

Promoting impulse buys

Rook outlined five characteristics that define an impulse purchase:

An overwhelming attraction to the product

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An intense need to buy the product at once

Ignoring negative consequences that may arise from the purchase

A feeling of excitement at buying the product

Conflicting feelings of indulgence and self-control

Obviously, when one makes an impulse buy the first four urges win over, and the self-

control factor is brushed aside. To take advantage of impulse buying psychology,

businesses must cater to these urges. Chintan Bharwada, marketing expert and

contributor at focus.com advises businesses to relieve the negative feelings tied to

impulse (e.g. guilt over unplanned spending) and highlight the non-economic rewards

(e.g. contentment over a new gadget). Basically, their advertising should say, So its

$500 you never meant to spend, but hey, youve got a nice new home theater! A

complex environment that gets in the way of rational thinking, and thus makes impulses

seem stronger, can also go a long way.

This also means eliminating the risk of an impulse purchase, according to Bharwada.

This can be done through straightforward return policies and readily available credit.

Knowing that they can change their mind, or at least not have to pay up in full if they

do, makes an impulse buy seem less of a bad thing.

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 8. Confused by Over Choice Conscious

Likelihood of Confusion (or Confusing Similarity) is the legal standard that determines

whether or not trademark infringement has occurred. The likelihood of confusion test is

also one of several examinations conducted by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in

determining whether to approve an applicants trademark application.

The specific standard itself is defined by a vast body of law and varies jurisdiction by

jurisdiction. The essential ingredient for the likelihood of confusion test is (obvious

from the terminology) that consumers encountering one trademark are likely to be

confused with a different trademark. This is not to say the consumer feels puzzled or

befuddled or the like. Usually the consumer referenced in this body of law is a

hypothetical consumer who would be completely unaware that two different companies

are using the similar/identical mark. What's more, the hypothetical purchaser is not

expected to make detailed, side-by-side comparisons, or to have perfect recall.

Thus, trademark confusion means the incorrect assumption on the part of a hypothetical

consumer that the two trademarks belong to the same source. And

with likelihood being incorporated into this standard, a court or the Trademark Office

must merely decide that the propensity for confusion is strong enough to warrant

elimination of the newcomer's use of the mark. Thus many trademark infringement

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lawsuits proceed without a shred of evidence of any actual confusion. Of course,

evidence of actual confusion would be very influential to the outcome.

It is worth noting here that even if there is no likelihood of confusion, i.e. no trademark

infringement, you may still be liable for using another company's trademark if you are

blurring or tarnishing their mark under the state and/or federal dilution laws.

9. Habitual/ Brand-Loyal Conscious

Brand loyalty occurs when a customer chooses to repeatedly purchase a product

produced by the same company instead of a substitute product produced by a

competitor. For example, some people will always buy Coke at the grocery store, while

other people will always purchase Pepsi.

Brand loyalty is often based upon perception. A consumer will consistently purchase the

same product because she perceives it as being the superior product among the choices

available. You should note that brand loyalty usually relates to a product, not a

company. For example, while you may be loyal to your Honda Accord, but when it

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comes to motorcycles, you might believe that a Harley leaves a Honda motorcycle in

the dust.

Brand loyalty is important for several reasons. First, it reduces the cost of production

because the sales volume is higher. Second, companies with brand-loyal customers don't

have to spend as much money on marketing the product, which will permit the company

to either retain more earnings or to invest resources elsewhere. Third, companies may

use premium pricing that will increase profit margins. Finally, loyal customers tend to

recommend products that they like.

Businesses have to exert significant effort to facilitate brand loyalty. You need to

convince potential customers that your product has a significant advantage over other

products to justify consistent purchases of your product. Businesses also will attempt to

leverage brand loyalty developed for a product to other products offered by the

company. The hope is to create brand loyalty for as many products as possible.

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1.10 Limitation of the study

One of the limitations in research includes lack of adequate information on a

particular subject. Research equipments are very hard or expensive to acquire leading to

formulation mere assumptions. Another hindrance is poor or inaccessibility to the

region of study.

Questionnaires - These can be both quantitative and qualitative methods depending on

whether open (qual) or closed (quant) questions are asked. The main limitations are:

- Answers tend to be limited in information which can result in low validity

- Limited depth in answers

- Questionnaires sent out in the post may not be returned, so possibly a small and

unrepresentative sample

- Questions may not be fully understood by those answering them

- Complex questions are difficult to use as answers will get to complicated.

Thirdly, the data were gathered using only type of instrument which was the

questionnaire. A series of interviews to the employees and managers themselves may

provide other information not thoroughly explored in this study.

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 CHAPTER 3

METHODOLOGY

3.1 Chapter Description

This chapter begins with the discussion on Chapter Description, Population, Data

Collection, Survey instrument, Sampling technique and Data analysis procedures.

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3.2 Population

In this research, researcher has identified students of MELAKA MANIPAL MEDICAL

COLLEGE as the population for this study.

The samples selected by the researcher are undergraduates from MELAKA MANIPAL

MEDICAL COLLEGE

230 questionnaires were distributed to the UUMs students

3.3 Data Collection

In this study, primary data and secondary data are used as the resources of information

Primary data

Data used in research originally obtained through the direct efforts of

the researcher through surveys, interviews and direct observation. Primary data is

more costly to obtain than secondary data, which is obtained through published sources,

but it is also more current and more relevant to the research project.

Secondary data

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There are several types of secondary data. They can include information from the

Census, a companys health and safety records such as their injury rates, or other

government statistical information such as the number of workers in different sectors

across Canada.

Secondary data tends to be readily available and inexpensive to obtain. In addition,

secondary data can be examined over a longer period of time. For example, you can

look at a companys lost-time rates over several years to see at trends.

In the same Institute study mentioned above, the researchers also examined secondary

data. They looked at workers compensation lost-time claims and the amount of time

workers were receiving wage replacement benefits.

With a combination of these two data sources, the researchers were able to determine

which factors predicted a shorter work absence among injured workers. This

information was shared with return-to-work professionals to help improve return to

work for other injured workers.

Both primary data and secondary data have their pros and cons. Primary data offers

tailored information but tends to be expensive to conduct and takes a long time to

process. Secondary data is usually inexpensive to obtain and can be analyzed in less

time. However, because it was gathered for other purposes, you may need to tease out

the information to find what youre looking for.

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The type of data researchers choose can depend on many things including the research

question, their budget, their skills and available resources. Based on these and other

factors, they may choose to use primary data, secondary data - or both.

3.4 Survey Instruments

3.4.1 Questionnaire Design

The questionnaire was designed using the language English.it was divided into two

sections which are ensure the respondents cooperation and eliminate confusion and

ensure that the respondents can comprehend the relationship between a given section

and overall purpose of the study

In section A, a set of nominal scale has been designed ----(why suitable)

In section B, a set of Linkert scale has been designed ----(why suitable)

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Page 56 of 59
3.5 Sampling technique

We used a non-probability sampling throughout this research. It involves 230 students

from MELAKA MANIPAL MEDICAL COLLEGE.

The reason we are using more homogenous group such as undergraduate students

because:

Homogeneous Groups are groups organized so that students of similar instructional

levels are placed together, working on materials suited to their particular level, as

determined through assessments.

Homogeneous Groups can be contrasted directly with Heterogeneous Groups.

Also Known As: Ability-based Groups

Examples: When organizing reading groups, the teacher puts all of the "high" students

together in their own group.

Then, the teacher meets with all of the "high" readers at the same time and read a

"higher" book with them, and so on, through the various reading levels that exist in the

class.

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3.6 Data analysis procedures

3.6.1 Reliability Analysis

To assess whether the material, process and design rules enable satisfaction of designed

quality/reliability objectives and user specifications when applied to the product.

3.6.2 Descriptive Statistics

In this study, frequency distributions were obtained for all the personal data

demographic profile gender, age, marital status, ethnic group and religion

3.6.3 Cross Tabulation

In this study, cross tabulation was used to interpret relationship between gender and the

purpose of them going for shopping.

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3.6.4 Hypothesis Testing

A hypothesis can be defined:

Relationship is conjectured on the basic of association established in the

theoretical framework formulated for the research study.

Testing the hypothesis and comfirming the conjectured relationship, it is

expected that the styles of decision-making in shopping behavior among

students and to compare the styles of decision-making in shopping behavior

across gender.

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