Customers Decision Making Process for

Buying a Four Wheeler Passenger Vehicle

By- Ruchika Aggarwal- Ruchika Bakaya- Saransh Rishi- Sarthak Mishra- Sankar Ajay

The study on the Decision making process for buying a four wheeler passenger vehicle.

Objective

The automobile industry today is the most lucrative industry. For most of the people, purchasing a car is the second most important and expensive decision, next to purchase of a house. Consumer behaviour while purchasing a car will vary from person to person based on different factors which would be explored during this study an recommendations would be made accordingly.

Research Methodology

Identifying VariablesDependent Variable : Consumer PreferenceIndependent Variables : Price, Brand, Mileage, Comfort, After sales service,

Durability, Influencing Factors, Type.

Area of the study

Type of Research

Data Collection

Sample Universe

Sample Size

The study was concentrated in Delhi/NCR.

This is an Exploratory research.

Research DesignTo study the existing market potential, willingness to buy the new product, both primary and secondary influencing factors.

This study is based on the data collected through primary sources which was made via questionnaire survey and secondary source via literature review and market news.

All the four wheeler vehicle users were taken as the sample universe.

From the sample universe, sample size of 63 respondents were selected for the purpose of this study.

Sample FrameQuestionnaire survey was circulated amongst friends, relatives and peers out of which Random sample of 63 respondents were selected on the basis of convenience.

Sampling Method Convenience sampling was applied on the basis of availability of the car users.

Survey on Passenger car buying behaviourGender *MaleFemale

Which age range do you belong to? *16-2526-3536-4546-5556-65

If you consider to buy a car, which will you prefer? *Brand New CarUsed Car

Which of these type of car would you consider buying? *

SUV MUV Jeep Luxury

How much will you invest for buying a car? *1 Lakhs - 5 Lakhs6 Lakhs - 10 Lakhs11 Lakhs - 15 Lakhs16 Lakhs - 20 LakhsMore than 20 Lakhs

Scale the factors which would influence your purchasing decision. (1-Least, 5-Highest) *

BrandPricePerformanceTechnologySafetyColorSizeExterior designInterior designService Resale Value

Sedan Hatchback

Which brand will you prefer? (Give your preference) *

Maruti Suzuki / Hyundai / Tata / Mahindra & MahindraFord / Chevrolet / Fiat / Nissan / RenaultToyota / Audi / Mercedes / BMW / Jaguar & LandOther :

Who will influence you when you buy or want to buy a car? *

Friends/ FamilyAdvertisement (TVC, Print, Banners, Magazines etc.)Online car portals/ review sitesShow room sales executiveMake your own choiceBrand Ambassador (Celebrity)

Consumer Decision Making ProcessNeed at

threshold point

Information Search

Evaluation of Alternatives

Test Drive

Decision on one suitable alternative

Purchase

Use

Feedback

Price, Brand, After sales-service, Quality, Mileage, Design, Discounts

Handling, ride comfort, maneuverability, Smoothness, etc.

Comparison of feature, resale value, price etc. with other alternate.

Ease of payment, Financing option, freebies- additional accessories

Free from defects, unwanted brake-downs, on road service, warranty

Customer assist & immediate response to problems

Travelling, Status, Safety, Comfort, Convenience

Word of mouth, Online Forum, media, Visit to show room, Ad’s

Factors affecting each step of the process

Factors affecting Customers Decision

making process

SOCIAL FACTORS1. Reference Groups – Friends,Distance relatives 2. Family – Close Relatives3. Roles and Status - Premium carsfor prestige in society 4. Demography – Different terrainsHilly area, plains, costal

PERSONAL FACTORS1. Age – Youngster, Adult, Old 2. Occupation - Employee,Business man, Executives 3. Economic Situation – Selfsustained, dependent 4. Life Style – Urban, Rural5. Personality – Citizen, Politician, Celebrity

PHYCHOLOGICAL FACTORS1. Motivation – Desire toexperience the luxury of a car2. Perception – Example Japanesecars are no.1 for quality3. Belief & Attitudes4. Learning – Knowledge aboutdifferent cars, technology, benefits5. Memory – Past experience fromthe cars which was used &experienced

CLUTURAL FACTORS1. Culture – Indian customers fromdifferent religion give morePreference to color of car 2. Sub-culture 3. Social Class – Lower class,Middle class & Upper class

SEGMENTATION

Geographic

• on the basis of concentration of industries in different regions

• Luxury car makers would definitely target the metropolitan regions

Demographic

• Manufactures of small cars focus on middle class

• luxury car manufacturers would focus more on the high income segment.

Psychological

• Luxury cars like Ferrari, Porsche, etc target the section of the society with a large disposable income and high status

Behavioral • It is on the

basis of the benefits sought, loyalty status.

• customization the cars according to the needs and requirements of the customer

Watson Analytics

Watson Analytics

Connection between Gender and Type of Car they would like to purchase

factors which would influence your purchasing decision and brands purchased as per gender

63 respondent’s brand preferring

Steps to Influence the customers First Time Buyer-Family, friends and relatives Repeat Buyers-Magazines, advertisements and online review sites Dealership positive reviews on vehicle Involving social media to spread awareness Identification of target market and building customer profiles Using endorsers for the brand Try to reduce grumblers by offering better feature As per the data collected from 63 respondents, most prefer to ask the opinion from their

friends and family. But the companies can concentrate on Online forum which is 3rd most preferred option by potential customers

The influencers which plays major role in customer purchase decision

Mechanism the company is following to collect Post-Purchase feedback

Automobile companies follow different mechanism to collect the Post- purchase feedback from Customer, some of them are :

After 5-10 days of purchase, the sales executive from dealership will call the customer to collect feed back.

Automobile manufacturer’s customer care executive will call the customer after post purchase to get feedback about the purchasing experience

Consumer satisfaction survey sheet with 8 to 10 questions is given to customer during first service of their vehicle and asked to fill

Customer can also post their feedback in feedback page in car manufacturers website.

After-sales Service feed backs :Periodic Survey: After each after-sales service in authorized service center feedback about the service iscollected by service center’s customer relationship executives

Conclusion

From this research followed by interpretation wefound that consumer buying behavior of passenger caris influenced by Brand, influencer, price and gender1. Majority of the male like to buy a luxury cars,where as females are more interested in sedans2. Females are not interested in buying SUV’s and Jeep’s3. Hyundai seems like captured mind share of most of therespondents(23.8%) compared to market leader marutiSuzuki(12.7%) and luxury brand BMW(12.7%)4. Both male and female prefer to buy sedan(31.7%) compareto Others type of vehicles5. According to survey the 63 respondents most preferredoptions which they look before buying a car are;Rank 1 - Safety (34 respondents)Rank 2 - Brand (32 respondents)Rank 3 - Price & Performance (27 respondents)Rank 4 - After-sales service (24 respondents)Rank 5 – Technology & resale value (19 respondents)6. The car manufacturers should concentrate less on 2nd hand car

market as only7.9% are interested to buy used cars THANK YOU

Investment ready to be made for purchasing cars by 63 respondents

Respondents interested in buying new vs. used cars