Consumer behaviour: Toothpaste

Consumer behaviour is defined as the behaviour that consumer shows in searching for, purchasing, using, evaluating , and disposing of products, services and ideas that they expect will satisfy their needs. The study of consumer behaviour is concerned not only with what consumers buy, but also with why they buy it , and how often they buy it. It is concerned with learning the specific meanings that products hold for consumers. Philip kotler defined consumer behaviour as “all psychological, social and physical behaviour of potential customers as they become aware of evaluate, purchase, consume and tell other about products and services.”

CONSUMER PURCHASE DECISION:

A decision is defined as the selection of an action from two or more alternative choices. The various options of the consumer may be classified into five main types of the decision. They are what to buy, how much to buy, where to buy, when to buy, how to buy. The participants in the buying decision may be classified as the initiator, influencer, decider, buyer and users.

INDIAN ORAL CARE INDUSTRY:

Many people in India still clean their teeth with old and traditional products like neem twigs, salt, ash, tobacco or other herbal ingredients. In India average per capita consumption of toothpaste is a dismal 82 gms. The dentist to population ratio is critically low 1:35000 in the country. This ultimately leads to low oral hygiene consciousness and widespread dental diseases.

Colgate and Hindustan lever together account for over 85% of the organised toothpaste market.

Red and black toothpaste market still account for 35% of the toothpaste market.

In toothpowders, Colgate and dabur are the leaders having 75% of market share.

REVIEW OF LITERATURE:

CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR: Consumer behaviour helps the marketers to know about the basic nature of their consumer’s i.e. how they think, feel and select from different alternatives like different set of products, brands and how they are influenced by their environment, the reference groups, family and salespersons and so on. A consumer’s behaviour is generally influenced by social, cultural, personal and psychological factors.

PERCEPTION: It is a mental process where a person selects data or information from its surroundings then organizes it and then draws significance or meaning out of it.

CONSUMER PERSONALITY FACTORS: Risk aversion and innovativeness are the two main factors which mainly affects consumers in decision making process. Here risk aversion is the risk taking capability of any consumer i.e. how much risk the consumer is ready to take while he/she purchases any product. On the other hand innovativeness is the degree to which consumers are willing to take chances and new ways of doing things.

PERCEIVED FIT : perceived fit is an attitudinal measure of how appropriate a certain channel of distribution is for a specific product.

PRODUCT CLASS KNOWLEDGE: it is the measure of consumer’s perceptions of how much they know about a specific class of products.

PRODUCT TYPE: past research indicates that consumer’s purchase and channel decisions might be influenced by the type of product being investigated.

PACKAGING: Packaging is the essence of establishing a link with consumers as it sets a brand image in minds of consumers. A product design draws the attention of consumers.

PROMOTION: Promotion is another way of increasing the product’s market share and value.

BRAND AWARENESS: brand awareness is considered as the important function in building the bundle of associations which are attached to the brand in memory.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Research Methodology is the process of solving the problem systematically by research.

RESEARCH DESIGN

Research design is a detailed blue print used to guide the research study towards its objectives.

DESCRIPTIVE RESEARCH DESIGN:

Descriptive research includes gathering of data that describe events and then organizes, tabulates, depicts and describes data collection.

SAMPLE TECHNIQUES

Sample is the fraction of the population; sampling is a technique or method of selection of samples.

INSTRUMENT DESIGN

METHOD ADOPTED FOR COMMUNICATION: Here we will use personal interviewing method because sample size is relatively small and interviewer can ask more questions.

STRUCTURE OF THE INSTRUMENT: Here for collecting primary data method which we will use is questionnaire. It is the most commonly used method when population is large. In questionnaire each question contributes to research objectives.

DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION: The data which has been collected is analyzed and interpreted with the help of tables along with relevant description.

DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION:

TABLE1 : DEMOGRAPHIC VARAIBLE

DEMOGRAPHIC VARIABLE

NO. OF RESPONDENTS

PERCENTAGE

AGE(YEARS)

7-18

40

20

18-25

60

30

25-30

40

20

30 & ABOVE

60

30

GENDER

Male

120

60

Female

80

40

EDUCATIONAL QUALIFICATION

Upto 10+ 2

50

25

Upto graduation

70

35

PG/ higher education

80

40

STATUS

student

80

40

Professional

60

30

House wife

20

10

businessman

40

20

MONTHLY INCOME

Below 5000

20

10

RS.5000-Rs 9000

40

20

Rs 9000-Rs 11000

80

40

Above Rs 11000

60

30

TABLE 2: TOOTHPASTE USAGE RATE

USAGE RATE

NO. OF RESPONDENTS

PERCENTAGE

YES

160

80

NO

40

20

This data presented in table 2 is as per the survey conducted in Bangalore where 80% respondents were using toothpaste 20% were using toothpowder and mouthwash etc.

TABLE 3 : CONSUMER BRUSHING PATTERN

BRUSHING FREQUENCY

NO. OF RESPONDENTS

PERCENTAGE

ONCE

120

60

TWICE

60

30

THRICE

20

10

As it can be observed from above table 3 that two time brushing percentage which is a must advice from all dentists is very less in Bangalore city. This indicates that normally Indian people are not much aware about oral healthcare, so the share of oral care industry is less in India as compared to other developed countries.

TABLE 4 : AWARENESS OF BRANDS

BRANDS

NO. OF RESPONDENTS

PERCENTAGE

Colgate

108

54

Close Up ,Pepsodent

50

25

Dabur

12

06

Anchor

08

04

Ajanta

06

03

Others

16

08

TABLE 5 : DENTIST RECOMMENDATION FOR BUYING TOOTHPASTE

Dentist Recommendation

No. of respondents

Percentage

I am using toothpaste as per dentist recommendations

80

40

Taste preference

60

30

Not interested in oral care

20

10

Feels it’s a sales promotion technique

40

20

TABLE 6 : FACTORS WHICH MAKE CONSUMER TO BUY TOOTHPASTE

FACTORS

NO. OF RESPONDENTS

PERCENTAGE

PRICE

80

40

AVAILABILITY

62

31

PACKAGING

30

15

OTHERS

28

14

TABLE7 : PREFERENCE OF AN ATTRIBUTE

ATTRIBUTE

NO. OF RESPONDENTS

PERCENTAGE

Healthy tooth and gum

60

30

Long lasting freshness

20

10

Preventation of tooth decay

40

20

Whiteness

30

15

Use of natural herbs

36

18

Good foam

14

07

TABLE 8 : TO WHICH MODE OF PROMOTION CONSUMER GET ATTRACTED

MODE OF PROMOTION

NO. OF RESPONDENTS

PERCENTAGE

ADVERTISEMENT

90

45

CELEBRITY

50

25

BANNER

40

20

OTHERS

20

10

TABLE 9 : FACTORS WHICH MAKE CONSUMERS TO BUY TOOTHPASTE

PROMOTION TOOLS

NO. OF RESPONDENTS

PERCENTAGE

GIFT

70

35

DISCOUNT

40

20

EXTRA QUANTITY

50

25

PRICE OFF

30

15

OTHERS

10

05

FINDINGS:

DEMOGRAPHIC FACTORS: Based on this study it is evident that demographic factors like age, gender, education and income effects decision making process of a consumer.

USAGE : Base on above analysis the usage rate of toothpaste in Bangalore is higher.

AWARENESS : Based on above study it is very clear that people do not have much of brand awareness as they are generally aware of popular brands like colgate , pepsodent, close up.so they generally purchase known brands.

DENTISTS ADVICE : above survey indicates that most of the people prefer to take advice of dentist to avoid dental problems. So, government and company is responsible for creating awareness through dental campaign to avoid dental problems and increase the consumption of toothpaste in India.

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PRICE: This survey also indicates that many people are influenced by the price and packaging of the product. For increasing the price of the product the company should consider the views of consumer otherwise the consumer will switch to another brand.

BRA ND IMAGE : brand image influences the consumer’s mind and consumer feels the quality of the product.

ADVERTISING : most of the consumers get influenced to buy a toothpaste just by the advertisement . in current scenario technology plays a vital role in success of any product specially in case of advertising technology plays a vital role.

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS:

This study shows that oral care market is less in Bangalore city. Oral care market offers huge potential as penetration and per capita consumption of oral care product is very low in India. There are certain factors which are being considered by consumer for decision making. Brand image, advertising, and offer plays an important role in purchasing toothpaste , sometimes based on the offer the consumer compare with competitor product and select the best one. The product attributes are also considered by consumers while making decision before buying toothpaste.

So, the companies analyse all these factors and find out best suitable tool for promoting their toothpaste in India.