Preferences and Attitude of Indian Consumers Towards Foreign Brands: with Reference to Durables

Abstract

Consumer purchases a product because of certain physical, social and economical forces creating a desire or a want for the product. A decision to buy a product is taken after passing through different stages. Need recognition is the first thing in the buying stages, which is followed by product awareness, interest, evaluation and intention, source of information, purchase and post purchase behaviour. A decision to buy a product of daily use may be taken in few seconds while the decision to buy a durable product is taken after critical study of many factors. Today, the Indian consumer has greater and easier access to imported goods than ever before. Consequently, the Indian manufacturer has to face increasing competition from foreign goods that too on his home turf In such a scenario, it would be worthwhile to examine the attitude of Indian consumers towards the purchase of foreign made goods. Such an examination would help the Indian manufacturer to assess the severity of threats from imports. The Indian as well as foreign firms that wish to relocate into India or outside of India can assess the opportunities or threats of such an action and can find out the extent to which Indian consumers differ from, or are similar to, consumers of other parts of the world with respect to aversion or preference of foreign goods. In this context the present paper reveals the preferences and attitudes of the Indian consumers towards foreign products and it was found that for Indian consumers quality is the main consideration for making a choice and they have a slight inclination towards ethnocentrism but not as much as in the other parts of the world.