Factors Influencing the Choice of Herbal Products

Suresh Kumar V^*
*Correspondence: Suresh Kumar V, Department of Management, University of Pollachi, Pollachi, India, Tel: 9842290512, Email:

Keywords

Factors • Herbal products • Buying behavior • Preferences

About the Study

Various factors are influencing the selection and buying decisions of consumers. Need recognition, promotional offers, and store physical facilities are some of the essential factors. Not every promotional aspects and advertisementattract a consumer. Few consumers do not consider the advertisements shown in the media. The consumer’s preference is purely based on the taste and preference. This type of behaviour is called selective attention. Consumer refers to how an individual paying attention to one particular message. A consumer would prefer something, which attracts him the most. Positioning meaningful message in the minds of consumers is called selective retention. The mental and emotional process of the consumer behaviour during the time of the search, making a purchase, and post-consumption of particular product or service is considered as consumer behaviour. It involves the study of why they buy, how they buy, what they buy and when they buy. It consists of the following basic elements such as sociology, economics, psychology, and anthropology. This consumer behaviour also influences groups such as family members, friends, and relatives and reference groups while making a purchase decision.

Buying Process

This is often identified as the first and most important step in the customer’s decision process. A purchase cannot take place without the recognition of the need. The need may have been triggered by internal stimuli (such as hunger or thirst) or external stimuli (such as advertising or word of mouth). Consumers will evaluate different products or brands at this stage on the basis of alternative product attributes: those which have the ability to deliver the benefits the customer is seeking. A factor that heavily influences this stage is the customer’s attitude. Involvement is another factor that influences the evaluation process. The penultimate stage is where the purchase takes place. Kotler states that the final purchase decision may be ‘disrupted’ by two factors: negative feedback from other customers and the level of motivation to accept the feedback. The consumers after purchasing the products they need to consume it based on their requirement. This disposal of products will be the end part of its life cycle. In this stage the products must satisfy the consumers and based on the level of satisfaction the consumers will react in their next purchase. Customers will compare products with their previous expectations and will be either satisfied or dissatisfied. Therefore, these stages are critical in retaining customers. This can greatly affect the decision process for similar purchases from the same company in the future, having a knock-on effect at the information search stage and evaluation of alternatives stage.

Herbal Products

Traditional herbal products were able to address some modern medical needs, and providing the basis for developing potential. It is difficult to process herbal products for its Quality control, other harmful chemicals and prevention of adulteration is a challenge. In recent, the familiarity of herbal products has increased globally; not only as part of remedies for diseases and healthcare management. Lack of drug standardisation, information, quality control, and strict monitoring are the primary lacunae in the promotion of traditional Indian herbal products.

Literature Review

Shimpi and Sinha investigated and evaluated the product attribute variables’, which influence the buying behaviour of male consumers on cosmetics products in Pune city. The objective of the study is, to get the detailed insight of ‘product attributes’ of male cosmetic concept on consumer buying behaviour and to understand and select the key variables of ‘product attributes’ of male cosmetic concepts which affect the consumer buying behaviour. Foster and Cadogan examined how customers’ loyalty is influenced by their relationship with the firm at two distinct levels: the specific relationship customers have with their salesperson, and the overall relationship customers have with the firm. The findings highlight the importance of strong customer-salesperson relationships in the development of customers’ overall evaluations of the supplier firm. Furthermore, both types of relationship were found to impact positively on the probability of customers exhibiting behavioural loyalty.

Suman and Mansi analyzed the intensive empirical survey of the various factors influencing the buyer’s behaviour on consumer durables. Being the study exploratory as well as descriptive in nature; findings have been made through survey analysis which consisted of 200 consumers in the market. The study was conducted to identify the Branding strategies Impact on Consumer buying behaviour in Fast Moving Consumer Durables (FMCD) industry was concerned.

Methodology

The descriptive research design is used for this study. In this study, Convenient sampling (Non-Random sampling) method was adopted. Six hundred and five consumers (Sample Size is based on Krejcie and Morgan Model of Infinite Population: the Minimum sample size is 384 (online Calculator) were chosen. Both primary and secondary data have been used in this study. A structured interview schedule was developed with the help of a literature review, pilot study and under the guidance of the research supervisor. The questionnaire was framed by using the variables such as Price, Quality, Quantity, Color, Smell, Package, Advertisement, Product Information, Personal Likeliness, etc.

Discussion and Conclusion

This study concludes that there are various factors in buying behaviour vary from product to product and brand-to-brand depends on the nature of the usage. Companies pay attention to these behaviours before formulating the strategies of segmenting, targeting, and positioning the herbal products.

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