THE ROLE OF HUMAN SENSES IN CONSUMER BUYING BEHAVIOUR OF A HIGH INVOLVEMENT PRODUCT CATEGORY: THE CASE OF BRANDED APPAREL

Dr. Hemanth Kumar. S.; Dr. Sudarshan Seshanna

Dr. Hemanth Kumar. S. Associate Professor, CMS Business School, Department of Management, Jain University, Karnataka India.
Dr. Sudarshan Seshanna Associate Professor, CMS Business School, Department of Management, Jain University, Karnataka, India.

Keywords: Human Senses, Impact, Selection and Buying Behaviour, Visual, Auditory, Kinaesthetic, Correlation, Regression

Abstract

Branded apparels and related products are aspirational buys for the consumer. This exploratory study attempts to understand the role of the human senses in determining consumer buying behaviour in the specific context of apparel purchase. Empirical studies on sensory experiences are a relatively unexplored area of research in clothing and apparel buying behaviour among differently abled consumers. The senses that aid the process of product purchase such as visual, auditory and kinesthetic are the independent variables studied in this research paper. To enable a finer evaluation of buying behaviour of consumers in an apparel buying setting constructs from neuro-marketing and buyology are analysed: price, sales, promotion, advertising, impulse buying, design and trend, and are as the dependent variables studied in this research paper. The exploratory research study presents an empirical treatment of data collected from 230 respondents in the geographical area of Bengaluru. Random sampling was used as the technique for data collection while statistical tools for data analysis used KMO, communality test, reliability, Chi square, correlation and regression analysis.

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