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ISSN: 2320-8236 VOLUME: 2, ISSUE:3 JULY- SEPTEMBER 2014 www.ircjournals.org www.ircjournals.org

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Factors considered by Prospective buyers before purchasing a Scooter Ms.V.Kanimozhi

Assistant Professor,

Sasi Creative School of

Business,

Coimbatore, Kerala, India

Abstract: The growth rate for scooters has been faster than motorcycles for the last many years, indicating the rising acceptance of the category

among buyers. A study on factors considered by prospective buyers before buying a scooter is undertaken along with a study on total

set, Awareness set and consideration set involved in consumer decision making process. The finding of the study revealed that Value

to Price, offers & service network, aesthetic and Brand image are the four major factors considered by prospective buyers before

purchasing a scooter. And the brands which have high level of awareness are considered during purchase by the prospective buyers. Keywords: Awareness, Decision making process, Factors Analysis, Prospective buyers, Scooters.

INTRODUCTION With a size of Rs.100,000 million, the two wheeler market in India is the biggest contributor to the automobile industry. The two-

wheeler market in India comprises of 3 types of vehicles, namely motorcycles, scooters, and mopeds. According to industry body, the

Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), the Indian two-wheeler industry is expected to post an annual growth of 11-12

per cent, and the market is expected to double every four years till 2020. According to the data from Nomura and Crisil, as many as 10

million two-wheelers were sold in India during 2011-12. Vehicles in the executive segment formed the bulk of sales at 6.5 million,

followed by the economy segment (1.8 million) and premium segment (1.7 million).

According to numbers analyzed by Times of India (based on figures provided by industry body, Society of Indian Automobile

Manufacturers), the share of scooters in the country's two-wheeler sales has gone up to nearly 25% at the end of 2013-14 against 14%

in 2007-08. A total of 36 lakh scooters were sold in 2013-14, registering a growth of 23%, while motorcycle sales moved up by 4%.

However, motorcycles had reported a volume of 104.8 lakh units, according to SIAM numbers. The growth rate for scooters has been

faster than motorcycles for the last many years, indicating the rising acceptance of the category among buyers.

The Indian two-wheeler industry has come long way since its humble beginning in 1948 when Bajaj Auto started importing and

selling Vespa Scooters in India. Since then, the customer preferences have changed in favor of motorcycles and gearless scooterettes

that score higher on technology, fuel economy and aesthetic appeal, at the expense of metal-bodied geared scooters and mopeds.

Rising income levels, reducing excise duties, higher loan tenure and loan-to-value offered by the financing companies fuelled the

growth of two-wheeler demand. Besides, mounting traffic chaos and limited parking space has also increased the demand for two-

wheelers from households that can afford or actually do own a car. Furthermore, with increasing women working population,

changing social philosophy and broad-mindedness, the penetration of two-wheelers in target population has increased significantly

during last one decade especially in urban area.

NEED FOR THE STUDY While planning marketing activities, the marketer should have an understanding about the factors considered by the customers in

making purchase decision process. Hence a study on factors considered by prospective buyers before buying a scooter is undertaken

along with a study on total set, Awareness set and consideration set involved in consumer decision making process.

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY To identify the factors considered by buyers before purchasing scooter To identify the total set, awareness set and consideration set regarding scooters available in the market.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY Type of Study: A descriptive study was undertaken in order to identify the factors considered by prospective buyers before purchasing

a scooter.

Sampling Design: The prospective buyers of scooter in Coimbatore city constitute the population for the study. Due to various

resource constraints sample size of 200 was used in the study. Convenience sampling which is a non probability sampling technique

was administered in the study. Data were collected from prospective buyers who visited various scooter showrooms in Coimbatore.

Data Collection: A separate questionnaire was prepared and pilot study was carried out with 10 prospective buyers. Based on pilot

study, final questionnaire was prepared and data was collected. Secondary data for the study was collected from various sources like

internet, journals, books etc.

Tools for Analysis: The tools used in the study for analysis are factor analysis and simple percentage analysis.

Factors considered by Prospective buyers before purchasing a Scooter V. Kanimozhi


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ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION

Factors considered before purchasing a scooter: Factor analysis Factors analysis is carried out either for data reduction or for data summarization. Adequate sample size for performing factor

analysis is 1:10 ie., for every one variable, data should be collected from minimum of 10 samples. KMO (Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin),

a measure to test the sampling adequacy should be carried out. To proceed with factor analysis KMO (Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin)

statistics value should be greater than 0.5 and significance value of Bartletts Test of Sphericity should be 0.5 are accepted. By selecting the sub-factors based on factor loadings

labeling/naming factors is done in table 4.

Table 1: KMO and Bartlett's Test of sphericity

Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure of Sampling Adequacy. 0.551524

Bartlett's Test of Sphericity Approx. Chi-Square 4745.752

Df 153

Sig. 0

Component

Initial eigen values

Total % of variance Cumulative%

1 9.324 51.799 51.799

2 1.897 10.537 62.337

3 1.397 7.731 70.067

4 1.147 6.374 76.441



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Table 4: Labeling of factors

Based on factor analysis the total of 18 variables have been reduced and summarized under four factors namely value to Price,

offers and service network, aesthetic and Brand image. Thus, it is evident that these four are the major factors considered by

prospective buyers before purchasing a scooter.

Brand Awareness and consideration

Table 5: Distribution of respondents based on brand awareness and brands considered in case of purchase

Total set Aware %

Not

aware % consider %

will not

consider %

Rodeo RZ 94 47 106 53 36 18 156 78

Duro DZ 116 58 84 42 82 41 118 59

Flyte 96 48 104 52 48 24 152 76

scooty pep 172 86 28 14 114 57 86 43

Streak 118 59 82 41 44 22 156 78

Wego 120 60 80 40 92 46 108 54

Mastero 120 60 80 40 50 25 150 75

Pleasure 172 86 28 14 136 68 64 32

Activa 176 88 24 12 142 71 58 29

Dio 128 64 72 36 66 33 128 64

Aviator 98 49 102 51 58 29 142 71

Access 158 79 42 21 80 40 120 60

swish 128 64 72 36 50 25 150 75

Ray 164 82 36 18 120 60 80 40

Vespa 92 46 108 54 76 38 124 62

From table 4 it can be inferred that awareness about Scooty pep, Pleasure, Activa, Ray and Access are above 75% which means

that these brand have high level of awareness in the minds of prospective buyers. Brands like Activa, Pleasure, Ray and Scooty

Pep are considered during purchase by prospective buyers.

Successive set involved in consumer decision making: Purchasing scooter In this section, based on the secondary data collected about the products available in market they are listed under total set.

Based on inferences from Table 5 products are listed in awareness set and consideration set.

Value to Price Offer & service network Aesthetic Brand image

Driving comfort Offer and discount Stylish appearance Brand Image

Value to price and cost Better service network Available color choice

High resale value

Better Mileage

Financer Funding to vehicle

Guarantee and warranty schemes

Easy handling the vehicle

Brake power

Latest technology



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Table 6: Successive set involved in consumer decision making: Purchasing scooter Total set Awareness set Consideration set Choice set Decision

Mahindra

Rodeo RZ

Duro DZ

Flyte

TVS

Scooty pep/pep+

Streak

Wego

Hero

Mastero

Pleasure

Honda

Activa

Dio

Avaitor

Suzuki

Access

Swish

Yamaha

Ray

Piaggio

Vespa

Above 80%

Scooty pep+

Pleasure

Activa

Ray

70%To80%

Access

50%To74%

Swish

Dio

Wego

Mastero

Streak

Duro DZ

Above 70%

Activa

50% To 70%

Scooty pep

Pleasure

Ray

?

?

From table 6 it can be inferred that brands that have high level of awareness are considered during purchase.

CONCLUSION Value to Price, offers & service network, aesthetic and Brand image are the four major factors considered by prospective

buyers before purchasing a scooter. Also the study reveals that the brands which have high level of awareness are considered

during purchase by the prospective buyers. Hence manufacturers and dealers should concentrate their marketing activities

towards creating awareness about their brand and product features. Moreover, based on Value to Price, offers & service

network, aesthetic and Brand image, manufacturers can do positioning of their brands in order to yield a higher success rate in

the minds of consumers which in turn will result in consideration of their brands / products by the prospects during the purchase

process.

REFERENCES 1. http://business.mapsofindia.com/automobile/market/two-wheeler.html#sthash.mnyaFJdb.dpuf

2. http://profit.ndtv.com/news/corporates/article-5-facts-about-indias-growing-two-wheeler-market-305607 3. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/Every-4th-two-wheeler-sold-now-a-

scooter/articleshow/37156130.cms 4. http://www.doaj.org/doaj?func=search&addFilter=lang:%22english%22&template=&query=customer%20satisfaction&current

Year=2013&uiLanguage=en&filter=media%3A%22journal%22&filter=media%3A%22article%22

5. http://www.drivespark.com/two-wheelers/2013/mahindra-two-wheeler-test-ride-get-500-004613.html 6. http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/338746/motorcycles_scooters_and_mopeds_global 7. Kotler Philip, Keller Kevin Lane et.al.,(2007) Marketing Management A South Indian Perspective, Pearson Prentice Hall of

India, New Delhi, pp.166 170. 8. Sekaran Uma (2007), Research Methods For Business A Skill Building Approach, Wiley India, New Delhi, p.294.

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