Manipal (Karnataka) is well known for having the highest student density in India. The heavy rainfall and the accompanying viral attacks during the monsoons are equally famous among the student community. I, being a second year student of T.A Pai Management Institute, have been trying very hard since the past year to overcome illness during this season, but to no avail. I was down with viral fever, flu and throat infection for the umpteenth time and it was high time I took all possible medications and further precautions.

With this mindset, one fine evening, I landed up at the Tiger Circle and decided to buy an umbrella first. I headed to the Manipal stores and asked for one. After spending little time on evaluating which one would be the best purchase for me, I decided to buy a weird looking umbrella for two reasons – it was cheap and had an unconventional look with black and white stripes that appealed to me. I wanted to buy a raincoat next. The store owner showed me a raincoat worth Rs. 250 and told me that this was the cheapest of the lot. I was not keen on buying that as I feared the quality of the raincoat would be as low as its price which, in turn, would lead to its wear and tear in no time. Since the other raincoats were out of stock, he advised me to go to Udupi to buy one and thus, the unplanned trip to Udupi was finalized. However, before leaving the store, my eyes fell on a muffler and a few pairs of socks which were placed near the billing counter. These were pretty cheap and I bought one muffler and two pairs of socks without any hesitation whatsoever.

On reaching Udupi, I was on the lookout for a store to buy a raincoat when my eyes fell on a huge hoarding which said ‘Upto 50% off’. This attracted me instantaneously and I decided to make my purchase in that particular outlet. As soon as the salesman approached me, I mentioned a price range and then, the salesman showed me many raincoats. After having done a quick evaluation of all the raincoats on the basis of their price, look and feel, I finalized upon a raincoat worth Rs. 500.

I was about to leave the store when a ‘Duckback’ raincoat fell in the purview of my eyesight. That reminded me of all the things I had read about this famous brand a while ago. This is a heritage brand with its history dating back to as old as 75 years. Owned by Bengal Waterproof Limited (BWL), Duckback is well known for its water proofing products in India. Because of its strong association with quality, consumers are always ready to pay a premium for Duckback raincoats. It is worth knowing that in India, raincoats are considered as style statements only by those who are regular bike commuters. It is more of utility value to the other consumers unlike in the west, where people wear elegant looking raincoats even while walking in the rain. Despite the fact that raincoat is generally not considered a part of the wardrobe in India, Duckback is often perceived as an aspirational brand. This might be due to the reason that Duckback is also famous as a supplier to defence forces and is highly priced. After having recollected all this, I decided to purchase one for my father. I called back the salesperson and asked him to show me the most expensive one. After engaging myself in a ten minute discussion over the brand, I asked him to bill the raincoat.

While on my way back to Manipal, I came across a mobile store and realized that this was the best time for me to buy a cell phone which I had been postponing for many days. My earlier phone started showing a lot of problems and it was essential for me to replace it as soon as possible. I had decided to buy an inexpensive one because I was scared that the new phone would stop functioning properly in a while as well, due to possibly absorbing a lot of moisture content. I entered the store with the intention of buying a basic model of Nokia, which would come in the price range of Rs. 1200 to Rs. 1800. However, my eyes fell on a Micromax phone in the similar price range as soon as I entered the store. The outrageous advertisements featuring Akshay Kumar, my favorite actor, started flashing in my mind despite the fact that I had hardly paid any attention to those advertisements when they were telecast amidst my favorite movies across various channels. This put me in a dilemma. I started to think if I could go for the basic model of Micromax instead of Nokia despite the fact that I had been loyal to Nokia since time immemorial. My purchase decision got further complicated because the store owner was trying hard to push a ‘Samsung’ product. It seemed as if his sole aim was to sell the phone to me, which made me wonder if ‘Samsung’ has been giving the retailer higher margins to push his products. However, I remained unaffected and finally decided to go ahead with the Micromax model as I perceived low risk in my purchase decision.

Once the purchases were done, I was back in Manipal and stopped by at a pharmaceutical store. I wanted to buy the following medicines- Paracetamol, Cifran 500, Vicks Inhaler, Benadryl cough syrup and Otrivin nasal drops. The thought of knowing all the medicines without having consulted a doctor induced a great sense of achievement in me. ‘Paracetamol’ has been approved for reducing fever in every individual irrespective of his/her age group. It is the most commonly used antipyretic (that reduces body temperature), just like how Otrivin is synonymous with instantaneous relief from blocked nose. Cifran500 is a strong antibiotic which is used to cure bacterial infections and I owe my familiarity to the drug, to the fact that I was often given doses of this antibiotic by my parents during times of severe throat infection. I recalled Benadryl cough syrup immediately because I had used it a few times earlier and the results were satisfactory. Vicks inhaler was the most common thing which an individual with a blocked nose would possess.

The chemist handed over Paracetamol, Otrivin and Vicks inhaler. However, Cifran500 and Benadryl were out of stock. I was about to leave the store, when a bottle of Honitos cough syrup on the shelf caught my attention. I decided to buy that without any second thought, as I was pretty familiar with the ‘Honitos’ brand, thanks to a few commercials I had seen recently. After that, I went to the other medical store nearby to buy Cifran500. It was quite irritating to hear for the second time that the medicine was out of stock. I was not willing to replace it with another antibiotic (which the chemist recommended), because I had it in the back of my mind that antibiotics could lead to many side effects, if not consumed appropriately. However, I was third time lucky and then finally was on my way back to TAPMI.

Before heading back to my hostel, I went to the canteen to have a Masala dosa. Gopi Anna claims that his dosas are indeed the best and I started to believe in that because the dosa proved really helpful in satisfying my hunger. After the hectic day of purchasing things in a not-so-fit state of health, it was high time to get back to room and relax before working on the next assignment of ‘Consumer Behavior’.

Prior to catching up with some sleep, I thought of resuming the movie that I had left incomplete before heading to Manipal. The current scene (where I had paused), was shot in the rains and to my utter disbelief, the unconventional umbrella that I had purchased, was identical to the one the actor was holding in the scene. I was surprised and was asking myself if this was mere coincidence or there was a slight possibility that my exposure to this design in a subconscious state affected my purchase decision. It took me a few seconds to come over this pleasant surprise which was followed by my watching a couple of Micromax advertisements on Youtube. After having done so, I felt really happy about my purchase decision and within no time, dozed off.

A few days passed by very fast as I was trying to make up for the absence in classes (owing to ill health) apart from working on a presentation related to the topic of Customerization. I was doing some reading when my father called me up and said – “Beta, you should not have purchased the Duckback raincoat for me. It is not worth the purchase as it has started to wear and tear very soon.” I was upset on hearing this and assured him that I shall not make such purchases in the near future. After having disconnected the phone, I told myself, “Irrespective of the brand image of Duckback, I am not buying a product from this company again”, and continued with my powerpoint presentation.

Solution:
• Umbrella purchase
 “Inertia” buying behavior
 Subliminal perception comes into play (as explained in the end)
• Socks, muffler – “Impulse” purchase
• Rs. 250 raincoat was perceived to be of lower quality without even evaluating because it is a common tendency to associate a positive correlation between price and quality
• Attraction to the particular outlet in Udupi due to effective sales promotions
• High involvement buying behavior while purchasing Duckback raincoat as it is purchased to be given as a gift which has high emotional content; price is not the criterion here
• Decided on buying Nokia phone due to “Habit” buying behavior
• Decision to buy “Micromax” phone depicts variety seeking behavior. The decision is made on the basis of passive learning from the advertisements; the risk involved in the purchase is also low as the consumer is looking for inexpensive mobile phones
• Samsung might be providing higher retailer margins due to which the retailer was trying hard to push the product
• The medicines’ purchase can be classified as “habit” purchase because the brands have been purchased earlier and have been already evaluated. The decision of purchasing particular brands had been made prior to visiting the medical store.
• The purchase of Honitos due to the absence of Benadryl is an example of “Limted Decision Making” buying behavior, where the consumer is one again affected by the passive learning through television advertisements
• Cifran500 purchase was a high involvement purchase because it was an antibiotic and its replacement with another medicine without prior knowledge could lead to side effects. Hence, the consumer frequented multiple medical stores before making the final purchase
• The decision of not to buy Duckback products anymore merely on the basis of one failure is an example of post purchase dissonance (contrast effect)

About the author

Siddharth Chhottray wrote 9 articles on this Website.

Siddharth Chhottray is an alumnus of BITS, Pilani (Class of 2009)

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