Hong Kong University Marketing Survey - Case Study Example

Hong Kong University marketing survey Name: Tutor: Course: Date: Data Analysis The aim of this study was to explore the attitudes of Hong Kong university students towards affordable luxury clothes. In response to that, the study generated two questions; Q1: What are the Hong Kong university students’ attitudes towards purchase of affordable luxury clothes? Attitudes towards purchase of affordable luxury clothes Descriptive statistics As shown in the table above, majority of the respondents 24(40%) spend money in the range of HKD$3,000-5,000 to buy affordable luxury clothes. This was closely followed by 22(36%) who were respondents spending less than HKD$3,000. Majority of these respondents buy affordable luxury brands once in few months 21(35%) because a good number of them 29(48.3%) believe that it is quite expensive for them. This implies that the respondents demonstrate the willingness to buy affordable luxury clothes once in few months even if they find them quite expensive. Consumer favorite clothing brands As shown in the table above, the most favorite clothing brand is Abercrombic & Fitch (μ=.57; SD = .500) followed by Calvin Klein (μ=.48; SD = .504) and Agnes B (μ=.40; SD = .494). This indicates that Hong Kong university students have higher likelihood to purchase some brands than others. These brands are specifically Calvin Klein, Abercrombic & Fitch and Agnes B. Price perceptions towards purchase of affordable luxury clothes The following hypothesis was generated with regard to attitudes of university students towards affordable luxury clothes. H11: Customer perceptions on price influences the frequency of purchase affordable luxury clothes H10: Customer perceptions on price does not influence the frequency of purchase affordable luxury clothes From the table above, consumers who purchase luxury clothes more than once a month perceive them as affordable 8(57.1%) compared to those who buy once in few months 13(52.6%) or once a year 3(50%) who perceive them as quite expensive. This indicates that customers who deem the luxury clothes as affordable will more than once a month buy their favorite brands. The value (phi = .508; p = 0.05) is significant as well as Pearson chi-square (15.474; p=0.05). We reject the null hypothesis and accept the alternate hypothesis that customer perceptions on price influence the frequency of purchase affordable luxury clothes. Attitudes towards attributes of clothing brands On attributes that customers associate with specific brands when planning to buy their favorite brand, the following hypothesis was generated. H21: Customers have attitudes specific towards attributes of brands they intend to buy H20: Customers have no specific attitude towards of attributes brands they intend to buy From the table above, the component transformation matrix shows that the factors are highly correlated. Most of the factors are loaded on component 1 with only two variables (size and country of origin) loaded on component 2. We take component 1 has having the highest number of attributes that influence the attitude of customers towards a given brand. Again, the factor loadings are highly correlated and show that they influence customer attitudes towards affordable luxury brands. The attributes are; quality, design, price, popularity, fashionable, sales promotions, brand name and enjoyment/self-esteem. The identity matrix Bartlett’s Test Of Sphericity was used to test the null hypothesis and shows a value of (.772) at a significant level of p=0.001. We reject the null hypothesis and accept the alternative hypothesis that customers have specific attitudes towards attributes of brands they intend to buy. Influence of marketing mix on customer attitudes Moreover, on the influence of marketing mix on attitudes of customers to buy fashionable luxury clothes, Spearman correlations were used. The following hypothesis was generated; H31: Marketing mix influences attitudes of customers to buy fashionable luxury clothes H30: Marketing mix does not influence the attitudes of customers to buy fashionable luxury clothes The table above shows that sales promotions (-.455**; p=0.01) and price (-.349**; p=0.01) have high negative correlation with the attitude of university students to purchase fashionable luxury clothes. With sales promotions and price being the factors of marketing mix, it shows that they influence attitudes of clothing consumers. The two factors have high correlation at (p=0.01). We reject the null hypothesis and accept the alternative hypothesis that marketing mix has influence on attitude of customers to purchase fashionable luxury clothes. Brand preference and purchase intention Brand preference and the intention to buy affordable luxury clothes are explained from the results of bivariate correlation. The purchase intention is defined by the likelihood to buy in future and from the affordable luxury brand. From the table below, it shows that future intention to buy (.552**; p=0.01) and buying from an affordable luxury brand (.627**; p=0.01) are positively correlated to brand preference. Specifically, the future purchase intention (.586**; p=0.01) is highly correlated to buying from an affordable luxury brand. This shows that Hong Kong university student have higher possibility of buying from an affordable luxury brand in future. Similarly, as shown in the table below, better quality and design of affordable luxury clothes is seen by most customers 15(60%) as quite expensive. This show that regarding product attributes, customers tend to associate better quality and design to higher product prices. Regarding people around them wearing (group conformity), a significant number of respondents 8(53.3%) said that the clothing brands as above their affordability level. On enjoying wearing branded clothes (perceived behavioral control), majority of the respondents 2(66.7%) deemed such luxury clothes as affordable. Luxury clothes that exuded a feeling of confidence on the wearer (face saving) was also taken by majority of the respondents 9(69.2%) as affordable. Finally, majority respondents 2(50%) who just liked the clothes (subjective norm) said that the clothes were quite expensive. This shows that customers buy affordable luxury clothing because of face saving, perceived behavioral control and group conformity. Q2: What are some specific aspects of Hong Kong culture that influence students’ purchase towards affordable luxury clothes? Subjective norms This section explored some aspects of Hong Kong culture that influence purchase of affordable luxury clothes. This took attention of some factors that influence purchase behavior and decision making such as family and friends. The following hypothesis was formulated from the subjective norms; H41: Compared to colleagues and friends, family has the highest influence on students’ intention to purchase of affordable luxury clothes H40: Compared to colleagues and friends, family does not have great influence on students’ intention to purchase of affordable luxury clothes From the table above, the intention to purchase affordable luxury clothes has a strong negative correlation with recommendation by family members (-.398**; p=0.01) and recommendation from colleagues and friends (-.343**; p=0.01). Similarly, the other important norms are making purchase decisions based on recommendations of important people to them (-.377**; p=0.01) and conforming to social groups (-.346**; p=0.01) such as colleagues friends and family. From the Spearman rank correlation, family has the highest influence on the intention of the respondents to purchase. We reject the null hypothesis and accept the alternative hypothesis that family has the highest influence on customer intention to purchase affordable luxury clothes in Hong Kong. Perceived behavioral control This aspect related to the difficulty of performing a specific behavior or perceived ease of doing something. The following hypothesis was formulated; H51: Intention to purchase affordable luxury clothes is influenced by forces beyond the control of the customer H50: Intention to purchase affordable luxury clothes is influenced by forces within the control of the customer As shown in the table below, high correlation are found in active seeking of information on latest clothing trends (.426**; p=0.01) and ease of choosing affordable luxury clothes than other (-.548**; p=0.01) on their own which are forces within control of the customer. On the other hand, the decision to buy clothes is beyond my control (-.396**; p=0.01) also has significant negative correlation but not higher than those stated above. In this case, we accept the null hypothesis that intention to purchase affordable luxury clothes is influenced by forces within the control of the customer. Group conformity This aspect represents the social influence that an individual derives externally and may lead to change or belief or behavior. The following hypothesis was formulated; H61: Customers’ intention to purchase affordable luxury clothes is to conform to social expectation of those around them. H60: Customers’ intention to purchase affordable luxury clothes is not to conform to social expectation of those around them. From the table below, the desire to behave like friends is positively correlated with copying from them (.460**; p=0.01), get influenced from what they buy (.304*; p=0.05), willing to follow other people’s opinions (.335**; p=0.01), sharing similar opinions as those around them (.450**; p=0.01) and buying to satisfy the expectations of those around them (.356**; p=0.01). The results from Pearson correlation, from the table above, shows that there is a strong negative relationship between the intention of the customer to buy affordable luxury clothes (-.306*; p=0.05) and conformity within social groups or those around them. We reject the null hypothesis and accept the alternative hypothesis that customers’ intention to purchase affordable luxury clothes is to conform to social expectation of those around them. Face saving This aspect represents the preservation of dignity, credibility and reputation of a person. The following hypothesis was formulated; H71: Customers’ intention to purchase affordable luxury clothes is intended to save face or reputation H70: Customers’ intention to purchase affordable luxury clothes is not intended to save face or reputation From the table below, the intention to purchase affordable luxury clothes is highly correlated with saving face (-.425**; p=0.01), and keeping ones’ reputation (-.400**; p=.01). Also, wearing clothes to represent ones’ social status (-.262*; p=0.05) has some correlation but weak. As seen in the table above, saving face and keeping ones’ reputation determine ones intention to purchase affordable luxury clothes. We reject the null hypothesis and accept the alternative hypothesis that customers’ intention to purchase affordable luxury clothes is intended to save face or reputation. Influence of subjective norms, perceived behavioral norms, group conformity and face saving on intention to purchase affordable luxury clothes. A regression analysis was done and the following equation generated; Y (Intention to purchase) = α + β1(family influence) + β2(ease of choosing the product) + β3(meet other peoples’ expectations) + β4 (save face) The results are as shown in the table below. The results show that the regression equation is significant at p=0.001 and has moderate fit for the data as shown in F-change (5.535). Similarly, 28.7% of the independent variables accounts for the variability of the dependent variable. The results of the equation are; Y(Intention to purchase) = 5.2***(0.000) - 0.186(influence of family) - 0.177(ease of choosing the product) - 0.125(meeting other peoples’ expectations – (0.339*0.05) (face saving). From the four dependent variables, face saving is significant and directly affects the intention of respondents purchase affordable luxury clothes. Summary The results of this study show that respondents demonstrate the willingness to buy affordable luxury clothes once in few months even if they find them quite expensive. Hong Kong university students are more likely to purchase Calvin Klein, Abercrombic & Fitch and Agnes B brands. The study found that customer perceptions on price influence the frequency of purchase affordable luxury clothes and those customers have specific attitudes towards attributes of brands they intend to buy. Marketing mix, specifically price and sales promotions, has influence on attitude of customers to purchase fashionable luxury clothes. Hong Kong students tend to associate better quality and design to higher product prices. Although Hong Kong customers buy affordable luxury clothing to satisfy their needs, they mainly do so to save face and keep their reputation and conform to social expectation of those around them. Read More