1. INTRODUCTION:

India has witnessed a boom in organized retail trade in the last decade. The retail format, which has shown the maximum growth among all, is the multipurpose shopping center or the mall. It is well know that this format is a favorite hang around in of the consumers in the current generation and it is also likely that OTC outlets are an epicenter for evolving an altogether new consumption culture within the study area. Therefore, it is of utmost interest to the retailers and pharmaceutical companies and academia equally to understand the consumer dynamics behind this newly evolving consumption culture.

It is also found to be considerable difference in the way men and women shop in the Western Maharashtra especially in terms of their purchase pattern and orientation to shopping. But is this true across cultures? Further, Sangli is not only has its own cultural identity which is very different from that of the others but also offers a rich diversity of cultures.

This study therefore addresses gender related differences within in consumer behavior and explores the shopping habits in order to identify and contrast possible differences. The findings suggest that in India there is a blur of gender differences in the consumers. Though, no major differences in the shopping orientation was found, these is evidence to suggest that purchase of the basket of goods differ across sexes.

India Retail is generating considerable interest within the country and abroad as it contributes 33% of the country’s fast growing GDP. Organized retail, best represented by the mushrooming OTC outlets, has come to play a defining role in building and supporting this veritable base of retail consumers. A good percentage of this retail growth is fueled by consumption of the youth in the country who constitute 54% of the population and number about 555 million (Shastri, 2004)¹.

Further, the post liberalization generation has grown up without any guilt about consumption. This would lead to a substantial shift in consumer behavior (Goswami, 2007)². Therefore, it is of utmost interest to the retailers and academia alike to understand the consumer dynamics behind the newly evolved consumption culture.

Higher medical professional charges coupled with excessive desire for self-medication and increasing faith in traditional ayurvedic medicines, India’s over the counter drug sale has grown around 10% in the last 2 years, leaving USA and China much behind, where OTC drug sale is estimated at 4% to 5% respectively.

The above findings are arrived at ASSOCHAM on Latest OTC Drug Sale Pattern, highlighting that the share of sale of OTC traditional drug in India has gone up to 30% as against of cold and cough medicines, 12% of vitamins and about 7% of Analgesics. Urban lifestyles, increased the number of consumers prepared to self medicate for everyday problems. This, in connection with increasingly stressful and hectic lifestyles in urban areas, underpinned the performance of the OTC healthcare market. Work pressures resulted in consumers becoming increasingly reluctant to take time off for illness, leading to growth in demand for products such as analgesics and cough, cold and allergy remedies. Products such as vitamins and dietary supplements benefited from consumers seeking preventative measures. Changing dietary patterns impact consumers Accelerating lifestyles also had an impact on demand for digestive remedies. Firstly, consumers increased consumption of fast food, which is often high in fat. This often results in constipation, increasing the need for laxatives. However, demand for diarrheal remedies saw a slight decline as consumers became more aware of hygiene issues, and were consequently more wary of the establishments from which they purchased fast food. Increased on-the-go consumption, often hurried, led to increased demand for antacids. Indian pharmaceutical companies produce 20 to 22% of world generic drugs 60,000 finished medicines and 400 bulk drugs used in formulations. The Indian OTC pharmaceuticals generated total revenue of $2.5 billion in 2006 Indian Market faces the problem of pseudo OTC market where Ethical drugs are also sold without prescription due to poor monitoring by FDA. Self medication tendency is traditionally very high due to high availability of traditional ayurvedic medicines, awareness and acceptance and affordable among large public. Hence need of more and more shops which will make OTC products available in the rural and urban area and also available at modern trade counters like big bazaar and smallest shop in the area to treat minor ailment at home and add more growth to fast moving health care sector and secondly opening new avenues for retail formats.

The study in confined to Sangli city and experiences with the larger picture and thus enable him to find the deviation (if any) in the behavioral and attitudinal patterns of the consumers in OTC Product shopping and stocking at home to use in minor ailments like cold, cough, pain, stomach ache and pains. Over the Counter sales is not restricted to medicines and drugs but covers a larger ambit of household goods and remedies.

GENDER AND MARKETING:

One of the major goals of marketing is to segment the consumers and try to target the products/services to their specific needs. Gender has a long history in marketing as a important segmentation variable. This is because it is a group that meets all the criteria of a good segmentation variable; it is easily identifiable, information is accessible and the segments are large enough to generate more profit.(Dr. R.B. Smarta 2005)³. Gender in this study is operational zed as a binary construct –male/female and is termed as “gender” as opposed to “sex” because gender is viewed both a biological and sociological process (Mayyada Wazaify and et al 2005)⁴. Research on shopping has indicated strong differences in shopping behavior between the genders. This seems to stem from the fact that the traditional division of labor at home called for the man, the husband and father, to be the breadwinner while the woman, the wife and mother, was expected to take care of the family and the home. She undertook the child care and nearly all the household chores, including shopping for the entire family. In spite of the fact that gender roles in other walks of life have stretched due to women being employed outside the home, women continue to be the principal buying agents for the majority of families (A, Miller 1998)⁵This has lead to gender stereotypes. Both men and women associate shopping as a feminine activity or a “female typed task” (Dholakia and Chiang, 2003, Firat and Dholkia, 1998, South and Spitze, 1994)⁶.Recent studies though have unveiled some evidence that points towards an increase in male participation in shopping-related activities. This is reflective of the trend wherein men are assuming a more egalitarian role due to gender role transcendence as well as facing increasing pressure to share the shopping duties in today’s time crunched world (Lee, Ibrahim and Hsueh-Shan, 2005, Dholaka, Perderson and Hikmet, 1995)⁷.

But most of these studies on gender and shopping orientation or behavior are in the American context. Given that the Sangli retail environment, mall penetration, demographics and cultural background is very different, there is need to investigate the issue in the local context.

Generally, women are seen as more involved in OTC drugs and home remedies shopping. The typical window shopper is a woman (Subbarao Chagmati (2007)⁸. Women enjoy going to the mall and they shop more than men to treat minor ailments at home.(Mickey Smith(2001)⁹ For example in the U.S., two thirds of all the mall visitors are women, and in married households, only half of the men were responsible for buying their own cold remedies.(Anshal Kausherh (2006)¹⁰. It was also found that on many occasions men came just to accompany their women (Dr.Atmaram Pawar (2007)¹¹. According to MeeraVijay (2006)¹²men find it hard to see any merit in shopping and browsing, while this activity is very much appreciated by women. Also women tend to buy more of OTC Products and ayurvedic products to be using in minor ailments along with cold remedies and soaps while this is less interesting to men. (Sproles, G. B. and Kendall, E. L. (1986)¹³.OTC shopping is considered a woman’s job, (Dr. Gulshan Gidwani 2003)¹⁴ while there is no gender difference in shopping of Medicines either OTC or Prescriptive drugs as eventually all drugs in India are available without prescription in India and patients are willing to take care of their health.

GENDER AND SHOPPING ORIENTATION:

Shopping orientations is an area in consumer behavior which has been pursued extensively in literature. (Moschis 1976)¹⁵ These studies have also tried to describe the consumers and the resulting shopper types. Consumers have been segmented into shopping groups by their usage of health and personal care products, safe and effective activities, lifestyle characteristics, Mall shopping age group and motivations for shopping OTC Products in minor ailments or stocking at home.

According to Westbrook and Black (1995),¹⁶ when consumers shop they are motivated by purchase needs, experiential needs or a combination of both. Shim (1996)¹⁷ proposed that there are three basic shopping traits, low cost,social/conspicuous or undesirable orientations. Bellenger et al (1997)¹⁸ found that retail patronage behavior could be studied along the dichotomy of safe and effective and economic shopping. Low cost /economic styles usually pertain to the ‘perfectionism’ and ‘value consciousness’ traits because’ they favor quality and / or price. They generally dislike shopping or are neutral towards it. In contrast’ the Safe and effective’ trait is associated with the OTC products. This study proposes to test shopping orientation by studying the Low cost /economic and safe and effective orientation for OTC products used in minor ailments among men and women.

Table 1 Demographic profile of the sample

Sr. No.	Demographic Variable	Male		Female		Total
Sr. No.	Demographic Variable	N	%	N	%	N
1	Gender	190	66.9	94	33.1	284
2	Age(Yrs)
	18 or less	13	6.8	4	4.3	17
	18-25	148	77.9	79	84	227
	DemographicVariable
	26-35	29	15.3	11	11.8	40
3	Income (Rs.)
	Less than 6,000	16	8.7	3	3.4	19
	6,000-10,000	59	32.1	26	29.2	85
	10,000-20,000	39	21.2	30	33.7	69
	20,000-30,000	27	14.7	12	13.5	39
	More than 30,000	43	23.4	18	20.2	61
4	Marital Status
	Marries	13	7	6	6.4	19
	Unmarried	174	93	88	93.6	262
5	Education
	Professional	15	7.9	1	1.1	16
	Post graduate	59	31.1	50	53.2	109
	Graduate/Diploma	52	27.4	31	33	83
	12^th	64	33.7	12	12.8	76
6	Geographical Sangli area
	North	48	25.4	32	34	80
	South	22	11.6	5	5.3	27
	East	12	6.3	9	9.6	21
	West	107	56.6	48	51.1	155

Table 2 Gender and OTC Purchases across different regions

Purchases Chemist	Pearson’s Chi-square (Sig. Level)				Contingency coefficient
Purchases Chemist	North	South	East	West	North	South	East
General stores	0.436	0.825	0.044	0.002	0.087	0.043	0.403
Shopping mall	0.332	0.718	0.086	0.445	0.108	0.69	0.351
Doctors Visit	0.292	0.825	0.163	0.627	0.117	0.043	0.291

CULTURE AND GRNDER DIFFERENCES:

The four different regions of Sangli area is selected for analysis of cross-cultural shopping behavior for two reasons. First, many large retailers and OTC outlets are expanding into all these markets which speak different languages, have different customs and hold different beliefs. It would be of considerable interest to them to analyze if regional differences exist to a significant extent. This will enable OTC Marketing companies to tailor their marketing strategies in these markets accordingly. Secondly, should differences emerge in within the same area; it is highly likely that greater differences will exist between comparatively dissimilar areas. Given the paucity of cross cultural studies in mall consumer behavior, though very few studies have currently been done on the Sangli consumer buying behavior and especially the role of gender, there are indicators that different findings from those from the west may evolve. In India shopping dynamics can be different. Here, shopping is a family activity: nearly 70 percent of its shoppers always go to stores with family, and 74 percent shopping as the best way to spend time with family. This preference for family-oriented shopping was found to be consistent across age groups, income segments, regions, and city sizes. (Vijay Bhangle (2007)¹⁹ A recent study by Prasad and Reddy (2007)²⁰ also found that male and female respondents’ support for retail outlets is almost same irrespective of the type of retail outlet.

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY:

1. Identify key Influences on purchases of OTC medicines by consumers

2. Consumer shopping attitudes towards OTC medicines

METHODOLOGY:

The tool used was a questionnaire survey that was administered to collect empirical data. The individual responses were kept confidential in order to encourage openness and disclosure. The demographic data collected included gender, age, marital status, education, family income and state of origin in India. The purchase pattern of the consumers was identified by asking them how frequently they purchased OTC Products at a Chemists and Modern Trade Counters (Refereed as Malls). The List of Purchase Categories Was Created Keeping in Mind the More Popular Stores in OTC outlets. The respondents rated the frequency on a five point scale (5-very frequently and 1-never). Most of the until now developed scales for shopping orientation were found to be either too lengthy or not suitable in the Sangli context and mall environments. Therefore, the items for the instrument were adapted from the various previous studies quoted above according to their relevance in the Sangli context. A total of 10 malls (including cooperative bazaar, Malls and big stores) shopping orientation questions were included asking respondents to indicate their agreement on a five point Likert scale (5-completerly agree and 1-completely disagree).

RATIONALITY OF SMALL SAMPLEING:

Numerous market research studies are conducted with small samples of data. Many of these data are described as ‘qualitative’. Researchers do not always appropriately take into account the size of the sample when drawing inferences about populations from small samples of data. The researcher had made some rules of thumb that may be employed when attempting to draw inferences from small samples, such as those typically used in qualitative research. The vast majority of research involving small samples is commonly referred to as qualitative research.

When the sample size for a subgroup of interest is small typically less than 20, 30, 50 depending upon the researcher it is common practice either not to present the data or to present it with appropriate caveats. Researcher had identified four types of conclusion that may be drawn from small samples without the need to place caveats on the findings. A comprehensive caution, such as ‘of course, these results are qualitative’, is not sufficient, as there are numerous findings that can be confidently made using small samples

The sample for the questionnaire was administered to a non-probability sample of 300, aged between 18-40 years from different parts of Sangli area. The sample is represented by 190 young male mall and 94 young female customers. A student sample was used because they are relatively homogeneous which reduces the potential for random errors compared with a sample from the general public (Calder, Philips and Tyhout 1981, Sproles and Kendal 1986). Refer Table 1 for the demographic profile of the sample.

Statistical Analysis was performed for the collected data using SPSS 12.0. Simple frequency distribution was performed to gather information on demographics such as gender, age, Income, marital status, and education. A principal component factor analysis was used to analyze the data on shopping orientation. A reliability analysis of the questionnaire items for Shopping orientation indicated low

Cronbach alpha scores (Refer table 5) and the stringent criterion of having an alpha rating of 0.60 and above was not applied. This is because, the scale items were adopted from studies done under different cultural contexts and validity problems were envisaged when surveying in the local context.

GENDER AND PUCHASES AT THE MALL:

To identify possible differences in terms of their purchases, a cross tabulation was done separately on gender and frequency of purchase of OTC Products, Cold-remedies, Cough-remedies, Head-ache, Stomach–upset, Sleeping pills, acidity, Body pains, vitamins and Contraceptives. Overall, a good majority of female (63.8% of the female respondents) agreed to frequent purchase of cold remedies while only 46.8% of the male respondents reported spending frequently on cold remedies. Similarly, 14.9% of the female respondents indulged in cough remedies at the mall while only 5.3% of the male respondents bought cough remedies. It was also observed that both male and female respondents reported purchasing head ache frequently (51% of male and 47.0% of female shoppers) at OTC outlets. Surprisingly it was seen that more male customers (48.9%) reported purchasing Stomach upset remedies than the female respondents (37.2%). Even by observation of the percentage of purchase by the respondents it was quite evident that there was no major differences in the purchase pattern of sleeping pills (Male 11.6% Female 12.8%), pains (Male 31.6% Female 37.2%), dry skin products (Male 54.7% Female 56.4%), and contraceptives (Male 11.1% Female 9.6%). But the consumption of OTC products seems to be substantially higher among the young men (Male 48.9% Female 38.3%).

To test the significance of these relationships the chi-square test value was calculated. The relationship between OTC products and gender was found to be significant with a Person’s chi-square significance of 0.007 and the relationship between cough remedies and gender was found to be significant with a Chi-square significance of 0.006. Therefore it can be concluded that women purchase OTC drugs and cold remedies more frequently than do men. The relationship between purchase of OTC drugs and stomach upset remedies seemed to indicate that men marginally purchased more of these items.

Table 3. Consumers Visit chemists and modern trade stores.

Consumers scale items	Factor Loadings
I think shopping OTC Products is routine	526
I usually go to OTC pharmaceutical outlets with friends.	423
I think OTC modern trade outlets are great places to spent time	573
I think being seen at OTC modern trade outlets give people a better image	564
I enjoy the mall exhibits when I shop OTC products	659
I enjoy browsing through racks for a long time before making up my mind	582
I come here when I see that an OTC drug is not available in other store.	613
I would come to a mall more often if the prices were lower	751

Table 4.Useful/cost-effective scale items

Useful/cost-effective scale items (Cronbach alpha=0.532)	Factor Loading
I come to the mall with a list of things either in hand and stick to it	633
OTC modern trade outlets are where I go to pick up my provisions	595
I like to find what I want in the least amount of time and leave the mall	505
I usually go to buy products with family	728

Table 5. Mean scores for safe and effective and low cost motivation

Different regions of India

(T-test significance level)

Male

Female

Mean

Std. Deviation

Mean

North

safe and effective (Sig.=0.519)

low cost (Sig.=0.319)

3.30

2.79

0.64874

0.70128

3.21

2.95

South

Safe and effective (Sig.=0.926)

Low cost (Sig.=0.378)

3.17

2.987

0.68531

3.2

3.4

East

Safe and effective (Sig.=0.222)

Low cost (Sig.=0.017)

3.08

2.33

0.64021

0.65134

3.41

3.08

West

Safe and effective (Sig.=0.406)

Low cost (Sig.=0.988)

107

3.37

2.84

0.72678

0.82050

3.46

2.83

India

Safe and effective (Sig.=0.578)

Low cost (Sig.=0.210)

190

3.31

2.80

0.69758

0.81077

3.36

2.93

However, the Pearson’s significance of 0.0614 for OTC products and 0.062 for stomach upset remedies indicates a lack of significant relationship between gender and these items.

Chi-Square significance value for sleeping pills (0.772), pains (0342), dry skin products (0.793), and contraceptives (0.703) clearly gives evidence supporting the fact that the growth of OTC products are on high. The Chi-square significance value of 0.090 indicates a relationship between entertainments at 90% significance but since the coefficient of correlation is very low, it is concluded that at 95% significance level there is no significant difference between genders in the consumption of OTC products thus supported.

A similar scenario unfolds in the comparison of the categories across regions. In the East and West women significantly purchase OTC more frequently while in the North and South show no such difference. In the North women buy more OTC drugs at chemists while a significant cannot be found in the other regions

SHOPPING ORIENTATION AND GENDER:

Principal component analysis with varimax rotation was used to analyze the data on shopping orientation using the two factors as the criterion for the factors extracted. Only 12 statements which loaded 40 or greater were used for further analysis. Cronbach alphas, for each dimension, were then calculated as 0.602 for the safe and effective scale and 0.532 for the Low cost /economic scale. The items that loaded high under the first factor are mostly considered to be recreation oriented with the exception of last two which usually is expected to load on the useful/economic orientation. In this context it can be interpreted to mean that the safe and effective shoppers in India enjoy bargain hunting and are price sensitive. It is also clear those consumers spending time at the chemists is usually with the open purpose of shopping.

The rating for the items loaded high was averaged to estimate the degree of safe and effective as well as low cost motivation. These were then subject to t-test for independent samples to arrive at the mean values. Since the Sig. Level was 0.578 and 0.210 for Life style products motivation and useful motivations, it is concluded that there is no significant difference between male and female respondents in terms of their Useful/cost-effective motivation. Significant difference was only found in the low cost motivation of the respondents from the East where women were surprisingly found to have a more practical attitude towards shopping.

CONCLUSION:

The study indicates hardly any significant difference in the behavior of young male and female consumers for OTC products. They spend a lot of time (89.15 spend more than two hours per visit) any money there (68.6% spend more than Rs 500 per visit), yet their perception of shopping in chemist and modern outlets and their motivations are not very different. It is evident from this study that both groups enjoy shopping. Furthermore it is interesting to note that young men apparently enjoy stomach upset almost as much as women and that the food and grocery is purchased almost as frequently by the men. There seems to be blurring of gender divisions across the various regions of the country. These results become relevant because most of the shopping experience at different chemists and general stores where OTC products were sold tends to be oriented towards women since they are perceived to enjoy shopping more.

The results also indicate that a difference in shopping behavior between the sexes is cultural and subject to change over time, if it had not, then results should have been consistent across cultures.

Also evident in the study is the role of price peculiar to the Sangli context. While literature indicates that fun shoppers tend to be more tolerant of price, this study finds indications that low cost shoppers are more tolerant of price. They seem to accept high prices in exchange for the convenience of shopping for all their purchases under the same roof and thus save on shopping time. Safe and effective shoppers enjoy hunting for bargains and see it as part of the shopping experience.

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Received on 04.10.2010 Accepted on 20.10.2010

Asian J. Management 1(2): Oct. – Dec. 2010 page 55-60