1. INTRODUCTION:

Purchase intention is a major factor of purchase decision. It is a plan to purchase a particular good or service in the future. Once the alternatives have been evaluated, the consumer is ready to make a purchase decision. Sometimes purchase intention does not result in an actual purchase. The marketing organisations facilitate the consumer to act on their purchase intention. The organisations use variety of techniques to achieve this. The provision of credit or payment terms may encourage purchase, or a sales promotion such as the opportunity to receive a premium or enter a competition may provide an incentive to buy now. The relevant internal psychological process that is associated with purchase decision is integration. Once the integration is achieved, the organisation can influence the purchase decisions much more easily. (Consumer Behaviour)

The study is focused on the impact of promotional tools on consumer purchase intention while purchasing packaged food products. Seven variables of promotion viz. Advertising, Celebrity Endorsement, Public Relation, Product Sampling, Direct Marketing, Sales Promotion and Sales Force have been identified as the decision variables of purchase intention.

Variables Interrelations:

Figure 1

Industry Scenario: India is the world's second largest producer of food next to China, and has the potential of being the biggest with the food and agricultural sector. The total food production in India is likely to double in the next ten years and there is an opportunity for large investments in food and food processing technologies, skills and equipment, especially in areas of Canning, Dairy and Food Processing, Specialty Processing, Packaging, Frozen Food/ Refrigeration and Thermo Processing. Fruits & Vegetables, Fisheries, Milk & Milk Products, Meat & Poultry, Packaged/Convenience Foods, Alcoholic Beverages & Soft Drinks and Grains are important sub-sectors of the food processing industry. Health food and health food supplement is another rapidly rising segment of this industry which is gaining vast popularity amongst the health conscious. (Indian Food Industry)

India is one of the world’s major food producers but accounts for less than 1.5 per cent of international food trade. This indicates vast scope for both investors and exporters. Food exports in 1998 stood at US $5.8 billion whereas the world total was US $438 billion. The Indian food industries sales turnover is Rs 140,000 Crore annually as at the start of year 2000. The industry has the highest number of plants approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) outside the USA. (Indian Food Industry)

The size of the packaged food market in India is estimated at $10 billion and is expected to reach $20 billion by 2014, while the share of packaged food in the food and grocery market is expected to touch 5 per cent by the same time.

Factors that have fuelled this industry’s growth are the arrival of food multinationals, rising popularity of quick-service restaurants, modern retail trade, technological advancement, changing urban lifestyles and so on.

The main categories of packaged food are bakery products, canned/dried processed food, frozen processed food, meal replacement products and condiments. Some emerging new categories in this segment are processed dairy products, frozen ready-to-eat foods, diet snacks, processed meat, pro-biotic drinks and so on.

Some key players in this industry are Hindustan Unilever (tea, instant coffee, biscuits, pulses, instant beverages etc.), Nestle (instant coffee, milk and milk products, ready-to-eat foods), PepsiCo (aerated drinks, fruit juices, cereals, snacks) and Haldirams (sweets, namkeens, syrups, crushes, snacks). (Business Standard)

The industry report suggests that there is a good opportunity in the packaged food market in India. The study tries to find out this prospect through an in-depth investigation.

2. LITERATURE REVIEW:

Purchase intention has been considered in this study to be an endogenous variable on the decision variables of product promotion variables viz. Advertising, Celebrity Endorsement, Public Relation, Product Sampling, Direct Marketing, Sales Promotion and Sales Force. Kotler (2003, 16) explains Promotion as one of the four Ps of marketing mix. This study is focused on Promotion orientation of marketing mix.

Purchase intention has been explained as the likelihood of purchasing a product by the consumer. Loudon and Bitta (2007, 436, 498) find that behavioural intention, among other factors, acts as a predictor of purchase decision behaviour. Clawson (1971) explains that from the measurement of speed, direction and size of shifts in buying likelihoods for a product over several periods in various market segments, the marketer may discover what trends are taking place as well as the timing and size of their potential impact on sales.

Ahmad et al (2010) investigate the green buying behaviours of Pakistani customers and find that advertisement has a significant impact on purchase intention. They conduct a study on the imperative factors devising green advertising strategies on a sample size of 400 students studying in different educational institutions of Pakistan. Result shows that majority of Pakistanis (82%) have exposure to at least one medium of advertising i.e. print or television advertising. They are more exposed to television advertising as compared to print advertising (71% vs. 65%). Findings further suggest that Pakistani customers have positive attitude towards advertising.

Cheng et al (2010) find that celebrity endorsement has a significant impact on purchase intention. They investigate the effect of self image, social expectation and celebrity endorsement on the consumption of Metrosexuals toward male grooming products in Malaysia. It also attempts to determine the moderating impacts of perceptions on the relationship between the variables and consumption behaviour. They conduct the study on the 281 respondents living in the Klang Valley. The study indicates that there is a significant and positive relationship between celebrity endorsements and consumption of metrosexuals toward male grooming products.

Cannière et al (2009) find that public relation has a significant impact on purchase intention. The study investigates the link between perceived relationship quality, purchase intention and behaviour, and the moderating role of relationship strength. They conducted their study on 634 customers of a Belgian apparel retailer. Research reveals that Perceived relationship quality and relationship strength significantly impacted buying intention, and buying intention and relationship strength significantly impacted purchase behaviour. A better relationship quality led to stronger purchase intention for customers with weaker relations with the retailer, whereas a stronger intention led to more purchase behaviour for customers with a stronger relation with the retailer.

In an experiment Shimp and Sprott find that product sampling has a significant impact on purchase intention. They manipulate the stature of the sampled brand and participants’ opportunity to taste the product (orange juice) prior to reporting purchase intentions. Findings reveal that sampling enhanced purchase intentions for the store brand only when the brand was of high (versus low) quality. Specifically, contrast tests for the store brand, Safeway, indicate that given brand name and packaging information only (absent a tasting opportunity) participants rated the brand somewhat more favourably than did those who tasted a low-quality version of that brand. Likewise, participants who sampled a high quality version of Safeway were more likely to buy it than their counterparts who tasted a low-quality variety.

Huang and Lin (2010) find that direct marketing has a significant impact on purchase intention. They conduct a study on direct marketing through internet to identify the impact on purchase intention of customers. Based upon the 2-dimensional image scale, 120 college students from Taiwan and Japan were invited to evaluate 27 pencil sharpener samples in terms of their preferences and intention of purchase. The result indicates that such a web-based 2-dimensional image survey system could offer real time help in product segmentation and the selection of competition products.

Williams (2010) finds that sales promotion has a very significant impact on purchase intention. He explains that without significant sales, no business can survive long-term. Every business owner spends an enormous amount of his time trying to figure out ways to improve sales numbers. One of the most common methods is instituting a sales promotion, in which discounted prices, free giveaways and other enticements are offered to customers in exchange for their dollars within an allotted time. One of the major impacts sales promotion have on sales is the time frame in which customers buy. Often companies introduce a time limitation on buying the product in order to reap the rewards of the sales promotion. The extra incentive, reduced price, a tangible reward, or free information, often results in a sales increase during the time of the promotion and increases impulse purchases.

The same is observed by Jones (2008). He finds that direct consumer premiums (DCPs), the most frequently used non-price sales promotion, have been defined as packaged-related free bonus items offered by packaged-goods manufacturers to consumers when they purchase promoted products. Researchers have proposed that DCPs have favourable effects which have led to increased probabilities of product selection in post-promotion time periods.

Jiang et al (2010) find that sales force has a significant impact on purchase intention. They conduct a study to understand the impact of sales force or sales person on the purchase intention of customers. They examine the effects of incidental similarity shared between a salesperson and a potential consumer in an actual face-to-face sales situation. Further, they provide an explanation for how and why incidental similarity can have a persuasive influence. After using an actual sales situation, result reveals that the incidental similarity on attitude of sales person has a significant impact on the purchase intention of products. The study suggests that even matching based on incidental similarities may have an influence on consumer decision making.

This brief survey finds that the variables of promotion have a significant impact on consumer purchase intention.

3. Research Questions:

Which variables of promotion have a significant impact on purchase intention?

1. Conceptual Framework of the Study:

In the light of the above review, a study of consumer preference has been conducted in which the factors of promotion viz. Advertising, Celebrity Endorsement, Public Relation, Product Sampling, Direct Marketing, Sales Promotion and Sales Force are taken as the predictors of purchase intention. Every variable has more than one component and opinion of 100 individuals.

Figure 2

Mathematical Model:

Y = f (X₁, X₂, X₃, X₄, X₅, X₆, X₇)

Ŷ = ∏₀ + ∏₁X₁ + ∏₂X₂ + ∏₃X₃ + ∏₄X₄+ ∏₅X₅+ ∏₆X₆+ ∏₇X₇

Table 1:

Descriptive Statistics of Demographics				Model Summary
Item	Measure	Frequency	%age	R	R Square		Adjusted R Square			Std. Error of the Estimate
Age (Years)	0-20	12	12.0	0.708	0.502		0.463			0.702
	21-30	28	28.0
	31-40	40	40.0	ANOVA
	>40	20	20.0	Model	Sum of Squares	df		Mean Square	F		Sig.
Gender	Male	40	40.0
	Female	60	60.0	Regression	45.152	7		6.450	13.095		0.000
Monthly Income (Rs.)	<10000	28	28.0
	10000-19999	25	25.0	Residual	44.824	91		0.493
	20000-30000	27	27.0
	>30000	20	20.0	Total	89.975	98
Occupation	Business Class	21	21.0
	Households	30	30.0
	Professionals	22	22.0
	Service Class	18	18.0
	Students	09	09.0

Research Hypotheses:

The literature review of the study contributes to the development of research hypotheses to conduct an empirical study. The study finds that Advertising, Celebrity Endorsement, Public Relation, Product Sampling, Direct Marketing, Sales Promotion and Sales Force are taken as the predictors of purchase intention. The following hypotheses can be formulated:

H₁: Advertisement has a significant impact on purchase intention while purchasing packaged food products.

H₂: Celebrity Endorsement has a significant impact on purchase intention while purchasing packaged food products.

H₃: Public Relation has a significant impact on purchase intention while purchasing packaged food products.

H₄: Product Sampling has a significant impact on purchase intention while purchasing packaged food products.

H₅: Direct Marketing has a significant impact on purchase intention while purchasing packaged food products.

H₆: Sales Promotion has a significant impact on purchase intention while purchasing packaged food products.

H₇: Sales Force has a significant impact on purchase intention while purchasing packaged food product

2. Research Methodology:

The study has been organised through multivariate analysis. The data used for the study is of primary source which has been collected through questionnaire. The opinion of the respondents has been collected on 7-points Likert’s Scale. The sampling method includes the systematic random sampling in which every fifth consumer of packaged food products has been considered to be the respondent. The respondents’ demographics have been taken on the basis of Age, Gender, Income and Occupation. The Multiple Regression Method has been used to evaluate the impact of exogenous variables on the endogenous one. The Collinearity test has also been organised to ascertain the uni/ multicollinearity among the variables. These analyses will help in developing marketing strategies for the companies producing packaged food products. The analysis has been conducted on 5% level of significance.

6.1 Research Plan

Research Design: Exploratory and Causal

Data Source: Primary Data

Instrument: Questionnaire

Scale: 7-points Likert’s Scale

6.2 Sample Plan

Sampling Design: Systematic Random Sampling

Sample Size: 100

Location: Chhattisgarh

Demographics: Age, Income, Gender and Occupation

It is evident from the model summary that the instrument has been developed with proper attention and the data has been collected properly. A good R Square value supports this statement.

Decision Variables Average

Figure 3

Table 2 Coefficients
	Unstandardized Coefficients		Standardized Coefficients	t	Sig.	Collinearity Statistics
	B	Std. Error	Beta	t	Sig.	Tolerance	VIF	CI
Constant	5.965	1.493		3.995	0.000
X₁	0.270	0.067	0.363	4.052	0.000	0.683	1.465	1.000
X₂	0.273	0.108	0.218	2.519	0.014	0.733	1.365	3.350
X₃	0.244	0.070	0.328	3.463	0.001	0.611	1.636	3.329
X₄	-0.243	0.105	-0.253	-2.327	0.022	0.462	1.164	7.418
X₅	0.024	0.121	0.020	0.195	0.846	0.499	1.004	12.011
X₆	-0.314	0.095	-0.326	-3.294	0.001	0.559	1.790	18.777
X₇	-0.229	0.115	-0.220	-1.981	0.051	0.442	1.262	21.777
Conclusion: Research hypotheses H₁, H₂, H₃, H₄ and H₆ are accepted and H₅ and H₇ are rejected.

6.3 Regression Analysis:

The Multiple Regression Analysis has been organised to evaluate the significant impact of the explanatory variables viz. Advertising, Celebrity Endorsement, Public Relation, Product Sampling, Direct Marketing, Sales Promotion and Sales Force on the endogenous variable purchase intention. Besides, the Collinearity has also been tested.

Regression Equation of Purchase Intention dependent on Determinants

Y= 5.965 + 0.270 X₁+ 0.273 X₂+ 0.244 X₃- 0.243 X₄+ 0.024 X₅- 0.314 X₆- 0.229 X₇

Figure 4:

3. Finding:

Advertising, Celebrity Endorsement, Public Relation, Product Sampling Sales and Promotion have significant impact on purchase intention while purchasing packaged food products. Direct Marketing and Sales Force are not found to have significant impact on purchase intention while purchasing packaged food products. Multicollinearity also has been tested in Regression Analysis. The tolerance value should be 0-1; VIF 1-2; and condition index <30 for uni-collinearity. The above values are within the specified limits. So, there is no sign of multicollinearity [Refer Table2].

4. DISCUSSION AND SUGGESTION:

The Multiple Regression Analysis (Table3) finds that all the explanatory variables have significant impact on endogenous variables except X5 and X7 that is direct marketing and sales force.. The analysis reveals that Advertisement is found to have a very significant impact on purchase intention. The consumers of packaged food products have a high likelihood of purchasing products because of good advertisement. Purchase intention is found to be high when the consumers have prior information of the product. Celebrity endorsement for the product has been found to have a very high significant impact on purchase intention. The packaged food products consumers are influenced by the celebrities and take them to be their role models while consuming packaged food products. Public relation has also been found to have a significant impact on purchase intention. The consumers enjoy the direct or indirect association with producers and retailers. Product sampling is another factor which has been found to have a significant impact on purchase intention. Consumers use the product in terms of free sample and get acquitted with the product. Direct marketing and sales force have not been found to have a significant impact on purchase intention. Consumers are not intensive towards using the product because of the sales personnel. Sales Promotion is one of the determinants of purchase intention which has been found to have a very significant impact on purchase intention. The consumers of packaged food products are free gift offers and bonus conscious.

The marketing policy makers of packaged food products are advised to consider Advertisement, Celebrity Endorsement, Public Relations, Product sampling and Sales Promotion while developing promotional strategies.

5. Limitations:

The study has some certain limitations. It has been conducted in the markets of Chhattisgarh, the Central India only which may not be true universally. The data has been collected in a specific time period of a year. The findings might be different in the other times of the year due to various reasons. The mental status of the respondents has not been measured. There may be the chances of researcher’s biases. The individual factors would also have affected the normal distribution of the data.

REFERENCES:

1. (Business Standard) 25^th February 2011/ last accessed on 25^th February 2011 from http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/kitpackaged-food-market-in-india/385768/

2. (Indian Food Industry)/ http://www.indianfoodindustry.net/ last accessed on 18^th January 2011.

3. Ahmad Habib, Shah Idrees Ali and Ahmad Khursheed ‘Factors in Environmental Advertising Influencing Consumer’s Purchase Intention’, European Journal of Scientific Research, ISSN 1450-216X Vol. 48 No.2 (2010), pp.217-226

4. Cannière Marie Hélène De , Pelsmacker Patrick De and Geuens Maggie, ‘ Relationship Quality and Purchase Intention and Behavior: The Moderating Impact of Relationship Strength’, Journal of Business and Psychology, Volume 25, Number 1, P. 87-98, DOI: 10.1007/s10869-009-9127-z, Published online: 5 August 2009, Springer Science Business Media, LLC 2009

5. Cheng Fan Shean, Ooi Cheng Soon and Ting Ding Hooi ‘Factors Affecting Consumption Behaviour of Metrosexual Toward Male Grooming Products, International Review of Business Research Papers, ISSN: 1837-5685, Vol.6, No.1 February 2010, P. 574‐590

6. Clawson C. Joseph, ‘How Useful are 90-Day Purchase Probabilities?’, Journal of Marketing, 35, 43-47, October 1971.

7. Consumer Behaviour ‘http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consumer_behaviour’, last accessed on 25^th January 2011.

8. Huang, Shih-Yen and Lin, Jih-Shyong, ‘Analyzing Target User Group’s Preferences and Product Form Design Specification Through Web-Based 2-Dimensinoal Design Decision Tool’, International Journal of Business Research and Management (IJBRM), Volume 1, Issue 2, ISSN: 2180 – 1347, Malaysia, P. 14 – 32.

9. Jiang Lan, Hoegg Joandrea, Dahl Darren W. and Chattopadhyay Amitava, ‘The Persuasive Role of Incidental Similarity on Attitudes and Purchase Intentions in a Sales Context’, Journal of Consumer Research, Volume 36 (2010), Issue 5, P. 778-791.

10. Jones, Joseph M. ‘An Exploratory Study on Attitude Persistence Using Sales Promotion’, Journal of Managerial Issues, last accessed on 26^th January 2011, from ‘http://www.entrepreneur.com/tradejournals/article/188064189.html’.

11. Kotler Philip, ‘Marketing Management’, Eleventh Edition, 2003, Prentice-Hall of India, New Delhi, ISBN-81-203-2083-2.

12. Loudon L David and Bitta J. Della, ‘Consumer Behaviour’, Tata McGraw–Hill Publishing Company Limited, New Delhi, Ed. 2007, ISBN – 0-07-047381-1.

13. Shimp Terence A. and Sprott David E. ‘Increasing Store Brand Purchase Intentions through Product Sampling’, last accessed on 21^st January 2011 from www.acrwebsite.org/volumes/eacr/vol7/EuropeanVolume7_14.pdf

14. Williams, Sam ‘The Impact of Sales Promotion on Sales’, last accessed on 26^th February 2011 from ‘http://www.ehow.com/list_6669351_impact-sales-promotion-sales.html’.

Received on 21.01.2011 Accepted on 29.01.2011

Asian J. Management 2(2): April-June, 2011 page 51-56