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perceptions, cognitions, evaluations and attributions about issues and events. Individualswant to make sense in the increasingly complicated world and one way of doing this isfrom the shift to social identity, the categorisation from which they belong to and to berecognised as part of (Burgess, 1999).As cited by (Burroughs & Rindfleisch, 2002)) Materialism is widely viewed as animportant life value. It can be defined as a “set of centrally held beliefs about theimportance of possessions in one’s life”. It can be viewed as the value a consumer placeson the acquisition and possession of material objects. For some possessions are essentialto their lives and identities. Materialism represents a mind set or constellation of attitudesregarding the relative importance of acquisition and possession of objects in one’s life. Adefining characteristic of highly materialistic individuals is a belief that well being can beenhanced through one’s relationships with objects.For materialists, possessions and their acquisitions are at the fore front of personal goalsthat dictate “ways of life”. They value possessions and their acquisitions more highlythan most other activities in life. Belk (1984) defines it as “the importance a When a largeportion of the society avidly desires to consume goods for reasons that economists havetraditionally defined as nonutilitarian (e.g. status seeking, novelty), a “consumer culture”is said to exist.According to Inglehart (1990, 1994) a person’s basic sense of economic insecurity isformed during childhood. If a person experienced affluence and economic stability as achild, later they will pay less attention to economic concerns and allocate more attention tohigher order needs, such as self-actualisation, freedom and quality of life. He alsoadvocated that if a person experiences economic difficulty in their early life, they will tendto carry the fear of poverty with them through their entire lifetime and may becomeobsessed with acquiring more wealth and possessions even though there is no real risk ofloosing their wealth. Hence it can be perceived that economic insecurity as a child can leadto materialism as an adult.Consumer perceptions of Global and Local Brands in the Indian retail Industry 24
Inglehert’s (1990, 1994) theory can be linked to the materialist culture among the Indians.According to his theory individuals may become obsessed with acquiring more wealth andpossessions even though there is no real risk of loosing their wealth. ‘Economic insecurityas a child may lead to materialism as an adult’. It is well accepted that India is a developingeconomy and has been continuously facing rapid economic growth in the last several years.There has been a sudden rise of a middle class with incredible spending power. Thisindicates that the middle class is increasingly becoming richer and entering into the upperclass categorisation. Hence, there is a large faction of the population who have experiencedeconomic instability and poverty in their childhood.Inglehert concludes that societies, which experience economic instability and perceivedpoverty, should develop materialistic cultures. As a result we can expect: 1 richer nationswould have fewer materialists than poorer ones; (2) societies that have experiencedeconomic growth should show intergenerational differences in which the young are lesslikely to be materialists than are the old and (3) the size of those intergenerationaldifferences should be greater in society that have experienced little or no growth.Ger and Belk (1993) point out that in collectivist cultures the wealth status and possessionsof the family maybe more important that that of the individual, therefore as compared topeople from the West tend to integrate their sense of self. Thus the self is once againemphasised, and is illustrated how it manifests through possessions, which in turnhighlights the development of materialistic behaviour. According to Richard and Dawson(1992) materialist tend to judge themselves and others success by the quality and quality ofpossessions attainted thus the value of the possessions stem not only from their ability toreflect status, but also their ability to project a sought after self-image.It is hence proposedH5: The materialist individualists are inclined more towards global brands as they providethem with higher status, identity and prestige.2.5 Consumer SegmentationConsumer perceptions of Global and Local Brands in the Indian retail Industry 25
Page 1: “Consumer Perceptions of Global a
Page 6: Chapter OneIntroduction1.1. Introdu
Page 9 and 10: which lead consumers towards global
Page 11 and 12: Antecedents Intermediaries Conseque
Page 16 and 17: etter product and service quality,
Page 18 and 19: design, technical engineering skill
Page 20 and 21: esearchers. They highlighted five d
Page 22 and 23: findings of this study by describin
Page 26 and 27: In today’s increasingly competiti
Page 28 and 29: that they had frequently purchased.
Page 30 and 31: (Culture)Product QualitySteenkamp e
Page 32 and 33: Javalgi, R., White. D.(2002), “ S
Page 34 and 35: Values Orientations forMaterialism
Page 36 and 37: Semi structured interviews of execu
Page 38 and 39: One the desire to acquire wealth an
Page 40 and 41: only the upper middle classes who r
Page 42 and 43: nature were then grouped together u
Page 44 and 45: 3.9SummaryThis chapter clearly outl
Page 46 and 47: globally...so why pay for local des
Page 48 and 49: consumers which were in relation to
Page 50 and 51: usually called the upper middle and
Page 52 and 53: social identity. Respondents tended
Page 54 and 55: Due to westernisation of consumptio
Page 56 and 57: categories, income strata, etc...Bu
Page 58 and 59: class visits hypermarkets and disco
Page 60 and 61: the US. The fact is it has an appro
Page 62 and 63: think the best opportunities are in
Page 64 and 65: ReferencesAaker, D. (1991), “Usin
Page 66 and 67: Kotler et al, (2004). Marketing Pri
Page 68 and 69: AppendixBackground of RespondentsCo
Page 70 and 71: 6. Do you think that localretailers
Page 72 and 73: A TRANSCRIBED INTERVIEW OF A INDIAN
Page 74 and 75:
7. What do you think is the main di
Page 76 and 77:
whole lot of new investors. So even
Page 78:
8. Do the Indian Consumers suffer f
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