Influential Factors on Consumers’

Behavioral Intention to Buy A Luxury

Car: Thailand Case

By Netpreeya Choomchaiyo

Scope of the Presentation• Problematic situations of Thailand automobile market• Objectives & expected benefits• Conceptual framework• Research method• Findings• Conclusion• Research implications• Research limitations• Future research

Problem statements• High competition in Thailand luxury car market• availability of locally

assembled and imported cars• growth in market shares of Asian luxury cars

• Marketers put large amount of budget on marketing communication

• Lack of understanding on actual mechanism of influential factors on consumers’ behavioral intention to buy cars

Objectives & expected benefits• To explore relationships between influential factors and consumers’ perceived product quality, product attitude, and, behavioral intention to buy a luxury car, Mercedes Benz

• To provide recommendation to marketers and advertisers

Conceptual framework

Ethnocentrism(ETH)

Belief evaluation

Brand Attitude (BA)

Country of manufacture

(COM)

Perceived product quality (PPQ)

Behavioral intention

(BI)

Product attitude (AT)

Face saving(FS)

Group conformity

(GC)The proposed framework is based on Lee (1990)’s modified Fishbein and Ajzen’s (1975) Theory of Reasoned Action, and Kim and Pysarchik (2000)

Subjective norms

Research methodType of research: Empirical Study by

literature review and survey research (questionnaires)• Qualitative phase

- a focus group interview was conducted with 10 Thai Mercedes Benz owners to explore the conceptual meaning and cultural context of the study - results from focus group and literature review were used to develop questionnaires

Research method• Quantitative phase

- 500 questionnaires were distributed to 5 MB showrooms in Bangkok, 305 were obtained (61% response rate)

- A two-tailed t-test was used to compare the scores of Thai consumers on product attributes towards German imported and Thai locally assembled MB.

- A multiple regression analysis was used to identify the influence of independent variables on the dependent variables

Finding 1

Ethnocentrism(ETH)

Belief evaluation

Brand Attitude (BA)

Country of manufacture

(COM)

Perceived product quality (PPQ)

Behavioral intention

(BI)

Product attitude (AT)

Face saving(FS)

Group conformity

(GC)

Finding 1 Thai assembled–German imported Mean

Std. Deviation t df Sig.

Pair 1 Product Performance -.85435 .87005 -17.149 304 .000*Pair 2 Services .48852 1.46529 5.823 304 .000*Pair 3 Price

.01574 1.02058 .269 304 .394

Pair 4 Product Image -.55956 .95867 -10.194 304 .000*Pair 5 Overall PPQ -.22741 .69419 -5.721 304 .000*

Mean Comparison of Perceived Product Quality (PPQ)

Thai-assembled German-made

Pair 1 Perceived Product Quality - Product 4.9377 5.7921Pair 2 Perceived Product Quality - Service 5.2656 4.7770Pair 3 Perceived Product Quality - Price 4.7803 4.7646Pair 4 Perceived Product Quality - Image 5.4995 6.0590Pair 5 Perceived Product Quality 5.1208 5.3482

* significant level at the 0.05

Findings

No Un-standardized Coefficient for Regression Sub-models

R Square F (df), p

1 PPQ = 3.63 + 0.08ETH** + 0.22BA** +0.11COM**

0.16 40.65 (3, 606), p<0.0001

2 AT = 0.45 + 0.66PPQ** + 0.24FS** + 0.03GC

0.37 118.90 (3, 606), p<0.0001

3 BI = 0.95 + 0.47AT** - 0.02FS + 0.33GC**

0.34 104.73 (3, 606), p<0.0001

** significant at the 0.01 level* significant at the 0.05 level

Model Summary of the Regression

Finding 2

Ethnocentrism(ETH)

Belief evaluation

Brand Attitude (BA)

Country of manufacture

(COM)

Perceived product quality (PPQ)

Behavioral intention

(BI)

Product attitude (AT)

Face saving(FS)

Group conformity

(GC)

Regression Model: PPQ = 3.63 + 0.08ETH** + 0.22BA** + 0.11COM**

Finding 3

Ethnocentrism(ETH)

Brand Attitude (BA)

Country of manufacture

(COM)

Perceived product quality (PPQ)

Behavioral intention

(BI)

Product attitude (AT)

Face saving(FS)

Group conformity

(GC)

Regression Model: AT = 0.45 + 0.66PPQ** + 0.24FS** + 0.03GC

Finding 4

Ethnocentrism(ETH)

Brand Attitude (BA)

Country of manufacture

(COM)

Perceived product quality (PPQ)

Behavioral intention

(BI)

Product attitude (AT)

Face saving(FS)

Group conformity

(GC)

Regression Model: BI = 0.95 + 0.47AT** - 0.02FS + 0.33GC**

Conclusion• In general, the framework can explain relationship between influential factors and Thai consumers’ behavioral intention to buy a Mercedes Benz• Thai consumers perceived a German imported MB better than a Thai assembled MB

• Country of manufacturer, brand attitude and ethnocentrism affect Thai consumers’ perceived product quality

•Attitude and group conformity affect Thai consumers’ behavioral intention to buy

Research implications• It is recommended that marketing managers should focus more on building brand attitude than country of manufacturer and ethnocentrism in order to create a positive perception of a Mercedes Benz.

• The influence of social group should also be highlighted in a marketing campaign.

Research implications• Marketers should use such marketing strategies as reference groups, viral marketing, tribal marketing, etc. to create social groups or communities that centered around the product or using a network of individuals to help send out convincing messages and even sell the product to their family and friends.

Research limitations

• This research tests only a single product, Mercedes Benz.

• This research tests only a small set of influential factors on consumers’ attitude and behavioral intention to buy

Future research

• Future research is recommend to examine the interrelationship among these influential factors on consumers’ behavioral intention to buy different types of product

Thank you

Your comments and suggestions would be appreciated