Affective And Cognitive Impulse Buying Behaviour Psychology Essay

Affective And Cognitive Impulse Buying Behaviour Psychology Essay Unplanned purchasing has been concerned by many companies as one of the most important factor which could have a big pact on customers decision making and this later contribute to their sale volume. Therefore, marketing strategies have been adjusted based on consumers preferences to grasp their attention and induce them to buy impulsively. As there were some contradictories about differences of genders associated with impulse buying behaviour, this research hence compares the affective and cognitive impulse buying behaviour on male and female at INTO pre-sessional course. A total of 20 students from Pre-sessional course were selected as sample, divided to be 10 males and 10 females. The students were asked to complete the questionnaire, which was designed to be anonymous in order to allow them to be as honest as possible in providing the actual information. The significant findings showed that both genders are susceptible to impulse buying, however, female seemed to be more affective in buying, while male tended to be more deliberative. Another remarkable point was also found that their most preference product categories could lead them to frequency of spontaneous purchasing. As the results indicate that impulse buying plays vital role on consumer, the paper concludes that further research could attempt to investigate if this behaviour could become compulsory in the future. World industries currently have moved from mass marketing strategy to penetrate in specific market segmentation (Coley and Burgess, 2003) as marketers have noticed that unplanned purchasing behaviour could have an impact on decision making of consumers which later contribute to their sale volume (Assael, 1995; Clover, 1950). As Assael (1995) and Kollat and Willett (1969) point out, supermarket, store, and retailer have been concerned to be the place where associated with consumer the most, therefore the price, promotion, shelf-position, packaging, and even store-displays become more important in grasping attention from customers. Stern (1962) defines unplanned buying as the general term of impulse buying occurred when a shopper experiences a sudden urge purchasing that he or she has not planned in advance, which is related to the process of affective and cognitive responds. Affective is emotional buying or sense making (Wilson and Gilbert, 2005), in the contrary, cognitive is perceptual component which using awareness to measure before making decision (Day, 1972). While several studies have explored the characteristics and important of buying impulsively, there are only a few studies which have focused on male and female behaviour and comparing these significant factors on their gender differences. Some researchers (e.g. Kollat and Willett, 1967) suggest that both men and women have the same degree in being effected by unplanned buying; however, there has been contradictory finding that women are more susceptible to spontaneous purchasing (e.g. Coley and Burgess, 2003). Therefore the purpose of this project i s to compare the cognitive and affective impulse buying behaviour in male and female students of the INTO Newcastle University 2012 Pre-sessional Course. Hopefully that a comparison of these two groups will expose the degrees in which male and female differ in their susceptibility and conditions lead to unplanned purchasing. This may help the students to understand their characteristics which could contribute them to impulse buying and to let them consider more before making a purchase in order to avoid being stated in money tension. Primary information will be gathered from twenty students at Pre-sessional Course. The size of samples will be equal in order to allow a comparison between both groups. Both closed and open questions will be applied to achieve the aim and for the students to express more ideas and provide useful details. Methodology The aim of this project attempted to compare the affective and cognitive impulse buying behaviour on gender differences. As number of researchers have suggested that women are more susceptible to buy impulsively (Coley and Burgess, 2003), therefore, it was decided to compare buying behaviours of male and female, furthermore, this impulsive buying is likely to rise in youth (Coley and Burgess, 2003 cited in Retail World, 2002), students from Pre-sessional course, hence, were considered to be appropriate sample. The students were divided into two groups based on their genders and in order to obtain accurate result of the comparison between these two groups, the size of each group would be equal. There actually should be a very large sample to gather certain and desirable results. However, it was not possible to collect all data due to time restriction. Twenty students from pre-sessional course hence became the largest accessible sample which could be obtained. A written questionnaire w as applied to execute the primary data during the fourth week of pre-sessional program. According to previous study, Coley and Burgess (2003) selected Affective and Cognitive process components which have been successfully developed and used by Beatty and Ferrell (1998). It was decided that the questions should be adapted and followed from previous research in order to allow the comparison with previous findings, therefore these components were used to create multi-item scales divided to be affective components which are irresistible urge to buy, positive buying emotions, and mood management and cognitive components which contain measurements of cognitive deliberation and unplanned buying (Coley and Burgess, 2003: 288) The students were asked to provide their general information about income and shopping frequency, and then rate the level from strongly agree (4) to strongly disagree (0) in responding to the items on the table. In additions, various types of product categories were provided and required students to choose top three they preferred the most, this helped indicated style preferences of male and female which could lead them to buying impulsively. An other category and open question were also included for the student to provide more details. In order to allow the respondents to be as honest as possible, questionnaire was designed to be anonymous. The first question requested students to specify their genders as this would be correlated with the requirement of data collection. Results Part 1: Personal Information Q1. Gender Male: 10 Students Female: 10 Students Q2. Approximate personal income per month Income per Month Male Female  £500  £1000 7 7  £1001  £1500 2 2 more than  £1500 1 1 Q3. How often do you do shopping in a month? Frequency Male Female Once in a month 0 0 Twice in a month 4 2 Three five times in a month 3 5 more than five times in a month 3 3 Part 2: Consumers expression on impulse buying Q4. Please tick à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã… ¡ to the level which explains your shopping style best Figure 1: Comparing Student Attitudes towards Affective Buying Behaviour Source: adaptation from Amanda Coley and Brigitte Burgess Coley, A. (2002) Affective and Cognitive Processes Involved in Impulse Buying, unpublished Marketing dissertation, University of Georgia, Georgia. Coley, A. and B. Burgess (2003) Gender differences in cognitive and affective impulse buying. Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management 7:3, 282-295 Figure 2: Comparing Student Attitudes towards Cognitive Buying Behaviour Source: adaptation from Amanda Coley and Brigitte Burgess Coley, A. (2002) Affective and Cognitive Processes Involved in Impulse Buying, unpublished Marketing dissertation, University of Georgia, Georgia. Coley, A. and B. Burgess (2003) Gender differences in cognitive and affective impulse buying. Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management 7:3, 282-295 Part 3: Customers shopping preferences Q5. What product categories often have the most influence on your shopping habits? Please choose Three of the followings: Figure 3: The Most Preferable Products among Male and Female students Source: adaptation from Amanda Coley and Brigitte Burgess Coley, A. and B. Burgess (2003) Gender differences in cognitive and affective impulse buying. Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management 7:3, 282-295 Q6. What other factors do you think have induced you to impulsive buying? Female: product discounts product design / creativity of product the stores service promotion, member card, member discount, discount events recommendation / persuasion from friends cheap price, big sale, good quality to experience something new Product discount is the most factor impulse me to buy the interesting products because I sometimes feel regret if I didnt buy it and there is not too much chance to buy the products with a lower price Male: price, discounts, packaging friends recommendation. earns a reward and time to replace new collections discount more than 50% quality and product usability In the previous experience, the price discount is very powerful to attract me to go to the store because I will feel like I get the quality product in the cheap price, as you know you have to snatch and fitting on those products first. Sometime, I know what I would like to buy but it has no more my size at all Summary of Results Figure 1 compares the affective buying behaviour between male and female students, the result shows that female students tended to be more emotional in buying as most of them chose I immediately buy if I really like it. However, male students tend to have more positive buying emotion according to their higher-percentage in choosing I feel very good when buying something new whereas attitude of female students towards shopping is to manage their moods reflected from a very salient percentage shown from I buy something to make myself feel better and reduce stresses (Coley and Burgess, 2003: 288). Figure 2 compares the cognitive behaviour between two groups; male students seemed to have more cognitive deliberation comparing to female students as shown from categories I make a list before shopping and buy only what is on the list and I rarely buy impulsively. In addition, female students had higher degree of susceptibility in unplanned purchased as seen from their percentage on I buy things that I had not intended to purchase and I buy it even though I went shopping for other purposes (Coley and Burgess, 2003: 288). There was a significant result correlation with these two figures. While female students were seemed to engage more with buying impulsively in figure 1 and male students are more deliberative in impulse buying as shown in figure 2. The surprising result indicated that male students tended to spend money as soon as they earn it and very distinctive percentage comparing to female students showed that they find themselves in state of tension as they buy thing they cannot afford (Coley, 2002: 88). Both groups, however, shared the same feeling in I regret buying new things and I experience mixed feelings of pleasure and guilt from buying something without considering (Coley and Burgess, 2003: 288). Another remarkable point is in figure 3, represents the most preferable product categories influencing spontaneous purchasing in male and female students behaviour. Clothing could lead both groups into impulsive buying, female students concerned more about beauty and styles with only one male chose health and beauty category, whereas electronics, or sport memorabilia could induce only male students to buy. Discussion This research has aimed to compare affective and cognitive impulse buying behaviour on the students. As Coley and Burgess (2003) argue that women have higher tendency to be involved with impulsive buying on both affective and cognitive behaviour. In addition, women are attracted by apparel, health and beauty, while electronic, technology and sports entertainment induce men more. The overall results of this research founded that women were more likely than men to make an impulsive buying influenced by their most preference products which are clothing, fashion and beauty; however, they are not deliberative when making a purchase. Some findings of the current study do not support the research of Coley and Burgess (2003) who found the women can be patient spending time on shopping and making a good selection therefore they are more engaged in cognitive deliberation. According to information about shopping frequency provided by male students, most of them go to shopping only twice a month , therefore, they probably spend more time on consideration before making a purchase, furthermore, this questionnaire only focused on the behaviour of pre-sessional students at Newcastle University and this could be the possible reasons why the findings differed. One unexpected aspect of the results was that although the male students seemed to be more deliberative in decision making, their percentage towards affective buying was quite high as well. They were likely to spend money as soon as they earn it and found themselves stated in money tension (Coley, 2002: 88) more than female students. The rational of these findings could be explained by answers provided in open question Q6 as male concerned more about product quality and usability, therefore they might suddenly purchase if they really like it without considering its price, while female concerned more on price and discount. The open question also indicated another significant aspect which could lead both genders to buy impulsively, which was the packaging and design that many companies could apply and try to develop their products in order to gain customers interest more. Conclusion This research aimed to compare the gender differences in affective and cognitive buying behaviour on the students. The results of research indicate that male and female are both susceptible to buying impulsively. Within this, their attitudes towards impulse buying are influenced by their most preference product categories. Male will be liable to spontaneous buying more when they find electronics, and technology, whereas female buy immediately when they find fashionable, health and beauty products. Furthermore, female tend to have distinctive degree related to irresistible urge to buy and unplanned buying while male is more organized and having positive buying emotion e.g. male feel a sense of thrill when buying something new. However, both groups shared the same level of experiencing mixed feeling of pleasure and guilt from buying something on impulse (Coley and Burgess, 2003: 288). This research was successful in examining students impulse buying behaviours based on affective and cognitive factors as it could indicate different attitudes of both genders explicitly and also obtained more information that men, sometimes, concern to the quality more than price, and this could induce them to spend more money than women even though the finding showed they are more deliberative in buying. Surprisingly it also created students awareness to purchasing deliberation as a few students informed that they have started to realize their attitudes towards unplanned purchasing which they have never thought of before after they finished answering this researchs questionnaire. The weakness of this research was the size of sample should be bigger and due to all samples were Asian, hence; there should be more nationalities of respondents in order to gather reliable and certain results in order to compare with the previous research. The questionnaire indicated that impulse buying had a vital impact on student behaviour. Previous researchers have described the characteristics of impulse buying (e.g. Kollat and Willett, 1969; Dittmar et al., 1995; Coley and Burgess,2003), future researcher could attempt to investigate if this behaviour can become compulsive behaviour in order to create awareness of buying deliberation and to prevent potential involuntary expenditures in consumers. Word Count: 1813