A Detailed Evaluation of Buying Behavior of Chinese Consumers

This report evaluates the buying behavior of Chinese consumers, focusing on their preferences for domestic versus international brands, particularly in the cell phone and sports shoe markets. The study, based on a survey of 584 undergraduate students in China, examines the influence of brand and fashion consciousness, decision-making styles, and demographic factors on consumer choices. The research explores consumer switching behavior, the role of product quality, price, and customer satisfaction, and the impact of decision-making styles on brand preference. The methodology includes a detailed analysis of the literature review, research design, data collection methods, and sampling strategy, providing insights into the dynamics of the Chinese consumer market. The findings highlight the importance of understanding consumer intentions, brand loyalty, and the factors influencing purchasing decisions, offering valuable implications for marketing managers seeking to retain and attract customers in a competitive market.

Running head: EVALUATION OF BUYING BEHAVIOR OF CHINESE CONSUMERS
EVALUATION OF BUYING BEHAVIOR OF CHINESE CONSUMERS
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Question 1 – Definition of the research problem and critical evaluation of the problem
The research article is based on the study of the decision-making behavior of Chinese
consumers. The intention of consumers to switch from cell phones of domestic brands to that of
international brands. The survey was conducted on 584 undergraduate students in China. The
survey has shown that the domestic brands have a customer base, which are have a low level of
brand consciousness and fashion consciousness as well. On the other hand, the international
brands have a high level of brand and fashion consciousness. The research problem is to discuss
the trends of the consumers towards domestic and international brands of cell phones. There is
huge competition between the local and international brands in the Chinese market. The research
is based on the trend of the Chinese customers to prefer Japanese and other western brands as
compared to the local brands. The preference of customers is based on their previous experience
with the brands. The customers normally tend to switch to a different brand if they are not
satisfied with the current brand. The availability of alternatives in the market acts as another
reason in this case. The marketing managers need to follow the intention of the customers to
switch brands and understand the reason behind the same. Further, the managers need to change
their current strategy or develop new strategies to retain the customers in their brand. The
decision-making styles of the consumer is another factor that influences the buying attitude or
brand preference of the consumers.
These are the styles of the customers that are not affected by external factors, that is,
these are the inherent styles of the consumer’s decision-making ability. The change in the
products or services of the brand does not have any effect on the decision- making styles of the
consumers. The study of this research article also takes into account this factor related to the
behavior of the consumers. This style of decision-making has an impact on the intentions of the

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Chinese consumers to change from local brands to the international ones. The three factors that
are taken into consideration in the research are, that whether the consumers are willing to switch
from their current brands without considering the price of the other brand. Secondly, whether the
style of decision making of the consumers have any influence on their intention of switching and
finally whether the demographic factors related to the consumers have any influence on their
intention of switching.
Question 2 – Evaluation of the literature review conducted in the article
The literature review of this research study is based on the choice of the customers in
developed as well as developing countries. The choice of brands of the consumers differs in both
the cases. The quality of local products in developing countries is considered to be inferior as
compared to international products, whereas, the quality of local products in developed countries
is considered to be superior as compared to international products. This trend proves that the
people of developing countries consider the foreign products that are imported from developed
countries to be superior as compared to their local products. The preference of Chinese
consumers towards international brands is analyzed in detail in this research. According to the
review of this article, the trust in the minds of the Chinese consumers related to the local
products is less. The Chinese have strong preferences towards international brands. However,
with development of China, the behavior and preferences of the Chinese consumers are also
changing. Their choice has become more diverse and they sometimes tend to choose local
brands, as they are much more cost-effective as compared to international brands. The command
of the international brands in the Chinese has decreased in the recent years, owing to the
improvement of the local products.

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The consumers usually have a tendency to switch a certain brand to use some other
brands, which is considered to be a psychological trend of the consumers. The main aim of the
businesses is to retain these customers so that profits can be generated. The main factors that
affect the customer’s intention of switching include the cost of the products, the alternatives of
the product in the market and the customer satisfaction. The loyalty of the customers towards a
brand and their reluctance to change their present brands due to the lack of better alternatives is
discussed. The research study suggests that the styles of decision-making of the consumers have
an influence on their attitude towards shopping. The style of decision making of the consumers is
dependent in many factors related to their behavior. These include, consciousness of the
consumers about the quality of the products, consciousness about the brand, consciousness
related to the price of the product, tendency of the consumer to purchase a product based on his
impulse, confusion of the consumer due to many choice of products in the market and the loyalty
of the consumers towards a brand. The studies have further shown that the customers who are
more conscious towards shopping and recreational activities tend to prefer international products
as compared to local brands.
Question 3 – Description and evaluation of the research design
The research methodology that is used in this study mainly concentrates on the styles of
the decision-making of a group of students studying in the university during the purchase of cell
phones and also sports shoes. The reasons behind the choice of this group are, firstly, that the
young people are potential customers of cell phone companies and they have the ability to
increase their power of buying products. Secondly, this group of people are considered to be the
most relevant market in relation to the cell phone companies and finally, the different types of
retail markets can be related with various styles of decision making. The main reason being that

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the two products that are considered in this case, that is, sports shoes and cell phones are the
most common products that can be used by university students and they main depict fashion and
technology. The total number of surveys that were conducted electronically among the students
of the university in Guangdong, China was around 628. These surveys were conducted with the
help of questionnaires and after rejecting the incomplete questionnaires, around 584 of these
questionnaires were selected for use. The demographic data of the people in the group of
students was then collected. Demographic data of the group includes the gender of the students,
their level of education, and their income levels. The survey of this research study on the
undergraduate level students was done based on their buying behavior of sports shoes and cell
phones. The questions were related to the current brand to shoes or cell phones they use and the
brands that they wish to use if their financial conditions permit them. The group of respondents
were to choose from list of international and local brands that were sold in China. The below
snapshot depicts the percentage of the ownership of the local and international brands of sports
shoes and cell phones by the students of the university and their intention of purchasing the local
and foreign brands.
The results depicted that around 64% of the students had the ownership of foreign
products, and the intention and willingness of buying other foreign brands was around 89%. On
the other hand around 46% of the students used local Chinese brands and 40% of these students
had the intention to buy Chinese brands in the future. In case of shoes, around 45% of the
students purchased foreign shoes brands and 79% of the students had the intention to buy foreign
shoe brands. However, in this case, around 69% of the students had purchased Chinese shoe
brands and 47% of the students had the intention to buy Chinese shoe brands.

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Question 4 – Discussion about the data collection methods
The research study was conducted on a group of students from the university of
Guangdong, China. The reason behind this is that they are the main market for the products that
are taken into consideration. The students are group who have the power of purchasing these
products and have the potential by which they can increase their power to purchase. Around 628
survey forms were shared among the students, out which 584 questionnaires were selected after
rejecting the incomplete ones. The demographic data of the male and female members of the

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group were collected. The numbers of male members in the group were around 50.4% and the
numbers of female members in the group were around 49.6%. There were some seniors of the
college in the group,which was around 3.60%. The monthly income of the group was closed to
900RMB, which is approximately US$150.
The questions related to the survey are listed in the table below. The responses were
measured with the help of a five-point Likert scale. The responses were measured from a scale of
1 to 5, where 1 means “strongly disagree” and 5 means “strongly agree”.

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The above mentioned questions in the figure were asked to the respondents in the group.
The survey was done on the basis of the questions that were asked to the group of students which
were related to the brands that are currently using and those which they will prefer to use if their
economical conditions permit them. These questions will help to indicate the intention of the
consumers to switch to another brand except the factor related to price. The next step of the
research was to identify the reasons related to the purchase of the products. The question related

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to this issue that was asked to the group was the factors that the buyers consider during the
purchase of sports shoes and cell phones. The answers related to this question were mainly,
quality of the product, price of the product, fashion related to the product, promotional activities
related to the product, the sale related to the product after the sale is complete and the
functionality of the product. The research method has proved that the undergraduate students
prefer good quality of products and the low price. The students care for the brand of the cell
phones and the promotional activities related to the sports shoes. This method was used to collect
the data related to this survey.
Question 5 – Critical evaluation of the sampling strategy
The sample that is taken under consideration for this research is a group of undergraduate
students of the university in Guangdong, China. The group consists of both male and female
students. The reason behind the selection of this group is the purchasing power of the students of
this university and the potential to increase their power of purchasing of products like sports
shoes and cell phones. The gender of the group of students acts as an important factor in the
deciding the tendency of the students to switch from one brand to another. In case of cell phones,
it has been observed that the males are inclined more towards the domestic brands as compared
to the females. The observations have shown that the male students are more concerned about the
functional and technological aspects about the phone, and on the other hand, the female students
are mainly concerned about the phones so that they can keep contact with the valued people in
their lives. The cell phone makers in China are now aimed towards providing products that high
on performance and are affordable as well. This strategy has also proved to be effective
according to the surveys conducted. In case of the sports shoes, the males are more keen towards
switching their brand preferences from domestic products to foreign products. However, the

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female students are more concerned about the fashion quotient of the sports shoes rather than the
brand. Owing to this reason, they are more inclined towards the domestic brands, which are more
affordable as compared to the international brands. There are many factors that influence the
decision of the consumers. The consciousness of the consumers regarding the quality of the
products has proved to be significant in case of the purchase decision of local or international
brands.
The quality of the local products of China needs to be enhanced. This factor has a
significant effect irrespective of the gender of the students. The consciousness of the consumers
related to the brand of the product does not affect the decision of the consumers to switch from
international to local brands, as the consumers are inclined towards the purchase of famous
brands which have high prices, because in this case the price of the product is associated with its
quality. The other factor, which is the consciousness of the consumers, related to the recreation
and fashion does not have any effect on the purchase of mobile phones, however it effects the
purchase of the sports shoes as the young students are more conscious about fashion element of
the product. The next factor that is taken into consideration is the price of the products and it
effects the purchase decision of the consumers. The consumers are always inclined towards cost
effective products. The last factor is the confusion of the product related to the availability of
more products in the market. This factor has effect on both the cell phone as well as the sports
shoes market. The research related to this factor proves that consumers who are confused
regarding their choice of brands are more inclined towards the domestic brands of cell phones.
Therefore, it can be said the sampling strategy was successful. However some of the factors are
not relevant for any one of the markets. The table related to this study is given below.

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Question 6 – Explanation of the data analysis strategy used in this research
The strategies used for analyzing the data in this research method are as follows:
 Exploratory factor analysis – This type of analysis extracts seven different factors
that have eigenvalues > 1.0. A total of 25 items were used in this analysis after
excluding the other factors. This analysis was based on seven factors related to the
responses of the Chinese students, which include, recreation and fashion,
confusion of the consumers related to many choices, consciousness related to the
quality, consciousness related to the brand, loyalty related to the brand,
consciousness related to the price and impulsiveness of the consumers. Table 3
given below shows the analysis based on this method.

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 Logistic regression – This analysis was also used during the research for the study
of the style of decision-making that is related to the switching of the brand of the
consumers. This is a type of regression analysis where a dummy variable is
considered to be a dependent variable and there are two outcomes that is possible.
Table 4 and Table 5 shown below depicts the process of this regression analysis.
This analysis is based on the results of the logistic regression for the styles of
decision-making in relation to five types of intentions related to switching if the
brands.