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 method Type 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 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 importedMean Std. DeviationtdfSig. Pair 1 Product Performance * Pair 2Services * Pair 3Price Pair 4Product Image * Pair 5Overall PPQ * Mean Comparison of Perceived Product Quality (PPQ) Thai- assembledGerman-made Pair 1Perceived Product Quality - Product Pair 2Perceived Product Quality - Service Pair 3Perceived Product Quality - Price Pair 4Perceived Product Quality - Image Pair 5Perceived Product Quality * significant level at the 0.05

Findings No Un-standardized Coefficient for Regression Sub-models R SquareF (df), p 1PPQ = ETH** BA** +0.11COM** (3, 606), p< AT = PPQ** FS** GC (3, 606), p< BI = AT** FS GC** (3, 606), p< ** 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 = ETH** BA** COM**

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 = PPQ** FS** GC

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 = AT** FS GC**

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