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Consumer Behaviour Analysis

of

VIP Industries Limited

(Word count total: 5662)

By: Adebayo Odunowo

(Student ID: 15280250)

Class ID: MBASHR-CR-100304-01

Instructor: Dr Debra Black

University of Liverpool

March 2010

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Executive Summary

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Table of Contents

i. Cover page p. 1

ii. Executive Summary p. 2iii. Table of Contents p. 3

1. Introduction p. 5

1.1. Company Background p. 6

1.2. The Target Market p. 7

1.2.1. Demographic Segmentation p. 8

1.2.2. Psychographic Segmentation p. 9

1.2.3. Needs-Based Segmentation p. 9

1.3. Conclusion p. 10

2. Current Promotional Methods p. 11

2.1. Introduction p. 11

2.2. Analysis of Promotion p. 11

2.3. Conclusion p. 15

3. The Consumer - An In-depth look p. 16

3.1. Introduction p. 16

3.2. Consumer Market p. 17

3.3. Decision Making Process p. 19

3.3.1. Problem Recognition p. 20

3.3.2. Information Search p. 20

3.3.3. Evaluation of Alternatives p. 21

3.3.4. Making the Decision p. 21

3.4. Conclusion p. 21

4. Literature Review p. 23

4.1. Research Purpose p. 23

4.2. Literature Review Findings p. 23

4.3. Conclusion p. 27

5. Appendix p. 28

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6. References p. 29

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1. Introduction

The role of advertising in the pursuance of organizations strategic and financial

objectives through creating and sustaining competitive advantage cannot be

overemphasized, while some school of thought believes that advertising is very useful

todays contemporary society, others believe that advertising has become a nuisance as

consumers are being bombarded with a lot of adverts at home, on the road, on

television, radio, newspapers, magazines, on-line and on every available space around

the consumer thereby intruding on their privacy; irrespective of what people might think

about advertising, its objective is to create awareness about an existence for a need

coupled with the aim of creating immediate impression (McMullan and Miller, 2009) that

influence the way consumer perceive a brand/product by means of emphasizing the

brand salient attribute that could lead to a change in the consumer perception, beliefs

and attitude (Yi, 1992), hence advertising breaks the unspoken bond between the

consumer and the organization (Shananan, 2006).

Consumers are at the heart of any organization marketing activities that are channel

towards meeting and satisfying their needs, hence it is important for marketers and their

advertisers to know and understand who they consumers are, why they buy, how they

buy and where they buy. It is the aggregation of all these information that will enable the

marketers to formulate strategies on how best to develop consumer value for their

brand and the best channel to communicate these values to them. This communication

should reflect the lifestyle and personality of the consumer within its socio-cultural

environment; this was why Goffman (1976, cited in McMullan and Miller, 2009) stated

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that advertising mirrors the personality of the consumer hence it will be difficult if not

impossible to divorce advertising from the consumer cultural practices and social

values.

Consumers purchase and consumption of a brand and its repeat purchase and

consumption are success indicator of the marketing of organizations that have invested

in conceptualizing, designing, producing, promoting and selling of its brand; hence it is

necessary of organization to understand what motivates its consumer within their

psychosocial and socio-cultural framework.

1.1. Company Background

VIP Industries was founded as a private limited liability company by Mr. Dominic Umeh

and commenced operation in 1994 at 34 Idowu Oshinfodunrin Street, Ire-Akari Estate,

Isolo, Lagos, Nigeria; they specialized in the manufacture of range cosmetic and

personal care products which they market under the brand name of Topklass and Viola

that includes hair and bath shampoo, hair conditional, hair shampoo, oil moisturizers,

weavon oil, hair relaxer among others; however focus of this paper will be on Topclass

hair relaxer. As a result of the consistency they have shown in manufacturing high

quality and standard products which is in line with their vision that states - to maintain

an unwavering commitment to customer satisfaction through quality products - their

products are all approved and registered by the NAFDAC and SON.

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VIP Industries Limited purpose of existence and their present business is to become a

major player in the Nigeria cosmetic industry by developing brands that will be

household names in the country and beyond, and they have succeeded in marketing

their products across the length and breadth of Nigeria through a network of depots and

distributors scattered all over the country thus becoming one of the major indigenous

players in the Nigeria cosmetic industry. In recognition of their contributions towards

uplifting the beauty of Nigeria lady and the Nigeria cosmetic industry in general, the

company has won and received numerous awards from all over the country.

1.2. The Target Market

Nigeria market is of great importance to VIP Industries Limited and it competitors

comprising local manufacturers and importers of foreign brand due to the huge

population of females that is estimated to be about 73.15m (CIA World Factbook, 2008)

which is 49.02% of the total human population in Nigeria and it comprises both active

and potential consumer of VIPs products. Targeting the male segment of the market is

not an option for VIP industries as majority of men in Nigeria visit the barbing salon

regularly to cut their hairs moreover mens hair care market is an under-explored and

slow growing market accounting for less than 5% of global hair care sales in 2007

(Kirillov, 2008).

According to Kolter and Keller (2009, pp. 53) it is practically impossible for marketing

organizations to meet the needs of everyone in the market profitably moreover such

market is heterogeneity in nature making it difficult for organization to tailor their product

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offering and advertising strategies to it hence it is important for them to select and

segment market they want to sell to. As segmentation is a crucial element to a

successful deployment of marketing mix management, there is a need for VIP Industries

to segment it target market, however such target market needs to be measurable,

accessible, differentiable, actionable and sustainable (Kotler and Armstrong, 2003 cited

in Lee, Morrison and OLeary, 2006), this is in addition to durability, defensibility,

homogeneity, compatibility and competitiveness as suggested by Morrison (2002 cited

in Lee, Morrison and OLeary, 2006). It is with understanding of some of these criteria

that VIP has chosen its target market which is articulated in a set of segmentation

variables namely demographic, psychographic and need-based variables.

1.2.1. Demographics Segmentation

The overall market for hair product is a huge market, dividing it into relevant and

manageable segment allows for better development of segment-specific marketing and

promotional strategies. Demographic segmentation for hair relaxer is done principally

based on age and is rather homogenous as males do not relax their hair, hence females

between the ages 15 60 which are 55.46% of the total female population in Nigeria

are considered to be the prime target for hair relaxers as they are the group that have

extra hedonic motives to look attractive and enhance their self esteem hence they are

motivated to enhance their beauty; however Olasode (2009) reported a segment of

ages 11 60, the difference in ages is cultural as some ethnic group will not allow girls

below the ages of 15 to visit the salon as such practice is seen as a precursor to moral

corruption. In spite of the fact that, females of all ethnic groups, social class and religion

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all uses hair relaxers; however with the Nigeria society comprising lower class, lower-

middle, upper-middle and upper class, VIP Industries targets the lower class comprising

the low income earners and grass-root females.

1.2.2. Psychographics Segmentation

Psychographic data in conjunction with demographic data helps organizations to have a

clear picture of what their target market look like and enables them to formulate an

appropriate marketing and advertising strategy as consumers exhibit different

personalities and lifestyles within the same demographics segment. The demographic

target of VIP Industries cut across both urban and rural territories and since about 48%

of target market are in the urban cities (CIA World Factbook, 2008), VIP concentrated

its marketing efforts in the urban market as majority of the females in the rural villages

plait their hair apparently due to cultural reasons and poor distribution of beauty salons

which is a fall-out of the rural-urban migration and lack of electricity. The urban market

comprises females with life-styles and personalities differences that explains their

attitudes and behaviour towards the use of relaxers (Kergoat et al, 2010) hence while

the professional career ladies, undergraduates, graduates and successful business

ladies prefers the imported Relaxers, the artisans and market women prefers the locally

manufactured ones.

1.2.3. Needs-Based Segmentation

The way and manner Nigerian females transform their hair shaped by societal pressure

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Hair types of Nigerian females is curly and is of basically three categories namely fine,

medium and coarse, this determines the strength of hair relaxer to be used which could

be mild, regular or super strength in that order. VIP manufactures just one strength type

which is suitable for all types of hair. The use of hair relaxer by females cut across all

ages but its use by career female who need to put up a corporate appearance at work is

not negotiable as it has a direct bearing on their body image and self-esteem (Olasode,

2009), hence they are more of image-seekers than traditionalist that like to use brands

they have heard of from other users.

1.3. Conclusion

Current market performance of Topklass Relaxer indicate that despite VIP promotional

efforts, consumers still prefer to buy other brands of relaxer, most especially imported

ones based on the premise that they are not aware that VIP manufactures hair relaxer,

in spite of VIP position that their relaxer is one of the best in terms of quality in Nigeria

market. Since marketing is about creating, communicating and delivering superior value

to customers (Kotler and Keller, 2009), in the face of proliferation of hair relaxer in the

marketplace VIP will have to beyond relying on their current promotional strategy and

the market success of their shampoo and hair conditional in ensuring that they not only

communicate, but persuade the consumers to purchase, consume, repurchase and re-

consume their hair relaxer, hence they will have to develop market and communication

strategies that will reposition their brand of hair relaxer as a choice brand.

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2. Current Promotional Methods

2.1. Introduction

Though VIP Industries primarily engage in the manufacturing of cosmetics and personal

care products under the brand name Topklass and Viola, knowing full well that their

brand is more than a hair care product, it is beauty personified and a rational set of

beauty dreams in the mind of their consumers, thus they consider their brand as a

roadmap to increasing their visibility in the marketplace moreover it provides ample

opportunities for creating value (Lisanti, 2009). The need to create awareness through

brand promotion is at the marketing cornerstone of VIP Industries, utilizes a

combination of promotional mix which according to Kotler and Keller (2009, pp. 513) is

an integrated marketing communication strategy and should include three or more of

the communication modes such as advertising, sales promotion, public relations, events

and experience, personal selling, word-of-mouth, personal selling and direct marketing

to communicate the value of their brand; nevertheless VIP employ the use of print

adverts, posters, event sponsorship, sales promotion, merchandising, word-of-mouth

and promotion through distributors to ensure message consistency, build brand equity

and generate greater sales impact.

2.2. Analysis of Promotion

The thrust of VIP industries communication strategy is their tagline Nothings suits

your hair better hence they try position their range of hair care products as the best for

Nigeria ladies. When VIP Industries officially commenced operations with the production

of hair shampoo and conditional, they wanted to do more than to selling hair care

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products, they wanted to change the way ladies perceive locally made hair care

products and allow them experience of feeling of being beautiful since ladies had to rely

on imported hair care product before they can experience this feeling. By using this

tagline alongside with their communication modes of their promotional mix, VIP

Industries tries to get their consumers involve by appealing to their five senses so that

they can have a good perception of their brand, which according to Syverson (2006) is

likely to double brand awareness and strengthen the impression the brand leaves on

the conscious and subconscious of their consumers.

It is the joy of every Nigerian ladies to look beautiful and it is believed that having long

straight hairs that can be styled like their western counterparts will enhance their

beauty; the traditional hair of Nigerian ladies is curly and difficult to comb moreover it is

malleable to plaiting and weaving which gives them the traditional African look hence

they prefer to undergo a beatification process by using hair relaxer to straighten their

curly hair such that it is easy to comb and style, this is the schema of an average

Nigeria lady since she prides herself in her hairstyle (Olasode, 2009) moreover the Holy

Bible (1 Corinthians 11: 15) describe a lady hair as her glory thus upholding to the

already held cultural schema about a womans hair. All the promotional activities of VIP

Industries apart from building brand equity which is the most important determining

factor of consumers perception about their brand, and it is intended to generate enough

sensation that will trigger off and aid this perception building process. The intrinsic

symbols such as the product itself, packaging, appearance and the extrinsic symbols

such as brand name, quality, price and marketing efforts all influences perception of VIP

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Industries products by consumers hence most of their promotion effort is based on

working on the extrinsic symbols and signs such that significant and favourable

perception can be produced (Ailawadi and Keller, 2004 cited in Chen and Shergill,

2008). that will lead to purchase and repeated purchase.

Though VIP does not advertise in the electronic media such as radio and Television,

they however sponsor fashion television and radio programs related to hair beauty on

these media, in addition they however occasionally (Appendix 1) in fashion and soft sell

magazine so as to reinforce consumers memory of their products with repeated

exposure. They produce and utilize posters that are pasted in as many hair-dressing

salons and retails outlets as they are in ideal position to transfer the positive brand

image to their consumers (Schmitt, 2003 cited in Chen and Shergill, 2008). Since

Nigerian ladies do not make their purchase judgement based on advert alone, VIP

adverts and posters uses more of imagery so as to have an emotional appeal to their

target audience, some important products information and images are intentionally left

out so that apart from consumers perceiving the totality of the message, they will be

prompted to seek for additional information either from their memory or from other

sources such as retailers or/and hairdressers. The idea is to get consumers involve and

to discover product attributes (Pinson, 1986) towards forming a perception that will not

only lead to a purchase decision but aid recognition and recall of their brand in future

even if no immediate purchase is made on exposure.

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By sponsoring the events of the beauty sub-sector of the fashion industries, VIP

Industries objective is to use this mode of promotion to generate increased awareness

of their brands, increase market share and open up opportunities for the development of

relations between hair-dressers and their employees (Lough et al, 2000 cited in

Papadimitriou, Apostolopoulou and Dounis, 2008) moreover such sponsorship creates

an avenue for meaningful interaction with consumers (Papadimitriou, Apostolopoulou

and Dounis, 2008), enables them to achieve a better consumer connection and

demonstrate the practical application of their products (Johnson, 2008) coupled with

giving out samples therefore creating a favourable brand impression as consumers will

be to able apply all their sensory receptors to better evaluate the quality of their

products thus increasing consumers perception about their brand. Other benefits of

event sponsorship such as goodwill created and good public relations image can be

leveraged upon during their word-of mouth promotion as Nigerian ladies before they try

any hair relaxers want to hear from one or two consumers who have had experience

with such product or from their hairdresser; the overall effect of this is a favourable

perception on part of the consumers This shows that the overall contribution of event

sponsorship to the enhancement of the other promotion strategies cannot be

understated as it now accounts for the largest portion of any promotional budget of

organizations and accounts for 50% of all promotional spending (PromoIndustry Trends

Reports, 2006 cited in Johnson, 2008).

2.3. Conclusion

Consumers commitment to purchase and consume a product after been exposed to

promotion stimuli or his ability to recall a brand whenever the need arises is an

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indication that the promotion activities of the company is effective as they have been

able to successfully persuade and convince consumers which is a fallout of how the

organization has been able to shape and influence consumer perception. Has VIP

succeeded in influencing consumers perception either positively or negatively through

their promotional activities? I would say yes and no; YES - because VIP has succeeded

in making their shampoo, pink oil and hair conditioners among the major brands in the

Nigeria hair-care industry and NO - because they are still lagging behind in the hair-

relaxer sector. While majority of the consumers I spoke with were able to recall the

Topklass brand with little or no effort they find it difficult to remember if VIP produces

hair-relaxer or not. This is not surprising because of VIP strategy of collectively

promoting all their products; hence future promotion activities should be focused on

promoting their brand of hair-relaxer without compromising current promotion activities

so as to continue to build brand equity. Moreover, studies have shown that repeated

promotions most especially sales promotion will eventually diminish brand equity (Mela,

Ataman, and Van Heerde, 2006 cited in Valette-Florence, Guizani and Merunka, 2009)

therefore they have to ensure that they continue to study the market so as to have a

realistic picture and understanding of who their consumer are, what they want, how best

and the most effective ways to reach them.

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3. The Consumer - An In-Depth Look

3.1. Introduction

The prime market target for hair-relaxer is based on female consumers between the

ages 11 60 (Olasode, 2009), this segment despite the gender homogeneity is

heterogeneous due to the fact that ladies within the demographic age group have

different lifestyles and personality which play an important role in shaping their self-

concept and the way they want people to perceive them. The primary motivation for

consumers to want to use hair relaxer is their need to have a beautiful hair as opposed

to their natural, coarse, curly, stubborn hair that will not enhance their appearance and

personality, thus satisfying their psychosocial needs, which according to Tauber (1972,

cited in Jamal et al, 2006) comprises their personal and social desires. While the

consumers degree of motivation to buy and consume hair relaxers varies and is a

function of the psychographics of the consumers, consuming Topklass brand is a

function of social class based demographics and psychographics hence motivating

factor alone is not enough. It is paramount for VIP Industries to have good

understanding of their consumers, how and why they buy hair relaxer, (Lu, 2003 cited in

Wagner et al, n. d.) their value and attitude toward caring for their hair so that they can

adapt their brand to not only meet their consumers need but to fit into their schemas;

moreover identifying and segmenting consumers into groups will enable VIP Industries

to formulate and implement a more effective and profitable marketing communication

strategies.

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3.2. Consumer Market

Based on psychographic criteria the consumer market for hair relaxer comprises the

teenagers, baby busters, and baby boomers.

- The teenage consumers market comprises females of 11 to 17 years (Solomon

et al, 2010), this group of consumers apart from having little or no disposable and

discretionary income rely on their mothers to buy their hair relaxer, their major

motivation is attractiveness within their socio-cultural settings hence visit to the

salon is regular but not weekly. The brand of hair relaxers they use and their visit to

the salon is usually determined by their mothers who are also consumers.

- The baby buster consumers market comprises females of 18 to 29 years

(Solomon et al, 2010), this group are considered the most active in the beauty

industry as they are driven by the motivation to assert their femininity to the

opposite gender, also their psychosocial need is very high, as this age offer ladies

the opportunity to establish their status in their peer group and opportunities to

meet, socialize and form new friendship; they crave to command attention and

respect from the society hence to enhance their acceptability, they attach so much

value to looking good thus making visit to the salon a weekly affair.

- The last group of consumers comprises females of ages 30 to 44 and the baby

boomers that are within the ages of 45 and 64. Consumers in this group are already

settled into their career and their respective family life hence lie their focus, they still

recognize the need to look beautiful but due to their career and marital

responsibilities, they are more prone to spend less time in the salon hence they tend

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to look for alternative care for their hair. They want to visit the salon regularly but not

on a weekly basis and as they advance in age the zeal to visit the salon diminishes.

One of the major demographic variables used to classify consumers is social class

which is a function of income and educational background and this comprises the upper

class, upper-middle, lower-middle and lower class; motivation is the same across social

class but value varies according to the psychographic groupings and attitude towards

brands vary according to the social class. Thus the upper class, upper-middle and

lower-middle class usually rely on imported brands because apart from the fact that it is

affordable for them, these groups of consumers are not ethnocentric as they believe

that the imported brands are of superior quality when compared with the local brands

such as Topklass, and Ozone that are perceived to be of inferior quality due to fact that

they are manufactured in Nigeria (Okechuku and Onyemah, 1999). Consumers in the

lower class, on the other hand perceives Topklass to be of high quality moreover it is

affordable for them unlike the imported ones.

Based on the above, I think that VIP Industries should focus their market on all

psychographic groupings of the lower class.

3.3. Decision Making Process

One of the biggest consumer challenges facing VIP industries is knowing their

consumer very well such as their preferences, who takes the decision and who

influences it, as this give them a better insight into their purchase behavior. Many

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female consumers have a good knowledge of what they want, however they lack the

insight about their own preferences (Riquelme, 2001). Consumers may engage in

purchase behaviour either to solve a problem, to create emotional or experiential

feelings or to react to environmental pressure such as peer or reference group

influences (Mowen, 1988) hence the onus is on VIP Industries to tailor their brand of

relaxer not only to meet the purchase objectives of their consumers but to appeal to

both the decision makers and the decision influencers. In arriving at a buying decision, a

consumer usually goes through several phases in the buying process starting with the

recognition of the problem, information search, evaluation of alternatives and making

the purchase (Solomon et al, 2010) and post-purchase evaluation, however it is not all

consumers decisions that follow this process, while some decisions are heuristically

taken, some are impulsively taken and this depends on the environmental context within

which the purchase is made and the product type coupled with value which could be

functional or symbolic (Ligas, 2000). Topklass hair relaxer and other brands are

functional products that are used repeatedly by consumers to achieve a desired end

which is to chemically straighten their hair thus making it easily to manage and

amenable to any style; hence decision taking usually does not follow the afore-

mentioned process except when the consumer wants to change their brand of hair

relaxer which hardly happens as in Nigeria where about 78% of consumers adhere

strictly to one brand of hair relaxer on a continual basis (Olasode, 2009) and they

change if their brand no longer meets their expectations or is no longer in the market.

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3.3.1. Problem Recognition

This is the starting point of any purchase decision, and is initiated with the regeneration

of under-growth hairs which make the consumers hair looks lack-luster, rough, curly

and difficult to comb, this appearance makes the female consumer less attractive thus

negatively affecting her self-esteem and constituting a problem that needs to be solved.

At times, a problem may also be recognized when the consumer is fed up with the style

on her head even without the presence of undergrowth hair and this is common among

the baby busters.

3.3.2. Information Search

It is not necessary that consumers of hair relaxers go through this stage because as a

regular functional product, consumers already have relaxers they are using having been

introduced to them by their mothers, friends or family members. However if there is a

need to change hair relaxer, the consumers circle of family, social network and their

hair-dressers are usually the reliable sources of information because exposure to

adverts is not enough to generate stimuli that will influence the consumers choice

though it will create awareness that will come in handy during the evaluation of

alternatives. Moreover, information gathered will assist in reducing the consumers

perceived risk which according to Olasode (2009) includes scalp burn, loss of hair, hair

breakage, hair discolouration and itchy scalp. And the hair relaxer that is not likely to

cause all these negative effects is most likely to be considered.

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3.3.3. Evaluation of Alternatives

Due to the chemical nature of hair relaxers, consumers are not motivated to process

complex information, rather they rely on the information gathered and brand

experiences of their hair-dresser and consumers in their social and family network to

consider all the alternatives; moreover due to the low involvement of the consumers in

assessing product quality, heuristic indicators are often used to evaluate the quality of

hair relaxer as a means of reducing perceived risks of purchase (Dawar and Parker,

1994 cited in Hansen, 2005). Other evaluative criteria that will be considered by

consumers are country of origin, price, product effectiveness and risk of usage.

3.3.4. Making the Decision

Consumers attitude towards hair relaxers is behavioural and not due to cognitive

information processing as consumers will, based on information gathered, form a belief

which will cause them to buy and use the hair-relaxer after which they will carry out an

evaluation which is based on the relaxers effectiveness and its ability in not causing hair

and scalp damage. Once the relaxer meets the expectation of the consumer, her loyalty

to the brand will become a life-long relationship except if the brand fails or if a new and

better alternative is introduced into the market.

3.4. Conclusion

Consumers buying decision is quite a complex process that involves a number of

perceptions (Hansen, 2005) and in line with the above consumer behavioural analysis it

has become imperative for VIP Industries not only to continually develop its consumers

behavior competencies but to continually to consider strategies that will endear the

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teenage and baby busters segments to its brand, as brand loyalty for competing

relaxers will not be as strong as the brand loyalty of the baby boomers due to years of

brand relationship, hence their brand offerings coupled with their communication

message should be such that will appeal to their utilitarian and emotional value which

will encourage a trial of their hair relaxer. Consumers attached a lot of emotions to their

hairs hence VIP Industries should further focus on the personality and other responses

that may negatively affect the emotions of their consumers so that they dont lose them

to competition.

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4. Literature Review

4.1. Research Purpose

The hair care sub-sector of the Nigeria cosmetics industry comprises shampoo,

conditioners, styling agents, perms and relaxants, and 2-in-1 products, with perms and

relaxants, styling agents, shampoo and conditioners contributing around 52%, 35%

6.67% and 5.6% respectively to annual market turnover which is estimated to be in the

region of N7.858 billion ($52.39m) as at 2008 (Euromonitor, 2009). Though Topklass

hair shampoo and conditioners have a strong presence in Lagos state and some states

in the Eastern and Northern parts of the country, their brand of relaxer is unknown. Why

would consumers who have been used to purchasing and consuming Topklass

shampoo and conditioner not purchase and consume their relaxant? Why would VIP

Industries not concentrate their marketing efforts on products that contribute a

significant percentage to market turnover? Is it a matter of product quality or insufficient

awareness? The main purpose of this research is to try and understand the behavior of

consumers towards the purchase and consumption of Topklass relaxant vis--vis VIP

Industries marketing activities.

4.2. Literature Review Findings

There is no denying the fact that a good amount of research studies have been

conducted on the subject of perceived risk being one of the earliest and most generally

accepted principle of consumer behavior (Verhage et al, 1990), however in spite of the

critical role research have played in the understanding of consumer behaviour, studies

into perceived risk in low-involvement products consumption vis--vis consumer

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purchase decision seems to be limited which Quintal et al (2009) attributed to

definitional and operation inconsistency; Hart and Stapleton (1992, cited in Gbadamosi

2009) alluded to the impulse nature of low-involvement products which make

consumers to purchase without any prior cognitive effort thus making it insignificant,

moreover Gbadamosi (2009) attributed this insignificance to the fact that acquisition

costs and benefits are low. Whilst several arguments have been posited to support this

assertion, Ratchford (1987 cited in Bosnjak and Rudolph, 2008) stated consumer

involvement in product depends on the degree of personal value to the consumer, the

amount of perceived risk and the amount of cognitive effort invested in making a

purchase decision.

Although researchers have linked perceived risk to different type of potential losses,

with financial, functional, physical, social and psychological risks being identified

(Solomon et al, 2010) however physical risk poses a major hazard to consumers of hair

relaxer and this varies from across consumers. This variation was explained by

Chaudhuri (1998) from an emotional dimension in his study, he concluded that negative

and positive emotional factors plays a considerable role as moderator in consumer

purchase behavior and they account significantly for the variation observed.

Nevertheless, Olasode (2009) listed the physical risks as burnt scalp, itchy scalp,

allergic reaction to the relaxant chemicals, weakening of hair shaft, hair discolouration

and dandruff; thus while some low-involvement product such as chocolate requires

minimal or no cognitive effort in purchase decision (Bosnjak and Rudolph, 2008;

Watkins, 1984) due to the very low perceived risk, hair relaxants will require some

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degree of cognitive efforts due to its high perceived risk. In view of this high risk, what

then motivates consumers to consume this product? Quintal et al (2009, citing Lam and

Hsu, 2006) stated that consumer will engage in high risk purchase behavior if they

- believe that the behaviour will lead to a valued outcome,

- have the support and approval of their reference and social network group and

- have the necessary opportunities and resource capabilities to carry out such

behavior.

In support, Kim et al (2002) stated that consumers may choose a particular product not

only because of its endowed utilitarian benefits but because it expresses the consumer

personality; hence the consumer desires to make her hair more manageable for styling

that will enhance her acceptability in the social environment is assumed to be the main

motivation.

In any purchase decision making process consumers are usually faced with two or more

alternatives, each with varying degree of risk. Whilst Verhage et al (1990) citing Bauer

(1960) stated that consumers are concerned about the inability of the products to meet

their needs and the consequences of the product failure in their purchase decision

making process, Chaudhuri (1998) on the other hand cited inherent risk risk intrinsic

in a product class such as the hair relaxant and handled risk risk involve in a buying

situation or risk of brand choice within a product class as one of the major factors that

influence consumers behavior intent, consequently all brand of hair relaxant carries this

inherent risk and this will play a crucial role in the consumers purchase decision making.

So how does the consumer respond this perceived risk?

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Several studies have proposed various consumer responses among which is brand

loyalty in which the consumer repeatedly purchased trusted and tried brand as a way of

reducing perceived risk (Ross, 1975 cited in Verhage et al, 1990), however study

conducted by Verhage et al, (1990) concluded that brand loyalty cannot be used a

perceived risk reduction strategy as it correlated negatively with perceived risk thus

repeated purchase of the same brand is not capable of reducing perceived risk; they

suggested that marketers should supply consumer with adequate information and

evidences to encourage behavior intent which might lead to purchase. However, in

country where ethnocentrism is very weak such as Nigeria, Okechuku and Onyemah

(1999) stated that consumers will often used country-of-origin as a perceived risk

reduction tactics as they consider it more important than price and other intrinsic and

extrinsic product attributes. Okechuku and Onyemahs findings was however

collaborated by Gbadamosi (2009) whose result showed that country-of-origin does

matters in low-involvement products but in the presence of other products attributes

such as strong brand name and favourable pricing, the power of country-of-origin

becomes weak and brand become the determining factor in reducing the level of

perceived risk which is enough to convert consumers purchase intent into actual

purchase most especially for low income women whose major purchase motivation is

price and value for money hence they do not show any brand loyalty.

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4.3. Conclusion

It has been observed that perceived risk does have an impact on consumer purchase

behavior intent and subsequent purchase most especially in low-involvement products

such as hair relaxant that is characterized by routine purchase behavoiur (Gbadamosi,

2009), moreover peoples opinion greatly influences consumers purchase hence

advertising such be such that will create awareness and reinforce habit coupled with the

propagation of word-of-mouth marketing which Verhage et al, (1990) have been found

to be an effective strategy of inducing purchase of low-involvement product. VIP

Industries might have to look at these marketing options along with other

recommendations in the next chapter with a view of having a good understanding of

how their target consumers perceived and handled risks associated in purchasing and

consuming their Topklass relaxer and the concomitant motivating factors, as this will

enable them develop an appropriate marketing and promotion strategy.

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Appendix 1

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