Factors influencing consumer intentions to purchase seasonally discounted Reebok athletic footwear

Sales promotions are one of the key promotional strategies that companies worldwide have used to stimulate consumers' behavioral responses, especially their immediate product interest and product purchase (Kotler 2000; Pelsmacker et al. 2001; Percy 1997; Schultz et al. 1998). An analysis of consumer characteristics and the influences those factors have on consumer responses to products promoted through sales promotional programs is required for developing appropriate sales promotional programs. This understanding should be developed at both the product category and the individual brand levels (Schultz et al. 1998). A number of empirical studies have emerged investigating the influence of consumer characteristics on consumer responses to sales promotions; however, there is a notable lack of research focusing on consumers in Asian regions, and to examining consumer responses to non-grocery products (at the specific brand level) promoted through price discounting programs. This thesis addresses gaps in the literature by investigating the research problem: How do consumer characteristics influence consumer intentions to purchase the seasonally discounted Reebok athletic footwear in the Thai market? To provide an answer to this research problem, the researcher reviewed the literature in relation to consumer characteristics and their influence on consumer responses to sales promotions. Two key behavior theories relevant to sales promotions: namely utility theory (Thaler 1985); and the theory of reasoned action (Fishbein & Ajzen 1975) were discussed. A number of influential demographic, psychographic, and normative influencing characteristics relevant to these theories were identified and used to develop primary hypotheses depicting the influence of these factors on consumer intentions to purchase the seasonally discounted Reebok athletic footwear in the Thai market. Next, a two-stage research design was implemented. In stage one, exploratory research with four knowledgeable persons, three executives from Reebok (Thailand) and one from Super Sports (the largest retail chain selling athletic products in Thailand), was undertaken using in depth interviews. This exploratory study aimed mainly to identify all possible consumer characteristics most relevant to the research context investigated. Data collected from this stage of the research were analyzed using content analysis techniques. Findings of this research were enhanced with that from the review of literature in order to finally select a complete set of antecedent consumer characteristics and to propose a final set of hypotheses explaining the influence of these variables on purchase intentions. These hypotheses were tested in the stage-two research. In stage two of this study, data were collected for testing the proposed hypotheses using the mail survey approach. Questionnaires were developed and sent to 1,600 individuals selected from the database of Super Sports, using a simple random sampling technique. A total of 554 valid questionnaires were returned resulting in a responses rate of 34.9 percent. The data were analyzed by SPSS using factor analysis and regression techniques. In summary, the findings of this research indicated that demographics were not significant and did not impact both psychographic and normative influencing characteristics and purchase intentions. On the other hand, five specific psychographic and normative influencing characteristics were found to have an impact on purchase intentions and these variables included: deal proneness; value consciousness, price consciousness; attitudes of reference groups towards a purchase of seasonally discounted Reebok athletic footwear; and quality consciousness. Deal proneness was seen to be the most important variable that had a positive influence on purchase intentions and it was followed by value consciousness, price consciousness, and 'attitudes of reference groups'. Quality consciousness was shown to be the least significant variable and it had a negative impact on this dependent variable. These findings support the literature indicating that psychographic and normative influencing variables are more influential than demographics in explaining consumer responses to products promoted through sales promotions. They also support the use of consumer characteristics relevant to utility theory (Thaler 1985); and the theory of reasoned action (Fishbein & Ajzen 1975) as antecedent variables to explain the variance in consumer responses to sales promotions. The key contributions of this research are discussed in chapter 6. The body of knowledge regarding consumer characteristics and the influence of these factors on consumer responses to products promoted through sales promotions has been extended. The findings of this research provide theoretical contributions by: - using a comprehensive set of consumer characteristics relating to both the utility theory (Thaler 1985) and the theory of reasoned action (Fishbein & Ajzen 1975) as antecedent variables in this study; - investigating associations between antecedent factors (demographic, psychographic, and normative influencing characteristics) in addition to the relationship between these variables and the dependent variable of purchase intentions; - conducting this study in a research context rarely adopted by previous research; and - using a probability sampling technique (the simple random sampling approach) for sample selection. The results of this research also provide practical contributions to Reebok (Thailand) and Reebok retailers by: - providing analytical information that helps these companies to understand how consumer characteristics influence consumer intentions to purchase the seasonally discounted Reebok athletic footwear, and this knowledge in turn will assist them to develop and implement price-discounting programs more effectively; and - suggesting these companies to select appropriate product items (athletic footwear models) for the discounting programs and to develop media plans to expose the promotional events to target consumers in order to persuade these consumers to favorably respond to the discounting programs of Reebok athletic footwear. This research also suggests future research to extend the knowledge relevant to this research area by: - including additional relevant antecedent consumer characteristics into a research model; and - comparing these findings with those of future studies that may conduct their investigations in different research contexts (for instance research undertaken with different rates of discounting programs, different athletic footwear brands, or different populations).