Indian Consumer and MNCP Goal Congruency

Goal-derived categorization theory has important implications for the conditions under which measures of product similarity are most likely to be related. It suggests that consumers will respond differently to measures of product similarity when the goals associated with products are incongruent. International technology was far too sophisticated for the Indian market with the borders opening up, with international products coming in, people are seeing segments that they have never seen before. Every company that had entered the market since 1992 had eyed the 150 million middle class market To investigate the role of attitude towards MNCP goal congruency in explaining urban household consumption behaviour towards M. N. C. P. General approaches to the measurement of product similarity have been proposed. Feature-based typicality measure, usage based similarity measure, Affective and purchase Intent Measure, Goal derived categorization measure, Familiarity and experience measure. All five rest on sound theoretical foundations in cognitive psychology. These five approaches differ in how they operationalize and measure similarity. They also differ in their explanation of how similarity influences the purchase intent and attitude towards MNCPs. The study was exploratory in nature. The locale of the study was the twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad of the State of Andhra Pradesh. The total sample sizes of 300 were selected by using stratified random sampling techniques.100 each belonging to three income categories viz HIG, MIG and LIG. An interview schedule was designed for the purpose of collection of data from the respondents. For gathering information the following five scales were developed. - Consumer product susceptibility and innovativeness Scale (CPSIS), The Consumer Ethnocentrism Scale (CES), The Goal Congruency Scale (GCS), Product Influence on Attitude Scale (PIAS), The Enculturation Acculturation Scale (EAS). When there was higher level of susceptibility innovativeness, expenditure, pattern, product influence on attitude, MNC concern for customers satisfaction than in this case higher was the level of MNCP goal congruency. With increase in income and educational status, there was also increase in MNCP use segmentation level.