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THE IMPACT OF MARKETING MIX ON BUYING BEHAVIOUR OF
YOUTH SEGMENT IN SRI LANKA
Prepared
By
H.A.J. CHANDRANATH
BM/2009/041
Facilitator : Lecturer Dr Sudath weerasiri
Subject Code : BMKT 32122
Semester : 3rd Year, 2nd
semester
Subject : Research Methodology
DEPARTMENT OF MARKETING MANAGEMENT
FACULTY OF COMMERCE & MANAGEMENT
UNIVERSITY OF KELANIYA

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CONTENT
1. Background of the Study…………………………………….. 3
2. Research Problem ……………………………………….……4
3. Research Objectives ………………………………………….5
4. Significant Of The Study ……………………………….....…5
5. Literature Review ……………………………………….……6
6. Conceptual Frame Work …………………..………….……..12
7. Hypothesis ……………………………………………...……13
8. Methodology ………………………………………..…..……13
9. Limitation Of The Study ………………………………..……15
10. Time Plan …………………………………………..…………16
11. Reference ………………………………………..……………16

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1. Background of the Study
When we consider the business organization can see most important functions. However, there is
one of them that considered as a hub in the organization and it’s called marketing. Marketing as
the process which companies create value for customer and build strong customer relationship in
order to capture value from customer in return. (Phillip Kotler). Marketing is defined as a societal
process by which individuals and group obtain what they need and want through creating, offering
and freely exchanging product and service of value with others. (Phillip Kotler, Kevin Lane
Keller).
According to above definitions by the today aim of marketing is satisfy the target customers
efficiently and effectively better than their competitors. For this purpose business organizations
use different strategies and spend an amount of money for their promotion activities. As well as
business organizations must try to understand their buyer’s behavior. Because of customers are
central point in the organization.
In this research study I am going to look at how marketing mix (product, price, place, promotion)
influence to youth segment for select, buy, use and dispose of goods, services, or experiences in
order to satisfy their needs and want. By the today every organization gives priority to satisfy their
customer need and wants due to satisfied customers will stay with organization for a long period
of time. There for Organizations give promises or through their marketing mix. If the customers
feel these promises clearly, they will consistently buy the product or service and they will be loyal
to the brand. Understanding buying behavior of the youth segment is not simple tasks. Because
buying behavior are always changed. There for every organization must understand their buying
behavior of the customer. Otherwise organization can’t capture their objective of the organization
and have to leave the market.
Given the significant challenges facing the youth segment when buy the product and service in
particular globalization, liberalization and increasing competition. Therefor there is a need to
review the strategic direction and the competitive advantage for getting customer attention. This
is crucial to maintain the competitiveness of participants in the business organization, in order for
them to be viable in the long term. In this respect, the business organization will maintain existing
marketing mix which are considered necessary and moving forward, institute new marketing mix
to replace existing marketing mix in order to continuously support the development and viability

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of the business organization.
As well as influence of marketing mix on buying behavior of the youth segment in Sri Lanka With
end of the war, numbers of brands of various products are available in country and various
promotion strategies and modes are used to capture consumers. In the advertising side,
Newspapers, T.V channels, postal and radio are functioning in accelerated rates. So I believe “How
marketing mix influence on buying behavior of youth segment in Sri Lanka” is or suitable and
needed study for today business environment.
2. Research problem
In this research study mainly try to identify “How marketing mix influencing on buying
behavior of youth segment in Sri Lanka”.
This research problem;
 Most research done on consumer behavior of total market. Not for the different segment
like youth, rural and urban, benefit, loyalty status and so on. There for when we consider
those factors we can see the marketing mix is one factor that mainly affect for buying
behavior of the youth segment. So under this problem we consider that.
 There are number of factors that influence the buying behavior other than marketing mix
(product, price, place, promotion) like personal characteristic. Under this problem I focus
to identify the level of importance and identify how it influence to the buying behavior of
the youth segment.

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3. Objective of the study
Having gone through the study, following objectives have been set with the hope of achieving the
same.
 Find out influence of marketing mix on buying behavior of youth segment.
 Identify relationship between marketing mix and buying behavior of the youth segment.
 To find out other factors influencing buying behavior of youth segment.
4. Significance of the study
This research gives the information and findings about how marketing mix influence on buying
behavior of the youth segment. Significance of this study we can identify in varies angels
 Study result gives information and findings about relationship or how marketing mix
influence to buying behavior of the youth segment in the Sri Lanka. So in that companies
can identifies the factors that affect buying behavior of the youth segment and companies
can improve those qualities and though that they can achieve customer satisfaction and
objective of the organization.
 This research finding also can be used in marketing perspective when planning the
marketing program and it gives more benefits to business.
 Under the literature review it gives some important hints about the marketing mix and
buying behavior. There for identify these thing in this research they can use it for achieve
comparative advantage.
 Lack of information available in marketing mix influence on buying behavior of the youth
segment specially in marketing industry so this give some important findings to marketers.

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5. Literacy review
Under the literature review firstly define and identify the words, concepts that associate with this
literature review.
5.1 Marketing mix
Marketing mix is the tool set used by marketers to develop total market offering what customer
gets as a value package. The elements of marketing mix can be identified as “value drivers” too.
The effective marketing tools can create competitive and perceive value to customer. As well as
Marketing mix is a mix of options and variables that a marketer has to design his proposition. The
four Ps, as they are known, of the marketing mix are
 Product,
 Price,
 Place and
 Promotion.
Marketers mix these ingredients and variables in different proportions for their products in order
to meet their requirements within their given constraints and boundaries.
Marketing mix covers the four major elements and variables that a marketer has and can
manipulate in order to design his offering according to its customers and target market. The
marketing mix model of marketing was proposed by Neil Bordon in 1965. Marketing mix is
designed separately for each product offering and different market segments for a company.
Different proportions are allocated to different mix elements to design an effective marketing mix
which meets the objectives of the marketer as well as the consumer.
The four Ps are the critical factors to consider when marketing any product.
Product can either be a good or a service designed for corporate/commercial customers or end
users.
But when we consider service marketing mix can identify three components except these 4’p’s
such as

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 People
 Process
 Physical evidence
5.2 Buying behavior
Buying Behavior is the decision processes and acts of people involved in buying and using
products.
Need to understand:
 Why consumers make the purchases that they make?
 What factors influence consumer purchases?
 The changing factors in our society.
Consumer Buying Behavior refers to the buying behavior of the ultimate consumer. A firm needs
to analyze buying behavior for:
 Buyer’s reactions to a firms marketing strategy has a great impact on the firm’s success.
 The marketing concept stresses that a firm should create a Marketing Mix that satisfies
(gives utility to) customers, therefore need to analyze the what, where, when and how
consumers buy.
 Marketers can better predict how consumers will respond to marketing strategies.

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Types of consumer buying behavior
Types of consumer buying behavior are determined by:
 Level of Involvement in purchase decision. Importance and intensity of interest in a
product in a particular situation.
 Buyer’s level of involvement determines why he/she is motivated to seek information
about a certain products and brands but virtually ignores others.
High involvement purchases--Honda Motorbike, high priced goods, products visible to others, and
the higher the risk the higher the involvement. Types of risk:
 Personal risk
 Social risk
 Economic risk
The four type of consumer buying behavior are:
 Routine Response/Programmed Behavior--buying low involvement frequently purchased
low cost items; need very little search and decision effort; purchased almost automatically.
Examples include soft drinks, snack foods, milk etc.
 Limited Decision Making--buying product occasionally. When you need to obtain
information about unfamiliar brand in a familiar product category, perhaps. Requires a
moderate amount of time for information gathering. Examples include Clothes--know
product class but not the brand.
 Extensive Decision Making/Complex high involvement, unfamiliar, expensive and/or
infrequently bought products. High degree of economic/performance/psychological risk.
Examples include cars, homes, computers, education. Spend a lot of time seeking
information and deciding.
Information from the company’s marketing mix; friends and relatives, store personnel etc.
Go through all six stages of the buying process.
 Impulse buying, no conscious planning.

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The purchase of the same product does not always elicit the same Buying Behavior. Product can
shift from one category to the next.
Example:
Going out for dinner for one person may be extensive decision making (for someone that does not
go out often at all), but limited decision making for someone else. The reason for the dinner,
whether it is an anniversary celebration, or a meal with a couple of friends will also determine the
extent of the decision making.
There are many models of consumer buying behavior, but the steps below are fairly common to
most of them.
 The customer identifies a need
This is often initiated by PR coverage, including word of mouth. The customer may have
seen a friend or celebrity using a product or service, or awareness may have been sparked
off by advertising.
 Looking for information
At this stage the customer wants to know more and is actively seeking information.
Advertising and PR are still important but product demonstrations, packaging and
product displays play a role. This is the time to deploy your sales personnel, and
customers find videos and brochures are useful. Word of mouth is still very
important.
 Checking out alternative products and suppliers
The customer is now trying to choose between products, or firm up on the purchase
decision. This is a place for promoting product guarantees and warranties, and
maximizing packaging and product displays. Sales personnel can greatly influence
the customer at this stage and sales promotion offers become of interest. Independent
sources of information are still of interest, including product test reviews.

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 Purchase decision
This is the time to 'tip the balance'. Sales promotion offers come into their own, and
if appropriate, sales force incentives need to ensure that your sales personnel are
incentivized to close the deal.
 Using the product
Expensive purchases can lead to what is known as cognitive dissonance - a fear that
the customer has not made the right decision. Your job is to reassure the customer
by offering good customer care, simple instruction manuals and loyalty schemes.
They should still be exposed to testimonial advertising to reassure them that they
have made the right decision.
5.3 Importance of marketing mix
 Marketing mix is normally referred to as the '4 Ps', product, price, place and promotion. To
meet customers' needs a business must develop proper market mix for them. These entails
products to satisfy them, charge the right price get the goods to the right place, and it must
make the existence of the product known through promotion.
 The importance of a marketing mix is to make businesses or organizations meet the needs
of customers and to satisfy them. The marketing mix is made up of four P's which are
promotion, price, product and place. This means the goods should be taken to the correct
places, the goods should be promoted in order to be known, the products should satisfy
customer needs and they should have the correct prices.
 All elements from the Marketing Mix have an interaction on and with each other. If you
have a product, you will have to create a price and sell it. The way you communicate this
product will make it either more or less visible to your target market. The price you ask for
the product will infer a special quality. If you communicate effectively about the product,
it will need to be for sale in a place where your target market has access to it. These
elements, product, price, place and promotion all influence each other.
 The product is of course very important and the success of the business will depend largely
on how good or bad it is. The decision as to the nature of the product also has to depend on
its customer base as also their buying habits, geographical locations, purchasing power and

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other factors. Sometimes a business may want to come out with the best there is, and
sometimes the same business might market a product that is for the budget customer. An
example is Tata Motors that owns the Jaguar (which is a premium brand) and also the Nano
(which is the cheapest automobile in the world). It is the amount a prospect is willing to
pay for the product. There is always the right price for a product? If it is priced higher than
this then it might not sell, and if it is priced lower than that then the business might be
missing out on revenues. But there are many issues based on which a company determines
the price and that is not limited just to the cost of manufacturing it. These other factors
include the perceived value of the product in the customer's mind, the market share of the
business, competition and even local tax regulations and distribution and logistics costs.
Then there are issues such as seasonal fluctuations that also need to be considered. The
question where the product is offered is answered here. What are its distribution channels,
how and at what price does the business warehouse the items, what are the costs of order
processing and how will it be done? These are just a few questions that need to be answered.
Promotion includes advertising and marketing? The effort to take a product from the
business to the customer. Managing the sales force (for a traditional business) also belongs
to this. What promotion strategy is best for a business will however not be the same? It will
vary depending on the product itself, the market, the customer and also the budget the
company has.

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6. Conceptual framework
This is the foundation step of research to identify the independent variables and the dependent
variable with that the conceptual frame work drown as follows,
Independent variables Dependent variables
Product
Price
Place
Promotion
Buying behavior of youth
segment

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7. Hypothesis
H01: There is a positive relationship between marketing mix and buying behavior of the youth
segment.
H02: Marketing mix very important factor for buying behavior of the youth segment.
H03: There can be more factors to influence on buying behavior of youth segment except
marketing mix.
H04: There is a positive relationship between buying behavior and youth segment.
8. Methodology
At first, exploratory research was performed by means of literature survey. This enables us
to be familiar with the concepts and terminology of marketing mix influence on buying behavior
of the youth segment. In the second stage, descriptive research by means of survey performed on
a representative sample of current buying behavior of the youth segment. This enables us to obtain
consumers’ opinions on how marketing mix influence to buying behavior of the youth segment.
Research instrument
This investigation requires both primary and secondary data. Primary data is the data that collected
only for this research. In order to collect primary data from respondent we can use questionnaire.
Although observation and interview be capable of use to collect the primary data and to collect the
secondary data can use
 Excising research findings,
 Journals,
 Books relate to this area,
 Websites.

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Research Design
This study is descriptive research by its nature. Descriptive research is essentially a fact finding
Approach related largely to the present and abstract generalizations by the cross sectional study
of the current situation.
Sample Design
100 respondents were selected for the study from Gampaha district. Also use non probability
method, random sampling method.
Analysis of data
To analysis the data that collect from the respondent I wish to use SPSS data analysis software to
interpret mire reliable result. To measure the data there are different types of measurement scales
that are prevailing in the world. To analysis the result in this study researcher going to use
following tools,
 Frequency tables
 Central tendency measures such as Mean, Medium, and Mode
 Percentages
 Standard deviation
 Regression analysis
 Co-Relation and Co-efficient
 ANOVA testing
 Different Bar charts, Pie charts and Graphs

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Qualitative data analysis
Qualitative data can be arranged into categories that are not numerical. These categories can be
physical traits, gender, colors or anything that does not have a number associated to it. In this
research the qualitative data has collected through the opened ended questions in the
questionnaire and it has used to get the wider understanding about the subject area.
9. Limitations of the study
 Time frame/ Resources
Time frame for this study will be consisting of four months. Scope of this study was selected based
on this time frame.
 Population size
Sample size has been consisting for 100 customers of youth segment. The results could be different
if the sample size more than this and if different segments involved to the sample.
 Geographic location
The sample has been selected from the youth customer in gampaha district. Therefor the finding
of research will be based on the ideas of the above and the result could be different if takes the
sample from all island.
 Use non probability sample method.
 Use few assumptions it generate some artificial condition.

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10. Proposed time schedule for the study
Time table for the completion of the research is as follows.
Month February March April May
Selecting the topic and
design the research
Literature review
Research framework
Data collection
Data analysis
Conclusion
Finalization of the
research
11. References
1. Rajit Kumara, “Research Methodology”, issue 3, pp 217 – 236.
2. Michael R. Soloman, “Consumer Behavior”, issue 7. pp 7 – 14, 340 – 352.
3. Philip Kotler, Prafulla Y. Agnihotri, Gary Armstrong, Ehsan Ul Haque, “Principles of
Marketing”, issue 13, pp 44 – 48.
4. Sri Lankan Journal of Management Volume 14, No. 4 & Volume 15, No 1.
5. Uditha Liyanage, “The Sri Lankan Post-modern Consumer”, issue 1, pp 93 – 98.

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