Determinants of habitual behavior for national and leading brands in China

Abstract

Despite the existence of some research into habitual behavior, there is a noticeable lack of investigation into its determinants. Since the only influential factor generally discussed is brand awareness, our study includes other factors in order to provide a complete understanding of the determinants of habitual behavior. We consider the influence of various marketing and demographic factors on consumers’ habitual behavior towards national and leading brands of low involvement products in mainland China. A conceptual model is proposed and logistic regression used to analyze data on southwestern China, with the results indicating that all four marketing factors, brand awareness, perceived quality, channel convenience and price, exert significant influences on habitual behavior. The results further suggest some discernible demographic features of habitual buyers. Marketing implications are also discussed, highlighting in particular, the association between “satisfaction” and “channel convenience”, which is clearly demonstrated as the critical determinant for retaining leading brand consumers.