Consumer Decision-Making Styles of Gen Y Consumers in Malaysia

Consumer Decision-Making Styles of Gen Y Consumers in Malaysia
Introduction
Market segmentation is a crucial element in marketing because goods can no longer be produced and sold without considering consumer needs and recognizing the characteristic of those needs. Due to the highly competitive environment nowadays, attracting and retaining enough loyal customers plays an important key role when developing business strategies. Therefore, business should understand and target consumer from different background and culture differently in order to effectively adapt their marketing strategies (Yeong & Lovett, 2010).
In general, there are many demographic variables can be used to segment consumer market, for instance income, age, gender, ethnicity, marital status and household size. Among these variables, gender has been and continues to be one of the most popular forms of market segmentation for a significant proportion of product and services. According to marketing scholars (Meyers-Levy & Sternthal, 1991; Darley & Smith, 1995) argue that gender-based segmentation, especially if it is based on biological sex per se, meets several of the requirements for successful implementation: the segments were easy to identify, easy to access, and large enough for consumer products and services to be marketed profitably. In addition, there are many studies in the past also provided considerable evidence that gender relates to consumers’ perceptions, attitudes, preferences and purchase decisions(Mitchell & Walsh, 2004; Bakewell & Mitchell, 2006).
Because gender has been identified as one of the significant factor in understanding consumer behavior and as a fundamental market segmentation index for companies to satisfy their customer’ demand, therefore marketer should endeavor to understand the gender differences in decision-making styles. In addition, research addressing the issue of gender differences in decision-making styles could help marketers to

References: Sproles, G. & Kendall, E. (1986). A Methodology for Profiling Consumers’ Decision-Making Styles, Journal of Consumer Affairs, Vol. 20 (2), pp. 267-279 Mitchell, V., & Walsh, G Bakewell, C.& Mitchell, V. W. (2003) Generation Y Female Consumer Decision-Making styles. International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, 31(2), 95-106. Bakewell, C. & Mitchell, V.W. (2006). Male versus Female Consumer Decision Making. Journal of Business Research, 59, 1297-1300. Hiu, A. S. Y., Siu, N. Y. M., Wang, C. C. L. & Chang, L. M. K. (2001). An Investigation of Decision-Making Styles of Consumers in China. Journal of Consumer Affairs, 35 (2), 326-345. Safiek, M. & Hayatul, S. S. (2009). Consumer Decision-Making Styles in Malaysia: An Exploratory Study of Gender Differences. European Journal of Social Sciences – Volume 10, Number 4 Safiek, M Darley, W. K. & Smith, R.E (1995). Gender Differences in Information Processing Strategies: An Empirical Test of the Selectivity Model in Advertising Response. Journal of Advertising, 24(1), 41-59. Meyer-Levy, J. & Sternthal, B. (1991). Gender Differences in the Use of Message Cues and Judgments. Journal of Marketing Research, 29 (1), 84-96. Kaylene C. Williams, K. C., Page, R. A, Petrosky, A. R. & Hernandez, E. H. (2010). Multi-Generational Marketing: Descriptions, Characteristics, Lifestyles, and Attitudes. Journal of Applied Business and Economics, Vol.11(2) Sengupta, D Yeong, N. C. & Lovet, M. G. (2010). Consumer Decision-Making Styles of Hispanic American College Students: A Consumer Styles Inventory Approach. American Journal of Business Research, Vol. 3, No 2 Ghodeswar B.M Gupta, M., Brantley, A., & Jackson, V. P. (2010). Product Involvement as a Predictor of Generation Y Consumer Decision Making Styles. The Business Review, Cambridge, Vol. 14, Num. 2 Kambiz, H