Consumer Preference for Imported Products over Domestically Produced Products in Pakistan

Consumer behavior is "The study of individuals, groups, or organizations and the processes they use to select, secure, use, and dispose the products, services, experiences, or ideas to satisfy needs and the impacts that these processes have on the consumer and society." To understand consumers and why they make the choices they do, consumers researchers investigate a broad range of human responses, including affective (feelings), cognitive (thoughts) and behavioral (actions) responses. Objective(s) of the study: The aim of this research is to try to analyze the main reasons behind why Pakistani consumer prefer foreign made products and services to those , which are made domestically. Another aim can be here to see which of the variables actually have some bearing on the preferences of consumers and to what degree. Hypotheses: From the theoretical framework developed for this study, we are in a position to construct three main hypotheses. These are: • To what extent, the ethnocentrism scale is present in consumers' preferences towards products of Western relative to Pakistani origin. • To what extent, the interpersonal susceptibility scale is present in consumers’ preferences towards products of Western in relation to Pakistani origin. • Dimensions of the meanings of conspicuous consumption scale are present in consumers’ preferences towards products of Western relative to Pakistani origin. Methodology: This research preferred more to questionnaires, second to articles, and thirdly to interviews as the research requirement involves in-depth, contextual analysis. A co- relational investigation was carried out simply to identify the important factors, related with this research. The study was basically a descriptive study on the main variables, which had an effect on the consumer preferences of the Pakistani consumer in relation to foreign goods and services. The process by which research was carried out is, firstly, a hypothetical analysis was done on the issue at hand based on literature reviews, previous studies, and thesis already available on the subject. Second a questionnaire was developed and utilized.

Keywords:

Interpersonal influence , social status , ostentation , communication of belonging