Asian J. Management 3(3): July-Sept. 2012 153 ISSN- 0976- 495X 1 www.anvpublication.org RESEARCH ARTICLE Consumer Buying Behaviour for High Involvement Products -A Study Dr. G. K. Deshmukh 1 *, Dr. R. P. Das 2 1 Senior Assistant Professor, Institute of Management, Pt. Ravi Shankar Shukla University, Raipur (C.G.) 2 Professor, Director and Dean, Institute of Management, Pt. Ravi Shankar Shukla University, Raipur (C.G.) *Corresponding Author E-mail: ABSTRACT: In a globalised economy, markets are characterized by competition. The fast innovations of technologies are intensifying the intensity of competition and is becoming challenge for every business. In the past few years, due to competition, continuously company margins are considerably declining. According to Philip Kotler (2003), in hyper competition, power is clearly shifting to consumers who are increasingly telling what product features they want, what communication they will tolerate, what incentives they expect and what price they will pay. It is high time for marketers to study, understand and predict consumer behaviour in order to survive, sustain and grow in this highly competitive and volatile market. In fact, consumer behaviour is the process whereby individuals decide whether, what, when, where, how and from whom to purchase goods and services (Walter and Paul, 1970). As a field of study, consumer behaviour focuses upon consumer activities (Blackwell, Miniard, Engel, 2001). Moreover, the scholars of human behaviour are highly concerned to study the consumer behaviour in order to gain deeper insights into why individuals are involved in certain consumption related behaviour and interested to know what internal and external factors influences them in their consumption related decisions. Zikmund (2001) is of opinion that human behavior of any kind (B) is a function (f) of the interaction between the person (P) and the environment (E)–that is B= f (P,E). According to Zikmund, consumer behaviour is the function of personal factors (age and stages of life cycle, occupation, economic situation, life style, personality, psychology etc.) and environmental factors (culture, subculture, social class, reference groups, family, role and status). INTRODUCTION: Social class as a factor influencing consumer buying behavior has been studied by many researchers both in India and abroad. In an earlier study Warner and Paul (1941) have identified that different social classes display different purchase goals and shopping behaviours. Warner (1949) found from his study that buying habits of lower class persons are profoundly different from middle class persons. What each person buys and where he purchases, is symbolic as well as has economic values. Martineau (1958) found from his study that the individual’s consumption pattern actually symbolises his class position. Social class is often more significant determinant of his buying behaviour than income. Kahl (1957) found from his study that kinds of things a person will buy or will not buy are strongly related to his class membership. Received on 17.07.2012 Accepted on 20.08.2012 ©AandV Publications all right reserved Asian J. Management 3(3): July-Sept., 2012 page 153-157 Vidich and Bensman (1960) found that lower class people prefer to spend their money on immediate needs and fancies. Brown, Gray and Korgaonkar (1992) found role of consumer’s social class while making purchases via electronic shopping. It is found that consumers from the higher social classes show progressively less interest in electronic shopping as their income and status increase in comparison to lower social class consumers. Thus, though there exist many more studies both in India and abroad with respect to the impact of internal and external factors separately or together influencing consumers buying behavior but a study on how social classes as an external determinant determines consumer buying behavior especially for High Involvement Products (HIPS), in the state of Chhattisgarh is conspicuously scanty. Hence the present study is a modest attempt to investigate the impact of social factors on consumer buying behavior. OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY: Following were the objectives of the study: (1) To investigate the impact of social class as one of the factor influencing consumer buying behaviour in selected