Rajam et al./ Elixir Marketing Mgmt. 39 (2011) 4657-4659 4657 Introduction Hair colour is on a high, accounting for major part of the sales of hair care products and spurring new launches. Hair colour today doesn’t necessarily cover strands of gray. A shade of bright burgundy or golden chocolate could well be a fashion statement and colouring hair is definitely a range among urban youth and account for 20 percent growth. The hair care market in India is going through a major paradigm shift, and the change is evident by consumer behaviour and the speed at which marketers are introducing new product categories and services. Since 2000, the hair care usage patterns have been changing, resulting in an impressive growth rate for the hair care industry. There is increased awareness among all levels of consumers, and mate consumers also have evolved as category. The Indian cosmetics market is one segment where the traditional hair treatments sell as much as newer category hairstyling and hair care products. Traditional herbal powders and hair oils for hair conditioning share the same sell with high- end products. The traditional hair care and hair styling methods are changing, which means that buyers are now ready to accept newer product categories. Objectives of the study  To know the socio-economic profile of the respondent.  To find out brand preference for hair colouring.  To analyse the reasons for brand preference.  To study the frequency and purpose of use.  To assess the level of satisfaction. Methodology The questions whether selected variables (brands, social and environment friendly stores, social status, age and income) are anyway related with the consumer preference towards hair colouring. Can this relationship be analysed? If yes, than what is impact of this analysis on the course of action the various hair colouring companies? In order to answer these questions this research study has been conducted. The study has used both primary as well as secondary data to achieve the objectives of the study. Primary data for the study has been collected using interview cum questionnaire approach. The questionnaire was developed on the basis of review of literature and discussion with the experts in the field. The questions have been checked for their meaning on the words, the frame or reference, the implied alternatives and assumptions and for any biased and leading questions. The questionnaire contained closed-ended (multiple-choice) questions. Alternatively have been kept simple and easy to understand to avoid confusion. The layout of the questionnaire has been kept very simple and logical with no clustering and no branching. Further there no complicated questions also that would cause any sort of ambiguity. The questionnaire was pretested on 25 respondents for checking its reliability and content validity. The suggestions given by the respondents during pretesting of the questionnaire were incorporated in the final questionnaire. Thus the pretested and modified questionnaire has been administered to the 150 respondents. Convenience sampling method has been used to select the sample. The survey was conducted in the Tiruchirappalli Taluk. The respondents’ buying frequency of hair colouring varied from once in a week to once in a month. Majority being those who purchased hair colours once in a week or once in a month. The demographic profile has been shown in Table 1. Product category coverage The present study covered the following categories of products are Henna, Black Rose, Super Vasmol, Ayur, singh, Renew, Indica, 9Fine, Revlon, Streax and Garnier Data Analysis and Discussion The present study reviewed the descriptive statistics of the responses given by the respondents selected for the study. Keeping in view the different variables, different hypothesis are formulate to test their significance and derive inferences relevant for the study. For testing the questions 14 null hypothesis were formulated and tested using Chi Square test. The analysis has been tabulated in Table 2. Hypothesis 1=H1 = The base of hair colouring do not influence the buying behaviour based on gender. As the calculated value of Chi Square(4.312) is less than the tabulated value(5.99) at 5% level of significance, so null hypothesis is Tele: +91431-2432454 E-mail addresses: brssrajam73@rediffmail.com © 2011 Elixir All rights reserved A study of consumer preference on hair colouring in Tiruchirappalli Taluk K. Rajam and V.P.T. Dhevika Department of Commerce, Srimad Andavan Arts & Science College, Tiruchirappalli-620 005, India. ABSTRACT Hair colour is on a high, accounting for major part of the sale of hair care products and spurring new launches. Hair colour today doesn’t necessarily cover strands of gray. A shade of bright burgundy or golden chocolate could well be a fashion statement and colouring hair is definitely a range among urban youth and account for 20 percent growth. The Indian cosmetics market is one segment where the traditional hair treatments sell as much as newer category hairstyling and hair care products. Traditional herbal powders and hair oils for hair conditioning share the same shell with high-end products. The traditional hair care and hair styling methods are changing, which means that buyers are now ready to accept newer product categories. Hence an attempt has been made to study the hair colouring user, their brand preference, whether male or female users more, source of awareness, base of hair colour. © 2011 Elixir All rights reserved. ARTICLE INFO Article history: Received: 25 July 2011; Received in revised form: 21 September 2011; Accepted: 26 September 2011; Keywords Hair colouring, Product strategy, Herbal powders. Elixir Marketing Mgmt. 39 (2011) 4657-4659 Marketing Management Available online at www.elixirpublishers.com (Elixir International Journal)