| Summary: | 碩士 === 正修科技大學 === 經營管理研究所 === 97 === For almost all products out in the Taiwan market, be it food, clothing, or essentials, consumers usually paid most attention to products made in Korea, China or “imports” from other Southeast Asian countries and this trend has become part of the daily lives which lead products genuinely made in Taiwan consequently becomes something rare. After the news concerning the melamine contamination of milk powders made in China broke out, consumers are more aware of their purchase decisions and each one aims to look for the right product with the right “country of origin”. Consumers had different viewpoints regarding the certified quality of products from various countries, and it is a fact that each choice made by consumers represents their support for the value offered by the product, which is similar to voting decisions. Under the circumstances where product safety is unsure, this study explored the product impression of consumers base on the country of origin image and product attributes. Base on the online statistical data on demographics provided by the Ministry of Interior, birth rate decreased from 313, 282 in 1987 to 196, 486 in 2008. Along with this massive change, the number of babies born in Taiwan is gradually decreasing, and is continuously so with a fast pace, this means that the society is slowly adopting a “low-birth” concept. The decreasing number of birth rate over the past years and the promotion of the use of mother’s milk caused the shrinkage of the infant-children milk powder market, and also caused the intense competition between milk powder manufacturers.
With product evaluation base on brand country of origin, country of manufacture image and product attributes, the main objective of this study is to explore the factors affecting purchase intentions of consumers in the purchase of infant-children milk powder. Samples of this study consists of parents or guardians of children with ages 7 and below and had experiences and knowledge concerning the purchase of infant-children milk powder. A total of 400 survey questionnaires were disseminated and total valid returns equal 302. This study used the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 17 and first performed a reliability analysis on the questionnaire data, followed by the factor analysis to test the consistency of each construct and lastly used the regression analysis to explore the impact of the 9 constructs on the purchase intention of infant-children milk powder.
Results showed that among the 9 constructs the brand country of origin, country of manufacture image and product attributes, the “serviceability and warranty” construct of the brand country of origin and the “word of mouth” construct of product attributes doesn’t have a significant influence on purchase intention, while other factors positively and significantly influence the purchase decision of milk powder. “Food” is the primary necessity of mankind, the product mentioned in this study refers to infant –children milk powder, which is the primary food for infants and children, thus, parents and guardians would be more cautious in choosing them and would possess more knowledge and information concerning milk powder products. This study suggests manufacturers to provide consumers with positive information and allow consumers to better understand their brands. Since numerous brands are out in the market, consumers have different point of views regarding the serviceability and warranty provided by manufacturers as well as the word of mouth for the products, this study suggests manufacturers to give more importance to brand image and to carefully handle news and issues regarding their brands to help improve the effect of word of mouth.
|
|---|
