Institute of Management Technology

2014-2016

BUSINESSRESEARCHMETHODS
TOPICSUMMARY

Submittedby:SectionA,Group4
RahulTrehan(140201020)
AnanyaJain(140201022)
HarshitDalmia(140201051)
HimanshuSingh(140201053)
NiharikaAgrahari(140201056)
SejalKarnik(140201059)

Submittedto:
Dr.AtanuAdhikari

RESEARCH QUESTION:
How do discounts and bundle offers affect impulse buying?
EXPLANATION:
The focus of this research is to test the degree of relationship between discounts and bundle
offers on impulse purchases. It is seen that on coming across bundled and discounted products,
consumers often tend to deviate from their usual behavior and make unplanned and impulsive
decisions which are not always rational. This research thus tries to closely study the extent of this
relationship.
DESCRIPTION OF THE TOPIC:
Consumers are not always rational, planned and measured in their buying habits. Many a times
when we see schemes and bundles which give us the perception of value, we tend to buy the
product even if we dont want the product. These unplanned expenditures in consumers
purchasing habits are known as impulse buying. Impulse buying may sometimes be unnecessary
since it leads to the purchasing of items which the consumer would not have otherwise planned
or considered to buy. It is thus speculated that marketers extensively use these methods to appeal
to the emotional needs of the customers rather than their rationality, since it banks on the fact that
customers generally indulge in this kind of purchasing to satisfy the instant gratification of
acquiring an item when he or she sees it presented in an offer which gives them the sense of
some substantial perceived value. Often it is seen that to further facilitate this behavior, these
bundled and discounted products are displayed on the aisles and entrances to instantly grab
customers attention.
IMPORTANCE OF THE RESEARCH/ BUSINESS IMPLICATIONS:
Studying and establishing a relationship between bundled or discounted products and consumer
behavior is of utmost importance. Having a strong positive correlation between discount and
bundling and the chances of impulse buying can be extremely helpful for marketers to decide the
extent to which these schemes should be used to tap the impulsive buying behavior of customers
so that they can extract the maximum revenue. Designing marketing schemes to connect to the

consumers emotionally will increase the chances of influencing them to indulge in impulse
buying. The more the emotional connection, more can be the sales volume.
METHODOLOGY USED:
Primary sources:
Personal Interviews
Questionnaires
Observation
Focus group interviews
Secondary sources:

Web information- Blogs, articles, journals

Books
Previous research
Historical data and information

BIBLIOGRAPHY
groups.haas.berkeley.edu/marketing/PAPERS/PRIYA/p19.pdf
Bundles can be perceived as providing free gifts along with the main products. Bundling can lead
to consumer drawing inferences about the product cost. If companies can recognize this and
accordingly design and promote the bundle, it might help them to find a way to include their
products in the consumers basket of goods.
www.anzmac.org/conference_archive/2003/papers/PR06_heelerr.pdf
In the eyes of the customer, bundling usually infers as discount. In the absence of complete
information, bundling is perceived as savings. But for some consumers, it has a perception of
under consumption. Because they value a bundle at lower price, they tend not fully consume the
bundled products.
hbswk.hbs.edu/item/6814.html
It deals with many probing questions such as how are bundles viewed from the point of
customers or whether providing customers with bundles will lead to an increase or a decrease in
sales? It also deals with the various positive and negative effects of bundling.
http://ljs.academicdirect.org/A24/101_114.pdf
Bundling leads to impulse buying, but there are many additional environmental factors which
influence the buying pattern of the customer such as time pressures, atmospheric factors, large
crowds, presence of others, etc. To have a better understanding of the consumer behaviour these
factors need to be taken into account.
http://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:453408/FULLTEXT01.pdf
Bundling has its own pros and cons. Some of the many advantages are risk reduction, goods at a
lower cost,etc and at the same time some problems of over consumption and getting unnecessary
goods along with the usefull goods. To overcome such issues it is necessary to have a correct
composition of bundles.