Analysing the Role of Consumer Ethnocentrism and Social Responsibility in the Preference of Ayurvedic Products

Abstract

Ayurvedic indigenous products have grown significantly in the Indian market and seized a large consumer base within a short span of time. There has been a growing sensitivity among consumers in India that the use of Ayurvedic products in routine lifestyle including food products, cosmetics and household activities leads to a healthier life. The present study attempts to understand the perception of consumer for indigenous Ayurvedic products. The study also attempts to identify the underlying factors that influence the purchasing behaviour of consumers. In total, 151 respondents from Delhi-NCR, India, participated in the study. The study reveals that there is a significant influence of brand price, ethnocentrism and social responsibility on the preference of food products. Moderating role of social responsibility and consumer ethnocentrism on brand preference has also been studied. The present article reflects how a pre-launch perception, concern for health and breaking the traditional prototype can influence the perception of consumers. The multi-pronged approach by the government, marketers and other social institutions could break open a huge domestic and global market for Ayurvedic products.

Keywords

Ayurveda consumer ethnocentrism social responsibility brand preference moderator fairness of price

Introduction

India has a rich history of traditional medicine-based system that encompasses nature-based therapies to cure ailments. There has been a growing perception among modern consumers in India that the use of herbal (Ayurvedic) products in routine lifestyle including food products, cosmetics and household activities leads to a healthier life (Verotta, Macchi, & Venkatasubramanian, 2015). In India, Ayurveda is being used since ancient times as a leading medical therapy using herbal ingredients sourced from nature. The word Ayurveda means ‘knowledge of life’ and is a combination of two Sanskrit words, ‘ayuh’ (meaning—life) and ‘veda’ (meaning—knowledge). The ancient Hindu philosophy of Ayurveda is rooted in focusing on leading a healthier life and general wellbeing of every individual. It is based on the science of herbal therapy researched and mastered since ages by the traditional medical practitioners. Due to increased awareness and concern for health and environment in recent times, a growing number of Indian consumers are hesitant in using chemical-based products and are switching to herbal (Ayurvedic) products.

Ayurveda: Leading Alternative Medical Therapy

Indian healthcare industry has been promoting a mix of therapies like allopathy, homeopathy, Ayurveda, unani, siddhi, etc. for improving health conditions of general population. There is a deep-seated respect and affinity among masses for the traditional medical therapies like Ayurveda, siddhi and unani as their origins are rooted in India and are an integral part of the culture. Yoga is an ancient Indian-origin science of physical fitness exercises that has been developed over centuries by the disciples who are firm believers of nature-based way of life, often called gurus (yogis). Yoga gurus have long been admired by masses for their connect with the Indian culture and selfless propagation of healthy-lifestyle in sync with nature. They are one of the prime reasons of increased popularity and usage of Ayurveda both in medicine and food industry in recent times (Thussu, 2013). The Central Government of India also recognizes this and has recently taken multiple initiatives to promote traditional systems of medicine. The Government of India had established an independent department of Ayurveda Unani Siddhi Homeopathy (AYUSH) to promote traditional Indian system of medicines, besides the allopathic system of medication. As mentioned in the special article, Region without Regionalism Cooperation in South Asia, the Ministry of AYUSH was established in November 2014 by up scaling the Department of AYUSH with prime thrust on development of traditional medicine and yoga.

Consumer Ethnocentrism: Ayurveda and Yoga Guru

There have been multiple researches that indicate that in developing countries consumers believed that the products that were from imported producers were superior to the local manufactured goods (Bannister & Saunders, 1978; Chattalas, Kramer, & Takada, 2008; Klein, 2002; Temesgen, 2014) This was especially with the technology-driven products. However, the heritage-linked local products were preferred over foreign brand products and concern over its quality was not on keen priority. This was brought out in a large number of researches where the Chinese traditional culture had a strong impact on consumer preferences. Indians have been quite proud of their rich cultural heritage and the science of treatment with herbal (Ayurvedic) products is a natural phenomenon in many Indian households. There exists a conventional mechanism of treatment using herbal products by many trained practitioners, often called vaidyas (doctors). This is further cemented by the world famed art-of-living philosophy called yoga. The yoga instructors (gurus) have been popular among masses for propagating the science of nature-based therapy and exercises to heal diseases and lead a healthier life. However, an understanding of an extension of this phenomenon and its linkage with Ayurveda-branded products would benefit the Indian producers in aligning their strategy for the target audience. Investigating this phenomenon in Indian context, ‘consumer ethnocentrism’ is used to understand the belief that the Indian consumers hold while purchasing the products that have been promoted and or owned by Ayurvedic companies or yoga gurus. The country of origin bears an emotional and symbolic connect with the consumers and shapes their consumption preference. The belief that buying national products over products of multinational firms promotes employment locally and the indigenous ingredients score over the imported ones. As per the studies of leading scholars (Klein, Ettenson, & Morris, 1998), this shapes the perception of high quality of original (indigenous) products and it is morally high to purchase locally manufactured/grown products. A study by Herche (1994) concluded that consumer preferences can better be predicted by consumer ethnocentrism over other variables as demographics and marketing mix.

The aim of this research is to probe the existence of a relationship between ethnocentrism and purchase of Ayurvedic products. Consumer Ethnocentrism Tendencies Scale (CETSCALE) designed by Shimp and Sharma (1987) would be of use for this.

Patanjali Ayurved Limited

Patanjali Ayurved Limited is a leading herbal FMCG company promoted by world renowned yoga guru, Baba Ramdev. Patanjali Ayurved Limited was established by Acharya Balkrishna and co-founded by Yoga Guru Baba Ramdev, in Haridwar, in 2006.

The objective of the founders was to blend the science of Ayurveda with the modern technology in order to strengthen the health of citizens of our nation and the world (Sardar, 2016). Patanjali Ayurved Limited functions like any other company under the regulations of the company law affairs and is constantly striving for nation-building than profit-maximizing. Patanjali Ayurved Limited has a holistic approach to improve the quality of life all over the world by producing food items that are grown in organic manures and pest repellents, thereby, getting rid of the harmful chemicals/pollutants in food items (Dutta, 2015). Initially, this company was manufacturing only medicinal products but gradually expanded its product range. Now its products can broadly be classified into three main categories as follows:

Medicinal value products (Ayurvedic herbs)

Food products (foods and juices)

Cosmetic products.

Patanjali products have gained significant place in the market and captured a large consumer base within a short span of time. The products became popular at a very early stage of their launch (Rani & Shukla, 2012). Patanjali Ayurved Limited, with its tremendous growth, is giving a tough competition to the existing FMCG companies in India.

Objectives of the Study

To identify the factors that influence consumer’s brand preference towards Ayurvedic products of Patanjali.

To measure influence of consumer ethnocentrism on consumer’s price perception towards Ayurvedic products of Patanjali.

To measure influence of corporate social responsibility on consumer’s price perception towards Ayurvedic products of Patanjali.

To propose the conceptual framework of consumer brand preference towards herbal/Ayurvedic products.

Review of Literature

Brand preference is defined as a measure of loyalty in which a consumer will prefer a specific brand in occurrence to other similar brands. However, a consumer may buy a competing brand if the preferred brand is not available.¹ Brand preference signifies consumer’s temperament to support a specific brand (Overby & Lee, 2006). It explains the degree to the consumer’s fondness of one brand over the other relative brand (Hellier, Geursen, Carr, & Rickard, 2003; Zajonc & Markus, 1982). Basically consumer preference for a brand is contributed to three attitude components: cognitive, affective and intention. Cognitive component includes awareness and knowledge about the product. It includes belief about the relative importance of each attributes. For example, people believe that herbal (Ayurvedic) products are safe and they are happy that these products are available in the market. The source of belief is through advertisement, word of mouth or peer group. Affective component recapitulates the consumers overall feeling or emotion towards the product or service. Other competing traditional products may be there in the market from quite some time but Ayurvedic products are deemed to be safe for health. Affective component explains the consumer willing to buy or purchase intention. There is an association involving attitude and behaviour. If a consumer holds a positive attitude towards the product, the probability is high that he/she will buy the product keeping in mind the constraint of purchasing power (Chawla & Sondhi, 2011).

Persuasive Factors

A number of researches globally have focused on understanding the relationship between multiple factors influencing brand preference. However, in the Indian context there exists a need of deeper understanding of the impact of consumer ethnocentrism, together with social responsibility and fairness of price as variables affecting brand preference, especially of Ayurvedic products. This would facilitate generating appropriate strategies for the target audience by the corporate as well as for policy making by the government to optimize resources for achieving desired outcome.

Price Fairness and Consumers Brand Preference

The price of a brand is the money that the consumer pays to avail or buy a service or product; it is also defined as value a consumer receives when they pay for product/service (Kotler & Armstrong, 2010). Price can be classified as objective price and perceived price. Objective price is the actual price of the product while perceived price is defined as an individual’s judgement of the price with respect to quality of the product/services (Lichtenstein & Scot, 1990) offered. As per the empirical study conducted by Schiffman and Kaunk (2009), perception of price has significant impact on purchase intention. This indicates that a larger part of consumer will be inclined to move to a product/service that is offered at a low price (Boutsouki, Zotos, & Masouti, 2008). Researches point out that this relationship is moderated by the quality of the product which translates in the form of reduced impact on consumer buying behaviour (Urbany, Bearden, Kaicker, & Smith-de-Borrero, 1997). In today’s competitive market, it is even more critical for the business to stop churning of loyal customers, ready to give more prices for their preferred brand and do not get influenced by reduced price (Levy & Weitz, 2012).

According to Xia, Monroe, and Cox (2004), price fairness refers to consumers’ assessments of whether a product price is realistic, acceptable and reasonable. As per the study conducted by Herrmann, Xia, Monroe, and Huber (2007), a price perception is positively associated with satisfaction. Based on the previous evidence that implies a significant relationship between the perceived price fairness and consumer brand preferences towards Ayurvedic products, the following hypothesis is forwarded:

H1: There is a positive impact of price fairness on the preference of the brand.

Ethnocentrism and Consumers Brand Preference

Recent studies have pointed out that ethnocentrism plays an important role in consumer preference. High ethnocentric consumers generally think themselves superior to others as they judge with respect to their culture (Barger, 2004). Similar research also pointed towards unreasonably high favourable evaluations by high ethnocentric consumers vis-à-vis imported products (Sharma, Shimp, & Shin, 1995). Consumer’s preference for home-products was also driven by the sense of moral appropriateness (Shimp & Sharma, 1987). In a significant inference of a recent research (Haque, Rahman, & Haque, 2011), it was identified that consumer ethnocentrism was best predictor of consumer buying intention for baby boomers and generation x cohort. In a comparative study (Bolton, Americus, Volpp, & Katrina, 2008), the consumers believed that while Western medicine is concerned with material aspect and on cause and effect sequences at the site used, the traditional Chinese and Ayurved medicines focus on the entire body. As the Ayurveda takes a holistic view of the person, it is less likely to have any negative impact on health.

An empirical study conducted by David and Austad (2007) found the association between consumer preference and the celebrity endorsement. The consequential model implied that the belief towards the endorser evokes a similar relation with the products endorsed. The findings of similar nature may be the relation with the Patanjali brand where the endorser’s (Baba Ramdev) product endorsement of Patanjali Ayurved has a strong influence on the consumer’s psyche and thereby effect on brand preference. Rekha and Gokila (2015) similarly revealed that the consumers believe that chemical cosmetic products cause side effects and hence, they are switching towards the herbal/Ayurveda products which are perceived safer and environment friendly. Hence, a higher price for the herbal products seems reasonable, if it offsets the negative effect to health. Advertisement plays a crucial role in influencing the sentiments of the people as well as in connecting the brand with localness. People may tend to believe that Patnjali’s claim that herbal products are good for health as they are based on many years of cultural brand, scientific researches, hence consumer tend to high on ethnocentrism. Based on the previous evidence that implies a significant relationship between the perceived price fairness, and ethnocentrism and consumer brand preferences towards Ayurvedic products, the following hypotheses are forwarded:

H2a: There is a positive impact of ethnocentrism on consumer brand preference.

H2b: The strength of association between fairness of price and brand preference will be enhanced if there is a high level of ethnocentrism (moderator) in consumer.

Responsibility towards Society and Consumers’ Brand Preference

In the 1970s, the concept of social marketing took birth. Today’s customers are well informed, have access to technology and are socially conscious. As per the collaborated survey by the Cone Communications and Echo Global Study (2013) survey with the objective of cause related marketing, approximately 96 per cent of citizens have a better image of the company that supports social or environmental issues at local or worldwide level and close to 91 per cent of global customers may prefer brands/companies that support social cause, provided fairness of price and quality is established. Thus, CSR may be found to be strong contributor to consumer preference for a brand. The research (Mahapatra, 2013) brought out that among the most important factors influencing consumers’ preference and willingness to pay for herbal products are personal benefits, availability, fairness of price, ease of use and concern for environment and health. In a recent research (Misra & Singh, 2016), positive correlations were found towards the readiness to pay for eco-friendly herbal products and environmental consciousness, certification involvement and its perceived importance.

According to the survey conducted by Greenbiz.com (2005), close to 71 per cent of consumers who purchase online in India are ready to pay higher for socially responsible goods and this premium that Indian consumers are willing to pay is much higher than their counterparts in Western countries. It is evident that Indian consumers believe in paying attention to environmental issues and are willing to take steps to take care of the same. Based on the previous evidence that implies a significant relationship between the social responsibility, fairness of price and consumer brand preferences towards environmental friendly/ayurvedic products, the following hypotheses are forwarded:

H3a: Social cause positively impacts brand preference.

H3b: The strength of association between fairness of price and brand preference will be enhanced by the company support for social cause (moderator).

Conceptual Model

This study attempts to explore the interaction of the role of consumer ethnocentrism and social responsible behaviour of the firm and consumer attitude towards price differences between a foreign-owned brand and an Indian brand. According to the theory forwarded (Campbell, 1999a, 1999b; Maxwell, 1995), the perception of ‘price fairness’ infers about the motives that form the basis of increased prices. The theory forwards that consumers will infer it to be worthwhile to pay more if the reasons are justified, such as offering increased benefits to local employment. However, a few recent researches (Ozretic-Dosen, Skare, & Krupka, 2007) have been indicative that price, as extrinsic cue, was more important than ethnocentrism and brand while buying FMCG products.

It thus becomes imperative not only to research the role of consumer ethnocentric, social responsible behaviour and perception of price fairness towards Ayurvedic products but also the moderating effect of ethnocentrism and social responsibility on price fairness in building brand preference.

Based on the literature, the following conceptual model (Figure 1) has been proposed and tested relative to the proposed hypotheses by the authors.

Figure 1.

Source: The authors.

Research Design

Measurement Instrument

The Consumer preference is a predisposition towards a certain brand. It is considered to be a mediator between perceptions of inputs of a brand and the future behavioural consequences. Expectancy-value model proposes brand preference as a function of consumer beliefs and the weighted attributes of the brand (Bass & Talarzyk, 1972). The model depends heavily on the economists’ view of consumers’ rationality and the objective values of the brand.

The items used in the study were identified based on the current literature and the experience of the researchers. Two reviews were carried out with the panel of experts which included people from corporate and academics to ensure the selection of best items, accuracy of the construct measured and sequencing of items. The pilot study was conducted with 40 respondents with the Cronbach alpha value of 0.78 which is considered as sufficiently reliable (Nunnally & Bernstein, 1994). The questionnaire was divided into three parts. The first section consisted of items measuring the awareness and usage of consumers towards Patanjali Ayurved products. The second section consisted of the items to understand the perception of consumers related to different brand attributes. The respondents were asked to mark their level of agreement on five-point Likert scale where 1 denotes strongly disagree and 5 denotes strongly agree. The third section consisted of items related to the demography and their concern for health.

Figure 2.

Source: The authors.

Data Collection and Analysis

In total, 151 respondents from Delhi-NCR, India, participated in the study. Sampling population included all the people who use herbal/ayurvedic products in Delhi-NCR region, India. Participants of the study were selected using convenient sampling method. Primary method for data collection was self-administered structured questionnaire. The questionnaire was self-administered for a period of three weeks from first week of June 2016 to second week of October 2016. Collected data were thus organized, analysed and interpreted to draw valid conclusions. Data were coded using IBM SPSS version 20.0. For analysis, statistical techniques like factor analysis and regression analysis were used.

Results and Discussions

Demographic Characteristics of Respondents

In total, 151 respondents from Delhi-NCR, India, participated in the study. Out of total participants, 59 were male (39.1%) and remaining 92 were female (60.9%). Majorly young (15–30 years of age) (49%) and middle-age (30–50 years of age) (42.4%) people were included in the study. Only 8.6 per cent of the respondents were above 50 years of age. Hundred and two participants lived in joint family (67.5%) and the remaining 49 lived in nuclear families (32.5%). Similarly, based on the income group, the participants were considered from low-income group (4.7%), middle-income group (69.5%) and high-income group (25.8%).

Validity and Reliability of the Instrument

Buying preferences of the customers for Ayurved products is based on several factors. For understanding the customer’s preferences, respondents were requested to express their opinion on five-point Likert scale (strongly disagree—1, disagree—2, neutral—3, agree—4, strongly agree—5) on a set of statements related to several aspects and deterring factors related to the perception of customers for the purchase of herbal products. Exploratory factor analysis was conducted on 16 variables using principal component analysis with Varimax rotation method. Eigen value greater than 1 was considered as a cut-off point for the number of factors extracted. The result indicated KMO statistics to be 0.877 and Barlett’s test of Sphericity was significant (χ2 = 1855; df = 136; p = 0.000), which indicates appropriateness of extracted variable for factor analysis. Therefore, it was established that EFA can successfully be applied on the items considered under study (Tavşancıl, 2010). These identified factors were named as ethnocentrism, fairness of price, brand preference and social cause and these factors explained a total of 70.98 per cent of the total variance explained by the model. The item with lower factor loading was removed. The rotated component matrix was used, using 0.50 as cut-off point for factor loading, for naming the factors. The results of the factor analysis are presented in Table 1.

Table 1.

Factor Analysis and Reliability Test

Factors	Measurements	Factor Loading	EigenValue	Cronbach α
Ethnocentrism	Patanjali Ayurved uses high quality indigenous raw material.	0.598	8.268	0.81
	Patanjali Ayurved’s products have high medicinal value.	0.872
	Patanjali Ayurved’s products have lesser side effects as compared to other foreign brands.	0.826
	Patanjali Ayurved is providing better products in the market as compared to the competitors	0.705
	Patanjali Ayurved’s advertising techniques are demonstrating ethnic values effectively.	0.625
Price fairness	The products of Patanjali Ayurved’s are expensive.	0.651	1.621	0.683
	The quality of Patanjali Ayurved’s products matches with the price they charge.	0.761
	The products of Patanjali Ayurved are appropriately priced for the target consumers.	0.715
Brand preference	I am really happy that this brand is available.	0.580	1.177	0.895
	Patanjali Ayurved will give a good competition to other brands like Nestle, HUL, etc.	0.537
	Patanjali Ayurved’s products are satisfying my wants.	0.734
	I look forward to using the products of Patanjali Ayurved.	0.602
	I shall continue to purchase Patanjali’s products.	0.670
Corporate social responsibility	Patanjali Ayurved is giving due consideration to preservation of environment.	0.532	1.002	0.601
	Patanjali Ayurved is doing reasonably well for the society.	0.765

Source: The authors.

For checking the internal consistency of the items within a factor, Cronbach’s alpha was used. It is evident from Table 1 that the values obtained for internal consistency of the factors were between 0.60 and 0.89. These values show that the factors have good internal consistency (George & Mallery, 2003). During analysis, high degree of correlation among all the identified factors was found. So to avoid the problem of multi-collinearity, each of the factors were centralized before performing further statistical tool, that is, regression analysis.

Linear Regression Analysis

Linear regression test was carried out to find which of the independent variables ranging from ethnocentrism, corporate social responsibility and price fairness could be the best of some of the predictors of brand preference to Patanjali Ayurved products. Also, an attempt was also made to understand the impact of price fairness on brand preference treating ethnocentrism and corporate social responsibility as moderator.

Based on the results obtained from linear regression model with three predictors—ethnocentrism, corporate social responsibility and price fairness—has worked fit in elucidating the preference of Patanjali Ayurved products. From Table 2, it can be inferred that each of the independent variable has a significant impact on brand preference. Largely, the framework given in the article has a good fit on all the regression equations with the R2 (0.455–0.740) and adjusted R2 (0.451–0.738).

Table 2.

T-test, ANOVA and Regression Results of the Study Variables (N = 151)

	Independent Variable	Dependent Variable	Beta	R2 (Adjusted R2)	F-Value
Regression Analysis
H1	Price fairness	Brand preference	0.754***	0.455 (0.451)	124.166***
H2a	Ethnocentrism	Brand preference	1.003***	0.740 (0.738)	423.733***
H2b	Price fairness ethnocentrism (as moderator)	Brand preference	0.127***	0.663 (0.661)	293.368***
H3a	Corporate social responsibility	Brand preference	0.894***	0.655 (0.652)	282.428***
H3b	Price fairness corporate social responsibility (as moderator)	Brand preference	0.123***	0.630 (0.627)	253.322***

Source: The authors.

Note: *** p < 0.01 (1% level of significance).

Regression analysis was run to check the significance of H1, H2a, H2b, H3a and H3b. The result from Table 2 indicates that all the hypotheses were supported by the results. Ethnocentrism, corporate social responsibility and price fairness are influencing the brand preference with β = 1.003, 0.894 and 0.754 (p-value = 0.000), respectively. All these variables individually were able to explain 74 per cent, 65.5 per cent and 45.5 per cent in brand preference, respectively.

Moderating Role of Ethnocentrism and Corporate Social Responsibility on Price Fairness

When the impact of price fairness on brand preference was considered with a moderating role of ethnocentrism and social corporate responsibility by introducing the interaction terms, it has been found that both ethnocentrism and corporate social responsibility served as good moderator between price fairness and brand preference. It has been observed that R2 values have increased with an additional influence of ethnocentrism (from 0.455 to 0.663) and corporate social responsibility (from 0.455 to 0.630). This implies that both ethnocentrism and corporate social responsibility serve as a good moderator in establishing the influence of price fairness on brand preference.

Social Implications

Ayurveda philosophy is deep-seated among Indian masses. It focuses on the age-old traditional science of holistic life and longevity using herbal (Ayurvedic) products. Many of these ingredients are available locally and used by the masses in daily life for medicinal purposes and supplements. Over the past decades, the use of herbal products has moved from fringe to mainstream population due to its perceived eco-friendliness, cost-effectiveness and being relatively safe as compared to chemical/synthetic substitutes. The use of herbal products in food category and cosmetic products is on rise and integrated approach needs to be evolved for its management and development for sustainability (Mukherjee & Wahil, 2006).

It would not only serve as a source of healthier populace but also serves to be source of employment for a large portion of Indians living in rural India. As India is blessed with rich wealth of bio-diversity and rare medicinal plants, it has the potential to meet the rising acceptance and global demand for herbal/Ayurvedic products. The image of India as a spiritual leader mastering the ancient art of yoga and meditation can be leveraged for global leadership in exporting Ayurvedic products across medicines, food categories and cosmetic range (Sen, Chakraborty, & De, 2011). This would fetch the desired foreign investments to power the overall growth of Indian economy, boosting per capita income and shrinking Bottom of Pyramid (BoP) population.

Over the years there is a sustained loss of biodiversity due to over-exploitation and unscientific use of herbal plants. This needs to be addressed through increased social awareness, proper documentation and quality control to realize the stated goals of the Government of India of conserving heritage resources together with social inclusiveness for national development.

Managerial Implications and Conclusion

India possesses rich biodiversity eco-zones and the tradition of using herbal products dates back to centuries. With a large population, it stands at an advantageous position of taking its Ayurveda philosophy of holistic life in sync with nature to multiple underserved and untapped markets.

Indian government is strongly focused to promote the traditional medical systems through its Ministry of AYUSH. The need arises for promoting herbal products beyond just medicines into other categories as food, cosmetics, household products, etc. The urban population is aware of the Ayurvedic products but still has to accept these products in a big way. The challenges are multiple, from lack of awareness, infrastructural constraints, availability, quality perceptions (in terms of free from chemicals), labelling issues, price perception, to name a few.

The goodness of Ayurveda is well acknowledged among Indian masses and hence there exists a positive indication of acceptance of larger categories of Ayurvedic products beyond the medicinal ones. This take-off stage demands an integrated approach by corporate to embrace the newer techniques to capture the share of mind related to Ayurvedic products, especially in urban India.

Fairly large number of consumers of Delhi-NCR have indicated that they would prefer branded Ayurvedic products if the fairness of price is established besides other product attributes as quality and availability. The marketers have to take care of establishing quality of products through proper certifications and product availability through a larger number of marketing intermediaries.

Further, as revealed in the survey, the brand preference of Ayurvedic range is strongly associated with ethnocentric behaviour of the consumer. The Patanjali Ayurved has garnered positive reviews among the respondents due to its strong association with Yog-guru, Baba Ramdev who professes about the pride of traditional science of Ayurveda treatment since centuries. His call for swadeshi (indigenous) products over the multinational products is well received among segments across population. The corporates need to pool in the judicious combination of local supplies of ingredients as well as human resources for reaping benefits of these ethnocentric tendencies. The phenomenal growth of Patanjali Ayurved in market place across its product range in the established bastion of other players stands evidence to this influence.

This becomes more relevant in the light of the findings that the ethnocentric tendency also influences the perception of price fairness. The respondents have favourably indicated paying higher for the Ayurvedic products as long as it is perceived fair and delivers value for money. This means that the companies can charge price premium judiciously if they are perceived using quality ingredients or other local resources.

Another welcoming outcome was the association of social responsibility component in establishing brand preference of Ayurvedic products. Respondents favourably spoke about the preferences towards brands that are social-conscious and stand on high-moral grounds. Patanjali Ayurved has been positioning itself as a champion of promoting universal health and concept of upkar (selfless service) over vyapar (business) by empowering the consumers with choice of nature based products at affordable prices.

The findings have also brought out the fact that the perception of price fairness is also influenced by the social-cause sentiments of the consumer. This translates that the consumers of Delhi-NCR are ready to pay a price premium for the products of the company that demonstrates social responsibility. The yoga camps (yoga exercise workshops) have spread the message of importance of healthy lifestyle and eating habits in unison with nature over years. This has impacted the minds of the consumers for Patanjali Ayurved positively and built a sustained brand. The other companies can borrow a leaf out of this marketing lesson and demonstrate a sense of social responsibility and consumers would prefer their brands even if the price is on higher side but perceived reasonable.

The multi-pronged approach by the government, marketers and other social institutions could break open a huge domestic and global market for Ayurvedic products which would not only see strong Indian brands preferred world-wide but also provide a major boost to Indian economy, employment among youth and buoyant small and medium size sectors. This would also help India meet its millennium development goals of environmental sustainability and forging global partnership for development.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.

Footnotes

Note

References

Bannister

J. P.

, & Saunders

J. A.

(1978). UK consumers’ attitudes towards imports: The measurement of national stereotype image. European Journal of Marketing, 12(8), 562–570.

Barger

(2004). Ethnocentrism: What is it? Why are people ethnocentric? What is the problem? What can we do about it? Retrieved from http://www.iupui.edu/~anthkb/ethnocen.htm

Bass

F. M.

, & Talarzyk

W. W.

(1972). An attitude model for the study of brand preference. Journal of Marketing Research, 9(1), 93–96.

Bolton

L. E.

, Americus

II , Volpp

K. G.

, & Katrina

(2008). How does drug and supplement marketing affect a healthy lifestyle? Journal of Consumer Research, 34(February), 713–726.

Boutsouki

, Zotos

, & Masouti

(2008). Consumer behavior towards own label: Monitoring the Greek experience. Agricultural Economics Review, 9(1), 81–92.

Campbell

M. C.

(1999a). Why did you do that? The important role of inferred motive in perception of price fairness. Journal of Product and Brand Management, 8(2), 145–152.

Campbell

M. C.

(1999b). Perceptions of price unfairness: Antecedents and consequences. Journal of Marketing Research, 36, 187–199.

Chattalas

, Kramer

, & Takada

(2008). The impact of national stereotypes on the country of origin effect. International Marketing Review, 25(1), 54–74.

Chawla

, & Sondhi

(2011). Assessing the role of organizational and personal factors in predicting turn-over intentions: A case of school teachers and BPO employees. Decision, 38(2), 05–33.

10.

Cone Communications/Echo Global CSR Study (2013). Retrieved from http://www.conecomm.com/research

11.

David

H. S.

, & Austad

(2007). Factors predicting the effectiveness of celebrity endorsement on brand image. Retrieved from www.emeraldinsight.com/10.1108/03090560410560218

12.

Dutta

(2015). Study of present market standing of yogi guru Ramdev’s flagship brand Patanjali in ayurved & FMCG sectors in & around Siliguri city of North Bengal. International Journal of Research in Engineering, Social Sciences, 5(4), 114–132.

13.

George

, & Mallery

(2003). SPSS for windows step by step: A simple guide and reference 11.0 update (4th ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.

14.

Greenbiz.com (2005). Consumer Survey finds Doing Good is Good for Business. Retrieved from http://www.greenbiz.com/news/2005/99/13/consmer-survey-finds-doing-good-good-business

15.

Haque

, Rahman

, & Haque

(2011). Religiosity, ethnocentrism and corporate image towards the perception of young Muslim consumers: Structural equation modeling approach. European Journal of Social Sciences, 23(1), 98–108.

16.

Hellier

P. K.

, Geursen

G. M.

, Carr

R. A.

, & Rickard

J. A.

(2003). Customer repurchase intention: A general structural equation model. European Journal of Marketing, 37(11/12), 1762–1800.

17.

Herche

(1994). Ethnocentric tendencies, marketing strategy and import purchase behaviour. International Marketing Review, 11(3), 4–16.

18.

Herrmann

, Xia

, Monroe

K. B.

, & Huber

(2007). The influence of price fairness on consumer satisfaction: An empirical test in the context of automobile purchases. Journal of Product & Brand Management, 16(1), 49–58.

19.

Klein

J. G.

(2002). Us versus them, or us versus everyone? Delineating consumer aversion to foreign goods. Journal of International Business Studies, 33(2), 345–363.

20.

Klein

J. G.

, Ettenson

, & Morris

M. D.

(1998). The animosity model of foreign product purchase. Journal of Marketing, 62(1), 89–101.

21.

Kotler

, & Armstrong

(2010). Principles of marketing (Thirteenth Edition). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

22.

Levy

& Weitz

B. A.

(2012). Retail management (8th ed., Chapter 7, pp. 166–187). McGraw-Hill International Edition.

23.

Lichtenstein

D. R.

, & Scot

(1990). An assessment of the moderating effects of market Mavenism and value consciousness on price-quality perception accuracy. Advances in consumer research, 17, 53–59.

24.

Mahapatra

(2013). A study on consumer’s perception for green products: An empirical study from India. International Journal of Management & Information Technology, 7(1), 924–933.

25.

Maxwell

(1995). What makes a price increase seem fair? Pricing Strategy & Practice, 3(4), 21–27.

26.

Misra

, & Singh

(2016). An analysis of factors affecting growth of organic food: Perception of consumers in Delhi-NCR (India). British Food Journal, 118(9), 2308–2325.

27.

Mukherjee

P. K.

, & Wahil

(2006). Integrated approaches towards drug development from Ayurveda and other systems of medicine. Journal of Ethnopharmacology, 103, 25–35.

28.

Nunnally

J. C.

, & Bernstein

I. H.

(1994). Psychometric theory (3rd ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, Inc.

29.

Overby

J. W.

, & Lee

(2006). The effects of utilitarian and hedonic online shopping value on consumer preference and intentions. Journal of Business Research, 59(10/11), 1160–1166. Retrieved from BI/INFORM Global database.

30.

Ozretic-Dosen

, Skare

, & Krupka

(2007). Assessments of country of origin and brand cues in evaluating a Croatian, western and eastern European food product. Journal of Business Research, 60(2), 130–136.

31.

Rani

, & Shukla

(2012, September). Trend of Patanjali products: An ayurvedic magic wand for healthy living. Indian Journal of Research, 1(9), 93–94. doi: 10.15373/22501991

32.

Rekha

B. M.

, & Gokila

(2015). A study on consumer awareness, attitude and preference towards herbal cosmetic products with special reference to Coimbatore city. International Journal of Interdisciplinary and Multidisciplinary, Studies (IJIMS), 2(4), 96–100.

33.

Sardar

(2016). Desi hustle vs MNC muscle: The case study of Patanjali Ayurved Ltd. Case Studies Journal, 5(4), 11–16.

34.

Sen

, Chakraborty

, & De

(2011). Review: Challenges and opportunities in the advancement of herbal medicine: India’s position and role in a global context. Journal of Herbal Medicine, 1(3), 67–75.

35.

Sharma

, Shimp

T. A.

, & Shin

(1995). Consumer ethnocentrism: A test of antecedents and moderators. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 23(1), 26–37.

36.

Schiffman

, & Kanuk

(2009). Consumer behavior (10th ed.). New York, NY: Pearson International.

37.

Shimp

, & Sharma

(1987). Consumer ethnocentrism: Construction and validation of the CETSCALE. Journal of Marketing Research, 24(3), 280–289.

38.

Tavşancıl

(2010). Tutumların ölçülmesi ve SPSS ile veri analizi. Ankara: Nobel Yayın Dağıtım, 4. Baskı, Ankara.

39.

Temesgen

S. M.

(2014). Determinants of foreign products’ preference over local products: The case of shoes or/and cloth preference in Gondar Town, Ethiopia. IOSR Journal of Humanities and Social Science, 19(3), 50–61.

40.

Thussu

D. K.

(2013). Branding India: A public–private partnership—In communicating India’s soft power (pp. 155–181). Basingstoke, United Kingdom: Palgrave Macmillan.

41.

Urbany

J. E.

, Bearden

W. O.

, Kaicker

, & Smith-de-Borrero

(1997). Transaction utility effects when quality is uncertain. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 25(1), 45–55.

42.

Verotta

, Macchi

M. P.

, & Venkatasubramanian

(Eds.). (2015). Connecting Indian wisdom and western science: Plant usage for nutrition and health. Milan: CRC Press.

43.

Xia

, Monroe

K. B.

, & Cox

J. L.

(2004). The price is unfair! A conceptual framework of price fairness perceptions, Journal of Marketing, 68(October), 1–15.

44.

Zajonc

R. B.

, & Markus

(1982). Affective and cognitive factors in preferences. Journal of Consumer Research, 9(September), 123–131.