Brand-Led Gold Jewellery Buying Behaviour: Socio-Cultural and Economic Perspectives from PC Chandra, Kolkata

The gold jewellery takes a unique position in the Indian consumer market, and it is both a cultural object and an investment tool as well as a branded luxury item. The increasing trend of the unorganised local jewellers to the organised and brand-oriented jewellery retailers has increased the concern to examine the determinants of consumer buying behaviour in the culturally based markets. The purpose of the study was to investigate brand-led gold jewellery purchasing behaviour in the socio-cultural and economic aspects with a particular reference to PC Chandra, Kolkata. The descriptive and analytical research design was taken and 250 branded gold jewellery consumers in Kolkata were used as a sample on which the primary data were collected with the help of a structured questionnaire. The paper utilized percentage analysis, descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, regression analysis and paired sample t-test to verify the hypotheses suggested. The results showed that there was a significant positive correlation between socio-cultural factors and brand-led buying behaviour of gold jewellery. The socio-cultural influence was also observed to have a great impact on the purchase intention of the consumers. In addition, the research determined that there existed a substantial gap in the exposure to brand-related attributes among consumers and the perception of the gold jewellery brand created by PC Chandra, indicating that there was a perception-exposure gap in the study. It has a contribution to the relevant literature by introducing a combined, city-based, empirical research of the brand-based buying behaviour of gold jewellery and it also has a contribution to the management knowledge by providing empirical research on the enhancement of brand strategies in culturally intensive markets.