DOES RELIGIOSITY INFLUENCE MUSLIM CONSUMER BUYING BEHAVIOR? A QUALITATIVE STUDY IN PAKISTAN TO FIND OUT THE BEHAVIOR OF CONSUMERS FOR THE FOOD PRODUCTS

Abstract

Religiosity is the factor which have a strong influence on people because it is something which is the faith, pattern of life they believe of any human being which influence the human on maximum extent and when it comes to the consumption of food products and consumer behavior towards the product, so many factors stimulate consumers to buy the product. This study focused on the consumer behavior or Muslims towards western related imported products in Pakistan. The main purpose of the study is to find out that are religious principles and laws (religiosity) the main factor or consideration which influences consumer to purchase the product. Twenty-five (25) in-depth semi structured interview was conducted to find out the results, respondents are related to different occupations and consumed the western food products. Thematic analysis was used to analyzed the data, collected data has been divided into major themes in order to understand the main factors and consideration while the purchasing the western food items, especially in Islamic region. The findings of the study indicated that religiosity factor is highly important for the consumers and they get attracted from imported product because suitable alterative product is not available in domestic market and trust level towards domestic product is low due to quality aspect. This research will be beneficial for all those marketers who are concerned for consumer behavior how they can shift consumer from western to domestic products. In the end this should be stated that the purchase of consumer may get differ on religious consideration consumption, spending patterns, cultural patterns, country patterns and boundaries, values and norms, consumer cultural restrictions, family norms and consumers perceptions but it completely depends on the intensity of believes and priority.