Research report on relation between Materialism and Credit Card Usage.

2. IIM Rohtak
Research Objectives:
Dimensions Explored
To study influence of
material characteristics
on credit card usage by
analyzing :
Personality
Motivation
Behavior of credit card ( Trait Theory )
buyers
Relation between
materialism and
purchase/usage of credit
card Self
Perception
Concept
Materialistic Factors
which influence purchase
decision
Factors to improve
involvement with product

3. IIM Rohtak
Research Findings
By Virtue of our Research and subsequent factor analysis
the following key factors related to Materialism and Credit
Cards emerged :
Money at Disposal
Materialism
Possession
Social Status
Credit Card Ownership

4. IIM Rohtak
Significant
Correlation
Research Findings-1 Between
Materialism and Usage (+)
Materialistic people generally involve in higher credit card usage.
“The more materialistic individuals are, the more finance charges are on those credit cards,
and the more likely they are to have loans of more than than $1,000 (Watson, 2003)”
Status and Usage (+)
More credit card usage signifies a higher status in society
“active users of credit cards are affected by key variables related to consumers’
perceptions of social status and acceptability (Medina and Chau, 1998, pp. 429-448)”
Status and Credit Card Ownership Status (+)
Owning a credit card signifies higher status in the society

5. IIM Rohtak
No
Significant
Research Findings-2 Correlation
Between
Money and credit card usage
Money and owning a credit card
Non-materialism and owning a credit card
Possessions and credit card usage
Possessions and owning a credit card

6. IIM Rohtak
Consumer Behaviour Implications
Status & Credit Card Use
o Social Self Concept: The students of premier B-
schools want to project themselves as high
status
o Maslow’s Needs Hierarchy; Self Esteem: Motives
oriented towards having a high status
o Selective Interpretation: The students of premier
B-schools, based on their interpretation, classify
Credit Card Use as a stereotype for showing high
status

7. IIM Rohtak
Consumer Behaviour Implications
Materialism & Credit Card Use:
o Based on VALS segmentation; Strivers: Majority of students in a premier Bschool can
be classified as Strivers. For Strivers, Money defines success but they don’t have
enough of it to buy things to fulfill their materialistic needs. Thus they use Credit Card
to fulfill their needs.
o Sheth’s Consumer Motives; Functional: Since there is high materialism, there is
always a want for new things. Credit Card serves as fast cash and is really helpful in
impulse buying. Hence materialistic needs can be fulfilled by credit card usage.
Status and Credit Card Ownership:
o Cause and Effect relationship: Need for a high social status (cause) increase the
desire to have the credit card (effect). It increases the involvement towards the
credit card. People with higher need for social status would look for credit card
with high credit limit.
o Recognition with Upper Middle and Upper-Upper Social Class: Owing a credit
card make the people recognize themselves with those belonging to upper-
middle class and upper-upper class.

8. IIM Rohtak
We would
suggest the
following to
Credit Card
Suggestions
Companies
Target materialistic people
Offer credit cards to regular Target
Target
shoppers or those who buy above Materialistic Frequent
a certain limit in a month People Flyers
Shoppers Stop offers First
Citizen Citibank Titanium Credit
Card
Aspirants of
Offer credit cards to frequent Social
flyers status
Yatra.com offers Barclays Yatra
Card and Standard Chartered
Yatra Platinum cards
Earn Airpoints Dollars
Target customers who have high
social status or aspire for higher
social status to spend more Success for Credit Card
using their credit card Companies !

9. IIM Rohtak
Suggestions
Target status aspirants linking them to status by owning a
credit card
For eg : American Express Platinum Card
Travel benefits- access to airport lounges throughout the world
Attend “Card Member Only” Fashion Show

10. IIM Rohtak
Conclusion / Limitation
Conclusion: Limitations:
There is ample scope for Study is done on IIM
students , which limits the
Credit Card companies to result to be applied to
target premier B-School other students.
students. Although Secondary
Although there is a perceived Research indicates that
Risk (Credit Card Misuse)
belief that Money and is associated with usage
Possessions are highly but our study did not
related to Credit Card usage, identify a parameter
but our study establishes that connected with risk;
they are of less significance. probably b,coz of
inadequacy of sample.

11. IIM Rohtak
THANK YOU
Group:3
Chalis
Renju
Rohit
Sahil
Shamli
Vikram