Empirical Evidence on the Determination of the Level of Education and Income of Consumers in the Preferential Purchase Criterion based on Product Differentiation
PhD. Julio Cesar Ceniceros Angulo, Ernesto León Castro, M.Sc. . Emilio Garcia López
Abstract
Introduction: The purpose of working on the design of discrete choice models for business and market studies
strongly concentrating the attention in product differentiation and demographic segmentation variables (income
and education), is to identify how the purchasing decisions of consumers are strongly influenced by the level of
education and income, in such way that when the consumer has higher income and education their purchasing
decision is based on differentiation over price. Method: For the treatment and fulfillment of the objectives in this
research is used the traditional econometric methodology, concretized through binary logistic regression model
(RLB). For work processing and analysis of information SPSS V.19 software is used. Results: Those with an
income in range of 3-6 minimum wages has 1.7 times more benefit of opting for the distinction criterion in
compare to those who only receive up to 2 minimum wages. Similarly, those consumers who perceived over 10
have an advantage of almost 7 times over the category of comparison. In the case of education, the reference in
this category is those who have primary education, in such a way that, for a person who has professional
education they opt 2.5 times for differentiation as their buying criteria in compare to the reference category.
Hence, it emphasizes the role of education of the buyers on the criterion of discrimination over the product
attributes. Discussion or Conclusion: An explanation of consumer behavior around discrimination through
differentiation is found in the central role of education level. This can be seen when we replace some
combinations of the characteristics in the model. For example, in the case where a person is in the income range
of up to two minimum wages and has preparatory education the probability of choose differentiation is 0.5723,
however for the same range of income but with primary education they will opt for price instead of differentiation.
The importance of the level of education in the consumer selection of a product is helpful, in case of a person
who reported earning more than 10 minimum wages and has professional education the probability of belonging
to the group of the differentiators is high (0.9317).
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