The effect of gestational age on women's preference for quality goods

Abstract

It is a well-established fact that hormonal changes significantly influence the consumer behaviors and their purchase intentions. However, attention to the conspicuous buying due to the mood swings, as a result of hormonal changes, during the pregnancy have been largely ignored in the literature. The current research aims to examine the prospective association of conspicuous purchase intentions with hormonal changes and mood swings during the pregnancy. An experimental procedure was used to assess the data collected from pregnant women (n = 116) and the hypotheses were analyzed using recall probability and recall position measures. The hormonal changes during the pregnancy were analyzed in three stages known as pregnancy trimesters suggested by the relevant literature (Trimester-1 = 39, Trimister-2 = 36 and Trimester-3 = 41). The respondents were exposed to visual attention of specifically designed images with a unique combination of the status and functional products. The ROC values for Trimester 2 is higher in all 4 graphs (0.923, 0.960, 0.892, and 0.923) respectively than Trimester 1 and 3. Findings revealed that the women purchase preferences shift as pregnancy move from one trimester to another. Women pay more attention to status products during the 2nd trimester as compared to 1st and 3rd trimesters of pregnancy.