CUSTOMERS DEMOGRAPHIC VARIABLES AND PERCEIVED RISK IN THE PATRONAGE OF CAR MAINTENANCE OUTLETS

Abstract

Marketing scholars‘ are unanimous in acknowledging the fact that risk is inherent in every transaction. This implies that consumer purchase decision making is either risk taking or risk reduction. The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of customers‘ demographic characteristics in understanding perceived risk as car owners and/ or drivers quest for vehicle maintenance in Benin City Edo state. The study adopted the survey design with hypothesized variables including age, gender, social status, occupation, income and educational background.
The population of study included the entire car owners or professional drivers in the study area.
Convenience sampling technique was adopted for sample selection. A three section structured questionnaire was administered on 180 car owners or professional drivers. The data collected were analysed with simple percentage while the formulated hypotheses were tested with T-Test and Analysis of Variance at 5% level of significance. The study found significant difference between age, gender, social status, occupation/ income and educational qualification and perceived risk. The study recommended that further studies should include other demographic characteristic such as ethnicity and family life cycle and that attempt should be made to explore the impact of demographic variables on perceived risk in online purchase situation.