Motivation for buying branded items: a cross country application of Maslows hierarchy of needs in consumer decision making

The brand is a pledge to buyers about the quality and prestige of a product or service. The main objective of this study is to analyse the importance of branding in the decision making of buyers and to examine the motives that drive consumer decisions when buying branded items. The conceptual framework of this study groups the hierarchy of needs according to Maslow into two main motives. The motives are risk reduction and social demonstrance. In this study, the non-probability sampling method was used to select respondents from four different countries namely, the Czech Republic, China, Ghana and Sri Lanka and a semi-structured questionnaire was administered. A total of 979 valid responses from the respective countries were used in the analysis. Findings from the study are that, among the selected countries, brands play an important role in consumer buying behaviour and risk reduction, social demonstrance are motives that drive consumer purchases.