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Abstract:
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This study on the factors influencing shoppers’ decision to buy weapon typed swords forged in Uttaradit Province has the objectives to understand the problems, obstacles, and shoppers’ behavior related to such purchase decision, and to compare the factors underlying the shoppers’ buying choice between swords forged from Namphi iron and those made from industrial steel. The needed information was collected from 400 samples of shoppers of weapon typed swords in Uttaradit Province, using open and close ended questionnaire. The analysis was performed upon the results of descriptive statistics including frequency, percentage, and arithmetic mean, as well as chi-square statistic. From personal background information, the study found that most questionnaire respondents were male, in the age bracket of 31-44 years old, businessmen by occupation, and earning monthly income more than 70,000 baht on the average.
On the part of buying behavior, it was found that most shoppers of weapon typed swords in Uttaradit Province bought swords forged from both Namphi iron and industrial steel and generally bought two Namphi iron swords and five industrial steel swords at the price of 24,628 baht and 8,482 baht each, respectively. Most of them also ordered the swordsmiths to forge the blades and craft the hilts following the traditional and ancient process and design as well as using the central Thai region’s art form. Their decision to buy was in fact a pre-determined consideration after they had got advice and information from weapon typed swords experts and enthusiasts.
Other influential factors included their experience from taking course in Krabi-Krabong (sword and long pole) martial art, the self-study of sword forging process and ancient swords from references, the viewing of movies or plays that have sword fights in the main scenes, the visits to tourism events in the Thai historical theme, the visits to museums that have ancient weapons on display, and the positive attitude toward the significance of weapon typed swords as a collector’s item to represent a Thai identity.
On the study to compare the effect of marketing mix factors on shoppers’ choice, the shoppers were distinguished into three groups: (1) buyers of Namphi swords only, (2) buyers of industrial steel swords only, and (3) buyers of both types of swords. It was found that the factor rated as the most important by all three groups is product in terms of quality and sharpness standards. All three groups also commonly indicated that the price factor was reasonable taking into account the quality of product. The importance of the factor of distribution/place, however, was rated differently among the three groups. Yet, the shop atmosphere compatible with the display and selling of weapon typed swords was regarded as important. Finally for promotion factor, all three groups indicated that the most important attribute was the knowledge and information regarding the product provided by the swordsmiths.
Keyword: Factors, Namphi swordsม industrial steel swords, swords miths, Uttaradit Province
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