Consumer lifestyles and ecological behavior: A study of car buyers in India

Environmental issues have gauged the attention of marketers and researchers all around the world. Automobile industry has a major environmental impact due to fuel consumption and emissions. A threadbare understanding of the automobile buyer is necessary to better connect with consumers with changing lifestyles, attitudes, and personalities, basically to cater to their sensibilities and psyche, gradually accommodating contemporary environmental viewpoints. Marketers have religiously focused upon studying the car buying behavior and its links with lifestyles. The present study aims to offer a preview of the relationship between lifestyles and ecological behavior among urban car consumers in an emerging economy like India. The findings of the study suggest factors like need for achievement, need for uniqueness, price consciousness, and need for status affect the ecological behavior of the Indian car buyers.