THE BORROWING MOTIVES: A STUDY AMONG RETAIL CREDIT CUSTOMERS OF DIFFERENT LIFE CYCLE SEGMENTS

The needs of people vary in different stages of family life cycle. Thus segmentation based on family life cycle stage play a important role in devising marketing strategy to target the consumers with specialized products. Retail banking service marketing is not an exception because people consume different retail products in different stages to accomplish objectives of their lives. As competition among bankers is very tough to attract retail customers in the wake of financial sector reforms, segmenting, targeting and positioning have become indispensable. Life cycle is an appropriate basis for segmenting retail banking consumers, since availing of type of retail credit differs while people pass through various stages of family lifecycle. This study has collected information from 895 retail credit customers and analyzed the relationship between motives of borrowing credit and segments based on family life cycle. The findings reveal the significant associations of motives with life cycle stage