Young Kazakhstan consumers: catch them if you can

Rajasekhara Mouly Potluri, George R. Pool III and Saule Madibaeva Tatinbekovna

Rajasekhara Mouly Potluri is Associate Professor, George R. Pool III is Senior Lecturer and Saule Madibaeva Tatinbekovna is a graduate student, all based at the Faculty of Economics and Finance, Department of Economics and Management, Kazak-British Technical University, Almaty, Kazakhstan.

Abstract Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine and evaluate the spending patterns and buying behaviors of two different age groups of young Kazakhstan consumers. In addition, this research seeks to analyze the importance Kazakh parents give to their childrens opinion on purchasing different products. Design/methodology/approach After a thorough revision of related literature on young consumers, the researchers used two types of questionnaires, and in-depth personal interviews with 400 young Kazakhstan consumers in the 10-14 and 15-18 age groups and 100 Kazakh parents. The collected data were summarized, coded, and controlled by using SPSS 13.0 and Microsoft Excel software packages and analyzed by using frequency distribution. Findings Sixty-one percent of the 10-14 and 84 percent of the 15-18 age groups of young Kazakhstan consumers receive weekly pocket money of below 250 Kazakh tenge and above 1,000 tenge, respectively, from parents. Related to spending patterns, 78 percent of 10-14 age group children spend 74 percent of their pocket money for entertainment and food as against 50 percent in the 15-18 age groups. The study found that 90 percent of parents in both the age groups took into account the opinions of their children when purchasing different household products and services. Research limitations/implications The city (Almaty) selected for this study is highly developed culturally, socially and economically when compared with the remaining parts of Kazakhstan. Practical implications The current study sheds light on the buying behavior of young Kazakh consumers along with parents opinions and provides useful information for the corporate world when targeting and communicating with young people. Originality/value The paper offers insights about the complex patterns of youth attitudes in a former Soviet Socialist country which is changing its nature toward a market oriented economy. This is a pioneer work on the buying behaviors of young Kazakh consumers which is additionally useful to the academic world. Keywords Consumer behaviour, Consumers, Kazakhstan, Buying behaviour, Parents, Young adults Paper type Research paper

Introduction
Young consumers in every part of the world are more diverse and fast-changing than any other demographic group. In a competitive marketplace where businesses compete for customers, companies are not in a position to neglect any class of consumers. Every class of consumer is denitely a signicant market opportunity to the present days corporate world. Every marketer in any part of the world has to learn quickly about the changes in young consumers in order to swiftly introduce modications and to introduce a highly creative marketing mix. Understanding young consumers social, cultural, psychological and behavioral nature is important for marketers not only in targeting but also for inuencing parents purchasing decisions. The market segment of young consumers changes the rules of the market due to frequently changing preferences in choosing products and services.

Received May 2009 Revised November 2009 Accepted December 2009

DOI 10.1108/17473611011026000

VOL. 11 NO. 1 2010, pp. 47-56, Q Emerald Group Publishing Limited, ISSN 1747-3616

YOUNG CONSUMERS

PAGE 47

A mere two years and sometimes even less than this is the difference of a generation. In particular young consumers are seen as careless spenders and self-seeking hedonists in the contemporary Western societies. However, growing up as a consumer, youngsters have learned a sense of what is good and what is bad in using of money (Autio, 2004). These unique youngsters features such as careless spending and self-seeking hedonism are spreading throughout the world with great pace because of mass media and the internet on one side; and on another young consumers in every part of the globe are simply just wanting to follow Western culture. One of the reasons why the young are especially studied are young consumers are recognized as a specialized global market segment for a variety of goods and services (Moschis and Moore, 1979). Also, in China for example, compared with older consumers, the younger have more appetite for and will have more consumption experience with Western products, and are more likely to be the potential consumers for Western companies (Anderson and He, 1998). This is not only the situation in China; in most parts of the world, young consumers are showing this kind of tendency towards Western products. This requires much research in order to know the different reasons for this change. Young consumers have an important role in the market place as they exert enormous inuence over allocation of spending power across a growing number of product categories (Gregan-Paxton and John, 1995). Understanding the age at which brand names become important may provide the foundations to better predict the evaluative judgments and purchase decisions made and inuenced by children, as well as the decisions made by those children when they become adults (Hite and Hite, 1994, pp. 185-93). Traditional socialization theory suggests that childhood learning is so prolonged and powerful that the beliefs and attitudes formed during this period persist well into adulthood. Family members, peers, educational institutions, religious institutions, and the mass media each contribute in important ways to this process (Faber and OGuinn, 1988). Lee and Tais (2006) study also concentrated on the investigation of Kazakh consumers attitudes towards multinational rms and western products from a sample of University students older than 18 years of age. In this situation, it is vital to keep up with the latest thinking, research and new advertising and marketing approaches and in order to introduce an up-to-date marketing strategy, the Kazakh corporate sector has to have information about young Kazakh consumers. Therefore, in order to explain Kazakh youngsters buying behavior, it is crucial to understand the spending patterns and buying motives along with the preference they are receiving from their parents while purchasing different products and services. Accordingly, the two important objectives of this research are: 1. To study and evaluate the spending patterns and buying behaviors of two different age groups of young Kazakh consumers. 2. To examine the importance given by the Kazakh parents to their childrens opinion on purchasing different household products and services.

Literature review
Consumers around the world vary tremendously in demographic, cultural, social and psychological characteristics. Because of these inuences, every day they buy a great diversity of goods and services. Even though it is a tricky job, understanding a target markets consumer behavior is an imperative task for every rms marketing manager in order to effectively and swiftly provides the required products and services. Consumer behavior is the study of when, why, how where and what people do or do not buy products (Sandhusen, 2000). It attempts to understand the buyer decision-making process, both individually and in groups. Consumer behavior studies the nature of individual consumers, such as demographics and behavioral variables, in an attempt to understand peoples wants and needs. Belch and Belch (2007, p. 105) dene consumer behavior as the process and activities people engage in when searching for, selecting, purchasing, using, evaluating, and disposing of products and services so as to satisfy their needs and desires. Consumer buyer behavior refers to the buying behavior of nal consumers individuals and households who buy goods and services for personal consumption. All of these nal

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consumers combine to make up the consumer market (Armstrong and Kotler, 2009). Consumer purchases are inuenced strongly by cultural, social, personal, and psychological characteristics. For the most part, marketers cannot control such actors, but they must take them into account. Social factors include small groups of consumers, family, and social roles and status. Family members can strongly inuence buyer behavior. The family is the most important consumer buying organization in society, and it has been researched extensively. Marketers are interested in the roles and the inuence of the husband, wife, and children on the purchase of different products and services. Children may also have a strong inuence on family buying decisions. People change the goods and services they buy over their lifetimes. Tastes in food, clothes, furniture, and recreation are often age related. Buying is also shaped by the stage of the family life cycle the stages through which families might pass as they mature over time. Marketers often dene their target markets in terms of life-cycle stage and develop appropriate products and marketing plans for each stage (Kotler and Armstrong, 2008). Five life-stage segments have been identied (Dragoon, 2005). The Youth segment includes customers younger than 18. Getting started consists of customers aged 18-35 who are going through rst experiences, such as their graduation, rst credit card, rst car, rst loan, marriage, and rst child. Builders, customers aged 35-50, are in their peak earning years. As they build careers and family, they tend to borrow more than they invest. Accumulators, aged 50-60, worry about saving for retirement and investing wisely. Finally, Preservers, customers over 60, want to maximize their retirement income to maintain a desired lifestyle. The above segmentation is based on age, and the most promising segment is youth to every marketer in the world because of their unique life-style. Age is one of the useful demographic variables in global marketing. One segment found world-wide based on demographics is global teens, young people between the ages of 12 and 19. Teens, by virtue of their shared interest in fashion, music, and a youthful lifestyle, exhibit consumption behavior that is remarkably consistent across borders. This segment is attractive both in terms of its size and its multi-billion-dollar purchasing power (Keegan and Green, 2008). In the marketing literature youth culture has been held up as the prototypical example of a global segment. Global teens from New York, Tokyo, Hong Kong, to those from Paris, London, and Seoul share memorable experiences (through television, international education, and frequent travel) which are reected in their consumption behavior. The teenage culture on a global scale shares a youthful lifestyle that values growth and learning with appreciation for future trends, fashion and music (Hassan and Katsanis, 1991). The basis for the excitement about the youth segment (under various names such as the teen segment, Generation X culture, baby busters, the MTV Generation etc.) largely stems from the allegedly uniform consumption habits of young people all over the world their clothing, music tastes, and media habits. This leads towards the conclusion that young people have shared habitats of meaning (Hannerz, 1996) and that we are therefore able to speak of a global youth segment. However, in the discursive construction of the global youth segment, the role the local spaces in which young people conduct their everyday life is largely ignored the role of the local, in relation to identity and consumption, is in one sense hidden. As globalization is creating an explosion of products and images for young consumers to choose from, and as modernist identity projects of unity and progress break down, one is left with questions of how young consumers construct meaningful identities and how strategies of identity may be evoked as lifestyles and sub-cultural fragment (Firat, 1997; Firat and Schultz, 1997). Ziehe (1992) and Melucci (1992) propose that the notion of youth cultures traditionally analyzed as spectacular subcultures does not make sense anymore. First of all, the notion of being young has come to encompass not only the empirically young but also the culturally young (Ziehe, 1992); Secondly, innovations (new subcultures) are instantaneously incorporated into the market as trends and styles from the young are captured through trend-spotters etc. The combination of global consumption scales and instantaneous incorporation of styles by the market means that the young (as other consumers) are faced with a plurality of styles from which they can choose in the construction of their own lifestyle (Miles, 1999; Giddens, 1991). As noted by Lukose (2005, p. 915), a short-hand way to mark the advent and impact of globalization is to point to the

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evidence of global youth consuming practices. For marketers and consumers alike, such signs of a global youth culture are all too readily treated as obvious evidence of a homogenized group of consumers. Authors conceptualize global youth culture as a manifestation of a transnational, market-based ideology that is manifested through a dialectic between structures of common difference (Wilk, 1995) and the adaptation and objectication of these structures in local contexts, or what Robertson (1992) terms glocalization. This market ideology serves to cast consumers in certain ways that give rise to certain similarities in their consumption patterns. Youth culture as an ideological phenomenon hence emerges from the development of Western modernity and the growing sophistication of advertising and market-segmentation strategies and now looms quite large in the cultural landscapes of the global cultural economy. The dominant dimensions of this ideology are identity, style, and cultural innovation (Appadurai, 1990). Most of the domestic and multi-national companies in every part of the world have evidently observed the homogeneous nature of young people purchasing and their consumption patterns and have introduced glocalization of their products and services with distinctive marketing strategies. The world corporate sector is one innovative source for the young world to get information, learn and follow new ways of living styles. Here the researchers observed that reciprocal exchange of information leads to getting products and services to meet the exact needs, wants and aspirations of the market. Earlier, marketers faced severe problems in getting information from the markets, but in recent years the situation changed drastically and consumers in general and young consumers in particular are frankly expressing their opinions, interests and suggestions to the marketers which facilitate change and creation of a distinctive marketing mix. Kazakhstan and young consumers Kazakhstan, ofcially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a large Eurasian country which is located in Central Asia, northwest of China; a small portion west of the Ural River in eastern-most Europe (http://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/kz. html). It is the ninth largest country in the world as well as the worlds largest landlocked country. Kazakhstan declared itself an independent country on December 16, 1991, the last Soviet Republic to do so. Its communist-era leader, H.E. Nursultan Nazarbayev, became the countrys new President. It is now considered to be the dominant state in Central Asia. The ofcial language is Kazakh, though Russian is still commonly used for everyday communication (Kazakhstan, 2009). As on 1 January, 2008, of the total population of 15.57 million, 1.24 million are in the age group of 10-14 and another 1.51 million are in the age group of 15-18. Nearly 17.66 percent of the population in Kazakhstan is young people in the selected age groups of 10-14 and 15-18 (The Agency of Statistics of the Republic of Kazakhstan, 2009). Nearly one third of the population is young people in the age of teens and twenties (kaz tube, 2009). The terms young people or young consumers or youngsters are used when referring to different groups of young consumers in the context of this paper. The groups of young consumers targeted in this paper include children or teenagers aged 10-14 and young adults aged 15-18. These two groups of young consumers with their novel patterns are changing the rules of the market in most parts of the world and there is no exception in the Kazakhstan market where we are clearly seeing the change and inuence of young consumers purchasing and consumption patterns. The basis for this exciting study stems from the unique changing lifestyles of Kazakh young people their working styles, new hobbies, hasty but careful shopping, interest in adventure sports, recreation and social events, changing food habits, dress styles, music tastes, importance to family activities and heavy usage of internet, communication and electronic devices, etc. The attitudinal changes in young couples who have a maximum of one or two children can explain the increase of disposable amount for these children. Earlier, with four or ve children, couples failed to allot signicant amounts of money except for basic necessities for their children and at the same time they never gave any importance to their childrens opinions or interests in purchasing any products or services. Now the situation has changed. Another important factor is that in a family of one or two children they receive pocket money from both grandparents as well as

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parents. All these reasons explain the increase in purchasing capacity of young people along with their preferences and opinions being taken into account when purchasing different products and services. Based on the above discussion, we have developed the following hypotheses: H1. H2. H3. There is a relationship between the amount of pocket money received and the spending patterns of young consumers. There is a connection between spending patterns of both the age groups. There is an association between young consumers proposals and parents purchasing decision.

Methodology
The main objective of the research was to examine and evaluate the buying behaviors of the 10-14 years and 15-18 years age groups of young Kazakhstan consumers. Apart from this, the researchers also tried to nd out the importance given by the Kazakh parents to their childrens opinion on purchasing different products. The researchers used two types of questionnaires and in-depth personal interviews to collect the information from the sample of 200 young Kazakh consumers from each age group as well as 100 parents. These questionnaires were developed based on the research objective and in order to test the selected hypothesis. Questionnaires were originally developed in English and then translated into the local languages of Kazakh and Russian. Along with the questionnaires, the researchers also used structured personal interviews with predetermined, open ended questions to get additional information from both the youngsters and their parents. The study population was young Kazakh consumers living in and around Kazakhstans highly developed city of Almaty. Convenience sampling technique was used to make the data collection more manageable with a sample of 200 each from the age groups of 10-14 years and 15-18 years. Furthermore, the researchers selected a sample of 100 Kazakh parents to obtain information on the preferences they gave to their childrens opinions. Questionnaires were given only to willing young people as well as parents, and collected then and there. The researchers succeeded in collecting all completed questionnaires from the respondents. The study was supplemented by secondary data obtained from books, journals, magazines, the internet and other documents. Collected data was analyzed based on frequency distributions and the understanding and judgments of the researchers. In order to generalize about the buying behaviors and spending patterns of Kazakh young consumers in both the age groups, the researchers selected the sample of 400. Hence, a deductive approach was followed to test the selected three hypotheses. The collected data were summarized, coded, and manipulated by using Statistical Package for Social Scientists (SPSS) and Microsoft Excel.

Analysis and discussion

This part of the research paper deals with the ndings and discussion based on the analysis of the data collected with the instruments of questionnaires, and personal interviews from both the age groups of young Kazakh consumers as well as parents. From Table I it can be seen that of 200 respondents in the age group of 10-14 years, 61 percent of young people in Kazakhstan are receiving below 250 tenge as pocket money from their parents; 28 percent of people are being paid between 250-500 tenge and only 11 percent of youngsters are in receipt of more than 500 tenge per week. In the age group of 15-18 years, 84 percent of young people are getting more than 1000 tenge per week as pocket money from their parents. At the time of personal interviews, most of the respondents in both the age groups told about the variations in the amount they are receiving as pocket money whenever grandparents are visiting and parents also ready to give some more money based on valid reasons. These two age groups of young consumers talk about one thing: if

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Table I Amount of pocket money received each week by Kazakh young people
10-14 age group Amount of pocket money Percentage of children received in total Kazakh tenge ($) n 200 ,250 250-500 500-750 ,1.68 1.68-3.36 3.36-5.05 61 28 11 15-18 age group Amount of pocket money Percentage of children received in total Kazakh tenge ($) n 200 500-750 750-1,000 .1,000 3.36-5.05 5.05-6.73 .6.73 6 10 84

they receive more pocket money either from parents or grandparents that leads to more spending on their part. This provides support for H1 concerning the relationship between the amount of pocket money received and the spending patterns of young consumers. From Table II it can be seen that there is a clear difference of spending of pocket money on the selected elements for the study namely entertainment, food, education related, cell phone and internet, and personal items like dresses, shoes, and cosmetics, etc. Out of 200 respondents in the age group of 10-14, 33 percent of youngsters are spending 24 percent of their pocket money on the purchase of entertainment and related goods and services like video games, music CDs and movie DVDs, adventure sport items, comic books etc. as against 22 percent of children in the age group of 15-18 who are spending only 20 percent on entertainment. Related to the expenditure on food and beverages, 45 percent of the 10-14 age group people are allocating 50 percent of their pocket money as against the portion of only 30 percent of pocket money by the 29 percent of the 15-18 age group youngsters. Only 14 percent of the selected sample of 200 in the age group of 10-14 is showing their interest to purchase education related products with their 20 percent of pocket money. At the same time, in the age group of 15-18, 22 percent of youngsters are allocating 25 percent of their pocket money on education related goods. Connected to the cell phone and internet service expenses, only 8 percent each in both the age groups are just segregating 6 and 10 percent respectively of their pocket money. Finally, 19 percent of youngsters in the age group of 15-18 are spending only 15 percent of their pocket money on personal items like dresses, shoes, cosmetics, sun glasses, etc. Surprisingly, the Kazakh youngsters in the age group of 10-14 are strongly reporting that arranging all the personal items is the responsibility of parents. The above statistics as well as the explanations conrmed that there is no relation between the spending patterns of both the age groups selected for the study providing no support for H2 is proved invalid. In the selected sample of 200 each in the age groups of 10-14 years and 15-18 years in Table III, 67 percent and 58 percent respectively of young Kazakh consumers consider quality as the prime concern while purchasing goods and services. At the time of personal interviews, these two age groups of youngsters accepted the fact of failing to measure and judge the quality of a product or service as they sometimes take the advice and support of parents, grandparents, friends, etc. Only 11 percent in the age group of 10-14 and 10 percent in the age group of 15-18 bear in mind the price of a product or service as a prime concern. Connected to the design and features of products and services, 17 percent and 20 Table II Spending patterns of young Kazakh consumers
10-14 age group Percentage Percentage of children of spending 33 45 14 08 00 24 50 20 06 00 15-18 age group Percentage Percentage of children of spending 22 29 22 08 19 20 30 25 10 15

Spending element 1. Entertainment 2. Food and beverages 3. Education and and related items 4. Cell phones and and internet 5. Personal items

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Table III Buying motives of young Kazakh consumers

Buying motive 1. Quality is primary factor Quality is secondary factor 2. Price is primary factor Price is secondary factor 3. Design and features is primary factor Design and features is secondary factor 4. Brand is primary factor Brand is secondary factor 5. Latest technology is primary factor Latest technology is secondary factor Percentage of children 10-14 age group 15-18 age group 67 00 11 22 17 17 00 00 06 00 58 20 10 20 20 23 03 10 03 03

percent of the Kazakh youngsters give preference based on this factor respectively while purchasing in the selected two age groups. Surprisingly, the 10-14 age group of youngsters do not show any liking for brands and brand image and only 3 percent of young people in the age group of 15-18 and another 10 percent of this age group gave secondary importance to the brands of products and services. Related to the latest technology, only 6 percent and 3 percent of the Kazakh young people in the selected 10-14 and 15-18 age groups respectively considered that as a major buying motive (see Table IV). We also tried to discover the opinions of Kazakh young consumers about whether their parents considered their opinions when purchasing different household products and services. Eighty three percent of youngsters in the age group of 10-14 and 81 percent in the age group of 15-18 have reacted positively about the preference given by their parents in purchasing different household products and services. Only 17 and 19 percent of young consumers in the selected age groups for the study said that casually parents were collecting opinions, but they would not give any preference to their opinion in the nal purchase of products and services. We also attempted to nd out the views of young Kazakh consumers savings, information gathering sources, sources of inuence for their purchasing decision, and intelligence levels in spending and giving advice to parents, etc. through this research. Related to savings habits, 78 percent in the age group of 10-14 and a meagre 45 percent in the age group of 15-18 of young people are allocating some amounts of their pocket money to savings. Only 22 percent in the age group of 10-14 and 55 percent in the age group of 15-18 are spending their entire amount of pocket money on different items. At the same time, 71 percent in the age group of 10-14 and 50 percent in the age group of 15-18 are using their personal conventional sources like kiddy bank toys, books and racks, or some other hiding places in homes etc. to accumulate savings. Only 29 percent in the age group of 10-14 and 50 percent in the age group of 15-18 use banks as the place to save. Turning now to sources of information about products and services, 33 percent in the age group of 10-14 and 26 percent in the age group of 15-18 rely on broadcast media whereas another 17 percent and 16 percent in the selected two age groups use the internet. Another 17 percent in the age group of 10-14 and 39 percent in the age group of 15-18 use the advice of relatives, parents and friends as a major source of information. Thirty three percent and 19 percent in the age groups of 10-14 and 15-18 are opting for multiple sources mainly the Internet, broadcast media and print media as a source of information about products and services. Table IV Kazakh youngsters attitude to considering their opinion by parents
Youngsters opinion 1. Positive (parents are considering) 2. Negative (parents are not considering) Percentage of youngsters 10-14 age group 15-18 age group 83 17 81 19

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Concerning sources of inuence, 83 percent and 84 percent in the selected two age groups of young consumers in Kazakhstan take the nal purchasing decision based on word of mouth from their circle of friends as well as parents. Only 6 percent and 16 percent in the age groups of 10-14 and 15-18 rely on the inuence of celebrities like sports, movie stars and musicians. We used another questionnaire for parents where they collected the information related to the amount of pocket money they are giving, monitoring and inuencing children spending activity, purchase decision, advising on buying motives and nally preference given by the parents to their childrens opinion on purchasing household products and services. Out of the selected sample of 100 parents, 69 percent gave below 250 tenge, 17 percent between 250-500 tenge, whereas only 14 percent gave more than 500 tenge as pocket money per week to the age group of 10-14 youngsters in Kazakhstan. For the age group of 15-18, 10 percent of parents gave below 750 tenge, 18 percent between 750-1000 tenge and 64 percent more than 1000 tenge per week. Eight percent of Kazakh youngsters in the age group of 15-18 earned money by doing part-time jobs. Only 64 percent and 36 percent of Kazakh parents monitored their childrens spending activity in the age groups of 10-14 and 15-18. Seventy three and 56 percent of parents for the childrens age groups of 10-14 and 15-18, respectively, condently inuence their childrens purchasing decision by highlighting the importance of product quality and price factors. Only 27 percent of parents in the age group of 10-14 and 36 percent of parents in the age group of 15-18 do not inuence their childrens purchasing decision. Concerning the preference given by parents to their childrens opinion while purchasing different products and services, 90 percent of parents who have children in the age groups of 10-14 years and 15-18 years reacted positively and strongly and said that only after careful consideration of the childrens opinions would the nal decision on purchasing be made. More than 80 percent of Kazakh young consumers in both the age categories also expressed the same kind of opinion on their parents preference. Thus, there is a strong relationship between childrens opinions and parents purchasing decision. Put together, the ndings related to the opinions of Kazakh young people as well as their parents, support our hypothesis 3 that there is an association between young consumers proposals and parents purchasing decision.

Practical implications
The present study provides insights for Kazakhstan marketers and also for academics to understand the key spending and buying motives of young Kazakhstan consumers. This research provides the information about the views of two age groups of 10-14 years and 15-18 years on spending patterns, buying motives and most importantly the preference they get from parents in making purchase decision on household products which are essential to both Kazakh domestic as well as multi-national companies. Based on these ndings there will be a great opportunity to assess existing marketing strategies to effectively target the Kazakhstan market. For instance, the entertainment, food, beverages and soft drinks related industries receive maximum spending from the Kazakh young consumers which requires frequent evaluation, and upgrading of offerings and services. The researchers identied quality and price as major buying motives in young consumers, and marketers should introduce competing quality with challenging price structures for a successful business. For communicating product and services information, it would be better for marketers print, broadcast and internet media as major communication vehicles as identied by the researchers. Most of the youngsters purchase decisions are inuenced by personal interactions with friends which opens the possibility of viral marketing technique from the Kazakh corporate sector. More than 90 percent of parents are giving preference to their childrens opinions; it is a wise strategy to target the communication mix elements to inuence young consumers through the opted media for this segment. Concerning savings, the majority of young consumers select some conventional places for their savings. This is a major business opportunity for countrys banking industry to enter the market in savings for this vast market segment of young consumers. This study, therefore, suggests that it is very

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important for marketing managers to know and to have the information about the spending patterns, buying motives, saving habits, information gathering sources, sources of inuence for their purchasing decision, and intelligence levels in spending and giving advice to parents, and so on, by the approximate 2.75 million young Kazakh consumers. The results of this survey are investigative in nature and should be tested and reviewed with further research studies because of the continually changing nature of young consumers. Application of these survey results in other segments will require additional research with different sample groups and size. In conclusion, this study was limited to the responses of young consumers only in the age groups of 10-14 years and 15-18 years who live in Almaty city.

Conclusion
Understanding consumer behavior in general and young consumer behavior in particular an important task. The ndings presented in this study provide valuable information like spending patterns, buying motives, media choices, saving habits and the preference young consumers have received from parents which are most important to the business community in this part of the world. The Kazakhstan corporate sector has a great opportunity to assess their existing marketing strategies by introducing modications if necessary to meet the needs of consumers. As an emerging direct market segment, young consumers in most parts of the world by showing their unique pattern of spending and buying habits are challenging the business community throughout the world. In this juncture, the implementation of these research ndings provides a useful base of a guaranteed viable market segment for Kazakhstan marketers.

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Rajasekhara Mouly Potluri can be contacted at: prmouly@yahoo.co.in; prmouly24@ gmail.com

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