To explore the purchase intentions of magical and religious amuets in Thailand 2019.

Abstract

The Thai amulet market amounts to $1.26 billion US dollars annually, however there is not much research done to identify the factors leading to its purchase. This exploratory research is to determine the factors towards intention to buy on sacred/ religious amulets by both quantitative and qualitative methods. There were 8 initial factors: belief, aesthetic pleasure, perceived uncertainty, perceived trust, brand image, word-of-mouth, electronic word-of-mouth, and intention to buy. 386 respondents were gathered by a quantitative online survey, three amulet sellers and three amulet buyers were also interviewed. After factor reduction, SPSS finalized 6 components. Results from linear regression showed that two out of six components which are personal belief and preference, and future concerns are significant at .000 and .006, with -36.6% and -13.9% respectively. Meaning that there is a negative correlation between these two factors and intention to buy. Results from the qualitative interview show consensus that customers mentioned the factor of friends and families can greatly influence them to buy. Sellers agree that investment, fashion, beliefs, and the amulet’s power are factors that can drive purchases. Despite this discovery, there is not enough information to make clear conclusions and more research should be done to identify clear positive factors towards the intention to buy amulets.