A Research on Marketing and Consumer Habits in Konya Jewelry Sector

Abstract

More than 50 percent of the world's gold production and more than 90 percent in our country are used in jewelry making. Gold, which has been used for decoration and investment instrument for centuries, continues to be demanded by the people of our country in order to both decorate and saving with a habit stemming from our traditions. Turkey’s jewelry sector, which is in the top 5 in the world gold demand and ranked 2nd in gold jewelry exports, currently has 5500 jewelry shops, 20 large jewelry production complexes, 100 wholesale jewelry stores, 40 thousand jewelry shops and 250 thousand employees work in this sector. Jewelry sector has produced for many years with manual labor. Today, the sector has to keep up with the transition to technology-intensive production in order to operate in the world markets and to meet the increasing export demand. The problems of the sector, which has come to a certain place in the world markets and strives for first place, are dealing with greater attention than before. After 1990, the sector was put into a reform process. Necessary institutions for the development of the sector have been put into operation. On the other hand, the development of this industry; While it manifests itself in issues such as branding, product design, technological innovations, marketing strategies, deficiencies in legal regulations damage especially the small-scale jewelry traders. In this study, luxury consumption and hedonic shopping habits are examined by searching literature. In this respect, the phenomenon of consumption was first examined in detail. In the second part, the jewelry sector was explained in all aspects, and then a research was conducted on the consumer habits and the state of the sector with the support of the Konya Jewelers Association.