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in Opinion: International Journal of Management 8

ISSN: 2277-4637 (Online) | ISSN: 2231-5470 (Print) Opinion Vol. 3, No. 1, June 2013
Brand Awareness Among Consumers on
Daily Consuming Goods
Sweety Gupta*
Manpreet Kaur**
ABSTRACT
The rural population in India accounts for around
627 million, which is exactly 74.3 percent of the total
population. The rural market in India brings in
bigger revenues in the country, as the rural regions
comprise of the maximum consumers in this country.
The rural market in Indian economy generates
almost more than half of the countrys income. The
purpose of the paper is to examine the brand
awareness in rural area and to study the attitude of
consumer in branded products of Daily Consumption
Goods .The brand awareness is showing increasing
trend everywhere and Jagraon Region of Punjab
State is not an exception to it. To examine the validity
of this general statement that is being discussed day
in and day out by the researcher, market managers,
producers, consumers, advertisers, etc., Research
Paper on brand awareness in rural area on Daily
Consumption Goods in Jagraon Region of Punjab
is taken up. The paper throws light on behavior of
rural consumers regarding brands of daily
consuming goods.
Keywords: Attitude, Brand Awareness, Daily
Consumption Goods, Rural Area.
I. INTRODUCTION
India is a mixed economy a proper mix of urban as well
as of rural market. Rural markets are an important and
growing market. The rural market in India is not a
separate entity in itself and it is highly influenced by the
sociological and behavioral factors operating in the
country. Management Guru Mr.C.K Pralhads thought
fortune lies at the bottom of the pyramid is very true
when it comes to exploring the rural markets and
grabbing an opportunity to expand the market. Rural
markets offer vast growth opportunities like untapped
market, large population, and huge scope for penetration
etc, at the same time these markets poses some
challenges also. Urban market is almost reaching
towards the saturation point, thus there is an urgent need
to focus on rural development. Moreover, more than
70% of Indias population lives in villages and
constitutions a big market for industry because there is
an increase in the income and awareness level. In
comparison to just 5,161 towns in India there are 6,
38,365 villages in India. This in itself is an indicator where
the real India resides. Companies are realizing slowly
but surely that the key to gain true market leadership
lies in tapping the rural potential.
The Daily Consumption Goods sector is a corner
stone of the Indian economy. This sector touches every
*,**Asst. Professor, Commerce Department, LRDAV Collage, Jagraon
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ISSN: 2277-4637 (Online) | ISSN: 2231-5470 (Print) Opinion Vol. 3, No. 1, June 2013
aspect of human life. The daily consumption goods
producers have realized that there is ample opportunity
for them to enter into the rural market. Today we notice
this shift towards branded daily consumption goods in
rural areas as a result of Socioeconomics & Political
changes in the last 5 years. This has made rural areas
more viable markets even compared to urban areas.
The Socio Economic and Political changes contributed
to a great extent for changes in the lifestyles of
countryside people who patronized branded daily
consumption products. The different Government
policies are also being helpful for rural people contributed
in enhancing peoples income followed by a change in
their lifestyles resulted in patronizing the branded
products.
According to the National Council of Applied
Economic Research (NCAER) about 70 per cent of
Indian population living in villages, India has perhaps
the largest potential rural market in the world. It has as
many as47, 000 haats (congregation markets),
compared to 35,000 supermarkets in the US. And of
the total FMCGs demand in India, nearly 53 per cent
comes from the rural market. At present Indian FMCG
sector is worth Rs.1300 billion and expected to be
around a whopping value of Rs. 4000 to Rs. 6000 billion
by 2020.
II. REVIEW OF LITERATURE
The two important measure of brand awareness
is brand recognition and recall. (Hoyer and
Brown, in 1990,)Kapferer, in 1988 says top
of mind awareness is critical as it captures the
consideration set in a given purchase situation.
(Laurent, Kapferer and Roussel, 1995) Study
on recall of pictorial advertisements as compared
to non-pictorial advertisements indicate how much
more effective they are rural consumers as
compared to urban consumers. (Velayudhan,
2002) In some studies, brand preference has been
equated with brand loyalty (e.g., Rundle-Thiele
and Mackay 2001).
In other studies, it has been evaluated as a
precursor to brand loyalty (e.g., Odin et al. 2001).
Ben-Akiva et al. (1999) define preferences as
comparative judgments between entities.
Additional reasons (other than promotions) why
consumers may purchase other brands despite a
stated brand preference include a desire to try and
learn more about different brands in the category;
changing needs or situations; variety seeking; and
changes in the available alternatives due to new
products or improvements to existing products
(Coulter et al. 2003).
Alba and Hutchison (1987) propose that experts
are more likely to search for new information
because (a) expertise increases awareness of the
existence of potentially acquirable information and
(b) familiarity reduces the cost of information
acquisition.
Schmidt and Spreng (1996) further postulate
that knowledge increases the perceived ability to
search and therefore should decrease the
perceived costs of search. Greater knowledge has
been shown to be positively related to increased
involvement with a category (e.g., Raju et al.
1995).
Dunn et al. (1978) viewed advertising from its
functional perspectives; Morden (1991) is of the
opinion that advertising is used to establish a basic
awareness of the product. Those views of Etzel
et al. (1997) coincide with the simple but all-
embracing definitions of Davies (1998) and Arens
(1996). Aaker (2000) regarded brand awareness
as a remarkably durable and sustainable asset.
Yee and Young (2001), aimed to create
awareness of high fat content of pies, studied
consumer and producer awareness about nutrition
labeling on packaging.
Chen (2001) expressed a different thought on
brand awareness that it was a necessary asset but
not sufficient for building strong brand equity.
Beverland (2001) analyzed the level of brand
awareness within the New Zealand market for
zespri kiwi fruit.
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III. OBJECTIVES OF RESEARCH PAPER
The objective of the study is to understand the buying
behavior of the rural consumer towards daily
consumption goods. For this, the objectives of the
Research Work are as under:
To study the perception of the rural consumer
towards daily consumption goods.
To examine the brand preference and awareness
of rural consumer towards daily consumption
goods.
To study the attributes of brand preference.
To know the reasons for preferring branded
products in rural areas.
IV. NEED OF THE STUDY
Daily consumption goods are used to enhance and
protect the health and physical appearance and also the
dignity of the people among their counterparts. The
spending on daily consumption goods especially in the
rural areas is showing an increasing tendency in the last
5 years. This is due to increase in income levels,
fascination towards urban culture, good connectivity to
near- by towns & cities, improvement in sanitary
conditions, beauty awareness among teenagers of rural
areas emulating their counterparts in the urban areas
led to the increased usage of daily consumption goods
particularly beauty & health care products in this region.
With this backdrop the brand awareness in rural areas
with reference to daily consumption goods is thought
of. The study is confined only to Jagraon and near villages
of Punjab State. It is believed that the findings in this
region are fairly representative of the other parts of the
State and the lifestyle & other parameters are not much
different from what exist in the area of survey.
V. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The methodology of the study is based on the primary
as well as secondary data. The study depends mainly
on the primary data collected through a well-framed
and structured questionnaire to elicit the well-considered
opinions of the respondents. The study is confined to 4
villages of jagraon region of Ludhiana district. Jagraon
Region of Punjab State is basically a rural oriented region
and about 70 percent of population living in villages.
Due to financial constraints 4 villages of Ludhiana district
namely Sidhwan Bet, Sherpur, Sudhar, Hathoor are
chosen for survey by adopting simple random sampling
technique. In all 100 respondents are chosen from
different age groups classifying them on the basis of
literacy with the help of structured & unstructured
interviews & discussions with these respondents the
information for this survey is gathered.
VI. LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY
Following are some limitations of this study:
Firstly, the research work covers only 4 villages
of Ludhiana district.
Secondly, the respondents dont want to disclose
their personal information
Thirdly, the sample size do not ensure
representative and conclusive finding and finally,
a more detailed study is needed to reach a strong
conclusion.
VII. FINDING & INTERPRETATIONS
7.1 Demographic profile of respondents
7.1 Demographic profile of respondents
Details Frequency (N) Percentage (%)
Gender
Male 50 50%
Female 50 50%
Annual income
Less than 1,00,000 25 25%
1,00,000-2,00,000 21 21%
2,00,000-3,00,000 14 14%
Dependent 40 40%
Types of product prefers
Prefer brand 27 27%
Prefer non brand 33 33%
Prefer quality of product
over brand 40 40%
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7.2 Brand awareness in rural market
7.2 Brand awareness in rural market
Tea (%) Soap (%) Toothpaste (%) Shampoo (%)
Tata Tea 53 Dettol 73 Colgate 73 Dove 53
Red Label 62 Dove 70 Close- Up 68 Sunsilk 60
Taj Mahal 45 No 1 40 Pepsodent 60 Pantene 70
Taaza 65 Lux 68 Miswak 40 Garnier 75
Brook Bond 35 Lifeboy 75 Sensodine 45 Vatika 40
Average 52 Average 65 Average 57 Average 60
Interpretation
It has been concluded from the above table that the
average awareness of the respondents in the rural market
is 52% in case of tea, 65% in case of soap, 57% in
case of toothpaste and 60% average awareness in case
of shampoo.
7.5
Interpretation
From the above table and pie-chart it can be concluded
that respondents mostly become aware from the
television as it is on 1
st
rank in the sources of awareness.
Advertisement and Friends are on 2
nd
and 3
rd
rank and
Internet is on 4
th
rank. The awareness through television
is 45% , 25% by advertisement,20% by friends
and10%by internet
7.3 Brand preference in rural market
7.3 Brand preference in rural market
Tea Soap Toothpaste Shampoo
category Wt.Sc-ore Rank category Wt.Sc-ore Rank category Wt.Sc-ore Rank category Wt.Sc-ore Rank
Tata Tea 8.4 1 Dettol 7.53 1 Close-Up 7.76 1 Sunsilk 11.8 1
Taj Mahal 7.9 2 Lux 7.33 2 Pepsodent 7.26 2 Dove 8.3 2
Red Label 7.6 3 Dove 6.4 3 Colgate 6.42 3 Pantene 8.16 3
Taaza 6.33 4 Life buoy 5.8 4 Sensodine 6.21 4 Garnier 7.45 4
Interpretation
It can be concluded from the above table that in case of
tea category Tata tea is given 1
st
rank, Taj Mahal is on
2
nd
rank, 3
rd
rank is given to the Red Label and 4
th
rank
is given to Taaza by the respondents. In case of soap
1
st
, 2
nd
, 3rd, 4
th
ranks are given to the Dettol, Lux, Dove,
and Lifebuoy respectively. In case of toothpaste
respondents give 1
st
rank to Close-up, 2
nd
to Pepsodent,
3
rd
to Colgate, 4
th
to Sensodine. In case of shampoo 1
st
rank is given to the Sunsilk, 2
nd
is given to the Dove, 3
rd
to the Pantene, 4
th
to the Garnier.
7.4 SOURCES OF BRAND PREFERENCE
7.4 Source of Brand Preference
Factors Percentage (%) Rank
Television 45 1
Friends 25 2
Advertisement 20 3
Internet 10 4
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ISSN: 2277-4637 (Online) | ISSN: 2231-5470 (Print) Opinion Vol. 3, No. 1, June 2013
VIII. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
Results of the study are given as follows:
The average awareness of the respondents in the
rural market is 52%, 65%, 57%, 67%. In case of
tea, soap, toothpaste respectively this shows that
people in the rural areas have an average
awareness about most of the products available
in the market.
In case of Tea respondents give the 1
st
rank to
Tata Tea, 2
nd
to Taj Mahal, 3
rd
to Red Label, 4
th
to Taaza. In case of soap 1
st
, 2
nd
, 3
rd
, 4
th
ranks
are given to the Dettol, Lux, Dove and Lifeboy
respectively. .In case of shampoo 1
st
rank is given
to the Sunsilk, 2
nd
is given to the Dove, 3
rd
to the
Pantene, 4
th
to the Garnier. In case of toothpaste
respondents give 1
st
rank to Close-up, 2
nd
to
Pepsodent, 3
rd
to Colgate, 4
th
to Sensodine.
As far as the sources from which the respondents
became aware can be ranked as 1
st
to Television,
2
nd
to Advertisement, 3
rd
to friends and 4
th
to the
internet as most of the people are not aware to
the use of internet.
It is clear from the above study that respondents
of different gender groups have different attitude
towards the various brand products.
Income factor greatly influences the demand for
branded products, as clear from the study the
dependents are more aware and conscious about
the brand of their daily consumption goods.
IX. CONCLUSION
A study was conducted to see the awareness of brands
of various daily consumption goods and their usage in
rural areas. There is an increasing trend among the
people of rural areas about the awareness of various
brands of the daily consumption goods. As people of
rural areas are becoming more conscious about their
health and other aspects of life.They assume branded
products as quality products which are good for their
health and for beauty aspect etc. even they are ready to
pay high prices for the branded products. They use
branded daily consumption for their own reasons. The
main reason is they assume the branded products as a
status symbol.This change in the attitude of rural people
to spend more on the highly priced daily consumption
branded products (Example: Dove Soap, Dove
Shampoo) shows the tendency of new markets available
for suppliers of the various branded products. The need
of the hour is only to make aware the rural customers
regarding the brand availability of daily consumption
goods by educating them about the need to the use of
branded products.
X. REFERENCES
1 Hoyer, W.D. & Brown, S. P. (2004)
2 Keller, K. L., Heckler, S. E. Heckler & Houston,
M.J. (1998)
3 Laurent, G., Kapferer, J. N. & Roussel, F. (1987)
Philip kotler , Koshy , Jha Marketing
management.
4 Michael J. Zenor :The profit benefits (1994)
5 Official website of Rural marketing Association
in India
6 Rao, S. L. (2001). The Rise and fall of Fast
Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG)-A
Marketing Story.
7 The journal of consumer research 17(2), 141-
148.
8 William G .Zikmund: Business Research Methods
9 www.socialsciences.com