Rural Brand Awareness and Preferences for FMCGs: An Empirical Study on Keonjhar District of Odisha, India

Abstract

The rural market has been growing steadily over the years and is now bigger than the urban market for FMCGs but their lies a great state wise disparity in India in terms of consumption pattern. Though Odisha's economy is expanding through sectoral shifts from agriculture to industry to service but in terms of per capita expenditure, rural Odisha remains one of the poorest states which is only at Rs. 904.78 1 . Consumers brand preferences represent a fundamental step in understanding consumer behaviour. A deeper understanding of such preference can help marketers' better design marketing program and build a long term relationship with consumers. This warrants an empirical study for such specific rural pockets to help marketers improvise the dynamics of segmentation and marketing mix variables to capitalize their efforts to the fullest in rural markets. The basic purpose of this paper was to explore the rural consumer buying behavior through brand awareness and influence of demographic factors on brand preference .This paper was based on primary as well as secondary data. The sampling regions included one of the rural district of Odisha viz, Keonjhar. The results indicated that there were statistical relationships between age, gender, family type and education with brand preference. However, there was no statistical relationship between occupation and annual income with the brand preference. Thus age, gender, family type and education only had statistical relationship with the brand preference of rural consumers in the Keonjhar district of Odisha. Key Word: Rural, FMCGs, Bathing Soap, Demography, Brand Awareness, Brand Preference