A STUDY ON BUYING BEHAVIOUR OF RURAL AND URBAN CONSUMERS TOWARDS BRANDED FOOD PRODUCTS
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Date
2022-11-01
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PROFESSOR JAYASHANKAR TELANGANA STATE AGRICULTURAL UNIVERSITY , HYDERABAD
Abstract
Consumers should have ‘Brand awareness’ for a better purchase of products. It basically
includes awareness of brand and the information or image of brand in the mind of
consumers. This helps the consumers to recall the brands easily and it creates a trust,
satisfaction, and positive image about the brand in consumers’ mind. This also leads to
future purchases of the same product, as an association and attachment of the consumer
with the brand that is developed. Brand Image and brand awareness leads to brand
knowledge, which will help the consumers in their future purchases. Consumers buying
behavior towards branded products or services varies according to their age, gender,
income, and personality traits.
As the brand awareness is increasing among the modern consumers, they are trying to
purchase only branded products and be brand loyal. Food products are one such products
which the consumers are trying to buy only the branded ones, due to their perceived
quality, name and fame, status symbol, value, standardization marks and other quality
criteria they express.
The current study focused to understand the buying behaviour of rural and urban
consumers towards branded food products and to know their awareness about branded
food products. The study was taken up with the following objectives:
1) To study the awareness levels of rural and urban consumers about the branded food
products.
2) To understand the buying behaviour of the rural and urban consumers towards
branded food products
3) To analyse the factors influencing the choice of a particular brand.
Exploratory research design was used for this study and a total of 120 respondents i.e.,
60 rural respondents from Karunapuram and Pedda Pendyal, Warangal (Urban) district
and 60 urban respondents from Hyderabad city were selected as the study sample.
Purposive random sampling technique was adopted for selecting the sample. Multi – stage
purposive random sampling technique was adopted for selecting the location. To
elucidate the information related to the study, a self - designed structured questionnaire
was administrated to the sample. The data was analyzed using frequencies and
percentages. ANOVA, chi - square test and correlation tests were used respectively to test
the variance, association, and relationship between the independent and dependent
variables.
The general information revealed that among the 120 respondents, more than half (62.5%)
of the respondents belonged to early middle age followed by young age (20.83%) and
late middle age (16.67%). About 47.5 per cent respondents were graduated or post
graduated. Highest illiteracy rate (30%) was found among rural respondents. Around
39.16 per cent were earning a monthly income of Rs. <20000 followed by 31.66 per cent
earning Rs. 20000 – 50000. Based on the socio - economic status categorization, nearly
69.5 per cent families belonged to upper lower class, followed by lower middle - class
families (27.5%), lower class (2.5%) and upper middle class (0.83%). None of the
respondents belonged to upper class.
Around 65.8 per cent of the total respondents were having moderate level of awareness
about the branded food products followed by 21.7 per cent having low level of awareness
and 12.5 per cent having high level of awareness. Nearly 64.16 per cent of the respondents
were affected moderately by the factors influencing the buying behaviour followed by
24.16 per cent were highly affected and 12.5 were low affected.
It was found that majority of the respondents from both rural and urban area were having
the awareness about the food brands like Daawat, India Gate, Aashirvaad, Annapurna,
Maggie, Yippie, Five Star, Dairy Milk, Kit - Kat, Britannia 50 - 50, Marie Gold, Achi,
MTR, Priya, Freedom, Gold Drop, Gold Winner, Gemini, Taj Mahal, Red Label, Bru,
Nescafe, Kissan, Fanta, Real, Jersey, Dodla, Vijaya etc.
It was found that the promotional schemes, price, advice from the peer group and
family, and visual advertisements were affecting the consumers decisions.
Respondents from both the rural and urban areas preferred to buy food products online
and most of the respondents preferred instore/ offline purchase. Majority of the
respondents were using cash as their mode of payments in both online and offline
shopping.
Statistical analysis performed using ANOVA test revealed that there were significant
mean differences found between the independent variables (age, monthly income and
education) and awareness about branded food products among the rural respondents.
There was a significant mean difference found between the socio - economic status of
the rural respondents and awareness about branded food products.
Chi - square analysis had shown a significant association between the independent
variables (education and monthly income) and mode of payment (offline/ instore and
online purchase) used by the rural respondents for purchase of food products.
Correlational analysis revealed that there was a significant relationship between the
education and factors influencing the consumers buying behavior among the urban
respondents. There was a significant relationship between the independent variables
(gender and education) and factors influencing buying behaviour among the rural
respondents.
The study concluded that the awareness of branded food products was very low in rural
areas. Particularly in the age group of 47 - 65 years, respondents from the urban area
were having high awareness when compared to rural respondents. This study found
that difference in place of purchase between the rural and urban consumers. Rural
consumers were highly purchasing in Kirana stores while the urban consumers are
purchasing in supermarkets. It was also found that pricing, quantity, and promotional
schemes were the factors that influence the consumers buying decisions
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D10,683