UNDERSTANDING RURAL CONSUMER BUYING BEHAVIOUR: A STUDY WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO FMCG PRODUCTS
Shweta Tiwari, Dr. Chetan Joshi
Abstract - Consumer behavior in the rural market is even more perplexing because of a singularlack ofconsistency in groups which are homogeneous in parameters of demographics-Age, occupation, education and income.Most marketers realize that India is on the cusp of momentous change. The economy isvibrant, incomes are rising & the habits, preferences & attitude are changing rapidly.But nowhere is it more evident than in rural India. There is, thus an emerging need tobuild expertise in rural marketing.
Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCGs) constitute a large part of consumer`s budget in allcountries. India is no exception to this. The Consumer Buying Behaviour plays an important role in marketing of Fast-Moving Consumer Goods. Keeping in view the frame of references the present paper is an attempt to study the factors affecting the Consumer Buying Behaviour towards selected Personal Care Products.Rural markets in India have assumed significance in the recent past with the growth of the Indian economy. More income & employment opportunities in rural areas have increased the purchasing power of rural consumers.
The present study seeks to read the minds of the rural consumers regarding FMCGs. Toilet/bath soaps have been taken as sample to represent this category.
Keywords: FMCG-Fast Moving Consumer Goods, Rural Consumers, FMCG Products, Consumer Behaviour.
1 INTRODUCTION
The liberalization of the Indian economy had far reaching consequences, which led to entry of global brandsin the Indian markets. Earlier companies focused their marketing efforts towards the urban markets targetingthe educated consumer.
However with the saturation of markets in the urban sector, many companies focused their attention towardsthe fast growing rural sector.Andalso the rural markets in India are still evolving, and the sectorposes a variety of challenges.There are three challenges that rural marketers must overcome. The first of this is the challenges of reach-markets in the rural India that are small & scattered making them inaccessible & unreliable or both.
But this problem is not new & many companies let ithamper them unduly even as others overcome it with innovation.
The next challenge is toensure that the consumers are aware of your brand and want it. The third challenge inRM is influence.
1.1 Buying Behavior:
Once the marketer has insured both economic and physical access to its product it needsto evaluate the buying behaviour of consumers in rural areas.To understand the buying behaviour of rural
consumers, we must go to the factors thatinfluence their buying behaviour.
Rural India has become a massive consumer goods market with more than six hundred thousand villages and more than 70% of the population living in villages. In these rural markets, FMCG products have emerged as a major product category. Various researchers have found that rural and urban Indian consumers have different needs and wants. These differences have revealed a huge marketing potential for MNCs and other foreign investors, who try to explore rural regions for marketing opportunities.
Thus, understanding rural consumer behaviour is very important for the marketers. This paper focused on the important factors that affect the rural purchase behaviour of FMCG products.
The findings of this study indicate that price, brand name, quality, availability, packaging, and so forth were the important factors influencing the rural consumers' purchase decisions. The study also focused on the important aspects such as the effective modes of communication, reasons for switching brands, billing patterns, and satisfaction level among the rural consumers.
2 REVIEW OF LITERATURE
Consumer is one who consumes the goods & services product. The aim of marketing is to meet and satisfy target Consumer needs and wants. The modern marketing concept makes customers the centre stage of organisation efforts. The focus, within the marketing concepts is to reach target and largest customer‟s sets ball rolling for analysing each of the conditions of the target market (Geeta Sonkusare, 2013).
Consumer behaviour can be defined as the decision making process and physical activity involved in acquiring, evaluating, using and disposing of goods and services. This definition clearly brings out it is not just the buying of goods/services that receives attention in consumer behaviour, but the process starts much before the goods have been acquired or bought. The study Consumer Buying Behaviour is the study of how individuals make decisions to spend their available resources (time, effort, money) on consumption related item. It includes the study of what they buy it, where they buy it, how they buy it and how often they use it. It is important to know how consumer reacts towards different products. Buying behaviour involves a complicated series of stimulus and response (S. Mahlingam, 2012). Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) are popularly known as Consumer-Packaged Goods. Items in this category include all consumables, people buy at regular intervals. The most common Personal Care Products are Shampoos, Hair oil, Bathing soaps, Toothpaste, Cosmetics etc.
These items are meant for daily of frequent consumption (Dr. Vibuti, 2014).
Rajesekaran, B and Saravanan, P.A (2014) highlighted, “Consumer satisfaction on fast moving consumer goods”. The study throws on the attitudes, values, beliefs and perception of the consumers with regards to the consumption of fast-moving consumer goods. To study the brand preference of fast-moving consumer goods, the preference and opinion of consumer towards popular brands have been taken into consideration.
Sulekha and Kiran (2013) concluded that in India more than 72%
population lives in villages and FMCG
companies are famous for selling their products to the middleclass households;
it implies that rural India is a profitable and potential market for FMCG producers. Rural consumers „incomes are rising and now they are more willing to buy products which improve their lifestyle. Producers of FMCG have to craft unique marketing strategies exclusively for rural consumers. In this process they need to understand the rural consumer buying behaviour which may differ geographically. The present study focuses on understanding the rural consumer buying behaviour for FMCG in Haryana.
The study emphasizes on the factors which influence the purchasing pattern of rural consumers. The study was conducted in four districts of Haryana namely Panipat, Jind, Kuruksetra and Gurgaon.
Deliya, (2012) studied the importance of packaging design as a vehicle for communication for packaged FMCG products. This research utilized a focus group methodology to understand consumer behaviour towards such products. The challenge for researchers is to integrate packaging into an effective purchasing decision model, by understanding Consumer„s behaviour towards the packaging of FMCG products.
When consumers search for the process information in-store, the product's package can contain relevant and useful information for the consumer. Product packaging forms the end of the 'promotion-chain' and is close in time to the actual purchase and may therefore play an important role in predicting consumer outcomes. Packages also deliver brand identification and label information like usage instructions, contents, and list of ingredients or raw materials, warnings for use and directives for care of product.
Singh and Varshney (2003) in their study titled “Consumer behaviour and marketing trends of toilet soaps in Ghaziabad district rural areas - A Survey”
observed that shrinking market share and sales of companies does not mean consumers have actually been cutting back on their use of toilet soaps. The fact is, in volume terms, the market for toilet soaps has continued to grow at 5-6 percent per annum. It is actually price
competition and promotional war between companies which reduces per unit realisation and profit margin for companies. The lower rank brands i.e., economy segment or better known as discount segment has highest growth which has resulted into fall in net realisation because of volume consumption has declined which has caused downfall in company sales and share in turn.
Gupta and Sharma (2002) in their study “Knowing the rural customers”
show that rural consumer in the urban analogous village wants to acquire the urban life style. But when it comes to buying decision making it is entirely different from its urban counterpart.
Culture has a great influence on their buying decisions. The finding is: equal status of female in buying decision making.
(Dr. S. Sudhamathi, 2017) The author discusses the buying behaviour of customers in FMCG products. The study revolves around to know factors influencing consumers preferences. The author discusses the consumption pattern, their lifestyle, perception about the product through advertisement. The conclusion of the report is consumers are more focus on quality rather than the price also health is an important factor that consumer focus to buying online.
(Prof. Sudarshan A. Pawar) studies customer satisfaction is necessary for generating revenue in it, as customers are users, payer and buyer. Different types of media are comparing to promoting FMCG products. The conclusion of the report is that price impacts on buying behaviour of customers. Price, warranty, insurance, after-sales services are key factors that customers look upon. Print media has less impact on promoting products as compared to online promotion.
(Jayanthi, 2017) studies that FMCG sector in India has more potential for growth. The rural purchasing of FMCG products are increasing as compared to the urban market. There are many top FMCG industries in India like HUL, Nestle, ITC, including a new entrant Patanjali. There are three main segments of FMCG namely: Food and Beverages, Healthcare and household and personal
care. Companies like Amazon adopt a new strategy to tie up with local grocery and supermarket. India's spending in FMCG is increasing because of the rise in disposable income. FMCG in India has huge opportunities to grow. Rural consumption is increasing. There is also an increase in the advertisement of FMCG products which help them to attract a large number of customers. FMCG companies attract their consumers by having an innovative deal.
(M. Vidya, 2019) studies that customer behaviour is a challenge for businesses to understand, they are changing. For eg- traditional shopping is replaced with online shopping. Study reveals about that website should make safer so that customer purchases freely.
The customer makes product perception through E-Commerce experience has a relationship with the attitude of the customer through e-commerce buying.
The author found that different demographic factors like age, gender and occupation have different perception about the product. Some of the customers add the product to their cart but hesitate to buy it due to some factors like risk of online purchasing, low quality etc. It talks about relationship with awareness towards online shopping and demographic factor like education qualification, knowledge of product and mode of payment have a significant relationship with awareness level. The product attributes are positively correlated with satisfaction towards online shopping.
2.1 Objectives of the Study
1. To study the attributes of different FMCG products.
2. To understand rural consumer buying behaviour
3. To understand rural consumer buying behavioura study with special reference to FMCG products.
3 METHODOLOGY
This study is Conceptual in nature and tries to highlight concept and Literature of rural consumer buying behaviour a study with special reference to FMCG products..
Secondary data has been collected from extensive research through E-library,
different available published articles, journals, books, internet, magazines, and seminar papers and the world-wide web 4 FINDINGS
The study provides a number of insights in to the purcha sing behaviour of rural consumers as well as the role of retailers in rural markets. Some of the findings of the study are as follows:
Growing income of rural house holds and high emphasis on improving the life style has brought many products from urban to rural are as.
Price and trust play an important role in purchasing of the product for rural consumers.
The brand does not matter to much for the rural consumers; instead they look for value & price.
Retailer plays an influential role in the purchasing decision of the consumer.
Trust is the utmost factor for rural customers while selecting the place to purchaseanyproduct.
Also, from retailers we could understand that there are many duplicate productsbeing sold in the market and a customer cannot make out the difference between nanoriginal and copied version oftheproduct.
Some customers to ld us that they only buy products from big whole saler soncein a month when they go to visit some town or city because of trust and originality oftheproduct.
5 SUGGESTIONS
• The manufacturer is also suggested to express the health impact of mosquito repellants transparently.
• New strategies to influence the rural consumers and try to retain their market share for survival.
• Try to establish their brands and capture their market share to be successful in the rural market in the years to come, through innovative marketing strategies.
6 CONCLUSION
The research concludes that the perception of a rural consumeris as equal as the perception of an urban consumer.
They areable to realize the need of the product, extensive awarenessof the product, and suitable information sources of the product.They are meticulous about purchasing from outlets of theFMCG.
They derive characteristics through their experience ofthe product and make careful study on the negative effect andquality of product. They also approach the product of FMCGand make suitable purchase decision.
They are able to collectmaximum information of the product through Television advertisements. The consumer behavior of the rural populationlogically prefers the product, making the purchasing decision and expressing the satisfaction level. The consumers have thetendencies brand shift if not satisfied with the utilization of theproduct as well as availability in the market. In the post – purchasesatisfaction in rural consumers of predominant brandimage and quality of the product is important. The royalty ofrural consumer purpose is very high, so their strength and their expectation are also maximized. The democratic background ofthe rural consumer plays a vital role in determining the behavioural aspect as well as the royalty of brand.
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