Brand awareness and preferences of rural youth for FMCG: An empirical study of district Bilaspur in Himachal Pradesh

Abstract

Purpose: The present study is an attempt to know whether rural youth is aware of brand and give importance to brand while makes purchase decision to buy FMCG. There is a myth that being simple and illiterate rural customers are not able to distinguish between product and brand. On its contrary National Youth Policy, 2014, revealed that 27.5% of Indian population is youth and 34% of the Gross National Income (GNI) is contributed by the youth having age between 15 and 29 years (www.youthpolicy.org). Methodology: The present study was descriptive in nature. For study purpose, tooth paste has been selected from FMCG because it is used by almost all people daily and selected brand of tooth paste were included in the study which were very popular in Indian market. The primary data were collected with the help of structured questionnaire using Google form. The collected data have been presented in tabular forms and analyzed with the help of percentage, Pearson correlation, and Chi-square test. Findings: From the study, it is inferred that the myth “being simple and illiterate, rural customers are not able to distinguish between product and brand” has been proven wrong. It is crystal clear from the study that there is significant correlation between brand preference and brand purchase of tooth paste in rural youth. Implications: This study gives more insight about behavior of rural youth toward FMCG. Marketers can use the result of this study to determine appropriate marketing mix for rural areas. Originality/Value: Many studies have been conducted to examine the behavior of rural customers. However, no specific study has been conducted to study the behavior of rural youth. Hence, this paper is an attempt to understand the brand awareness among rural youth toward FMCG in general and tooth paste in specific.