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Abstract

A consumer sets a frame of references in his/her mind to choose or purchase a product or service of same or different brands or producers. Keeping in view the frame of references the present paper is an attempt to study the factors affecting the purchase decision of consumers towards purchase of the Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCGs) and to recommend the policies which may be adopted by the advertisers to enhance awareness among the rural buyers. The study used primary data collected from a sample of 1000 rural consumers from the 40 villages of 04 districts of Haryana state with the help of a well-structured questionnaire by following "Foot-in-Door Strategy" (FIDS). And found that rural buyers perceived that TV commercials followed by print advertisements and word of mouth plays a significant role for taking the decision to purchase these FMCGs. Further, they consider their own experience, display at shops; incentive schemes for the purchase of these FMCGs, whereas they do not fully agree that advice of beautician influences their decision towards the purchase of these FMCGs. On the other hand, rural buyers perceived that social factors are no so strong that those may influence their decision to purchase these FMCGs. Hence, it may be recommended that the producers or marketers should frame ethical advertising strategies keeping in mind that rural people are fond of electronic and print media advertisements.