Villages are the heart of India. According to census of India, 2011, the rural India comprised approximately 70 percent of India's population which was 121 crore. With 6, 38,365 villages spread over 32 lakh sq. kilometers, rural India has become a massive consumer goods market. FMCG has emerged as a major product category in rural consumption. Companies marketing FMCGs to rural consumers cannot merely extend their urban marketing strategies. Instead, they need to formulate and execute rural specific strategies. In this process, they need to understand crucial issues relating to rural consumer behavior vis-à-vis variations in different geographic regions of the country. This paper focuses on understanding factors that affect the rural Pre-purchase behavior in general and Pre-purchase Evaluation of Alternatives of FMCG specifically in Keonjhar District of Odisha State, India in particular. The commodities chosen for the research are bathing soap, shampoo, skin cream, hair oil and packaged wheat flour. Factor analysis was used to form nine key variables into two groups (influencing factors). ‘Price is important criterion’ has emerged as the most significant variable in the ‘Consumer purchase decision’ factor and ‘Medicinal Values of FMCGs’ in the ‘Product properties’ factor.

Author Name: Jyoti Pradhan, Dr. DP Misra

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Keywords: Need Recognition, Information Search, Evaluation of Alternatives, Pre-purchase.

ISSN: 2455-1627

EISSN: 2455-1627

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