This study was undertaken to understand the effectiveness of the media, which helps in brand recall and, thereby, decision making in urban and rural India for the paints and waterproofing solution brands. This exploratory study is based on both primary and secondary data. The study was aimed at determining the awareness and recall of selected brands and how media influences buying decisions of the customer.

The data was collected through a questionnaire from both urban and rural areas. The primary data was collected through interviews and questionnaires. In all, 120 respondents contributed from urban areas such as Pune, Mumbai, Bangalore and Kolkata, and 150 respondents from rural areas around cities such as Lucknow, Patiala, Kochi, Hubli and Yawatmal were part of this study. The rural locations were selected in such a way that it was possible for us to visit them in a short span of time, whereas for urban locations, we floated a survey online with our questionnaire and selected the cities from where we had at least 30 respondents (minimum sample size for correlation analysis).

The analysis pointed out that, though the type of media viewed by the customer differs with the area, that is, urban and rural, the decision of both types of customers regarding buying a product of a specific brand was found to be independent of the media. A positive correlation was observed between brand awareness and brand recall. The outcome of this study pointed out that buying decisions independent from media influence needs to be taken seriously by companies before spending on advertising or before allocating a budget for advertisement.

Media, brand awareness, brand recall, customer buying decision

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