The Hindu : Kerala News : TV ads swaying consumer preferences: study

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Apr 04, 2004

Kerala

Kerala

TV ads swaying consumer preferences: study

By C. Gouridasan Nair

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, APRIL 3 . If you thought the average Keralite is happiest hitting the air with clenched fist and marching to the rhythm of political slogans, it is time you took a reality check. A study shows that the Kerala male and females, particularly the younger crowd, are perhaps happier swinging to the tunes of TV advertisement jingles and prefer `entertainment' to `information' when it comes to watching TV.

Almost six out of every ten persons watching TV in Kerala make their purchase decisions on the basis of what the TV advertisements tell them. It matters little whether the claims that the advertisements make are for real. And, though these might be days of `India shining', the Kerala consumer is least bothered about the `Indianness' of the products on offer, says the study, carried out by Dr. V. Mukunda Das, a professor at the Indian Institute of Information Technology and Management (IITM) here, and Dr. Suresh Manimala, a former faculty at the Government-run Centre for Management Development (CMD) here. The study was an attempt to explore the nature of interface between advertising and the responses it generated among consumers and covered mainly students in the age group 15-25 years, both males and females from urban and rural Kerala.

The study found that almost 100 per cent of the sample is in the habit of watching TV regularly. Teenagers do not prefer longer hours of TV watching, mainly because of the options available to them in the form of other activities. Urban population tends to watch TV for slightly longer durations. Of the two major reasons for TV viewing, viz., for entertainment and information, `entertainment' is the major reason, though a small proportion of the respondents view it for `information'. Even among this group, entertainment is valued more by women in general in both rural and urban areas. Teenage segments also fall in this category. Information-oriented programmes are preferred more by men and this is more among urban males.

The study found that the product categories that gained greatest momentum in the market on account of TV advertisements were cosmetics and toiletries, soft drinks and beverages and sweets and confectionary, in that order. This implies that consumer non-durables and products of daily/frequent use are the ones purchased most under the influence of TV advertisement. Majority of the products bought thus are consumer non-durables of repeat purchase nature, often with low unit cost. Many a time, the purchase starts off as a trial and later the consumers become loyal depending on the quality of the product as they judge them.

The most often bought product item under the influence of TV advertisement is toilet soap.

The study found that of the total respondents, 42.78 per cent have not only bought the product promoted through the advertisements they liked most but also recommended the product to someone else.

An interesting finding is that majority of the consumers are not concerned about the factuality of the claims made in the advertisements which has influenced them in buying a product. Of the sample, 56.68 per cent said they believed the advertisement they liked most while 43.3 per cent replied in the negative. An analysis of the responses showed that the consumers are influenced most by visuals and music in advertisements. While `distinctiveness' of an advertisement comes third position on a 10-point consumer checklist, `appeal' comes fourth, `models' in the fifth, `technical excellence' in the sixth, `verbal content' in the seventh, `humour' in the eighth, `information on the product' in ninth and `Indianness' in the last spot.

Majority in the sample, about 73 per cent, said they are interested in products in the well- advertised products and are often swayed by the quality of the advertisement than the credibility of the product.

While two-thirds of the sample said they had thought of buying a specific product on seeing the way it was advertised, 60.21 per cent said they had gone ahead and bought it.

Now, that should be music to the ears of both the ad makers and product manufacturers.

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