© 2018 IJRAR October 2018, Volume 5, Issue 4 www.ijrar.

org (E-ISSN 23481269, P- ISSN 2349-5138)

EFFECT OF ADVERTISEMENT ON
CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR
(A CASE STUDY OF HUL & P&G)

SNEHA SHARMA

Ph.D Scholar ( Commerce)

CHAUDHARY CHARAN SINGH UNIVERSITY, MEERUT

ABSTRACT: Advertising is a form of communication between a business and the consumers.

Advertisements are messages which give the customer more information about the brands that are in the

market and the various products that might be useful to them. In today ‘s age of competition, advertising plays

a vital role and has become a necessity in the lives of producers, traders, and even the customers. The

influence of advertising on consumer behavior reflects in several ways and paradigms, such as; awareness of a

product, attitude towards a brand, dispersing useful information, and encouraging repeat purchases. Therefore

in this study Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) & P&G have been considered as the case companies for the

study. The study is being conducted to find out relationship between advertisement and consumer in terms of

its impact.

KEYWORDS: Advertisement, Consumer Behaviour, P&G & HUL.

INTRODUCTION:

Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) are defined as products which as low cost or sold quickly. The

term FMCG is used to refer to those goods which are replaced within few days, weeks, months or years. They

have a small shelf-life due to the high consumer demand. The short shelf life is due to the product

deterioration or due to the increased customer demands.

FMCG has various characteristics which can be viewed from two perspectives: the customers and the

organizations. The consumer‘s perspective the features include many purchases in that the product should be

one that is frequently purchased with the time periods ranging from weeks, months or yearly. Also, these

products should require low involvement on the side of the customers. Low participation here means that the

customer needs minimal effort in selecting the item. Most times these products are necessities such as

IJRAR19J2995 International Journal of Research and Analytical Reviews (IJRAR) www.ijrar.org 1

© 2018 IJRAR October 2018, Volume 5, Issue 4 www.ijrar.org (E-ISSN 23481269, P- ISSN 2349-5138)

toiletries, dairy products, meat, and other forms of groceries. An exception to this characteristic is products

with strong brand loyalty. This is because there is involvement from the consumer being actively loyal to a

particular brand.

Another characteristic from the consumer‘s perspective is the low price. As mentioned, one of the

reasons these products have a short shelf life which means that the costs of these products are relatively small

to enable consumers to purchase the products as much as they need. From the organizations perspective, the

FMCG has a characteristic of high volume.

Advertising is a form of communication between a business and the consumers. Advertisements are

messages which give the customer more information about the brands that are in the market and the various

products that might be useful to them. It is aimed to speak to everybody, from children and the young, to the

old, female or male depending on the product. Different companies choose different forms of communication

to advertise. For instance, there are various types of advertisement which are categorized into traditional,

modern and futuristic. Advertising requires innovation and creativity for it to be successful. The traditional

modes of advertising include print media which comprises of newspapers, magazines brochures, and fliers. As

explained by , this is a highly common type of advertising and has existed for numerous years before the

other forms were introduced. Other forms of traditional advertising are the radio and television. Radio also is

among the oldest forms of advertising.

OVERVIEW OF HUL & P&G :

HINDUSTAN UNILEVER : Unilever is an FMCG company originating from British- Dutch origin and it

has its headquarters in both, London, United Kingdom and Rotterdam, the Netherlands. It was founded in the

year 1929. In 1931, the first Indian subsidiary of Unilever Ltd. was set up by the name Hindustan Vanaspati

Manufacturing Company. After that, two other companies were established in India that are named as United

Traders Limited (1935) and Lever Brothers India Limited (1933) (Unilever, 2018b). Hindustan Unilever

Limited was founded in 1956 after the merger of these three Indian subsidiaries of Unilever i.e. Lever

Brothers, Hindustan Vanaspati Mfg. Co. Ltd. and United Traders Limited (Unilever, 2018b). It is a consumer

IJRAR19J2995 International Journal of Research and Analytical Reviews (IJRAR) www.ijrar.org 2

© 2018 IJRAR October 2018, Volume 5, Issue 4 www.ijrar.org (E-ISSN 23481269, P- ISSN 2349-5138)

based company and is also India’s largest Fast Moving Consumer Goods Company (FMCG). It’s headquarter

is in Mumbai, Maharashtra.

PROCTOR & GAMBLE : Procter & Gamble Co. (P&G) was founded in 1837 by William

Procter and James Gamble with only soap and candle business. The company was set up in Cincinnati, Ohio

and is also headquartered there. The company produces a wide range of cleaning agents and personal care and

hygienic products. In India, P&G was established in 1964 and now it is one of the largest and fastest growing

consumer goods company in India. It produces products for beauty and grooming segment, household care

and health and well being sector, with the brands that can be trusted by over 650 million consumers across

India (P&G, 2018b).

MEANING OF CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR

Consumer behavior is a rapidly growing field in academia and research. The field is of significant

value to marketing managers and other related actors concerned with the consumers’ purchasing activity. The

study of how different factors influence the consumers’ purchasing decision-making process helps business

enterprises to boost their marketing communications and thence sales. Consumer behaviour defines the

decisions and actions that influence the consumer’s purchase. In essence, consumer behaviour involves the

purchase, use, and disposal of products by consumers. A good understanding of this cycle is of great

importance to marketing professionals as it outlines how to design the product as well as develop marketing

strategies that would best suit the target audience’s preferences and choice.

OBJECTIVES & RESEARCH METHODOLOGY :

Objectives :

1. To examine the effect of advertisement on consumer behavior.

2. To understand the Pre & Post buying behavior of Consumer before and after advertising.

HYPOTHESIS OF THE STUDY :

1. There is no relationship of advertisement with behavior of consumer.

2. There is no effect of advertisement on pre and post buying behavior of consumer.
IJRAR19J2995 International Journal of Research and Analytical Reviews (IJRAR) www.ijrar.org 3
© 2018 IJRAR October 2018, Volume 5, Issue 4 www.ijrar.org (E-ISSN 23481269, P- ISSN 2349-5138)

Research Methodology :

In this study, the exploratory method was chosen as the most appropriate research method. In the

context of the present research, exploratory research method provided the relevant factors of advertisement

that could impact different aspects of consumer behavior. The chosen research method was expected to

provide new knowledge and new insight to the topic. Therefore exploratory research method best supported

the objectives of this study and helped in identifying factors related to effect of advertisement on consumer

behavior. Exploratory method is known as the most appropriate research method when the research problem is

unstructured and quite difficult to define . In this regard, this study attempted to identify and describe factors

of advertisement that contributed in impacting consumer behavior of purchasing specific products from

selected companies.

This study used both primary and secondary data to obtain an insight on the consumers’ view or

opinion. The research adopted quantitative analysis, where in a survey using a close ended structured

questionnaire was conducted among consumers of five products of Hindustan Unilever and P&G to

understand their perceptions of the advertisements of these products and how the advertisements influenced

their decision to buy or not to buy these products. Numeric data obtained through the responses of the

questionnaire was primary in nature. The sample of 500 consumers who use different products of HUL &

P&G have been approached out of which only 474 have responded in total in Faridabad. Regression Analysis

is used for checking the effectiveness of advertisement.

DATA ANALYSIS & INTERPRETATION :

Hypothesis 1:

H0: There is no relationship of advertisement with the behaviour of the consumer.

Adjusted R Std. Error of F Sig.

Square the Estimate

.001 .838 1.059 .383

Table 1: ANOVA for effectiveness of advertisement

IJRAR19J2995 International Journal of Research and Analytical Reviews (IJRAR) www.ijrar.org 4
© 2018 IJRAR October 2018, Volume 5, Issue 4 www.ijrar.org (E-ISSN 23481269, P- ISSN 2349-5138)

Formula for ANOVA (F):

F = Anova Coefficient

MST = Mean sum of squares due to treatment

MSE = Mean sum of squares due to error

INTERPRETATION :The table above represents the model summary of fourth hypothesis. R2 shows a value

equal to 0.139. This implies that roughly 13.9% of the variance found in the response variable (i.e. Purchase

decision on the basis of advertisement) can be explained by the predictor variables. Also from the ANOVA

analysis, overall impact of the independent variables on dependent variable is found to be insignificant in this

case because significance value is 0.383 which is greater than 5%. Therefore, it can be concluded that there is

no significant impact of independent variables on dependent variables.

Model t Sig.

The advertisement of HUL and P& G were interesting 1.289 .019

Advertising was not informative about FMCG products -1.254 .211
Quality of advertisement does impact my purchasing behavior 1.265 .207
Effectiveness of about the product
advertisement I believe that content of the advertising should be informative, .735 .046
only then I make purchases accordingly
My buying preferences about product keeps on changing .164 .870
according to the effectiveness of advertising

Table 2: Regression for effectiveness of advertisement

Formula for liner regression (Y): Y = a + bX

X is the explanatory variable

Y is the dependent variable

The slope of the line is b, and a is the intercept (the value of y, when x = 0)

IJRAR19J2995 International Journal of Research and Analytical Reviews (IJRAR) www.ijrar.org 5

© 2018 IJRAR October 2018, Volume 5, Issue 4 www.ijrar.org (E-ISSN 23481269, P- ISSN 2349-5138)

INTERPRETATION: The regression explores the relationship of advertising with the consumer behavior.

The statistics show a poor relationship between advertisement and behavior of the consumers. The first

variable “the advertisement of HUL and P&G were interesting” and “content of the advertising should be

informative, only then I make purchases accordingly” has a p-value 0.019 and 0.046 respectively which is

lower than 5% level of significance. Therefore, it can be concluded that consumers strongly consider

advertisement of HUL and P&G interesting and influencing and therefore it attracts the consumers to purchase

that particular product. Similarly, all other independent variables such as “Advertising was not informative

about FMCG products” and “quality of advertisement does not impact purchasing behavior” and others are

insignificant implying that there is no strong association between advertisement and consumer behavior at

p<0.05 and 95% CI. This is implicative from the first hypothesis that consumer behavior is not determined by

the advertisement practices of HUL. Similarly in this case, there is no relationship of advertisement with the

behavior of the consumer. Therefore, the null hypothesis is rejected indicating that there is a relationship of

advertisement with the behaviour of the consumer.

Hypothesis 2:

H0: There is no effect of advertisement on pre and post buying behavior of customer.

Model R Square Adjusted R F Sig.

Square
Pre-Purchase behavior .028 .006 1.255 .278

Post Purchase Behavior .057 .035 2.665 .016

Table 3 : Model summary of pre purchase and post-purchase behavior of consumer

INTERPRETATION : From the ANOVA table, it was assessed that overall significance level of the

regression analysis of the first model i.e. Pre Purchase Behavior is coming out to be 0.278, which implies that

there is no overall significant impact of advertising on pre purchase behavior. However, assessment of impact

of advertising on post purchase behavior of consumer shows that there is overall significant effect on

IJRAR19J2995 International Journal of Research and Analytical Reviews (IJRAR) www.ijrar.org 6

© 2018 IJRAR October 2018, Volume 5, Issue 4 www.ijrar.org (E-ISSN 23481269, P- ISSN 2349-5138)

dependent variable. Moreover, F statistic is coming out to be 2.665 which are away from the value 1. This also

verifies the strong impact of explanatory variables on dependent variables.

Pre Purchase Behavior t Sig. Post Purchase Behavior t Sig.

I consider sales -.561 .576 I regularly write reviews .950 .343
promotion schemes, about the products
before making purchase purchased.
I keep a check at the -1.036 .301 My purchase volume -3.357 .001
different discount increased after first product
coupons which are purchase
currently available
before making purchase
Products with positive .910 .363 I make sure that I share my .485 .628
review on online social reviews on different
media platforms are good platforms
to purchase
If I see that the product is .822 .412 I buy products mostly from 1.157 .248
popular among my the case organization since
family and friends then it the time I have purchased
automatically influences the first product
me to purchase it
I prefer shopping 1.998 .047 I raise my queries about the 1.087 .278
products with which I get post purchase experience
free gift as indicated in with the case brand
the advertisement
I prefer to wait for -.861 .390 I recommend the product of .345 .731
schemes and promotional chosen brand to my family
offers on different and friends
platforms before making
purchase

Table 4 : Regression for effect of advertisement on pre and post buying behavior of customer

INTERPRETATION : Hypothesis analyzed the impact of advertisement on pre and post buying behavior of
customer. Pre buying behavior contains variables such as sales promotion, discount coupons, online positive
review, popularity of the product, free gifts and promotional offers. None of the variable is coming out to be
significant, indicating that there is no significant impact of advertisement on pre purchase behavior of
consumer. On the contrary, post products behavior includes variables like regularly writing a post about
purchased product, increase in purchase volume after first purchase, asking queries about the purchased
products and then recommending products to other consumers. Only 1 out of 6 variables is coming out to be
significant. Variable two “My purchase volume increased after first product purchase” shows that after
buying first product purchase volume of the consumer increased. The regression analysis is coming out to be
significant at 1% level of significance. This may be due to the fact that product had good quality. This implies
that there is impact on post-purchase behavior of the consumers on their future purchases. In case of pre-

IJRAR19J2995 International Journal of Research and Analytical Reviews (IJRAR) www.ijrar.org 7

© 2018 IJRAR October 2018, Volume 5, Issue 4 www.ijrar.org (E-ISSN 23481269, P- ISSN 2349-5138)

purchase behavior, there is no effect of advertisement on buying behavior of customer. However, in case of
post-purchase behavior, there is significant effect of advertisement on buying behavior of customers.

FINDINGS OF STUDY :

Hypothesis 1 : The analysis found that there is a strong association between advertisements with behaviour of
consumers.

Hypothesis 2: The testing of the hypothesis foud that there is a significant impact of advertisement on the post
purchase behavior of consumer.

SUGGESTIONS :

1. Effect of advertisement on cultural factors can also be analysed.

2. Company should choose best type of advertisement according to their product.

LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY :

1. The study is confined to only two companies HUL & P&G.

2. Study doesnot statistically test different forms of advertisement on consumer separately. Only overall
impact has been accessed in the study.

CONCLUSION : On the basis of the survey results, it is implicative that more the attractiveness of an
advertisement, the more is the chance that the consumers will purchase them. In addition, advertisements must
not only look attractive but also informative, educational, and interesting. In addition, the advertisements must
also be innovative and competitive against its challengers. Repeated viewing of a particular product attracts
consumers in purchasing the products.

IJRAR19J2995 International Journal of Research and Analytical Reviews (IJRAR) www.ijrar.org 8

© 2018 IJRAR October 2018, Volume 5, Issue 4 www.ijrar.org (E-ISSN 23481269, P- ISSN 2349-5138)

BIBLIOGRAPHY :

1. Aaker, D.A. & Biel, A.L., 2013. Brand equity & advertising: advertising's role in
building strong brands. Psychology Press.
2. Aaker, D.A. & Joachimsthaler, E., 2012. Brand leadership. Business & Economics, Dec
2012. NewYork
3. Alex, K. & Malar, M.M.S., 2017. A study on advertising strategy of Fast Moving
Consumer Goods (FMCG) sector in India - with special reference to Trichy district.
International Journal of Research - Granthaalayah, 5(7), pp.631-38.
4. Morcillo, M.G., 2018. Advertising Antiquity. Introduction. thersites. Journal for
Transcultural Presences and Diachronic Identities from Antiquity to Date, 6.
5. Moriarty, S. et al., 2014. Advertising: Principles and practice. Australia: Pearson.
6. Sonkusare, G., 2013. Impact of television advertising on buying behavior of women
consumers’ [With special reference to FMCG Products] Chandrapur city. International
Journal of Business and Management Invention, 2(3), pp.31-38.
7. Tungate, M., 2007. Adland: A global history of advertising. Kogan Page Publishers.
8. Zheng, X., Cheung, C.M., Lee, M.K. & Liang, L., 2015. Building brand loyalty through
user engagement in online brand communities in social networking sites. Information
Technology & People, 28(1), pp.90-106.
9. Zhou, N. & Belk, R.W., 2004. Chinese consumer readings of global and local advertising
appeals. Journal of Advertising, 33(3), pp.63-76.

IJRAR19J2995 International Journal of Research and Analytical Reviews (IJRAR) www.ijrar.org 9