Factors Affecting Brand Awareness in Automobile Paint Industry

Rowley (1997) in his research work had commented that consumer buying process offers two useful perspectives: the decision making process associated with consumer buying and the factors which affect the buying process. The author further stated that the consumers buying process can be divided into personal, psychological and social and cultural factors. The 'social factors' such as consumer's small groups, family, reference group, social roles and status can affect consumer responses and influence their buying behavior. 'Personal factors' such as age, lifecycle stage, occupation, education and economic situation, and 'Psychological factors' such as, motivation, perception, learning, beliefs and attitudes and personality, also play major roles in consumer decision making process.Indian paint industry has grown by leaps and bounds over last 15 years. The per capita consumption of paint still is one of the lowest. This means there is a big scope for the industry to grow further. This is one industry that has successfully developed the large small sector together. This is so because higher and lower segments of buyers are growing rapidly. The specifications of the large, specialized users are stringent and cannot be matched small scale sector that will have to remain out of the corporate business. There is a huge market of domestic, house hold paints competing with lime and cements paints that cannot be tapped by the large manufacturers due to their high over heads The difference cannot be matched by their high purchasing power. Industrial experts do not see a possibility of complete elimination of the small scale sector form the Indian scene. In fact we have not seen any small scale paint industry closing down in last several years. Everyone is recording a healthy growth in volume as well as value terms. The richness of the small scale is amply evident in the annual general meetings of the members of Indian Small Scale Paint Association. This means, the small scale industry is doing well and would continue to do well. One of the major reasons is low fixed capital employed for manufacture of paints. The working capital requirements are very huge. This is now easily available from banks and the turnover of the industry is growing very rapidly.According to Mishra (2002) Indian customers look for the fresh solutions to their problems and in addition with better value for their money. This persuades the paint industries to introduce products of some value with the lower cost. Some new types of paints launched by the companies to attract more customers are; washable odorless interior paints, water based enamels, and antibacterial paints. Apart from these, companies have even launched paints with long life guarantee.According to Swar (2007) several demographic indicators show favorable trends for the growth of organized trade in India. These are: i) Rapid income growth: consumers have a greater ability to spend, ii) Increasing Urbanization: larger urban population that value convenience, coupled with the higher propensity of the urban consumers to spend, iii) Growing young population: growth of the post liberalization maturing population, with the attitude and willingness to spend and iv) Spend now vs. save earlier: consumers are willing to borrow for present consumption.As per the Indian Paint Association report (2007) there isa shift in the consumer behavior with the paint buying and painting process evolving. The consumer is upgrading from buying distempers to emulsions and from buying paints to buying premium services, unlocking a completely new value chain. What it would mean for the industry is that it will have to serve the consumer now in newer innovative ways. The consumer is ready to pay the price and would be the key factor driving this change.Akanksha Goel (2008) research work seeks to extend the earlier work done by various researchers and authors that examined the factors involved in the new product launch.