Study on Impact of Perceived Value and Brand Image on Purchase Decision of Metro Households, for Edible Oils in India

Edible oil is one of the important constituents of Indian food. A majority of the dishes are prepared by using oil in the cooking process. India is the fourth largest oilseed producing country in the world, next only to USA, China and Brazil, harvesting about 25 million tons of oilseeds against the world production of 250 million tons per annum. Although, India is a major producer of oilseeds, per capita oil consumption in India is only 10.6 kg per annum which is low compared to 12.5 kg per annum in China, 20.8 kg per annum in Japan, 21.3 kg per annum in Brazil and 48.0 kg per annum in USA.19. Though several studies on the subject of consumer behaviour have been undertaken abroad, the explorations on the subject in the metro households’ context have been limited in numbers. It was, therefore, considered meaningful to explore whether the metro consumers displayed similar pattern of decision making or differed significantly. It was also considered relevant to study the impact of perceived value and brand image while choosing a brand of edible oil by  close to 2.2 crore  people in Mumbai. Various marketing variables  considered for the study are household income, religion, knowledge, social status, price, place (availability),  perceived quality, and WOM (word of mouth publicity) on the purchase decision of edible oil by  the households in Mumbai city.