Consumer psyche and online branding: the Indian context

Abstract

The purpose of this project is to study advertising in internet as a medium for brand image development in the Indian context, with insights from consumer psyche. It analyzes how brands can be built using Internet as a medium by - tapping the profile of people who are online for many hours in a week; studying the consumer perception about advertisements in websites; testing awareness, recall and recognition of brands advertised in websites. The scope of this project is to help online marketers with recommendations on the feasibility and utility of websites as a medium of brand building. The recommendations are restricted to an online marketer, i.e. one who places advertisements in third-party websites and NOT to a website designer. Also, the scope is restricted to third-party websites where advertisements are placed and does NOT cover corporate branding through company s own websites. Consequently, the recommendations are more on how to choose a website to advertise than on how to design a website itself. Further, the scope is restricted to direct advertisements and NOT promotion attempted through the content in the website (like blogs).A literature survey on certain aspects of internet advertising within the scope of this project has been done. The gist of eleven articles found to be the most relevant and learning from them have been presented in this report. Based on the literature survey, a set of hypotheses on building brand awareness in websites is developed. The hypotheses are tested through a survey on brand awareness, recognition and recall among Indian consumers. The psychographics and demographic information of the respondents is also captured. The survey results are then analyzed and the hypotheses proven. Further, with the findings from the research, along with the psychographic information collected from the consumers, a set of recommendations is provided for two Indian brands for synergizing their online and offline marketing communication.