An Exploratory Research of Consumer Decision Making Styles of Indian Poor for Fast Moving Consumer Goods

More than half of world's population is poor and possesses a substantial purchase potential. Still, it is not considered as a viable market and the purchase preferences of poor are largely ignored. As a result, the consumer behavior of poor is still unexplored on a number of aspects. Present research bridges the literature gap on consumer decision making style aspect. It explores the consumer decision making style – price consciousness, quality consciousness, brand consciousness, and brand loyalty – of 30 below poverty line (BPL) families of Delhi, India for five fast moving consumer goods (FMCGs) – cooking oil, toothpaste, bathing soap, tea, and washing soap – and concludes that the poor are quality conscious, brand conscious, brand loyal, but not the price conscious consumers for the concerned FMCGs.