By Mehr Kaur
After globalization, India is rapidly embracing consumerism. Competition in the market has increased manifold and the producers face an increasing need to attract customers to buy their products. Therefore, a lot of tactics are employed to lure the audience. It affects the consumer’s freedom of choice, purchasing behaviour and may sometimes prove to be hazardous. Hence, a check on misleading advertisement becomes imperative. Even though various regulatory frameworks have been set up, remedying such advertisements is problematic and not effective as by the time any action is taken, the purpose of the advertisement is served due to the life of the advertisement being limited.
Analysis and Interpretation of Data Gathered Through Survey
To assess the effect of advertising on consumers, a small survey was conducted of about 50 Indian adults of middle income group from the age of 20-75 years old and the following method is adopted. To understand the thinking of each individual towards advertisements, each individual was asked questions followed by a brief interview and was given options which s/he thinks is suited to his views (subject to his own interpretation also). The individuals were approached in person, through social media and through telephone also.
Based on the data derived by the questionnaire with whom the survey was conducted, the following charts and graphs depict the consumer behaviour towards advertisements.
Which category of product is most likely to mislead you
The data shows that 23 out of 50 i.e., 46% of the interviewees believe that advertisements relating to food products are like to mislead the consumers. On being questioned as to why they had such views, amongst the variety of opinions they had, their main belief was that food products cannot be sold without concealment of facts or untruthful statements because of the competition.
Further they stated that in order to maximize the sale of their product, the advertisers not make false claims but also mislead by saying that the particular product does or not does not contain a particular ingredient which is favored by the public at large for whichever reason. For beauty products 17 out of 50 i.e., 34% of the individuals feel that they mislead the consumers. On being asked the classic example the individuals gave was of “Fair and Lovely” stating that it not only just attracted people into buying the product giving false information but made people think about the colour of their skin as less compared to others and promoted racism indirectly.
Rate of product deficiency suffered by consumers in offline and online shopping. (on the scale of 5)
It is clear from the above graph that people have some time or the other faced a product or service deficiency. 20 out of 50 i.e., 40% of the interviewees stated that 4 out of 5 times they have faced some kind of deficiency, meaning thereby, that complaint against the product that had aggrieved the person, till the time any relief would be granted, which would be much less a case as proving a minor or trivial defect in a product was not easy, the purpose would have been defeated. Thus, it is important that the government take into consideration all such facts and make appropriate legislations to deal with the same.
Level of awareness of consumer while buying the product
The individuals on being asked about their awareness level responded on being mostly generally aware of the product. It was a surprise to find that only 10 out of 50 i.e., 20% of the interviewees were aware of the product properly and 56% were vaguely aware about the product. Majority of the individuals only had a vague idea. However, based on the interview in which more questions were asked it was observed that more the age the more the awareness level.
Reaction to a misleading advertisement
Herein, the individuals were asked of their feelings and reaction after being attacked by a misleading advertisement. 21 out of 50 i.e., 42% of the individuals recommended others not to use the particular product. 28% shared their experiences through social media; 16% felt bad and betrayed and did not do anything and only 14% of the individuals filed an official complaint. This clearly shows that people are hesitant in filing formal complaint. On being questioned on such hesitance, the majority answer was towards the time and money consumed in the process.
Majority of them responded in respect of beauty products including shampoos, etc. and stating some stating with respect to loans from banks.
At this point it can easily be said that approximately 80% 90% of the individuals interviewed had been a victim or a false advertisement at one point or the other and this brings out the necessity for having a proper and a codified statute which would regulate with such advertisements; grant relief to the aggrieved person and penalize the wrong-doer.