Impact of Persuasive Communication on Product Awareness and Purchase Intention: A Quasi-Experimental Study of Probiotic Products

The present paper studies the impact of persuasive communication on product awareness and purchase intention with special reference to probiotic products. This is a 'One-group, pre-test and post-test' Quasi-experimental research design in which a sample of 100 students was taken from a university at Chandigarh by using multi-stage random sampling. Subjects' product awareness regarding probiotic products and purchase intention to buy probiotic products were measured in two phases by using validated and reliable instrument. Lecture-cum-power point presentation was used as a mean of persuasive communication. Mean scores of experimental group on product awareness and purchase intention were measured before and after the lecture. Inferences were drawn by using non parametric tests i.e. Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test and Mann-Whitney Test. it was found in the present study that there was positive and significant impact of persuasive communication on product awareness and purchase intention. The impact of persuasive communication was also found positive and significant across selected demographics i.e. gender, age and education. Study further found that there was no impact of gender, age and education on product awareness and purchase intention. In the end study argued that persuasive communication in the form of advertisements, seminars, conferences, lectures, awareness campaigns, etc., focusing on the benefits of probiotics and their importance in the present life style, will surely help the companies to create demand for probiotic products.