Aida Analysis of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan: Role of Behavioral Antecedents

ABSTRACT

The aim of advertising is to encourage consumers to buy or use what the company is offering. AIDA theory of advertising describes the effect of advertising media. According to AIDA model, a potential consumer goes through 4 phases when deciding whether to buy a product and these correlate to the 4 phases of the AIDA model. AIDA theory of advertising describes the effect of advertising media. The acronym AIDA stands for Attention/Awareness, Interest, Desire and action. The effectiveness of any advertising campaign can be easily judged through the four stages of AIDA theory. In the first phase, the attention of consumers is captured. Once the consumer is aware that the product or service exists, the business should work on increasing the potential’s customer’s interest level. In the third phase, an emotional connection is established moving consumer’s mindset from “I like it” to “I want it”. In the last stage, the focus is on achieving ultimate goal which is to drive the receiver of the marketing campaign to initiate action and purchase the product or service. India accounts for about 90% of the population in South Asia and 59% of the 1.3 billion people still defecate in open, making it the single largest contributor to open defecation in the world. India loses atleast 1000 children a day to diarrhoeal deaths due to open defecation and lack of proper sanitation facilities. Due to the increment of awareness of environmental issues, health issues and also economic issues, Swachh Bharat campaign has been established. On launching Swachh Bharat Abhiya, PM Narendra Modi had said “the pursuit of cleanliness can be an economic activity contributing to GDP growth, reduction in health care costs and a source of employment. Mahatma Gandhi wished to see a "Clean India" where people work hand in hand to make the country clean. To work seriously towards this vision of Gandhi Ji, Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi launched the Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan on October 2, 2014 and asked people from all walks of life to help in successful implementation of this mission. He invited all the Indians to devote 100 hours to clean their surroundings. In order to bring out behaviour change, extensive awareness generation initiatives would need to be undertaken with regards to the negative healthcare issues related to open defecation. The campaign has been described as "beyond politics" and "inspired by patriotism". Post COVID the need for social distancing and personal hygiene is going to bring about several structural changes right from how people stand in a queue or get a haircut to flying or watching movies. The new institutional practices are likely to remain in place for a longer period of time, with some becoming a permanent feature of public life. The present paper seeks to study the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (SBA) through the lens of AIDA model. The study investigates the perception of people towards SBA through behavioural antecedents viz. attitude towards SBA, role of social media & subjective norms. This study is carried out to explore consumers’ demographic variables and their significant influence on the 4 variables of AIDA theory. Research Methodology: This quantitative study employed the exploratory research design. Data was collected from 335 respondents from all over India which covered North region, South-East, South-West, East, West, North-East, North-West and central region with the help of a structured questionnaire and focus groups. Percentage analyses, one way ANOVA and multiple regression are the statistical tools adopted for testing the hypotheses using SPSS. Findings and Implications The statistically significant results revealed that category influences interest, desire & action of individuals. Education also positively impacts desire & action of individuals. Service class people were found to show more interest in SBA. Females were found to show more desire and action towards SBA activities. Single respondents show more desire in SBA. Religion was also found to affect SBA activities. People from Eastern egion are more attentive to SBA activities while people from South West region were found to show interest in SBA activities. North West people have desire to actively participate in SBA while respondents from South East are the most action-oriented people as far as SBA activities are concerned.