188 © Media Watch 6 (2) 188-192, 2015 ISSN 0976-0911 e-ISSN 2249-8818 DOI: 10.15655/mw/2015/v6i2/65662 Rural Women Psychology and Emotional Contents in I ndian Television Advertisements SANJAY JERATH & MRI NALI NI PANDEY Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad, India The current study examines the effect of emotional contents in television advertising on the rural women and how they understand and react towards these advertisements. The study further leads us to the issues of cognitive behaviour of rural women after the advertisement has influenced their emotional corridor. For this study 167 women are selected from rural districts of Maharashtra and cluster sampling approach is used. 5 point Likert scale with the range from strongly disagree to strongly agree is used along with structured questionnaire. Contents of the advertisement are broken down it to defined parts like model, slogan, jingle etc for the easy understanding and correct answering from the respondents and it helps us in understanding the role played by each variable in the emotional outcome of the respondent after viewing the advertisement. This study provides the insights to the marketers and advertisers about the factors which actually influences the rural women and persuades them and further provides a direction in developing an effective communication approach towards this particular market segment. Keywords: Advertising, cognitive behaviour, emotional contents, emotional outcome, rural women Advertisement or advertising is increasingly used to leave an impact of brand in the mind of the viewer for a long term basis. After its exposure there are stimulating effects which can influence the decision making of the consumer. It is expected from the advertising messages that they mould the buying behaviour of individuals in certain desired direction and sometimes it also reaches a point where decision towards the advertised brand becomes more of emotional than rational. Advertisement is a potent tool which influences the emotions of consumer. As rural women are also becoming the influencer in certain types of product, like automobiles, appliances etc, they are also targeted by advertisement in specific way so as to influence their emotions. These advertisements mould the imaginary senses of the mind of rural women towards certain type of buying influences they exert on the parents and becomes the influencers in the collective decision making of the family. When exposed in young age rural women may develop the desired feelings towards the brand or product for a long time to come. This on many-a-times leads to regulating the buying behaviour. Feelings generated by emotional contents of the advertisement become a catalyst in moulding the cognitive and behavioural aspects of rural women. Especially in a country like India where collective decision making is valued in joint family system of rural area whenever a costly product like automobile or consumer durable product is being purchased, emotional aspect of rural women becomes one of the influencer in decision making. It has been observed that viewer specially women often try to establish personal relationship with the contents, characters, graphics etc and starts visualising in their imagination about product or brand. Because of these factors they have become lucrative target for advertiser. This subject has Correspondence to: Sanjay Jerath, Department of Management Studies, Indian School of Mines Dhanbad-826 004, India. E-mail: sanjujerath@gmail.com