Abstract:
This study examined the impact of covert marketing on young consumers buying
behavior special reference to fast food industry in Batticaloa. Fast food firms in
Batticaloa pay novel attitude in promote their products and services through effective
promotional medium which is called covert marketing through this covert marketing
the firms try to form brand awareness among the consumers via spreading positive
WOM and this have adverse effect on their output in terms of sales. They do not see
the need of spending part of their budget in advertisement to promote their products
and services and influence consumer buying behavior. With great increase in
technological advancement, effective promotional way has become extremely
important to be able to have competitive advantage, hence the need for this study.
This study adopted a survey research design. It involves collection of data from
respondents through questionnaire to test hypotheses for that 300.young consumers
were considered as a sample of this study. Multiple regression technique was used to
test hypotheses. The research findings show that a significant and positive relationship
lie between the independent variables brand awareness, brand recognition and brand
recall dependent variable consumer buying behavior. All the independent variables
have statistically significant t-ratio and have positive relationship with consumer
buying behavior. This result is consistent with the literature. We recommend that for
effective promotional technique to take place, the target audience without any
interruption must be extensively reached to know their consumption pattern and
behavior toward products and services. And that effort should be directed more on IQ
related advertising, since consumers patronage are highly induced through their IQ
