Vol. 11, Special Issue 11, Part A (2025)

Abstract
Rapid changes in India’s urban retail markets necessitate a better understanding of how consumers make purchase decisions. Utilizing dual-process theory, this research investigates emotional and cognitive decision-making styles of FMCG consumers from Bengaluru. Based on a cross-sectional survey of 253 participants and statistical techniques such as t-tests, ANOVA and K-means cluster analysis, the research finds the decision-making tendency differences among different gender, age, education and income. Women and married participants expressed more emotional engagement, whereas men and the highly educated were more likely to focus on cognitive appraisals. Three consumer profiles were identified by cluster analysis: Emotionally Anchored Evaluators, Dual-System Engagers and Function-Focused Realists. These discoveries extend the extensive literature on consumer segmentation and provide a practical guidance for FMCG advertisers in order to target their advertising according to demographic and psychological features.