Rural Marketing
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION TO RURAL MARKET
GONE ARE the days when a rural consumer went to a nearby city to buy branded products and services. Time was when only a select household consumed branded goods, be it toothpaste or soap. There were days when big companies flocked to rural markets to establish their brands. Today, rural markets are critical for every marketer - be it for a branded shampoo or an automobile.
To open a business daily or business magazine today, you will read about some company or other announcing its intention to `go rural '. Is going rural that simple? Apart from the distribution nightmare of reaching the products to rural markets, with 13 major languages and thousands of dialects, 1,700 ethnic groups and hundreds of caste groups, reaching the right communication to the rural community is mind-boggling.
A number of today 's marketers who believe that consumers in rural India are less demanding and easily satisfied are in for a rude shock. It is high time these marketers realize that an indiscriminate marketing strategy, a replication of that used for the urban customer, will not work with his rural counterpart. The latter have a different set of priorities, which necessitates a different approach, both in terms of developing appropriate products to suit them and using appropriate communication strategies, which they will comprehend better.
There is a debate in some quarters that the rural market is mature enough to understand communication developed for urban markets, especially in the case of FMCGs. This is partly true, if the communication is such that it makes the product promise in a simple and easy-to-understand style. It is also true that the section of rural society, which is exposed to urban lifestyles because of employment, is beginning to appreciate and understand all types of communication aimed at it. But they are in small numbers and the vast majority of rural folks, even today, cannot understand clever communication.
INTRODUCTION TO RURAL MARKET
GONE ARE the days when a rural consumer went to a nearby city to buy branded products and services. Time was when only a select household consumed branded goods, be it toothpaste or soap. There were days when big companies flocked to rural markets to establish their brands. Today, rural markets are critical for every marketer - be it for a branded shampoo or an automobile.
To open a business daily or business magazine today, you will read about some company or other announcing its intention to `go rural '. Is going rural that simple? Apart from the distribution nightmare of reaching the products to rural markets, with 13 major languages and thousands of dialects, 1,700 ethnic groups and hundreds of caste groups, reaching the right communication to the rural community is mind-boggling.
A number of today 's marketers who believe that consumers in rural India are less demanding and easily satisfied are in for a rude shock. It is high time these marketers realize that an indiscriminate marketing strategy, a replication of that used for the urban customer, will not work with his rural counterpart. The latter have a different set of priorities, which necessitates a different approach, both in terms of developing appropriate products to suit them and using appropriate communication strategies, which they will comprehend better.
There is a debate in some quarters that the rural market is mature enough to understand communication developed for urban markets, especially in the case of FMCGs. This is partly true, if the communication is such that it makes the product promise in a simple and easy-to-understand style. It is also true that the section of rural society, which is exposed to urban lifestyles because of employment, is beginning to appreciate and understand all types of communication aimed at it. But they are in small numbers and the vast majority of rural folks, even today, cannot understand clever communication.
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