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RURAL MARKETING: AN OPPORTUNITY TO BE EXPLORED

Satya C. Mehta Pankaj R. Sorathia Kosha D. Vasavada


(BHOLABHAI PATEL COLLEGE OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION)

ABSTRACT
The future lies with those companies who see the poor as their customers

MEANING OF RURAL MARKETING


Village with clear surveyed boundaries not having a municipality, corporation or board, with density of population not more than 400/sq.km and with at least 75 per cent of the male working population engaged in agriculture and allied activities would quality as rural. Fact Figures: There are 6,38,000 villages in the country. Of these, only 0.5 per cent has a population above 10,000 and 2 per cent have population between 5,000 and 10,000. Around 50 per cent has a population less than 200.

CONTD

According to Hindustan Lever Ltd, ITC Ltd. and Consumer durable companies: Any territory that has more than 20,000 and 50,000 population, respectively, is Rural Market.

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN AGRICULTURAL MARKETING & RURAL MARKETING


Agricultural marketing - Marketing of produced goods of the rural areas to the urban consumers or industrial consumers. Rural marketing - It involves delivering manufactured or processed inputs or services to rural producers or consumers.

FACTS THAT MAKES RURAL INDIA ATTRACTIVE


650 million people Estimated annual size of the rural market FMCG Rs 65,000 Crore Durables Rs 5,000 Crore Agri-inputs (incl. tractors) Rs 45,000 Crore 2 / 4 wheeler vehicles Rs 8,000 Crore Of two million BSNL mobile connections, 50% are in small towns/villages. Of the six lakh villages, 5.22 lakh have a Village Public Telephone (VPT) 42 million rural households are availing banking services in comparison to 27 million Urban households. Investment in formal savings instruments: 6.6 million households in rural and 6.7 million in urban India.

THREATS IN RURAL MARKETING


Under Developed People Tradition bound Poor Infrastructure for Communication Lack of Mass Media Many Languages & Dialects Scattered Market Low Level of Literacy Rate Popularity of spurious brands & seasonal demand Different way of Thinking

MARKETING STRATEGIES TO CAPTURE RURAL INDIA


Marketing Strategy to capture rural India depends upon 4 As. Availability Affordability Acceptability Awareness

4 AS

Availability - It emphasizes on the availability of the goods and services to the end consumers. Affordability - It focuses on product pricing. A company buys from farmers directly in the last days closing price and even pays them for transportation. Goods are weighted electronically and hence farmers are no more cheated as they used to be previously. Hence it is a win-win situation both for farmers and the company.

CONTD

Acceptability - It focuses on convincing the customer to buy the product. Awareness - It focuses on making people aware of the product. It provides active servicing up to rural outlets. It provides them with wide range of product categories. Moreover it has made entrepreneurs out of farmers as they are managing most of the work; it instills in them the sense of ownership.

WAYS TO CAPTURE RURAL INDIA


By Communicating and Changing Quality perception By proper Communication in Regional Languages By understanding Cultural & Social Values By providing what Customer wants By promoting Products with Indian Celebrities By Target Changing Perception By Associating themselves with India By promoting Indian Sports Team

CONTD
By Talking about a Normal Indian By developing Rural Specific Products By giving Indian Names to Brands By acquiring Indian Brands By effective Media Communication By Adopting Localised way of distributing By associating them with Indian Celebrities By participating in MELA By putting company Hoardings as COKE, PEPSI & TATAs do.

CONCLUSION
The future is very promising for those who can understand the dynamics of rural markets and exploit them to their best advantage. For achieving success in rural market paradigm shift in the belief of top management those who think that Rural Market is bundle of problem & unattractive is required. It is only the matter of strategically developing rural market for getting competitive advantage. Thus the future lies with those companies who see the poor as their customers."

Thank You

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