Rural Marketing

INTRODUCTION
"The rural market has been growing at 12-13 per cent as compared to 7-8 per cent growth of urban counterpart, over the last decade. Moreover, the urban market is getting saturated and corporate are now looking sincerely towards the rural market in a much serious way. In recent years, rural markets have acquired significance in countries like China and India, as the overall growth of the economy has resulted into substantial increase in the purchasing power of the rural communities. On account of the green revolution in India, the rural areas are consuming a large quantity of industrial and urban manufactured products. In this context, a special marketing strategy, namely, rural marketing has taken shape. Rural India represents the heart of India. Approximately 80% of India lives in over half a million villages (627,000), generating more than half of the national income. So an in depth understanding of the areas is what is required.

The field of rural marketing has been witnessing a lot of action from both the fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) sector and consumer products manufacturers but, there has been little success in the manner in which rural research is carried out. The limitation lies in the inadequate or unavailability of appropriate tools to evaluate the rural market behavior. The problem arises because of general lack of education resulting in low awareness about the products and hence the inability to respond to the queries of the researcher in these areas. Conventional research tools do not work in these markets, as these are difficult to comprehend for the illiterate and semi-literate rural people. The report is a whole-hearted effort to understand the various aspects of rural marketing and understand and designing effective strategies that are to be formulated to succeed in the field.

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Rural Marketing

GOING RURAL WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN ??

Rural Markets are defined as those segments of overall market of any economy, which are distinct from the other types of markets like stock market, commodity markets or Labor economics. Rural Markets constitute an important segment of overall economy, for example, in the USA, out of about 3000 counties, around 2000 counties are rural, that is, non-urbanized, with population of 55 million. Typically, a rural market will represent a community in a rural area with a population of 2500 to 30000 Rural Marketing refers to the delivery of manufactured or processed inputs or services to rural producers or consumers. Marketing today has completely transformed the nature and dynamics of business. Marketing of products has taken precedence over the process of production itself. This can be attributed to the fact that the new age consumer equipped with the potent tool of information seeks more knowledge about the product, its features and its uses. And when this information is presented in a creative and effective manner, it creates an everlasting impression on the consumers mind and may even alter his perception of what he needs. Marketers are forever seeking fresh challenges and scouting for more and more clientele to be drawn into their sphere of influence. The urban consumer has always been pampered with the most dazzling array of goods and services from every industry. But the urban market is fast shrinking due to saturation caused by the competition and the growth rate over the past few years has consistently shown a declining trend. A thorough understanding of the rural markets has become an important aspect of marketing in the Global marketing environment today.

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FEATURES OF RURAL MARKETING

1. Large and Scattered market: The rural market of India is large and scattered in the sense that it consists of over 63 crore consumer from 5, 70,000 villages spread throughout the country.

2. Major income from agriculture: Nearly 60 % of the rural income is from agriculture. Hence rural prosperity is tied with agricultural prosperity.

3. Low standard of living: The consumer in the village area do have a low standard of living because of low literacy, low per capita income, social backwardness, low savings, etc.

4. Traditional Outlook: The rural consumer values old customs and tradition. They do not prefer changes.

5. Diverse socio-economic backwardness: Rural consumers have diverse socio-economic backwardness. This is different in different parts of the country.

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Rural Marketing 6. Infrastructure Facilities: The Infrastructure Facilities like roads, warehouses, communication system, financial facilities are inadequate in rural areas. Hence physical distribution becomes costly due to inadequate Infrastructure Facilities. There are certain more characteristic features of rural India, which every prospective marketer needs to be aware of before unleashing his product: Low income influenced by seasonal fluctuations Low literacy Diverse customs, languages and social structures Resistant to change Price sensitive High brand loyalty Influenced by traditions Moderate aspirational levels Quality Conscious Low to moderate risk taking ability

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Significance
In recent years, rural markets have acquired significance in countries like China and India, as the overall growth of the economy has resulted into substantial increase in the purchasing power of the rural communities. On account of the green revolution in India, the rural areas are consuming a large quantity of industrial and urban manufactured products. In this context, a special marketing strategy, namely, rural marketing has taken shape. Sometimes, rural marketing is confused with agricultural marketing the later denotes marketing of produce of the rural areas to the urban consumers or industrial consumers, whereas rural marketing involves delivering manufactured or processed inputs or services to rural producers or consumers. These typical characteristics of the rural market make it evident that there are huge challenges, which a marketer will face. These challenges need to be tackled using appropriate strategies and proper planning. The major obstacles can be classified as follows: Poor infrastructure facilities, which hamper the effective distribution of products and make the task of reaching the target consumer difficult. Traditional media is ineffective due to illiteracy and non availability. There is insufficient past research to provide some insight about consumer behavior.

Disposable income is highly dependent on good monsoons and a rich harvest.

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Rural Marketing Varying linguistic and socio-cultural norms compel the marketer to vary his marketing message for different parts of the same country. Role of women in buying process is still not independent of family constraints. Inadequate credit availability hampers the ability of rural retailers to carry stocks. Understanding the psyche of the rural consumer and gauging the complexity of the rural market has to be given utmost priority by marketer. Creative marketing solutions have to be devised to combat these barriers. Rural market is undergoing a transformation and is luring multinational companies to market their products in this segment. For any marketer, the key to success in this market is to understand the psyche of the rural consumers, which is completely different from that of their urban counterparts. Marketers can reap the benefits of an untapped rural market, increased consumption of durables and non-durables, increased income level, low competition, increased literacy levels, and increased brand awareness. In most of the rural areas in different parts of the country, there is considerable awareness on various latest products that are available in the market. This has been possible due to the penetration of cable and satellite channels that have brought down the world at the finger tips of the common man. The media influenced the mindset of the rural consumer to such an extent that people who had money started purchasing the products unmindful of the costs, just to satisfy their needs as well as their ego. But, the growth of rural market could be attributed to many other reasons that in one way increased the sales as well as the profits of the companies.

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Rural Marketing Some of the important causes for the growth of rural markets are * The rise in disposable income of the rural families * The economic boom * Timely rains * Rural population involved themselves in businesses other than * Increased white-collar jobs in nearby towns * Commercialization of agriculture * Saturation of the urban markets * Media penetration in rural areas (particularly satellite channels) * Globalization * Economic liberalization * Revolution in the Information Technology * Women empowerment * Improving infrastructure agriculture

Strategies
Dynamics of rural markets differ from other market types, and similarly rural marketing strategies are also significantly different from the marketing strategies aimed at an urban or industrial consumer. This, along with several other related issues, have been subject matter of intense discussions and debate in countries like India and China and focus of even international symposia organized in these countries. Rural markets and rural marketing involve a number of strategies, which include:

Client and location specific promotion Joint or cooperative promotion Bundling of inputs Management of demand Developmental marketing

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Unique selling proposition (USP) Extension services Business ethics Partnership for sustainability

Client and Location specific promotion involves a strategy designed to be suitable to the location and the client. Joint or co-operative promotion strategy involves participation between the marketing agencies and the client.

'Bundling of inputs' denote a marketing strategy, in which several related items are sold to the target client, including arrangements of credit, after-sale service, and so on. Management of demand involve continuous market research of buyers needs and problems at various levels so that continuous improvements and innovations can be undertaken for a sustainable market performance.

Developmental marketing refer to taking up marketing programmes keeping the development objective in mind and using various managerial and other inputs of marketing to achieve these objectives. Media, both traditional as well as the modern media, is used as a marketing strategy. Unique Selling Propositions (USP) involve presenting a theme with the product to attract the client to buy that particular product. For examples, some of famous Indian Farm equipment manufactures have coined catchy themes, which they display along with the products, to attract the target client, that is the farmers. English version of some of such themes would read like:

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The heartbeats of rural India With new technique for a life time of company For the sake of progress and prosperity

Extension Services denote, in short, a system of attending to the missing links and providing the required know-how. Ethics in Business. form, as usual, an important plank for rural markets and rural marketing. Partnership for sustainability involve laying and building a foundation for continuous and long lasting relationship. Present position Rural markets, as part of any economy, have untapped potential. There are several difficulties confronting the effort to fully explore rural markets. The concept of rural markets in India, as also in several other countries, like China, is still in evolving shape, and the sector poses a variety of challenges, including understanding the dynamics of the rural markets and strategies to supply and satisfy the rural consumers.

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UNDERSTANDING RURAL MARKETS

There has been always a vast difference between the two markets for a long time now. The difference is not only between urban and rural but also within the rural areas -between regions, states and districts. There is a difference in the media reach, the education levels, in the culture and the type of products that the two markets are exposed to and this leads to a difference in the two markets. The difference is in things like -- how do you celebrate New Year, how do you celebrate birthdays? Small things like these are celebrated in a completely different manner when the rural and the urban customers are concerned. There is a vast difference in the lifestyles of the people in the two regions. The kind of choices of brands that an urban customer enjoys is different from the choices available to the rural counterparts. The rural customer usually has 2 or 3 brands to choose from whereas the urban one has multiple choices. The difference is also in the way of thinking. The rural customer has a fairly simple thinking as compared to the urban counterpart. But with technology coming in, mass media reach and the literacy levels going up - this divide is expected top reduce. The biggest thing is that there is lack of any research into the consumer behavior of the rural areas. There is considerable amount of data on the urban consumer regarding things like -- who is the influencer, who is the buyer, how do they go and buy, how much money do they spend on their purchases, etc. but on the rural front - the effort has started to happen now. So we need to understand the buyer.

Also, whatever little understanding we have is not for the entire industry. There is no collective effort. Some people have spent time in the rural markets, carried out studies and have understood the rural behavior, but their works have not been passed or known to the rest of the industry.

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Rural Marketing So, an in depth understanding of the consumer is one key area that the industry needs to work on. There are vast differences in the rural areas as well. There are some 5,60,000 villages and some 525 districts and each one is different from the other. The geographical spread is not as homogeneous as it is with the urban areas owing to vast cultural differences. So an in depth understanding of the areas is what is required.

The field of rural marketing has been witnessing a lot of action from both the fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) sector and consumer products manufacturers but, there has been little success in the manner in which rural research is carried out. The limitation lies in the inadequate or unavailability of appropriate tools to evaluate the rural market behavior. The problem arises because of general lack of education resulting in low awareness about the products and hence the inability to respond to the queries of the researcher in these areas. Conventional research tools do not work in these markets, as these are difficult to comprehend for the illiterate and semi-literate rural people. The typical research scales used are for ranking, rating and attitude measurement, limiting the research questions to simple yes/no kinds that do not bring the true essence of the research process. The limitation of

conventional research tools during the research project prompted them to look at alternative sources to solve this problem and the results were favorable. Colors are very strong indicators, and forms, of expressing the feelings in the rural areas and there are tools devised with colors that represent and reflect the right answer to the researchers' queries. The selection of colors is done on the basis of the association of rural people with these colors. For instance, it has been observed that dark green represents a good crop or Haryali (as they call it) and hence represents prosperity and is considered to be the best. Light green represents not very good crop and stands next to dark green color.

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Rural Marketing Yellow represents dry sand or a dry field and hence comes next. Orange is the color of the setting sun and represents the end of the day and hence is placed after yellow and just before red, a color that represents danger to them This is probably the beginning to a new form of research and analysis that might change the paradigm of rural marketing research and, who knows, one might just see this field blossom into a specialized research activity. If a simple ranking and rating is achieved, a lot can be explained about the rural preferences and behavior providing the marketers and manufacturers of goods specific to the rural markets get that meaningful insight to be able to help grow the markets in these areas.

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RURAL MARKETS IN INDIA

A thorough understanding of the rural markets has become an important aspect of marketing in the Indian marketing environment today. This attraction towards the rural markets is primarily due to the colossal size of the varied demands of the 230 million rural people. In fact, the rural markets are expanding in India at such a rapid pace that they have overtaken the growth in urban markets. This rate of growth of the rural market segment is however not the only factor that has driven marketing managers to go rural. The other compelling factor is the fact that the urban markets are becoming increasingly complex, competitive and saturated. Further, the vast untapped potential of the rural markets is growing at a rapid pace. The policies of the government largely favor rural development programmes. This is clearly highlighted by the fact that the outlay for rural development has risen from Rs 14000 crores in the 7th plan to Rs 30000 crores in the 8th plan period. These figures also prove that the rural market is emerging stronger with a gradual increase in disposable income of the rural folk. In addition, better procurement prices fixed for the various crops and better yields due to many research programmes have also contributed to the strengthening of the rural markets. Thus, with the rural markets bulging in both size and volume, any marketing manager will be missing a great potential opportunity if he does not go rural.

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Importance of customs
This however raises a fundamental problem of fathoming the differences between urban and rural markets in India. This is of paramount importance in the Indian marketing environment as rural and urban markets in our country are so very diverse in nature that urban marketing programmes just cannot be successfully extended to the rural markets. The buying behavior demonstrated by the rural Indian differs tremendously when compared to the typical urban Indian. Further, the values, aspirations and needs of the rural people vastly differ from that of the urban population. Basic cultural values have not yet faded in rural India. Buying decisions are still made by the eldest male member in the rural family whereas even children influence buying decisions in urban areas. Further, buying decisions are highly influenced by social customs, traditions and beliefs in the rural markets. Many rural purchases require collective social sanction, unheard off in urban areas. Another contrasting feature is the precision in the assessment of purchasing power of the consumers. In urban markets, income levels are generally used to measure purchasing power and markets are segmented accordingly. However,

this measure is not adequate for defining the purchasing power in rural areas because of the single fact that rural incomes are grossly underestimated.

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Rural Marketing Farmers and rural artisans are paid in cash as well as in kind. However, while reporting their incomes, they report only cash earnings, which then affect the calculation of their purchasing power. This is the reason why marketers are often surprised to find that their products are sometimes consumed by people who, according to their surveys and estimates do not have the purchasing power to do so. Every marketing manager must therefore make an attempt to understand the rural consumer better so that he can plan his strategies in such a manner that they produce the desired results.

Changing the marketing mix

Unfortunately, most marketers of today try to extend marketing plans that they use in urban areas to the rural markets and face, on many occasions failure. They should adopt a strategy that appeals individually to the rural audience and formulate separate annual plans and sales targets for the rural segment. Changes must be made in the marketing mix elements such as price, place, product and promotion. Corporate marketers should refrain from designing goods for the urban markets and subsequently pushing them in the rural areas. The unique consumption patterns, tastes, and needs of the rural consumers should be analyzed at the product planning stage so that they match the needs of the rural people. For most companies wanting to enter the rural markets, distribution poses a serious problem. Distribution costs and non availability of retail outlets are major problems faced by the marketers. But if one takes a closer look at the characteristic features of the rural market, it will be clear that distribution in fact, is no problem at all. In rural India, annual melas organized with a religious or festive significance are quite popular and provide a very good platform for distribution. Rural markets come alive at these melas and people visit them to make several purchases. According to the Indian Market Research Bureau, around 8000 such melas are held in rural India every year. Besides these melas, rural markets have the practice of fixing specific days in a week as Market Days when exchange of goods and services are carried out. This is another potential low cost distribution channel available to the marketers. Also, every region consisting of several villages is generally served by one satellite town where people

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Rural Marketing prefer to go to buy their durable commodities. If marketing managers use these feeder towns they will easily be able to cover a large section of the rural population. While planning promotional strategies in rural markets, marketers must be very careful in choosing the vehicle to be used for communication. They must remember that only 16% of the rural population has access to a vernacular newspaper. Although television is undoubtedly a powerful medium, the audio visuals must be planned to convey a right message to the rural folk. The marketers must try and rely on the rich, traditional media forms like folk dances, puppet shows, etc with which the rural consumers are familiar and comfortable, for high impact product campaigns. Thus, a radical change in attitudes of marketers towards the vibrant and burgeoning rural markets is called for, so they can successfully impress on the 230 million rural consumers spread over approximately six hundred thousand villages in rural India.

ADVERTISING A dramatic change is in progress. Villagers who used to crack open peanut M & M candies, eat the nut and throw away the shell are now demanding chocolate candies that will melt in their mouths, not in their hands. Charcoal-cleaned teeth are a rare sight; so is the case with twigs of niim (neem) and babul (babool) tree. Today, the ultra bright shine of Colgate or some other international brand of toothpaste holds more appeal than the traditional methods of cleaning teeth. Even the native expressions of cleaning teeth, such as daatun karnaa and musaag lagaanaa, are endangered to being replaced by new expressions such as paste karnaa, 'to brush teeth with paste'. Even a simple query such as: Where are you from? is not free from the overtones of marketization and globalization in rural discourse. Consumerism and globalization is invading parts of India where, as some would venture to say, time seems to have ceased for centuries. These villages and small towns, which were once inconsequential dots on maps, are now getting the attention of global marketing giants and media planners. Thanks to globalization, economic liberalization, IT revolution, Indian Diaspora, female power, and - 17 -

Rural Marketing improving infrastructure, middle class rural India today has more disposable income than urban India. Rural marketing is gaining new heights in addition to rural advertising.

Rural India represents the heart of India. Approximately 80% of India lives in over half a million villages (627,000), generating more than half of the national income. Based on the interviews with consumers, media giants, and analysis of case studies, it offers insights into the following:

Various facets of rural media (conventional and non-conventional) and integrated marketing communication. In addition to rural market discourse, media forms such as wall paintings, calendar advertising, outdoor advertising, print, radio and television advertising.

Art of crafting messages to meet rural tastes and sensibilities. In particular, uniquely Indian media forms such as video van technology, which has changed the face of not only marketing but also political campaigning. Rural markets (haat) which are the mobile McDonald's or Walmarts of India.

Targeting women and religious groups in addition to rural population.

Marketing taboo products such as 'bidi', cigarettes, sanitary supplies, and other such products.

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Globalization and its effects on product naming, product monitoring, rural discourse and media forms.

Creativity and deception, together with guidelines for advertisers and marketers.

Information structures and logic of rural ads.

Ads as a social barometer of changing relationships and value systems.

Marketing in focus groups

To explain how the dynamics of branding works in different settings, let us take example of four villages from various parts of the country. For our purpose we will refer to these villages as our focus groups. We have taken a village each from Punjab, Bihar, Kerala and West Bengal. As we have stressed earlier, for any product to be successful in the rural parts of the country, a customized approach is necessary. So we will start our analysis by describing the features of each village, define a product that we wish to market in that village and then describe the marketing strategy for that product.

For a village in Punjab

There are various factors that need to be kept in mind so as to influence the buying behavior of the people of this village. Punjab has a rich culture and Punjabis are per se very - 19 -

Rural Marketing lively people. They believe in strong community relationships. Caste system is not very strong and overall farmers are prosperous. Land is fertile and there is abundant food and water. Literacy rates are almost equivalent to the countrys rate and people are highly aware of the current trends and like to own goods that enhance their status in the community. People are fond of eating and frequent celebrations are part of their lives. To understand how marketers need to approach this market, we have chosen an electronic grill as the product. Traditionally a clay tandoor is used to cook chapattis, non-vegetarian items etc in this region. We are offering electronic grill as a substitute to this. Characteristics that a marketer needs to highlight in this product are: Modern way of cooking A premium product, uses some imported technology Control panel in Punjabi language Smart looks, international styling Faster cooking, heat controls and offers variety in terms of dishes that can be cooked Payment in easy installments Convenient to handle and portable Available in different sizes viz. 22 liters, 19 liters, 16 liters

In addition to using these promotional parameters, it has to be kept in mind that disposable income is maximized during harvesting season so its the perfect time to launch this product. Television and radio can be used to effectively promote the product. In addition to this, demonstrations can be used to carry home the message. As women are highly regarded in this region, so they can be roped in to educate the local women about the benefits of using this product instead of traditional tandoor. Also another way to promote this product can be to position it as a gift item during marriages etc.

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For a village in Bihar

Factors that need to be analyzed while entering this market are low level of literacy, division of society based on economic background and caste system. There is no dearth of water in this region and soil is also fertile. But there is lack of infrastructure and modern industries. Rainfall levels are high. The law and order situation has worsened in the recent past and the frequency of extremist violence has risen. The people of Bihar are very religious and God-fearing. For recreational purposes, they engage in folk theatre and enjoy music and dance. To understand how marketers need to approach this market, we have chosen Multipurpose oil as the product. Characteristics that a marketer needs to highlight in this product are: Non- sticky quality of the oil Contains herbal qualities Can be used for many purposes like hair massage, body massage and for relieving stress Special characteristics like cooling attributes Available in variety of fragrances As the income level in this part of the country is very low, so small and convenient packaging is very important. Moreover to help them to relate to this product, impression of their local Madhubani painting can be used on sachets or bottles. Also the product name has to be traditional to which villagers can relate to for example madhusudan or sanjivini. For promoting the product, some movie star should be used as villagers aspire to be like them and thus emulate them.

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For a village in Kerala Kerala can perhaps be one of the easiest places for the marketer to sell their product, as it is very similar to the urban markets. This can be attributed to the high level of education coupled with a rich socio cultural heritage. Various recreational activities are largely promoted by number of clubs like sports clubs, youth clubs etc. Kerala has high sex ratio and is most literate of all the states in India. Administration is very efficient and there is high level of awareness among people. There is high regard for women in the society. Certain parts of Kerala are industrially backward and tourism, rubber, Beedi manufacturing etc form the major source of income for the people. One of the most important characteristics of these villages is the presence of large number of co-operative societies. To understand how marketers need to approach this market, we have chosen a mouthwash as the product. Characteristics that a marketer needs to highlight in this product are: Usefulness of dental hygiene Anti plaque properties Promises fresh breath

Any media i.e. television, radio or print media can be used to promote the product. Again, as the income levels are moderate so small or medium packs have to be introduced. Most important point that has to be taken care of is that co-operatives have to be roped in for effective distribution of the product. These co-operatives are very well aware of the buying habits of the people and the trends of the market. So they can provide large amount of useful information. Some kind of incentive or profit sharing model has to be devised so that co-operatives have the reason to push this product.

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For a village in West Bengal A typical village of West Bengal has characteristics like low amount of agriculture, coastal areas with fishing being the major source of income for the locals, generally people are poor and land holdings are very small, literacy rates are very low. Staple diet is rice and fish. People are very proud of their language and culture. We have chosen dairy whitener as the product to demonstrate the approach that a marketer needs to take to make inroads in this type of market. The main brand promise that is offered to the consumer is low pricing and economy of the product. Cost of milk in a cup of tea is around Re 1. But a 50 gm sachet, which is priced at nearly Rs 6.50, can be used to make nearly 25 cups of tea. So cost of milk used comes down drastically to nearly 26 paise per cup. Moreover sachet offers convenience of use and can be used anywhere. As there is high degree of humidity in that region and people cannot afford refrigerators, so this product helps to eliminate the problem of proper storage. Analysis & Opportunities As it is clear from the examples taken, for the product to be successful in rural market, it has to be customized for that particular market. Each product needs individual attention and success in one market cannot be emulated in other markets. Most important factors that work for a product are right brand promise that is relevant for the local population and discreet brand visualization. Brand visualization would include factors like name of the product in local language, color combination according to local settings and a tag line, which delivers the message that is easily understood by the people. Companies need to identify the opinion leader in each area and target him as the first point of contact for villagers. One potential area that

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Rural Marketing companies need to tap is advertising the local events like bullock races, melas or festivals. Another way is to advertise in places where people commune like hand pumps, ponds or haats.

RURAL MARKETING DIFFERENT FROM URBAN MARKETING

There is a difference in the media reach, the education levels, in the culture and the type of products that the two markets are exposed to and this leads to a difference in the two markets. Understanding the meaning of the 4P's is just about the most important thing you can accomplish in your entire marketing program. The use of the 4P's is a part of most marketing decisions.

PRODUCT
o o

the physical features of the product, or the intangible aspects of the service covers things you do to make the product more attractive to buy

PLACE
o o o

decisions about where to sell the product or concerns about where the customers are, and how to get to them also includes the "channel of distribution" - meaning, all the different middlemen you use to get the product out to the customer

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Rural Marketing
o o

telling the customer about the product promotion is typically sub-divided into

Mass Selling

Advertising - which you pay for Publicity - which is free stuff you do in the store to get the customer to try the product contests, coupons, free samples direct contact person2person with a potential customer sometimes for large industrial sales sometimes for high quality consumer products, like selling a car

Sales Promotion

Personal Selling

PRICE
o o

are you going to sell at a high price and make a lot of profit in the short term are you going to sell at a low price to beat the competition and stay in the long term

There is a vast difference between the two markets for a long time now. The difference is not only between urban and rural but also within the rural areas -- between regions, states and districts. There is a difference in the media reach, the education levels, in the culture and the type of products that the two markets are exposed to and this leads to a difference in the two markets.

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THE RURAL CUSTOMER DIFFERENT FROM THE URBAN CUSTOMER

There is a vast difference in the lifestyles of the people in the two regions. The kind of choices of brands that a urban customer enjoys is different from the choices available to the rural counterparts. The rural customer usually has 2 or 3 brands to choose from whereas the urban one has multiple choices. The difference is also in the way of thinking. The rural customer has a fairly simple thinking as compared to the urban counterpart.

CHANGES IN THE MARKETING MIX - The strategy revolves around what attracts the rural customer to a product.
PRODUCT : Packaging - The rural customers are usually daily wage earners and they dont have monthly incomes like the ones in the urban areas have. So the packaging is in smaller units and lesser-priced packs that they can afford given their kind of income streams. Then a thing like the color that attracts him is also important. Another important factor is Convenience. An example is what Colgate did to its tooth powder packaging. Firstly - it made sachets as was required by their income streams. Secondly - since many households dont have proper bathrooms and only have a window or things like that to keep such things -- it

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Rural Marketing was wise to cap this sachet for convenience of storage while use. So this is what they did.

PLACE There is a difference in the role played by intermediaries in the two markets. The Retailer plays a major role in the rural market. When an urban consumer goes to shop -- he has many options in front of him(around 10 to 15 in some cases) as are displayed in the store. But for the rural customer these choices are limited. So the retailer plays a very big role here. The rural customer goes to the same shop always to buy his things. And there is a very strong bonding in terms of trust between the two. The buying behaviour is also such that the customer doesn't ask for the things by brand but like "paanch rupey waali chaye dena". Now it is on the retailer to push whatever brand he wants to push as they can influence the buyer very easily and very strongly on the preferences. MEDIA /PROMOTION MIX There is also a difference in the kind of media mix that is used to convey the messages to the rural customers. We need to use different models and means to reach them as what appeals to the urban customer may not appeal to him due to varying lifestyles. The communication and the design of it are also different as what attracts one need not attract the other as well. So again, even if the media reaches him, there might not be an impact as it may fail to attract him as fails to connect to it due to the lifestyles being different.

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Rural Marketing Traditional media can be used to reach these people in the marketing of new concept. The traditional media with its effective reach, powerful input and personalized communication system will help in realizing the goal. Besides this when the advertisement is couched in entertainment it goes down easily with the villager. Few of the available options in the traditional media are Puppetry, Folk Theater & Song, Wall Painting, Demonstration, Posters, Agricultural Games, and Post Cards etc.

Puppetry Puppetry is the indigenous theatre of India. From time immortal it has been the most popular form and well-appreciated form of entertainment available to the village people. It is an inexpensive activity. The manipulator uses the puppets as a medium to express and communicate ideas, values and social messages.

Thus in rural India puppetry is a source of livelihood, avenue for entertainment and creative expression which is ritually sacred and meaningful as a means of social communication and vehicle of social transformation. Song and Drama Division of the Government Of India make wide use of puppets in its campaigns to promote various government projects. Several other organizations, government, semi-government and private, have also used puppets in support of individual schemes.

Life Insurance Corporation of India used puppets to educate rural masses about Life Insurance; enlisting the help of the literacy house in Luck now.

These plays were shown to the audience in villages in UP, Bihar, & MP. The number of inquires at local Life Insurance Companies during the period immediately following the performance was compared with normal frequency and found to be considerable higher. The field staff of the corporation also reported a definite impact on the business.

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Rural Marketing Indian Institute of mass communication, New Delhi made a study of comparative impact of puppetry and documentary films, in two villages near Delhi. People in both the villages responded more favorably to the puppet shows then the films.

Folk Theater

Folk theaters are mainly short and rhythmic in form. The simple tunes help in informing and educating the people in informal and interesting manner. It has been used as an effective medium for social protest against injustice, exploitation and oppression. Folk Theater / Songs Forms In India. Andhra Pradesh: Veethi Natakam, Kuchupudi, Burratatha Himachal Pradesh:

Assam: Ankiya Nat, Kirtania Natak, Ojapali Bihar: Bidesia, Serikela Chhau, Jat-Jatni Bidpada, Ramkhelia Gujarat: Bhavai Haryana: Swang, Naqqal Kariyala, Bhagat, Ras, Jhanki, Harnatra Haran or Harin. Jammu & Kashmir: Bhand Pathar or Bhand Jashna, Vetal Dhamali Karnataka: Yakshagan, Sanata, DoddataBayalata, Tala Maddleor Prasang, Dasarata, Radhna. Kerala: Kodiyattam, Mudiattam, Therayattam, Chavittu Natakam, Chakiyar Kooth, Kathakali Madhya Pradesh: Maanch, Nacha Maharashtra: Tamasha, Lalit Bharud, Gondha, Dashavatar Orissa: Pala Jatra, Daskathia, Chhau Mayurbhanj, Mangal Ras, Sowang, Punjab: Nautanki, Naqaal, Swang Rajasthan: Khyal, Rasdhari, Rammat, Turra Kilangi, Gauri, Nautanki, Jhamtara Tamilnadu: Therukuttu, Veethi Natakam, Bhagwat Mela Natakam, Kurvaanji, Pagal Vasham, Kavadi Chindu Uttar Pradesh: Ram Leela, Ras Leela, Nautanki, Bhagat, Sang-Swang, Naqqual Goa, Daman & Diu: Dashavatar, Tiyatra. Folk songs have been effectively used during revolts of Telangana and Naxalbari and now a days it's best exploiters are Political Parties.

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Rural Marketing Government has used this media for popularizing improved variety of seeds, agricultural implements, fertilizer etc. Punjab Agricultural University produced Two Audio Cassettes. A) Balliye Kanak Biye - Wheat Cultivation. B) Khiran Kepah Narme Cotton Cultivation.

Both were well received by farmers.

BBLIL used Magician quite effectively for launch of Kadak Chhap Tea in Etawah.

Demonstration:

"Direct Contact" is a face-to-face relationship with people individually and with groups such as the Panchayats and other village groups. Such contact helps in arousing the villager's interest in their own problem and motivating them towards self-development. Demonstration may be A. I. Method demonstration II. Result demonstration B. I. Simple Demonstration II. Composite Demonstration

The

five

steps

to

make

any

demonstration

effective

are

below:

Information about people Objectives to be accomplished Demonstration plan & Execution of the plan Evaluation of the demonstration.

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Rural Marketing Reconsideration after evaluation.

In result demonstration, help of audio -visual media can add value.

Asian Paints launched Utsav range by painting Mukhiya's house or Post office to demonstrate that paint does not peel off.

Haats & Melas The countries oldest tradition holds the key to solving these problems. The mobile supermarkets of rural India. Facts & Figures: Over 47,000 haats and 25,000 melas are held annually.

The average daily sale at a Haat is about Rs.2.25 Lacs Annual sales at melas amount to Rs.3,500 crore. Over half the shoppers at haats have shopping lists. More than 10,000 melas draw visitors from all over India. Nearly half the outlets at melas are for manufactured goods.

Haats is a better opportunity for promotion after brand building has been done at Mela. Melas are organized after harvest season, so the villager has enough money, which he will be ready to spend. Demonstration at Haat is essential to convert customers at haats since their atitude is far more utilitarian than that of visitors to a fair.

Wall Paintings Wall Paintings are an effective and economical medium for advertising in rural areas. They are silent unlike traditional theatre .A speech or film comes to an end, but wall painting stays as long as the weather allows it to. Retailer normally welcomes paintings

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Rural Marketing of their shops, walls, and name boards. Since it makes the shop look cleaner and better. Their shops look alluring and stand out among

other outlets. Besides rural households shopkeepers and panchayats do not except any payment, for their wall to be painted with product messages. To get one's wall painted with the product messages is seemed as a status symbol. The greatest advantage of the medium is the power of the picture completed with its local touch. The images used have a strong emotional association with the surrounding, a feet impossible for even a moving visual medium like television, which must use general image to cater to greatest number of viewers. A good wall painting must meet some criteria to generate awareness and remind consumer about the brand. The wall should: The most frequented shops can be painted from inside also one feet above the ground level. It is courteous to take the verbal permission of owner .The permission is normally given. However by taking the permission of the rural retailers or house owners, one gets the owner morally committed to taking care of wall painting.

The message should be simple, direct and clear. A definite way of arresting is to use bright colors and these do not fade away easily. A good paint will survive the ravages of dust, sand and rainstorms for about three years.

Paintings must be taken after rainfall. It should be peaked up during the festival and post harvest season. To derive maximum mileage their usage needs to be planned meticulously. Therefore to understand the way the rural markets work -- we need to go to these markets and spend time there in understanding them. We live in surroundings where the things are completely different from what the rural customer experiences. And we can't understand him unless we go and spend time there. Things like what time does he get up, etc need to

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Rural Marketing be studied and customer needs to be understood. Also these studies need to be passed on so others can also benefit from the ground works done and enhance them further. We need in depth studies of the market, the medium, the message and the rural customer in center of all these to understand the rural markets completely

Strategies
Dynamics of rural markets differ from other market types, and similarly rural marketing strategies are also significantly different from the marketing strategies aimed at an urban or industrial consumer. This, along with several other related issues, have been subject matter of intense discussions and debate in countries like India and China and focus of even international symposia organized in these countries. Rural markets and rural marketing involve a number of strategies, which include:

Client and location specific promotion Joint or cooperative promotion Bundling of inputs Management of demand Developmental marketing Unique selling proposition (USP) Extension services Business ethics Partnership for sustainability

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Rural Marketing Client and Location specific promotion involves a strategy designed to be suitable to the location and the client.

Joint or co-operative promotion strategy involves participation between the marketing agencies and the client.

'Bundling of inputs' denote a marketing strategy, in which several related items are sold to the target client, including arrangements of credit, after-sale service, and so on. Management of demand involve continuous market research of buyers needs and problems at various levels so that continuous improvements and innovations can be undertaken for a sustainable market performance.

Developmental marketing refer to taking up marketing programmes keeping the development objective in mind and using various managerial and other inputs of marketing to achieve these objectives.

Media, both traditional as well as the modern media, is used as a marketing strategy.

Unique Selling Propositions (USP) involve presenting a theme with the product to attract the client to buy that particular product. For examples, some of famous Indian Farm equipment manufactures have coined catchy themes, which they display along with the products, to attract the target client, that is the farmers. English version of some of such themes would read like:

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Rural Marketing

The heartbeats of rural India With new technique for a life time of company For the sake of progress and prosperity

Extension Services denote, in short, a system of attending to the missing links and providing the required know-how. Ethics in Business. form, as usual, an important plank for rural markets and rural marketing. Partnership for sustainability involve laying and building a foundation for continuous and long lasting relationship.

. RURAL MARKETING

CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES

Problems relating to rural marketing The rural market offers a vast untapped potential; it should also be recognized that it is not that easy to operate in rural market because of several problems. Rural marketing is thus a time consuming affair and requires considerable investments in terms of evolving appropriate strategies with a view to tackle the problems. The problems are. Underdeveloped people and underdeveloped markets The agricultural technology has tried to develop the people and market in rural areas. Unfortunately, the impact of the technology is not felt uniformly through out the country. Some districts in Punjab, Haryana or Western Uttar pradesh where rural consumer is somewhat comparable to his urban counterpart, there are large areas and groups of people - 35 -

Rural Marketing who have remained beyond the technological breakthrough. In addition, the farmers with small agricultural land holdings have also been unable to take advantage of the new technology. Lack of proper physical communication facilities Nearly 50 percent of the villages in the country do not have all weather roads. Physical communication to these villages is highly expensive. Even today, most villages in eastern part of the country are inaccessible during monsoon season.

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Rural Marketing

Inadequate Media coverage for rural communication

A large number of rural families in own radios and television sets there were also community radio and T.V sets. These have been used to diffuse agricultural technology to rural areas. However the coverage relating to marketing is inadequate

Many language and Dialects The number of languages and dialects vary from state to state region to region This type of distribution of population warrants appropriate strategies to decide the extent of coverage of rural market.

Market organization & staff: The size of the market organization and staff is very important, to manage market system effective control. However the existing organizational setup particularly at district and block level needs to be strengthened in order make the services on various aspects available to the farmers timely and also easily accessible to them. Other factors influencing marketing: Natural calamities and Market conditions (demand, supply and price). Pests and diseases, Drought or too much rains, Primitive methods of cultivation, lack of proper storage facilities which exposes grain to rain and rats, Grading, Transport, Market Intelligence (up to date market prices to villagers), Long chain of middlemen (Large no. of intermediaries between cultivator and consumer, wholesalers and retailers, Fundamental practices (Market Dealers and Commission Agents get good part of sale of receipts).

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Rural Marketing

The Indian rural market with its vast size and demand base offers great opportunities to marketers. Two-thirds of countries consumers live in rural areas and almost half of the national income is generated here. It is only natural that rural markets form an important part of the total market of India. Our nation is classified in around 450 districts, and approximately 630000 villages which can be sorted in different parameters such as literacy levels, accessibility, income levels, penetration, distances from nearest towns, etc. The success of a brand in the Indian rural market is as unpredictable as rain. It has always been difficult to gauge the rural market. Many brands, which should have been successful, have failed miserably. More often than not, people attribute rural market success to luck. Therefore, marketers need to understand the social dynamics and attitude variations within each village though nationally it follows a consistent pattern. While the rural market certainly offers a big attraction to marketers, it would be naive to think that any company can easily enter the market and walk away with sizable share. Actually the market bristles with variety of problems. The main problems in rural marketing are:

Physical Distribution Channel Management Promotion and Marketing Communication

The problems of physical distribution and channel management adversely affect the service as well as the cost aspect. The existent market structure

consists of primary rural market and retail sales outlet. The structure involves stock points in feeder towns to service these retail outlets at the village levels. - 38 -

Rural Marketing But it becomes difficult maintaining the required service level in the delivery of the product at retail level. One of the way could be using company delivery vans which can serve two purposes- it can take the products to the customers in every nook and corner of the market and it also enables the firm to establish direct contact with them and thereby facilitate sales promotion. However, only the bigwigs can adopt this channel. The companies with relatively fewer resources can go in for syndicated distribution where a tie-up between non-competitive marketers can be established to facilitate distribution. As a general rule, rural marketing involves more intensive personal selling efforts compared to urban marketing. Marketers need to understand the psyche of the rural consumers and then act accordingly. To effectively tap the rural market a brand must associate itself with the same things the rural folks do. This can be done by utilizing the various rural folk media to reach them in their own language and in large numbers so that the brand can be associated with the myriad rituals, celebrations, festivals, melas and other activities where they assemble. One very fine example can be quoted of Escorts where they focused on deeper penetration .In September-98 they established rural marketing sales. They did not rely on T.V or press advertisements rather concentrated on focused approach depending on geographical and market parameters like fares, melas

etc. Looking at the kuchha roads of village they positioned their mobike as tough vehicle. Their advertisements showed Dharmendra riding Escort with the punchline Jandar Sawari, Shandar Sawari. Thus, they achieved whopping sales of 95000 vehicles annually. One more example, which can be quoted in this regard, is of HLL. A year back HLL started Operation Bharat to tap the rural markets. Under this operation it passed out

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Rural Marketing lowpriced sample packets of its toothpaste, fairness cream, Clinic plus shampoo, and Ponds cream to twenty million households. Thus looking at the challenges and the opportunities which rural markets offer to the marketers it can be said that the future is very promising for those who can understand the dynamics of rural markets and exploit them to their best advantage. The rural India offers a tremendous market potential. A mere one percent increase in Indias rural income translates to a mind-boggling Rs 10,000 crore of buying power. Nearly two-thirds of all middle-income households in the country are in rural India. And close to half of Indias buying potential lies in its villages. Thus for the countrys marketers, small and big, rural reach is on the rise and is fast becoming their most important route to growth. Realizing this Corporate India is now investing a sizeable chunk of its marketing budget to target the rural consumers. Increasing brand awareness In the rural families, studies indicate a slow but determined shift in the use of categories. There is a remarkable improvement in the form of products used. For instance, households are upgrading from indigenous teeth-cleaning ingredients to tooth powder and tooth-pastes, from traditional mosquito repellant to coils and mats. There is also a visible shift from local and unbranded products to national brands. From low-priced brands to premium brands.

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Rural Marketing

FMCG consumption

Organizations like Hindustan Lever Ltd., Nirma Chemical Works, Colgate Palmolive, Parle foods and Malhotra Marketing have carved inroads into the heart of rural markets. Various categories of products have been able to spread their tentacles deep into the rural market and achieved significant recognition in the country households. And, in the process, the regional brands, local brands and the other unbranded offerings got displaced by the leading brands.

Of the expenditure on consumer goods in rural household, approximately, 44% is on food articles such as biscuits, tea, coffee and salt, 20% on toiletries, 13% on washing material, 10% on cosmetics, 4% on OTC products and 9% on other consumables. A number of category products have established themselves firmly in the rural households. It is evident that in the villages low-priced brands are well accepted and one might feel that a larger proportion of the purchases made in rural market can be attributed to local/ unbranded players. Surprisingly, however, the unbranded/local component contributes to a substantial portion of the volume of only a few of the highly penetrated categories.

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Rural Marketing

Company HLL Nirma Chemical Works Colgate Palmolive Parle Foods Malhotra marketing

Household penetration 88% 56% 33% 31% 27%

Strategies for rural marketing The past practices of treating rural markets as appendages of the urban market is not correct, since rural markets have their own independent existence, and if cultivated well could turn into a generator of profit for the marketers. But the rural markets can be exploited by realizing them, rather than treating them as convenient extensions of the urban market. The focus should be on infecting marketing culture into the villages. The educated unemployed youth in the villages could be trained to carry out this mission.

1. Decentralizing rural markets by detaching them from the urban bases. A give-andtake two-way approach should replace the present one-way exploitation

2. The salesman in rural markets should be selected from the educated unemployed villagers, trained well and appointed as salesmen. The town-to-villages shuttling salesmen are to be replaced by stationary salesman in villages "

3. Companies should also adequately concentrate on educating the villagers to save them from spurious goods and services .

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Rural Marketing

4. Rural markets are laggards in picking up new products. This will help the companies to phase their marketing efforts. This will also help to sell inventories of products out dated in urban markets. Marketing, not production, is real problem in rural areas The Financial Express October 6, 2004 The rural market has moved from distribution driven marketing to deploying a product which the consumer wants to buy. Since independence, this market has suffered due to piecemeal investments, Tata Sons, executive director R Gopalakrishnan observed while delivering the key note address at the rural marketing summit organised by FICCI here on Tuesday. He called for engaging the rural folk in governance, reforming agricultural marketing and micronising democrary through minor watershed project with full participation of project beneficiaries. Indian corporates in turn should work out a mechanism for increasing income in the rural belt, else they will fail to explore rural markets, he added. Substantiating his statement, Mr Gopalakrishnan said that though the percentage of population below poverty line had reduced from 45% in 1950s to 27% today, it has gone up from 16 crore to 26 crore in absolute terms. Poverty is a business by itself in this country and it can be reduced by creating access, he added. Commenting on the marketing problem of agricultural goods produced in the rural belt, he said, "We are obsessed with the production of food grains in this country. The problem however lies with marketing, particularly the cash crops." Heavens will not fall if production falls, but it will badly impact rural economics, if you cannot market the extra output produced, he said.

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Rural Marketing Earlier in his welcome address, FICCI (western regional council) chairman Sushil Jiwarajka said, the Indian middle class consisted of 57 million individuals of which 36% lived in rural areas. There is a need to generate superior data on rural marketing system, the melas, mandis and the income and consumption patterns in villages and small towns. The Rs 11,000-crore Hindustan Lever (HLL) is formulating a new strategy to expand its presence in Indias rural markets. HLL is one among those companies in the country that derives huge revenues (over 50 per cent) from the rural areas. But in the past one year, owing to the failure of the monsoon in many parts of the country, farmers have registered a substantial fall in incomes and consequently the purchasing power. For the company this has resulted in a flat growth of these markets. Witnessing the flat sales growth in rural areas, HLL has shifted its rural markets strategy. Earlier each business division of the company dealt with the rural market on an individual basis; now the shift in strategy means the company will deal with rural markets as a single organisation to achieve greater penetration and sales. This approach is expected to lead to better cohesion, greater push and deeper penetration, which would eventually lead to better sales. HLL officials say it is not enough that individual business divisions push their own strategies for the rural market; the company will have to work in unison in order to achieve a balanced growth. HLL plans to reach 2,35,000 villages, up from the current 85,000; 75 per cent of the population, up from 43 per cent today; and a message reach of 65 per cent, up from the current television reach of 33 per cent. HLL is aiming at reaching villages with populations less than 2,000. The rural penetration exercise is going to be complemented by a 15-per cent hike in advertisement expenditure.

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Rural Marketing In 1998 HLLs personal products unit initiated Project Bharat, the first and largest rural home-to-home operation to have ever been prepared by any company. The project covered 13 million rural households by the end of 1999. During the course of operation, HLL had vans visiting villages across the country distributing sample packs comprising a low-unit-price pack each of shampoo, talcum powder, toothpaste and skin cream priced at Rs 15. This was to create awareness of the companys product categories and of the affordability of the products. The personal products unit subsequently rolled out a second phase of the sampling initiative to target villages with a population of over 2,000. Along with Operation Bharat, HLL conceptualized Project Streamline to enhance its control on the rural supply chain through a network of rural sub-stockiests based in these villages. This gave the company the required competitive edge, and extended its direct reach to 37 per cent of the countrys rural population. The Indian rural market has a huge demand base and offers great opportunities to marketers. Two-thirds of Indian consumers live in rural areas and almost half of the national income is generated here. As a rule the rural market is much more price elastic and involves more intensive personal selling efforts compared to urban marketing, and here HLL has been more than successful.

ITC Limited
ITC Limited is one of India's foremost private sector companies with a market capitalization of more than US $ 10 billion and a turnover of US $ 3 billion. Rated among

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Rural Marketing the World's Best Big Companies by Forbes magazine, ITC ranks third in pre-tax profit among India's private sector corporations. ITC has a diversified presence in Cigarettes, Hotels, Paperboards & Specialty Papers, Packaging, Agri-Business, Packaged Foods & Confectionery, Branded Apparel, Greeting Cards and other FMCG products. While ITC is an outstanding market leader in its traditional businesses of Cigarettes, Hotels, Paperboards, Packaging and Agri-Exports, it is rapidly gaining market share even in its nascent businesses of Packaged Foods & Confectionery, Branded Apparel and Greeting Cards. ITC's Agri-Business is one of India's largest exporters of agricultural products. ITC is one of the India's biggest foreign exchange earners (US $ 2 billion in the last decade). The Company's 'e-Choupal' initiative is enabling Indian agriculture significantly enhance its competitiveness by empowering Indian farmers through the power of the Internet. This transformational strategy, which has already become the subject matter of a case study at Harvard Business School, is expected to progressively create for ITC a huge rural distribution infrastructure, significantly enhancing the Company's marketing reach. ITC's wholly owned Information Technology subsidiary, ITC Infotech India Limited, is aggressively pursuing emerging opportunities in providing end-to-end IT solutions, including e-enabled services and business process outsourcing. The company is headed by Yogesh Chander Deveshwar. It employs over 20,000 people at more than 60 locations across India and is listed on Forbes 2000. e-choupal is one of the novel ideas of ITC limited to help the farmers which bypasses the brokers between the company and the farmers.

LG RURAL MARKETING STRATEGY

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Rural Marketing

Rajiv Karwal is an iconoclast. At a senior management meeting in March 1998, LG

Electronics Indias vice president (sales & marketing) suggested the South Korean electronics major call its new, customized TV being developed for the rural market, Sampoorna. The word, he explained, was a part of the Bengali, Hindi, Marathi and Tamil tongue. And when Karwals colleagues, including India head K.R. Kim, felt a western name would work better, he walked out in a huff.

That was a year and a half back. In the past one year, LG has sold one lakh 20-inch Sampoorna TVs, all in town with a population of around 10,000. Karwal says convincing the LG management wasnt easy, but it relented finally. Karwals colleagues arent complaining. By the end of 1999, roughly 12% of LGs Rs 950 crore turnover is expected to come from Sampoorna sales. Thats Rs 114 crore worth of TV sets sold in the villages in a year. says Karwal: Our strategy worked.

Karwal is no prophet to have foreseen the rural potential. But if the nineties was when the advocates of rural marketing convinced corrporate inida that villages were big, the coming decade will differentiate between companies that can unlock the potential of the rural market and those that cant. Despite all the money that can be made in the villages, most companies pay only lip service to rural marketing, says Mumbai-based marketing consultant Jagdeep Kapoor. But in the past couple of years,

companies like LG, JK Dairy, Philips India, Koshika Telecom, Titan Industries and Dabur have pieced together intricate and innovative strategies that go beyond merely sending van into the interior or painting village walls. This is their story.

Karvi is a small village in Uttar Pradesh, around 100 km away from the nearest railhead, Banda. But, its even further away from Delhi, where Kim and Karwal devise their rural marketing strategy. Which in turn is hundreds of miles away from - 47 -

Rural Marketing Seoul (South Korea), where LGs manufacturing-cum-research center is sited. Ram Prasad, a villager in Karvi, is unable to comprehend long distances. It would boggle his mind to know that the television sets being used in his village have been designed in Seoul, keeping consumers like him in mind. Calling the TV set Sampoorna was just one part of LGs strategy. Perhaps a more important aspect of hooking rurla customers was rejigging the TV set to appeal to local needs. So last year, LG spent $50,000 (Rs 21 lakh) developing a unit that would have on-screen displays in the vernacular languages of Hindi, Tamil and Bengali. The logic: rural users unfamiliar with English would still be able to use the TV without feeling intimidated.

LG has learnt quite a lot from its foray. For starters, though the rural customer is still price sensitive, he is willing to pay more if he sees values. This is a major departure from the past. Historically, most companies, especially those that hawk consume durables, have always believed that cheap products do well in the villages. Thats not necessarily true. Priced at Rs 14,400, LGs Sampoorna, for

example, costs Rs 2,000 more than equivalent products from firms like BPL or Philips. Yet, last year, in some upcountry markets of Rajkot (Gujarat) as many Sampoorna sets were sold as those of all its competitors put together. LG felt the need to improve its market share in upcountry markets. It decided to launch a special project in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh at a total cost of about Rs 5 crore. Rural consumers need to be seen as different and not inferior. It is with this belief that LG approached rural buyers in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. The idea was to present LG in a relevant manner to the rural consumer, position it as a truly international brand, the way a rural buyer would understand it, So LG held road shows, van campaigns, merchandising etc, in villages with populations of about 5,000. The Chennai-based Anugrah-Madison was roped in to help. Together they created a special campaign Enga veettu superstar (the superstar of our house) for the Tamil Nadu market. The word super is an integral part of Tamil.

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Rural Marketing Even cine idol Rajnikant is popularly known as a superstar. The campaign became a major hit. In Andhra Pradesh, the campaign was redrafted in Telugu as Maa inti megastar. Popular cine actor Chiranjeevi is referred to as a megastar in the state. Back in Tamil Nadu, promotions revolving around the word super were kicked off. Exhibitions of LG products titled Supershows were organised. Interactive sessions such as sit and draw contests for children to create brand recognition were held. The participants were asked to copy the LG logo. They were also asked to copy the brands Lets make things better line in English so that the Phillips name is

recognized irrespective of the language. In a karaoke contest villagers had to sing along with the catchy LG jingle and win prizes. During the exercise, LG planted one lakh square feet of wall area in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. Three ad campaigns one each for color TVs and were created in Tamil and Telugu. These were exhibited in cinema theaters and through video vans (68% of the people in Tamil Nadu watch films and 81% in Andhra). The electronic media ads were slickly produced. Philips did not compromise on the production values. The storyboard was created keeping in mind the way of life. girls in small towns and villages often embrolder the cloth which covers the television set in the house. Predictably, a LG TV is brought home and lovingly covered with the cloth. feedback showed that consumers could easily relate to the story.

In the ad film for Andhra Pradesh, LG used popular singer S.P. Balasubramaniam. The ad showed the singing star complimenting his son for buying a world class LG TV.

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Rural Marketing The results of the entire exercise: sales rose by between 25% and 30% in these states in the last six months. Now LG is extending the exercise to Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra.

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Rural Marketing

CONCLUSION
Marketing according to a leading management theories Peter Druker can be put in this way "There will be always, one can assume, be need for some selling. But the aim of marketing is to make selling superfluous. The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well that the product or service fits him and sell itself. Ideally, marketing should result in a customer who is ready to buy. All that should be needed then is to make the product or service available." Thru this we feel that the gist of mktg. in rural & urban is the same. It is nothing but teasing the minds of people, their desires, needs, expectations & playing with their physiology. But the market for a product may vary in rural & urban area and the marketing strategies to market the product is also different in urban and rural area. In rural area we find more of a stereotype because of similar socio-economic background. But in an urban area it is a multitude of people & personalities & variance in income, background & lifestyle. We found that the movies, which were hit in cities, were doing as well in the rural areas. (E.g. Lagaan, Gadar) But movies, which are hit in rural areas, may not be successful in cities. (E.g.

Mithun movies) We also found that people in cities spend more on entertainment than people in rural areas. As from the study we can see that the purchasing power of the people in a city like Mumbai is more than a semi rural area like Ambernath and willingness of the people in

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Rural Marketing the rural area to spend towards movies or any other mode of entertainment is quite less than that of the people residing in urban area. As comparing the purchasing power and the willingness to spend, the marketing strategies and the range of products differ between rural and urban area.

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Rural Marketing

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Acharya, S.S. & Agarwal, N.L. Agricultural Marketing in India, (1987). Oxford and IBH, New Delhi. Thakur, S.Y. Rual Industrialization in India: Strategy and Approach, (1986), Sterling, New Delhi. Desai, Vasant Rural Development Organization and Management, (1988), Himalaya Pub. House, Bombay www.ITCportal.com www.lgebuy.com www.hllshakti.com

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