Almost all large consumer goods companies operating in Bhutan actually operate through their Indian offices since India has a free trade agreement with Bhutan. Bhutan has a unique rural market structure, and the 4Ps (Product, Place, Price and Promotion) and 4As (Awareness, Availability, Affordability and Acceptability) of rural marketing are also governed by unique regulations formulated by the Government of Bhutan. Bhutan is 69.1% rural, and rural marketing becomes the most important subject for marketing in Bhutan—in fact, if Indian census benchmarks were applied to the Bhutan demographics, the percentage of rural population would be beyond 90%. This present study is the most comprehensive ex post facto qualitative and quantitative study of the 4Ps/4As of rural marketing in Bhutan. The research tool used is a qualitative survey of the national distributors operating in Bhutan and of some wholesalers in each district of Bhutan, followed by a quantitative analysis of the associations between the factors. Absolutely no literature is available on rural marketing in Bhutan, and this paper aims to advance that body of knowledge from a practitioner’s point of view.

Bhutan has an indigenous population of 634,982 (of which rural population is 438,871) and is very sparsely populated with only 18 people per sq km (PHCB, 2005). The population, including the non-Bhutanese, is 672,425. In contrast to this, the Indian census defines any area with less than 400 people per sq km as rural (also 70% of adult male population should be engaged in agriculture and there should not be any municipal board). As per PHCB (2005), 69.1% of population of Bhutan reside in rural areas. Though the percentage of rural population in Bhutan seems almost same as that of India, the point to note is that Bhutan Census board has a less stringent criterion for classifying a place as Urban—the urban-rural classification used in the PHCB (2005) is according to the classification of the Department of Urban Development and Engineering Services (DUDES) and is not based on any standard criterion. If we use the Indian standard criterion, Bhutan is considerably more rural. Hence, Bhutan can be termed as a predominantly rural country and rural marketing is very important for the country.

Management Research Journal, Rural Marketing, Bhutan, FMCG, Product, Place, Price, Promotion, Awareness, Availability, Affordability, Acceptability, Department of Urban Development and Engineering Services (DUDES).