Urban Indian markets have saturated, so for further growth rural India is being tapped by industries like FMCG, consumer durables, automotive, and so on. In the first paper, “Modeling the Barriers to Rural Marketing Using the Interpretive Structural Modeling Approach”, by Poonam Kumari, Nirupma Gupta and Shilpa Sindhu, a number of barriers and their interrelationships have been derived for rural Indian markets using Interpretive Structural Modeling. This paper will enable rural marketers to identify critical points where maximum efforts could be focused for success. The rural markets can be tapped by forward innovation, inclusive marketing, innovative rural distribution, and by having dedicated rural teams, to name a few. In this paper, some barriers to rural marketing have been identified. They are low income, low literacy level, too many languages and dialects, underdeveloped rural infrastructure, seasonal purchase, low purchasing power, sociocultural factors/differences, highly scattered rural villages, distribution, pricing, media selection and promotion problems, resistant-to-change behavior of rural people, fake/spurious products, inadequate fixed income and too much dependence on farming activities. The ISM has been used to interpret the data. Structure Self-Interaction Matrix (SSIM), Reachability Matrix, and Partitioning Reachability Matrix have been constructed for better understanding. Digraph and MICMAC are used to find out the driving power and dependence power of the barriers towards successful rural marketing. The ISM developed in this paper will serve as a tool for the marketers to understand the barriers and their interrelationships to rural marketing in India.

In a developing economy like Sri Lanka, lentils play an important role in diet. They are high in protein, fiber, vitamins and minerals and therefore are referred to as ‘poor man’s meat’. The objective of the second paper, “The Influence of Country-of-Origin Labeling for Lentils on Consumer Preference: A Study with Reference to Sri Lanka”, by Ramu Govindasamy, Surendran Arumugam and Isaac Vellangany, is to identify whether consumers consider country-of-origin as an impotant attribute while purchasing red lentils. The study collected detailed information related to demographic and socioeconomic factors and the grocery purchasing pattern and behavior of consumers. Using a well-structured questionnaire, relevant primary data was collected from 300 respondents from five districts of Sri Lanka. According to the study, consumers considered overall appearance, quality, color, packaging, brand, store, and income as key attributes while purchasing country-of-origin labeled red lentils. The findings of this study will help US farmers and exporters to strategically promote lentils with specific attributes in Sri Lanka.

Scales are most commonly used method of data collection in field research. The third paper, “Consumer Perception Scale in Store Environment (CPS-SE) for Measuring Consumer Buying Behavior”, by Shalini Jha, Bharti Singh and Suresh K P, develops a scale which captures consumer buying behavior in a store environment in three stages, namely, item generation, scale development and scale evolution. In the study, a scale was developed using six factors—perception of merchandise quality, perception of overall environment, perception of ambient music, perception of affability of salesperson, emotion and behavior. Factor analysis was used to check the unidimensionality of scale to assess consumer behavior. The CPS-CE model can be used for other experimental studies to measure consumer perception in the presence of other atmospheric cues like aroma, lighting and colors and other social factors like crowding. The scale is first of its kind to measure consumer perception, emotion and behavior in the Indian retail setting. According to the authors, the scale can be used for similar studies of other emerging economies as well.

Nowadays, cellular phone services have become an integral part of our day-to-day life. The fourth paper, “Segmentation of Users of Cellular Phone Services in Guwahati City: An Exploratory Study”, by Sinmoy Goswami, Suman Sarmah and Swapna Boruah, focuses on segmentation of users of cellular phone services in Guwahati City. The study identifies five clusters of respondents which include—popularity seekers, connectivity seekers, efficient service seekers, optimal service seekers and quality service seekers. The study reveals that quality service seekers are the largest segment. Therefore, this ensures that higher customer loyalty depends on Quality Service. Similar studies can be carried out in other parts of India and world, covering other parameters of cellular phone services.

-- B Shafiulla
Consulting Editor