Rural customers are aware that branded goods are of better quality. However, marketers must guard themselves against various fake and deceptive brands imitating the original brands. This can cause heavy damage to the brand image over and above the lost sales. Marketers must first consider rural marketing as an investment. Instead of expecting high returns in a short term, building brands through integrated communication should be focused on. Any communication to the rural market should use familiar and local idioms, lingo and dialect. It must be simple, direct and clear. A creative mix of the often-used communication tools and some novel ones, may be more effective than using only the regular ones. However, this creative mix has to be company-specific. For recruitment of salespersons, the locally educated youthfamiliar with the rural geography, culture, taboos, and local dialectsshould be considered.
Census 2001 reveals that 74 crore people
that is about 73% of India’s total
population lives in villages. Rural
households account for 70% of India’s
total households. However, unlike urban
population, rural population is scattered
across 6,38,365 villages and the rural
market, which is spread over the length
and breadth of the country, is highly
heterogeneous in respect of purchasing
power, literacy, electrification, sanitation,
culture and so on. Fifty five percent of
above 6 lakh villages have less than 5000
population, about 25% have 200 or less
population and about 90% of rural
population lives in villages with less than
2000 heads.
Rural India is characterized by half a dozen
religions, 33 languages, 1650 dialects,
diversity in castes, sub-castes, tribes,
culture, subculture. Rural economy is
mainly based on agriculture, which varies
with the availability of irrigation facilities,
but largely with the vagaries of monsoon.
However, Pradeep Kashyap, the MD of
Marketing and Research Team (MART), a
rural marketing consultancy organization,
posits that at present, about 50% of rural
income is steady because of its non-firm
nature. This steady income sector
comprises salaried people like government
employees, teachers, traders, artisans
self-employed professionals and so forth.
The annual size of the rural economy in
value terms is currently estimated at about
Rs. 50,000; Rs. 60,000 cr for FMCG
products, Rs. 5,000 cr for durables,Rs. 45,000 cr for agriculture inputs and
implements and Rs. 8,000 cr for
automobiles. As a matter of fact, 50 % of
national income is generated in rural India. |
