Rural Marketing Strategies Need To Be Customised

The rural market has changed drastically in the past one decade. A decade ago, the rural market was more unstructured and was not a prioritised target location for corporates. Very few companies, mainly the agro-based ones, were concentrating in these markets. Their were no innovative strategies and promotional campaigns. A distribution system did exist, but was feeble. Illiteracy and lack of technology were the other factors leading to the poor reach of products and lower level of awareness amongst villagers.
Gradually, corporates realised that there was saturation, stiff competition and clutter in the urban market, and a demand was building up in rural areas. Seeing the vast potential of 75 per cent Indians living in rural areas, they started focusing on these unexplored, high-potential areas.
Companies came up with special rural products, like Chic Shampoo sachets @ Re 1, Parle G Tikki Packs @ Rs 2, customised TVs by LG, Shanti Amla oil by Marico. All these brought positive results for them.
Also, campaigns like Project Bharat by Hind Lever, where trials were generated across India in 1999, saw 30 per cent of its total personal products growing to contribute 50 per cent five years down the line. In the first phase, they covered 11.5 million rural households and increased awareness by 41 per cent.
Project Jagruti in the second phase by Colgate Palmolive India was a village consumer contact programme in 2001. It increased penetration of Colgate Dental Cream by doubling the villages from 33,000 to 55,000, reaching to a million houses. Such projects lead to increased penetration of products in rural areas.
As a result, retail outlets have sprung up in practically all the villages that store products of various brands and categories. Also, high congregation areas, like fairs, haats, markets etc. are proving to be an important marketing tool since clusters of target audience can be tapped at the same time and place.
Location plays a big role in marketing. Therefore, if a product is for kids, anganwadis and schools are a good place tap them and their mothers. Similarly, mandis and village influencers act as a catalyst in pushing a brand/product.
The various points that affect rural marketing are:
ReachFor a product to reach six lakh villages, one needs to know that 700 million villages are spread over 3.2 million sq. metre of area. The road conditions are usually poor. It is, therefore, important for the marketer to have a good distribution system.