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Rohan Sanghavi
Going Rural: The New Marketing Mantra
By
Dr. C.N. Krishna Naik
MBA, PhD
Professor
SK Institute of Management
Sri Krishnadevaraya University
Anatapur, AP
Dr. K. Rajeshkumar
MBA, PhD
Asst. Professor
S. Saiganesh
MBA, MA, M.Phil
Faculty
Department of Management Studies
Adhiyamaan College of Engineering
Hosur
By
Dr. C.N. Krishna Naik
MBA, PhD
Professor
SK Institute of Management
Sri Krishnadevaraya University
Anatapur, AP
Dr. K. Rajeshkumar
MBA, PhD
Asst. Professor
S. Saiganesh
MBA, MA, M.Phil
Faculty
Department of Management Studies
Adhiyamaan College of Engineering
Hosur
What is Rural?
According to the census of India village with clear surveyed boundaries not having a municipality, corporation or board, with density of population not more than 400sq.km and with at least 75 per cent of the male working population engaged in agriculture and allied activities would quality as rural. According to this definition, there are 6.38,000 villages in the country. Of these, only 0.5 cent has a population above 10,000 and 2 per cent have population between 5,000 and 10,000. Around 50 per cent has a population less than 200.
Interestingly, for FMCG and consumer durable companies, any territory that has more than 20,000 and 50,000 population, respectively, is rural market. So, for them, it is not rural India which is rural. According to them, it is the class-II and III towns that are rural. According to the census of India 2001, there are more than 4,000 towns in the country. It has classified them into six categories-around 400 class-I towns with one lakh and above population (these are further classified into 35 metros and rest non-metros), 498 class-II towns with 50,000-99,999 population, 1,368 class-III towns with 20,000-50,000 population, 1,560 class-IV towns with 10,000-19,999 population. It is mainly the class-II and III towns that marketer's term as rural and that partly explains their enthusiasm about the so-called "immense potential" of rural India.
Demographic details of Indian Rural Markets:
- About 285 million live in urban India whereas 742 million reside in rural areas, constituting 72% of India's population resides in its 6, 27,000 villages.
- The number of middle income and high income households in rural Indian is expected to grow from 46 million to 59 million.
- Size of rural market is estimated to be 42 million households and rural market has been growing at five times the pace of the urban market.
- More government rural development initiates.
- Low literacy rate
- Increasing agricultural productivity leading to growth of rural disposable income.
- Lowering of difference between taste of urban and rural customers.
Rural Initiators
"Going rural" the new marketing mantra-all corporate companies agreed that the rural market the key to survival in India. The real India lives in villages-6, 38,365 villages to be precise. This is where the fortunes of many of Indian biggest corporations are likely to be shaped. To expand the market by tapping the countryside, more and more MNC`s are foregoing into rural markets. Among those that have made some headway are HLL, Coca-cola, LG Electronics, Britannia, Standard life, Philips, Colgate Palmolive, ITC and the foreign-invested telecom companies. Gone are the days when a rural consumer went to a nearby city to but branded Products and services`. Time was when only a select household consumed branded goods, be it tea (or) jeans. There were days when big companies flocked to rural markets to establish their brands. Today, rural markets are critical for every marketer-be it for a branded shampoo (or) an automobile. Time was when marketers thought van campaigns, cinema commercials and a few wall paintings would suffice to entice rural folks under their folds. Thanks to television, today a customer in a rural area is quite literate about myriad products that are on offer in the market place. An Indian farmer going through his daily chores wearing jeans may sound idiotic. Not for Arvind Mills, though. When it launched the Ruf & Tuf kits, it had created quite a sensation among the rural folks as well within few months of their launch.
Rural Marketing-Challenges and Opportunities
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. But it becomes difficult maintaining the required service level in the delivery of the product at retail level.
One of the ways 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 it 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 low–priced 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.
Rural Trends in India
Tends indicates that the rural the rural markets are coming up in a way and growing twice as fast as the urban, witnessing a rise in sales of hitherto typical urban kitchen gadgets such as refrigerators, mixer-grinders and pressure cookers. According to a National Council for Applied Economics Research (NCAER), study, there are as many 'middle income and above' households in the rural areas as there are in the urban areas. There are almost twice as many 'low middle income' households in rural areas as in the urban areas. At the highest income level there are 2.3 million urban households as against 1.6 million households in rural areas. According to Mr.D.Shiva Kumar, Business Head (Hair), personal products division, Hindustan Lever Limited, the money available to spend on FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Goods) products by urban India is Rs.49,500 crores as against is Rs.63,500 crores in rural India.
As per NCAER projections, the number of middle and high-income households in rural India is expected to grow from 80 million to 111 million by 2007. In Urban India, the same is expected to grow from 46 million to 59 million. Thus, the absolute size of rural India is expected to be double that of urban India. Rural income levels are largely determined by the vagaries of monsoon and, hence, the demand there is not an easy horse to ride on. Apart from increasing the geographical width of their product distribution, the focus of corporate should be on the introduction of brands and develop strategies specific to rural consumers. Britannia industries launched Tiger Biscuits especially for the rural market. An important tool to reach out to the rural audience is through effective communication. A rural consumer is brand loyal and understands symbols better. This also makes it easy to sell look-alike. The rural audience has matured enough to understand the communication developed for the urban markets, especially with reference to FMCG products. Television has been a major effective communication system for rural mass and, as a result, companies should identify themselves with their advertisements. Advertisements touching the emotions of the rural folks, it is argued, could drive a quantum jump in sales.
References:
1. Rural Marketing- A World of Opportunity – The Hindu, October 11 2001
2. ICFAI Marketing Mastermind, February 2006
3. Rural Marketing, Pradeep Kashyap, Biztantra publications 2006
4. NCAER Report
5. Rural Sales Drive Growth – Business Standard, April 12 2004
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