Description
This is documentation explaining marketing practices in rural india.
Current Marketing Practices in Consumer Durables in Rural India
2
Contents
................................................................................................................................... 2 Contents..................................................................................................................... 3 Introduction................................................................................................................ 4 ................................................................................................................................ 4 Indian Rural Market:................................................................................................4 Recent shift in attention from urban to rural market:.............................................4 Special Features of rural markets:..........................................................................5 Methodology............................................................................................................... 7 ................................................................................................................................... 7 Questionnaire ............................................................................................................ 8 Responses.................................................................................................................. 9 Respondent 1.......................................................................................................... 9 Respondent 2........................................................................................................ 10 Respondent 3........................................................................................................ 13 Learnings from the Project.......................................................................................15 Awareness............................................................................................................. 15 Acceptability......................................................................................................... 15 Availability............................................................................................................ 16 Affordability...........................................................................................................16 Conclusion................................................................................................................ 17
3
Introduction
Indian Rural Market:
The census of India defines rural market as any inhabitation where the population density is less than 400 per sq. km., where at least 75% of the male working population is engaged in agriculture and where there exists no municipality or board. This definition encompasses 70% of Indian population, who resides in 6.4 Lakh villages.
Recent shift in attention from urban to rural market:
The Indian rural market has a huge demand base ad offers great opportunities to marketers. Two-thirds of Indian consumers live in rural areas and almost half of the national income is generated here. The reasons for heading into the rural areas are fairly clear. The urban consumer durable market for products like colour TVs, washing machines, refrigerators and air conditioners is growing annually at between 7 per cent and 10 per cent. The rural market is zooming ahead at around 25 per cent annually. "The rural market is growing faster than urban India now," says Venugopal Dhoot, chairman of the Rs 989 –crore (Rs billion) Videocon Appliances. "The urban market is a replacement and up gradation market today," adds Samsung's director, marketing, Ravinder Zutshi. 'Go rural' is the slogan of marketing gurus after analyzing the socioeconomic changes in villages. The Rural population is nearly three times the urban, so that Rural consumers have become the prime target market for consumer durable and non-durable products, food, construction, electrical, electronics, automobiles, banks, insurance companies and other sectors besides hundred per cent of agri-input products such as seeds, fertilizers, pesticides and farm machinery. The Indian rural market today accounts for
4
only about Rs 8 billion of the total ad pie of Rs 120 billion, thus claiming 6.6 per cent of the total share. So clearly there seems to be a long way ahead. Although a lot is spoken about the immense potential of the unexplored rural market, advertisers and companies find it easier to vie for a share of the already divided urban pie. 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 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. A radical change in attitudes of marketers towards the vibrant and burgeoning rural markets is called for, so they can successfully impress on the 230 million rural consumers spread over approximately six hundred thousand villages in rural India.
Special Features of rural markets:
Unlike urban markets, rural markets are difficult to predict and possess special characteristics. The featured population is predominantly illiterate, have low income, characterized by irregular income, lack of monthly income and flow of income fluctuating with the monsoon winds. Rural markets face the critical issues of Distribution, Understanding the rural consumer, Communication and Poor infrastructure. The marketer has to strengthen the distribution and pricing strategies. The rural consumer expects value for money and owing to has unsteady and meager status of weekly income; increasing the household income and improving distribution
5
are the viable strategies that have to be adapted to tap the immense potential of the market. Media reach is a strong reason for the penetration of goods like cosmetics, mobile phones, etc., which are only used by the urban people. Increasing awareness and knowledge on different products and brands accelerate the demand. The rural audience are however critical of glamorous ads on TV, and depend on the opinion leaders who introduce the product by using it and recommending it. Opinion leaders play a key role in popularizing products and influence in rural market. Nowadays educated youth of rural also influences the rural consumers. Rural consumers are influenced by the life style they watch on television sets. Their less exposure to outside world makes them innocent and fascinated to novelties. The reach of mass television media, especially television has influenced the buying behavior greatly.
6
Methodology
The basic aim of this project is to identify the current marketing practices in Rural India adopted by various consumer durable companies. We can do that by a mere secondary analysis of the available reports from the research sites. But we adopt an unconventional methodology for this project. We do not end up reproducing the current practices but for the betterment, we refine and fine tune our report to identify how successful the current market practices have been and do the consumers actually buy because of those marketing practices. Which of the 4As is dominant in helping the rural consumer make the final purchase and what are the compulsive factors that have to be present for the final purchase is what we also analyse along with the current marketing practices. We formed a questionnaire and questioned 3 different villagers for their take on the current marketing practices. All the questions in the questionnaire were strategically chosen considering into account the 4 As and questions were based on each of the 4As along with some focus on the key influencer and the decision maker. After we got the subjective questionnaire filled from the respondents, we analysed it and thus did a comprehensive 4A study and the drawbacks and the advantages were quite clearly emerging from the results. Thus the current marketing practices for consumer durables along with the prime important characteristic of effectiveness are the two factors that comprehensively emerge from the report.
7
Questionnaire
1. Age: 2. Gender: 3. Income: 4. What consumer durables do you own? 5. Who in the family is the influencer for each of the above mentioned products? 6. Who is the main decision maker in your family? 7. Who goes to make the purchase? 8. How important is the price of the product in your purchase decision? 9. From where do you buy them? 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. Do you buy any brand or are you loyal to a specific brand? Does the proximity of the place from where you buy matter? Do you listen to the retailer or go by your preset mindset? How did you come to know of a particular brand? (Media Whom do you go to for the brand recommendation? Do you buy it anytime of the year or only during certain How do you bring the product back to your home? (Mode of How do you finance your purchases?
Vehicles)
seasons? transport)
8
Responses
Respondent 1
1. Age: 42 years 2. Gender: Male 3. Income: Rs 3-4 lakhs P.A. 4. What consumer durables do you own? • • • • • Television Refrigerator Washing Machine Mixer Grinder Inverter
5. Who in the family is the influencer for each of the above mentioned products? • • • • • Television: Son Refrigerator: Wife Washing Machine: Wife Mixer Grinder: Wife Inverter: I Myself
6. Who is the main decision maker in your family? I Myself 7. Who goes to make the purchase? I Myself 8. How important is the price of the product in your purchase decision? As we don’t buy these products often so we don’t give much importance to price, quality is more important to us. 9. From where do you buy them? Most of the Consumer durables are available in Revari (a feeder town) which is 23 Kms from here. 9
10.
Do you buy any brand or are you loyal to a specific brand?
We prefer small brands (local) above big brands as these small brands provide after sales service in the village whereas for the big brands we will have to go to Jhajhhar (Distt HQ) 11. Yes 12. Do you listen to the retailer or go by your preset mindset? Does the proximity of the place from where you buy matter?
No, we always decide before going to the retailer 13. • • • • 14. • 15. How did you come to know of a particular brand? (Media TV Radio Newspaper Friends and family Whom do you go to for the brand recommendation? Friends (who own the brand) Do you buy it anytime of the year or only during certain
Vehicles)
seasons? We buy mainly in festive season of Deepawali or during Marriages 16. • • • 17. How do you bring the product back to your home? (Mode of Public transport (Bus Service) Private Jeeps Motorcycle How do you finance your purchases?
transport)
Mainly through our savings
Respondent 2
1. Age: 38 Years 2. Gender: Male 3. Income: 2 lakh pa 10
4. What consumer durables do you buy? • • • • • • • TV Refrigerator Washing Machine DVD/CD player Inverter Sewing Machine Ceiling and Table Fan
5. Who in the family is the influencer for each of the above mentioned products? • • • • • • • TV: Leading Male Refrigerator: Leading Male Washing Machine: Leading Male+ Opinion from leading lady DVD/CD player: Leading Male + Opinion from Children Inverter: Leading Male Sewing Machine: Leading Lady Ceiling and Table Fan: Leading Male
6. Who is the main decision maker in your family? Leading Male 7. Who goes to make the purchase? Leading Male 8. How important is the price of the product in your purchase decision? For most of the items, price is not so important but quality and after sales service are the essential attributes looked upon while making the final buying decision. 9. From where do you buy them? Most of the times nearby towns are preferred but an extra mile can be travelled if better quality and service can be assured at that place. 11
10.Do you buy any brand or are you loyal to a specific brand? The most important factor on which the final decision depends is the after sales service, because the item has to be taken back to the service center, in case no at the door service option is available. But at the door service or a nearby service centre is the feature we look in for. 11. Does the proximity of the place from where you buy matter?
It does matter but only if quality is same at all places, but if quality is different than extra distance can be travelled to get a better product. 12. Do you listen to the retailer or go by your preset mindset?
Yes, retailer opinion does effect the buying decision, because he is always consulted while making the final decision as he is more experienced and know more about technical specifications. 13. How did you come to know of a particular brand? (Media
Vehicles) Word of mouth publicity is the most common and reliable source of information. Apart from it OOH media and on the shop merchandising also provides lot of information. 14. Whom do you go to for the brand recommendation?
The most important recommendation comes from the previous user or customer who provides insights about the product. 15. Do you buy it anytime of the year or only during certain
seasons? Most of the durables are generally given as the gift items to the bride at the time of marriage but there is also occasional and seasonal buying of Fans, Mobile phone etc. 16. How do you bring the product back to your home? (Mode of
transport) Big items are brought by either Bus or sometimes by Tractor 17. 12 How do you finance your purchases?
Generally lump sum amount is paid for most of the products and only in case the item is expensive and easy financing is possible, then financing is thought about
Respondent 3
1. Age: 44 2. Gender: Male 3. Income: 5 lakhs 4. What consumer durables do you own? • • • • • Refrigerator Television Washing Machine Computer Sewing machine
5. Who in the family is the influencer for each of the above mentioned products? • • • Refrigerator: Wife Television: Children Washing Machine: Got in Dowry (This was the general trend as he said) • • Computer: Son Sewing Machine: Wife
6. Who is the main decision maker in your family? The working husband (the respondent himself) 7. Who goes to make the purchase? 13
Except the computer, all purchases were made by him. His son went to purchase the computer. 8. How important is the price of the product in your purchase decision? He said that price is somewhat important in the decision making process but for him the Samsung brand mattered a lot in the television buying decision and he did not mind to pay a higher price for his desired brand. 9. From where do you buy them? From a nearby bigger village from where he buys all his consumer durables. 10. Do you buy any brand or are you loyal to a specific brand?
He was highly brand loyal. 11. Does the proximity of the place from where you buy matter?
Somewhat but he did not mind traveling. 12. Do you listen to the retailer or go by your preset mindset?
Preset mindset. The retailer push did maintain somewhat, but he went into the store with an almost preset mindset. 13. How did you come to know of a particular brand? (Media
Vehicles) Regional newspaper and television are still the major source for media vehicles in the village that we visited. 14. Whom do you go to for the brand recommendation?
Friends, newspaper ads, television ads, all form an equal source of inspiration, no particular influencer from outside. 15. Do you buy it anytime of the year or only during certain
seasons? This person was well to do, so the harvest season did not matter to him but he did buy during auspicious occasions like Dassera. 16. How do you bring the product back to your home? (Mode of
transport) Jeep, Bike 14
17.
How do you finance your purchases?
Personal income, Sometimes loans from the neighborhood banks.
Learnings from the Project
Awareness
The rural consumer as we derived from our project comes to know about the consumer durables from a number of sources like • • • • • • Regional & National TV Newspapers Radio Word of Mouth/ Family and friends Merchandising at the retailer Billboards
So we can clearly see that, Consumers in rural India are becoming more and more aware as their exposure to various media vehicles is increasing.
Acceptability
1. The quality parameter of the products purchased in case of consumer durables is rated very high by the consumers. This finding is exact opposite of the perceived thought that the rural consumer buys cheap and low quality product. 15
2.
Another important attribute of acceptability that we found out from the respondents was that they buy smaller and lesser known brands only because of the reason that these brands provide a better after sales service. Mechanics of these lesser known brands visit the village in case any problem occurs and they require any assistance. Whereas in case of bigger brands like LG, Samsung, Sony etc. these people have to take the product to the district HQ (Jhajhar) in case of any problem.
Availability
As far as the availability of the consumer durables is concerned we came to following conclusions: 1. Most of the brands are available in the nearby towns that were Rewari, Jhajjar and Pataudi. Which employees that the distribution is quite effective as most of the customers can reach the locations easily. 2. Customers are not apprehensive about extra travelling and they are willing to travel extra distance in order to get a better product 3. Availability of service centre is very important and this is one of the most important factor to decide the product to buy 4. Home service is always perceived as an added advantage and sometimes a criterion to buy a product 5. Consumers sometimes do look for specific brand and in case of absence of a particular brand they may go to a different store
Affordability
The issues and points that were realized during the visit are: 1. Price is not the buying criterion, quality is more important 2. Financing is not looked upon and financing option would not give an extra advantage 16
3. Most of the products are given as a gift at the time of wedding and hence uttermost care is given to the brand and quality 4. While deciding the price the company should look at the value it is going to create for the consumers, because rural consumers always look for value for money
Conclusion
Thus in the above report we have comprehensively analysed the current marketing practices that companies undertake in order to effectively lure the rural consumer into buying the consumer durables. Along with the marketing practices, we also analyse the effectiveness of the current practices by means of a subjective survey of three families (dominant males: the decision maker). We then conducted a 4A analysis and thus have a complete picture of the current marketing practices in consumer durables and its effectiveness.
17
doc_644262979.doc
This is documentation explaining marketing practices in rural india.
Current Marketing Practices in Consumer Durables in Rural India
2
Contents
................................................................................................................................... 2 Contents..................................................................................................................... 3 Introduction................................................................................................................ 4 ................................................................................................................................ 4 Indian Rural Market:................................................................................................4 Recent shift in attention from urban to rural market:.............................................4 Special Features of rural markets:..........................................................................5 Methodology............................................................................................................... 7 ................................................................................................................................... 7 Questionnaire ............................................................................................................ 8 Responses.................................................................................................................. 9 Respondent 1.......................................................................................................... 9 Respondent 2........................................................................................................ 10 Respondent 3........................................................................................................ 13 Learnings from the Project.......................................................................................15 Awareness............................................................................................................. 15 Acceptability......................................................................................................... 15 Availability............................................................................................................ 16 Affordability...........................................................................................................16 Conclusion................................................................................................................ 17
3
Introduction
Indian Rural Market:
The census of India defines rural market as any inhabitation where the population density is less than 400 per sq. km., where at least 75% of the male working population is engaged in agriculture and where there exists no municipality or board. This definition encompasses 70% of Indian population, who resides in 6.4 Lakh villages.
Recent shift in attention from urban to rural market:
The Indian rural market has a huge demand base ad offers great opportunities to marketers. Two-thirds of Indian consumers live in rural areas and almost half of the national income is generated here. The reasons for heading into the rural areas are fairly clear. The urban consumer durable market for products like colour TVs, washing machines, refrigerators and air conditioners is growing annually at between 7 per cent and 10 per cent. The rural market is zooming ahead at around 25 per cent annually. "The rural market is growing faster than urban India now," says Venugopal Dhoot, chairman of the Rs 989 –crore (Rs billion) Videocon Appliances. "The urban market is a replacement and up gradation market today," adds Samsung's director, marketing, Ravinder Zutshi. 'Go rural' is the slogan of marketing gurus after analyzing the socioeconomic changes in villages. The Rural population is nearly three times the urban, so that Rural consumers have become the prime target market for consumer durable and non-durable products, food, construction, electrical, electronics, automobiles, banks, insurance companies and other sectors besides hundred per cent of agri-input products such as seeds, fertilizers, pesticides and farm machinery. The Indian rural market today accounts for
4
only about Rs 8 billion of the total ad pie of Rs 120 billion, thus claiming 6.6 per cent of the total share. So clearly there seems to be a long way ahead. Although a lot is spoken about the immense potential of the unexplored rural market, advertisers and companies find it easier to vie for a share of the already divided urban pie. 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 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. A radical change in attitudes of marketers towards the vibrant and burgeoning rural markets is called for, so they can successfully impress on the 230 million rural consumers spread over approximately six hundred thousand villages in rural India.
Special Features of rural markets:
Unlike urban markets, rural markets are difficult to predict and possess special characteristics. The featured population is predominantly illiterate, have low income, characterized by irregular income, lack of monthly income and flow of income fluctuating with the monsoon winds. Rural markets face the critical issues of Distribution, Understanding the rural consumer, Communication and Poor infrastructure. The marketer has to strengthen the distribution and pricing strategies. The rural consumer expects value for money and owing to has unsteady and meager status of weekly income; increasing the household income and improving distribution
5
are the viable strategies that have to be adapted to tap the immense potential of the market. Media reach is a strong reason for the penetration of goods like cosmetics, mobile phones, etc., which are only used by the urban people. Increasing awareness and knowledge on different products and brands accelerate the demand. The rural audience are however critical of glamorous ads on TV, and depend on the opinion leaders who introduce the product by using it and recommending it. Opinion leaders play a key role in popularizing products and influence in rural market. Nowadays educated youth of rural also influences the rural consumers. Rural consumers are influenced by the life style they watch on television sets. Their less exposure to outside world makes them innocent and fascinated to novelties. The reach of mass television media, especially television has influenced the buying behavior greatly.
6
Methodology
The basic aim of this project is to identify the current marketing practices in Rural India adopted by various consumer durable companies. We can do that by a mere secondary analysis of the available reports from the research sites. But we adopt an unconventional methodology for this project. We do not end up reproducing the current practices but for the betterment, we refine and fine tune our report to identify how successful the current market practices have been and do the consumers actually buy because of those marketing practices. Which of the 4As is dominant in helping the rural consumer make the final purchase and what are the compulsive factors that have to be present for the final purchase is what we also analyse along with the current marketing practices. We formed a questionnaire and questioned 3 different villagers for their take on the current marketing practices. All the questions in the questionnaire were strategically chosen considering into account the 4 As and questions were based on each of the 4As along with some focus on the key influencer and the decision maker. After we got the subjective questionnaire filled from the respondents, we analysed it and thus did a comprehensive 4A study and the drawbacks and the advantages were quite clearly emerging from the results. Thus the current marketing practices for consumer durables along with the prime important characteristic of effectiveness are the two factors that comprehensively emerge from the report.
7
Questionnaire
1. Age: 2. Gender: 3. Income: 4. What consumer durables do you own? 5. Who in the family is the influencer for each of the above mentioned products? 6. Who is the main decision maker in your family? 7. Who goes to make the purchase? 8. How important is the price of the product in your purchase decision? 9. From where do you buy them? 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. Do you buy any brand or are you loyal to a specific brand? Does the proximity of the place from where you buy matter? Do you listen to the retailer or go by your preset mindset? How did you come to know of a particular brand? (Media Whom do you go to for the brand recommendation? Do you buy it anytime of the year or only during certain How do you bring the product back to your home? (Mode of How do you finance your purchases?
Vehicles)
seasons? transport)
8
Responses
Respondent 1
1. Age: 42 years 2. Gender: Male 3. Income: Rs 3-4 lakhs P.A. 4. What consumer durables do you own? • • • • • Television Refrigerator Washing Machine Mixer Grinder Inverter
5. Who in the family is the influencer for each of the above mentioned products? • • • • • Television: Son Refrigerator: Wife Washing Machine: Wife Mixer Grinder: Wife Inverter: I Myself
6. Who is the main decision maker in your family? I Myself 7. Who goes to make the purchase? I Myself 8. How important is the price of the product in your purchase decision? As we don’t buy these products often so we don’t give much importance to price, quality is more important to us. 9. From where do you buy them? Most of the Consumer durables are available in Revari (a feeder town) which is 23 Kms from here. 9
10.
Do you buy any brand or are you loyal to a specific brand?
We prefer small brands (local) above big brands as these small brands provide after sales service in the village whereas for the big brands we will have to go to Jhajhhar (Distt HQ) 11. Yes 12. Do you listen to the retailer or go by your preset mindset? Does the proximity of the place from where you buy matter?
No, we always decide before going to the retailer 13. • • • • 14. • 15. How did you come to know of a particular brand? (Media TV Radio Newspaper Friends and family Whom do you go to for the brand recommendation? Friends (who own the brand) Do you buy it anytime of the year or only during certain
Vehicles)
seasons? We buy mainly in festive season of Deepawali or during Marriages 16. • • • 17. How do you bring the product back to your home? (Mode of Public transport (Bus Service) Private Jeeps Motorcycle How do you finance your purchases?
transport)
Mainly through our savings
Respondent 2
1. Age: 38 Years 2. Gender: Male 3. Income: 2 lakh pa 10
4. What consumer durables do you buy? • • • • • • • TV Refrigerator Washing Machine DVD/CD player Inverter Sewing Machine Ceiling and Table Fan
5. Who in the family is the influencer for each of the above mentioned products? • • • • • • • TV: Leading Male Refrigerator: Leading Male Washing Machine: Leading Male+ Opinion from leading lady DVD/CD player: Leading Male + Opinion from Children Inverter: Leading Male Sewing Machine: Leading Lady Ceiling and Table Fan: Leading Male
6. Who is the main decision maker in your family? Leading Male 7. Who goes to make the purchase? Leading Male 8. How important is the price of the product in your purchase decision? For most of the items, price is not so important but quality and after sales service are the essential attributes looked upon while making the final buying decision. 9. From where do you buy them? Most of the times nearby towns are preferred but an extra mile can be travelled if better quality and service can be assured at that place. 11
10.Do you buy any brand or are you loyal to a specific brand? The most important factor on which the final decision depends is the after sales service, because the item has to be taken back to the service center, in case no at the door service option is available. But at the door service or a nearby service centre is the feature we look in for. 11. Does the proximity of the place from where you buy matter?
It does matter but only if quality is same at all places, but if quality is different than extra distance can be travelled to get a better product. 12. Do you listen to the retailer or go by your preset mindset?
Yes, retailer opinion does effect the buying decision, because he is always consulted while making the final decision as he is more experienced and know more about technical specifications. 13. How did you come to know of a particular brand? (Media
Vehicles) Word of mouth publicity is the most common and reliable source of information. Apart from it OOH media and on the shop merchandising also provides lot of information. 14. Whom do you go to for the brand recommendation?
The most important recommendation comes from the previous user or customer who provides insights about the product. 15. Do you buy it anytime of the year or only during certain
seasons? Most of the durables are generally given as the gift items to the bride at the time of marriage but there is also occasional and seasonal buying of Fans, Mobile phone etc. 16. How do you bring the product back to your home? (Mode of
transport) Big items are brought by either Bus or sometimes by Tractor 17. 12 How do you finance your purchases?
Generally lump sum amount is paid for most of the products and only in case the item is expensive and easy financing is possible, then financing is thought about
Respondent 3
1. Age: 44 2. Gender: Male 3. Income: 5 lakhs 4. What consumer durables do you own? • • • • • Refrigerator Television Washing Machine Computer Sewing machine
5. Who in the family is the influencer for each of the above mentioned products? • • • Refrigerator: Wife Television: Children Washing Machine: Got in Dowry (This was the general trend as he said) • • Computer: Son Sewing Machine: Wife
6. Who is the main decision maker in your family? The working husband (the respondent himself) 7. Who goes to make the purchase? 13
Except the computer, all purchases were made by him. His son went to purchase the computer. 8. How important is the price of the product in your purchase decision? He said that price is somewhat important in the decision making process but for him the Samsung brand mattered a lot in the television buying decision and he did not mind to pay a higher price for his desired brand. 9. From where do you buy them? From a nearby bigger village from where he buys all his consumer durables. 10. Do you buy any brand or are you loyal to a specific brand?
He was highly brand loyal. 11. Does the proximity of the place from where you buy matter?
Somewhat but he did not mind traveling. 12. Do you listen to the retailer or go by your preset mindset?
Preset mindset. The retailer push did maintain somewhat, but he went into the store with an almost preset mindset. 13. How did you come to know of a particular brand? (Media
Vehicles) Regional newspaper and television are still the major source for media vehicles in the village that we visited. 14. Whom do you go to for the brand recommendation?
Friends, newspaper ads, television ads, all form an equal source of inspiration, no particular influencer from outside. 15. Do you buy it anytime of the year or only during certain
seasons? This person was well to do, so the harvest season did not matter to him but he did buy during auspicious occasions like Dassera. 16. How do you bring the product back to your home? (Mode of
transport) Jeep, Bike 14
17.
How do you finance your purchases?
Personal income, Sometimes loans from the neighborhood banks.
Learnings from the Project
Awareness
The rural consumer as we derived from our project comes to know about the consumer durables from a number of sources like • • • • • • Regional & National TV Newspapers Radio Word of Mouth/ Family and friends Merchandising at the retailer Billboards
So we can clearly see that, Consumers in rural India are becoming more and more aware as their exposure to various media vehicles is increasing.
Acceptability
1. The quality parameter of the products purchased in case of consumer durables is rated very high by the consumers. This finding is exact opposite of the perceived thought that the rural consumer buys cheap and low quality product. 15
2.
Another important attribute of acceptability that we found out from the respondents was that they buy smaller and lesser known brands only because of the reason that these brands provide a better after sales service. Mechanics of these lesser known brands visit the village in case any problem occurs and they require any assistance. Whereas in case of bigger brands like LG, Samsung, Sony etc. these people have to take the product to the district HQ (Jhajhar) in case of any problem.
Availability
As far as the availability of the consumer durables is concerned we came to following conclusions: 1. Most of the brands are available in the nearby towns that were Rewari, Jhajjar and Pataudi. Which employees that the distribution is quite effective as most of the customers can reach the locations easily. 2. Customers are not apprehensive about extra travelling and they are willing to travel extra distance in order to get a better product 3. Availability of service centre is very important and this is one of the most important factor to decide the product to buy 4. Home service is always perceived as an added advantage and sometimes a criterion to buy a product 5. Consumers sometimes do look for specific brand and in case of absence of a particular brand they may go to a different store
Affordability
The issues and points that were realized during the visit are: 1. Price is not the buying criterion, quality is more important 2. Financing is not looked upon and financing option would not give an extra advantage 16
3. Most of the products are given as a gift at the time of wedding and hence uttermost care is given to the brand and quality 4. While deciding the price the company should look at the value it is going to create for the consumers, because rural consumers always look for value for money
Conclusion
Thus in the above report we have comprehensively analysed the current marketing practices that companies undertake in order to effectively lure the rural consumer into buying the consumer durables. Along with the marketing practices, we also analyse the effectiveness of the current practices by means of a subjective survey of three families (dominant males: the decision maker). We then conducted a 4A analysis and thus have a complete picture of the current marketing practices in consumer durables and its effectiveness.
17
doc_644262979.doc