Rural Marketing in India

RURAL MARKETING IN INDIA In a foodstuff where life has rotate around deep rooted familiarity values, joint families, and social customs and taboos (women, for example, ar not allowed to wear tro expenditurers), marketers realize that the traditional r let unitys of market entry and scratch mental synthesis employed in urban India be often not feasible. As Adi Godrej, chairwoman of the Godrej Group, says, The dispute for dirts is to understand the psyche of the plain consumer, realize better distri plainlyion, and appreciate the heterogeneity. In recent condemnations, inelegant India has witnessed a wave of change. Dinesh Malhotra, general bus of Linterland ( plain arm of Lintas), points out, With media exposure and increasing literacy levels, hoi polloi in sylvan India argon immediately demanding a better lifestyle. The enlightened inelegant yuppie (males in the 15-34 age group) is moving out to work in nearby towns and cities, and direct money home to his famil y. This has created an indirect development in disposable incomes and a freshet in demand for consumer goods.The rural spring chicken are slowly evolving as assessment leaders in influencing soil and harvest-feast decisions in a market that was swayed by village elders for centuries. When create a brand in rural India, playscript-of-mouth is a huge motivator. Focused brand-building initiatives corresponding confederacy at community tied(p)ts such as melas (village fairs), haats (markets), street theater, new wave campaigns, and puppet shows obtain positive word-of-mouth and influence buying decisions Cholayil Ltd. , a purveyor of the herbal soap Medi rumple, campaigned in mobile vans to promote its brand. We run a van campaign which visits the interior villages where in that respect are no distributors. We halt the van at specific points where village family line congregate and watch videos shown on these vans and re cede out harvest-time samples. However, contrar y to avers of Medimixs success, Malhotra believes that van campaigns can be actually expensive. Alternatively, promoting ones brand in long congregation points like village markets and fairs has a far wider reach, and is more cost effective. indicate media promotions defecate helped build knowledge of product categories and change long-entrenched living habits.Colgate- pal upmolive, a star(p) oral hygiene product manufacturer, entered the rural market at a time when Neem twigs (the Neem tree has herbal properties) and non-dentifrice products like ash, charcoal, or salt were the average for brushing teeth (in fact in some rural pockets, this tradition windlessness continues). In 2001, Colgate-Palmolive launched Operation Jagruti to educate villagers more or less oral hygiene and its benefits vis-a-vis traditional products like Neem. Through product trials and desolate samples, the high society was able to generate consciousness in this new market.On a similar note, CK Ra nganathan, managing director of Cavin Kare, notes, When we entered the rural areas in sulphur India, masses used to launder their hair with soap. When we launched the Chik brand of shampoo we educated the people on how to use it through live touch and feel demonstrations and as well distributed free sachets at fairs. This strategy worked wonders in the rural areas of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradeshtwo valuable states in India. Colgate and Cavin Kare have shown that communication is differentiate when it comes to building brands in rural markets. As R.V. Rajan, managing director of the Anugrah Advertising Agency, adds, To communicate effectively, it is alpha to understand the fears, aspirations, and hopes of the rural consumer. Not to adduce the traditions and stereotypes that have governed their lives for centuries. While communicating the brand capacity, marketers must realize that language plays a prime case. Though a plumping part of urban India is well informal in s ide of meat (thanks to the British and newfangled television), in rural India, heritage plays a powerful role and regional languages are predominant.There are 15 regional languages, and 1600 dialects in India, and as one moves into the countryside, English is replaced with regional tongues. V. S. Sitaram, Dabur India executive director, explains, Often people treat India as one cock-a-hoop market, but the reality is that India is more like the European Uniona mix of different cultures, habits and languages. Dabur is as well considering the use of sulfur Indian celebrities to propagate the brand message in South India. Marketing companies not only need to customize their communication, but in some cases they must also change their product names to defend regional differences.Take toothpaste, for example Daburs Lal Dant Manjan (red toothpowder in Hindi) was rechristened as Dabur Sivappu Pal Podi (red toothpowder in Tamil, the local language) for the South Indian market. Affordab ility of the product is also a critical success factor when building brands. A spokesperson from Tata Group, which retails the Sonata brand of watches to rural India, says, rural folks think of a purchase in terms of how it serves their needs and how well its suits the family, or else than the individual. Products must be low-priced and immensely practical. Furthermore, since the rural consumer often survives on casual wages, he engages in daily purchases. some(prenominal) companies like Cavin Kare, Godrej, and Dabur adopt the single use sachet strategy, which has worked in their favor. As Byas Anand, Senior Manager, somatic Communications, Dabur India, claims, We introduced one-rupee sachets (2. 5 cents) for Dabur Vatika shampoo which resulted in multiply of volumes in the rural market. Though determine is important, rural consumers favor quality as well.For rural consumers, a purchase is a bigger investment than it is for the urban, veteran consumer. Hence, a particular br and depart be rewarded only if it earns the rural consumers religious belief through consistent product quality. As R. V. Rajan says, the rural consumer is conscious of value for money, and it top executive be difficult to convert him to a new brand. However, once converted he is fiercely loyal to the brand. This issue exit be a challenging one for corporations when they strategize their brand entry and decide how to agreement pricing with brand quality.The challenge doesnt end with just building brand awareness. While television and direct market activities help rural consumers learn some different brands, ensuring product availability is even more critical. Marketers in rural India claim that setting up a depict chain that reaches the remotest rural areas is extremely lowering given the infrastructure in the country. agree to Harish Manwani, chairman of Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL), The rural market centers are scattered over oversize areas and their connectivity t o the urban centers is poor. To overcome the distribution challenge and increase penetration in rural hinterlands, HUL launched a unique operation called puke Shakti in 2001 (Shakti is a Hindi word which means strength). The project targeted rural women from existing self-help groups to work as direct-to-home distributors for HUL products, and helped the company break into a market they were foreign with. Malhotra (Linterland) believes that, While Project Shakti might have worked for HUL, it is not an established channel. Reasons like relatively high capital investment, gender roles, and taboos could present an upper limit to those sales numbers. fit to Malhotra, a hub and spoke model of distribution is the future. As he explains, We successfully adopted the hub and spoke model for Dabur India and it has worked very well. Here, birdfeeder towns, primarily on the highways serve as hubs, where companies can rent a warehouse and stock their products. Spokes are comprised of cycl ist salesmen who thus distribute products to small retail outlets in nearby rural pockets. In short, customized and affordable products, effective distribution, and focused marketing initiatives are essential factors in building credibleness for a brand in rural India. Brand awareness and trust will play a key role in combating the blitz of local impersonator brands that are formidable competition. If marketers tailor submit their brand building initiatives according to the kinetics of the rural market, it may no long-run come as a surprise to see the rural Indian consumer school term before a Samsung television, enjoying a old bag of Frito-Lay potato chips, and drinking a bottle of Coke.