International Journal of Latest Trends in Engineering and Technology

Special Issue SACAIM 2016, pp. 474-478

e-ISSN:2278-621X

RECENT TRENDS IN RURAL MARKETING

Nafeesa Fareeda1 and Swathi2

Abstract- Rural markets have become integral part of global market. The rural markets are growing at above
two times faster pace than urban markets; not surprisingly .The marketers in recent years are thus facing an
extremely difficult and challenging tasks of catering to the rural sector, which is now almost impossible to
ignore because of its rising income, population growth rate and government thrust on primary sector growth
in its current five years plan.The paper describes the challenges and strategies of rural marketing in India
and present scenario of rural market in India.
Key Words - Rural: Marketing: Challenges and strategies: emerging trend

I.INTRODUCTION
Rural India with its traditional perception has grown over the years, not only in terms of
income, but also in terms of thinking. The rural markets are growing at above two times
faster pace than urban markets; not surprisingly, Rural India accounts for 60% of the total
national demand. Organizations need to sustain and grow in the market; therefore, they
adopted newly marketing trends for retaining the existing customers and targeting new
customers to increase the market share. Organizations need to sustain if effective network is
available to adopt neo-marketing strategies to tap such markets available in rural and for
flung areas where more than 65% population is residing with large untapped consumer
potential. These recently developed trends also facilitate the organization to reach the target
customers in minimum possible time. An organization selects new marketing trends on the
basis of nature and usage of products. Such marketing is a process that involves carefully
designing, implementing and controlling formulated strategies to facilitate the exchange of
goods and services between organizations and customers. It helps an organization in
identifying needs and wants of the customers and delivering products that satisfy those needs
and wants.
Indian Rural economy emerging as biggest contributor to economic growth of India it is
estimated that it will be around 45% of GDP by 2020. The rural economy has provided a
cushion to the Indian economy. Indian economy is able to sustain in spite of all the crisis
happened in other parts of the world is because of the backup of rural market. Rural
consumers, who were on the receiving end so far, are now slowly getting into position to
dictate the terms for the first time.
A. Objective
To study the needs of rural marketing in India.
To study the present scenario of rural market in India.
To study the trends in rural marketing
To study the challenges and strategies in rural marketing.

II.METHODOLOGY
The Research design in this study is Descriptive research design. In order to achieve the

1
Faculty of commerce and management U.G. Centre of Mangalore University First Grade College Mangalagangothri
2
Faculty of commerce and management U.G. Centre of Mangalore University First Grade College Mangalagangothri
 Recent Trendsin Rural Marketing 475

research objectives, the study is based on secondary data. The data has been collected from
various websites, newspapers and reputed journals.

A. Present Scenario in Rural Marketing

As we know Indian economy comprising of both urban sector as well as rural sector. And
concept of rural marketing in Indian economy has always played an influential role in the
lives of people. In India, leaving out a few metropolitan cities, all the districts and industrial
townships are connected with rural markets. The rural market in India is not a separate entity
in itself and it is highly influenced by the sociological and behavioural factors operating in
the country. The Indian rural markets with its vast size and demand base offer great
[email protected], www.anveshanaindia.com 102 opportunities to marketers.
About 68.84% of the consumers live in rural areas and more than half of the national income
is generated from rural areas. Of the 121 crore Indians, 83.3 crore live in rural areas while
37.7 crore stay in urban areas, Our nation is distributed approximately in 6,30,000 villages
which can be sorted in different parameters such as literary levels, accessibility, income level,
penetration, distance from nearest town etc. It is only natural that rural India occupies an
important position in the marketing strategies both in the narrower and broader spectrum.
Rural marketing in Indian economy can be classified under two broad categories. These are
(a) the markets for consumer goods that comprise of both durable and non-durable goods, and
(b) the markets for agricultural inputs that include fertilizers, pesticides, seeds, and so on.
The concept of rural marketing in India is often been found to form ambiguity in the minds of
people who think rural marketing is all about agricultural marketing. However, rural
marketing determines the carrying out of business activities bringing in the flow of goods
from urban sectors to the rural regions of the country as well as the marketing of various
products manufactured by the non-agricultural workers from rural to urban areas

B. Needs of Rural Marketing

There are many reasons that have urged the Indian companies to enter the rural India. Some
of them are discussed below:
1. Rapid growth in service industries
2. Rise in demanding consumers: The purchasing power in rural India is on steady rise and it
has resulted in the growth of the rural market 3. Increase of rural literacy: Literacy level
among the rural mass is increasing day by day. Rural consumer can understand the message
given by the producers in the advertisements.
4. Global integration: Global Research Company McKinsey had referred to India as the “Bird
of Gold” in its report titled .The Bird of Gold: The Rise of India’s Consumer Market.
Consumer product makers and analysts now believe that this bird is ready to fly with wings
wide spread in the global sky. Rural consumers increasing their appetite for better products
and high-standard services.
5. Increase in rural population: Over the past few years rural India has witnessed an increase
in the population with much more pace than of urban population and as far as total
[email protected], www.anveshanaindia.com 104 population size in concern rural
population size is more than two times of urban population.

C. Trends in Rural Marketing

The companies should start selling the concept of quality with proper communication. Their
main focus is to change the Indian customer outlook about quality. With their promotion,
rural customer asks for value for money
 Nafeesa Fareeda and Swathi 476

1. Large population: The Indian rural market with its vast size and demand offers great
opportunity to marketers. Our national is classified in around 450 districts & approx. 6,
30,000 villages. Indian rural market is huge in size because rural population accounts for
almost 70% of Indian population as the recent Census 2011, 833 million live in rural India,
33% of rural population includes youth, number of households increased from 25 to 33 crore.
The rural market is currently worth approximately USD$ 10 billion in consumer spending in
the FMCG market annually. Food categories are currently driving the bulk of the additional
USD$ 90 billion into the marketplace by 2025.
2. . Green revolution: The vision of Dr. Swami Nathan, the father of the green revolution
to achieve self-sufficiency in food grain production in 1995, gave a major breakthrough in
food grain production by the use of scientific methods in agriculture. At present, Rural India
generates 299 million tons annually. The substantial attention accorded to agriculture during
the successive five-year plans has helped in improving agricultural productivity. Adoption of
new agronomic practices, selected mechanisation, multiple cropping, inclusion of cash crops
and development of allied activities like dairy, fisheries and other commercial activities have
helped in increasing disposable income of rural consumers. By observing this scenario,
India‟s one of the biggest giant Hindustan Lever Ltd. has entered into rural market for more
penetration through the operation „Bharat‟.
3. Smart phones penetrating into rural India: 320 million are rural mobile phone users
i.e. roughly 38 per cent of the rural population, which includes children and senior citizens.
The actual benefit of technology positively impacting rural economy will be seen when data
communication is used effectively.
4. Increased level of education and employability of rural youth: Villagers realized their
children education is the first priority. Most of the rural youth especially teenagers are
[email protected], www.anveshanaindia.com 105 well aware of products due to
their school education and media exposure. Significant progress on literacy levels – 90% of
the villages have a primary school within a 1 km walk. Private school enrolment in rural
India has enhanced by 5.5% points over past six years. The literacy rate has also gone up by
68.91% in rural India. This enhanced the employability of rural youth they are not sitting idle
in villages they are motivated to go to nearby towns to find the jobs.
5. . Increased purchasing power: Rural purchasing power has grown faster than urban in
the recent years. Rural Indian economy is highly supported by increasing disposable income,
Government initiatives and schemes and favourable demographics. As a result, the rural
segment of the Indian economy is growing at a pace of 8-10% per annum. Government
spending in rural India has tripled over the last four years and is now translating into higher
consumer spending. Therefore, rural consumers are consuming more premium and
convenience oriented categories that are typical of their urban counterparts. “Policy measures
like the waiver of agricultural loans around US$ 13.9 billion and the National Rural
Employment Guarantee Scheme, which guarantees 100 days of employment to one member
of every rural household (NREGS), the Bharat Nirman program with an outlay of US$ 34.84
billion for improving rural infrastructure etc helped the rural economy.
6. Government Incentives and polices: The government’s stress on self-sufficiency
resulted in various schemes like Operation Flood (White Revolution), Blue Revolution,
Yellow Revolution, etc. resulted in the production of 15 million tons of milk per annum. The
Indian Government launched a number of schemes like IRDP (Integrated Rural Development
Programme) and REP (Rural Electrification Programme) in the 1970‟s, which gave a boost to
the agrarian economy. This resulted in changes in people’s habits and social life. REP gave
impetus to the development of consumer durable industry.
7. Media: Mass Media has created increased demand for goods and services in rural
areas. Smart marketers are employing the right mix of conventional and non-conventional
 Recent Trendsin Rural Marketing 477

media to create increased demand for products. The role cable television has been noteworthy
in bringing about the change in rural people’s mind set and influencing their lifestyles.
8. IT penetration in rural India: Today's rural children and youth will grow up in an
environment where they have 'information access' to education opportunities, exam results,
career counselling, job opportunities, government schemes and services, health and legal
advice and services, worldwide news and information, land records, mandi prices, weather
forecasts, bank loans, livelihood options. If television could change the language of brand
communication in rural India, affordable Web connectivity through various types of
communication hubs will surely impact the currency of information exchange .As the
electronic ethos and IT culture moves into rural India, the possibilities
[email protected], www.anveshanaindia.com 106 of change are becoming visible.
Products developed for rural marketing are Philips develop a tv “vardaan” and free power
radio for rural markets, ICICI rural ATMS, Bhumiheen credit cards by bank of India, E-
choupal by ITC.
9. Better credit facilities through banks: With co-operative banks taking the lead in the
rural areas, every village has access to short, medium, long-term loans from these banks. The
credit facilities extended by public sector banks through Kisan Credit Cards help the farmers
to buy seeds, fertilizers and every consumer goods on instalments.
10. Brand conscious: The rural market in India is not separate entity in itself and it is
highly influenced by the sociological and behavioural factors operating in the country.
Spending on FMCG products especially in the rural areas is showing an increasing tendency.

D. Challenges and Strategies in Rural Market

Delivering to the rural markets is a real challenge to many marketers. In fact, the whole
dynamics of rural markets are so unique that one has to look at beyond traditional marketing
mix with advanced mix containing the 4A‟s instead of the traditional 4P‟s of marketing:
Acceptability – develop what the consumer wants, Affordability – Make an affordable
product, Availability – product made available at villages and Awareness - Don’t promote the
brand, demonstrate the product. Most of the marketers look at rural market as an extension of
existing urban market hence they simply dump their existing product which is out-dated in
urban market into rural market. Hence marketers fail to penetrate into rural market in big
way. Though rural consumers attracted towards urban life styles their dynamics are differ
from urban consumers. Similarly rural marketing strategies are also significantly different
from the marketing strategies aimed at an urban consumer.

Strategies for Rural Marketing

The past practices of treating rural markets as appendages of the urban market is not correct,
since rural markets have their own independent existence, and if cultivated well could turn
into a generator of profit for the marketers. But the rural markets can be exploited by
realizing them, rather than treating them as convenient extensions of the urban market.
a) Marketing Strategy : Marketers need to understand the psychology of the rural consumers
and then act consequently. Rural marketing involves more exhaustive personal selling efforts
compared to urban marketing. Firms should abstain from designing goods for the urban
markets and subsequently pushing them in the rural areas. 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.
b) Distribution Strategy: One of the ways could be using company delivery van which can
serve two purposes - it can take the products to the customers in every nook and corner of the
 Nafeesa Fareeda and Swathi 478

market, and it also enables the firm to establish direct contact with them, and thereby
facilitate sales promotion. Annual "melas" organized are quite popular and provide a very
good platform for distribution because people visit them to make several purchases.
According to the Indian Market Research Bureau, around 8000 such melas are held in rural
India every year. Rural markets have the practice of fixing specific days in a week as Market
Days called "Haats' when exchange of goods and services are carried out. This is another
potential low cost distribution channel available to the marketers. Also, every region
consisting of several villages is generally served by one satellite town termed as "Mandis"
where people prefer to go to buy their durable commodities. If marketing managers use these
feeder towns, they will easily be able to cover a large section of the rural population.
c) Promotional Strategy: Marketers must be very careful while choosing the mediums to be
used for communication. Only 16% of the rural population has access to a vernacular
newspaper. So, the audio visuals must be planned to convey a right message to the rural folk.
The rich, traditional media forms like folk dances, puppet shows, etc., with which the rural
consumers are familiar and comfortable, can be used for high impact product campaigns.
Radio is also very popular source of information and Entertainment, Adds on radio can also
be a helpful tool for marketers.

III.CONCLUSION
India’s rural market could have been stronger than the present position, if Indian
policymakers have made adequate infrastructure for rural India. Rural markets, as part of any
economy, have untapped potential. Thus looking at the challenges and the strategies 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.

REFERENCE
http://www.ibef.org/industry/indian-rural-market
http://www.inianmba.com/Faculty_Column/Fc875.html
http://www.cpuh.in/academics/pdf/Rajat_Rural_Marketing
http://indianresearchjournals.com/pdf/APJMMR/2013/Julay/4
http://publications.anveshanaindia.com