Rural Marketing in India

RURAL MARKETING IN INDIA In a market where life has revolved around deep rooted biotic community values, joint families, and social customs and taboos (women, for example, are not allowed to wear tro utilizationrs), marketers cause that the customs dutyal routes of market entry and brand twist employed in urban India are often not feasible. As Adi Godrej, Chairman of the Godrej Group, says, The dispute for brands is to understand the psyche of the untaught consumer, create better(p) distri entirelyion, and appreciate the heterogeneity. In recent times, hobnailed India has witnessed a wave of change. Dinesh Malhotra, general manager of Linterland ( plain arm of Lintas), points out, With media exposure and change magnitude literacy levels, hoi polloi in rustic India are now demanding a better lifestyle. The educated rural yuppie (males in the 15-34 age group) is moving out to break in nearby towns and cities, and sending m atomic number 53y home to his family. This has cre ated an indirect maturation in disposable in semens and a surge in demand for consumer goods.The rural youth are slowly evolving as opinion leaders in influencing brand and proceeds decisions in a market that was swayed by colony elders for centuries. When grammatical construction a brand in rural India, word of mouth is a huge motivator. Foc utilize brand-building initiativeslike participation at community events such(prenominal) as melas ( colonization fairs), haats (markets), street theater, van campaigns, and puppet showsgenerate positive word-of-mouth and influence buying decisions Cholayil Ltd. , a purveyor of the herbal soap Medimix, campaigned in active vans to promote its brand. We run a van campaign which visits the interior villages where at that place are no distributors. We halt the van at specific points where village folks congregate and watch videos shown on these vans and give out product samples. However, contrary to deeds of Medimixs success, Malhotra be lieves that van campaigns can be very expensive. Alternatively, promoting mavins brand in prominent congregation points like village markets and fairs has a far wider reach, and is much cost effective. Direct media promotions have helped build friendship of product categories and change long-entrenched living habits.Colgate-Palmolive, a leading oral hygienics product manufacturer, entered the rural market at a time when arishth 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 still continues). In 2001, Colgate-Palmolive launched Operation Jagruti to educate villagers about oral hygiene and its benefits vis-a-vis traditional products like Neem. Through product trials and abandon samples, the beau monde was able to generate awareness in this new market.On a similar note, CK Ranganathan, managing director of Cavin Kare, notes, When we entered t he rural areas in South India, people used to wash 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 to a fault distributed free sachets at fairs. This strategy behaveed wonders in the rural areas of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradeshtwo cardinal states in India. Colgate and Cavin Kare have shown that communication is key 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 important to understand the fears, aspirations, and hopes of the rural consumer. Not to mention the traditions and stereotypes that have governed their lives for centuries. tour communicating the brand message, marketers mustiness realize that language plays a prime map. Though a large part of urban India is well versed in English (thanks to the British and modern telly), in rural India, heritage plays a po werful 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 big market, but the reality is that India is more like the European Uniona mix of contrastive cultures, habits and languages. Dabur is also considering the use of South 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 match regional differences.Take toothpaste, for example Daburs Lal Dant Manjan (red toothpowder in Hindu) was rechristened as Dabur Sivappu Pal Podi (red toothpowder in Tamil, the topical anesthetic language) for the South Indian market. Affordability of the product is also a critical success factor when building brands. A spokesperson from T ata Group, which sells the Sonata brand of watches to rural India, says, rural folks think of a obtain in terms of how it serves their needs and how well its suits the family, rather than the individual. Products must be affordable and immensely practical. Furthermore, since the rural consumer often survives on daily wages, he engages in daily purchases. Several companies like Cavin Kare, Godrej, and Dabur adopted the single use sachet strategy, which has worked in their estimation. As Byas Anand, Senior Manager, Corporate Communications, Dabur India, claims, We introduced one-rupee sachets (2. 5 cents) for Dabur Vatika shampoo which resulted in doubling of volumes in the rural market. Though pricing is important, rural consumers favor quality as well.For rural consumers, a purchase is a large investment than it is for the urban, veteran consumer. Hence, a particular brand leave alone be rewarded only if it earns the rural consumers trust through consistent product quality. As R. V. Rajan says, the rural consumer is conscious of value for money, and it might be ticklish to convert him to a new brand. However, once converted he is ferociously loyal to the brand. This issue will be a challenging one for corporations when they strategize their brand entry and decide how to balance pricing with brand quality.The altercate doesnt end with just building brand awareness. While television and direct marketing activities help rural consumers learn about different brands, ensuring product availability is even more critical. Marketers in rural India claim that setting up a supply chain that reaches the remotest rural areas is highly arduous given the infrastructure in the country. According to Harish Manwani, chairman of Hindustan Unilever extra (HUL), The rural market centers are scattered over large areas and their connectivity to the urban centers is poor. To overcome the distribution challenge and increase penetration in rural hinterlands, HUL launched a uni que operation called Project 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 unfamiliar with. Malhotra (Linterland) believes that, While Project Shakti might have worked for HUL, it is not an established channel. Reasons like comparatively high capital investment, gender roles, and taboos could present an upper limit to those gross sales numbers. According 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, feeder towns, to begin with on the highways serve as hubs, where companies can rent a store and stock their products. Spokes are comprised of cyclist salesmen who then distribute products to small retail outlets in nearby rural pockets. In short, customized and aff ordable products, effective distribution, and pore marketing initiatives are essential factors in building credibility for a brand in rural India. Brand awareness and trust will play a key role in combating the blitz of local copycat brands that are formidable competition. If marketers tailor make their brand building initiatives according to the dynamics of the rural market, it may no longer come as a surprise to see the rural Indian consumer school term before a Samsung television, enjoying a bag of Frito-Lay potato chips, and drinking a bottle of Coke.