This article is written by me with the help of some reference about Indian rural market scenario which is untapped for the years after venturing big FMCG companies in rural areas they got to know the potential of Rural market in India as half of population is residing in Rural area only. I had talked about my Grandfather how he came from Mumbai to Open a Organised Store in Village of U.P and Tapped the potential.

1. 2018
IILM GRADUATE
SCHOOLOF
MANAGEMENT
Mohammed Mohsin
INDIA’S RURAL
MARKET
Fact state that 68.8% of population resides in rural area and 56% of
overall consumption comes from there, annual compound growth rate
in consumption is 4% now estimated to grow at the rate of 5%.

2. IILM GRADUATE SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT
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India's Rural Market
"The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid”
y life’s first sixteen years were spend in the village of Uttar Pradesh. When I
was young the time which I use to spend mostly on my Organise store, where,
I have seen people from my village interacting with my Grandfather one thing
which I observed that after modernisation in life- style peoples are became
more demanding in terms of Products, My Grandfather runs the store from 40
years and always believed that there is an opportunity in rural area where he
can serve the people lifestyle of Mumbai and yes he is right about that, after
coming back from Mumbai to his village he opens Organise Retail store back
in Late 80’s Which is the one of unique type store in that area covering more
than 18 villages. Every one criticised my Grandfather for not selling the Local
product rather than Brand products Like Dove, Pears, Pantene, Colgate and
many more.
I asked my grandfather how he identified an opportunity, then he replied that most of the
business focuses on urban area or town very few businesses-man target rural area as we have
more opportunity here in terms of growth and expansion as India’s most of the population
lives in Villages, and we all became more demanding in terms of product after Brand
awareness through advertisement either print media or electrical media.
In this article, I will be sharing my personal experiences and viewpoint on Opportunities and
Challenges for Businessman and Companies for untapped Rural Market.
Keywords: Rural marketing, rural consumer, urban consumer
Opportunity:-
According to United Nations Population Division's World Urbanization Prospects 2016
66.8% Population Lives in rural area in India, the consumption in rural markets was growing
at an annual compounded growth rate of around 4% for the last 20 years; but this is estimated
to grow by over 5% in the next two decades and this is expected to treble by 2025. As per the
Mckinsey Global Institute forecasts, The Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) sector in
rural and semi- urban India is estimated to cross US$ 100 billion by 2025.
M

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Amongst the leading Companies, Dabur generates over 40-45 per cent of its domestic
revenue from rural sales. HUL rural revenue accounts for 45 per cent of its overall sales
while other companies earn 30- 35 per cent of revenues from rural areas.
Challenges:-
Rural markets offer potential but marketers have to recognise the fact that there are
considerable factor in many respects, buying patterns and behaviour of rural consumers.
While urban economy only driven by manufacturing and services, rural economy is driven by
activities such as agriculture and forestry. The consumer’s demand and consumption patterns
also differ across rural and urban areas.
 Availability- Main challenge in rural marketing is to ensure availability of the
product in Villages with 700 million Indians, Finding them is not easy. HUL and
Coca-Cola best known for tapping the rural market.
 Affordability – Second major challenge to ensure affordability of product due to low
disposable incomes, products need to affordable to the rural consumers.
 Acceptability- There is needed to offer products that suit the rural market.
Acceptability plays an important role.
Factor contributing to rural and urban differences
Factor Contributing factor %
Infrastructure 42
Income 31
Lifestyles 19
Interaction 8
Source- Rural marketing Concepts and Practices, Tata McGraw-Hill Publishing

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Conclusion:-
The Changing environment is reducing gap between rural and urban consumers, some
difference exist between both resulting in change in rural and urban consumers behaviour.
Policy makers should care about marketing strategies for rural area.
Demand for production and consumption of goods farm equipment and machinery, seeds,
fertilizers, banking services, and products for personal and family use has increased
substantially.
References
Krishnamacharyulu, CSG. Lalitha, Ramkrishnan (2010) - Rural marketing,
Pearson Second edition
Kotler, P. Marketing Management. New Delhi: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2009.
Weblography:-
www.business-standard.com › Home › Economy & Policy
https://www.ibef.org/industry/indian-rural-market.aspx (March, 2017)
https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.RUR.TOTL.ZS?page=1 (2016)