ITC has extensive rural marketing strategies in India, including its e-Choupal initiative. Through e-Choupal, ITC provides farmers with real-time market information online and offers lower transaction costs. It also provides farmers insurance products and financial services. ITC plans to expand e-Choupal to 20,000 kiosks by 2012. It will also open small hypermarkets in rural areas to increase access to products and services for farmers. ITC's rural marketing strategies aim to improve availability, affordability, acceptability, and awareness of products in rural India.

1. MUMBAI
Rural Marketing PLAN
SUBMITTED TO PREPARED BY
Prof. PRAKASH PANDIT Mr. AKSHIT JAIN
MARKETING PROFESSOR Enroll. No. 15BSP0140
Student of Section G

2. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
SUBMITTED ON 5TH JANUARY 2015
This topic has been chosen to study the Rural Marketing
strategy of ITC Ltd. There are certain prospective on which a
company sells their products in to the rural market and
diversifies their business. This project has been a great learning
experience for me; at the same time it gave me enough scope
to implement my analytical ability.Full project gives an insight
about the strategies and its various aspects. All the topics have
been covered in a very systematic way.Rural marketing is now
a two-way marketing process. There is inflow of products into
rural markets for production or consumption and there is also
outflow of products to urban areas ITC’s e-choupal initiativeis
proving the farmers with real time updatedinformationon
weather. It is providingthem customized knowledge in the
form of farm management and risk management. It is also
providingthem lower transaction cost. It is also providingthem
financial services in the form of life, general, health and crop
insurance. It focuses on making people aware of the product. It
is providing active servicing up to rural outlets. It is providing
them with wide range of product categories. Moreover it has

3. INTRODUCTION
made entrepreneurs out of farmers as they are managing most
of the work, it instills in them the sense of ownership
ITC's
Agri-Business is one of India's largest exporters of agricultural
products. ITC is one of the country's biggest foreign exchange
earners (US $ 2.8 billionin the last decade). The Company's 'e-
Choupal'initiativeis enablingIndianagriculture significantly
enhance its competitivenessby empowering Indianfarmers
through the power of the Internet. This transformational
strategy, which has already become the subject matter of a
case study at Harvard Business School, is expected to
progressively create for ITC a huge rural distribution
infrastructure, significantly enhancingthe Company'smarketing
reach.
ITC's pre-eminent position as one of India'sleading corporates
in the agriculturalsector is based on strong and enduring
farmer partnerships that has revolutionizedand transformed
the rural agriculturalsector. A uniquerural digitalinfrastructure
network, coupled with deep understandingof agricultural
practices and intensive research, has built a competitive and
efficient supply chain that creates and delivers immense value
across the agriculturalvalue chain. One of the largest exporters
of agri productsfrom the country.

4. PLANS & OBJECTIVES OF ITC
IN RURAL MARKETING
I
ITC plans to up rural market penetration
BETTING big on the farm sector, ITC is planning to increase its
penetration in the rural areas. As part of this plan, the company
will introduce a small hypermarket format in select states with
an investment of around Rs 80 crore. It will also open more e-
choupal kiosks.
The company believes that these initiatives will help farmers in
less developed markets like Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh,
Rajasthan and Maharashtra to get a better return for their
produce.
“We are planningto increase our farmer service centers in rural
areas (e-choupal kiosks) from the present 6,450 to 20,000 by
2012. We are looking at setting up 40 small hypermarkets in the
first phaseon the similarlinesof ourexisting hypermarketmodel
— ChoupalSagar next year at an investment of Rs 2 crore each.
In the second phase we will add 30 new small hypermarkets,”
said, S Siva kumar, chief executive (agri business division), ITC.

5. While the big format ChoupalSagar occupies an area of about 6
acres to 10 acres, the small centers will be spread about2 acres.
This is expected to help marginal farmers as it will provide them
a smaller catchment area to market their produce. The model
will also help bring down operational cost, said Siva kumar.
Talking to reporters on the sidelines of customer an industry
event focusing on customer management, he said, the new
initiatives will be targeting states, where the back-end
operations and farm marketing are yet to evolve.
“For states such as Andhra Pradesh, Punjab and Karnataka, we
have a different strategy. In these states, our focus will be on
horticulture and Choupal Sagars and kiosks will help us
improving the farm to market lineage. Besides, in coastal
districts of AP, we are also helping farmers to take up
aquaculture,” he said.
These initiatives, he said, would also help the company achieve
higher export returns. “These kiosks are mainly information
centres, where farmers can access information on foreign
market requirements, traceability norms and other quality
criteria. Also, we sell financialproductsincludingcrop insurance
to farmers. This will trigger them to adopt slightly risky but high
return crops and farming practices like organic cultivation
methods,” he said.
The company had earmarked to spend Rs 5,000 crore on its e
choupal division since its inception in 2,000. It is still ploughing
back money into the system though some of these centres have

6. ITC E-CHOUPAL
I
become self sustainable. The plan is to continue to invest till
2012.
E-Choupalis an initiativeof ITC Limited, a conglomerate in
India, to link directly with rural farmers via the Internet for
procurement of agricultural and aquacultureproducts like
soybeans, wheat, coffee, and prawns. E-Choupaltackles the
challenges posed by Indian agriculture, characterized by
fragmented farms, weak infrastructure and the involvementof
intermediaries. The programme installscomputers with
Internet access in rural areas of India to offer farmers up-to-
date marketing and agriculturalinformation.Today the
initiativeof ITC has empowered the lives of peopleliving in 10
states where 40000 villages have 6500 e choupalsand around 4
millionfarmers have been empowered. ITC E-Choupal
ITC’s Agri Commodity Exports Farm linkages in 14 states
covering Soya, Wheat, Rice, Marine products, Ediblenuts,
Coffee Unique CRM programme in commodity exports
Leveraging IT for the transformational‘e- Choupal’initiative
Rural India’s largest Internet-based intervention  Over 30000
villages linkedthrough 5200 e-Choupalsservicing over 3 million
farmers  First rural mall christened ‘ChoupalSagar’ opened at

7. Sehore,M.P Distinctive sourcing capabilityfor ITC’s Foods
business -
4 A’S IN ITC E-CHOUPAL
ITC also employs 4As in e-Choupal
AVAILABILITY: It emphasizes on the availabilityof the goods
and services to the end consumers. In the case of e-choupalthe
products are availablecontinuouslybecause sanchalaks
maintainscontinuousinventory and maintainsaggregate
demand.
AFFORDABILITY: It focuses on product pricing. ITC buys from
farmers directly in the last days closing price and even pays
them for transportation.Goods are weighted electronicallyand
hence farmers are no more cheated as they used to be
previously. Hence it is a win- win situationboth for farmers and
the company.
ACCEPTABILITY: It focuses on convincing the customer to buy
the product. ITC’s e-choupalinitiativeis proving the farmers
with real time updatedinformationon weather. It is providing
them customized knowledge in the form of farm management
and risk management. It is also providing them lower
transaction cost. It is also providingthem financialservices in
the form of life, general, healthand crop insurance.
AWARENESS:It focuses on making people aware of the
product. It is providing active servicing up to rural outlets. It is

8. MARKETING STRATEGIES
I
providingthem with wide range of product categories.
Moreover it has made entrepreneurs out of farmers as they are
managing most of the work, it instillsin them the sense of
ownership
Key Rural Marketing Strategies employed by ITC are:
• By communicatingand changing quality perception
• By proper communicationin IndianLanguage
• By understandingcultural and social values
• By promoting IndianSports Teams
• By developingrural specific products
• By adoptinglocalizedway of distribution.
• By giving Indian words for brands.

10. SWOT ANALYSIS
I
Strengths:-
 Strong Procurement Network: - E-CHOUPALS
 Largest Rural Market Share For Atta : - AASHIRVAAD ATTA
 Quality Is High
 Strong Distribution Network
 Strong Cash Flows Generated
Weaknesses:
 PROMOTION NOT CONVINCING: - It was not convincing to
overcome reluctance to try out new variants
 NOT YET REACHED THE BREAK EVEN POINT: -Rely on the
revenues generated by Cigarette business
Opportunities:
 ECONOMICS OF SCALE: - It has not yet reached. Increasing
the productionwill lead to decrease in cost and
competitive pricing or higher margins to retailers

11. SWOT ANALYSIS MATRIX
OF
ITC RURAL MARKETING
 GROWING WORKING POPULATION: - Thereby opportunity
to tap market
 OPPORTUNITY OF PROMOTING PREMIUM VARIANTS: -As
there is an increase in family income of rural areas
especiallyfor zamidars and other rich people
Threats:
 Higher margin offered by localbrands
 Slow in economy
 Low price points offered by local brands

13. OTHER ITC INITATIVES
IN
IITC is committed to a nationalagendaof raising agricultural
productivityand making the rural economy more socially
inclusive. ITC believes that the urgency and scale of the set
tasks make market linked solutionsand innovationsmore
effective and sustainablethan capitalintensive approaches.

14. 1. Social & farm Forestry
ITC has helped to bring nearly 13,000 hectares of wasteland
under social forestry benefiting more than 16,000 poor
householdsin 466 villages. ITC’s social forestry programme
simultaneouslyaddresses the livelihoodproblemsof marginal
farmers and the ecologicalimperative of regenerating biomass
and nurturing depletedsoils.
2. Watershed Development
ITC’s watershed initiativeshave led to an improvement in soil
and moisture regimes – there is more land under irrigation,
water tables have risen and farmers can harvest more than one
crop, making it possible to live off the land round the year.
3. Agricultural Development
ITC offers facilitationto farmers to form agri-businesssocieties,
pool knowledge and resources, improve productivityand
quality,and reach out beyond local markets to sell at better
margins.
4. Women Empowerment
The confidence and skillsgenerated among women by forming
credit groups and managing businesses become assets to their
communities
5. Livestock Development

15. ITC E-CHOUPAL
I
ITC E-CHOUPAL
I
The milk marketing co-operatives represent exemplary change
in rural enterprise, away from dependenceon agriculture and
local markets.
6. PrimaryEducation
School going becomes an empowering process for the child and
the community. The awareness of entitlementslike education
and health grows, along with a sense of the community’s
responsibility.
SOME FIGURES ANALYSIS
The main driver in attracting the consumers is Quality of the
product itself with nearly65% of the peoplesurveyed citing it as
the main criterion for choosing the product, followedby past
experience of the consumer with the brand (17.6%). Price was
third criterion with a percentage of 11.7% of the people
surveyed gave importance during buying. (FIGURE 1)
An effective advertisement will attract more and more
customer to buy, helps in the brand and image formation, and
informative in telling the USP of the product. (FIGURE 2)

16. Figure 1 AND Figure 2
FIG
1
FIG
2

17. FIG.
3
FIG
4

18. The FIGURE 3 shows the experience of the customer after using
the product i.e. whether they were satisfied with the product as
a whole. The higher the satisfaction level higher will be the
chances that the customer will buy the same brand againand
again that leads to the buildingof the Brand loyalty.The
In FIGURE 4 Availabilityof the Product itself determine the
effectiveness and the penetrationof the distributionchannelof
that particularbrand among the people.

19. CONCLUSION
ITC e-Choupalan innovativestrategy which is elaborative&
extensive in rural markets so far
 RURAL WEALTH CREATION in Agriculture through securing
empowerment, collaborations& competitions
 A transformational initiativefor substantialdevelopment
of society
 Commitment to transparency & the respect & fairness
with which both farmers & local partners are treated
RURAL FACTS
AN ITC GROUP
INITIATIVE
LET’S PUT INDIA’S FIRST

20. ENDURING VALUE