Rural markets make up a large portion of India's population. Effective communication strategies are needed to reach rural consumers who have different behaviors and access to media than urban consumers. Hindustan Lever Limited launched an educational campaign using Lifebuoy soap to promote handwashing and hygiene in rural India. The campaign utilized various media and engaged local communities to successfully change handwashing behaviors and increase sales.

1. RURAL
COMMUNICATION
By Ashiya, Deepa, Reenu

2. SUMMARY
Definition of rural market
Nature of the market
Factors affecting consumer behavior
Communication strategies
Communication media
Cases

3.  Census definition: ‘that which is not urban’
• Urban areas are all locations with a municipality/corporation or a notified town
area
• Urban areas are all other locations satisfying the following criteria
 A minimum population of 5000
 At least 75% of male working population engaged in non agricultural activities
 A population density of over 400 per sq km
 Rural market: The set of consumers who are located in rural area and who exhibit
behavior that is different from those of consumers in urban areas. (Rural marketing
opp. & challenges by sanal kumar velayudhan)

4.  Large but scattered population
 69.9% of Indians in rural areas as of 2010 (world bank report 2012)
 700 million people spread around 6,27,000 villages.
 87.5% of the rural population belongs to bottom of the pyramid (Dr. Simon j
Evenet)
 More than 16 scheduled languages and 114 vernaculars
 Income
 Average income of less Rs.2000/- per month
 Rising monthly per capita expenditure (MPCE) increase of 64.6% in 2004-10
period. (National Sample Survey)
 54 % to GDP
 About 50% of income comes from agriculture.

5.  Value consciousness
 Increasing literacy levels (10%)
 Accessibility and connectivity (273.5 million mobile connections),
 acceptance of technology
 brand consciousness

6. COMMUNICATION STRATEGY
 Education instead of promotion
 Interactive interesting and entertaining
 How benefits outweigh the costs
 Benefits in accordance with the needs and lifestyle.
 Demonstrations will help in achieving the purpose
 Regionalization of the advertisement
 Perceptions traditions and values vary from state to state
 MRF bullock cart tyres: in west UP bullock carts were small pulled by
single bullock: East UP, bigger pulled by two bullocks: West UP spoke
Hindusthani while east UP spoke Bhojpuri.
 Emami signed Amithabh and Madhuri for north, but in Andhra they signed
Chiranjeevi.

7.  Philips radio: TN -enga veetu super star (Rajanikant), AP- Maa inti mega
star (Chiranjeevi). Has they used superstar it would have meant late N.T.
Rao
 Philips used photo of villages own girl – to sell transistor TV’s so that rural
audience can relate and perceives that product is for them
 Customisation of promotional message
 Use of Human elements
 Life stories having characters that customer can identify with
 Using aspirational urban model, but simple and direct communication
 Local language and dialect
 Role of mass media (reaches around 57% rural population)
 Cinema reaches 26%
 2 out of 5 Indians are unreachable by mass media

8. FORMAL/ CONVENTIONAL MEDIA
Do not provide the touch and feel of the product
 TV
• Tv is the most preferred (36% access to TV, 60% B&W) – power cuts are
common and this restricts viewing time.
• Doordarshan most popular channel
 Print media (Print media reaches 23%)
 Radio (Reaches20.5% of rural population)
 Cinema (reach 26%)
 Outdoor (wall paintings, hoardings, tree boards)

9. • Radio can reach a large number of poor people because it is
affordable and uses little electricity.
• In 2000, AIR programmes could be heard in two-third of all Indian
households in 24 languages and 146 dialects, over some 120 million
radio sets.
• There are specific programmes for agriculturists like ‘Farm and
Home Programme’ or ‘Krishi Darshan’ in all regional languages,
• Thus there is regular listener ship
• The main advantage is that it is cost effective medium.
• Colgate, Jyoti Laboratories, Zandu Balm, Juari Industries are
somecompanies using radio for communication.
Eg. Nirma Jingle
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-sx_NduQZs
Eg. Johnson & Johnson getting into rural markets through radio ads
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYqK4Vy67Ns

12. INFORMAL/ RURAL SPECIFIC MEDIA
source: rural marketing: concepts and practices by Dogra
• Farm to farm/ house to house
 Hindustan lever (fair and lovely) in villages with population of 2000+ to
expand user base
 Reached 10% of villages and 17% of households in MP,UP and Bihar
 46% brand conversions (35% was from non users)
• Group meetings
 MRF tractor owners meet (TOMEE)
 TAFE (direct contact exercises in 9 states – 44 centres): sales growth of
12% after one month of campaign

13.  Audio Visual publicity vans
• Create word of mouth publicity
• HLL (fair and lovely) home to home campaign was supported by Audio
visual show and product demonstrations
• Costly to hire and maintain
• Cost per contact is more than conventional media
 Demonstrations
• Dalda launch, fed pakodas on street corner to convey that they can use it
for frying (method demonstration)
• Hero, TVS and Kinetic gave live demonstrations in Kolhapur for
Maharashtra sugar co operative (they got 400 orders)

14.  Opinion leaders
 Asian paints launched Utsav range during pre Diwali season.
 Painted house of pardhaan
 Paints doesn’t peel off
 Necessary for high value consumer durables and agricultural inputs.
 Mandis
 These are agricultural markets set up by govt. to procure agri. Produce
from farmers
 Serve as a platform for product demo and on the spot sales
 In areas with population of 10000+ mandies can cater to 136000 people
 Used for promoting durables and agricultural products

15.  Haats
 Mobile supermarkets (75% are held once a week, 20% twice a week and
the rest are organised daily)
 There are around 42000 haats catering to daily needs.
 Number of visitors on an average per haat is 4500+
 Good platform for demonstrations
 Melas
 Around 25000 melas in india (90% are religious and one day affairs)
 About 5000 are commercial in nature, used for brand promotions
 Women folk are present in large number
 Kumbh mela (Haridwar, Allahabad, Ujjain, Nasik) Sonepur mela (Bihar)
 HLL, P&G set up kiosks.
 Mahindra & Mahindra set up information counter for its tractor at Pushkar
mela (rajasthan)
 Nesle arranges coffee and maggie shop

16.  Good for introducing new brands and building brands
 When MART and IDE (International development enterprises) used haats
and melas to promote and demonstrate treadle pumps and minor irrigation
devices
 Sale went up by from less than 10000 to more than 100000
 Product display contests
 The manufacturer informs retailers about the contest in advance
 The best displays win prizes.
 Encourage stocking of the merchandise
 Pilgrim sites, Rural games etc are other avenues which can be utilized.

17.  Folk dances
 By Ogilvy rural for breeze soap (HLL)
 Rose was the symbol and was attack from Nirmas rose
 Breeze had essence of rose
 Wall paintings not effective (difficult to paint a realistic rose)
 Wheeled in an outsized bar of breeze (thermo Cole) on stage and smashed
it and heaps of roses fell out
 Message went through
 Puppetry
 Popular in Rajasthan
 LIC uses it to educate masses in UP, Bihar and MP
 The number of inquiries at LIC offices after the show was higher.

18.  Street theatre
• Deeply rooted in the Indian tradition.
• This form is used to propagate social and political messages and to
create an awareness regarding critical issues.
• Street theatre breaks the formal barriers and approaches the people
directly.
Eg.
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsWzWCFvVyA
 Games
• Rajdoot (Yamaha) organizes wrestling competition for the villagers
in which one of the wrestler brought by them. The other one is a
villager.
• The winner get to test ride their bikes. The wrestling is a symbol of
their products USP i.e ruggedness

19. ITC e- choupal
ITC’s rural networking project.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fx4guk

20. • Initiative by ITC (2000)
• directly links the rural farmers with the company for the
procurement of agriculture and aquaculture products, such
as soybeans, coffee, and prawns
• Traditionally, these commodities were procured by such
companies from mandis .
• The long supply chain resulted in high procurement costs
for ITC and in lost profit opportunities for the farmers and
reduction in quality.

21. • The PCs and Internet access at certain centres enable the
farmers to obtain information on mandi prices , good
farming practices, and to place orders for agricultural inputs,
such as seeds and fertilizers.
• This access to information helps farmers in improving the
quality of produce and obtaining better prices.
• A literate farmer elected from the village acts as the
interface between the illiterate farmers and the computer.

22. How they did it
• A choupal was converted into an e-choupal by setting up a
computer and Internet connectivity. An investment of
• Rs 40,000 was needed to establish an e-choupal with dial-up
connectivity.
• E-choupals are operated by a sanchalak (operator), a literate
person who is elected from among the farmers of the village
• ITC covers the cost of equipment, the sanchalak pays for day-to-
day operational costs, such as electricity and Internet charges.
• Training is given to the sanchalak, who also act as an ITC
salesman. He is paid a commission
• Roles of Intermediaries were redefined as samayojaks
(coordinators), who assist ITC in setting up new e-choupals by
conducting village surveys and by identifying the best
sanchalaks.

23. • These coordinators earn a commission on product
processed.
• The farmer carries a sample of his produce to a local kiosk
and receives a spot quote from the sanchalak.
• If the farmer accepts the quote, he can then transport the
produce directly to an ITC collection center and get
payment within two hours.
• ITC coordinates its activities with institutions such as the
national meteorological department ,several universities and
and with companies supplying agricultural inputs to enable
e commerce.

24. • The farmers prefer this system to the mandi system, where
they had to wait for hours, or even days, before the produce
was sold.
• Transaction costs such as bagging, transportation, loading, and
unloading had to be incurred by the farmers.
• Access to information, inclusion of the representative and
accountability of the system made this system very successful.
• covers 1,300 choupals, links 7,500 villages, and serves almost
1 million farmers.
• ITC sourced US$15 million worth of commodities from e-
choupals in 2001.
• The substantial quantity, already procured through this
channel has resulted in overall savings of more than US$1
million. These savings are shared between ITC and the
farmers.

25. Selling Health: Hindustan Lever
Limited and the Soap Market

26. Health Messages and the Rural Consumers
• HLL researched hygiene and hand washing practices and the
trigger points for using soap among rural consumers.
• HLL determined the trigger for a consumer to wash his or her
hands was to remove unpleasant contaminants, not to kill germs
that cause infections.
• It was also found this perception of “visual clean is safe clean”
leads to infrequent hand washing and limited use of soap.

27. • Results of research done among focus group in rural areas.
– 5 of 13 washed their hands before eating
– 10 of 18 washed their hands before preparing food
– If they did wash hands, often used water or a proxy
product for soap such as mud or ash.
– after handling cow dung 5 of 7 rinsed their hands with
water
– one washed with mud, and one used soap.

28. • HLL decided it would have to educate customers about germs
and the consequences of germs on health to increase soap usage
as a means of deterring bacterial infection.
• HLL teamed up with the rural India outreach arm of Oglivy &
Mather to design a behavioral-change education campaign
focused on uniting the health attributes of Lifebuoy soap with
health messages of germ eradication.

29. • Firstly, HLL and Mather brainstormed a way to
communicate the negative effects of “invisible” germs in an
easily understandable and relevant message to the rural
consumer.
• Highlighted the unique attribute of Lifebuoy soap, Active-
B.
• HLL and Oglivy & Mather outlined the following key
messages:
– Invisible germs everywhere

30. • Germs cause diseases common to rural families including
painful stomach, eye,and skin infections
• Lifebuoy soap with Active-B can protect you from germs.
• Wash your hands with Lifebuoy soap to prevent infection.

31. • HLL next embarked on the creation of a comprehensive
program aimed at reaching all members in a rural village to
create a sustained behavioral change.
• HLL titled the program Lifebuoy Swasthya Chetna, or
Lifebuoy Glowing Health.
• HLL hoped to change the trigger for washing hands from
“visual clean is safe clean” to social convention of frequent
hand washing.

32. School and village presentation
• Children aged 5- 13
• Through stories
• Learn about germs how they cause diseases
• Importance of using soap and when to use
• Demonstration to show that Visual clean is not safe clean
Lifebuoy village health day
• Health camp and check up
• Village doctor as opinion leader
• Healthy child award
• Health skits and poems by kids to gain involvement
• Demonstrations and awards for best presenters

33. Diarrhea management workshop
• For young mothers and pregnant women
• Dangers of diarrhea
• Health checks
Launch of the Lifebuoy health club
• Formation of health club which includes activities centered
on hygiene and keeping the village clean
• Facilitators return 4-6 times more

34. • HLL created health based brand differentiation
• Increased the sale of its low cost mass market soap
• Built new habits, involving its brand
• Built brand loyalty
• Fulfilling its corporate purpose ‘to raise the quality of life’

35. India’s
Thirst for Rural Market
K subhadra & Sanjib Dutta. -ICFAI University
press

36. Coca cola India’s Rural Marketing
Strategy
• Based on three A’s
1. Availability : availability of the product to customer
2. Affordability: Product Pricing
3. Acceptability : convincing the customer to buy the product

37. Acceptability
 Extensive marketing in the mass media and outdoor advertising
 Aggressive rural communication campaign consisting of
 Hoardings
 Participation in weekly mandis and annual haats
 3 TV commercials
 Print Advertisement in several regional newspapers

38. Hoardings and wall painting
• Put up hoardings in the
villages
• Painted the name Coca cola
on the compounds of the
residences in the villages

39. Weekly mandies and haats
• Weekly Mandies :Weekly fairs where villages gather and
sell their produce
• Annual Haats: Annual exhibitions conducted during festival
season
 major sources of business activity and entertainment in
Rural India
 By setting up temporary outlets

40. TV commercials
• Targeted at Rural consumers
• Increased Ad- spend on
Doordarshan
• 2002
Commercial featuring Amir
Khan to communicate the
message of price cut and
launch of Chota Coke (200ml
Rs.5 bottle)

41. 2003 March- September
• To strengthen the brand image-
aimed at making Coke a generic name for “thanda”- a popular
dialect of North.
• Launched 3 commercials with tagline “Thanda matlab Coca- cola”-
Aimed to make rural and semi urban consumers connect with Coca-
Cola
• The 3 commercials showed progression in associating ‘Coke’ with
‘Thanda’.

42. • 1st Ad- Amir khan as Street smart
(‘tapori’)
The connection of coke with “thanda” was
made.
• 2nd Ad –Amir Khan as shop keeper
There is a subtle difference with the shop
keeper asking customers to ask for
Thanda instead of Coke.
• 3rd Ad- Amir Khan as a Punjabi farmer
It showed when one askd for “thanda”, one
would get Coke.

43. • Analysts says that the three commercials succeeded in
making rural consumers connect to Coke
• It increased the brand awareness of the brand Coca cola
among them.