This document discusses rural marketing in India. It begins by defining rural marketing and describing how it differs from urban marketing. Key points include: - Rural areas rely primarily on agriculture as an economic activity while urban areas focus more on manufacturing, trade, and services. - The rural market is large in size and growing rapidly due to factors like increasing prosperity and consumption among rural populations. - Reaching rural consumers presents challenges like poor infrastructure and low literacy. - Several companies have found success marketing to rural Indians, such as Hindustan Unilever through low-cost products and Coca-Cola through universal appeal advertising. - The rural market remains largely untapped and has great potential for

1. SUBMIT TO SUBMITTED BY
PROF. Mukesh Ranga SANDEEP DWIVEDI
ABDUL NADEEM KHAN
M.B.E 3rd SEMESTER

2. RURAL MARKETING
Rural marketing is the study of all the
Activity , agency and policy involved in
The procurement of farm inputs by the
Farmers and the movement of rural
products from farmers to consumers.
_ G.N. MURTHY

3. NATURE OF RURAL MARKETING
The rural market is quite different from
urban markets.
Agriculture is the chief economic
activity in rural areas, the entire village
population is associated directly or
indirectly to agriculture.
In the process of development of
civilization agriculture and pastoral life
along river banks are the first of settled
life.

4. Importance of rural marketing
 Size of rural market
Rural target population
Employment
Better living
 Contribution to national income
 Increase in farm income

5. Rural v/s Urban
OCCUPATION:
Rural:Cultivators n few non –
agricultural pursuits.
Urban:manufacturing,trade,com
merce,professions

6. Size of community
Rural:open farms & small
community are –vly co-
related
Urban:urbanity & size of
community are +vly co-
related

7. Problem and difficulties faced in
rural marketing
Lack of proper communication
Distribution problem
Seasonal demand
Low literacy level

8. Rural products
Rural products are the results of the
art of agriculture and allied activities.
In a narrow sense,rural products refer
to the products arising out of the
cultivation, namely various crops,
vegetables and fruits etc.

9. Types of rural goods
Industrial goods
consumer goods
Industrial goods:-industrial rural goods
are those use for further industrial
processing. e.g. tabacoo, fibre crops
like cotton and jute.
Consumer goods:-goods are mean for
direct use like all foodgrains, dairy
product, poultry products vegetables
and fruits.

10. Attractiveness of rural market
Rural markets have become the new targets to
corporate enterprises for two reasons :
1. Urban market has become congested with
too many competitors.
2. The market have reached a near saturation
point.

11. Various factors which have made rule
markets viable:-
1. Large population
2. Raising prosperity
3. Growth in consumption
4. Life-style changes
5. Life-cycle advantages
6. Market growth rates higher than
urban
7. Rural marketing is not expensive
8. Remoteness is no longer a problem

12. Now for some facts and figures. The Indian
rural market today accounts for only about Rs
8 billion (53 per cent - FMCG sector, 59 per
cent durables sale, 100 per cent agricultural
products) of the total ad pie of Rs 120 billion,
thus claiming 6.6 per cent of the total share. So
clearly there seems to be a long way ahead.
Time and again marketing practitioners have
waxed eloquent about the potential of the rural
market. But when one zeroes in on the
companies that focus on the rural market, a
mere handful names come to mind. Hindustan
Lever Limited (HuL) is top of the mind with
their successful rural marketing projects like
'Project Shakti' and 'Operation Bharat'.

13. RURAL MARKETING CHANNELS
Marketing channels are routes through which
rural products move from producers to
consumers
Cleary the main challenge that one faces while
dealing with rural marketing is the basic
understanding of the rural consumer who is
very different from his urban counterpart.
Also distribution remains to be the single
largest problem marketers face today when it
comes to going rural. "Reaching your product
to remote locations spread over 600,000
villages and poor infrastructure - roads,
telecommunication etc and lower levels of
literacy are a few hinges that come in the way
of marketers to reach the rural market

14. In 1998 HuL’s personal products unit initiated
Project Bharat, the first and largest rural home-
to-home operation to have ever been prepared
by any company. The project covered 13
million rural households by the end of 1999.
During the course of operation, HuL had vans
visiting villages across the country distributing
sample packs comprising a low-unit-price
pack each of shampoo, talcum powder,
toothpaste and skin cream priced at Rs. 15.
This was to create awareness of the company’s
product categories and of the affordability of
the products.

15. Khaitan fans' ad on a horse cart

16. The greatest challenge for advertisers and
marketers continues to be in finding the right
mix that will have a pan-Indian rural appeal.
Coca Cola, with their Aamir Khan ad
campaign succeeded in providing just that.

17. "Yaara da Tashan...” ads with
Aamir Khan created universal
appeal for Coca Cola

18. "Yaara da Tashan..." ads with Aamir Khan
created universal appeal for Coca Cola
Coca-Cola India tapped the rural market in a
big way when it introduced bottles priced at Rs
5 and backed it with the Aamir Khan ads. The
company, on its behalf, has also been investing
steadily to build their infrastructure to meet the
growing needs of the rural market, which
reiterates the fact that this multinational has
realised the potential of the rural market is
going strength to strength to tap the same.

19. For HLL, a one rupee or a five rupee sachet or
the Kutti Hamam (the small Hamam) helps in
giving the consumers a trial opportunity.
While it does help in generate volume but not
in terms of values. "Till the time that volume -
value equation is managed better.
Ultimately, the ball lies in the court of rural
marketers. It's all about how one approaches
the market, takes up the challenge of selling
products and concepts through innovative
media design and more importantly
interactivity.

20. Amul is another case in point of aggressive
rural marketing. Some of the other corporates
that are slowly making headway in this area
are Coca Cola India, Colgate, Eveready
Batteries, LG Electronics, Philips, BSNL, Life
Insurance Corporation, Cavin Kare, Britannia
and Hero Honda to name a few.

21. Interestingly, the rural market is growing at a
far greater speed than its urban counterpart.
"All the data provided by various agencies like
NCAER, Francis Kanoi etc shows that rural
markets are growing faster than urban markets
in certain product categories at least. The share
of FMCG products in rural markets is 53 per
cent, durables boasts of 59 per cent market
share. Therefore one can claim that rural
markets are growing faster than urban markets

22. Satellite dish antennas reach rural
India

23. In 2000, ITC took an initiative to develop
direct contact with farmers who lived in far-
flung villages in Madhya Pradesh. ITC's E-
choupal was the result of this initiative.

24. So the fact remains that the rural market in
India has great potential, which is just waiting
to be tapped. Progress has been made in this
area by some, but there seems to be a long way
for marketers to go in order to derive and reap
maximum benefits. Moreover, rural India is
not so poor as it used to be a decade or so
back. Things are sure a changing

25. Typical shop in rural India stocked
with sachets, etc