4 'A's The Key Drivers of Rural Marketing

The major marketing challenge in rural areas is rural reach and heterogeneity. The geographical spread of rural populace in more than 6, 38,000 villages with diversity of cultures and languages limit the scope of conventional communication in rural areas. Innovations in communication hasten marketing reach of many companies for mutual advantage. India, with its rich cultural heritage presents unity in diversity. The apparent diversities in the nature of region, language etc confluence at the bed rock of common legacy, scriptures, tales and parables. The marketing management aiming at forging these common points yield immense results. Though the folk media attracts a small audience, the impact on them is at a much deeper level inviting the audience participation. There are many organizations all over the country which perform folk arts on topics relevant to the society with the purpose of generating awareness for change. Even political parties use this medium to impress upon the people. When social organizations could make use of the folk media, why not marketing organizations? A few FMCG companies and insurance companies are making use of the Folk media, of course in a limited way. Organizing puppet shows, burra kathas, narrating parables etc are in the ambit of marking organizations.

Over the past few years rural India has witnessed an increase in the buying power of consumers, accompanied by their desire to upgrade their standard of living. Host of projects, such as NREGA, ITC's echaupal, HLL's project Shakti, retail hubs like Kisan Sansar (Tata), Haryali Kisan Bazar (DMC), both from the government and the private companies, have changed the rules of the marketing game in rural India. The paper discusses the profile of the rural Indian customer and analyses the characteristics of the diverse and scattered rural market. Despite the irregular buying capacity of rural markets, the taboos and traditions it is seeped in, the rural market in India is a highly lucrative one. The paper goes on to explore how some companies have been able to have an impact in the rural segment through effective marketing strategies. The paper studies the changing paradigm of the Indian rural markets and suggests some ways in overcoming the roadblocks in rural selling. A new rural marketing mix is suggested with special emphasis on the marketing communication mix.

Long Range Planning, forthcoming

This article investigates the factors underpinning the competitive dynamics between multi-national corporations (MNCs) and domestic companies in base of the pyramid (BoP) markets.We analyze the case of a multi-domestic MNC, Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL), facing the competition from two small domestic companies, Nirma and CavinKare, in the low-end shampoo and detergent markets in India respectively. Our findings highlight a fundamental rigidity of HUL. By using institutional theory as our interpretative lens, we ascribe this rigidity to the overlap of institutional domains faced by the MNC’s subunit, at two levels: 1) the constant search for legitimacy in both the host country domain and within the MNC, which requires the concurrent adherence to local policies and to practices institutionalized within the MNC; and, 2) the simultaneous pursuit of legitimacy in both low- and high-income markets, which requires non-consistent actions to conform to cognitively distant social groups. Building on previous work, we interpret these phenomena as manifestations of “institutional dualism.” This work advances the current understanding of strategic behavior of firms in BoP markets. Furthermore, it contributes to international business literature by providing new theoretical and empirical depth to the concept of institutional dualism, which emerges as a potential liability for MNCs competing in highly idiosyncratic foreign markets.

With more than six hundred thousand villages and more than 70% of the population, rural India has become a massive consumer goods market. FMCG has emerged as a major product category in rural consumption. Companies marketing FMCG to rural consumers cannot merely extend their general marketing strategies to rural markets. Instead, they need to devise rural specific strategies. In this process, they need to understand crucial issues relating to rural consumer behavior and more specifically relating to different geographic regions of the country. This paper focuses on understanding factors that affect the rural purchase of FMCG in South India. Empirical study was conducted in 8 districts of South India to identify the key influencing variables. Factor analysis was used to form 24 key variables into five groups (influencing factors). Influence of retailers' recommendations has emerged as the most significant variable in the trust factor. According to the study, rural consumers in South India consider that usage of FMCG contributes to their lifestyle.

The Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) sector is a foundation stone of the growing Indian economy. This sector strikes every facet of human life. The FMCG producers now realize that there is a lot of prospect for them to enter into the rural market. The rising incomes and growing lifestyle is a significant attraction for this sector. There are more than middle income households in the rural areas as compare to the urban. Thus the rural marketing has been growing progressively over the years and is now bigger than the urban market. Globally, the FMCG sector has been successful in selling products to the lower and middle income groups in India. More than 70% of sales are made to middle class households today and over 50% of the middle class residing in rural India. The FMCG sector is energized about a rapidly increasing rural population whose incomes are intensifying and which is willing to spend on goods designed to improve their lifestyles. Also with a near saturation and cut throat competition in urban India, many manufacturers and marketers of this sector are driven to formulate new strategies for targeting the rural consumers. But the rural penetration rates are low. This presents a tremendous opportunity for manufacturers of branded products who can convert prospective consumers into consumers to buy their products. Companies including Multi National Companies and regional players started developing marketing strategies to attract this untouched market. While formulating the strategies, the marketers need to take care of the rural consumers differently from urban consumers because they are economically, socially and psycho-graphically different from each other.

ZENITH International Journal of Business Economics & Management Research, 2011

Fast pace of technology advanced every sphere of social, economic, political cultural life, produce, reduce costs, distribute, and expect higher profits. The focus is on tapping the rural markets. Urban markets have saturated lied to look rural markets. This paper presents a review of rural markets " environment, Problems and strategies in India. Rural marketing has become the latest mantra of most corporate even MNCs are eyeing rural markets to capture the large Indian market. The rural market consist 70 percent population, twice as entire market of USA and would become bigger than total consume r market in countries like South Korea/Canada in another 20 years. Using primary and secondary data collected from various market segments. It exhibits linguistic, regional and cultural diversities and economic disparities. Increase in purchasing power fuelled lot of interest, several companies are exploring cost effective channels like HUL/ITC/Colgate/Godrej/Nokia/BPCL.

International Journal of Applied Business and International Management (IJABIM) Vol. 4 No. 1, 2019

Multinational Companies in a bid to increase their revenue and profit are now eyeing the emerging markets. Considering the saturation in the urban market they are now targeting the consumers in rural markets of emerging economies. Lowering price by reducing the volume, customization, mass production are the strategies of the past, these companies have now come up with innovative strategies wherein they involve the rural population so that they help them in reaching to the customers in the remotest part of the country. This case study is an attempt to study the strategies used by the companies to reach the rural population and arrive at a framework used by the companies in India and Indonesia. The information is collected from the secondary sources to compile and analyze the strategies of leading MNCs to increasing their share in the emerging economies.

Agriculture for an honourable and high-minded man is the best of all occupations by which men procure the means of living. Advances in medicine and agriculture have saved vastly more lives than have been lost in all the wars in history. Agriculture in Indian states has direct and indirect effect on the lives of Indian people and in order to live up to the expectations, the sector has vastly grown and increased the output to several times. Improved means of cultivation, technological advancements, modern equipments and high quality fertilizers have made it possible. Rapid growth and lack of crop rotation measures have made to lose the soil fertility, thereby increasing the demand for fertilizers in India. The present paper highlights various issues in fertilizer marketing in the state of Chhattisgarh. Firstly, it explores an idea on problems related to the sector in the state and secondly, attempts have been made to study the marketing mix of fertilizer in the state.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine base of pyramid (BOP) customer perceptions on the importance of branding as a purchase driver and to investigate firms' marketing programs used to manage brands at the BOP. Design/methodology/approach – Qualitative data collection methods comprising in-depth one-to-one consumer interviews, focus groups, ethnographic observations and case studies were used to conduct the research. Findings – Key findings include the identification of importance of brands to BOP consumers, evolution of brand communities, and impact of social networks on the marketing programs used by firms to build brand equity. Research limitations/implications – The sample used for consumer interviews is small and confining the focus to the food and personal hygiene sector may limit generalization of findings to a broader population. Practical implications – The study provides managers with insights on the importance of brands in the purchase decision at BOP and on the different nature and focus of marketing programs which can be effective at the BOP, specifically the need to align programs to social networks. Social implications – The study provides insights on how firms can improve livelihoods at the BOP by provision of employment and business opportunities through their brand equity building activities. Originality/value – Research into the BOP is a relatively new area of study in international business. This expands knowledge in the area by employing empirical mixed research methods to study consumers and firms, since the two have a dyadic relationship – thereby providing new insights on branding at the BOP.