Building Brands for Rural India
“Building Brands for Rural India”
By
Himanshu Shekhawat
Lecturer,
Department of Management Studies,
Poornima Group of Colleges,
ISI-2, Sitapura Institutional Area,
Jaipur
E mail: Himanshu.shekhawat@gmail.com
Abstract
India is a very large country with 3,700 towns and 6, 00,000 villages. A rural market is a village with a population of less than 5000. But since the larger villages and the smaller towns are witnessing an explosion in growth, they are collectively known as rural markets. The Paper criticizes the urban marketers who try to create brands for rural India in a half- hearted manner. It explains that the urban marketers take the urban product, tweak it a little bit and make it rugged (and in some cases even of lower quality) before realizing it in low unit packs into the rural market.
When it comes to promotion they take the standard urban storyboard and make a film in Hindi or other vernacular languages. It points out that generations of wrong advertising and marketing norms have in fact punctured the ego of the rural markets. Marketers traditionally use intrusive and alien questionnaire formats on rural respondents. It advocates creation of brands, keeping in mind the rural perspective and ending the current one – sided branding that makes the rural man “a consumptive animal of cornflake and dog biscuit alike.” Lastly, the Paper strongly suggests eco – friendly packaging of goods, which would address the key issue of disposal.
Introduction
“If large firms approach the market with the BOP (Bottom of the Pyramid) consumer’s interest at heart, it can also lead to significant growth and profits for them.”
C.K. Prahalad
Increasingly, more companies are turning to rural markets to expand the scope of their operations and also to pre-empt competition. Rural markets are tomorrow’s markets and the marketer should know how to penetrate these markets. This is not just because 70 percent of India’s population still lives
By
Himanshu Shekhawat
Lecturer,
Department of Management Studies,
Poornima Group of Colleges,
ISI-2, Sitapura Institutional Area,
Jaipur
E mail: Himanshu.shekhawat@gmail.com
Abstract
India is a very large country with 3,700 towns and 6, 00,000 villages. A rural market is a village with a population of less than 5000. But since the larger villages and the smaller towns are witnessing an explosion in growth, they are collectively known as rural markets. The Paper criticizes the urban marketers who try to create brands for rural India in a half- hearted manner. It explains that the urban marketers take the urban product, tweak it a little bit and make it rugged (and in some cases even of lower quality) before realizing it in low unit packs into the rural market.
When it comes to promotion they take the standard urban storyboard and make a film in Hindi or other vernacular languages. It points out that generations of wrong advertising and marketing norms have in fact punctured the ego of the rural markets. Marketers traditionally use intrusive and alien questionnaire formats on rural respondents. It advocates creation of brands, keeping in mind the rural perspective and ending the current one – sided branding that makes the rural man “a consumptive animal of cornflake and dog biscuit alike.” Lastly, the Paper strongly suggests eco – friendly packaging of goods, which would address the key issue of disposal.
Introduction
“If large firms approach the market with the BOP (Bottom of the Pyramid) consumer’s interest at heart, it can also lead to significant growth and profits for them.”
C.K. Prahalad
Increasingly, more companies are turning to rural markets to expand the scope of their operations and also to pre-empt competition. Rural markets are tomorrow’s markets and the marketer should know how to penetrate these markets. This is not just because 70 percent of India’s population still lives
Bibliography: 1. Saxena, Rajan, Marketing Management, (The McGraw Hill Companies, New Delhi, 2008). 2. Gupta, S.L., Rural Marketing – Texts and Cases, (Wisdom Publications, New Delhi, 2006). 3. Partha Sarathi, V., Rural Marketing – Concepts and Cases, (Icfai University Press, Hyderabad, 2005). 4. Gopal, V. V., Tapping Rural Markets – Concepts and Cases, (Icfai University Press, Hyderabad, 2005). 5. Kotler, Philip, et al., Marketing Management (Dorling Kindersley (India) Pvt Limited, New Delhi, 2009).