Ag Voice | Growing Importance of tapping Rural Markets

This is often said that, ‘markets are made, not found.’ This is especially true for the rural market of India. Rural India accounts for about 50 per cent of India’s GDP and nearly 70 per cent of the country’s population. Rural incomes are growing and consumers are buying discretionary goods and lifestyle products, including mobile phones, television sets and two wheelers.

Rural marketing determines the carrying out of business activities bringing in the flow of goods from urban sectors to the rural regions of the country. The rural market in India is vast, scattered and offers a plenty of opportunities in comparison to the urban sector. It covers the maximum population and regions and thereby, the maximum number of consumers. However, the success of the product in the rural market is as predictable as rain. It has always been difficult to understand the rural markets. Marketers need to understand the social dynamics and attitude variations within each village.

The marketer has to strengthen the distribution and pricing strategies. Improvement in infrastructure and reach, promise a bright future for those intending to go rural. Rural consumers are keen on branded goods nowadays, so the market size for products and services seems to have multiplied. The rural population has shown a trend of wanting to move into a state of gradual urbanization in terms of exposure, habits, lifestyles and lastly, consumption patterns of goods and services.

A great rural marketing campaign example that was much talked about- With over 80 million people in attendance, the Allahabad Maha Kumbh mela was a dazzling spectacle of spiritual fervour. Along with travellers who were mostly from rural India, a sea of brands takes a holy dip at the festival. Amidst this clutter Colgate had a stall - where various SKUs were on offer along with in-stall activities such as magic shows and interactive games. Given the high competitive heat, Colgate had to do something special to attract consumers and drive footfalls to the Colgate stall. This challenging situation inspired brand to think beyond traditional methods. After evaluating various touch points, Colgate zeroed open on the universal mobile phone - as it was the only medium that the travellers carried on them always. The second challenge was the attraction hook. Since most travellers were from rural areas with low literacy rates, Colgate consciously decided for voice-based communication using the voice of legendary Indian radio figure Amin Sayani. The third challenge was to target millions of devotees who had arrived from across the country. Colgate partnered with leading Indian telecom provider Airtel and chose for location based targeting. The voice call was made the moment a visitor entered within 3-5 km radius of Maha Kumbh Mela area. This way, any local Airtel subscriber or those roaming on Airtel, were targeted the moment they entered this virtual circle around Maha Kumbh Mela. There was massive word of mouth from those who had received our voice call – those they informed their friends and relatives about visiting the Colgate stall. Colgate stall attracted over 700,000 visitors with the number going up by over 300% of the pre-promotion period.

Another noteworthy campaign was the missed call campaign for HUL's Active Wheel had an ambitious goal: penetrating consumers in the media-dark and interior villages of Bihar and other rural areas throughout India in a cost effective manner. The crux of the campaign was based on the increasing customer engagement. The aim of the campaign was to reach consumers in media dark villages with a population of about ten thousand and bring about brand awareness of Hindustan Unilever's Active Wheel detergent.
The campaign resulted in high association with brand attributes, significant mind measure movement and increased product sales. This enabled Hindustan Unilever to create a communication channel in rural India for promotion of other brands of the company. 1)3 million consumers engaged 28 million times 2)95% increase in association of Wheel its attributes 3 Over 78% callers listened to over 80% of voice content in terms of duration 4)Average consumer engaged with the brand approximately 9 times 5) Top-of-mind score upped by 20 units 6. Sales nearly doubled from 40% to almost 76%.

Vodafone India has recently reported that most of its growth is coming from the rural part of India. The GSM operator has emerged as the largest telecom operator in rural India.

Indian rural market is undoubtedly complex but there are some simple truths that we need to accept. The rural consumers are very value-conscious. They may or may not have purchasing power, but they can make a difference to the brand’s growth if concentrated. Gone were the days when a rural consumer had to go to a nearby town or city to buy a branded product. The growing power of the rural consumer is an opportunity for the brands to flock to the rural markets. | By Dalveer Singh, Head Experiential Marketing, Asia Pacific, Dialogue Factory

About the Author: 

The only thing that is constant in this world is CHANGE’ is the adage that is very close to, Dalveer’s heart. His ability to adapt to the changes in the environment and accepting the challenges head-on comes naturally to him and renders him the expertise of championing Rural / Low Income Brand Marketing Solutions across Emerging Markets. In his illustrious career spanning over two decades, Dalveer has emerged victorious on national as well as international marketing battlegrounds.

In the field of Rural / Low Income marketing, the highlight of Dalveer’s career is that he has played the role of all the possible stakeholders viz. from a media seller at Jain TV India to being a media buyer and creator at Ogilvy Outreach India as well as 141 Worldwide SEA (Indonesia, Philippines & Thailand) then a marketer at Reliance Capital. Another thing that stands out is Dalveer’s love and proven track record for turning start-ups to stars across varied markets and geographies. Dalveer’s decade long stint with Ogilvy started being one of the key founding members and Country Manager (1995-2005) of Ogilvy Outreach (now Ogilvy Action). His diligent & aggressive headship led to developing strong client partnerships with global & Indian giants like Unilever, bp, Castrol, Kodak, ITC, BAT, Coke, Nestle, Kraft etc. His Ogilvy tenure was marked by consistent acclaim with Outreach winning National & International awards like Media Innovation awards, Asian Brand Marketing Effectiveness Awards and PR Awards to list a few. In 2003, Ogilvy Outreach was runners-up for the Below-the-Line Agency of the year in Asia Pacific Region.

 

Marketing
@adgully

News in the domain of Advertising, Marketing, Media and Business of Entertainment

More in Marketing