Rural Marketing Mix

Marketing Mix refers to the set of actions, tactics, tools or variables that a company uses to promote and sells its brand or product in a markets

4 Ps of Rural Marketing

Every Product and promotion, which is a hit in cities , might not work in rural areas

Product

Price

Place

Promotion

 Product :Product refers to anything that is capable of or can be offered to satisfy need or want? Price :Price refers to the amount the customers has to pay in order to acquire a product or services 3Cs of Pricing Customer Value Competitors Prices Cost of COmpany

 Place : refers to point of sale.

Promotion: This refers to all the activities undertaken to make the product or service known to and preferred amongst the user and trade.

Product
Product for rural market must be built or modified to suit the lifestyle and needs of the rural consumers . Product Strategies 1. New/Modified Product. 2. Utility Oriented Product 3. Avoiding Sophisticated Packaging 4. Application of value Engineering. 5. Small unit packaging

Price
The villagers due to their limited resources are very price sensitive by nature. Pricing Strategies Large Volume low merging Overall Efficiency And passing on benefits to consumers. low cost/ value for money product Low volume-low price.

 Godrej recently introduced three brands of Cinthol, Fair Glow and Godrej in 50-gm packs, priced at Rs 4-5 meant specifically for Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh the so-called `Bimaru' States. Hindustan Lever, among the first MNCs to realise the potential of India's rural market, has launched a variant of its largest selling soap brand, Lifebuoy at Rs 2 for 50 gm Coca-Cola has also introduced Sunfill, a powdered soft-drink concentrate. The instant and ready-to-mix Sunfill is available in a single-serve sachet of 25 gm priced at Rs 2 and mutiserve sachet of 200 gm priced at Rs 15.

Place
( A village as a pace for promotion, distribution, and consumption is very different from town or city)

Place Strategy Segmentation Coverage of villages with 2,000 and above population Distribution up to feeder markets/ Mandi towns. Direct Contact with rural Retail

 To service remote village, stockists use autorickshaws, bullock-carts and even boats in the backwaters of Kerala. Coca-Cola, which considers rural India as a future growth driver, has evolved a hub and spoke distribution model to reach the villages LG Electronics defines all cities and towns other than the seven metros cities as rural and semi-urban market. To tap these unexplored country markets, LG has set up 45 area offices and 59 rural/remote area offices.

Promotion
Promotion aspect always creates a challenge in rural markets because of the fact that village have thin population density and are widely spread over large remote areas. NCAER conducted survey to study the socio economic effects of advertising ; the India Society of Advertisers sponsored this survey. It covered 3,836 household in 50 towns and 50 rural district in 10 states. It showed a clean rural urban divide, 16% of rural and 25% of urban customers felt that advertising influenced them to frequently or always buy products they do not really need.

Media Vehicles
Television Radio Print media Cinema Hoarding/Wall Painting

Examples of rural marketing mix

ICICI BANK customized their rural ATMs, so they can operate biometric authentication. ICICI rural ATMS are battery operated so that power failure is not issue. BP energy Sell smoke less, biomass run stoves (Oorja) for rural markets, priced attractively Rs.675. Bank of India introduced Bhumiheen credit cards for providing credit card facilities to landless farmers.

Examples of rural marketing mix

Noika develop affordable Mobile phones for rural markets with unique features such as local language capabilities, present time/ call limits etc. Philip develop a TV Vardaan for rural markets. This TV work on the voltage 90-270 volts. Philips developed Free Power radio this radio do not require power and battery also. it run on simple winding of level provided in the set. The price of this attractive set is Rs. 995.

Examples of rural marketing mix

LG developed CTV called CinePlus was launched in rural markets price Rs.5000 Hyundai increases focus on Rural India
new promotional scheme titled - Ghar Ghar Ki Pehchaan'. In this first of its kind initiative, Hyundai Motor would extend special schemes for government employees in rural areas and members of Gram Panchayats on the purchase of the Hyundai Santro Launched on May 1, the Ghar Ghar Ki Pehchaan' scheme will continue till July 31, 2008. Through this special rural scheme Hyundai Motor India plans to touch base with at least 58 per cent of Indian villages with a population of 500 or more.

Additional Ps of Rural Marketing

Passion Passion to earn Goodwill for the company. Passion to serve and educate the consumer Passion to give 100% to the rural marketing effort Pace

4 As of Rural Marketing Mix

Affordability Availability Awareness Acceptability