Lecture 1

Rural Vs Urban
Communication models for rural and
urban communication.
 Communication Models
 The field of communication has changed considerably over the
last thirty years, the models used in the introductory chapters
of communication textbooks (see Adler, 1991; Adler,
Rosenfeld, and Towne, 1996; Barker and Barker, 1993;
Becker and Roberts, 1992; Bittner, 1996; Burgoon, Hunsaker,
and Dawson, 1994; DeFleur, Kearney, and Plax, 1993;
DeVito, 1994; Gibson and Hanna, 1992; Wood, 2002) are the
same models that were used forty years ago.
 This is, in some sense, a testament to their enduring value. Shannon's
(1948) model of the communication process (Figure 1) provides, in its
breakdown of the flow of a message from source to destination, an
excellent breakdown of the elements of the communication process that
can be very helpful to students who are thinking about how they
communicate with others. It remains, however, that these texts generally
treat these models as little more than a baseline. They rapidly segue into
other subjects that seem more directly relevant to our everyday experience
of communication. In interpersonal communication texts these subjects
typically include the social construction of the self, perception of self and
other, language, nonverbal communication, listening, conflict
management, intercultural communication, relational communication, and
various communication contexts, including work and family. In mass
communication texts these subjects typically include media literacy, media
and culture, new media, media industries, media audiences, advertising,
public relations, media effects, regulation, and media ethics.
 The classic models that we use in teaching communication,
including Shannon's information theory model (the active
model), a cybernetic model that includes feedback (the
interactive model, an intermediary model (sometimes referred
to as a gatekeeper model of the two-step flow), and the
transactive model.
 We will also see a unifying model of the communication
process that will be described as an
ecological model of the communication process. This model
seeks to better represent the structure and key constituents of
the communication process as we teach it today.
Shannon's Model of the Communication
Process
 Shannon's (1948) model of the communication
process provided, for the first time, a general model
of the communication process that could be treated as
the common ground of such diverse disciplines as
journalism, rhetoric, linguistics, and speech and
hearing sciences. Part of its success is due to its
structuralist reduction of communication to a set of
basic constituents that not only explain how
communication happens, but why communication
sometimes fails.
 Like all models, this is a minimalist abstraction of the reality it
attempts to reproduce. The reality of most communication
systems is more complex. Most information sources (and
destinations) act as both sources and destinations.
Transmitters, receivers, channels, signals, and even messages
are often layered both serially and in parallel such that there
are multiple signals transmitted and received, even when they
are converged into a common signal stream and a common
channel. Many other elaborations can be readily described.. It
remains, however, that Shannon's model is a useful abstraction
that identifies the most important components of
communication and their general relationship to one another.
That value is evident in its similarity to real world pictures of
the designs of new communication systems, including Bell's
original sketches of the telephone, as seen in Figure 2.
An Intermediary Model.
An Interactive Model:
 An Interactive Model (cont’d)

 The interactive model, a variant of which is shown in Figure 4,

elaborates Shannon's model with the cybernetic concept of
feedback , often without changing any other element of
Shannon's model. The key concept associated with this
elaboration is that destinations provide feedback on the
messages they receive such that the information sources can
adapt their messages, in real time. This is an important
elaboration, and as generally depicted, a radically
oversimplified one. None of this is visible in the typical
depiction of the interactive model.
A Transactional Model:
 A Transactional Model (cont’d)

 A transitional model acknowledges neither creators nor consumers of

messages, preferring to label the people associated with the model as
communicators who both create and consume messages. The model
presumes additional symmetries as well, with each participant creating
messages that are received by the other communicator. This is, in
many ways, an excellent model of the face-to-face interactive process
which extends readily to any interactive medium that provides users
with symmetrical interfaces for creation and consumption of messages,
including notes, letters, C.B. Radio, electronic mail, and the radio. It is,
however, a distinctly interpersonal model that implies an equality
between communicators that often doesn't exist, even in interpersonal
contexts. In face-to-face head-complement interactions, the boss (head)
has considerably more freedom (in terms of message choice, media
choice, ability to frame meaning, ability to set the rules of interaction)
and power to allocate message bandwidth than does the employee
(complement). The model certainly does not apply in mass media
contexts.
A Ecological Model of the Communication
Process
 A Ecological Model of the Communication
Process (cont’d)
 The ecological model of communication, attempts to provide a
platform on which these issues can be explored. It asserts that
communication occurs in the intersection of four fundamental
constructs: communication between people (creators and
consumers) is mediated by messages which are created using
language within media; consumed from media and interpreted
using language.In the ecological model , the "who" are the
creators of messages, the "says what" are the messages, the "in
which channel" is elaborated into languages (which are the
content of channels) and media (which channels are a
component of), the "to whom" are the consumers of messages,
and the effects are found in various relationships between the
primitives, including relationships, perspectives, attributions,
interpretations, and the continuing evolution of languages and
media.
Emerging/Existing Communication Platforms in
Urban India
 A. Indoor Advertising

 1. Press media
 (a) Newspaper
 (b) Magazines

 2.Radio

 3.Television

 4. Films
Emerging/Existing Communication Platforms in
Urban India (cont’d)
 B. Outdoor advertising

 1. Posters
 2.Vehicular/ Moving Advertising
 3. Bill Boards
 4.Electric Signs
 5. Sky advertising
 6. Transit Advertising
 7. Sandwich man
Emerging/Existing Communication Platforms in
Urban India (cont’d)
 C. Direct Advertisement

 1.Sales Letters
 2.Envelope/enclosures
 (a)Circulars
 (b)Stuffers
 ©Folders
 3. Catalogues/ Brochures
 4. Gift Novelties etc.
Emerging/Existing Communication Platforms in
Urban India (cont’d)
 Promotional advertising
 1. Point of Purchase Advertising
 (a) Window Display
 (b) Interior display
 © Show rooms

 2. Trade Fair/ Exibitions

 3.Speciality Advertising

 4.Net Advertising
 Emerging Communication Platforms in
Rural India
Now let’s see how advertising in Rural India can
be different.
Let’s see how it is done in rural India.
.
 Rural Marketing - Issues

 Heterogeneity

 28 states,6 religions,16 major languages and 1650 dialects

 Culture & traditions that vary from region to region

 Logistics

 Geographical distances

 Lack of infrastructure – roads / power

 Rural Marketing – Issues ( Cont’d)
 Difficulty of last mile connectivity

 Poor media reach

 Need for unconventional media

 Challenges of Communication


Unlike urban communication, one size does not fit all.
 Emerging Media Opportunities

Which provide answers to the challenges of rural communication

 I. Local Cable TV Network

 II. Postal Network

 III. FM Radio
 Local Cable TV Networks
 Why Local Cable TV Networks?

 Have self-produced programs which are of interest to local

people.

 Some of the programs like local news, local event coverage

are very popular

 Interactive and call-in facility based music

 Programs are very sought after by youth

 Inexpensive and focused target audience

 II. Postal Network

 Out of 1,55,516 Post offices, 1,38,409 are in rural areas

((90%))

 Further divided into Hops, sub Post offices and extra

departmental branch post offices 5,50,000 employees
 Postal Network & Rural Marketing

Logistics
 With unbeatable and well established infrastructure
 Post offices in rural areas serving 4 to 5 viillllages providing
last mille connectivity
Media
 As a place where locals visit – can provide new media

 opportunities

Communication
 Being part of local milieu can help in local communication
 Credibility

 Govt. owned and hence high credibility for financial

 Transactions.
 Factors in Favour

Human Resources
 Postmaster :
 Educated / knowledgeable
 Local Opinion leader
 Trustworthy government
 Representative
Postman
 Daily visitor to the village
 Knows every one and their status
 Connects villagers with the rest of the world
 Local man, therefore understands local sensitivities
 Opportunities for Marketers

Infrastructure – Post offices

 Helping in logistics
 Reaching goods and services to remote villages

 Dept. of Posts has already established LOGISTICS POST

 To carry everything from computer hardware, auto spare parts

and even FMCG to any nook and corner of India
 Backed by new technologies such as RFID* - a web based
consumer response system
(* Radio Frequency Identification for tracking the supply chain)
 Post Offices - Services already on offset

 Media Post

 Advertisements on Postal Stationary

 Post Cards

 Inland Leathers

 Aerogram

 Money Order Forms

 Post office SB Pass Books

 Media Post Canted…

 Four color printing of advertising messages on one side of the

card

 Advertisements on little boxes

 TV / Pillar types
 E-Post

 Use E-Post for advertising products to targeted customers

 Handover your message at a post office

 Access indiapost.nic.in on your computer and the message will

be printed and delivered to postal addresses anywhere in India
 Dept. of Post and Insurance

 Sale of non-life insurance products in

association with Oriental Insurance Company
 Rural Related Cattle Insurance
 Kisan Agra Insurance
 Kisan Pump Set Policy
 Have their own Life Insurance policy
 What can the Post Offices Do?

 Infrastructure - Post Offices offering space for

promotional materials and activities.

 Providing space for demonstration, sampling etc.

 Providing post man’s cycle and his uniform for

branding
 What else can the Post Offices Do?

Human Resource - Postmen

 Sampling, door delivery of products as per corporate need

 Reaching direct mail communication to specific TA in

villages
 Physical reach of contest forms, merchandising material

to be put up at specified areas

 Ground support for organising consumer meets by
corporate like collecting database of potential consumers
based on certain criteriia
 Using their services for simplle feedback research

 activiitiies
 Examples of on-going Experiments

Stocking and selling products & services

 Kodak products like batteries, cameras, film rolls now

available in post offices in Panvel & Sangli districts of
Maharashtra

 Photographic rolls for developing and printing accepted at

identified post offices.
 Development

Every circle is involved in some experiment in rural

marketing……..

Not all are successful because of problems on the ground level!!!

 There is an urgent need for

 Training post masters / postmen

 Changing their mindsets / motivating them with incentives
 Providing info on the no. of people who physically visit the
 post offices and ttheir profiles
 Info on the physical reach of each post office - no. of homes
 covered, average no. of homes actually visited by local
 postman everyday etc..
 Commitment on time taken for delivery of services
 Accountability
 There is an urgent need for (cont’d)

 Corporates are lookiing for reliable one point

contact for executing rural campaigns.

-Postal Network is ideally suited to play this role.

-Top management in Dept. of Post is fully geared

BUT THE BIG CHALLENGE IS TO

MAKE THE ELEPHANT DANCE!!
 III. FM Radio

 Growing popularity, especially among the youth

- Both in urban and semi urban

 Possibilities

 FM Stations in every district HQ

 Localised communication in the language of the region

 Great opportunity for rural marketers

 Other Emerging Rural Communication
Opportunities
 Proliferation of large format retail stores in rural
 Choupall Sagar
 DSCL Hariyali Stores
 Tata / Rallis Kisan Kendra
 M&M Shubh Labh Stores
 Escorts Stores
 Godrej Aadhar
 Proposed retail chain by Reliance
 Other Emerging Rural Communication
Opportunities (cont’d)
Large Format Retail in Rural
 Providing a 3-in-1 experience to rural consumers

 Rural Hypermarkets

 Product Availability

 Brand Communication

 Brand Experience

 Captive Communication Opportunity Physical demonstration

of Brand / Product
 Other Emerging Rural Communication
Opportunities (cont’d)
Use off Technology in Rural Communication

 Common Service Centres (CSCs)

 With Internet Kiosks in 1,,00,,000 villages

 A GOI initiative with private partnership

 End of Advt-Lect 1- Urban vs Rural
Advertising

 Gradually the gap between the modes of

advertising in rural /urban India in diminishing

 Thank you.