INTRODUCTION

“Come with us to the fields, or go with our brothers to

the sea and cast your net. For the land and the sea
would be bountiful to you even as to us”- Kahlil Gibran
The footfalls in the villages are getting louder and louder as
companies scramble to woo
the rural consumers. Villages are no longer an abstraction, but
fashionable in marketing
terms.
From talking endlessly about potential growth, companies are now
actively cultivating
the rural markets. And why not?
Consider the market; out of five lakh villages in India only one lakh
have been tapped so
far.
What has made the rural consumers so attractive to companies now? After
all, the 122-
million village households were not created overnight.
The answer is simple. The urban market is getting saturated while
villagers are flush with 'disposable income' thanks to bountiful
harvests in the last four years. It is this income that the companies
are raring to cash in on. The estimate speaks of the potential
volume of business that can be generated in rural Indian markets.
The estimate is about three times that of the European market.
Hindustan Lever's 'Operation Bharat' will reach 22 million new households
in the villages by the end of the year.
Every area that has a police station will soon boast a Godrej dealer &
service centre.
BPL is planning to add 13,000 active dealers this year to its existing
network of 15,000 throughout the country.