Unconventional Platforms to Promote Brands:

In order to communicate the message to vast multitude of rural

population, marketers have to experiment also with unconventional
media along with the traditional mass media options. Rural Market
offers the opportunity to the media planner with a wide range of
platforms that can be used to carry the message ‘to the target
market residing in rural areas’. These platforms can be used as
complementary to the mass media options.

Using these media, the marketer can provide touch and feel aspect
with regard to their brands, which is very essential in rural areas
where good number of consumers are living in media dark villages.
In the area of communication, corporate marketers have perhaps
failed to recognise that a rural consumer may be buying a particular
brand or even the product categories itself (particularly durables)
for the first time.

With hardly any key influencer within the village and few sources of
information (since print and electronic media have limited reach),
the rural consumer feels inhibited and ill equipped to buy
confidently.

Hence, there is a strong need to build the reassurance and trust

about product quality, service support and company credentials in
the minds of rural consumers. This is best done through the face to
face below the line touch, feel and talk mode at haats, melas and
mandis.

This not only spreads the message amongst the audience at these
platforms but it also creates word of mouth stories, which carry the
message in the entire region. Some of the platforms available for
brand promotion are presented below. The relevant platform
according to the product categories can be selected for
communicating with the rural audience.

(a) Mandis:
These are agricultural markets, known by different names as
terminal markets/ primary or secondary wholesale market and are
set up by state governments to procure agriculture produce from
farmers. 7,000 in number and located in high production centers of
different crops, they can serve as a good platform for product
demonstration, brand building and on the spot sales.

These mandis located in agricultural area with population more

than 10,000 on an average cater to 1,36,000 people. Cash-rich
farmer can be directly contacted by setting up brand stalls in
mandis. Sampling, free gifts can be provided along with the
consumer research at these places where farmers have time and are
in joyous mood. These mandis are also good platforms for
promoting high-end durables, besides agri-input products.

(b) Haats:
The country’s oldest tradition holds the key to solving the
promotion problems of the corporate world. 75% of the mobile
supermarkets of rural India are held once a week, 20% are
organized twice a week and rests are held daily. Rural people have
evolved these systems of selling and communicating which have
served them well for centuries. Corporate marketers have not used
these platforms effectively, so far. There are 42,000 of such haats,
each catering to daily needs of 10 to 20 villages. These haats can
serve as good platform to promote brands through demonstration.

(c) Melas:
The companies need to have innovative methods of advertising and
brand building in fairs or melas to reach their potential customer
base. There are 25,000 melas in India (90 per cent are religious and
one day affairs), the 1,000 being larger and frequented by hundreds
of thousands of visitors. About 5,000 are commercial in nature and
could be targeted for brand promotion.

Melas provide a platform for communicating with rural masses.

Organisations have an opportunity to present brand stories and
exposures can be provided at a low cost per contact with relatively
larger retention time. The marketer can use better display tools, i.e.,
large screens, animations, gizmos, etc.

Women folks of the rural areas are difficult to contact in the village
setting and they do not visit the nearby towns often. But in melas
they are present in large number. Thus, mela provides the
organisations with an excellent opportunity to target rural women
for research, brand promotion, demonstration and trial.

Some of the widely visited melas include Kumbh Mela at Haridwar,

Allahabad, Ujjain, Nasik and Sonepur Mela in Bihar. FMCG giants –
like HUL, P&G and many other companies set up branded kiosks in
“Kumbh Mela” at Nasik, Maharashtra, similarly some tried at
“Pushkar Mela” near Ajmer, Rajasthan, where Mahindra &
Mahindra set up information counter for its farm tractor, and
Nestle arranged coffee and Maggie shop.
Melas work best for introducing new brands and building brands
through the organisation of events at the venue. Many companies
congregate at the Ganges River for the Kumbh Mela festival, where
about 3 crore people, mostly from rural areas, come over the span of
a month. Companies provide ‘touch and feel’ demonstrations and
distribute free samples. This proved to be extremely effective in
advertising to the rural market.

(d) Mills:
Market Researchers conducted a study in 24 villages across Uttar
Pradesh and Punjab and found that the creative use of avenues like
mills, rural games, tournaments, service camps and appointment of
local brand ambassadors can appreciably increase communication
effectiveness in the rural areas.

It was found that more than 200 tractors visit a mill in a day during
the peak season. This gives a very good opportunity to the marketer
to target farmers. As they are relatively free just waiting for their
turn, they would be more receptive than in other settings. Farmers
in order to pass their time would keenly lend their ears and also see
their demonstrations. There is a good probability of their
participating in the interactive formats, which could provide useful
inputs to the marketing organisations.

(e) Pilgrim Sites:

The vast potential of pilgrims’ sites to promote brands especially for
rural market has not been exploited to a great extent. Most of the
organisations do not have a proper marketing plan for utilising
marketing potential of such locations. Vaishno Devi,
Ashtaateerathadham are few examples of pilgrim sites visited by
crores of people every year. These and other pilgrim sites, which
attract lakhs of visitors, can be ideal platforms to promote the
brands by integrating the brand and the promotional campaign with
the occasion.

For example, one pilgrim centre, Khalgam, about 20 km from

Daman (Gujarat), on an average draws a crowd of 20,000 to 30,000
people every Tuesday and Saturday and 50,000 people during the
month of Shrawan. There must be at least 10,000 such sites in the
country each of which could be marketer’s dream for promoting
their brand, yet it would be surprising if these sites are even
documented. Having the religious consumers in a large number at
one place is a good opportunity to promote a brand.

(f) Rural Games:
Focus of rural marketers can be on events like Quila Raipur
Olympics and Nehru Boat Race, which are annual extravaganzas for
promotion of their brands. Nearly one lakh spectators turn up to
watch the rural sports at Quila Raipur village being played out in
three daylong events.

Punjab has 25 popular festivals in the year, which include sports

festival, agriculture as well as cultural festivals, in addition to the
religious festivals. It is here that the rural marketers need to focus
their attention, as the eyeballs of captive audience are available at
these meets. The latest estimates are that in most of these festivals
50,000 visitors turn out on an average.

Rural games and tournaments are hugely popular in rural areas and
are attended by rural people in large numbers. These tournaments
can be sponsored at a reasonable price and could be utilized as a
platform to put the company’s stall for brand building and
demonstration. The company’s products could also be given as
prizes to increase the brand awareness. These products, given as
prizes would lead to lot of word of mouth publicity in the rural areas
as it would be talk of many villages for good number of days.

(g) Primary Health Centre:

The primary health centres are very good platforms to promote
products that have to be sold on health and hygiene grounds. The
campaign in these centres can be executed in coordination with the
NGO state health departments. Medical Council or Dental
Associations and even international aid agencies.

Swasthya Chetna Campaign to promote the habits of washing of

hands by HUL in rural areas is a good example of this form of
promotion; this would have directly or indirectly promoted sale of
Lifebuoy, its leading brand, in rural areas.

(h) Schools:
Young children are emerging as the change agent in the rural areas.
Organisations like HUL and Colgate are targeting the children in
the schools. They are not only educating them about the product
benefits but are also demonstrating the benefits offered by their
brands for the health of children and the entire family.

(vii) Alternative Media for Rural Market:

In communicating with rural India today, we are dealing with two
distinct audiences’ rural rich and the growing breed of educated,
upwardly mobile middle class with aspirations, exposure to mass
media and with a lot of purchasing power almost akin to his urban
counterpart.

Vast majority of illiterate masses who are poor and who cannot
easily reached through mass media. Two different sets of
promotional message and promotional media will be required for
these two segments.

To reach illiterate and less privileged rural masses, unconventional

media (nautanki, jatra. villupattu, therukoothu), should support
mass media (TV, cinema, radio). Traditional media offers excellent
opportunities to tailor the message to suit rural audiences.

The rural world indulges in a sort of a ritual along with his class.
Stage shows, plays, puppet shows have always been popular in rural
India, owing to their participatory nature.

(viii) Folk Media:

There is a good audience available for different folk media in the
rural world. Marketer can effectively utilize some of these to take his
message to the rural audience. Different folk’s media are popular in
different regions; therefore the folk medium selected must be
popular in the region; then only it will be able to provide the desired
level of audiences.

Some of the folk media, which can be used as a promotion

vehicle, are described here below:
(a) Puppetry:
In rural India puppetry is an avenue for entertainment and creative
expression, which might be ritually sacred and meaningful as a
means of social communication and vehicle of social
transformation.

It is an excellent way of storytelling through the moving images

called puppets. This medium costs very less and is very popular in
Rajasthan, Orissa and Haryana. This folklore is not only popular but
has no stigma attached to it. People of all ages and genders can be
targeted by incorporating the product in the narrative.

Song and Drama Division of the Government of India make wide

use of puppets in its campaigns to promote various government
projects. Several other organisations, government, semi-
government and private, have also used puppets in support of
individual schemes.

For example – Life Insurance Corporation of India used puppets to

educate rural masses about life insurance. These plays were shown
to the audience in villages in U.P., Bihar and MP. The number of
inquiries at local offices of LIC during the period immediately
following the performance was compared with normal frequency
and found to be considerably higher.

(b) Folk Theatre:
Folk theatres are mainly short and rhythmic in form. The simple
tunes help in informing and educating the people in informal and
interesting manner. It has been used as an effective medium for
social protest against injustice, exploitation and oppression. Folk
songs have been effectively used during revolts of Telengana and
Naxalbari. Government has used this media for popularizing
improved variety of seeds, fertilizers, etc.
(c) Nautanki:
It is a folk dance drama which is performed in Uttar Pradesh on a
make shift stage surrounded by a tent. It is a prime attraction in the
village fairs amongst all age groups because of its narrative style and
rustic humor. This folk media provides captive audience and
marketers can use it as a platform to promote their products as
rural audience believes that the performers are more credible than
conventional media like TV or radio.

(d) Tamasha:
It involves seductive Lavni dance/drama and interactive session
with the audience. As only males are the audience therefore
products meant for males can be effectively promoted through this
media. The script can be modified to incorporate the product
benefits, advantages and its availability.

(e) Birha:
Started during the freedom struggle to promote and develop the
independence movement through the medium of songs, Birha is
song about the current social realities of the day and is sung at
gatherings, which draw big crowds. It is a musical night organized
in the state of Uttar Pradesh and is popular amongst all the section
of the society. This is a very effective medium to deliver social
messages and can be used for promotion of production that is very
relevant for the rural masses.

(f) Demonstration:
Companies can make use of bullock-carts, vans to communicate
about product to villagers.
Demonstration may be:
i. Method demonstration – On Dalda’s launch they fried pakodas on
street corners to convince that people can use it for frying.

ii. Result demonstration – When LPG was introduced for cooking,

to prove that it is safe, result demonstration was used.

Product usage demonstrations can be provided to captive rural

audience, as written instruction may be illegible to the consumers
who are illiterate. Reckitt and Coleman educate customers about
hygiene aspects of Dettol vis-a-vis Haldi. Rural people are sensory
driven; therefore, live demonstrations are more effective than mere
advertisements. That is why sugar cooperatives in the
Maharashtra’s, Kolhapur district asked Hero, TVS and Kinetic to
give a competitive demonstration so that they could give order for
400 mopeds.

(g) Targeting Opinion Leaders:

Rural consumer makes well-considered buying decision for a
specified brand often after lot of consultation with the opinion
leaders. But opinion leaders change with the product category.
While for agri-inputs, the opinion leader group consists of
progressive farmers, agri-extension workers and village leaders, for
other product categories, the opinion leader group consists of
friends, well-informed relatives (particularly those working in
nearby towns), educated youth and to an extent traditional village
leaders. Dealers too play a major role in influencing the choice of a
brand at the point of sale.
The electricians, mechanics and technicians found in almost all
villages to service and repair products could be provided with free
accessories, tools and their shops could be painted with company
logo and brand name. These persons considered as specialists in
their field act as local brand ambassadors and could promote the
products for the company as they are acting as opinion leaders for
products in their field and their advice is sought by the villagers and
given weightage in the purchase decision.

The following play the role of Opinion Leader in the case

of corresponding product category:
i. Successful farmer – For farm inputs

ii. Village youth who go to city – For lifestyle products

iii. School children – For personal care products

Asian paints launched its Utah range during the pre-Diwali season.
Salesmen selected the opinion leaders in villages and painted the
village post office, library, or the house of the pradhaan to
demonstrate that paint does not peel off. Salesman organized meets
at the local dealers, where village painters were invited. This
approach is necessary in context of rural marketing for both high
value consumer durable items and capital agricultural inputs.