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 ABOUT ANIKORAI:

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY  Anikorai- Is the Biggest Village located

Eight Kilometres away from Ooty and on
OBJECTIVE: the foothills of the Nilgiris District.

 It is an exotic place rich in greeneries

Research Objective:
and has 360 Degrees view of Mountains,
stretching Upto Mysore district.

The objectives of the study was to
explore the potential of rural
markets, critically analyze the
rural market opportunities as
well as challenges so as to
formulate better marketing
programmers based on the
following factors.
CULTURAL QUOTIENT
 The Village is majorly known for Tea
Plantation, also cultivation of the
following crops takes place
- Rice, Mushrooms, Carrots, Cauliflower,
Garlic
- Eucalyptus
 Population:
- Approximately 2000 People
- 600 Houses which also included Huts as
well as farm houses

CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR GPS DATA:

 Latitude: 11.33995
SHOPPING BEHAVIOUR
 Longitude: 76.7174
Project Duration:  Pin Code: 643206
 District: Nilgiris
(22nd & 23rd March 2011)  State: Tamil Nadu

Location:
ANAKORAI
Anikorai, Tamil Nadu

TEAM SANSKRITI
 Culture @ Anikorai

VALUES:-

Unity among people is their greatest asset.

Togetherness among all the family members in the house and also among other
houses.

BELIEFS:-

Cent Percent Hindu dominated with very high

beliefs in Religion (Except 1 doctor who is a
Christian).

No Gender Inequality. Equal rights to everyone.

Marriage cannot be done before attaining the

age of 22 years.

Government is very supportive to them.

Their religious sign is “OUM”.

BEHAVIOUR:-

Body Language - Warm Gestures and Good Posture.

Group behavior - They like to be in a group and all the decisions are taken in
group only (Panchayats).

DRESSING:-

Daily – Shirt, Dhothi & Shawl.

Festival – Same type of clothes but with the

Best Quality and Brighter White color.
MAIN FESTIVALS:-

Amman Festival (7th February) and In Jan (21st &

22nd).

Deepawali. Their New Year comes in April.

TEMPLE of King Mahishasur – Haithi Amman

Festival (Jan 1st ).

LANGUAGES Spoken:

Badaga (Form of Kannada), Tamil and English.

LITERACY:

100% Literacy. Mostly all are Degree holders but still go out to attend nature’s
call as they believe that God dwells in their house and they cannot build a
washroom in their premises.

OTHERS:

They are against Love marriage OR Inter-Caste marriage. If anyone goes against
it then they will be boycotted and kicked from the Village community.

In case of Marriage, Parents decisions are final.

More than 250 Government employees are there from Anikorai. Even a retired
person does not want to sit idle. They either run their shop or work in farms.

‘Atithi Devo Bhava’ – Any Guests who comes to meet them, they offer them
coffee/tea.

An INCREDIBLE INDIA!!!

This Information was given by Mr. LINGAN (Kirana Shop owner: - 0423-
2503590).

ABOUT BADAGA COMMUNITY:

Badagas (the Natives), generally refer to their village or hamlet as ‘ HATTI ‘

spread around ‘Nakku Betta’ (the Nigiris). ‘Nakku’ means ‘four’ and ‘Betta’ means
 ‘Mountains’ as there are many hills
around which Anikorai is located. It
appears that initially when the
Badagas established their hamlets,
they took two very important factors
into consideration.

Being very environment conscious,

they chose:-

 Direction - always or to a very great

extent facing the east [ 'Hothu (sun)
uttua (rising) pakka (side)']

 Water source - near a stream (halla) or spring (huttu neeru).

Every hatti has a ’suthugallu’ (sacred triangular shaped stone) at the base of a
‘bikka mara’ (tree) around which important meetings (Kootu) takes place. For
the most sacred of all Badagas festivals ‘Hethai Habba’ - always held on a Monday
(sovara), the collection of money (Hana kattodu) takes place at the suthugallu in
an elaborate ceremony on the preceeding friday (belli).

MARRIAGE PROCEDURES:

Badaga customs and traditions are known for their simplicity, adaptibility and
practicality. In this respect a Badaga wedding follows a set of simple rules and
the same is the tradition in all the villages spread across the Nakku Betta or the
Nilgiri Hills. The wedding is celebrated by all the villagers and they help in every
aspect of the customs and rituals.

The Best part of a Badaga marriage is that NO DOWRY is exchanged.

The wedding always takes place in the bride groom's house Or the place of his
choice in case of a Kalyana Mandapam /Hotel and all the wedding expenses
including the customary feast [Maduve Hittu] of only vegetarian dishes, are
borne by the groom's family.

Incidentally, Divorce and Remarriages are common and a widow is not

condemned like in most of the Hindu communities and in many cases the widow
can marry again even though she has children from her earlier marriage.
MARRIAGE PREPARATIONS:

In ancient days a boy would be considered fit to marry at a comparatively young age of
say fifteen years. It could be due to also the fact that life expectancy was very low, a
lookout for a suitable match is done by the boy’s parents.

Two important factors that are taken into consideration are the 'MORAY' and the
age of the girl.

Moray is a unique concept of defining the relationship among Badagas, a concept

that has very good scientific reasons and helped in propagation of the
community in which marriages do not take place between very close relatives. In
a village all are considered as brothers and sisters and hence a marriage cannot
take place between a boy and a girl from the same village.

Also, the Badaga Villages [hattis] are grouped into which consists of Six Villages
[called AARU OORU] or Nineteen Villages [Hathombattu Ooru]. Once the moray
is verified and a girl is selected, it is always from the boy's side that they initiate
the talk of marriage called 'HENNU KEPUDU' [literaly, asking for the girl].
 Study on Consumer and their Shopping Behaviour:

Survey Statistics:

Gender No. of Count No. of Children’s/ Count of

Couple Couples
Female 15 1 12
Male 47 2 28
Grand Total 62 3 2
Grand Total 42

Buying Motive of People (N=50)

8%
18%
Conspicous
Lifestyle
74% Subsistence

As per the survey conducted 100% of the Buying Decision Process (N=50)
people said that their buying motives are
driven by their need

24%

Independently
76% Jointly

Majority of the buying decision process is taken jointly along with the family members. Those who said that
they like to take decision independently were either students or Bachelor’s working in the nearby town
 Buying Behaviour (Planned Vs Implusive) N=50
100% 94%

80%

60%

40% Majority of the

20% people’s buying
6%
behaviour is planned
0%
Impulsive Planned
and all the decisions
are taken jointly
along with the
family members.
Experience While purchase at Retail Outlet- (N=50)

Received Properly 96%

Discriminated 4%

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% 120%

Happiness According to them? Count of people

Current Life 7
Independent choice/decision/freedom 1
Providing service to people, Standard of living 1
Quality Life 1
Self satisfied, serving people and Standard of living 1
Good Standard of living 39
Grand Total 50
Key learning’s

They are very specific buyers and want to purchase mostly branded products.

Their purchases are mostly based on needs rather than comforts and luxuries.

The people are well educated and are aware about product quality, its cost, and
life span of particular product.

They don’t mind travelling to longer distances for high involvement purchases
like electrical appliances, clothes, gold and jewellery.

They look for both good price and good quality and most of them demand quality
than pricing.

They go for regular purchases i.e. for low involvement purchases to ooty and
most of them visit a common shop in ooty or their place as they believe they are
provided good quality at affordable price.

The Rural people are aware about urban life style as they are connected with
Coimbatore city

They said that they don’t mind changing their regular shop when the prices are
increased and if they get same quality at previous price from other shops.

When they come to Coimbatore for high involvement purchases they usually
don’t have any fixed shops.

They keep in mind their savings for future then for family responsibilities,
always keeping in mind quality and price while shopping.

These customers from the village mostly rely on trust from the seller which once
lost is difficult to retain again.

They did not have shopaholic nature because they are aware about his/her
needs and wants. So they are very careful on spending money on any product.