Rural

Marketing
Discussions with Shikher Gupta
 1 No Introduction to the Session

Today's 2 Contemporary Attempts at Rural

Agenda
3 Brainstorm

4 Summary and Action Items

Introduction

Founder of Cuttlfish and The Koach Me

I was Head of Marketing for Videocon

Industries. Also, represented India in
European Karate Championships

Also Me
Team Check-in
How is Rural Marketing
Different
Before we start with the
session, let's warm up a little
with this icebreaker question:

Have we purchased
1
anything in a rural setting?

What you sold anything in a rural

2
setting?
Get those creative

juices flowing!

Let's begin.
 Internet penetration rise is not

Data
1 proportional to the increase in e-
commerce transactions

Backdrop 2
The primary usage of data tariffs
has been in video and music
consumption (45% of time spent)

E-commerce is stuck at the same

3 80 million user base that
transacts at least once a year.
 India has, at most, 40 million

Data
1 users who shop on the internet
sporadically.

Backdrop 2
About 10 million users who
regularly shop online
Insurance

“Insurance baa?” (Do you

have insurance?)

“Haan, LIC baa” (Yes, I have

LIC.)
Insurance
Urban: PolicyBazaar virtually
created online insurance sales
in 2008.
It has around a 48 million user
base.
Beyond: Turtlemint and
Insurancedekho sell almost
every policy via field agent.
1
Insurancedekho has an army of
80,000 field agents
People were unable to
compare prices in rural
2
markets. Field agents become
enablers, one point contact.
Insurancedekho is no
longer cruising on an
3 empty highway: the
offline market is getting
crowded.
Healthcare

Rural Indians do not value

healthcare above jobs,
education or other priorities.
Healthcare
For about a decade now, the
big three —Wipro GE
Healthcare, Philips Healthcare
and Siemens Healthineers—
have desperately tried their
luck in rural India. And had little
success.
Selling healthcare to rural Indians is a
1 tough proposition, so medtech
companies focus on urban residents
Selling to corporate hospitals
2 and large diagnostic centres
in metro cities
That’s unfortunate because most of
India’s population—about 833 million
3
people—live in the countryside and
go to government or rural hospitals
Many do not have access to MRIs, CT
4 scanners or even low-cost devices
such as ECGs. A whole market
remains under-tapped.

Healthcare
GE startup GenWorks’ rural
India healthcare push
GenWorks is pivoting, taking a
page out of an age-old
playbook and selling not just a
box but also the services to run
it.
It sells packages to hospitals where it
1
sets up the device; it trains folks to
operate the device; and finally, helps
send the results to specialists via the
internet.
Now devices are re-engineered to
create “value” portfolios comprising
2 no-frills devices that still deliver
excellent results.
The outsourcing model does not
3 work. Reps take responsibility. GE
sales has gone many folds.
Eyecare

Online, Lenskart’s most

important channel, is still a
negligible part of the overall
eyecare market.

Eyecare
“India—where almost 70% of
people who need glasses are
not wearing them—just needs
to be unlocked,”
Bansal, Founder, Lenskart
Lenskart is overcoming the
1 optometrist shortfall by hiring and
training rookies in optometry and
getting them certified.
While not paramedics, the error
2 rate is much lesser than a regular
optician
The price point at which Lenskart
aims is selling - Rs 300-400 by
3
making in India. Lesser than small
village hospitals.
Same lenskart experience without
4
internet
Agritech

Startups, generalist VCs,

impact funds, and strategic
investors are converging on
the massive opportunity
that’s agri-tech
Agritech
Agriculture is, despite popular
imagination, often lucrative.
There’s been a massive jump—
13X—in funding in the sector
1
The average farm size in India is 1.1
hectares.
The country ranks first in the
production of cotton, milk and pulses
2
and second in wheat, rice, sugarcane,
fruits and vegetables.
India’s low average land holding
obscures the fact that 20.4 million
farmers are classified as having land
3
holdings that are semi-medium,
medium and large.
20.4 million farmers, control more than
half of India’s cultivable land, have a
4 more commercial orientation, selling
their surplus produce into domestic and
export value chains.
Agritech
A supportive agritech ecosystem has
evolved, with a number of accelerators,
1 strategic corporate involvement, and
VCs operating at every stage.

Rural smartphone penetration Help farmers to improve their yields,

has provided the digital lower their operating costs, and ensure
backbone to scale both 2
their produce get the right market
business-to-farmer (B2F) and
value
business-to-business-to-
farmer (B2B2F) models
Important 1 Self-Help Groups

Cogs
2 Video Commerce
Self Help
Groups

E-commerce for social

welfare? These Kerala women
say, why not
Self Help 1
One part of their programme works
with small units of around five women

Groups each—Micro-enterprise (ME) units

These women produce handmade,

2 homemade products, which they
then sell door-to-door, in bazaars
and at exhibitions

Kudumbashree. An organisation Kudumbashree sells it online, by

that started 20 years ago with 3 selling on kudumbashreebazaar.com.
the aim of mobilising women
and making them financially
independent.
Myntra’s Navibhu—a collection of
4 products from the traditional handloom
industry
Video
Commerce

The success of video

commerce startups in China
has encouraged VCs to back
companies like Bulbul and
simsim to do the same in India
Video
Commerce
After all, every e-commerce
company wants to reach the
next billion users.
E.g. Flipkart Originals, Amazon
Mini
1
Remember- Online Shoppers in India
and How Entertainment consumes
most time.
“It brings more trust if someone
2
looking them is doing it in their
home,”
Video commerce platforms like
3 simsim and Bulbul could succeed
where TV commerce failed
The way video commerce has played
out in China has likely given this investor
4 the confidence that Indian companies
will be able to do the same. The two
situations, though, are hardly like for like.
Things to Watch Action Points

Brainstorm Area Our Favorite Ideas

That's a wrap!

Thank you for participating!