Rural Marketing Strategies for Sustainable Growth

-Bharat Funde

Abstract
A growing topic of importance in management theory is sustainability. Long-term marketing that benefits
consumers and marketers alike is what is meant by sustainable marketing. Evidence from India's rural
markets shows that, in order for an organization to flourish there, it must not only offer clients products
that add value, but also eventually raise the level of living for these customers. Building enduring
relationships and devoted clientele based on the idea of rural India's sustainable development is a realistic
long-term strategy for success in the country's rural marketplaces.
Keywords: Sustainable marketing, sustainable development, rural markets, India

INTRODUCTION
The goal of this essay is to investigate how sustainable marketing contributes to success in India's rural
marketplaces. According to this definition, sustainable marketing creates a long-term win-win scenario for
the advertiser and the customer. It's a marketing strategy that, in addition to selling the goods to the
customer, also lowers the long-term costs for rural consumers. The two main sections of this study are the
literature review and the case studies. Building enduring relationships and devoted clientele based on the
idea of rural India's sustainable development is a realistic long-term strategy for success in the country's
rural marketplaces.

METHODOLOGY
This study's main goal is to investigate how the phrase "sustainable marketing" is conceptualized, which will
allow for an examination of actual sustainable marketing practices in rural India. A review of the literature
was conducted to determine the meaning and use of sustainable marketing. In addition, case studies have
been examined to see how Indian rural market development organizations are using methods integrated
into the sustainable marketing framework. Certain sustainable marketing practices that help marketers
succeed in India's rural markets are established as a result of the definition of sustainable marketing as
established by literature and examples of using rural marketing strategies based on the principles of
sustainable marketing.

The Rural India Opportunity

Due to the growing acceptance of the potential opportunities rural markets present, marketing
organizations in India are focusing more and more on these regions.
Take a look at the most recent data on rural markets: Urban markets are thought to be getting more
saturated, but rural markets are expanding more quickly. Since 2000, India's per capita GDP has increased
at a CAGR of 6.2% in rural areas compared to 4.7% in urban areas (knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu). India's
rural areas spent $69 billion between 2009 and 2012, whereas the urban areas spent $55 billion
(www.rediff.com, 2013). According to a 2009 ASSOCHAM research (www.assocham.org), 50% of FMCG
sector revenues originate from the rural market. According to the Tata Strategic Management Group team,
since 69% of Indians live in rural areas, businesses cannot afford to ignore the market opportunity that rural
markets present. This is especially true given that value-added rural consumption increased by 17.2%
between 2008 and 2010 and that nearly one-third of sales of consumer durables and FMCG originate from
rural markets (www.business-standard.com, 2014). According to Raj and Silveraj (2007), the size of the
rural market would be twice as large as the urban market, with a number of FMCG products growing at a
faster rate in the rural sector.

Sustainable Marketing
According to Murphy (2005), the definition of sustainable marketing has changed over time, originally
referring to ecological or environmental marketing, then green marketing, and finally the more
contemporary definition that includes the sustainability of marketing initiatives. According to Murphy
(2005), sustainability is synonymous with sustainable development, which was described as "meeting the
needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs" in the
Bruntland Commission Report (1987). Sustainable marketing was defined as marketing that is both
supportive of and within economic development by Van Dam and Ampledoorn (1996). According to
Murphy (2005), sustainability is not limited to environmental conditions alone; it also encompasses social
and ethical dimensions. This article examines sustainability in the framework of social and economic
development as rural Indian marketers work to cultivate a rural customer base through initiatives that benefit
both parties.

Sustainable marketing in rural India

Rural markets present enormous opportunities, but they also present a number of difficult challenges for
marketers. These challenges include a market that is widely dispersed, with India's approximately 600,000
villages covering an area of 3.2 million square kilometers; a per capita income that is significantly lower
than that of urban India; and increasing competition as more businesses start to enter these markets
(Kashyap, 2012). Furthermore, although research indicates that rural markets present significant growth
potential, poverty still affects about 30% of the rural population in the nation on a chronic basis. In the
country's rural areas, scheduled caste and tribal members have the greatest levels of poverty. In 2005 these
categories accounted for 80 per cent of impoverished rural individuals, while their representation in the total
rural population is substantially smaller (www.ruralpovertyportal.org).
Conditions have, however, somewhat improved. According to the Rural Development Report 2013–14, the
percentage of rural residents classified as "very poor" in 2011–12 was 6.84%, compared to 16.3% in 2004–
05 (www.indianexpress.com, 2015). In particular, the highest rate of poverty among occupational groupings
in rural areas is seen among agricultural laborers (40%) and is followed by other laborers (33%) and self-
employed agricultural workers (22%).
According to Prahalad (2005), subsistence consumers make as little as $1 per day, live in subpar housing,
have little to no access to health care and drinkable water, and have little to no education (Weidner et al.,
2010). Developing the value offer, conducting needs research on subsistence marketing, and other strategies
are all part of marketing to these customers. using social networks, as demonstrated by Grameen Bank; co-
creating products; localizing production; developing sustainable packaging, such as that which Novartis did
in developing blister packaging to prevent prescription drug loss or damage; communicating with consumers
living on a subsistence basis; facilitating product access through local resellers; developing creative
distribution systems, as demonstrated by HUL's Project Shakti; and managing adoption processes, as
demonstrated by an organization that offered farmers a free trial option in response to their reluctance to
adopt new technology that had not been proven (Weidner, et al., 2010).
Reaching, getting, and keeping rural consumers are among the obstacles facing rural marketing, according to
the 2013 Accenture research "Masters of Rural Markets-Profitably Selling to India's Rural Consumers."
Leading companies in rural markets, referred to in the research as "rural masters," have surmounted these
obstacles by establishing symbiotic connections with channel partners and rural communities in addition to
taking extra steps that go beyond conventional marketing techniques. One of the key conclusions from the
Accenture research (2013) was that the way forward was to work through cooperative channels, gain trust
through locally valued activities, and hold onto the market by becoming integrated into the social structure
(Economic Times, 2013). In fact, the panel discussion centered around this research emphasized the
importance of trust-building for success in rural markets. For example, Lifebuoy increased its popularity and
acceptance in rural India by educating people about hygiene and fostering trust (Economic Times, 2013).
Various tactics are used in rural marketing, such as location- and client-specific promotion, joint or
cooperative promotion, input bundling, demand management, and developmental marketing (Goel and Garg,
2014). According to Goel and Garg (2014), developmental marketing is the process of creating marketing
campaigns with the goal of achieving development objectives in mind and utilizing a variety of management
and other marketing inputs.
Certain strategies have been discovered for winning rural markets using tactics that create win-win scenarios
for both the marketers and the rural clients. These strategies are based on a review of the literature and case
studies of organizations that have developed sustainable markets in rural India. The main strategies involve
collaborating for sustainable marketing in rural areas, creating sustainable livelihoods in these areas,
creating and delivering value propositions at an accessible price, and leveraging technology—specifically,
information and communication technology—for sustainable marketing in India's rural areas. These methods
are explained in more detail below.

1. Partnering for sustainable marketing in rural markets:

Partnering for sustainability, or creating the groundwork for ongoing and enduring relationships, is a long-
term marketing strategy for rural markets (Goel and Garg, 2014). As an illustration of a key strategy to
succeed in rural markets, Raymond established exclusive stores in collaboration with the community,
fostering close communication and bolstering the social and economic standing of the local channel
partners. This strategy ensures that the local channel is respected and has authority. (Economic Times, 2013).
In a similar vein, Maruti's rural marketing campaign received significant backing from the hiring of almost
7000 locals as resident dealer sales executives. while part of the company's corporate social responsibility,
Lakshmi Cements collaborates with local talent and employs a local to accompany the van while it tests
cement in different villages. This allows the local to undertake the necessary tasks and establish a direct
connection. Godfrey Phillips also established trust by fostering relationships with rural residents and
promoting women's health (Economic Times, 2013). To expand their distribution reach in rural
communities, companies like Idea Cellular and Tata Motors have teamed up with locals in creative ways:
For example, Idea Cellular has trained and hired about 4000 young people who live close to Idea Cellular's
cell towers, dubbed "sons of the soil." Tata Motors has trained and hired locals as "gram mitras," or village
advisors, who work on commission to generate leads for the company's existing dealers' sales teams. Idea
hires traveling grameen pratinidhis, or "village representatives," to support these local workers in order to
increase its reach. These individuals already frequent rural villages on business and are in need of additional
money (Kapur et al., 2014).

2. Sustainable livelihoods for Sustainable Marketing :

Other significant organizations have been focusing on the local community's sustainable economic
development in order to create markets in rural India. Based on the twin engines of consumption and
entrepreneurship, these organizations have been concentrating on the marketing principle of enhancing
business performance in the bottom of the pyramid. They have recognized low income contexts as potential
new markets for goods and services (Sridharan and Vishwanathan, 2008). For example, in 2000, the Indian
Tea Council (ITC) launched the e-choupal initiative, which provided farmers with internet access and a
computer to address issues in Indian agriculture, including fragmented markets, inadequate infrastructure,
and the involvement of several middlemen. Farmers were able to negotiate their sales with ITC directly,
eliminating the need for middlemen, thanks to the e-choupal program, which put them in direct contact with
the firm for the purchase of different agricultural products. The facilities also gave farmers access to mandi
pricing and taught them good farming techniques. In addition to securing increased farmer incomes, the
strategy has improved ITC's procurement chain's efficiency (siteresources.worldbank.org).
Additionally, Mahindra & Mahindra has worked hard to forge strong ties with the nation's farmers through
the Samriddhi initiative, which helps them with a variety of agricultural problems and boosts farm
prosperity. As a result, M&M has developed enduring relationships with thousands of farmers, turning them
into devoted clients of its agribusiness (Naidu, 2015). As a component of the Mahindra Farm Equipment
Division, the Mahindra Samriddhi project aims to promote rural prosperity by boosting agricultural output
through innovative farming technologies. .. In line with this idea, a number of Mahindra tractor dealerships
were converted into Samriddhi Centres, where farmers can get technology interfaces via the internet, soil
and irrigation water testing facilities, productivity demo farms, agri-counseling services, finance and
insurance products, used tractor sales, micro-irrigation products, seeds, and crop care products. As a result
of the efforts, the brand Mahindra Tractors has evolved from a well-known, dependable, affordable, and
heritage "tractor" brand to an all-encompassing "Agri Products & Solutions" brand with an emphasis on
providing "Farm Tech Prosperity" (Naidu, 2015).
When HUL realized its conventional distribution method would not function in the rural areas, it developed
Project Shakti, the company's rural direct to consumer retail distribution network, as a self-sustaining model
of micro entrepreneurs. The company's endeavor, Project Shakti, aims to give rural women financial
empowerment and prospects for livelihood; in doing so, it has given the Shaktiammas and their families a
steady source of income. The project involves training the Shakti entrepreneurs (www.hul.co.in) in basic
accounting, sales techniques, hygiene, and pertinent IT skills. Thousands of women, known as Shakti
Ammas, have benefited from Project Shakti by investing a money with the assistance of self-help
organizations that collaborate with HUL and distribute the goods of the business in exchange for a
respectable living. The Shaktimaan program was started in 2010 and gives bicycles to men in the Shakti
Ammas' families who distribute its products in village clusters. The ladies sell HUL goods and also register
births and funerals, educate females, and teach cleanliness to rural communities they visit, earning them
between Rs. 700 and Rs. 3000 per month. .. In addition to empowering men and women in rural India
through Project Shakti, the company has increased its access to over three million homes in 100,000 villages
across 15 states by providing about 48,000 Shakti Ammas and 30,000 Shaktimaans. Owing to Project
Shakti's success, it has been duplicated in Pakistan and Sri Lanka, with intentions to soon expand into
Africa. (2013) www.businesstoday.in. Through the training of thousands of Shakti Ammas in the villages,
HUL has helped them become financially independent and empowered while instilling in them an
entrepreneurial mindset (www.hul.co.in). As a result, HUL has been able to establish sustainable livelihoods
for the villagers and successfully break into rural markets.
HUL's Project Shakti is a rural distribution effort that primarily targets tiny villages with less than 5,000
residents. It is a unique initiative that not only generates business for the company but also stimulates
economic growth. The project specifically has two effects on society: first, the Shakti Entreprenuership
program gives rurally impoverished women a means of subsistence by helping them obtain microcredit,
which allows them to work as direct-to-home distributors in rural areas; second, HUL invests in their
training so they can become self-assured business owners.
Similarly, communications services have developed primarily by giving inexpensive access to vital
information and knowledge services among the rural poor (Bhavnani, et al., 2008), thereby empowering
farmers as they learn about weather as well as local mandi pricing. Life Tools from Nokia is one example.
Started in 2008, Nokia worked with the Maharashtra State Agriculture Board to supply commodities price
information from around 300 mandies to thousands of farmers. Nokia offered information on health and
education in addition to agriculture. Over 100 million users use it; half of them are in India, while the
remaining users are in four rising markets: China, Indonesia, Nigeria, and Kenya. NLT users select a
language, pay a monthly subscription fee, and receive information on their mobile devices from the
corporation (www.businesstoday.in, 2013). Nokia has worked with a number of partners to develop and
implement Nokia Life Tools, including major telecom service providers Bharati Airtel, Idea Cellular,
Reliance Communications, and Tata Docomo; information service provider Thomson Reuters; agriculture
expert Syngenta; and weather expert Skymet (Redjou and Prabhu, 2012). In addition, Nokia introduced the
Ovi Store in 2009, which included a collection of mobile applications known as Ovi Life Tools (OLT)
geared toward users in underdeveloped nations. These resources are designed for low-cost, narrowband m-
apps that offer services related to entertainment, education, health, and agriculture (Qiang et al., 2012). In
addition to information-based services that support rural and agricultural development, Nokia provides
millions of unbanked Indian consumers with financial services through Nokia-Money, a mobile phone-based
service (Radjou and Prabhu, 2012). Nokia developed a network with millions of subscribers by
understanding the needs of its rural clients and meeting those needs.

3. Designing and delivering affordable value proposition

Creating a value offer that is both economical and fits customer demands is another way to demonstrate
sustainable marketing, which is defined as marketing that can be sustained over time despite obstacles like
low salaries. Reliance Infocomm made the decision to charge the price of a post card for its
telecommunication services. It offered a free digital mobile phone, limitless free incoming calls, free value-
added services, 15-second time billing, and a one-time fee of roughly $67 and a monthly fee of $13.
Reliance Infocomm was able to achieve this by cutting costs, which it accomplished by signing exclusive
contracts with hardware suppliers; mass manufacturing of a small range of phone models and guaranteeing
profitability by charging a little bit more for rentals in addition to providing free airtime (Weidner, et al.,
2010). Comparably, Aravind Eye Care has provided affordable eye surgeries; out of the 3.5 million
procedures performed in 2015, more than half were subsidized, with patients paying either free or at a
discounted rate of Rs. 850. The company's highly efficient "mass produced" surgeries, which are similar to
McDonald's assembly line operations, allow it to maintain this business model (www.thehindu.com,
2016). ). Similarly, Jaipur Foot has been able to achieve affordability by using a product development
approach that starts with the target price and profit and works backward to the design. The company has
also been able to offer this product at such a low price by using locally sourced materials, mass producing,
and simplifying the design. Lower extremity prosthetics made by Jaipur Foot are sold for $35, as opposed to
$8000–$10,000 for similar Western-made products (Weidner et al., 2010). In addition to being reasonably
priced, the Jaipur foot is made to fit the needs of its users, enabling them to, for example, squat during
conversations rather than sit: The company has serviced 70,000 patients in 2006 alone because of its value
proposition, which is based on customization and affordability (Weidner et al., 2010).

4. Use of technology for sustainable marketing

Another strategy for developing sustainable marketing for India's rural areas is to leverage technology—
more especially, ICT. ICT can be used to increase market reach by bridging the affordability gap of low
income groups. It is defined as a collection of actions that make it easier to capture, store, process,
transmit, and display information using electronic methods (Cecchini and Scott, 2003). For example, SKS, a
microfinance institution in rural Andra Pradesh, uses smart cards with an embedded microchip carrying the
credit histories of its clients. This enables the organization to lower its transaction costs. In the context of
microfinance, smart cards have been found to be helpful in addressing high delivery costs. Improvements in
efficiency, decreased paperwork, and decreased errors, meeting durations, and fraud have resulted in
possible operational savings of 18%, enabling microfinance organizations like SKS to give the
underprivileged greater access to financial services (Cecchini and Scott, 2003).

Conclusion:
The poor can be a very profitable market, especially when businesses change their business models. This
market primarily revolves around volume and capital efficiencies. However, the bottom of the pyramid,
which includes the rural poor, is not a market that allows for traditional high margins (Prahalad and Hart,
1999). Although unit sales in this market can be very large, margins are likely to be low by today's
standards. Managers who innovate and prioritize economic profit stand to benefit (Prahalad and Hart,
1999).
But effectively reaching the impoverished in rural areas is not an easy task. For example, Garrette and
Karnani (2010) contend that although Prahalad (2004) claimed that marketing to the bottom of the
pyramid can result in significant profits for multinational corporations, there are other claims that the
profitability of marketing to the poor may be lower. This is in relation to the marketing of socially useful
goods to the poor. They use the failures of three organizations as examples, forcing them to abandon their
endeavors. This leads to lessons such as realizing that a market exists when buyers are willing and able to
pay enough to cover the entire cost of production, including opportunity costs are discussed; in order for
businesses to service the poor successfully, they must significantly cut their costs, which will necessitate a
quality trade-off to reach an acceptable level. Additionally, effective distribution channels are essential for
the success of BOP efforts. According to Garrett and Karnani (2010), "it is difficult enough to combine
profitability with selling socially useful goods to the poor without adding more constraints, such as
environmental sustainability," so achieving multiple social objectives would be more detrimental to
achieving BOP success .

Despite the challenges, developing sustainable markets to assist India's rural impoverished can lead to long-
term success. Building mutually beneficial relationships with rural communities and channel partners along
with additional steps that go beyond traditional selling approaches are some key components that emerge as
part of building a sustainable market in India's rural areas, as demonstrated by successful cases; fostering
collaborative channels by partnering with locals, earning trust through locally appreciated activities;
working towards the local community's sustainable economic development in order to build markets; tying
with the village community to created as a self-sustaining model of micro entrepreneurs; providing
inexpensive access to relevant information and knowledge services among the rural poor; building a value
proposition that is affordable as well as fits the demands of the consumers and creating sustainable
marketing for rural India is through the use of technology, specifically ICT.

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