Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Roadmap
What is Rural? Rural Marketing Common Perceptions & Approaches Redirecting the Thought Vector
What is Rural?
As per The Census of India, 2001 Rural means :
Places which do not have a municipality, corporation, cantonment board or notified town area committee, etc. Population less than 5,000 habitants At least 75 per cent of male working population engaged in agricultural pursuits Density of population of is less than 400 per sq. km. (1,000 per sq. mile).
Though each perception is right in its own way, its somehow not the complete picture The efforts, thereby, are incremental small steps to reap benefits in immediate & medium term Perhaps we need a giant leap?! And a rethink
Is this a homogenous market? Can we look at it as one big chunk? Or do we explore the various socio-economic segmentations that even this market contains?
Can we really isolate marketing as a function when we talk about rural marketing?
Reaching all villages is essential Rural consumer/customer is unwilling to pay for premium products & services
Creating awareness drives sales
Distribution/Common point for 25-30 villages reaches 70% of the rural population Customers/Consumers many times tip Rs. 50/Rs. 100 for a service worth Rs. 15 (land records/certificates etc.)
Product usefulness and availability is important/influence of peers/herd mentality
*The Max-NCAER India Financial Protection Survey
Significant potential for FMCG goods (and increasing) from the rural market on at least 5 products, they are the majority destination
Potential Solutions
Some part of immediate and medium term growth may be captured through extension of: Presence by augmenting and deepening network Price adjusting price points and pack sizes to address BOP level majority of rural populace
But with time, this would stagnate as for demand to increase, prosperity and resulting disposable income have to increase What kind of prosperity are we talking about? Not the prosperity which comes from migration of rural youth/population to urban and semi-urban centers Not only the limited prosperity which comes through developmental activities of schemes, charities, funds etc. Not only the prosperity which comes from better retention of value at farmer level From better VALUE RETENTION to better VALUE ADDITION!
PRODUCTS
Not only smaller SKUs of products designed for urban markets, but also products exclusively made for rural market segments (in terms of look, colors, taste, fragrance etc.) More horizontal supply chain needs smaller machines, smaller labs etc. Mostly regional products widely fungible products being traded across these micro-units at national level
5. Products in surplus i.e. which cannot be sold within the village itself would be sent to the nearby towns for sale through outlets with tie-ups and/or through other Patanjali Bazaars.
6. From this Patanjali Gram Udyog to other PGUs within the region. 7. From other PGUs in the same region to this Patanjali Gram Udyog.
Jai Hind!