GONE ARE the days when a rural consumer went to a nearby city to buy``branded products and services". Time was when only a select household consumed branded goods, be it tea or jeans. There were days when big companies flocked to rural markets to establish their brands. Today, rural markets are critical for every marketer - be it for a branded shampoo or an automobile. Time was when marketers thought van campaigns, cinema commercials and a few wall paintings would suffice to entice rural folks under their folds. Thanks to television, today a customer in a rural area is quite literate about myriad products that are on offer in the market place. An Indian farmer going through his daily chores wearing jeans may sound idiotic. Not for Arvind Mills, though. When it launched the Ruf & Tuf kits, it had created quite a sensation among the rural folks as well within few months of their launch.
Trends indicate that the rural markets are coming up in a big way and growing twice as fast as the urban, witnessing a rise in sales of hitherto typical urban kitchen gadgets such as refrigerators, mixer-grinders and pressure cookers. According to a National Council for Applied Economic Research (NCAER) study, there are as many 'middle income and above' households in the rural areas as there are in the urban areas. There are almost twice as many 'lower middle income' households in rural areas as in the urban areas. At the highest income level there are 2.3 million urban households as against 1.6 million households in rural areas. According to Mr. D. Shivakumar, Business Head (Hair), Personal Products Division, Hindustan Lever Limited, the money available to spend on FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Goods) products by urban India is Rs. 49,500 crores as against is Rs. 63,500 crores in rural India.
As per NCAER projections, the number of middle and high income households in rural India is expected to grow from 80 million to 111 million by 2007. In urban India, the same is expected to grow from 46 million to 59 million. Thus, the absolute size of rural India is expected to be double that of urban India. The study on ownership of goods indicates the same trend. It segments durables under three groups - (1) necessary products - Transistors, wristwatch and bicycle, (2) Emerging products - B&W TV and cassette recorder, (3) Lifystyle products - CTV and refrigerators. Marketers have to depend on rural India for the first two categories for growth and size. Even in lifestyle products, rural India will be significant over next five years.
At a recent seminar in Chennai on 'rural marketing for competitive advantage in globalised India', organised by Anugrah Madison Advertising Pvt Limited, marketing pundits have echoed that a sound network and a thorough understanding of the village psyche are a SINE QUO NON for making inroads into rural markets. The price-sensitivity of a consumer in a village is something the marketers should be alive to. Rural income levels are largely determined by the vagaries of monsoon and, hence, the demand there is not an easy horse to ride on. Apart from increasing the geographical width of their product distribution, the focus of corporates should be on the introduction of brands and develop strategies specific to rural consumers. Britannia Industries launched Tiger Biscuits especially for the rural market. It clearly paid dividend. Its share of the glucose biscuit market has increased from 7 per cent to 15 per cent.
Effective communication
An important tool to reach out to the rural audience is through effective communication.``A rural consumer is brand loyal and understands symbols better. This also makes it easy to sell look - alike", says Mr. R.V Rajan, CMD, Anugrah Madison Advertising. The rural audience has matured enough to understand the communication developed for the urban markets, especially with reference to FMCG products. Television has been a major effective communication system for rural mass and, as a result, companies should identify themselves with their advertisements. Advertisements touching the emotions of the rural folks, it is argued, could drive a quantum jump in sales.
There is a need to differentiate the brand according to regional disparities. The differentiation may not necessarily be in terms of product content. It may also be in terms of packaging, communication or association with the brand.
The brand has to be made relevant by understanding local needs. Even offering the same product in different regions with different brand names could be adopted as a strategy. At times it is difficult to pass on an innovation over an existing product to the rural consumer unlike his urban counterpart - like increased calcium or herbal content or a germ-control formula in toothpaste.
According to Mr. Shivakumar, HLL, the four factors which influence demand in rural India are - access, attitude, awareness and Affluence. HLL has successfully used this to influence the rural market for its shampoos in sachets. The sachet strategy has proved so successful that, according to an ORG - MARG data, 95 per cent of total shampoo sales in rural India is by sachets. The company had developed a direct access to markets through wholesale channel and created awareness through media, demonstration and on ground contact. This changed the attitude of the villagers. Today, the young and the educated in the villages are already large in number. And this number is increasing. Already, 40 per cent of all those graduating from colleges are rural youth. They are the decision makers and are not very different in education, exposure, attitudes and aspirations from their counterparts at least in smaller cities and towns.
District marketing
Since marketing is to target the growing segments, Mr. Francis Xavier, Managing Director, Francis Kanoi Marketing Research, wants to see the urban-like village dweller as an urbanised person from the districts. The village then becomes a location or a suburb of a district. And the district becomes the basic geographical entity. Since the urban-like populations in the villages are taken as a part of the district, they will represent the dominant part of the market in most of the districts. This will compel the kind of attention that it deserves. A districts perspective removes the complexities, heterogeneity, access and targetability that have hindered rural marketing initiatives. He feels that rural marketing requires every element of marketing including product, pricing, packaging, advertising, and media planning to have the rural customer as the target. And, this becomes possible when we have districts marketing as a separate entity.
Impact of globalisation
The impact of globalisation will be felt in rural India as much as in urban. But it will be slow. It will have its impact on target groups like farmers, youth and women. Farmers, today 'keep in touch' with the latest information and maximise both ends. Animal feed producers no longer look at Andhra Pradesh or Karnataka. They keep their cell phones constantly connected to global markets. Surely, price movements and products' availability in the international market place seem to drive their local business strategies. On youth its impact is on knowledge and information and while on women it still depends on the socio-economic aspect.
The marketers who understand the rural consumer and fine tune their strategy are sure to reap benefits in the coming years. In fact, the leadership in any product or service is linked to leadership in the rural India except for few lifestyle-based products, which depend on urban India mainly.
