Rural Marketing in India: Strategies and Challenges

Over the years, marketers and researchers have realized that urban markets in India are fast reaching saturation levels and consequently rural markets in India have a huge untapped potential. As per NCAER projections, the number of middle and high income households in rural India is expected to grow to 111 million by 2007. Marketers are carefully examining the potentials of rural markets in India. The concept of rural markets in India is still in evolving shape, and the sector poses a variety of challenges. This book is designed to evolve workable strategies in the area of rural marketing in India. Dynamics of rural markets differ from other market types, and similarly rural marketing strategies are also significantly different from the marketing strategies aimed at an urban or industrial consumer. The present book is designed to understand the rural consumer besides providing an overview of the importance of rural markets. It suggests to marketers how to fine tune their strategy to reap benefits in the coming years. The book presents specific reasons for growing importance of rural markets and defines some key relevant concepts. Moreover, the geo-demographic, economic and cultural environment along with the status of rural infrastructure has also been discussed in detail. It also describes various aspects related to product and pricing and examines various decisions that the companies would have to make with regard to these two elements of the rural marketing-mix. The book further examines the various problems that make distribution of the product a Herculean task in rural areas. Along with analyzing the promotional strategies based on the understanding of rural psyche, it also discusses three major components of promotion mix viz., advertising, sales promotion and personal selling. The book holds various strategic and managerial implications for marketers and researchers engaged/interested in India’s vast rural market. It should also prove useful for teachers and students of commerce, management and economics.