The Hindu Business Line : `Understanding rural consumer psyche key to success'

Mr R. Gopalakrishnan, Executive Director, Tata Sons Ltd, and Mr P.M. Sinha, Chairman, FICCI Agriculture & Rural Development Committee and Chairman of Bata India, at the FICCI Rural Marketing Summit in Mumbai.

Mumbai , Oct. 8

WHILE many have begun to realise the tremendous potential of the rural markets and opportunities opening up in this sector for supply of goods and services, rural marketing is not about everybody running to it.

It is about understanding the psyche of the rural consumer in terms of needs, tailoring the products to meet such needs and effectively delivering them.

Effective communication and setting up of appropriate distribution channels are necessary for a successful foray into rural markets. There are different distribution models depending on the nature of the product; but the marketer should select the best model for designing a distribution strategy for his product.

These are some of the highlights that emerged from the two-day interactive session on Rural Marketing Summit 2004 organised by Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) here wherein top corporate leaders from the FMCG sector, advertising and communications industry, marketing professionals, academicians and a host of service providers participated.

Conceding that habits in rural markets were difficult to change, experts agreed that once a product or brand received acceptance by rural consumers, there was much greater element of loyalty. For marketers, key to succeeding in the rural market is the understanding of the rural psyche.

Major challenges

Some of the major challenges posed by the rural markets include scattered nature of population (six lakh villages), diversity (numerous languages and dialects, caste, culture and religion), poor connectivity leading to high distribution costs, and communication (low literacy and limited reach of mass media).

The growth of rural markets for goods and services is directly related to growth in rural incomes. As nearly two-third of the country's population lives in rural areas and draws livelihood from agriculture and related activities, strengthening on-farm and off-farm activities would create more incomes and thereby more demand for goods and services.

Emphasising that the marketer must have a thorough understanding of his product and brand as well as its uses for the consumer, speakers asked marketers to guard against communication blocks due to language or icons used for advertising a product or service.

"There is never an end to distribution models," Mr P.M. Sinha, Chairman of FICCI Agricultural and Rural Development Committee and Chairman of Bata India, said in his summing up speech, adding that by next year, several innovative models would have come up for tapping the rural markets.