The Hindu Business Line : `Rural India set to fuel business growth engine'

(From left) Mr G. Ramachandran, financial analyst, Mr M.P. Nandakumar, Director, Anugrah Madison Advertising, Mr Shiv Sahgal, Vice-President (Marketing - South Asia), Sara Lee Household & Body Care, and Mr A. Shankar, Regional Product Head, Centurion Bank, at a panel discussion on rural marketing held under the aegis of the BL Club at SSN School of Management & Computer Applications, Chennai.

Chennai , Oct. 5

"WITH 70 per cent of the population, 25 per cent of GDP and 41 per cent of savings, Rural India is all set to be the engine for corporate growth in the new millennium," was the consensus of the panelists at Daksha 2005 held at SSN School of Management & Computer Applications in Kelambakkam here, under the aegis of BL Club.

Participating in the panel discussion on rural marketing, the moderator, financial analyst Mr G. Ramachandran set the ball in motion with his candid remark on the need for "corporates to create specific product for the rural markets."

Identifying rural as rural rich, rural middle and rural poor, Mr M.P. Nandakumar, Director, Anugrah Madison Advertising Pvt Ltd, said corporates need to be sensible and have to make products exclusively for the rural markets. He added that they should not treat rural markets as an extension of the urban population as they are different in many ways.

Quoting from various studies and his personal experiences in many a rural market, Mr Nandakumar said the rural middle class in not only richer but is also growing faster than its urban counterpart. .

Calling corporate houses to train the rural population for low-cost manpower, he underlined that such an act would help in generating employment and wealth for the rural population. This would eventually end up in corporate's coffers as the income generated would be used to buy their products.

"What is rural today will be urban tomorrow" going by the speed of the technological and communication revolution and its adaptation to the rural economy, said Mr A. Shankar, Regional Product Head, Centurion Bank. The national highways connecting all the four metros through the hundreds of villages are hastening this phenomenon.

"Do not try to fit their lifestyle into your products; rather make products that would fit into their lifestyle," was the cryptic comment of Mr Shiv Sahgal, Vice-President (Marketing - South Asia) of Sara Lee Household & Body Care, as he went on to emphasise that future growth will be from the rural areas.

Mr R. Vijay Shankar, Director, SSN School of Management and Computer Applications, and Mr R. Balasubramanian, Head, MBA department, were among nearly 300 students present on the occasion.

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page