The Hindu Business Line : Conducting field studies

The rural market is buzzing with activity and marketers have never had it so good. As aspiration levels rise, companies are sewing up plans to give rural masses the touch-and-feel experience just as their city counterparts are used to.

Experiential marketing is rearing its head in the rural landscape as well. “Rural is urban now. The line is shrinking and companies are aggressively promoting everything from mobile phones to tractors by giving village folk the so called touch-and-feel experience,” says R. V. Rajan, President, Rural Marketing Agencies Association of India (RMAAI).

According to him, the rural market size is pegged at a whopping Rs 200,000 crore of which FMCG, automobile and consumer durables contribute the chunk.

“Purchasing in rural India is still a consultative decision. Though non-agriculture incomes are changing the rural façade, it is still a complex and heterogeneous market. We have found that no single marketing formula can apply here,” he adds.

“Unless there is a demonstration of the products, rural consumers find it difficult to make an informed choice. There has to be value for money for them. Even now, a large portion of the purchases is made through cash-down payments rather than credit. It is here that experiential marketing plays a major role,” he said.

Pradeep Kashyap, Managing Director of rural consultancy firm Mart, says experiential marketing has more relevance in the rural spectrum. “Rural youth are as keen as their urban counterparts,” he says. Noting that weekly village markets, or haats as they are called, are nothing but a form of experiential marketing, he says for most companies the motto now is ‘think big, but start small’. They are moving away from ‘command mode’ to ‘connect mode’.

The Haat concept, in fact, is the most popular form of rural marketing as it automatically generates a people’s movement. “This cuts down on advertising costs and the needs of a large section of audience can be met under a single umbrella,” explains Kashyap.

Rajan observes that as many as 35 per cent of all consumer durables are brought by the rural folk and their value is pegged at an estimated Rs 10,000 crore. In the automobile segment of cars, jeeps and two-wheelers 12 per cent sales, estimated as a Rs 4,500-crore market, happen in the hinterland.

Priya Monga, Business Head of Delhi-based experiential marketing firm RC&M, which specialises in organising experiential marketing for companies for a rural audience, says there is a fortune at the bottom of the pyramid.

“Physical demonstrations and word of mouth are very important to rural customers. Since the usual modes of mass communication such as television and newspapers have very little reach, companies resort to demo-oriented practices,” she says, estimating the advertising spend on experiential marketing for rural areas at Rs 700-800 crore.

According to RC&M, a typical experiential marketing exercise would cost a company anywhere from Rs 15-50 lakh.

Consider this. Mahindra and Mahindra conducted an experiential marketing exercise for its tractor which was being perceived as having a faulty hydraulic system in Rajasthan, FMCG major Marico roped in hair specialists and local beauticians to endorse its hair oil in the Uttar Pradesh hinterland.

For a village denizen, companies have found, the opinion of a decision maker is very crucial. Mahindra’s tractor did not seem to be a hit in the rural heartland. This forced the client to look into the root of the problem. After a series of deliberations, the company zeroed in on its tractors’ hydraulic system, which customers perceived was flawed. The company decided to overcome the hurdle by using the experiential marketing mode.

How did it go about it? Villagers were asked to gather at a specific venue and much pre-publicity was created around it. This ensured good turnout both of the opinion makers as well as the end-users. The company used graphs and charts to demonstrate the efficiency of the product even while dispelling myths about its flaws. Products engineers from the company were also roped in to answer specific questions related to the tractor. This gave the rural folks a test-pad for the tractor.

Similarly, Dish TV marketed itself with a series of ‘Manorajan’ vans travelling to villages in Maharashtra, while TVS’ Star City used an aggressive bike contest in UP, Punjab and Haryana to showcase the number of people who could be accommodated on it. “Connecting with people and understanding their needs are very important. Companies, too, need to create brand loyalty,” said Monga.

Elaborating on the cost of conducting such exercises, Monga says, “The cost varies depending on the R&D involved in it. An experiential marketing campaign could have a two-pronged strategy of reaching directly to the rural denizens as also branding. Companies, on their part, can gauge customer response besides reaching the feeder market directly and at a much lower cost.”

More Stories on : Marketing Research | Rural Marketing | Rural Development

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