Question hour

How does celebrity endorsement work for brands at the basic level?

Tiruchi

Shobha, celebrity endorsement works on the scores of awareness creation. Every celebrity you use to endorse your brand has a latent awareness and like-factor with consumers and viewers. This rubs off on the brand the celebrity endorses.

When Aamir Khan endorses Snapdeal today, the awareness of Aamir, his likeability factor, and most importantly, his credibility, rubs off on Snapdeal. When Snapdeal does a deal with Aamir, it pays for all this upfront. Simple.

How does technology impact rural marketing?

Jullunder

Ramkirat-ji, technology is a big differentiator. Rural marketing in the present and the future is all about leveraging the big leap made possible by technology.

Technology touches rural marketing in small bits and pieces, quite like a technology jigsaw puzzle, pieces of which you will use today to make that big picture in the future.

I have used technology efficiently. I call it the First Gen Tech. This is about using the simple iPad to take the allure of the store to the rural hinterland. The problem is a simple one. The rural hinterland is a deprived landscape that does not have physical access to the goodies of urban India. E-commerce is, however, a leveller.

E-commerce, however, needs the device to put it in touch with the smartphone or the iPad. Not everyone has it as yet. Therefore we have what we call assisted ecommerce. We have iPad toting salesmen going from home to home and opening up multiple sites, depending on need and want and indeed desire.

The store is brought to the rural home. Purchases are clicked, cash is collected, a credit card carried by the salesman is used to pay for the purchase, and voila, the product reaches the rural home in ten days flat. Geography is history.

And guess what, this is not COD. This is CBD. Cash before delivery. Thanks to simple and drastic technology.

As we move to the era of the Internet of Things, more will come and we are planning for this excitement.

How is the banking habit different in rural and urban markets?

Gurgaon

Bhargavaji, the banking habits of urban folk are moving away from the branch. In the beginning it was the ATM, then it moved into the comfort of their own homes and offices with e-banking.

In rural areas the bank branch remains an important location. Rural folk tend to trust the brick-and-mortar branch with live human tellers and assistants and managers more than anything else.

There is, of course, a bigger degree of trust being reposed with banking agents and intermediaries. This trust is just about building up. As of today, however, the biggest bank for the rural person is his home. His savings are in the form of land, gold, silver and cash. Even the bit of cash that he saves at home is hidden in very creative little nooks and spaces.

This cash does not earn interest, but the rural person does believe it is the safest in his house. That mindset needs to change.

An important point to note is the fact that the bank has two avatars at large. One is its “savings” face and the other is its “lending” face. In both rural and urban markets different percentages of the two tend to impact people. And one gives credence to the other over a period of time and indeed over a time of good experiences, personal and that of the community at large.

Harish Bijoor is a brand strategy expert and CEO, Harish Bijoor Consults Inc. Mail your queries to cat.a.lyst@thehindu.co.in

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