MARKETING MANAGEMENT

MARKETING MANAGEMENT

Illustrate with appropriate examples the role of advertising, branding & alternative distribution
channels with specific reference to Rural India.

Today, Rural India is the buzzword for marketers. Organisations are shifting their focus towards this huge
and largely untapped market. But the problem for them is in reaching out to this huge magnitude of the
rural masses with varied social, cultural backgrounds and speaking a few hundred dialects.

The growth in conventional media has been quite significant; however, it has not been substantial. Rural
India consists of about 127 million households of which only 54% comes in contact with any of the
conventional media, like press, TV, satellite, radio or cinema. That means roughly 238 million are
waiting to be tapped by the conventional media. No wonder, rural India is a marketer and
advertiser’s El Dorado.

Broad strategies & Role of Rural Advertising

The prevalent ways of advertising in rural areas through different existing media and all the alternative
and innovative media broadly revolve around three strategies, namely,

• Influencer strategy
• Participatory strategy
• Show-and-tell strategy

Influencer strategy:
The role of the influencer or influencing communication cannot be ignored as far as rural India is
concerned. The advertisements that revolve around this very strategy actually depend on the influence of
different influential people and/or events in the villages to put across the message powerfully with more
effect and purchase intention. An example of this kind of advertisement may be brand endorsement by
any influential person in the village like the ‘Mukhiya’ or the ‘school master’.

Participatory strategy:
Events like different festivals and different games and sports competitions actually have a high
participation level in the rural India as other sources of entertainment are very less in those areas. So,
these events and shows offer great opportunity to reach rural India cost effectively. Different brands
sponsor different events and shows in rural villages which is actually a cost-effective way to advertise
with the participatory strategy.

Show-n-tell strategy:
Many brands are venturing into different ways to educate their rural consumers about their brands and
their usage through different shows and events. These kinds of initiatives actually create huge awareness
about the brand among the interested people in the rural
India. Different health related advertisements like Polio awareness and AIDS awareness programmes
involve a ‘show-n-tell’ strategy of advertising.
 MARKETING MANAGEMENT

Role of Branding:

A brand is a name that distinguishes a product from others. It has its own identity in the market with its
symbol and tagline. When we talk about brands in rural markets some of the names which come to our
mind are Rajdoot Bikes,Ghari Detergent,Dolly TV and chic shampoo etc Findings indicated that good
quality, value for money and sense of identity with brand were likely to act as key determinants of a
FMCG brand in rural India. Better finish and good looks, recommendations from retailers were found be
key determinants of a consumer durable brand in rural India. Lets throw some light on agro inputs also
like pesticides, fertilizers, manure, seeds, tractors, harvesters, pumps and threshers etc. In this regards
marketers are following market specialization strategy.HYV seeds are also becoming popular among the
farmers.

Promotion of brands in rural markets requires the special measures. Due to the social and backward
condition the personal selling efforts have a challenging role to play in this regard. The word of mouth is
an important message carrier in rural areas. Infect the opinion leaders are the most influencing part of
promotion strategy of rural promotion efforts. The experience of agricultural input industry can act as a
guideline for the marketing efforts of consumer durable and non-durable companies. Relevance of Mass
Media is also a very important factor.

The Indian established Industries have the advantages, which MNC don't enjoy in this regard. The strong
Indian brands have strong brand equity, consumer demand-pull and efficient and dedicated dealer
network which have been created over a period of time. The rural market has a grip of strong country
shops, which affect the sale of various products in rural market. The companies are trying to trigger
growth in rural areas. They are identifying the fact that rural people are now in the better position with
disposable income. The low rate finance availability has also increased the affordability of purchasing the
costly products by the rural people.

Alternate Distribution Channels - Features:

• Large number of small markets

• Dispersed population and trade
• Poor road connectivity
• Multiple tiers
• higher costs
• Poor availability of suitable dealers
• Low density of shops per village, high variation in their concentration
• Inadequate bank and credit facilities for rural retailers
• poor viability of retail outlets
• Poor storage systems
• Highly credit-driven market, low investment
• capacity of retailers
• Poor visibility and display of product
• Poor communication of offers and schemes
• poor reach of media