Will the Global Brands transform the Rural India from “Classicone” – a

Traditional Market into “Globalone” – a Global Market?

During the Corporate phase of my professional career in rural markets, I

learnt clearly that there exist “Two India”, “Factual India (Rural) and Virtual
India (Urban)”

Factual India was the stretch of landscape where I sold Mosquito Mats, Insect
Repellants, Compact Fluorescent Lamps, Tube-Lights, Night Lamps and even
Torch Bulbs. It was a huge and varied chunk of mesh land. It occupies bulk of
the landmass and houses of around 745 million people as of now! It is
populous, multi-cultural and multi-faceted. India was born here.

But I came from Virtual India where I was shaped into a being capable of
commercial, social and cultural existence. The mass of land I came from was
an urban island of sorts. A myth of peculiarity! This Virtual India comprises
only a fourth of the whole Indian population. There sure was a Scale at play!
While the fortune of the politician and the bureaucrat that wheeled the nation
in many ways was by and large governed by Factual India, Government
policy do not necessarily tread the very same path as the liberalisation of
Trade actually steered virtual India, Which started to influence the way
Factual India was to be driven as well. Factual India is today run by virtual
India. And in virtual India, the businesses that determine the soap that needs
to be placed in the Toilet and the Bulb in the bed-room and the cooking gas
in the kitchen drove steadily in to Factual India. The major part of the
population base is controlled in many ways as desired by the supremacy of
the urban man in urban India as all marketing men and their kin in
advertising, market research and branding are mostly urban souls. Many in
disguise as well!

Factual India, known as Rural India is fast morphing to the needs, wants
desires and aspirations discovered by the urban man. Television as a medium
has created awareness, a raging interest in brands and as a result even
globalisation started creeping in to the Rural India. Western cultural influence
in India is clearly notable because Indians generally value the maintenance of
uniquely Indian identities. Rural Indian culture is what Samuel Huntington of
Harvard describes as a “strong” culture, meaning, in part, that nationalistic
Rural Indian culture is able to withstand any invasion of outside cultural ideas
and products without losing its own internal identities. Indian resistance to
globalization, for example, has been strongest in regard to foreign goods and
services that most strongly symbolize and reinforce cultural values and
personal identities. Whereas Western management techniques and business
practices were quickly integrated into traditional lifestyles in the growing
Indian Consumer industry, most Indians continue to eat indigenous foods,
watch local movies and TV, and wear traditional clothing. Western companies
in the vast Indian consumer market, therefore, have faced difficulty in
successfully marketing their Brand.

The Dominion of Mass Communication

Commenting on the impact of the VCD boom in rural India, village politician
Chandraprakash Dwivedi said, "Now village girls want to dress like Rani
Mukherjee in Bunty aur Babli -- this within four weeks of the release of the
film. In Khandala, men want a hairstyle like Salman as in movie Tere Naam.
Bindis, ear-rings, “madhuri” blouses, and bangles covering their fore arm
define the concept of beauty for girls in small towns --influenced by the looks
of the saas-bahus in the highly captivating TV serials beaming into their brick
rooms and hutments on national and various satellite channels.

According to a recent WHO report, the commercial film heroes shown

smoking on screen is a major promotion of the smoking habit -- instigating
the government to ban smoking on screen. Clearly, the entertainment
industry of masalas that include films and serials has an appealing impact on
the consumer behaviour in the Indian society. The sporting game like Cricket
also influences the consumer tastes

Is the impact of advertising so powerful?

The Film heroes and heroines change every decade -- with the exception of
personalities like Amitabh Bachchan, Rahul Dravid-- but brands like Surf,
Dairy Milk, Asian Paints along with Palmolive, Britannia, Kissan and many
more have been part of our lives for decades and continue to be the gold
standard in their respective categories. A Consultant’s report states that the
Hindi film industry produces about 200 films every year and generates
revenues of about Rs 2,000 crores (Rs 20 billion). The estimates on
Advertising spends on TV is around Rs 5,000 crores (Rs 50 billion) --and
overall more than a thousand films are produced and aired every year. Films
are seen once or twice while ad films are seen over and over. The advertising
for many of these iconic brands seem to drive social change in behaviour and
values as strongly as some of the heroes and heroines do through their
portrayals in films and serials. The social and cultural impact of advertising
practiced by Global Giants tends to be limited with occasional introduction of
new lingo -- a Dil Maange More or a Chal Meri Luna. Whenever there is a
focus and opportunity in Factual or Rural India transformation the advertising
tends to be "a trailing indicator of popular culture". The Urban (Virtual India)
and the Global players at the Rural (Factual India) are determined to educate
the customer on Consumer’s lives rather than Consumption mostly through
mass media advertising. The Mass media advertising focus has shifted from
salesmanship to influencing change in the static but volume market.

Advertising, at least in India, has gradually moved away from being about
selling dreams to selling reality. And this in its own way has slowly but surely
taken away the glamour and aspirational values that brands are supposed to
fulfill in consumers' life. And today for many brands that are already well-
known, actual sales and conversions take place at the market place -- at the
time of purchase -- rather than at the moment when the prospect sees the ad
on the side walls or in the newspaper. But the Advertising industry has still
not come to terms with this reality at the rural market place and is so
hesitant to redefine the purpose of mass media advertising. After all, it's
much easier for marketing men to create an ad and air it than mount a
massive bazaar programme to force the Rural Mass for a final conversion at
the last mile.

Interestingly, films and serials tend to connect with viewers by selling "real
emotions, in unreal, fantasy worlds" with which the best mass media
advertising is concurrently pitching to sell "real emotions in a real world" –
thriving a change in the rural minds to experience the best of the products
than with the Brands. The transformation in the rural Indian market is taking
its shape through introduction of innovative products that effectively
influences social change more than the messages beamed out to popularize
the Brand. Products rather than brands are driving change in the Rural
Market! All of these tactics should be based on consumer research, a magic
wand which directs the Brands and their advertising. The consumer is a rear
view mirror and often forces much of the advertising to get into her own real
world. John Shaw, regional planning director, Asia Pacific, Ogilvy and Mather,
postulates that the Consumers in the Rural Market are laggards who do not
push the scale in a typical product life cycle curve. Therefore the Advertisers
and advertising agencies need to get sensitive to Malcolm Gladwell's theory
of "tipping point" - trends (of social behaviour or product adoption) are set
out by a group of early adopters. The challenge to any Global marketer in
Factual or Rural India is to identify this group and get it to adopt the product.
Similarly, it is this group brand advertising that must be aimed at to influence
and so must be researched in!

So how should advertising bring about change?

It is a great tribute to the Indian advertising film makers that they are able to
do the job they currently do within the constraints they operate in.
Advertisers and advertising agencies must position Global iconic brands as
the power to influence and add value to society at large when their target
group is the Rural Mass. As already said, this will become easier if advertisers
and agencies recognise the changed role of mass media advertising in
impacting consumers -- from hard-selling to actually quietly influencing and
initiating social change. Asian Paints' recent foray and Lifebouy's venture into
"clean environment" are movements in that direction Brands should be seen
as beacons that drive society and culture change.

In short the Global Brand Icons should see its Target Group as "people" to be
influenced rather than "consumers" they sell to. That will make these high
value Urban and Global brands and advertising more powerful and have
greater influence on the Rural India’s Climate and Culture.