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Rural Marketing




                    Notes          11.  Distribution and promotional channels also need to be different for rural markets.
                                   12.  Coca-Cola’s Parivartan program has trained more than 9,000 retailers to display and stock
                                       products.

                                   13.  Around 87 per cent of the total sales of consumer durable items come from rural and semi-
                                       urban markets.
                                   14.  ASSOCHAM suggests that for deeper penetration in the Urban markets.

                                   15.  Bysani also feels product customisation can further help to attract rural consumers.


                                       

                                     Case Study  UK Rural Markets – Hampshire


                                     Market Towns Project
                                     For centuries, Hampshire’s market towns have been the focus of social and commercial
                                     activity for the county’s many rural areas. Since the war, however, this function has been
                                     under constant pressure from changes in the social, agricultural and industrial fabric of
                                     the county, and today many small towns are struggling to survive and keep their identities.
                                     The Rural White Paper in 2000 identified the need to take action to assist small rural towns
                                     in  retaining and  growing their  function as  rural  service  centres  or  ‘hubs’,  and  the
                                     Countryside Agency introduced the Market  Towns Initiative  in 2001, designed to  be
                                     accessible to individuals and partnerships through access to a web-based ‘toolkit’, handbook
                                     and resource documents.
                                     The Economic Development Office at Hampshire County Council recognised the need to
                                     join the Initiative in 2001, and the Market Towns Project began.
                                     The Hampshire Market Towns  Project is  led by  the Economic  Development Office  at
                                     Hampshire County Council,  in partnership with the South-East England Development
                                     Agency (SEEDA) and with the South-East Rural Towns Partnership (SERTP). A full time
                                     Market Towns Co-ordinator, Anne Harrison, part-funded by SEEDA, works with small
                                     rural towns, and promotes the Market Town Healthcheck (toolkit) throughout the county,
                                     helping to deliver the new SEEDA Small Rural Towns funding programme and to create
                                     and develop networks of interested groups.
                                     The total programme is worth around £7 million over a 7-year period from 2004-2011, and
                                     the EDO works with the Hampshire Economic Partnership (HEP)’ Rural Economy Task
                                     Force and the Hampshire Market Town Partnership, HMTP, to deliver around £1.2 million
                                     of this funding to Hampshire to benefit some of its small rural towns, of which 32 are
                                     potentially able to apply for project funding. Delivery schedules are submitted regularly
                                     to SEEDA, with £530K already committed to Hampshire projects, and work is ongoing in
                                     New Milton, Alton and Whitehill and Bordon.
                                     The Hampshire Market Town Manager is also responsible for the supervision of  two
                                     staffers, in New Milton, Emsworth, Lee-on-the-Solent, and Hayling Island. These officers
                                     are part funded by SEEDA, with HCC and the relevant District and Town Councils also
                                     providing cash or in-kind support for these posts.
                                     Their roles vary from place to place, from co-ordinating town Healthchecks, identifying
                                     potential funding opportunities and helping develop a long-term Vision/Action Plan, to

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