Page 42 - DMGT509_RURAL MARKETING

Unit 2: Rural Marketing Environment

bound community; religion, culture and even superstition strongly influence their Notes
consumption habits.
Colgate Herbal’s priced at 12 for a 50 gm, 22 for a 100gm and 41 for a 200 gms tube is
an attempt to sell value added toothpaste at the lower end, where the Indian brands are
hoping to shut the multinationals. This is a variant for the boring white Colgate cream,
which is used over the years by the rural people. Also, since the literacy level is low it’s
advertising campaign never gave emphasis to the same old calcium content rather this
time more over giving importance to the latest technology and the natural qualities that
are well defined by the character “Billoo” in the advertisement.

3. Location Pattern of Rural Consumers: Whereas the urban population of India is
concentrated in 3,200 cities and towns, the rural population is scattered over 5,70,000
villages. Statistics show that out of 5, 70,000 villages only 6,300 have a population of more
than 5,000 people each. More than 3 lakh villages or more than 55% of the total number of
villages are in the category of 500 people or less and more than 1.5 lakh villages or 25% of
the total are in the category of 200 people or less. The inference is clear; rural demand is
scattered over a large area, unlike the urban demand, which is highly concentrated.
Take the case of Colgate again. Why is it the leader in the dental care products? It did not
even leave the rural area with minimal of 200 people per village as compared to the
heavily populated area with an average population of 5000 people per village. Now, it has
established itself in such a way that people accept Colgate as the tube with red and white
box. Hence, they haven’t changed the color of the box for say a decade and a half.
4. Literacy Level: It is estimated that rural India has a 23% literacy rate compared with 36% of
the total country. The adult literacy program launched by the government in the rural
areas are bound to enhance the rural literacy rate in the years to come. Two aspects need
to be specially emphasized: (1) In absolute numbers, there are 11.5 crore of literate people
in rural India compared with 12 crore in urban India, and (2) Every year 60 lakh is getting
added to the literate population of Rural India.
Looking at the second point there’s something for the company for the taking. Coco Care
had a brilliant strategy to market itself in different Indian villages, depending on the most
spoken language over there. Say in Maharashtra it had flyer distribution done in Marathi
as a medium of communication.

5. Rural Income: An analysis of the rural income pattern reveals that nearly 60% of the rural
income is from agriculture. Evidently, rural prosperity and the discretionary income with
the rural consumer is directly tied up with agricultural prosperity. Anything that contributes
to agricultural prosperity will directly result in increase income for the rural population
and the consequent increase in their spending capacity. The pre dominance of agriculture in
the income pattern has one more significance i.e., rural demand is more seasonal.
6. Rural Savings: Statistics reveal that in recent years, rural consumers have been drawn into
the saving habit in a big way. The commercial banks and the co-operative have been
marketing the saving habits in rural areas for quite some years. Today, as much as 70% of
the rural house hold are saving a part of their income. The habit is particularly widespread
among salary owners and self employed non-farmers.

Since the major income in the rural areas is from agriculture the demands turns out to be
seasonal. Take the example of Hero Honda Splendor; it had a major promotion done in the
crop-cutting season, as this being that golden season for the farmers.

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