Page 80 - DMGT509_RURAL MARKETING

Unit 4: Rural Consumer Behaviour

useless. A top heroine endorsing washing powder may not have any impact as people know that Notes
she does not wash her clothes at all. When she endorses a beauty cream people believe her.
Sender or source’s credibility is important as it defines how or how much the receiver is going
to believe the communication. “Let us take it with a pinch of salt can be the response of a
consumer.” Such negative impressions come with unreliable senders of information. Use of
endorsers becomes necessary in such cases. Source or sender has its own need for sending the
message. How right is that need? For example, many firms resort to having yearly sale of their
products. People want to know if it is a genuine sale, and if yes, then why the firm is selling good
products at heavily discounted prices? Is it that they have odd sizes of unsold products, a heavy
inventory as their export order got cancelled, or, is it that the discounted prices are in fact the
same as the original? The firm increased the prices first and then declared the sale. Increase of
prices was of 20% and discount offered is 17%. Such types of sales lose their impact in no time
and bring bad name to the sale and to the seller.

Personal involvement is the key factor that influences the interest the customer is going to have
in understanding and correctly interpreting the message. Sachin Tendulkar will like to go
through the exact specifications of the cricket bat, while a non-playing cricket TV commentator
may just take no notice of the bat.
Moods of persons at the time they are receiving the message govern how well they will receive
and accept the message. Watching a tragic sob story movie on TV would make people less
willing to accept the positive aspects of a product. It calls for proper selection of media; sitcoms,
news bulletins, and movie-based programmes are viewed generally on TV with a happy frame
of mind.

In order to monitor customer response to a message, its media pre-testing is done in which the
advertisement is shown to a select group of the market segment to gauge their reaction and get
their feedback. In case of poor response, corrections in message and media can be made.
After the advertisement has been released, post testing is done to find out how effectively the
advertisement has met its objectives.

Persuasion Strategy

For proper impact of the message, selection of the market segment to be catered to; creativity in
the advertisement and objectives associated with the communication are key elements of strategy.
Some examples are given below:

1. Housewife, family income 20,000 pm, urbanite, graduate would be reading, Femina,
Cosmopolitan, Star Dust magazines, watching afternoon soap operas like, Saans, Santa
Barbara, Dynasty.
2. College student’s family income 40,000 pm would be reading sports, motorcycle and car
magazines, listening to FM Radio.

3. Achiever’s family income 80,000 pm, would be reading Business magazines like Business
India, Business Today, Financial national and international newspapers and watching
news on Star TV.
4. Senior citizen’s family income 20,000 pm would be reading Health and investment
magazines, watching travel related TV programmes for enjoying vicarious adventure and
thrills.
5. Computer addicts would be surfing the Internet and the best media for communicating to
them about software updates would be the web.

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