Page 97 - DMGT509_RURAL MARKETING

Rural Marketing

Notes
Figure 5.1: Geographical Variations in Market Behaviour of LML Scooters

Notes In running contracts, the DGS&D (Director General of Supply and Disposals) floats
the tender and on receipt of offers negotiates with firms for a rate and quantity for the
product along with other terms of business for a period of time and the offices of the
government can then place direct orders on the vendor on those prices and terms. For this
purpose the government office has to register itself with the DGS&D as a Direct Demanding
Office.

5.4 Occupation and Consumption Pattern

The perception that the rural consumer is either a farmer or an agricultural labourer restricts
marketing effectiveness. In fact, there are other groups of consumers with different needs and
behaviour and having significant purchase volumes. Indian Readership Survey (IRS), ’98 (see
Table 5.1) has chosen the occupation of the chief wage earner as a basis to define the rural
consumer. Occupation profiles of owners of three popular consumer durables indicate that the
nonagricultural occupation groups of shopkeepers or traders and those employed in service
(government administration jobs, banks, teachers, other professionals, etc.) are the high
consumption segment. Television owners in the service class constitute 43 per cent, which
means one in two persons owns a television set. In the case of the other non-agricultural group,
the shopkeepers and traders, one in three owns a television.
Land-owning farmers comprise a mere one-third of rural households (their estimated number
being 43.2 million households) and own one-third of the stock of these durables. Shopkeepers
and the service occupation, on the other hand, together account for just 21 per cent of the rural
households (their estimated number is 26.8 million households), but between them own a
disproportionately higher number (between 45 and 60 per cent) of televisions, two-wheelers
and refrigerators. To put this group in perspective, they are 27 million households in number,
which is more than half of all urban households (see Table 5.1).

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