Page 99 - DMGT509_RURAL MARKETING

Rural Marketing

Notes Social Influence: The Role of Relevant Others in Purchase and Use Behaviour

The relevant others include family members, members of the social groups and retailers. The
influencers vary according to the type of product purchased. Youth and children influence
purchases in rural areas. Youth in the age group of 15 to 25 years influence purchase in rural
areas. Children in the age group between 8 and 15 years also influence most purchases. This is
largely because children tend to retain messages and often playback these messages to others.
Also, children are sent by their mothers to purchase something without specifying a brand.
They ask for products they have seen or heard on radio or TV (Khatri, 2002).
The influence of children on choice is mostly for personal care products. For other products, the
rural consumer gets information from multiple sources, including children, but opinion leaders
have a substantial influence on the decision-making process of a rural consumer. The influencing
members in the community include the village elders as also the educated youth of the village
(Rajan, 2005).
Retailers also influence consumers in rural markets. An important reason for this is the credit
that the retailer extends to many of his customers. This is true for FMCG purchases where the
sarpanch and other senior leaders have little or no influence (Khatri, 2002).

Cultural and Social Practices and Consumer Behaviour

The cultural and social practices have a major influence on the behaviour of the rural consumer.
The widely dispersed villages and limited communication helped preserve traditions in the
rural markets. Increasing access to urban areas and information dissemination possibly reduces
the influence of traditions.
Till such time that cultural influences persist the marketer has to:
 Develop products that suit the cultural practices of the rural consumer.
 Identify a suitable target audience and design media and message that reflect the social
behaviour.
 Design the distribution to reach the places or outlets from where the consumer has been
traditionally making his purchase.
The influence of culture reveals itself in consumer preferences for product features, product size,
shape and colour. For instance, the preference for large audio equipments is a reflection of this
influence. The information source is also influenced by social practices. Since villages have
common washing areas, purchases like toilet soap and toothpaste, which are usually private in
an urban household, are known to all. It provides immense status to brush your teeth with a
toothpaste or use a detergent to wash clothes (Joshi, 1991).

In typical farming communities, it is the men who do the purchasing—women are not often
allowed to step outside the home. Since men usually spend most of their days working in the
field, they find it convenient to do their shopping for nondurables like soaps and detergents and
commodities like edible oils and sugar once a week at the nearest haat. Items like clothing and
durables are usually purchased on an annual basis at a mela (Ghosh, 1994). Melas are a prominent
feature of Indian rural life, held periodically or annually to commemorate important events or
to honour a deity. Farmers, flush with funds after harvest, frequent melas with their families.
Women, who are ordinarily restricted from moving out of the village, have universal social
sanction to visit the mela.

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