The 4As of Rural

Marketing
For rural market 4Ps alone are not
sufficient. The 4As also has to be
considered and keep in mind while
formulating the plan to enter the
rural market because these are also
critically important.

1. Availability
The first challenge in rural marketing is to ensure availability of the product or
service. Indias
7, 00,000 villages are spread over 3.2 million sq km; 700 million Indians may live
in rural areas, finding them is not easy. They are highly dispersed.
Given the poor infrastructure, it is a greater challenge to regularly reach products
to the far-flung villages. Marketer should plan accordingly and strive to reach
these markets on a regular basis. Marketers must trade off the distribution cost
with incremental market penetration.
India's largest MNC, Hindustan Lever has built a strong distribution system
which helps its brands reach the interiors of the rural market.
Coca-Cola, which considers rural India as a future growth driver, has evolved a
hub and spoke distribution model to reach the villages. To ensure full loads, the
company depot supplies, twice a week, large distributors which act as hubs.
These distributors appoint and supply, once a week, smaller distributors in
adjoining areas.
LG Electronics has set up 45 area offices and 59 rural/remote area offices to
cater to these potential markets.

2. Affordability
The second major challenge is to ensure affordability of the product or
service. With low disposable incomes, products need to be affordable to the
rural consumer, most of who are on daily wages. A part of it has been
mentioned in product (first P).
A solution to this has been introduction of unit packs by some companies.
Most of the shampoos are available in smaller packs.
Fair and lovely was launched in a smaller pack.
Godrej recently introduced three brands of Cinthol, Fair Glow and Godrej in
50- gm packs.
Hindustan Lever has launched a variant of its largest selling soap brand,
Lifebuoy.
Coca-Cola has addressed the affordability issue by introducing the smaller
bottle priced at Rs 5. The initiative has paid off: Eighty per cent of new
drinkers now come from the rural markets.
Some product also can be made affordable by making available the loan
facility by having alliance with banks.

3.Acceptability
The next challenge is to gain acceptability for the product or
service. Therefore, there is a need to offer products that suit
the rural market.
LG Electronics have developed a customized TV for the rural
market named Sampoorna. It was a runway hit selling 100,000
sets in the very first year.
Coca-Cola provided low-cost ice boxes in the rural areas due
to the lack of electricity and refrigerators. It also provided a tin
box for new outlets and thermocol box for seasonal outlets.
HDFC Standard LIFE topped private insurers by selling
policies in rural sector. The company tied up with nongovernmental organizations and offered reasonably-priced
policies in the nature of group insurance covers.

4. Awareness
Building awareness is another challenge in rural marketing. A large part of rural India is
inaccessible to conventional advertising media. The media penetration in rural areas is only
about 57%.It has been seen that, two out of five Indians are unreached by any media - TV,
Press, Radio and Cinema put together. Haats, mandis and melas are opportunities. Family is
the key unit of identity for both the urban and rural consumer. However, the rural consumer
expressions differ from his urban counterpart. For a rural consumer, outing is confined to
local fairs and festivals and TV viewing is confined to the state-owned Doordarshan.
Consumption of branded products is treated as a special treat or indulgence. Haats, mandis
and melas are the place of opportunities to promote awareness about the product.

Hindustan Lever has its own company-organized media. These are promotional events
organized by stockiest.
Godrej Consumer Products, which is trying to push its soap brands into the interior areas,
uses radio to reach the local people in their language.
Coca-Cola uses a combination of TV, cinema and radio to reach the rural households. It has
also used banners, posters and tapped all the local forms of entertainment. Since price is a
key issue in the rural areas, Coca-Cola advertising stressed its `magical' price point of Rs 5
per bottle in all media.
LG Electronics uses vans and road shows to reach rural customers. The company uses local
language advertising.
Philips India uses wall writing and radio advertising to drive its growth in rural areas.

Characteristics of Rural Marketing

Mostly, major part of rural market holds a very divergent
pattern of reacting to marketing. So, marketer needs to
design a specific marketing mix for the rural segments. For
rural market, a marketing manager has three options one
is, to design marketing programme common for all types of
customers; the second is, to design marketing programme
purely for rural customers; and the third is, to design
marketing programme for customers residing in rural but
reacting as if they were global.
Excepts some villagers of some progressive states like
Maharashtra, Gujarat, Haryana, etc., most rural customers
are poor, backward, illiterate, and orthodox. They vary
significantly in terms of preference and habits. They are to be
treated in different patterns.

 1. More Prospective:
With the initiation of various rural development programmes, there has been an
upsurge of employment opportunities for the rural poor. One of the biggest cause
behind the steady growth of rural market is that it is not exploited and also yet to
be explored.
2. Size:
The rural market in India is vast and scattered, and offers a plethora of
opportunities in comparison to the urban sector. It covers the maximum
population and regions, and thereby, the maximum number of consumers. Rural
market is account for about 74% of total Indian population.

3. Nature:
The social status of the rural regions is precarious (uncertain) as the income level
and literacy is extremely low along with the range of traditional values and
superstitious beliefs that have always been a major impediment (obstacle) in the
progression of this sector.

 4. Response to Products:
Product-related features of rural segment are:
i. Rural markets (buyers) believe in product utility rather than status and prestige.
However, they like novel products with distinctive features.
ii. Most village customers consider tastes rather than usefulness in long run.
iii. They like simple and long-life products. They are interested in immediate
results. Products must offer immediate benefits.
iv. They respond to those products that suit their religious faith, and social norms
and customs.
v. They ask for such products which can assists in their traditional occupations and
life style.
vi. They have minimum urge for individuality. They prefer family-used products
than personal- used products.
vii. They strongly prefer such products that can change and improve their life-style.
viii. They are less concerned with product services associated with products like
after-sales services, guarantee and warrantee, home delivery, and other similar
services. Branding, packaging, and labeling have less influence compared to urban
segments.

 5. Response to Price:
Price-related features of rural segments include:
i. Rural customers are price-sensitive and highly influenced
by level of pricing. Price is the strongest factor that affects
their buying decision.
ii. They buy those products which are low in price and
medium in quality.
iii. They are easily attracted by price discounts and
rebates.
iv. They prefer credit facility. They normally have strong
desire to postpone payment for certain period.
v. Some middle class rural customers are attracted by
installment and loan facility.

 6. Response to Promotion:
Promotion-related features of rural segment include:
i. Rural customers are highly attracted by local and regional promotional
efforts.
ii. Their reference groups consist of educated and non-educated family
members and relatives living in urban areas and foreign countries as well.
iii. Personal selling seems more influential to convince rural mass.
iv. They are attracted by such sales promotional tools or articles which are
useful in their routine life such as knife, gas lighter, rings, key-chains, caps,
photos of local actors, calendars and cards with religious impression, etc.
v. They have a strong faith on local religious and spiritual leaders. Such
leaders are among the most influential reference groups.
vi. Publicity efforts related to local vocational and agricultural activities can
impress them.
vii. They can be appealed by visual or pictorial advertisements published in
local and regional languages.

 7. Predictability:
Unlike urban markets, the rural markets are difficult to predict, and possess special
characteristics. The featured population is predominantly illiterate, have low and
irregular income, lack of monthly income, and flow of income fluctuating with the
monsoon winds. They dont have a stable pattern of reacting due to income
factors.
8. Role of Government:
Demand of products depends on availability of basic facilities like electricity,
transportation, schools, hospitals, etc. The steps taken by the Government of India
to initiate proper irrigation, infrastructural developments, prevention of flood,
grants for fertilizers, and various schemes to cut down the poverty line have
improved the condition of the rural masses. Rural market depends on
governments contribution to the rural sector.
9. Rigidity:
Most rural customers are illiterate, backward, and orthodox. It is very difficult to
convince them to buy the products. They believe in the present and lack ambitions.

 10. High Level of Heterogeneity:

We find different types of buyers in rural areas. Some are simple,
while some are sophisticated; some are extreme rich, while some
are extreme poor; some are highly educated, while some are
complete illiterate; some are dynamic and modern, while some
are very rigid and orthodox; some believe in quality and status,
while some believe in availability and price.
Rural customers are gradually transforming into urban,
metropolitan, and even cosmopolitan customers. Improved
education, rapid means of transportation, access to advance
communication, raised living standards, craze to follow modern
(even ultramodern) life pattern, and many similar factors have
drastically changed rural consumer behaviour. The gap between
urban and rural segments tends to be notably narrow. Sometimes,
rural and urban customers exhibit no difference at all.

 11. Response to Promotion:

Promotion-related features of rural segment include:
i. Rural customers are highly attracted by local and regional
promotional efforts.
ii. Their reference groups consist of educated and noneducated family members and relatives living in urban
areas and foreign countries as well.
iii. Personal selling seems more influential to convince rural
mass.
iv. They are attracted by such sales promotional tools or
articles which are useful in their routine life such as knife,
gas lighter, rings, key-chains, caps, photos of local actors,
calendars and cards with religious impression, etc.

Evaluation of RM
EANING AND DEFINITION OF RURAL MARKETING
The term rural marketing used to be an
umbrella term for the people who dealt with
rural people

in one way or other. This term got a separate
meaning and importance after the
economicrevaluation in Indian after 1990.
Various stages in evolution of rural marketing
are as follows:

Part I (Before 1960)

: ural marketing referred to selling of rural products in rural and
urbanareas and agricultural inputs in rural markets. It was treated
as synonymous to !agriculturalmarketing. "gricultural produces
like food grains and industrial inputs like cotton# oil seeds#

sugarcane etc. occupied the central place of discussion during this
period. The supply$chainactivities of firms supplying agricultural
inputs and of artisans in rural areas received secondaryattention.
The local marketing of products like bamboo baskets# ropes#
window and door frames#and small agricultural tools like ploughs
by sellers like black smiths# carpenters# cobblers# andpot
makers were emphasi%ed in general. This was totally an unorgani
%ed market where all baniasand maha&ans 'local business
people( dominated this market.

 Part II (1960 to 1990)

: In this era# green revolution resulted from scientific farming andtransferred many
of the poor villages into prosperous business centers. "s a result# the demandfor
agricultural inputs went up especially in terms of wheat and paddies. )etter
irrigationfacilities# soil testing# use of high yield variety seeds# fertili%ers#
pesticides and deployment ofmachinery like powder tillers# harvesters# threshers
etc. changed the rural scenario. In thisconte*t# marketing of agricultural inputs
took the importance. Two separate areas of activitieshad emerged$ during this
period !marketing of agricultural inputs and the conventional

+"gricultural ,arketing-. uring this period# the marketing of rural products
receivedconsiderable attention in the general marketing frame work. The formation
of agencies like/hadi andVillage Industries ommission# iri&an ooperative
2ocieties "34 5abrics# I554#/I)64# etc.# and also the special attention
government had paid to promote these productswere responsible for this upsurge.
Village industries flourished and products like handicrafts#handloom te*tiles#
soaps# safety matches# crackers etc. hit the urban market on a large scale from

 Part III (After Mid 1990)

: The products which were not given
attention so far during the twoearlier
phases were that of marketing of
household consumables and durables
to the ruralmarkets due to obvious
reasons. The economic conditions of
the country were as such that the