'Offer products to suit rural markets'

By Our Special Correspondent

CHENNAI, OCT. 5. Unanimity on the vast scope that the rural markets offer to industrial products and divergence in approach to realising this potential characterised discussion by professionals and experts here today.

Participating in a seminar on ``rural marketing for competitive advantage in globalised India,'' organised by the Asian Media Information and Communication Centre (AMIC-India) in association with Anuragh Madison Advertising, the professionals agreed that the Indian rural market was undergoing rapid changes in the wake of globalisation including by way of aspirations, dent on patriarchy and social values in the younger generation.

But different perspectives emerged from the presentations - one emphasising the potential of the rural market being subject to realisation of socio-economic objectives (like women's literacy, effective governance, connectivity, infrastructure development etc whose instruments could mainly be governments), and the other focussing on the rural market as it existed sharing certain characteristics with the urban market and at the same time being inevitably vulnerable to the income vagaries of agricultural sector.

The keynote address, delivered by Mr. D. Shivakumar, Business Head-Hair, Personal Products Division, Hindustan Lever Ltd. (HLL), called for adoption of products to suit rural needs, like the hugely successful sachet shampoo that was a boon to rural workers earning daily wages. The rural priority in outlays, he said, could also be non-traditional, as shown by fishermen of Kerala who preferred to get cellphones rather than scooters or fridges so that they could obtain market information.

Addressing the question as to what the private sector could do to develop the rural market, Mr. Shivakumar cited the example of HLL making use of lakhs of self-help groups (SHGs) of women to impart brand consciousness, training and entrepreneurship.

Mr. Francis Xavier (MD, Francis Kanoi Marketing) decried the tendency to treat the rural market as being secondary to and an extension of the urban market. The increasingly educated rural youth, even when unemployed, had aspirations similar to those of the urbanites and played a role in purchase decisions in the family. The rural market would get attention if only companies entrusted ``district marketing'' (as distinct from city marketing) to a separate executive as also a distinct distributor network.

Mr. Xavier emphasised that rural marketing could be called so only when companies conceived products keeping the rural market in view and adopted product development and pricing strategies to suit the needs of the real-existing rural economy, instead of adopting urban-oriented products and communication strategies to rural segments.

Mr. Sankara Pillai, General Manager, ORG-MARG, cited survey results to show that though the rural-urban divide continued to exist, the gap was becoming narrow in ``necessity products''. Within the rural market, large differences existed between States and within the same States.

Mr. N. Murali, Joint Managing Director, The Hindu, who inaugurated the seminar, said manufacturers could neglect the rural market only at their peril, with increasing competition and pressure on margins in the traditional urban markets.

Companies should understand the major shifts in habits of the rural populace and challenges in sustaining brand awareness in the rural markets, he added.

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