r products like colour TVs, washing machines, refrigerators and air conditioners is growing annually at between 7 per cent and 10 per cent.
The rural market is zooming ahead at around 25 per cent annually. 'The rural market is growing faster than urban India now,' says Venugopal Dhoot, chairman of the Rs 989 -crore(Rs billion) Videocon Appliances. 'The urban market is a replacement and up gradation market today,' adds Samsung's director, marketing, Ravinder Zutshi.
Reasons for improvement of business in rural area
*Socio-economic changes (lifestyle, habits and tastes, economic status) *Literacy level (25% before independence - more than 65% in 2001) *Infrastructure facilities (roads, electricity,
Media)
*Increase in income
*Increase in expectations
MART, the specialist rural marketing and rural development consultancy has found that 53 per cent of FMCG sales lie in the rural areas, as do 59 per cent of consumer durable sales, said its head Pradeep Kashyap at the seminar. Of two million BSNL mobile connections, 50 per cent went to small towns and villages, of 20 million Rediffmail subscriptions, 60 per cent came from small towns, so did half the transactions on Rediff's shopping site.
Special features of rural market
Unlike urban markets, rural markets are difficult to predict and possess special characteristics. The featured population is predominantly illiterate, have low income, characterized by irregular income, lack of monthly income and flow of income fluctuating with the monsoon winds.
Rural markets face the critical issues of Distribution, Understanding the rural consumer, Communication and Poor infrastructure. The marketer has to strengthen the distribution and pricing strategies. The rural consumer expects value for money and owing to has unsteady and meager status of weekly income; increasing the household income and improving distribution are the viable strategies that have to be adapted to tap the immense potential of the market.
Media reach is a strong reason for the penetration of goods like cosmetics, mobile phones, etc., which are only used by the urban people. Increasing awareness and knowledge on different products and brands accelerate the demand. The rural audience are however critical of glamorous ads on TV, and depend on the opinion leaders who introduce the product by using it and recommending it.
Opinion leaders play a key role in popularizing products and influence in rural market. Nowadays educated youth of rural also influences the rural consumers. Rural consumers are influenced by the life style they watch on television sets. Their less exposure to outside world makes them innocent and fascinated to novelties. The reach of mass television media, especially television has influenced the buying behaviour greatly.
Creating brands for rural India
Rural markets are delicately powerful. Certain adaptations are required to cater to the rural masses; they have unique expectation and warrant changes in all four parameters of product, price, promotion and distribution.
A lot is already emphasized on adapting the product and price in terms of packaging, flavouring, etc and in sachets, priced to suit the economic status of the rural India in sizes like Rs.5 packs and Re.1 packs that are perceived to be of value for money. This is a typic
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