India is a land of surprises and the more you explore it, the more you get amazed with it!
Well, the clich mentioned here is not just a clich for me but a hard reality of the life. Being a marketing executive, I have been traveling in the remote rural areas of our country, and I am not hesitated to accept that every tour reveals new secrets of this huge market.
Buyers in the rural market are equally curious, inquisitive and aware of their requirements. They know what products are good and what are mediocre.Not only buyers, the markets of our rural India are very different from what we see in the cities and towns. You dont see huge malls and posh showrooms; you dont find big grocery shops and shopping complexes.
What you get is a sandy street market there. Usually it is a weekly market at a fixed place in the village. I call it the super bazar of a village because it really resembles a lot with a huge departmental store in a big city. The only difference is it is spread horizontally and not vertically.
My recent amazing experience
I love wandering these sandy weekly markets where there is a lot of charm and liveliness. It is a colorful world where everything gets sold at reasonable prices.Recently, during my market visit in a rural area, I was looking at the shops and goods getting sold in different shops.
A peculiar thing dragged my attention. Though the shops were flooded with a lot of variety of products, I saw only one brand of toothpaste and biscuits.In the whole market, only Colgate toothpaste and Parle G biscuits were sold.While inquiring about it, I got something interesting.
Shopkeepers in the sandy markets get the stuff from local distributors. In this particular village, the distributor was very prompt and customer-centric.
He supplied piles of toothpaste and biscuits to all the shopkeepers and made it available at competitive prices.He was considerate and flexible. Hence, shopkeepers were not interested in any other brand!
The takeaway
For me, it was a great learning. It proves that above all marketing strategies and lucrative product promotion gimmicks, what really matters to the retailer is the availability of the product and convenience.
If we manage product supplies well and become considerate towards the hardships of the retailers, then nothing can beat a product from becoming the market leader.