As we all know that rural marketing has proven to be an essential part of the marketing mix. The spending capacity and habits of the rural people has increased tremendously in the past few years. Vritti-i-Media has taken an initiative to enter into rural markets and market brands in the places best suitable to reach maximum people, not to forget about the Pandharpur Yatra and Kumbh Mela in Maharashtra as well.
Best Media Info had interviewed the Director of Vritti-i-Media Mr. Rajesh Radhakrishna about the strategies involved in rural advertising in India, how has rural marketing evolved in the past years in India, about the particular target audience and so on. Let’s have a look at it below.
Question No. 1- When it comes to rural marketing, is there any particular strategy that works out very well in India?
Mr. Rajesh answers this by sharing his views about building local relations. Localisation is basically taking into consideration the people living in a particular region, the psychological and basic behaviour patterns. Identifying the pockets with similar patterns as well as the common thread in the psychological behaviour makes it much easier to target the right people at the right time.
Question No. 2 – How has rural marketing in India evolved over the years?
Mr. Rajesh has wisely said about the increasing way of connecting between the rural areas and urban areas. It is now possible to reach out to people and engage with them in a more effective manner with a localised model using digital platforms. Moreover, many products and services are available in most of the parts of the rural areas including remote localities. Marketing strategies have led to more awareness and exposure to products earlier found just in urban areas.
Question No. 3 – How has the attitude of brands and advertisers evolved as far as incorporating rural marketing into their business strategy plans is concerned?
Mr. Rajesh portrays facts of how the attitude of marketers has changed from ‘what rural?’ to ‘why rural?’ and now ‘how rural?’ for marketing and advertising in rural India.
There are certain companies that have devised well-focussed marketing plans for the rural area. Communication wise, there is surely a need for more development. People have to think in a local way rather than having a global approach. Pocket wise development of market is also a vital factor to be considered.
Question No. 4 – As far as the urban markets are concerned, the target audience is quite well-defined and marketers know whom they are addressing, but when it comes to rural markets, the TG is very layered and is vastly different even if they fall within the same economic strata. What challenges does this pose while devising communication strategies?
Mr. Rajesh tells about the challenges that he faced and his success over those challenges. The ‘Audio wala bus station’ by Vritti-i-Media is a direction plus localisation. Large companies such as Hindustan Unilever with an established network can explore a rural market indepth for various activation initiatives. Other brands have to think several times before undertaking any activation in rural markets. Vritti i-Media have made use of bus stands at the taluka and district levels to reach out to the masses through our bus stand announcement advertising initiative that reaches many local people in their local language helping in more awareness. If you are able to deliver your messages in the local language for a certain product made for the local market, you hit a big number. There are other congregation hubs as well, such as the Pandharpur Yatra, where you can definitely carry out activation drives. All these approaches are good, but cost is an issue, frequency is an issue. Building a consistent model for communication is still a challenge.
In this Interview we get to highlight ourselves with the knowledge and need to rural marketing and its benefits in the near future.
