Rural marketing in India is not everyone’s cup of tea, the urban and rural disconnect often hampers the brand’s ability to expand their consumer base. One of the biggest challenges that brand managers face is the perception that they have of rural India and the ground reality of it. Therefore, it is vital to the growth of the brand that the rural marketing strategy should be penned down based on experience of rural marketing agencies in India and not myths.
Where does the target audience go to buy?
The aforementioned is a question that can tell you everything you need to know about brand activation in rural areas and small towns. Where your potential customers go looking for products is exactly where you should be present to sell the products.
However, copy pasting this strategy to suit the requirements of the hinterlands is not a smart move, though solutions can be devised by applying the same argument- “Sell where people come to buy.”
The understanding of target audience is as important as their identification, their lifestyle should be understood using ethnography and not hearsay. For someone who has always worked in a corner office, it might be a hard pill to digest that people do not all have mobile phones, yet alone smartphones. Similarly, the ghost of distribution always haunts supply in rural markets, which renders demand futile.A road bump in brand activation and rural marketing that often delays the growth of the brand and its expansion in rural markets, the stories of whose potential are widespread.
The equivalence equation
While the emphasis is always on marketing, distribution is overlooked. This leaves a gap which can be fulfilled through a thought out rural marketing strategy that looks beyond the first step and stretches to distribution. The clues to the solution are in the consumer ‘sbehavior.
Going back to our initial teaching-“Sell where people come to buy, let us find a platform that provides the brand a perfect activation ground as well as convenient product distribution market.
Feeder Towns
Towns nearby rural areas that are comparatively bigger in size and are well connected through transport; which makes them resourceful to their neighbors. They might not essentially be independent but are known to have a strong network to enable supply chain and ensure unhinged distribution of products. These are small towns that feed the markets in rural areas and villages around them. May it be consumer durables, lifestyle or automobile; rural audiences rely on feeder towns. They look up to these markets to fulfil their daily needs and to update their stock of consumer durables, lifestyle products and automobile needs. Feeder towns also act as a gateway to better health and education facilities.
How feeder towns can do wonders for rural marketers?
People look up to these markets with the intention of finding products to suit their needs, which makes them the perfect launch pads for brands. Consumers which are otherwise difficult to reach are this way coming in search of new products that can effectively fit into their list of requirements.
Therefore, feeder towns can potentially play a vital role in a brand marketer’s plans and help them achieve their rural dream without major hassles, difficulties and huge investments.
