You have a general understanding of your rural target audience’s needs. But, can a general idea help you win over your rural target audience and gain consumer loyalty? Yes, in a few cases, but only for a short time. However, a general concept will not suffice in the long run. So, the Rural Market Research comes in as a big picture to win the rural audience’s loyalty.
In this article, we’ll define rural market research and explain why it’s crucial for your business.
What is Rural Market Research?Â
Through direct customer research, rural market research determines the viability of a new service or product. This type of market research allows a company and rural marketing agency to identify the rural target market and obtain feedback and other input from rural customers about their interest in the product or service, which is then used to improve product design, user experience and create rural marketing strategies that attract high-quality leads and boost conversion rates.
Importance of Rural Market Research
To avoid losing potential customers to competitors
If you don’t clearly understand what your potential rural customers want, your competitors will win, and you’ll lose your potential customers to them.Â
As an example – Ascent’s BTL campaign for TATA Motors SFC 407 Pick Up was a head-to-head campaign with Bolero Pickup to gain market reach in Nashik, Maharashtra, for which we generated 550+ hot and mild leads and received 300+ missed calls.Â
So, if we ignored the bolero pickup’s load capacity, payload, mileage, resale value, spare part availability, service network, and a few other factors, would those hot leads have come to us? No, it’s only possible after the rural market research.
As a result, it’s critical to conduct market research in rural areas with open eyes and utilize the results of your research to modify and learn from your own flaws while leveraging your recently obtained information from competition analysis that will help you gain an advantage and get ahead of the competitor.
Research reveals the “Why” of your target audience
You implemented all of your rural marketing strategies the way you expected them to work. However, you did not achieve the desired results, which resulted in fewer sales. Now you can easily calculate how many people you targeted and how many became customers.
For example, suppose you advertised a tractor to 200 farmers in a primarily rural area; 80 bought it, but the remaining 120 were uninterested. You have a figure analysis. But it’s unclear why those 120 people didn’t choose your tractor. Perhaps they dislike the mileage your tractor provides, the service network is inadequate, or maybe it is pricey compared to the features. Anything is possible.Â
So to solve the puzzle of ‘Why’ market research in rural India is essential.
It outperforms so-called guesswork and best practicesÂ
According to census India data, the literacy rate in census 2011 was 68.91 percent, up from 54.50 percent in census 2001, indicating a significant increase in knowledge and awareness among rural people. Hence, the rural marketing approach should never be based on guesswork.Â
Example: Our client, “Premium Cattle Feed Manufacturer of Madhya Pradesh,” was unsure if the digital path would be successful for their product category. However, when we revealed the statistics on rural consumption and the behavioral aspects of farmers consuming data and spending time on social media, we generated leads and appealing impressions on social media channels using our marketing approach, such as vernacular content and videos highlighting benefits.Â
Consider what would happen if we never revealed the statistics to our clients and instead relied on guesswork. We would not have received 58k+ Page Clicks on Facebook, 86k+ Post Engagement on Facebook, 1600+ New Enquiries on Facebook in three months, or 600k+ Impressions on Facebook if we had not done so.
As a result, it’s critical to pay attention to your target audience and potential customers. Furthermore, if you hire a rural marketing agency in India, they should focus on both your experience and the experience of your target customers. Rural market research, on the other hand, will allow you and your agency to focus effectively.
It reduces the risk of money wastage
Customers began to use your product after it entered the rural market. However, there is no guarantee that what appears to be a noticeable feature to you will also appear to be appealing to them. It’s also possible that the features they think are amazing will surprise you.Â
So, if you’d have done your rural marketing research, you could have saved the money you spent on overplanning, and testing the already on the plan that isn’t needed will cost you even more money. Will you? As a result, it will be beneficial to wisely use your research budget to understand the critical aspects of product features and concepts that sound better to your rural customers and you. Market research will assist you in looking at your products through the eyes of your rural consumers.
It aids in identifying trends
Being the first, the best, or accomplishing something no one else has thought of are all critical components of staying ahead in business. Keeping a regular ‘pulse’ on what’s trending and what’s not in your industry is a necessary discipline to maintain in rural marketing research. Making your rural marketing plan will necessitate research into current trends.
According to CSE e-governance services data from 2020, total Internet data consumption for YouTube and Facebook in rural areas was 23418 GB and 17527 GB, respectively. How will you use social media channels already popular in rural areas if you are unaware of them? As a result, the company and the rural marketing agency that pays attention will outperform the others.
Therefore, it’s critical to address your Rural potential customers’ pain points while keeping in mind the latest trends, which you’ll learn only after conducting extensive rural market research.
Conclusion
Extensive rural market research is recommended for any given market for a variety of goals such as product launch, product relaunch, brand extension, rural retail expansion, rural retail satisfaction, competitor’s study, and so on, using various rural research methodologies and thoroughly examining product design, physical distribution, markets, sales, and management in rural areas.Â
Also Read: 5 Important Things a Marketer Should Keep in Mind While Planning for Rural Marketing Campaign
Written by – Kirti
