Indian agricultural industry has been growing at a tremendous pace in the last

few decades. Time was when marketers thought van campaigns, cinema commercials and
a few wall paintings would suffice to entice rural folks under their folds. GONE ARE the
days when a rural consumer went to a nearby city to buy branded
products and services. Time has gone when only a select household consumed
branded goods, be it tea or jeans. There were days when only big companies flocked to rural
markets to establish their brands. Today, rural markets are critical for every marketer - be it
for a branded shampoo or an automobile.
In recent years, rural markets have acquired significance, as the overall growth
of the economy has resulted into substantial increase in the purchasing power of
the rural communities.
On account of green revolution, the rural areas are consuming a large quantity
of industrial and urban manufactured products. In this context, a special
marketing strategy, namely, rural marketing has emerged. But often, rural
marketing is confused with agricultural marketing - the latter denotes
marketing of produce of the rural areas to the urban consumers or industrial
consumers, whereas rural marketing involves delivering manufactured or
processed inputs or services to rural producers or consumers.
Urban markets have reached a saturation level and further tapping them with
high profit margin is difficult. Competition is tough & many firms have to incur
heavy promotional expenditure. Also the awareness level of consumers is high
and therefore product features have to be changed often.
On the contrary, the rural markets are Green pastures for any marketer provided
his marketing plans are attuned to specialties of rural markets. The rural market
is growing fastly as compared to the urban markets. Being a new market, it could
be easily mended. The potentiality of rural markets is said to be is like a WOKEN
UP SLEEPING GIANT.
The rural areas are consuming a large number of industrial and urban
manufactured products. The rural agricultural production and consumption
process plays a predominant role in developing the Indian economy. This has
designed a new way for understanding a new process called Rural Marketing. The
concept of rural marketing has to be distinguished from Agricultural marketing.
Marketing is the process of identifying and satisfying customers needs and
providing them with adequate after sales service. Rural marketing is different
from agricultural marketing, which signifies marketing of rural products to the
urban consumer or institutional markets. Rural marketing basically deals with
delivering manufactured or processed inputs or services to rural producers, the
demand for which is basically a derived outcome. Rural marketing scientists also
term it as developmental marketing, as the process of rural marketing involves
an urban to rural activity, which in turn is characterized by various peculiarities
in terms of nature of market, products and processes.

The importance of rural marketing can be understood from the fact that today
modern inputs i.e. diesel, electricity, fertilizers, pesticides, seeds account for as
much as 70% of the total cash costs and 23% of the total costs incurred by the
farmers in the Green Revolution areas. Further the percentages were higher at
81% and 38% for small; farmers owning 1.85 hectares of land.
Rural markets, as part of any economy, have untapped potential. There are
several difficulties confronting the effort to fully explore rural markets. The
concept of rural markets in India, as also in several other countries, like China, is
still in evolving shape, and the sector poses a variety of challenges, including
understanding the dynamics of the rural markets and strategies to supply and
satisfy the rural consumers.
At a recent seminar in Chennai on 'rural marketing for competitive
advantage in globalize India', organized by Anugrah Madison Advertising Pvt
Limited, marketing pundits have echoed that a sound network and a thorough
understanding of the rural market is a must for making inroads into rural
markets. The price-sensitivity of a consumer in a village is something the
marketers should be alive to. Rural income levels are largely determined by the
vagaries of monsoon and, hence, the demand there is not an easy horse to ride
on. Apart from increasing the geographical width of their product distribution, the
focus of corporate should be on the introduction of brands and develop
strategies specific to rural consumers. Britannia Industries launched Tiger
Biscuits especially for the rural market. It clearly paid dividend. Its share of
the glucose biscuit market has increased from 7 per cent to 15 per cent.
Similarly, Hindustan Unilever limited (HUL) has successfully influenced the
rural market for its shampoos in sachets. The sachet strategy has proved so
successful that, according to an ORG-MARG data, 95% of total shampoo sales in
rural India by sachets.

Rural population has been increased about 74% of the total population; the
demand for products and services has increased a lot in rural areas. Green
revolution in the North and white revolution in the West has brought about a new
prosperity in the lives of rural people. Government emphasis on rural development
has caused significant changes in the rural scenario. Moreover, the special attention
given for infrastructure development through the successive Five-year plans has
improved the buying and consumption pattern of rural people.
Thanks to television, today a customer in a rural area is quite literate about myriad
products that are on offer in the market place.
Trends indicate that the rural markets are coming up in a big way and growing twice as fast
as the urban, witnessing a rise in sales of typical urban kitchen gadgets such as
refrigerators, mixer-grinders and pressure cookers. According to a National Council for
Applied Economic Research (NCAER) study, there are as many 'middle income and above'
households in the rural areas as there are in the urban areas. There are almost twice as
many 'lower middle income' households in rural areas as in the urban areas. At the highest

income level there are 2.3 million urban households as against 1.6 million households in
rural areas. According to Mr. D. Shiva Kumar, Business Head (Hair), Personal Products
Division, Hindustan UniLever Limited, the money available to spend on FMCG (Fast Moving
Consumer Goods) products by urban India is Rs. 49,500 crores as against is Rs. 63,500
crores in rural India.

Rural Markets constitute an important segment of overall economy. Typically, a rural

market will represent a community in a rural area with a population of 2500 to 3000
people.
Rural marketing is as old as the civilization. Surplus of agro - products are
exchanged in earlier days in the barter system. The introduction of currency,
transport, and communication has increased the scope of rural market. Here well
discuss the present scenario of rural marketing especially rural produce, and its
importance, current trends, and highlights certain problems related to rural
marketing. Further the improvements which make the rural marketing system most
effective.
Marketing of agricultural production has received adequate attention of researchers,
policy makers, and central and state governments. This has resulted in
establishment of regulated markets with an aim to see that the agricultural produce
get better price. The advent of commercial and market oriented farming, with the
help of modern agricultural technology, necessitated the use of manufactured inputs
like fertilizers, pesticides, high yielding varieties of seeds to improve rural produce.

Need for study

The rural market has changed drastically in the past one decade. A decade ago, the
rural market was more unstructured and was not a prioritized target location for
corporate. Very few companies, mainly the agro-based ones, were concentrating in
these markets. There were no innovative strategies and promotional campaigns. A
distribution system did exist, but was feeble. Illiteracy and lack of technology were
the other factors leading to the poor reach of products and lower level of awareness
amongst villagers.

Gradually, corporate realized that there was saturation, stiff competition and clutter in
the urban market, and a demand was building up in rural areas. Seeing the vast
potential of 75 per cent Indians living in rural areas, they started focusing on these
unexplored, high-potential areas.
Companies came up with special rural products, like Chic Shampoo sachets @ Re 1,
Parle G Tikki Packs @ Rs 2, customized TVs by LG, Shanti Amla oil by Marico. All
these brought positive results for them.
Also, campaigns like Project Bharat by Hindustan UniLever, where trials were
generated across India in 1999. In the first phase, they covered 11.5 million rural
households and increased awareness by 41 per cent.
Project Jagruti in the second phase by Colgate Palmolive India was a village
consumer contact programme in 2001. It increased penetration of Colgate Dental
Cream by doubling the villages from 33,000 to 55,000, reaching to a million houses.
Such projects lead to increased penetration of products in rural areas.
As a result, retail outlets have sprung up in practically all the villages that store
products of various brands and categories. Also, high congregation areas, like fairs,
haats, markets etc. are proving to be an important marketing tool since clusters of
target audience can be tapped at the same time and place.
CONCLUSION
Thus, looking at the challenges and the opportunities, which rural markets offer
to the marketers, it can be said that the future is very promising for those who
can understand the dynamics of rural markets and exploit them to their best
advantage. A radical change in attitudes of marketers towards the vibrant and
burgeoning rural markets is called for, so they can successfully impress on the
230 million rural consumers spread over approximately 600 thousand villages in
rural India.
Considering the emerging issues and challenges, government support is
necessary for the development of marketing of agricultural produce. The
government may adjust suitable budget allocations to rural infrastructure plans,
and proper supervision for effective plan implementation. The core areas like
transport, communication, roads, credit institutions, crop insurance for better
utilization of land and water at appropriate level. The rural people and markets
will definitely develop rural income and reduce poverty. On the whole countrys
economy will boost at an expected level.