The rural market has been growing steadily over the past few years and is now even bigger than the urban market. About 70 per cent of India’s population lives in villages. More than 800 million people live in villages of India. ‘Go rural’ is the marketer’s new slogan. Indian marketers as well as multinationals, such as Colgate-Palmolive, Godrej and Hindustan Lever have focused on rural markets.
• According to the 2001 census, 740 million Indians forming 70 per cent of India’s population live in rural areas.
• The rate of increase in rural population is also greater than that of urban population.
• The rural population is scattered in over 6 lakhs villages.
• The rural population is highly scattered, but holds a big promise for the marketers.
• The standard of living of rural areas is low and rural consumers have diverse socio-economic backwardness.
• This is different in different parts of the country. A consumer in a village area has a low standard of living because of low literacy, low per capita income, social backwardness and low savings.
• The rural consumer values old customs and traditions.
• They do not prefer changes. Gradually, the rural population is changing its demand pattern, and there is demand for branded products in villages.
• The urban products cannot be dumped on rural population; separate sets of products are designed for rural consumers to suit the rural demands.
• The marketing mix elements are to be adjusted according to the requirements of the rural consumers.
• Large and scattered population:
• Higher purchasing capacity
• Market growth:
• Development of infrastructure
• Low standard of living:
• Traditional outlook
• Marketing mix:
• Purchasing power of the rural people is on rise.
• Marketers have the potential of rural markets, and thus are expanding their operations in rural India.
• In recent years, rural markets have acquired significance in countries like China and India, as the overall growth of the economy has resulted into substantial increase in purchasing power of rural communities.
• The rural market is growing steadily over the years.
• Demand for traditional products such as bicycles, mopeds and agricultural inputs; branded products such as toothpaste, tea, soaps and other FMCGs; and consumer durables such as refrigerators, TV and washing machines has also grown over the years.
• There is development of infrastructure facilities such as construction of roads and transportation, communication network, rural electrification and public service projects in rural India, which has increased the scope of rural marketing.
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