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EMERGING FACE OF RURAL INDIAN MARKETS
Purba Basu ∗
Days have gone when only a selected household consumed branded goods, whether its tea or
jeans and a rural consumer had to go to a nearby city to buy ``branded products and services".
Earlier big companies flocked to rural markets to establish their brands. But today, rural markets
are critical for every marketer - be it for a branded shampoo or an automobile. In earlier days the
marketers thought van campaigns, cinema commercials and a few wall paintings would suffice to
entice rural folks under their folds. Thanks to television, today a customer in a rural area is quite
literate about countless products that are on offer in the market place. An Indian farmer going
through his daily tasks wearing jeans may sound idiotic. Not for Arvind Mills, though. When it
launched the Ruf & Tuf kits, it had created quite a sensation among the rural within few months of
their launch.
Rural Indian market and the marketing strategy have become the latest marketing buzzword for
most of the FMCG majors. The rural India has a plethora of opportunities all waiting to be tied
together. Many of the FMCG companies are busy formulating their rural marketing strategy to tap
the chance .To name few companies showing deep interest in rural India, there are HLL, Marico
industries, Colgate-Palmolive and Britannia Industries etc. Titan, the company, which expects
about 17 per cent growth to sell six million watches during 2003-04, is also planning to reposition
its Sonata brand for the vast rural market. Rural market, thus, is gaining more and more
importance over the years. The Coca Company by introducing 200 ml pack and its strategy of
laying emphasis on the rural market resulted in increasing sales volume.
Services like cellular and insurance are also spreading their hands into rural markets. Cell-phone
operators like Escotel Mobile Communications Ltd., a joint venture between Hong Kong based
investment firm First Pacific and New Delhi-based Escorts Ltd., are