Rural Marketing In India

Rural Marketing in India: Definition and Features of Rural Marketing

1. Rural marketing is now a two-way marketing process. There is inflow of products into rural markets for production or consumption and there is also outflow of products to urban areas. 2. Definitions: Marketing:

Identifying the needs of customers and potential customers, providing products/services that satisfy their needs, and developing efficient processes or systems to deliver your product/service to the market when, where, and how consumers want it. Rural Marketing:

Rural marketing is now a two-way marketing process. There is inflow of products into rural markets for production or consumption and there is also outflow of products to urban

Large and scattered population: 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.

2. Higher purchasing capacity: Purchasing power of the rural people is on rise. Marketers have real­ized 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.

3. Market growth: 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

In India, leaving out a few metropolitan cities, all the districts and industrial townships are connected with rural markets. The rural market in India generates bigger revenues in the country as the rural regions comprise of the maximum consumers in this country. The rural market in Indian economy generates almost more than half of the country’s income. Rural marketing in Indian economy can be classified under two broad categories.

These are:

i. The market for consumer goods that comprise of both durable and non-durable goods ii. The market for agricultural inputs that include fertilizers, pesticides, seeds, and so on

The concept of rural marketing in India is often been found to forms ambiguity in the mind of people who think rural marketing is all about agricultural marketing. However, rural marketing determines the carrying out of business activities bringing in the flow of goods from urban sectors to the rural regions of the country as well as the marketing of various products manufactured by the non-agricultural workers from rural to urban areas.

To be precise, rural marketing in India Economy covers two broad sections, namely:

i. Selling of agricultural products in the urban areas ii. Selling of manufactured products in the rural