Despite all the potential that rural areas hold , marketing in rural areas is challenging. Among various things the nature of product to be marketed in terms of its weight and cost has an over whelming influence on strategy adopted. The nature of distribution would be different for FMCG versus durables. In the case of distribution of durables, one can afford to restrict the reach to towns with population between 99999- 20000 population, which would be around 1900 of them. Through then you can service your rural consumers, because certain studies have show that close to 90 percent of the durable purchase by villagers happens in these 1900 towns.
Suppose your task is to promote a certain brand of cement in the rural markets of Bihar and UP. You have certain details about how the villagers purchases and who all influences him, the mason in the village, other villagers and the dealer. You also know that the cement usage is tied-up with the agricultural cycle and the quantities purchased by the farmer is small and more frequent compared with the purchases of a urban consumer. The problems with low literacy levels and low brand awareness are also there. But you also know that what works well in the rural areas is the word-of-mouth, and once a brand is accepted as a good one your competitors would find it difficult to dislodge it , and you would enjoy the first mover's advantage. But then how would you go about promoting the product??
My opinion would be to target the Masons in the village by organizing meets in the nearby small town through the local dealers. In the meets the Masons could be provided with some training on new techniques in usage of cement and then some information on the company and its cement could be shared. Certain incentives and schemes could also be provided to promote the company's cement. The local Haats and Melas could be used to demonstrate the product and highlight the qualities and promote the brand name. Consumer schemes could be run to designed to increase the off take of the farmers and promote brand awareness and recall. All communication , whether it is the brand name written on the wall paintings or the dealer shops should be in the local language and so must be the infomercials which can be used to promote the brand in the villages. These combined with demostartion could help generate good word-of-mouth for the company.
With regard to distribution one could also think of accessing the informal channel of distribution of fertilizers and seeds which exist within bigger villages. In these villages the Village Mukhia or the bigger farmer would sell fertilizer's and seeds to other villagers during the agricultural season. These sales would happen from the house of the villager itself and usually no formal shop is set-up for that and the activity would stop after the end of the season. If one were to have access to this channel, then maybe the villagers could be supplied right up to the village directly.
Suggestions on how to develop a rural marketing plan for this cement company.....
the cement company can showcase the ability of the cement by joining hands with the distict collectorate and sponsor the renovation of the schools there. it can also cement the sides of the well. these can also be used as advertising mediums...
ReplyDeleteyes, and also if the company could get into the government sponsored projects, then it could gain an entry into the villages. Supplying them would be much easier than to the villagers directly. And once you have some presence in the villages it could be leveraged to create brand awareness, through what you have suggested painting on common places in the village like the Wells, schools....
ReplyDeleteDear Sir,
ReplyDeleteI agree that word of mouth plays an important role in promotion in rural areas. Adding to this point, the retailers could be convinced about the benefits of the product through demonstrations. When the retailer would further promote the product it gives more credibility than direct promotion by the company, because the retailer is one among them, so villagers would believe him. Also, the price sensitivity of the consumer, specially in rural areas should be kept in mind.
Priyam
Sec D
yes, convincing the retailers to push the products would be a good idea, especially knowing the influence that he would have on the purchase decision,but one thing which would come in the way would be the fact that when one accesses the small towns and rural areas one has to do it through more of the wholesale network, because it is not economical for either the company nor the dealer to have an exclusive relationship with one company. And these wholesalers or multi brand outlets would be selling many brands and convincing them to promote only your brand would be difficult.
ReplyDeletePricing is a significant issue and one way in which people have tried to tackle it in rural areas is by reducing the per-use-cost rather than the total cost of the product. An example for this is the introduction of sachets in shampoos. Could something similar be thought in case of cement, trying to reduce the cost of his one time use knowing that he buys it in stages???