Mr Abhijeet Sengupta from EverReady bestowed upon the students of IMI-K a unique opportunity to unfold the myth associated with rural marketing. The prevailing ignorance has made the understanding of this untapped potential market very complicated.
Statistics display that rural market has the lion’s share of the Indian population. If the top three biscuit companies- Britannia, ITC and Parle, stop catering to the needs of the rural market, God save their turnover, which is expected to shoot down by 50 notches. It is for this reason we see that these wise men have introduced and retained their products in the rural areas by selling their products at meager prices.
The plain old entrepreneurial development called television is present in majority of the rural households these days which means that communication is no more fragmented. This staggered introduction increases the awareness among the masses. One aspect that we could ponder on is whether the telecommunication industry burgeons its top line figures by postpaid users or prepaid users.
The readers will not be surprised to know that despite having a low disposable income majority of those who dwell in rural areas are blessed with a phone, not just a phone, but a smart one indeed. They fuel their phones with an average of Rs. 10 recharge on a daily basis and just a Rs. 5 internet pack brings all the data in the world on their finger tip.
Here lays the click, to increase the penetration the companies have reached down to the lowest amount of recharge and hence made an attempt to exploit the untapped yet potential market. Looking at those on the penumbra, there are people who depend on the largess of the Indian Government and other Non Governmental Organizations, but through diplomatic strategies this market can also be tapped.
An analysis states that the Indian Consumer Durable Market or the FMCG industry will show an exponential increase in the future if it taps the rural market. They key drivers however, shall be the RKP colloquially called “Roti, Kapda, Makan” area. As per the Mc-Kinsey data very soon the pyramid of the structure of the Indian population will remain a pyramid no more and indeed take the shape of a diamond with the numbers of the middle class individuals rising ten folds.
Hence the protocol is simple, in the time to come, to be in a better position know each card’s true worth and create a leverage by tapping the untapped. The real India is in the outskirts and it’s time that marketers hijack it.