Most B-school students come from urban settings, and work with brands that pertain to a target audience from the same. However, there is a plethora of products and services that that are manufactured in rural areas that deliver products with the same quality. Despite having quality products, marketing the product to a large audience becomes a challenge for many rural manufacturers. At MICA, the Rural Immersion Program aims to bridge the gap between the urban and rural by immersing students into a rural setting. The students work with rural brands to support talented individuals who deliver these products and showcase them to a larger audience. In doing so, they not only empower these rural individuals, but also learn how brand-building works, by working on real projects.
Jeffrey Modak, Jayneel Modi, & Pallabi Padhi; current PGDM(C) students at MICA, share their experience of the Rural Immersion Program where they worked with The Adani Foundation to help market the brand ‘Aadirakshi’ based out of Tirora in Maharashtra. Aadirakshi has a variety of products ranging from Lac Bangles, Incense sticks, Mushrooms, etc. Theses students did a brand-building activity, wherein they had to build the brand of Aadirakhi from scratch using marketing concepts learned in their classrooms.
Key Takeaway:
1. Majority of the population in India lives in rural areas. If you are unaware of how to target consumers in these areas, you’re ignoring a huge percentage of potential customers.
2. The Rural Immersion Program helps students understand problems of Rural areas which inculcates the marketing students with a holistic approach by making them work with different brands and products.
3. To become a good marketer, you need to have an in-depth understanding of the consumer and unlearn a few biases.
4. You need to build a compellingly story attached to the products or services which helps the audience to connect with the respective product or service.
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