RURAL MARKETING

RURAL MARKETING ACTIVITIES BY COLGATE PALMOLIVE

By,
TEAM 3
AHAMED SAFI K

1311005

MBA

PRASANNA VENKATESH M

1311066

MBA

SRIRAM S (Absent)

1311098

MBA

VIGNESH KUMAR V

1311110

MBA

YASHWANTH BABU B S

1313022

PGDM

JEFFREY JONATHAN JEYARAJ1313063

PGDM

URBAN UNIT (OR TOWN)

All places with a municipality, corporation, cantonment board or notified town area
committee, etc. (known as Statutory Town)
All other places which satisfied the following criteria (known as Census Town):

A minimum population of 5,000

At least 75 per cent of the male main workers engaged in non-agricultural pursuits;

and
A density of population of at least 400 per sq. km

Number of Urban Units in India

Towns

Census 2001: 5,161

Census 2011: 7,935; Increase: 2,774

Statutory Towns

Census 2001: 3,799

Census 2011: 4,041; Increase: 242

Census Towns
Census 2001: 1,362
Census 2011: 3,894; Increase: 2,532
Source: Census 2011 Provisional Population Total - India
RURAL AREAS
All areas which are not categorized as Urban area are considered as Rural Area
Number of Rural Units (or Villages) in India
Villages

Census 2001: 6,38,588

Census 2011: 6,40,867; Increase: 2,279

Source: Census 2011 Provisional Population Total - India

POPULATION BY RURAL URBAN RESIDENCE

Persons
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Total : 1,210,193,422
Rural: 833,087,662
Urban: 377,105,760

Source: Census 2011 Provisional Population Total - India

Rural Urban Distribution Persons (in %)

Total : 100.0 %
Rural: 68.84 %
Urban: 31.16 %

Source: Census 2011 Provisional Population Total - India

POPULATION HIGHLIGHTS

Out of the total of 1210.2 million population in India, the size of Rural population is

833.1 million (or 68.84% of the Total Population)

Urban population 377.1 million (or 31.16%)
During 2001 2011 the population of the country increased by 181.4 million
Increase in Rural areas: 90.4 million
Increase in Urban areas: 91.0 million

RURAL POPULATION IN STATES

TOP THREE STATES

ABSOLUTE

SHARE*

Uttar Pradesh

155.11 Million

18.6%

Bihar

92.07 Million

11.1%

West Bengal

62.21 Million

7.5%

Sikkim

0.45 Million

0.1%

Mizoram

0.52 Million

0.1%

Goa

0.55 Million

0.1%

BOTTOM THREE STATES

Note: * - Share to total Rural Population in the country

Source: Census 2011 Provisional Population Total - India
TRENDS IN RURAL URBAN DISTRIBUTION OF POPULATION (IN %) (1901,
1951, 2011)

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Source: Census 2011 Provisional Population Total - India

VARIATION IN RURAL POPULATION FROM 2001 TO 2011 CENSUSES

During 2001-11 the growth of Rural Population has been 12.18%

Growth in Rural Population in India is steadily declining since 1991
Meghalaya (27%) & Bihar (24%) witnessed largest growth among States in 2001-11

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Four States recorded decline in Rural Population during 2001-11

o These are Kerala (by 26%), Goa (19%), Nagaland (15%) & Sikkim (5%)

COLGATE PALMOLIVE
The Colgate-Palmolive Company is an American multinational consumer products
company focused on the production, distribution and provision of household, health care and
personal products, such as soaps, detergents, and oral hygiene products (including toothpaste
and toothbrushes).
CORE VALUES
The three fundamental values of Colgate are:

Caring
Global Teamwork
Continuous Improvement

Caring
The Company cares about people: Colgate people, customers, shareholders and business
partners. Colgate is committed to act with compassion, integrity, honesty and high ethics in
all situations, to listen with respect to others and to respect differences. The Company is also
committed to protect the global environment, to enhance the communities where Colgate
people live and work, and to be compliant with government laws and regulations.
Global Teamwork
All Colgate people are part of a global team, committed to working together across countries
and throughout the world. Only by sharing ideas, technologies and talents can the Company
achieve and sustain profitable growth.

Continuous Improvement
Colgate is committed to getting better every day in all it does, as individuals and as teams. By
better understanding consumers' and customers' expectations and continuously working to
innovate and improve products, services and processes, Colgate will "become the best."

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PRODUCTS
Oral Care

Toothpastes
Toothbrushes
Toothpowder
Whitening Products
Mouthwash

Personal Care

Body Wash
Liquid Hand Wash
Shave Preps
Skin Care
Hair Care

Household Care

Surface Care

From the Dentist

Gingivitis Treatment
Sensitivity Treatment
Tooth Whitening
Fluoride Therapy
Mouth Ulcer Treatment
Speciality Cleaning

RURAL MARKETING ACTIVITIES BY COLGATE

Various marketing activities conducted by Colgate for rural area and rural people are as
follows:

Sampark
Disha
OHM- Oral Health Month
Operation Red Storm
Maha Tech Mela (Kumbh Mela)

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SAMPARK
Charcoal, neem sticks, husk, salt and powder mixtures have been some of the
traditional form of oral hygiene products used in rural India. But these products are losing
favour, especially due to the efforts of many organizations and companies, foremost among
them, Colgate. The company claims to have persuaded about 300 million people into using
oral hygiene products in the country for the last 25 years.
Aggressive is the only word that could perfectly describe the advertising and sales
promotion strategy of Colgate. Colgate stepped up its rural promotion drives with IDA
(Indian Dental Association) to add value. This has been the stepping stone to the high
penetration in rural minds. Since 1976, Colgate has been doing this through its rural
promotion vans and Young India, Bright Smiles, Bright Futures, schools dental education
program.
After conducting a small research in the rural areas Colgate concluded with five
things that were common in all their rural consumers across India, they were:

Rural consumers are brand loyal

They have disposal income (i.e. because their needs are limited, so lesser scope to

spend)
Literacy level is on an increase
Elderly person in the family have the decision authority
If a brand is turned down in a household in a village, the whole village sooner or later
boycotts the brand

High quality products was always a plus point of Colgate all they had to do was to
now tap the still unattended rural markets and change their habits i.e. from the usage of neem
sticks and charcoal to toothpaste and tooth powder. In 1998, Colgate contacted 6 million
people in 20,000 villages of which 15,000 villages had not experienced the availability of
toothpaste and toothpowder let alone toothbrushes.
Colgate decided to do this by controlling various advertising and promotional
activities. Suggesting and implementing a rural promotional scheme was what Colgate called
Sampark for, as they were specialist in rural advertising category.
Sampark had limited budget to their disposal. Going in for mass media would not
prove to be costly but the reach would be limited as, still only very few people own and
possess a T.V. or a radio.

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Sampark wanted something that had far and wide reach that is why Sampark decided
to their advertising by door to door selling. Sampark hired people from a certain locality who
knew the local language, jargons and idioms. This not only helped Colgate communicate
easily with the consumer but was also effective in sending the right message across to the
rural consumer, the other plus point of this message was that the communication gap was
reduced to a large extend. These people would move about in the villages telling the people
about the pros of using advanced oral care products and the cons involved in tradition oral
care system, this was quite difficult as rural people always felt that natural was the best.
Colgate trained these salesmen to convince the rural population and make them try the free
sample that Colgate was distributing free.
DISHA
Disha is a rural marketing program conducted by colgate to promote the product.
Colgate saw the massive potential existed in the Haats across the rural areas. Haat is a
market, especially one held on a regular basis in a rural area. Disha covered 47000 Haats
which had a market size of US $ 1.0 billion (Rs. 623.45 Crores Approx.). Colgate used
unemployed youth in rural areas to promote its product. By this way Colgate could a
tremendous cost reduction of 1/100 of the conventional cost. Colgate covered a lot of villages
which increased from 162 in December 2004 to 4620 in December 2007.

OHM - ORAL HEALTH MONTH

As the world leader in Oral Care, Colgate has always been at the forefront of
initiatives that improve the oral health condition. With an objective to increase Oral Care
awareness, Colgate-Palmolive spearheaded Oral Health Month (OHM), an annual initiative
dedicated to spreading oral health and hygiene awareness throughout the world. Since its
inception in 1998, the initiative has successfully reached out to millions of people across
countries.
The oral health condition among Indians is worse than other countries. A survey,
recently conducted by IMRB International for Colgate-Palmolive (India) Limited reveals the
following:

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A mere 2.5% Indians visit a dentist at least once a year compared to a global average

of 48%
67% Indians have never considered a dental check-up
30% of the Indian population consults a dentist only if they believe they have a dental

problem
Out of those that do finally seek treatment for their dental problems, 1 in 3 have to get
tooth extractions as generally it is too late to do anything else
In India, Colgate-Palmolive in partnership with Indian Dental Association (IDA) has

been conducting Oral Health Month since 2004 covering a wide spectrum of activities
designed to spread oral health awareness and good oral hygiene practices.
Oral Health Month has grown phenomenally in the past ten years and has emerged as
a leading campaign for promoting oral health awareness in India. Owing to its success, since
2009 Colgate-Palmolive earmarked two months instead of the traditional one month,
dedicated to spreading the message of oral health and hygiene. In 2012, October and
November, the mission of this program was Mission Zero Cavity. Taking this initiative
forward, in its tenth year in 2013, Oral Health Month focused on the mission to achieve a
Healthy Mouth.
In 2014, we took Oral Health Month to 1300+ towns with a total of 35,000 dentists
with the theme of a Pledge for a Cavity Free Future. The two-month long oral care awareness
drive covered in-clinic free dental check-ups, school contact programs, free dental check-ups
in mobile dental vans, retailers outreach program and many more such activities to engage
more than 5.5 million consumers.
OPERATION RED STORM
Colgate wanted to strengthen its rural initiatives. It launched a new village contact
programme called as Operation Red Storm. Operation Red Storm covered nearly 35000
villages. It successfully seeded (Seeding Program) the products across all the markets in those
villages using vans.
A Seeding Program is a form of marketing, conducted in the name of research,
designed to target product sampling towards selected consumers. In the marketing research
field, seeding is the process of allocating marketing to specific customers, or groups of
customers, in order to stimulate the internal dynamics of the market, and enhance the
diffusion process.

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Operation Red Storm helped Colgate to collect valuable data on potential villages and
the down trade channels. Operation Red Storm could counter HLL which has launched Rs 5
packs of Pepsodent Regular Fresh Flavour and Pepsodent White Family Flavour aimed at
rural markets.
MAHA TECH MELA (MAHA KUMBH MELA)
Big gatherings in India are the best place to find people altogether, especially in the
rural areas. The Maha Kumbh Mela which is worlds largest gathering of humanity ever is the
greatest show on earth. Hindu pilgrims turn up in huge number at the Maha Kumbh Mela.
Big brands such as Eveready, Airtel, Coca-Cola, Alpenliebe, Honda, Britannia, Dabur,
Lifebuoy, Idea etc. marked their presence at the Mela.
Colgate was amongst them who had set-up its consumer interaction outlet in the form
of a mobile booth. However, to stand out from the rest of the brands, Colgate had to do
something different to grab the attention of the masses and make the interaction engaging and
interesting. This triggered Colgate to think something apart from the usual clich traditional
ways of marketing. Undoubtedly, there were several challenges that Colgate had to face and
the solutions to which they discovered:

Challenge 1 What is the best media vehicle to reach out to them?

Solution The ubiquitous mobile phone was the only medium that the pilgrims carried along
with them always.
Challenge 2 Most of the pilgrims belonged to low-literacy rural areas, so what could have
been the attraction hook?
Solution Colgate came up with the solution of implementing voice-based communication.
Challenge 3 How could Colgate target millions of devotees who arrived from different parts
of the country? How to know about their whereabouts?
Solution Location based targeting was the option to which Colgate could resort to.

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It was then that the Maha Kumbh Mela was turned into the Maha Tech Mela by
Colgate wherein it tagged three cell towers around the Maha Kumbh Mela and created a
virtual circle of 3-5 kilometres radius to enable precise targeting. With a limited budget of
$8,000, Colgate had to put its best foot forward by being extremely strategic in its mobile
marketing campaign.
Thus, all those local Airtel subscribers or those roaming on Airtel connection who
entered the virtual circle set-up by Colgate were targeted instantly. Furthermore, those
devotees received a call personally from the legendary Indian radio personality Amin Sayani.
While on the call, Amin would tell them to visit the Colgate booth and get Rs. 10/- small pack
of Indias #1 anti-cavity toothpaste. Not only this, the pilgrims could even get a chance to win
exciting prizes while having fun at the Mela.
Results Achieved by Colgate
The brand managed to conduct successful mobile marketing under a prescribed
budget. This concept worked really well for Colgate and pilgrims in huge number turned up
at Colgates booth. Thus, through the massive word of mouth publicity and personal call to
the devotees enabled an altogether new avenue for the company to reach out to the
consumers. Within the limited budget mount, Colgate successfully managed to interact with
new customers, only through mobile marketing.
During the Maha Kumbh Mela, Colgates strategic mobile marketing technique thus
attracted foot traffic to such an extent that the visitors rate increased by over 300% of the prepromotion period. All in all, this campaign attracted over 7,00,000 visitors.
CONCLUSION
Colgate is one of the brands which has always rolled out high quality products.
Whether it is urban market or rural market people have always asked for Colgate products
from a particular category. But still Colgate doesn't want to leave the market untapped. It has
always been well aware of the huge rural population of India and it has created a lot of
initiatives for rural India which has been a great success. It has ensured to take out its
competition in its each and every mission.

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