Indian Marketers on rural marketing have two understanding (I) The urban metro products and marketing products

can be implemented in rural markets with some or no change. (ii) The rural marketing required the separate skills and techniques from its urban counterpart. The Marketers have following facilities to make them believe in accepting the truth that rural markets are different in s many terms
(i)The rural market has the opportunity for. (ii) Low priced products can be more successful in rural markets because the low purchasing, purchasing powers in rural markets. (iii) Rural consumers have mostly homogeneous group with similar needs, economic conditions and problems. (iv) The rural markets can be worked with the different media environment as opposed to press, film, radio and other urban centric media exposure.

How does reality affects the planning of marketers? Do villagers have same attitude like urban consumers? The question arises for the management of rural marketing effects in a significant manner so than companies can enter in the rural market with the definite goals and targets but not for a short term period but for longer duration. The Research paper will discuss the role of regard. The strategy, which will be presented in the paper, can be either specific or universally applicable. Indian population live in the villages. With the increase in purchasing power and the demand for wide variety of products by the farmers, the rural market offers new and greater opportunities to manufactures of several consumer and industrial products in India. But to tap this vast expanding

market, companies need to develop effective marketing and advertising strategies based on their study and understanding of rural consumer behaviour.

The rural market in the Indian context

There could be several approaches in defining the Indian rural market. It will not be an exaggeration if the whole of India, excluding the metropolitans cities, the various district headquarter and large Industrial Township, is considered as the rural market. Alternately all villages with a population of less than say, 40,000 or 50,000 can be considered as forming the rural market.

Definition of rural market (old definition) Which is not urban? What is urban? Urban means: All locations with: Municipality Corporation Cantonment board or Notified town area All other locations satisfying the criteria: Minimum population of 5,000 At least 75% of the male work force engaged in non agricultural activities A population density over 400 per sq km

Rural market (new definition) One having population of less than 5,000 75% of male population engaged in agriculture 2/3 of a countrys consumer live in rural area 50% of national income is generated by the rural population

Country is classified in: 593 districts and 638000 villages Out of the above 32% can be reached by paccka road

68% of rural market list untapped for net accessibility 3.8 million retail outlets in rural India averaging 5.8 shops per village (including hats, stalls, snacks that sells A to Z goods)

Characteristics of rural market The rural market of India consists of about 80% of the population of the country. Apparently therefore, in term of the number of people, the Indian rural market is almost twice as larger as the entire market of U.S.A or U.S.S.R. the market is not only large, but very much scattered geographically. It is also as diverged as it is scattered it exhibited linguistic, religion and cultural diversities and economic disparities, and hence it can easily be considered as more complex than the market of a continent as a whole. The market is generally undeveloped as the people who constitute the market are so. Poor standard of living, low per capital income and economic, social and cultural backwardness are the characteristics of the market. The literacy level is generally law even though this varies from one art of the country to the other. Another important feature of the rural market is that, at least in the present contest, it is largely agricultural oriented. Here again the much heard of green revolution and the resultant prosperity is confined to a few select areas in the country. As a consequence, the effective demand based for a large variety of consumer items as well as the wealth generating inputs is confined to selected pockets and not spread over the rural markets

Satellite system A concept that has come to be none as satellite distribution system is strongly recommended for adoption in penetrating the rural market. The system works as follows: Stokist get appointed in major towns and the feeder towns. They by and large, discharge the following functions (a) Financing (b) Warehousing (c) Sub-distribution Depending on the size of the stockiest and the product line, the above functions are performing various degrees of perfection. Retailers in and around the feeder town get attached to these stokist. In some cases they function as authories retailers or franchise dealers of the company and are recognized officially as forming as part of the marketing network operating through the stokist. In other cases, they are not franchised dealers, but by custom form the part of the stockiest network. The manufacturer supplies goods to the stockiest either on consignment bases or on cash or credit purchase bases. Te stockiest take care of the sub distribution job on the terms and conditions determined by the manufacturer or agreed upon by the parties. Often the stockiest operate their own delivery van to take care of the secondary transport and local delivery jobs. They are fully responsible for the financial implications. The retailers vary largely among themselves in their volume of business, partly because of their location and partly because of their own capacities for doing business. Over a period of time some retailers grow in stature and impo5rtance. If such retail points also coincide with centers of demand and transportation within the feeder town area the retail points get elevated at the appropriate as stockiest [points. The area of operation of the original stockiest ofcource shrinks on account of this but care is taken to see that his volume of business does not shrink. This is achieved with considerable ease, in practice, on account of the ever-enlarging demand as well as increased market penetration. If 15 or 20 retailers were operating as part of the original stockiest network, 5 or 6 of them get elevated over the period of time as stockiest. Fresh retail points get established simultaneously, out of whom some get attached to the original stockiest and others to new stockiest depending on location, service convenience and other factors. This process continues so long as the market and consumption level keeps expanding and the supply also catches up. Just like the second generation stockiest, a set of third generation stockiest gets established with the passage of time. At any point of time enough number of retail points always hover round a particular stockiest. Hence the system is known as the satellite distribution system. The satellites can have their own satellite too! The main advantage of this system is that market penetration takes place in the interior so the rural market without the manufacturer having to expand his direct stock point network. If care is taken to see that the motivation of the stockiest is not destroyed due to overzealous and premature expansion of the network, the system will indeed bring ample rewards in terms of increased sales and laser distribution cost.

In recent years, rural markets have acquired significance, as the overall growth of the economy has resulted into substantial increase in the purchasing power of the rural communities. On account of green revolution, the rural areas are consuming a large quantity of industrial and urban manufactured products. In this context, a special marketing strategy, namely, rural marketing has emerged. But often, rural marketing is confused with agricultural marketing the latter denotes marketing of produce of the rural areas to the urban consumers or industrial consumers, whereas rural marketing involves delivering manufactured or processed inputs or services to rural producers or consumers Rural markets, as part of any economy, have untapped potential. There are several difficulties confronting the effort to fully explore rural markets. The concept of rural markets in India is still in evolving shape, and the sector poses a variety of challenges. Distribution costs and non availability of retail outlets are major problems faced by the marketers. The success of a brand in the Indian rural market is as unpredictable as rain. Many brands, which should have been successful, have failed miserably. This is because, most firms try to extend marketing plans that they use in urban areas to the rural markets. The unique consumption patterns, tastes, and needs of the rural consumers should be analyzed at the product planning stage so that they match the needs of the rural people. Therefore, marketers need to understand the social dynamics and attitude variations within each village though nationally it follows a consistent pattern. The main problems in rural marketing are: Understanding the rural consumer Poor infrastructure Physical Distribution Channel Management Promotion and Marketing Communication Dynamics of rural markets differ from other market types, and similarly rural marketing strategies are also significantly different from the marketing strategies aimed at an urban or industrial consumer.