UNIT 18 RURAL MARKETING

Structure

18.0 Objectives

18.1 Introduction

18.2 Rural Markets

18.2.1 Features of Rural Markets

18.2.2 Importance of Rural Markets

18.2.3 Factors affecting Growth of Rural Markets

18.2.4 Challenges of Rural Markets

18.2.5 Understanding Rural consumers

18.3 Rural Marketing

18.3.1 Definition

18.3.2 Rural Marketing Mix

18.3.3 4 As of rural marketing

18.4 Emerging Trends of Rural Marketing in India

18.5 Let Us Sum Up

18.6 Key words

18.7 Answers to Check Your Progress

18.8 Terminal Questions

18.0 OBJECTIVES

After going through this unit; you shall be able to:

• explain the concept of rural markets and their characteristics;

 • describe various ways to understand the rural consumers;
• explain the rural marketing;
• discuss the reasons for boost in rural marketing;
• elaborate the recent trends of rural marketing in India; and
• comprehend the need of separate marketing mix for rural marketing.

18.1 INTRODUCTION

With the liberalization of Indian economy, we have witnessed changes on all the fronts. On the
marketing front, the major change has been the arrival of many well known Multinational
Corporations. Initially they tapped the well developed urban markets. This brought tough
competition in those markets and eventually the companies started focusing on the large
untapped market segment. Needless to mention, it was the very promising segment “the rural
markets of India. The government initiative to strengthen the rural India resulted in the rapid
growth of rural income which increased the purchasing power of the rural population, the
(“prospective consumers”, in the language of marketing). The vast size of the rural markets and
their demand offers enormous opportunities to the marketers. As the saying goes, if there is
opportunity, there has to be challenges as well. In rural marketing there are lots of challenges.
Marketers, who are looking at the challenges and opportunities, offered by rural India and
understand the dynamics of the rural markets, are trying to take the advantage of it. Hence, it
has become necessary for us to understand the overall concept of rural marketing, its
importance and the opportunities offered, the challenges posed by rural markets and the
emerging trends of rural marketing in India.

18.2 RURAL MARKETS

The census of India defines rural area “as any habitation with a population density of less than
400 per sq. km., where at least 75 percent of the male working population is engaged in
agriculture and where municipality or board does not exist”. There are nearly 6.4 lakh villages in
India of which only 20,000 have population of more than 5000. Most companies in fast moving
consumer goods (FMCG) sector define rural market as any place with a population upto 2,000.

Understanding and managing rural market is not an easy affair, as it is full of challenges. If we
study the Indian rural society, there are different villages, each being different in terms of
geographical, economic, cultural, moral and other structures. The behavior patterns of the
habitants and their beliefs, ideas, faiths etc are different.
 A few challenges of rural markets are: understanding rural consumers, making availability of
the products and services in remote rural locations, and communicating with vastly
heterogeneous rural consumers etc.

18.2.1 Features of Rural Markets

Features of Rural Markets

There are certain specific features of rural market that need to be considered before going for
rural marketing. These are as follows:

1. Population is large and scattered. In India around 65 percent of population lives in rural
areas. Rate of increase in population is also higher. This large population is scattered in
over six lakh villages. Although it poses some difficulty to the marketers but also gives
them a huge and promising market.

2. Rising purchasing power. Gone are the days when income level of rural people was low.
With the green revolution and opening up of the economy after 1990, India has seen an
overall growth. This has raised the income level of rural consumers as well. It is needless
to mention that higher the income level, higher shall be the purchasing power and
demand.

3. Steady market growth. Rural market is growing steadily over the years. Consumption
pattern and preference is also changing. Unlike the past years, rural market has demand
for branded products along with the traditional products such as bicycles, mopeds and
agricultural inputs. IT and media has further increased the awareness amongst the rural
consumers and there is a surge in demand of cosmetics, FMCGs, consumer durables etc.
over the years.

4. Development of infrastructure facilities. Infrastructure facilities have developed in the

rural areas. This has reduced the distance of villages to the cities. With the construction
of roads and transportation, communication network, rural electrification and several
public service projects run by the government, connectivity of villages to cities has
increased. This has increased the scope of rural marketing.

5. Low standard of living. Although many developments are taking place in rural areas in
India, still the fact remains that the standard of living in villages is relatively lower for
people who comes under the second and third groups of consumers (see section on
rural consumers, discussed above in this unit. People who have sizeable land holdings
but they are not very rich farmers (second group) and the people who are daily laborers
(third group) who mostly demand the goods and services which are necessities, in small
quantities more frequently.
 6. Traditional outlook. Rural consumers value their old values, culture, customs and
tradition. This influences their demand pattern. However, their demand pattern is
changing gradually and demand for cosmetics and branded goods are gradually seeping
in the rural markets.

7. Separate marketing mix is required. Considering the features of the rural market, it
becomes essential for the companies to prepare a separate marketing mix for the rural
markets to tap its potential to the fullest.

18.2.2 Importance of Rural Markets

India is one of the largest markets in the world. The real India lives in villages. Due to various
reasons such as globalization, glocalisation, economic liberalization, IT revolution and improving
infrastructure; rural India has been emerging as significant attraction for the marketers. The
size of rural market in India is so vast that the companies aspiring for growth cannot afford to
overlook this segment of market. The future of companies greatly depends upon understanding
the dynamics of the rural markets. The increasing focus on farm sector has been boosting the
income level of rural consumers. This provides enormous opportunities to the marketers.
Infrastructure facilities are becoming better which in turn will help in improving the supply
chain operations. The consumption pattern of rural consumers is also witnessing a change.

18.2.3 Factors affecting Growth of Rural Market

The various factors that have led to the growth of rural market in India can be summarise as
follows:

a) Increased demand due to increase in population;

b) Agriculture sector is prospering which has risen the rural income;
c) Increased Standard of living;
d) Government and non‐government organizations are taking keen interest in rural
development;
e) Increased literacy rate and educational level;
f) Inflow of foreign remittances and foreign made goods into rural areas;
g) Improved Rural Infrastructure;
h) Increasing awareness of rural consumers about new products; and
i) Growing urban‐rural interaction.

18.2.4 Challenges of Rural Markets:

The various challenges faced by firms in India in respect of rural markets are as follows:
 1. In many remote locations even today the barter system exists. This is one of the
major obstacles in the way of development of rural marketing in India.

2. Impact of information technology is not experienced uniformly across the nation. The
advantage of it has been experienced primarily by the farmers with big land holdings.
Farmers with small land holdings are not able to enjoy the advantage. This inequality
has made the markets underdeveloped even today.

3. In terms of facilities related to physical communication, it is not equally good for all
the corners across the nation. Most villages in eastern part of the country are
inaccessible during monsoons. They do not have all weather roads. This makes the
physical communication very expensive.

4. Demand in rural markets depends primarily on the agricultural situation as agriculture

is the main source of their livelihood. Agriculture in some of the large states of India
such as Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and Madhya Pradesh depends heavily on monsoon. This
means the purchasing power of the customers is dependent upon the monsoon and it
varies from one year to the other. Hence, demand forecasting becomes difficult for the
marketers.

5. Traditional outlook of the rural consumers also poses threats to the marketers. As a
result of traditional thought process their buying decision may be delayed.

6. Difference in language and dialects also poses problems to the marketers. The
language and dialects differ not only from state to state but also from one region to the
other. This makes the formulation of marketing strategy very difficult. At the same time
, the decision of the extent of coverage of the market may be very complex.

7. There are several other factors that pose threats to the rural marketers such as
natural calamities, pests and diseases, drought or excess of rain fall (for instance the
situation of monsoon this year has greatly devastated the rural consumers), lack of
proper storage facility, transportation, Insurance etc.

8. Besides, there are certain other challenges related to rural warehouse, supply chain
operations, rural infrastructure and fluctuation in the price of agricultural products etc.

As a marketer, you cannot afford to overlook these problems and challenges in handling the
rural markets. The only catch here is how well you are able to understand the dynamics of rural
markets and how efficient you are as a marketer to catch hold by the nerves of the rural
consumers. Hence it becomes utmost important to understand the rural consumers and their
buying behavior.
18.2.5 Rural Consumers

In marketing, it is always emphasized that the foremost important thing is to understand the
target customers. Hence a brief idea about rural consumers in India who are different from the
urban customers in terms of taste, preference, education level, socio economic status etc. In
the record most of them are illiterate and have low education levels. Their income levels are
also low. The principal occupation of most of them is farming and some happen to be
craftsmen. Rural consumers differ from region to region and state to state. A consumer in rural
areas of Punjab is considerably different from their counterparts in states like Uttar Pradesh
and Bihar. Similarly the consumers of Kerala and Karnataka are more educated than their
counterparts in other states. There is a difference in the prosperity of consumers of different
regions and states. There are distinct segments in rural markets in India. These can be grouped
in three different categories. In the first group, there are rich farmers who have bigger pieces of
land and have huge surplus income with high purchasing power. Their consumption pattern
matches with the urban consumers. They lead luxurious and urban type lifestyles.

In the second group (category), there are farmers who have enough land but their economic
status is not as prosperous as the first group. However in terms of rural standards they have a
respectable life style and are self sufficient to a great extent. Their purchasing power is good
but less than that of the first category.

The third groups of consumers are farm labourers or daily wage earners. Their purchasing
power is very limited. They buy the required products frequently and that low in small
quantities.

The buying process of rural consumers also varies. Unlike urban markets, their buying decision
is influenced by males of the family. It has also been noted that in urban markets, people make
independent decision, whereas, in rural areas decision may be influenced by the family
members and the community. However the scenario in rural market is also witnessing change.
Marketers have to keep a breast of the changes that are taking place in the rural markets.
These need to be closely monitored. Despite such heterogeneity, there is some kind of
commonality too. On an average, rural consumers are reluctant consumers. They prefer
liquidity and do not want to part with their money easily. Selling very expensive products and
services may be difficult. Price sensitivity is much higher in their case.

Figure 18.1: Unique Features of Rural Consumers

Check Yo
our Progresss A

1. Outlin
ne the imporrtance of rurral markets.

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2. State four
f main features of rural markets.

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3. List ou
ut the importtant challengges of rural markets.
______________________________________________________________________________
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4. Differentiate between urban consumers and rural consumers.

______________________________________________________________________________
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____________

5. Fill in the blanks:

i. Rural market as any place with a population upto ________.

ii. Standard of living in villages is relatively ___________ for people who come under the
second and third groups of consumers.
iii. Demand in rural markets depends primarily on the _________ situation.
iv. The third groups of rural consumers are ________ or _________.
v. In urban markets, people make _________ decision.

18.3 RURAL MARKETING

Quite often rural marketing is confused with agricultural marketing i.e., marketing of
agricultural products to industrial consumers and/or urban consumers. Infact, it refers to selling
processed goods and services to the rural consumers with a separate set of marketing mix.

However, earlier it was thought of selling of rural products in rural and urban areas and selling
of agricultural inputs in rural markets. It was treated as synonymous to agricultural marketing
and was highly influenced by indigenous sellers like baniyas and mahajans (local business
people) and was highly unorganised. After green revolution, the face of rural marketing started
changing. Villages started being prosperous and demand for agricultural inputs started rising.
Government also took several steps such as setting up agencies like Khadi and Village
Industries Commission (KVIC), Indian farmers Fertiliser Cooperative Limited (IFFCO), Krishak
Bharti Cooperative Limited (KRIBHCO), Girijan Co‐operative Societies, Andhra Pradesh State
handloom Weavers Cooperative Society Ltd (APCO fabrics) etc. as well as paying special
attention to promote their products. This resulted into flourishing village industries. Products
made by rural artisans like handicrafts, handloom textiles, crackers etc. hit the urban markets
on a large scale. Further, the opening up of Indian economy and the concept of LPG
(Liberalization, Privatisation and Globalisation) being brought during 1990, the rural marketing
got a greater push. Rural areas witnessed an all round socio economic progress and the
marketers started seeing rural markets as potential market for household consumables and
durables.

Now a days, no company, aspiring for growth and larger market share, can afford to ignore
rural markets and even big retail companies are trying to tap the rural markets.

18.3.1 Definition

“Rural marketing is a function of all efforts made by the companies to move their already
marketed goods and services to the rural consumers that gives them satisfaction, enhances
their standard of living and thereby attains the organizational goal”.

It can be defined as “the process of assessing the region specific demands of goods and services
for the rural markets and making the availability of the demanded goods and services to the
rural consumers that can satisfy their demand, enhance their standard of living and achieve
organizational objectives”.

In fact, rural marketing is a two way communication process. There is inflow of products into
rural markets for production or consumption and there is also outflow of products to urban
areas. The urban to rural flow consists of agricultural inputs, fast moving consumers goods such
as soaps, detergents, cosmetics, textiles and so on. The rural to urban flow consists of
agricultural produce such as rice, wheat, lentils, sugar, cotton etc. There is also a movement of
rural products within rural areas for consumption. Thus, it is a two way marketing process
which includes movement of goods and services from rural areas to urban areas and vice‐versa.
It also includes movement of goods and services within the rural areas for consumption.

18.3.2 Rural Marketing Mix

You have learnt about various aspects of rural markets and rural marketing. You are also aware
about the marketing mix. Let us now learn about rural marketing mix. In order to make their
goods and services acceptable to the rural consumers, the companies need to design their
marketing mix very carefully. Their goods and services have to suit the existing life conditions of
the rural consumers. Current models of electronic gadgets may not be of much use to them as
the basic infrastructure required to use these products is either not present or not enough.
Companies have to consider this fact and they need to come up with a different model of the
same products for the rural consumers. Likewise, they need to customize their product pricing,
distribution and promotion decisions (4Ps of marketing mix) to make it best suited for the rural
consumers. Let us have a look on each of them.

Product and services Decisions: Most of the households in rural areas still may not have
consumer durable products such as television, washing machine, refrigerator, gas stoves etc.
This can be viewed as the rural market potential. The companies dealing with consumer
durables can look up to these as markets for selling their products. Various studies have shown
that rural markets are laggards in picking up new products outdated in urban markets. They
think that those outdated products can be sold in the rural markets. For example, demand for
semi automatic washing machines is decreasing in urban markets but it may have a high
potential in rural markets as it can be used even without taps of running water.

However, the companies dealing with FMCGs cannot jump into the rural markets blind folded
or the same way they operate in urban markets as the consumption pattern of rural consumers
is different from urban consumers. People in villages use jaggery or gur in place of sugar. They
mostly use mustard oil and pure ghee which they can produce or make on their own.
Therefore, FMCG companies will have to make slow and conscious efforts to deliver their
products to the rural consumers. They need to communicate with them in a different way.

As far as services are concerned, the rural markets are very promising. The traditional service
providers such as Nayee (barber) etc are migrating to cities in search of better opportunities
which creates a vacuum that can be tapped by the service providers. Villages also offer a huge
market for services like telecommunication, health, education etc. It needs to be kept in view
that demand for agriculture inputs is quite large in the rural markets.

Pricing Decisions: You must be knowing that the rural consumers prefer liquidity. They do not
want to part away with their money. Especially they do not wish to spend their money on the
products and services that they can grow or make themselves. They are also very price
sensitive. Not only that their source of income may not be very steady and regular. They have
income only when they sell their agricultural produce. But the money is controlled by the eldest
male member of the family. For the other members the only medium of exchange is the grains
available in the house. This is one of the reasons why few organised retailers have started
accepting grains in place of cash in exchange of their goods and services. Alternatively, they
should be ready to sell their products on credit and get the payments only when the harvested
crops are sold by the farmers.

Distribution Decisions: The next thing for the marketers to understand is to where from and
how do the rural consumers buy their goods and services? Rural consumers go to their nearest
cities to buy products like tractors, televisions and other consumer durables. For daily
household needs such as tea, sugar, soaps, detergent powder etc. they go to local markets near
their villages. However, there is no fixed time and schedule for their purchases unlike their
urban counterparts. They buy these goods as and when required and not necessarily on a
regular basis. Hence, the companies have to decide whether they can afford to make
availability of their products in local markets or to have a retailer in each village. A common
retailer can be promoted in each village who can stock all types of goods in his shop.

Promotion Decisions: Buying behavior and pattern of rural consumers is highly influenced by
the communities. Hence word‐ of‐ mouth promotion can prove to be really workable and
useful. Therefore, the companies need to identify the influential people in the villages and
convince them about their goods and services. Promotion through radio can also prove to be
useful as people in villages use radio for news and other entertainment programmes. TV is also
being popular these days and therefore can also be used for the purpose.

A few promotion strategies specific to the rural marketing have also been suggested by
researchers to marketers. These are as follows.
• Promotion should be client and location specific.
• Several related items should be bundled and sold to the rural consumers along with
after sales services.
• Granting Credit facility to the rural consumers can also be extremely helpful market
potential
• A mix of both traditional and modern media can be used for promotion

18.3.3 4A’s of Rural Marketing

Rural markets are luring many companies across different sectors for maintaining their
momentum of growth and they are trying to tap the relatively untapped market. As you know,
the rural consumers are different from their urban counterparts in many ways. Hence, the
companies have to use different marketing strategies keeping in mind the characteristics of
rural consumers.
Those are termed as 4A’s of rural marketing which refers to both challenges of rural markets
and key decision areas. The 4A’s are‐ Affordability, Availability, Awareness and Acceptability.
These are explained here under.

Affordability: This refers to the purchasing power of the rural consumers and their ability to
pay for a particular product or service. Most rural consumers have low disposable income.
Therefore, the marketer has to consider revision of prices. It is not always viable to reduce the
price of the products. Therefore, many companies are coming up with different strategies to
meet this challenge. They are offering their products in smaller quantities and smaller packs so
that it can suit the pocket of rural consumers. The examples are small shampoo sachets, smaller
pack of biscuits, soaps of smaller quantity, smaller bottles of aerated drinks etc. Such initiatives
have actually enlarged their customer base.

Availability: The second such key decision area of rural marketing is the availability of products
and services in the rural market. To ensure the availability of goods and services to the
consumers, the companies have to provide the necessary transportation facilities. The
companies are also adopting various other creative ways to ensure the delivery of their goods
and services. Such as, direct selling using company delivery vans, setting up of temporary stalls
in the village melas, etc. To reach the remote village areas, many companies are using auto
rickshaws, bullock carts and boats etc.

Awareness: The next challenge of rural marketing is creating awareness amongst the rural
consumers about the goods and services being offered by the companies. This implies providing
necessary information to the rural consumers. Mass media is playing an important role in this
regard. The Companies are also using unconventional media to promote their products. Events
in rural areas such as fairs annd festivals,, haats etc. are used to commun nicate the brand
b
awareness. Many co ompanies arre organizingg their speccific promotional eventss, vans and road
shows ettc. for the purpose.
p Many compan nies are trying to involve Gram Paanchayat for the
purpose of creating awareness.
a

Acceptabbility: The 4th “A” of rural

r marketing is acceeptability off the products by the rural
customers. For the products
p to be
b acceptab ble to rural customers, itt is extremelly importantt that
they should suit their requiremeents. The coompanies have to tailor made their offerings fo or the
rural con
nsumers. Thee offerings should have value add‐ons along witth value for money to atttract
rural peo
ople and gain their acceptability foor their prod ducts ‘Samp
poorna TV’ by b LG Electrronic,
and ‘chhootakool refrigerator’ by Godrej are the
t most suiitable examp ples thereoff.

Figgure 18.2: The 4’A’ Approach of Rural Marketing

Affordability
(Price))

Acceptab
bility
(Producct
value)

Aw
wareness
Avaailability
(Comm
municatio
on
(Physical Distributio
on)
or promotion))

18.4
4 EMERGIN
NG TRENDSS OF RURA
AL MARKETTING IN INDIA
You have learnt that rural markets have huge potential but it also has several challenges such as
widely scattered market, poor infrastructure, uneconomic market size and diverse socio
economic profile of rural consumers. Against the back drop of such a challenging environment,
marketers are trying to design creative solutions to achieve success. Packaging of the products
is customized, products are offered in small quantities (biscuits, soaps, snacks etc) and sachets
(shampoo, toothpaste, oil etc). The rural consumers are given extended credit line and for
communication, local mediums such as, folk media, haats and melas are being used. Various
government and non government bodies are taking several initiative to find out solution for the
challenges of rural markets by providing education, health and employment opportunities to
the rural people. ICT revolution has also helped. For example, the well known e‐governance
model of Andhra Pradesh, Gyandoot in Madhtya Pradesh and Jagriti e‐Sewa proved to be a
boon for rural India. Organised retail format is also entering rural India. The magical
combination of ICT and organised retailing has overcome the challenges of rural markets up to
a large extent. Let us have an idea about some of the emerging trends in rural markets.

1. Introduction of online services in rural markets: People in rural India are making use of
online services for crop information, purchase of agri inputs, consumer durables and sale of
rural produce at reasonable prices. Off late, online sale and purchase of quality mangoes are
very popular. Farmers who have been growing quality mangoes are selling these online directly
to the consumers sitting at far off places. Such practice is being introduced in other agriculture
products as well.

2. Encouragement to need based production: Farmers are being encouraged to go in for need‐
based production to avoid oversupply of their produces. This is resulting in reduction of storage
cost and stability in prices.

3. Enriching Financial strength through cost benefit analysis: With the help of information
technology the farmers are given price information of agri products and agri inputs. This helps
them in deciding where to sell their products and from where to buy their agri inputs. This
increases their financial strength.

4. Modifying operations and strategies: Big companies are modifying their operations and
strategies to attract the rural consumers. A few examples are given below.

‐ Hindustan Unilever is making attempts to empower rural women to make its products
reach to rural markets. They are training rural women as “Shakti Ammas”.

‐ Godrej is training rural youth in channel sales and has large format retail stores called
“Adhaar” in rural markets
 ‐ ITC has “e‐Choupal” which aims at eliminating wasteful intermediation and multiple
handling,

5. Emergence of organised retailing into rural markets: Emergence of organised rural retailing
has also brought a significant change in rural markets. Many big companies are entering into
rural markets with their organised retail format such as Choupal Sagar (ITC), Hariyali Kisan
Bazaars (DCM Shriram), Tata Kisan Sagar (Tata Chemicals), Adhaar (The Godrej groups) etc. The
government has also established some rural networks such as the Public Distribution System
(PDS), Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) Rural banks and Indian Farmers Fertilizers
Cooperative Limited (IFFCO).

Check Your Progress B

1. Define ‘rural marketing’.

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2. Explain the concept of rural marketing mix and its term Ps.

______________________________________________________________________________
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3. Explain the 4 A’s of Rural Marketing.

______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
____________

4. Narrate the emerging trends in rural markets in India.

5. State whether the following statements are True or False:

i. Rural marketing is same as agricultural marketing

ii. In rural marketing there is only inflow of products into rural markets for production or
consumption.
 iii. Buying behavior and pattern of rural consumers is highly influenced by the
communities.
iv. Affordability refers to the purchasing power of the rural consumers and their ability to
pay for a particular product or service.
v. ITC’s “e‐Choupal” aims at eliminating wasteful intermediation and multiple handling.

18.5 LET US SUM UP

With the liberalization of Indian economy, we have witnessed changes in all the fronts. On the
marketing front, the major change was arrival of many well known Multinational Corporations ,
popularly known as MNCs. Initially they tapped the well developed urban markets. This lured
many companies to enter into the market which also brought tough competition and eventually
the stage of saturation came in those markets. Now, the companies started to focus on the
large untapped market segment. Government initiative to strengthen the rural India resulted
into the rapid growth of rural income, thus increasing the purchasing power of the rural
population. The vast size of the rural markets and large demand offers enormous opportunities
to the marketers. But it is important to understand that in rural marketing there are lots of
challenges as well. Marketers, who are looking at the challenges and opportunities, offered by
rural India and understand the dynamics of the rural markets, are able to take the advantage of
it.

Rural marketing is a two way marketing process where it includes movement of goods and
services from rural areas to urban areas and vice‐versa. It also includes movement of goods and
services within the rural areas for consumption.

Features of rural marketing are large and scattered population, Rising Purchasing power, steady
market growth, development of infrastructure facilities, low standard of living and traditional
outlook of the rural consumers.

A separate marketing mix is required in rural marketing. This is popularly known as 4A’s of Rural
marketing i.e., Acceptability, Affordability, Awareness and Availability.

With the combined efforts of Government and corporate bodies along with NGOs and
organised retailing, rural marketing is witnessing a remarkable favourable change and growth.

18.6 KEY WORDS

Rural Market: A habitation with a population density of less than 400 per sq. km, where most
working population is engaged in agriculture and where municipality does not exist.
Rural Consumers: The persons living in rural areas.

Rural Marketing Mix: Consisting 4Ps (product, price, physical distribution and promotion) as
applicable to rural markets.

Rural Marketing: A process of assessing region specific demands of goods and services for the
rural markets and marketing these available to the rural consumers.

Rural Retailing: It is retailing in rural areas

18.7 ANSWERS TO CHECK YOUR PROGRESS

A. 5. i. 2,000 ii. Lower iii. Agricultural iv. Farm labourers, daily wage earner v. independent
B. 5. i. False ii. False iii. True iv. True v. True

18.8 TERMINAL QUESTIONS

1. Define Rural Market and discuss unique features of rural consumers.

2. Describe the various challenges faced by firms in India in respect of rural market with suitable
examples.

3. Explain different segments of rural markets and discuss the factors affecting their growth in India.

4. Define rural marketing and discuss its 4 A’s.

5. “In order to make their goods and services acceptable to rural consumers the companies need to
design their marketing mix carefully.” Discuss.

6. Describe the emerging trends of rural marketing in India.