4 A's of rural marketing

4 A's of rural marketing

Adaptability
Availability
Affordability
Acceptability

1. Commitment from the top management: This must be total and management must realize that it is long haul and an investment into the future, otherwise RM will not give long term results. He sites HLL and ITC examples.
2. Getting a dedicated task force: Rajan says that RM requires a dedicated mindset which many urban oriented MBA's don't possess. He suggest hiring of the RM team from students from RM institutes like IIRM or students with fire in their belly about RM from second level institutes, those who have taken RM as an elective course. He also advocates treating and paying such employees well and giving them an indication of their career graphs in the company. He reverts to an old saying - You pay peanuts, you get monkeys.
3. Setting Clear Objectives: It is important to clearly define, in the early stages, the goals for the RM initiative and whether the initiative is a tactical effort to achieve increased sales in specific areas during specific time or build strong equity for the brand in Rural India.
4. Understanding the Mindset of Consumers: Understanding of the mindset of the rural customer is important for the rural specialist to come up with a customized plan of action. The Rural market is heterogeneous with traditions and cultures that vary from state to state, even region to region in some cases. Most companies equate their findings from studies based on urban India to the rural segment and initiate a strategy based on this. Rajan says that his experience shows that the attitudes, fears, expectations, aspirations, comprehensions of rural customers to products and brands are different from urban customers. Advantages of such research are manifold because they give valuable ideas for new product development to suit the market - (a case in point a refrigerator with a twelve hour battery backup to take care of the power outages in rural areas), or new methods of physically reaching out to rural folks, along with insights into the right communications strategy and delivery (media) strategy
5. Ensuring availability: In most cases, distribution is one of the biggest nightmares; the task of reaching products to 600,000 plus villages is a challenge. TVC's have raised the aspirations of the rural customer and makes him demand the product from the local shopkeeper, who then buys the required quantity from the nearest feeder, markets that he visits regularly for his supplies. Hence feeder markets such as towns and villages having populations of 10,000 to 15,000 initially must be provided for to start the first steps towards RM
6. Evolving a Comprehensive strategy: A comprehensive strategy involving multimedia (including mass media, where necessary) has better results as compared to those one-off projects with limited goals.
7. Involve the Region: RM is a highly regional subject, with a company's regional teams being specialists in their respective regions. Involving them from the word go to ensure ownership of the campaign by the region, and also getting their insights and inputs in the development implementation of the campaign is essential
8. Developing full proof plan implementation: Conducting a pilot in one taluk in one district of a state to gain insights from it, before a national roll out of a rural campaign is not realistic. To get meaningful results, both in terms of impact and sales, the pilot must cover at least as few districts' of the state, if not the whole state. The implementation plan must be as comprehensive as possible to ensure that all the elements to be checked out are included in the plan. Implementation of any rural campaign requires meticulous ground level planning and a thorough briefing and training of the field level people before execution. Sufficient time must be given to the agency to check out all the elements, before getting into the field
9. Provide adequate budget: A decent budget could be spelt out by a rural specialist, depending on the task and the region. If the budget is limited, it should not be spread thin by trying to look at too many markets. If a company feels that it has a bright future in rural markets or would like to target the rural markets, then it is better to invest today so that the early mover advantage is gained to reap rich rewards in the future. But miracles should not be expected overnight, neither should hope be lost
10. Evaluating the Results: The three areas that should be studied to understand that impact of a Rural campaign, according to Rajan are: Brand awareness, Brand Conversion, Increase in sales