Years before, he was Mahatma Gandhi who had appealed, “Come to
villages.” And alas! None cared. But times have turned the tables now. The Indian
rural market has a huge demand base ad offers great opportunities to marketers.
Two-thirds of Indian consumers live in rural areas and almost half of the
national income is generated here. The reasons for heading into the rural areas
are fairly clear. The urban consumer durable market for products like color TVs, washing machines,
refrigerators and air conditioners is growing annually at between 7 per cent
and 10 per cent.
The rural market is zooming ahead at
around 25 per cent annually. "The rural market is growing faster than
urban India now," says Venugopal Dhoot, chairman of the Rs 989 –crore (Rs
billion) Videocon Appliances. "The urban market is a replacement and up
gradation market today," adds Samsung's director, marketing, Ravinder
Zutshi. 'Go rural' is the slogan of
marketing gurus after analyzing the socio-economic changes in villages. If proper and innovative SCOT analysis
of neo- order markets is carried out, it will prove fruitful in not only boosting
and serving rural markets but to build a strong brand and get distinguished
also, thus a win- win situation will blossom.
