Shiksha_Ka_Badlta_Sawrop

Marketing is the process used to determine what products or services may be of interest to customers, and the strategy to use in sales, communications and business development. It generates the strategy that underlies sales techniques, business communication, and business developments. It is an integrated process through which companies build strong customer relationships and create value for their customers and for themselves. Marketing is used to identify the customer, satisfy the customer, and keep the customer. With the customer as the focus of its activities, marketing management is one of the major components of business management. Marketing evolved to meet the stasis in developing new markets caused by mature markets and overcapacities in the last 2-3 centuries.[citation needed] The adoption of marketing strategies requires businesses to shift their focus from production to the perceived needs and wants of their customers as the means of staying profitable.[citation needed] The term marketing concept holds that achieving organizational goals depends on knowing the needs and wants of target markets and delivering the desired satisfactions. It proposes that in order to satisfy its organizational objectives, an organization should anticipate the needs and wants of consumers and satisfy these more effectively than competitors. Further definitions Marketing is further defined by the AMA as an organizational function and a set of processes for creating, communicating, and delivering value to customers and for managing customer relationships in ways that benefit the organization and its stakeholders. The term developed from an original meaning which referred literally to going to a market to buy or sell goods or services. Seen from a systems point of view, sales process engineering marketing is "a set of processes that are interconnected and interdependent with other functions, whose methods can be improved using a variety of relatively new approaches." The Chartered Institute of Marketing defines marketing as "the management process responsible for identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer requirements profitably." A different concept is the value-based marketing which states the role of marketing to contribute to increasing shareholder value. In this context, marketing is defined as "the management process that seeks to maximize returns to shareholders by developing relationships with valued customers and creating a competitive advantage." Marketing practice tended to be seen as a creative industry in the past, which included advertising, distribution and selling. However, because the academic study of marketing makes extensive use of social sciences, psychology, sociology, mathematics, economics, anthropology and neuroscience, the profession is now widely recognized as a science, allowing numerous universities to offer Master-of-Science (MSc) programmes. The overall process starts with marketing research and goes through market segmentation, business planning and execution, ending with pre- and post-sales promotional activities. It is also related to many of the creative arts. The marketing literature is also adept at re-inventing itself and its vocabulary according to the times and the culture. Browne (2010) reveals that supermarkets intensively research and study consumer behaviour, spending millions of dollars. Their aim is to make sure that shoppers leave spending much more than they originally planned. ‘Choice’ examined the theory of trolleyology finding that many shoppers instinctively look to the right when they’re in the supermarket. Supermarkets prey on this biological trait by positioning many expensive impulse buying products to the right of the checkout. These products consist of the latest DVDs, magazines, chocolates, expensive batteries and other tempting products that wouldn’t normally be thought of. Supermarkets move products around to confuse shoppers, the entry point is another marketing tactic. Consumer psychologist Dr. Paul Harrison (cited in Browne, 2010) states that supermarkets are constantly using different methodologies of selling. One method is performing regular overhauls changing the locations of products all around to break habitual shopping, and break your budget. Harrison also contends that people who are shopping in a counter clockwise direction are likely to spend more money than people shopping in a clockwise direction. Consumer psychologists (cited in Browne, 2010) reported that most people write with their right hand, thus it is a biological trait that people have the tendency of veering to the right when shopping, it is understood that supermarkets capitalize on this fact. Found on the capturing right-hand side are usually appealing products that a shopper might impulsively e.g. an umbrella when the weather is dull. Evolution of marketing An orientation, in the marketing context, related to a perception or attitude a firm holds towards its product or service, essentially concerning consumers and end-users. Throughout history, marketing has changed considerably in conjunction with consumer tastes. Earlier approaches The marketing orientation evolved from earlier orientations, namely, the production orientation, the product orientation and the selling orientation. Orientation | Profit driver | Western European timeframe | Description | Production | Production methods | until the 1950s | A firm focusing on a production orientation specializes in producing as much as possible of a given product or service. Thus, this signifies a firm exploiting economies of scale until the minimum efficient scale is reached. A production orientation may be deployed when a high demand for a product or service exists, coupled with a good certainty that consumer tastes will not rapidly alter (similar to the sales orientation). | Product | Quality of the product | until the 1960s | A firm employing a product orientation is chiefly concerned with the quality of its own product. A firm would also assume that as long as its product was of a high standard, people would buy and consume the product. | Selling | Selling methods | 1950s and 1960s | A firm using a sales orientation focuses primarily on the selling/promotion of a particular product, and not determining new consumer desires as such. Consequently, this entails simply selling an already existing product, and using promotion techniques to attain the highest sales possible.Such an orientation may suit scenarios in which a firm holds dead stock, or otherwise sells a product that is in high demand, with little likelihood of changes in consumer tastes that would diminish demand. | Marketing | Needs and wants of customers | 1970 to present day | The 'marketing orientation' is perhaps the most common orientation used in contemporary marketing. It involves a firm essentially basing its marketing plans around the marketing concept, and thus supplying products to suit new consumer tastes. As an example, a firm would employ market research to gauge consumer desires, use R&D to develop a product attuned to the revealed information, and then utilize promotion techniques to ensure persons know the product exists. | Contemporary approaches Recent approaches in marketing include relationship marketing with focus on the customer, business marketing or industrial marketing with focus on an organization or institution and social marketing with focus on benefits to society.[10] New forms of marketing also use the internet and are therefore calledinternet marketing or more generally e-marketing, online marketing, search engine marketing, desktop advertising or affiliate marketing. It attempts to perfect the segmentation strategy used in traditional marketing. It targets its audience more precisely, and is sometimes called personalized marketing or one-to-one marketing. Internet marketing is sometimes considered to be broad in scope, because it not only refers to marketing on the Internet, but also includes marketing done via e-mail and wireless media. Orientation | Profit driver | Western European timeframe | Description | Relationship marketing /Relationship management[10] | Building and keeping good customer relations | 1960s to present day | Emphasis is placed on the whole relationship between suppliers and customers. The aim is to provide the best possible customer service and build customer loyalty. | Business marketing /Industrial marketing | Building and keeping relationships betweenorganizations | 1980s to present day | In this context, marketing takes place betweenbusinesses or organizations. The product focus lies onindustrial goods or capital goods rather than consumerproducts or end products. Different forms of marketing activities, such as promotion, advertising and communication to the customer are used. | Social marketing | Benefit to society | 1990s to present day | Similar characteristics as marketing orientation but with the added proviso that there will be a curtailment of any harmful activities to society, in either product, production, or selling methods. | Branding | Brand value | 1980s to present day | In this context, "branding" is the main company philosophy and marketing is considered an instrument of branding philosophy. | ------------------------------------------------- Customer orientation A firm in the market economy survives by producing goods that persons are willing and able to buy. Consequently, ascertaining consumer demand is vital for a firm's future viability and even existence as a going concern. Many companies today have a customer focus (or market orientation). This implies that the company focuses its activities and products on consumer demands. Generally, there are three ways of doing this: the customer-driven approach, the market change identification approach and the product innovation approach[citation needed]. In the consumer-driven approach, consumer wants are the drivers of all strategic marketing decisions. No strategy is pursued until it passes the test of consumer research. Every aspect of a market offering, including the nature of the product itself, is driven by the needs of potential consumers. The starting point is always the consumer. The rationale for this approach is that there is no reason to spend R&D funds developing products that people will not buy. History attests to many products that were commercial failures in spite of being technological breakthroughs.[11] A formal approach to this customer-focused marketing is known as SIVA[12] (Solution, Information, Value, Access). This system is basically the four Ps renamed and reworded to provide a customer focus. The SIVA Model provides a demand/customer-centric alternative to the well-known 4Ps supply side model (product, price, placement, promotion) of marketing management. Product → Solution Promotion → Information Price → Value Place → Access If any of the 4Ps were problematic or were not in the marketing factor of the business, the business could be in trouble and so other companies may appear in the surroundings of the company, so the consumer demand on its products will decrease. Some qualifications or caveats for customer focus exist. They do not invalidate or contradict the principle of customer focus; rather, they simply add extra dimensions of awareness and caution to it. The work of Christensen and colleagues[13] on disruptive technology has produced a theoretical framework that explains the failure of firms not because they were technologically inept (often quite the opposite), but because the value networks in which they profitably operated included customers who could not value a disruptive innovation at the time and capability state of its emergence and thus actively dissuaded the firms from developing it. The lessons drawn from this work include: Taking customer focus with a grain of salt, treating it as only a subset of one's corporate strategy rather than the sole driving factor. This means looking beyond current-state customer focus to predict what customers will be demanding some years in the future, even if they themselves discount the prediction. Pursuing new markets (thus new value networks) when they are still in a commercially inferior or unattractive state, simply because their potential to grow and intersect with established markets and value networks looks like a likely bet. This may involve buying stakes in the stock of smaller firms, acquiring them outright, or incubating small, financially distinct units within one's organization to compete against them. Other caveats of customer focus are: The extent to which what customers say they want does not match their purchasing decisions. Thus surveys of customers might claim that 70% of a restaurant's customers want healthier choices on the menu, but only 10% of them actually buy the new items once they are offered. This might be acceptable except for the extent to which those items are money-losing propositions for the business, bleeding red ink. A lesson from this type of situation is to be smarter about the true test validity of instruments like surveys. A corollary argument is that "truly understanding customers sometimes means understanding them better than they understand themselves." Thus one could argue that the principle of customer focus, or being close to the customers, is not violated here—just expanded upon. The extent to which customers are currently ignorant of what one might argue they should want—which is dicey because whether it can be acted upon affordably depends on whether or how soon the customers will learn, or be convinced, otherwise. IT hardware and software capabilities and automobile features are examples. Customers who in 1997 said that they would not place any value on internet browsing capability on a mobile phone, or 6% better fuel efficiency in their vehicle, might say something different today, because the value proposition of those opportunities has changed. [edit]Organizational orientation In this sense, a firm's marketing department is often seen as of prime importance within the functional level of an organization. Information from an organization's marketing department would be used to guide the actions of other departments within the firm. As an example, a marketing department could ascertain (via marketing research) that consumers desired a new type of product, or a new usage for an existing product. With this in mind, the marketing department would inform the R&D department to create a prototype of a product/service based on consumers' new desires. The production department would then start to manufacture the product, while the marketing department would focus on the promotion, distribution, pricing, etc. of the product. Additionally, a firm's finance department would be consulted, with respect to securing appropriate funding for the development, production and promotion of the product. Inter-departmental conflicts may occur, should a firm adhere to the marketing orientation. Production may oppose the installation, support and servicing of new capital stock, which may be needed to manufacture a new product. Finance may oppose the required capital expenditure, since it could undermine a healthy cash flow for the organization. Marketing research Main article: Marketing research Marketing research involves conducting research to support marketing activities, and the statistical interpretation of data into information. This information is then used by managers to plan marketing activities, gauge the nature of a firm's marketing environment and attain information from suppliers. Marketing researchers use statistical methods such as quantitative research, qualitative research, hypothesis tests, Chi-squared tests, linear regression, correlations, frequency distributions, poisson distributions, binomial distributions, etc. to interpret their findings and convert data into information. The marketing research process spans a number of stages, including the definition of a problem, development of a research plan, collection and interpretation of data and disseminating information formally in the form of a report. The task of marketing research is to provide management with relevant, accurate, reliable, valid, and current information. A distinction should be made between marketing research and market research. Market research pertains to research in a given market. As an example, a firm may conduct research in a target market, after selecting a suitable market segment. In contrast, marketing research relates to all research conducted within marketing. Thus, market research is a subset of marketing research. Types of marketing research Marketing research, as a sub-set aspect of marketing activities, can be divided into the following parts: Primary research (also known as field research), which involves the conduction and compilation of research for a specific purpose. Secondary research (also referred to as desk research), initially conducted for one purpose, but often used to support another purpose or end goal. By these definitions, an example of primary research would be market research conducted into health foods, which is used solely to ascertain the needs/wants of the target market for health foods. Secondary research in this case would be research pertaining to health foods, but used by a firm wishing to develop an unrelated product. Primary research is often expensive to prepare, collect and interpret from data to information. Nevertheless, while secondary research is relatively inexpensive, it often can become outdated and outmoded, given that it is used for a purpose other than the one for which it was intended. Primary research can also be broken down into quantitative research and qualitative research, which, as the terms suggest, pertain to numerical and non-numerical research methods and techniques, respectively. The appropriateness of each mode of research depends on whether data can be quantified (quantitative research), or whether subjective, non-numeric or abstract concepts are required to be studied (qualitative research). There also exist additional modes of marketing research, which are: Exploratory research, pertaining to research that investigates an assumption. Descriptive research, which, as the term suggests, describes "what is". Predictive research, meaning research conducted to predict a future occurrence. Conclusive research, for the purpose of deriving a conclusion via a research process Use of technologies Marketing management can also rely on various technologies within the scope of its marketing efforts. Computer-based information systems can be employed, aiding in better processing and storage of data. Marketing researchers can use such systems to devise better methods of converting data into information, and for the creation of enhanced data gathering methods. Information technology can aid in enhancing an MKIS' software and hardware components, and improve a company's marketing decision-making process. In recent years, the notebook personal computer has gained significant market share among laptops, largely due to its more user-friendly size and portability. Information technology typically progresses at a fast rate, leading to marketing managers being cognizant of the latest technological developments. Moreover, the launch of smartphones into the cellphone market is commonly derived from a demand among consumers for more technologically advanced products. A firm can lose out to competitors should it ignore technological innovations in its industry. Technological advancements can lessen barriers between countries and regions. Using the World Wide Web, firms can quickly dispatch information from one country to another without much restriction. Prior to the mass usage of the Internet, such transfers of information would have taken longer to send, especially if done via snail mail, telex, etc. Recently, there has been a large emphasis on data analytics. Data can be mined from various sources such as online forms, mobile phone applications and more recently, social media. [edit]Services marketing Services marketing relates to the marketing of services, as opposed to tangible products. A service (as opposed to a good) is typically defined as follows: The use of it is inseparable from its purchase (i.e., a service is used and consumed simultaneously) It does not possess material form, and thus cannot be touched, seen, heard, tasted, or smelled. The use of a service is inherently subjective, meaning that several persons experiencing a service would each experience it uniquely. For example, a train ride can be deemed a service. If one buys a train ticket, the use of the train is typically experienced concurrently with the purchase of the ticket. Although the train is a physical object, one is not paying for the permanent ownership of the tangible components of the train. Services (compared with goods) can also be viewed as a spectrum. Not all products are pure goods, nor are all pure services. An example would be a restaurant, where a waiter's service is intangible, but the food is tangible. Rural Marketing is Rural Marketing is defined as any marketing activity in which one dominant participant is from a rural area. This implies that rural marketing consists of marketing of inputs (products or services) to the rural as well as marketing of outputs from the rural markets to other geographical areas. Marketing is the process used to determine what products or services may be of interest to customers, and the strategy to use in sales, communications and business development. It generates the strategy that underlies sales techniques, business communication, and business developments. It is an integrated process through which companies build strong customer relationships and create value for their customers and for themselves. Rural areas of the country or countryside are areas that are not urbanized, though when large areas are described country towns and smaller cities will be included. They have a low population density, and typically much of the land is devoted to agriculture. Defra have a working definition, The Rural/Urban Definition, that was introduced in 2004 as a joint project between a number of Government Departments and was delivered by the Rural Evidence Research Centre at Birkbeck College (RERC). Marketing strategies that worked for urban markets do not necessarily work for the rural ones. There are 7 differentiators identified in Why the rural market is different, JWT, 2009 1. Intra community influences are relatively more important than inter-community ones. Word-of-mouth in close knit communities is more powerful. 2. Scarcity of media bandwidth. Rural individual's access to media channels is limited and in the case of broadband the comparable upload and download speed may be slower. Online shopping is seen as a solution by many but will be dependent on broadband speed.[1] 3. Slow to adopt brands. Slow to give them up. Rural consumers will be slower to pick up trends or brands but will remain loyal when accepted. 4. Expenses are year long; income is seasonal. Many rural areas rely on seasonal tourism peaks when income will be high and to a lesser extent agricultural incomes from seasonal crops. This means there will be more disposable income at certain times with rural businesses and employees. 5. Information hungry; but entertainment starved. Isolation from entertainment centres has led to companies trying edutainment to get their message across. 6. Higher receptivity to experience advertising. Retail outlets in rural areas have many demonstration areas along with markets for tasting. 7. Commercially profitable; and socially acceptable. Brands with demonstrable local, rural, environmental and/or social credibility stand a better chance. Rural marketing is the much talked about subject for the business establishments – especially the FMCG and the consumer durable industry. A large number of companies have made a big headway by focusing themselves on rural markets. It proved to be an opportunity rather than a problem for the marketers to concentrate on rural markets and the poor. Many of them who had earlier ignored this segment due to lot of investment requirements and low returns have again started foraying into it and targeted the rural masses. They attempted all the feasible approaches to sell the products to the rural consumers that met their lifestyles and living standards. Several large companies like HLL, ITC, Coca-Cola, LG, Britannia, Philips, Colgate-Palmolive etc., penetrated aggressively into the rural markets and spent heavily in the rural areas. Some of them even invested money to create separate sales and marketing teams exclusively for rural markets. They also appointed specialist agencies who could advise them on rural marketing. Rural markets in India constitute a wide and untapped market for many products and services which are being marketed for the urban masses. There is a demand for telecommunication services to be provided to in these areas. Till now it was government which was trying to reach the villages through various initiates, but the rural tele-density is very poor and can be improved only through the introduction of modern and suitable technology along with participation from the private operators. The paper here would like to make a strong case for the use of mobile technology for rural areas versus the land line, and that the initiative has to come from the private telecom operators rather than the government end. The various marketing issues related to marketing of telecommunication services in rural areas area seen through the 4 As framework and the experiences of other countries studied for learning. The structure of paper is as follows, the first section would give a brief introduction to rural markets in India and the current status of telecommunication services. Section two talks about the linkage which exists between the telecommunication services and development, followed by a detailed section on the Bottom of the pyramid and 4 As model to address rural telecommunication issues. Next section looks at the successful experiences of four countries in rural telecommunication in rural areas. In the conclusion the implications are brought out for the Indian market. But all said and done, how far were the company’s successful in offering their products to the rural consumers' This remains a big question for the management of these corporate houses. Most of the products purchased by the rural masses were at times used for some unusual purposes other than what they were basically made or manufactured for. Like the Godrej hair dye is used by the rural consumers for applying on their buffaloes to make them look immaculate black before displaying in the market for sale. Of course, if viewed optimistically, this in one way gave scope for the companies to market their product in an innovative way and also push up the sales figures further. But what about the fundamental purpose for which it was manufactured' There is no correlation between the kind of usage of the product and the application of the marketer's strategies. It is a disproportionate to the extensive research that a company usually does before entering a new market or launching a new product and the outcome it expects. This also gives scope to raise a query to the marketer whether he had properly assessed his marketing strategies and the basic requirements of the customers before planning his strategies. The company needs to analyze this aspect before it proceeds further with dumping the products on rural consumers and thinks of capturing the rural market in a big way by any means. The Rural Market Scenario: The rural markets offered a huge potential to the business houses because of their enormous spread and rising consumer demands. Around the world, over 4 billion people survived in rural areas that came to more than 60 percent of the total population. In India also, the ratio of rural to urban population was slightly higher than the world's ratio with 70 percent of them living in rural areas. They domiciled in nearly 6,27,000 villages spread over 3.2 million sq. km. This growing affluence along with good monsoon and the increased agriculture output, increased the total disposable income of rural consumers to 58 percent with two-third of middle income households being in the rural market. About 40 percent of the graduates coming out of Indian Universities were from rural areas. As they are eager to earn more and live better, their aspirations are similar to the urban youth. It is predicted by industry analysts that by 2009 – 10, the urban households are projected to grow by 4 percent while rural households are expected to grow by 11 percent. If the rural income rose by 1%, then the buying power would correspondingly increase by about Rs. 10,000 crore. The colour televisions, refrigerators, air-conditioners and microwaves have become a household sight in villages and small townships that was long thought of as a luxury and domain of urbanites. However, rural India had its own set of problems like illiteracy, early childhood marriages, lack of access to birth control measures, poverty etc., that were interdependent on each other. There are also large numbers of daily wage earners and most of the people depended on vagaries of monsoon. Inadequate infrastructure like non-availability of gas supply, frequent power cuts, improper sanitary conditions, inaccessible areas were the other common sight of rural areas. The paradigm shift: In most of the rural areas in different parts of the country, there is considerable awareness on various latest products that are available in the market. This has been possible due to the penetration of cable and satellite channels that have brought down the world at the finger tips of the common man. The media influenced the mindset of the rural consumer to such an extent that people who had money started purchasing the products unmindful of the costs, just to satisfy their needs as well as their ego. But, the growth of rural market could be attributed to many other reasons that in one way increased the sales as well as the profits of the companies. Some of the important causes for the growth of rural markets are – * The rise in disposable income of the rural families * The economic boom * Timely rains * Rural population involved themselves in business other than agriculture * Increase white-collar jobs in nearby towns * Commercialization of agriculture * Saturation of the urban markets * Media penetration in rural areas (particularly satellite channels) * Globalization * Economic liberalization * Revolution in the Information Technology * Women empowerment * Improving infrastructure However, there was a significant role of the corporate enterprises simultaneously in the development of rural market. Their timely intervention into the rural areas, their appropriate planning, their perception and identification about the growth of rural markets and the use of marketing strategies all have equally contributed for the progress of rural markets. Even though corporate houses were hedged with so many problems in the rural areas, they saw a galore of opportunities in the rural market and converted all the pessimistic characteristics of the rural market into affirmative attributes. They satisfied themselves with the availability of limited infrastructure, saw a sign of prosperity rather than fear during the entry of competitors into the rural markets, showed excitement at the availability of satellite channels in the rural households, visualized their cash bells ringing with the increase in purchasing power of the rural masses that came equivalent to their urban counterparts. They traced a constant rise in the demand for those products that were once confined mostly to the urban houses. But, blame it on the kind of awareness created by the companies – people started using the products for other purposes as seen earlier. In many villages, one can see today the alternate use of the products other than for their actual purpose. People in the state of Bihar feed the cattle with Horlicks as a health drink to fatten them! Similarly, people in Punjab use washing machine not for washing clothes but to make frothy lassi in huge quantities! Animals are rubbed with Iodex on their skins to relieve them from muscular pains after a day's hard work. Paints meant for houses are used on the horns of cattle for easy identification and theft prevention! The weavers in North India wear condoms on their fingers as gloves to weave fine threads while its lubrication allows them fine control on threads and protect their sensitive fingers! If companies felt happy with their increased sales and profits through this means and thought that they captured the rural markets, then it is time for them to review their marketing strategies. They should understand that these results do not coincide with the application of the marketing tools and the technical expertise that are generally used to satisfy the customers as well as the company objectives. The implications of 4 Ps of marketing mix or the use of 4 As for successful rural marketing have produced wrong results. All companies usually claim that they provide the right product at the right place at right price with right kind of promotion. Then why was a right product accepted by the rural consumer used for different purpose' Why did he afford to spend either much or less on the product that has not derived him the kind of benefit as claimed by the manufacturer' Why did the place of offer differ than to where and to whom it actually was supposed to be available' Why the right promotion has created wrong awareness in the minds of the target customers' There was something missing in the marketing strategies of the companies while serving the rural markets. Otherwise, the results should have been more astonishing where the sales turnover or the balance sheet would have shown much more than what is presently achieved. Though, only few products were used by the consumers in this way, that use might be the result of the accidental or wrongful application by the rural consumers. The marketer's planning about the product and the communication with the target customers should be perfect that produces the desired results. The Marketer's Plan: If the marketer truly understands the needs of the rural consumers, he should strive to provide them with those products and services that would meet their requirements. The marketer has to focus on his core competencies like the technological expertise to design the products for the rural masses. Companies like Cavin Care who launched their shampoo in sachets, Britannia who conveniently packaged its Tiger brand biscuits with low price tag are the best examples of understanding the rural customer's needs and providing them with the desired products. The marketer's basic need is to understand the pulse of the rural masses and serve them accordingly. The companies need to make proper assessment while marketing for the rural India. This could most probably happen in one way by changing the profile of their managers. As most of them are management graduates bred in urban areas and are taught marketing principles and strategies applicable for the western countries, there is a mismatch in their thinking and the requirements of the rural consumers. Hence, hiring professionals who have expertise in rural marketing would go a long way to improve the situation as they can truly understand the rural traditions and cultures, understand the feelings of rural people before designing and actually launching the product. It is very essential for the rural marketer to understand the psychology of their consumers in terms of their usage habits and shopping behavior along with their emotions and value systems. The integration of both technological and managerial knowledge would help them to develop the various marketing strategies for the rural Indian markets. This will further lead to technologically superior, robust and low cost products that would be in resemblance with the Indian tradition and culture. The marketers may also consider depending more on traditional media when marketing for rural consumers. This unconventional method acts as an effective way to create awareness as mass media is unreliable as it is too glamorous and interpersonal for the rural market. Uses of skits, magic shows, and education by NGOs are some of the most preferred traditional media which the marketers can usually use as it goes well with the tastes of the rural consumers. Conclusion: The rural India that has lot of money with it definitely offers a great potential for the companies where the chances of outnumbering the urban areas in all aspects are very high. But only those companies would survive at these places and win over the rural consumers who can spend time and money on understanding the needs of them and come up with innovative ideas. The companies should also strive to give more focus to the rural market in order to make it a market leader. This can happen only with the firm commitment of the top management and extension of full support to the marketing personnel by each and every department of the organization. Bibliography www.indiauntouched.com Strategies for improving marketing within rural areas Considering the environment in which the rural market operates and other related problems, it is possible to evolve effective strategies for rural marketing. The strategies discussed here though not universally applicable depend upon product characteristics, the targeted segment of the rural market, the choice of the rural area and its economic condition. Some of the typical characteristics which will help in rural market segmentation are land holding pattern, irrigation facilities, progressiveness of farmers, cropping pattern; mix of enterprise, education levels, proximity to cities/towns, sociological factors, occupation categories. The small and marginal farmers, agricultural labourers and artisans forms the largest segment in rural market (about 2/3rd) where as rich farmers constitute about one third of rural market. An appropriate segmentation of the highly heterogeneous rural market and identification of the needs and works of different segments will form the very basis for rural market strategies. For rural market, it will be ideal to think of strategies from the marketing mix point of view, main strategies are related to product, price, place and promotion which are described as follows. A. Product strategies Meaningful product strategies for rural market and rural consumers are discussed here. 1. Small unit and low priced packing Larger pack sizes are out of reach for rural consumers because of their price and usage habits. This method has been tested by other products like shampoos, biscuits, pickles, vicks five gram tins, etc. In the strategy of keeping the low priced packed the objective is to keep the price low so that the entire rural community can try. This may not be possible in all types of products, but wherever this can be resorted to, the market is bound to expand. 2. New product designs A close observation of rural household items indicates the importance of redesigning or modifying the products. The manufacturing and marketing men can think in terms of new product designs specially meant for rural areas keeping their lifestyles in view. 3. Sturdy products Sturdiness of a product either in terms of weight or appearance is an important fact for rural consumers. The product meant for rural areas should be sturdy enough to stand rough handling and storage. People in rural areas like bright flashy colours such as red, blue, green etc., and feel that products with such colours are sturdy but they are more concerned with the utility of the item also. 4. Brand name The rural consumers are more concerned with the utility of the products. The brand name awareness in the rural areas is fairly high. A brand name and/or logo is very essential for rural consumers for it can be easily remembered. B. Pricing strategies Pricing strategies are very much linked to product strategies. Some of these strategies are mentioned here. 1. Low cost/cheap products This is a common strategy being adopted widely by many manufacturing and marketing men. Price can be kept low by small unit packings. 2. Avoid sophisticated packing Simple package can be adopted which can bring down the cost as it is presently being done in the case of biscuits. Some innovation in packing technology is very necessary for rural markets. 3. Refill packs/reusable packaging Such measures have a significant impact on the rural market. By such technology also the price can be reduced. In addition the packaging material used should preferably lend itself for reuse in rural areas. An ideal example in this direction can be the packing of fertilizers. Now companies have started packing fertilizers in LDPE or HDPE sacks, which are not only tamper proof but also reusable. 4. Application of value engineering This is a technique which can be tried to evolve cheaper products by substituting the costly raw material with the cheaper one, without sacrificing the quality or functional efficiency of the product, for example in food industry, 'soya protein is being used instead of milk protein. Milk protein is expensive while soya protein is cheaper but the nutrition value is same. This technique yields itself for application in many engineering or product designed areas so that the price can be kept at an affordable level. These areas have to be explored by manufacturing and marketing men in the context of rural markets. The pricing strategy for rural market will depend upon the scope for reducing the price of the product to suit the rural incomes and at the same time not compromising with the utility and sturdiness of the product. c. Distribution strategies Most manufacturers and marketing men do have a distribution arrangement for village with a population of at least 5000 people. While it is -essential to formulate specific strategies for distribution in rural areas, the characteristics of the product, its shelf life and other factors have to be kept in mind. The distribution strategies that are specifically designed for rural areas are: through co-operative societies, public distribution system, multi-purpose distribution centres, distribution up to feeder markets/mandi towns shanties/hat/jathras/melas, agricultural input dealers etc. Experience has shown that the cooperatives have played a useful role in improving the marketing services in the regulated markets. The fact, however, remains that these societies command only a small share of the total markets and do not present any challenge to the private trade at inmost places. The Gujarat Cotton Cooperative Marketing Societies set a good example of vertically integrated markets. The cooperative marketing institutions have to introduce scale economies in their marketing operation and provide efficient and comparable services to the customers in competition with the private trade. Cooperative institutions would do better if the state level marketing federations enter into multilevel activities to improve the turnover of their business. The non-govemmental organizations can anchor a key role in conscientizing the rural people to form into cooperatives highlighting the possible benefits without being exploited. D. Promotion strategies Mass media is a powerful medium of communication. It could be television, cinema, print media, radio and so on. The other means of mass media available are hoardings/wall paintings, shanties/hats/melas, non-price competition, special campaigns etc. Besides these, other mass media like hand bills and booklets, posters, stickers, banners of the schemes etc. For disseminating the information, related to agricultural and other rural industries products, the government should circulate pamphlets either to panchayati raj office or to schools where it can be documented for the reference. While making efforts to improve the marketing system within rural areas and the marketing of rural produce to other areas, we should foresee the forces of globalization affecting the market forces. The implications of globalization are explained in the following chapter. Rural agricultural marketing competitive strategies and effective infrastructure Marketing is the pivot of economic development in rural areas. It is an essential component in income and employment generation in farm and non-farm sectors. Since marketing is one of the pre-requisites for income generation, this article attempts to throw some light both on marketing of rural produce to other areas and improving marketing environment within the rural areas. Introduction Broadly rural marketing incorporates the marketing of agricultural products, rural industries products and services of many kind. The trade channels for different types of commodities available in rural areas areas private, cooperatives, processors, regulated markets and state agencies. In no sense, a social cluster or village economy as at whole can, be developed without effective and efficient rural marketing. Very little attention has been paid in the planning era towards the development of rural marketing. In fact marketing is a dynamic state of affairs and is part and parcel of the whole economy. Thus production and marketing are the two facets of a coin. Rural marketing constitutes the nerve centre of rural development activities. Rural marketing is a two way marketing process. The content now encompasses not only marketing of products which flow to rural areas, but also products which flow to urban areas from rural areas. So a broad definition of rural marketing is concerned with the flow of goods and services from urban to rural arid vice-versa. In addition, it also include the marketing in the rural areas. As the rural marketing is a two-way process, this article attempts to highlight both the aspects. It examines the marketing aspects of rural produce with special reference to agriculture while on, the other hand it covers and suggests .strategies for promoting marketing within the rural areas. II. Marketing of Rural Produce to Other Areas The rapid economic growth of-any developing country is mainly governed by three factors: increasing food production and other major inputs of industry; increasing the income levels of middle and lower strata of the population and most importantly provision of basic infrastructure and planning a national marketing system and there by increasing the size of the national market is also essential to integrate the marketing systems with the needs and wants of the consumer with available resources. This is the hallmark of economic development. As India's major population lives in rural areas and agriculture being their main livelihood, major emphasis has been given to agriculture sector. 1n most of the developing countries development strategies are mostly in and around urban areas while technical advancement and improvement in the agricultural sector is receiving less attention. In order to promote the marketing, increase of the productivity of the farm is imperative. Apart from that, innovations in marketing of agricultural products is essential. On the other hand, promoting strategies for marketing of the manufactured goods in the rural areas requires equal attention. This article mainly discusses these objectives. A. Factors affecting agricultural productivity Regarding the increase of agricultural productivity, farmers should have an easy access to production inputs, the financial system, the market and agricultural knowledge then only they can improve agricultural productivity. Most of the farmers suffer from loss due to inadequate marketing facilities like non-availability of the inputs, lack of basic infrastructural facilities and price fluctuations etc besides lacking in fundamental knowledge about advancements in the field of agriculture. A case study done on this aspect clearly indicates that very little proportion of the seeds is being purchased from the outside agencies. The reasons found were as follows. 1. Lack of knowledge about the seeds ie. hybrids, high yielding which are better than the one they are producing. 2. Quality standards of the seeds procured from outside agencies are sometimes very low and variable to such an extent that the farmers cannot venture to purchase the seeds from outside. 3. Organizational shortcomings between extension and research agencies. The varieties suitable for the region are not popular among the farmers due to improper dissemination. 4. Above all, the variation and fluctuations of the procurement prices of the seeds discourage the farmers to go for it. And due to all these reasons, the yield of the crops is affected. The irregularities in the input supply system are affecting the productivity while lack of sufficient other basic infrastructural facilities like transport, storage, distribution, lack of market information etc. are found be the major bottle- necks in the marketing system. B. Disposal of surplus produce The expansion of production should always be aided by efficient marketing and distribution of surplus produce to the final consumer. The coordination between productive and marketing systems is a pre-condition for a stable progress. It is known fact that technological advancements led to a significant increase in wheat production in Punjab and Haryana but the farmers were stuck in disposing of the surplus due to inadequate transport and storage facilities. This illustrates that the emergence of large domestic production, if unattended by commensurate facilities in terms of credit, storage and transport facilities will increase the load of unsold price and depress the prices. So, the modern marketing system should advocate the technological improvements in handling and storage of the produce. If we consider peas production in Uttar Pradesh improved preservation and packaging practice enabled the farmers to go for pea cultivation and also they are assured of a guaranteed and stable prices. The marketing facilities has really motivated the farmers. Likewise is the case in sugarcane also. But this technological changes should be carried out more efficiently by the extension personnel with regard to other crops also. C. Need of other facilities Besides, ensuring efficient coordination between production, transportation, communication and storage facilities, we have to realize the significance of credit financing and the value of market information for decision making. The present government has given a ray of hope as they have allocated considerable share in this budget for the agricultural sector. NABARD has a crucial role to play in the agricultural financing sector. Another important aspect in the rural marketing is market information. Information regarding production, market arrivals, day to day prices, changes in 1he stock with prices are essential for the farmers in order to equip themselves to withstand the prevailing situation. Marketing in Rural Areas In any business, good marketing strategies must be established. Even if your products are for rural and agricultural areas, you should remember “four Ps” in marketing: product, price, place and promotion. In most cases, people in rural areas are living their lives with basic needs. Do rural people need your products' If not, how can you spark the need' These products should also be affordable for them. When providing prices for your goods, you must take into consideration your profit, too. As for place, people will buy something that is near them. Considering they are in rural areas, how can you provide the means of bringing your products closer to them' One way is to employ a fleet of delivery trucks or establish retail stores in rural areas. Lastly, your promotional strategies may include employing a sales team, using adverts as well as sponsoring public relations events. Challenges in Rural Marketing Though rural markets are a huge attraction to marketers, it is not easy to enter the market and take a sizeable share of the market, in the short time due to the following reasons. Low Literacy There are not enough opportunities for education in rural areas. The literacy level is as low (36%) when compared to all- India average of 52%. Seasonal Demand Demand for goods in rural markets depends upon agricultural situation, as agriculture is the main source of income. Agriculture to a large extent depends upon monsoon and, therefore, the demand or buying capacity is not stable or regular. Transportation Many rural areas are not connected by rail transport. Kacha roads become unserviceable during the monsoon and interior villages get isolated. Distribution An effective distribution system requires village-level shopkeeper, Mandal/ Taluka- level wholesaler or preferred dealer, distributor or stockiest at district level and company-owned depot or consignment distribution at state level. The presence of too many tiers in the distribution system increases the cost of distribution. Communication Problems Facilities such as telephone, fax and telegram are rather poor in rural areas. Traditional Life Life in rural areas is still governed by customs and traditions and people do not easily adapt new practices. For example, even rich and educated class of farmers does not wear jeans or branded shoes. Buying Decisions Rural consumers are cautious in buying and decisions are slow and delayed. They like to give a trial and only after being personally satisfied, do they buy the product. Media for Promotions Television has made a great impact and large audience has been exposed to this medium. Radio reaches large population in rural areas at a relatively low cost. However, reach of formal media is low in rural households; therefore, the market has to undertake specific sales promotion activities in rural areas like participating in melas or fairs. Career in Rural Market While rural marketing offers a challenging career, a rural sales person should require certain qualifications and specialized talent. Cultural Factors Culture is a system of shared values, beliefs and perceptions that influence the behavior of consumers. There are different groups based on religion, caste, occupation, income, age, education and politics and each group exerts influence on the behavior of people in villages. There is a belief among rural people that experience is more important than formal education and they respect salespersons who can offer practical solutions to their problems. Therefore, it is desirable that sales persons, especially those who have been brought up in cities are given a thorough training consisting of both theory and practical aspects of village life. The training will help these sales persons to align themselves with the market realities and settle down smoothly in their jobs. Rural market has a tremendous potential that is yet to be tapped. A small increase in rural income, results in an exponential increase in buying power. Future Trends Markets which are not able to face the stiff competition posed by MNCs, can restore their profits in the rural sector. The market share of urban market when compared to the rural market is low, hence if Indian industries concentrate on rural markets their sales will increase. If rural markets are brought into the limelight of development, they pave way to prosperity. Prosperity of India lies in the prosperity of every Indian, hence no rural segment should be left untapped.