The Rural Marketingrefers to the activities undertaken by the marketers to encourage the people, living in rural areas to convert their purchasing power into an effective demand for the goods and services and making these available in the rural areas, with the intention to improve their standard of living and achieving the company’s objective, as a whole.
The Rural Marketing is a two-way process, i.e.,
Urban to Rural: FMCG Goods, Agricultural fertilizers, automobiles, etc. are offered by the urban market to the rural market.
Rural to Urban: The agricultural supplies viz. Fruits, vegetables, flowers, milk, etc. is offered from the rural market to the urban market.
Due to so much potential in the rural areas, the companies are focusing more on the needs and desires of people living in here and are taking every possible step to stimulate people to buy products and services and improve their livelihood.
Example
Lifebuoy.
Lifebuoy’s “Swasthya Chetna” (LSC) was a five-year health and hygiene education program initiated by Hindustan Lever Limited (HLL), the Indian arm of the fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) major, Unilever.
According to HLL, LSC was not a philanthropic activity, but a marketing program with a social benefit. HLL sought to grow the Lifebuoy brand in India by attracting those consumers who never used soap. In the process, the company sought to bring about a behavioral change by convincing people to use soaps more frequently, thus creating more users for its brand.
