rural communications

7/31/2019 Rural Communications

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RURAL COMMUNICATIONS

Presenter Name:NEHA RIJHSINGHANI


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Introduction:Need to communicate with rural consumer:

Role of Advertisement:

Challenges in developing common communication strategies:

Majority of advertisements designed are urban oriented:

Rural communication is not a peripheral activity:


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Setting Communication Objectives

The communication objectives are guided by the corporatemission,strategy,product market strategy,& the product per seon the one hand and the target market conditions on theotherhand.

In the rural marketing communication objectives can be of wide range. For eg. Creating awareness,informing about theproduct for sale, persuading the consumers to try,persuadingthem to buy & use it.


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Message

Language

GraphicalPresenting

message

Form of the

message

Informationsource

Messageassociation

Meaning : Different wordsHave different Meaning in diff

parts of Rural markets

Simplicity: Reduces the noise &And gives clear idea.

Graphics: Easily associated withThe cognition & increases recall

Utilitarian: Relates the productTo usage & can increase

preference

Narrative: Increases acceptanceAnd retention by increasing

Involvement.

Trustworthy: Word of Mouth &feedback

Likeable: improvesAcceptance

Expert: word of mouth& references can influence

The preference

Association: Related to cognition,increases acceptance,interest& retention.

Componentsof

Comm.Message

decisionmaki

ng& the factors

to beconsidered


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Role Of Media In Rural Markets.

Mass media:

A medium is called a mass medium when it reaches millionsof people .

Rural communication Conventional media (Print,Cinema,Radio,TV)

Non-conventional

(Theatre,Posters,Haats andMelas.)The conventional media have excellent reach, less expensiveand create a better impact.


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Radio is the medium with the widest coverage .

Surveys indicate that in rural areas more than a third of the marriedwomen of reproductive age have listened to a radio within the lastweek.

Television, video & films expose viewers to a common window onstyles of life & behavior.

Rural exposure to television has been lower by far than radio.

The mass media brings change where ever they go,Successful Media Campaigns have changed attitudes andbehaviors in a variety of areas, from basic literacy to health care &family planning.

.


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Developing Effective Communication

5 Steps are as follows:

1) Profiling the target audience:

2) Determining the communication objectives:

3) Designing the message & ensuring the effectiveness of themessage:

4) Selecting the communication channels

5) Designing the promotion strategy & integrating thecommunication process.


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i).Profiling the target audience:

Know your customer is one of the cardinal principles of marketing:

The steps involved in designing an effective message are probing &profiling the target audience.

Many Companies are doing such probing like for example. DABURJANAM GHUTTI, to market its baby gripe water,Dabur India profiledrural consumers at haats & mela.

We probe & profile the rural consumer by examining social classes &intentions, consumer receptivity, Growing brand consciousness,lifestyles , buying roles, children ,purchase needs, community & thepersonal-value proposition, value-for-money proposition.


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1). Social classes & intentionsThe priority of product purchases varies across income levels.Thedestitutes buy essentials,the rich buys premium products.

Rurals though heterogeneous focus on purchasing value-for-moneyproducts & productive assets that enhance their income levels.

Example REVITAL (a health capsule from Ranbaxy) is quite popular among daily wage earners,farm labourers & in poverty-ridden,underdeveloped states like Bihar & West Bengal . Becauseconsumers feel that Revital increases their concentration &performance levels, which is reflected directly in their earnings.


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2) Consumer receptivity:

Those who are less literate & less exposed to the externalenvironment require a linear communication message that is simple& easy to comprehend.

They associate well with primary colours & numerals rarely buy

products asking for brands by name.Ex. 502 pataka bidi, A1 kadak chhap chai & Naulakha washing soap are some of products that have struck the right chord with themasses.They refer to Lifebuoy as lal sabun (red soap) & nirma as (peela powder).Selection of right channel & platform also impacts audiencereceptivity.


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3) Growing brand consciousness

Marketers are recognizing the fact that villagers are becoming morebrand savvy with increasing penetration of the mass media in theinteriors.

The penetration of premium products is beginning to take place in

lower socio-economic groups

The brand recall for products like clinic plus shampoo, colgate , lifebuoy, etc. is high among rural consumers.


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4) Buying roles:

A process of collective decision making prevails in rural areas

The Co. needs to customise its message & address each intermediaryinvolved in the purchase process.

In urban for the same product category, the user, the investor, the purchaser & the influencer may end up being the same individual.

5) Children: the value of education assumes greater importance even in rural areas.In a haat promotional campaign for colgate, it was observed that when older

people accompanied by small children & the youth tried the product, the older men preferred to continue toothpowder whereas they were willing topurchase toothbrushes & toothpaste for their children.


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6) Purchase needs:

While promoting Revital, it was found that farmers in Punjab seek power &vigor, whereas a rickshaw puller or truck driver demands more energy &longer hours of concentration so as to increase his earnings.

Revital customized its one to one communication to address these differingexpectations of consumers from the same product.

7) Community & the personal- value proposition:The concept of the joint family & community decision making prevails in ruralareas to a large extent.People live in interdependent &networked society.Communications like onidas tag line Neighbor's envy, owners pride willbe out of place in such a setting, as community tv viewing is a commonphenomenon.


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8) Value fo money proposition:

Coca-cola & pepsi used the planks of affordability & value for money successfully to drive penetration & increase volumes byintroducing smaller 200 mlbottles priced at Rs. 5.

ii) Determining communication objectives:

After profiling the target audience the marketer & the communicator must decide on the desired audience response.The response-hierarchy AICDA model,best summarizes thiscommunication strategy.

Awareness interest Conviction Desire Action


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iii) Designing the message:

formulating the message will require solving 5 problemsMessage Content ( what to say),message structure (how to say it logically),message format (how to say it symbolically),message association ( in what context to say it),message source (who should say it).

iv) Selecting the communication channels:Personal communication channels: two or more personscommunicating directly to eachother.Non- personal communication carry message without personalcontact or interaction.They include mass media, atmospheres &events.


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v) Deciding the Promotion mix:

Companies face the task of distributing the total promotional budgetover the five promotional tools-advertising, sales promotion, directmarketing, public relations & sales force.

vi) Factors in setting the promotion mix:

Type of product market:

Push versus pull strategy:


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The Media Model :

The ideal media model to reach rural audiences is to influence theopinion leaders first & win them over before targeting the ruralmasses, as the former guide the latter in their purchase decisions .Mass media Rural

cinemaPlus Radio

Direct marketing Rural T.Vefforts Masses unconv-entionalmedia

source:Anurag Madison All efforts must generate sufficient word-of-mouth publicity for theproduct, so that when the rural customer is ready to buy, the brandhas top-of-the-mind recall.

OpinionLeaders


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RURAL MEDIA

The various media vehicles are as follows:

Conventionalmass media

Non-conventionalmedia

Personalizedmedia

Television Haats,Melas,Fairs Direct mailer

Radio Folk media(puppet show,magic show)

Point of sale(demonstration,leaflets)

Press Video vans Word of mouthCinema Outdoor: wall

painting,hoardingInterpersonalcommunication

Mandi Dealers,salespersons,researche

rs.


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Formal media:

1) Newspapers & magazines:

In rural areas the print medium faces problems of both reach&access coupled with low literacy levels

English newspapers and magazines have negligible circulation inrural areas.

local language newspapers and magazines are becomingpopular among educated facilities in rural areas. eg.Newspapers: loksatta in maharashtra

The print media is mainly restricted to the educated classes.Community reading is popular; community/public places likepanchayat bhawans, STD bhooths, tea stalls & barber shopsgenerally subscribe to newspapers.


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2) T.V.

Features : It has made a great impact & large audience has been exposedto this medium. For eg. Lifebuoy, lux etc are advertised via T.V.Regional T.V.channels have become more popular eg.:Sun tvin Tamil Nadu. Asianet in Kerela.

Limitations: Though more than 90% of villages are electrified,only 44% of rural homes have electricity connections.

I. Women who have TV in their homes donot watch much TVduring the day time as they are busy with household chores, at

night they cannot watch in presence of male family members.II. The reach & frequency of regional-language & vernacular

programming is still limited.


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3) RADIO:It continues to be the cheapest mass medium with widest reach.

Examples: Colgate,jyoti labs, zandu balms are some companies usingradio communication.

There are specific programmes for farmers like Farm & Home/krishiDarshan in regional languages.

The radio commercial can be prepared at short notice to meet the changingneeds of the rural folk.eg. Release of a pesticide ad at the time of outbreakof a pest or disease in crops.Limitation:Involvement with advertisements on the radio is lower than televisionadvertisements, as they lack any visual content.


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CINEMA:Cinema is one of the most important communication media inmany parts of the country, its universal appeal cutting acrossthe barriers of geography & language.

About 65% of the earnings from cinema are from ruralmarkets.

Ex: Films on products like Vicks, Lifebuoy & SPIC fertilizersare shown in rural cinema halls.

Limitations: Cinema is not free,as one has to pay to buy tickets

Advertising through cinema is done on a very limited scale, atstart of the movie & during the interval.


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NON-CONVENTIONAL MEDIA

Outdoor Media: Wall painting

It is an effective and economical medium for communicationin rural areas,since, it stays there for a long timethey constantly remind the rural people about the brand name& logos in addition to highlighting the key brand promise.They are economical, as the manpower & infrastructurerequirements are low.Can be easily customised in accordance with regionallanguage variations without this impacting their artistic

content.Limitations: The lack of wall space:The quality of the wall space available is not alwayssatisfactory:No exclusive wall rights are given to the company:


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Tree boards:

Painted boards of about two square feet in dimension havingthe picture or name or slogan of the product painted on it.

Boards are fixed to the trees on both sides of the villageroads at a height of about 10 feet from ground level.

Attract the attention of slow moving vehicles like bullockcarts, cycles, tractors & people walking on the road.

low priced promotion items that can be used by consumergoods & Fertilizer/ pesticide companies.


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Point of purchase

Display of hangings,festons & product packs in the shops willcatch the attention of prospective buyers .

Direct mail advertising:

This is a way of passing on information relating to goods or servicesfor sale directly to the potential customers through the medium of post .

It involves sending out single pieces of mail- letters, flyers &foulders to a specific & targeted audience.

Advantages: 1)audience selectivity,2)No advertising competitionwithin the same medium, 3)personalization.

Limitations: Relatively high cost, junk mail image.


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FOLK MEDIA:

Folk media consist of folk songs, folk dances & other theatrical forms, including puppetry, street theatre & magicshows, which are an intrinsic part of culture & heritage of theland.They are face-to-face & personal form of communicationFolk media are interactive, repetitive & narrative.

Informal/Rural specific media:

Farm to farm/ house to house vist: it facilitate 2 way

communication, sales person can know needs of ruralcustomers by directly discussing & answers his queriese.g.machinery,agri inputs.


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Group meeting: co. is able to pass on the message regadingbenefits of products to a large number of customers E.g MRF tyres(tractor owner meet to discuss repairs & maintenance)

Opinion leaders: a person considered to be knowledgeable & is

consulted by others & his advise ia normally followed e.g biglandlords, panchayat president.

The melas : different types ( commodity, cattle & religious) may beheld only for a day or week) e.g britannia( tiger buscuits)

The Haats : sellers & buyers meet in the village to buy & sell goods& services.

Audio Visual Publicity Vans : The van is a mobile promotionstation having facilities for screening films slides & mike publicity(HLL,COLGATE)


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Sender Encoding

Feedback Response

Noise

Decoding ReceiverMessage------------

Media

The communication process model by Sanal Kumar Velayudhan

It is used to understand some of the issues that need attention in media

and message decisions ..


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The view of the communication process

The environment exercises considerable influence on the receiver and therefore he/she may not receive the intended message for any one of the following reasons:

1. Selective attention : where the consumer may not notice the

stimulus provided2. Selective distortion: where the message is deliberately twisted so

that the consumer hears what he/she wants to hear and3. Selective recall : Where the consumer retains only a small fraction

of the message that reaches him/her The comprehension of a message is therefore, a critical problemin indian rural markets.


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Rural & Urban Responses to Television Advertising(the distortion in the study indicates the gravity of the problem)

A study was undertaken jointly by MART & Anugrah Madison insouth and north India,covering both urban and rural areas, to assessthe comprehension, association, credibility & acceptibilityof televisioncommercials for

Babool (featuring a young man undertaking a series of activities,yetlooking fresh all day)Navaratna hair oil (featuring the film actors Govinda & Rambha ina group dance) & Asian paints exterior emulsion paint (sunil babu) in the consumer durables.


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Babool: Rural people had a problem in comprehending themessage as it is too quick. In north, respondents thought thead was for a toothbrush/shaving cream.

Navaratna: Rural people asked,why should he be dancingwhen he has a headache? in south recognition of Govinda

was low.similarly, in the north the recognition of Rambha wasvery low.Asian Paints : It scored very well on the believability factor

among the urban audience. But somerural commented , Thepaint will last for only two or three days. Some thought it wasan ad for housing company.The study shows that what works in the south, may not workin the north. Quickies, gimmicks, or slick advertisementscannot seduce rural people. They expect the message to berational.


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MAIN PROBLEMS IN RURAL COMMUNICATION:

In the evolution of a proper mix of marketing there are two major problems:

Appropriate Media:Nature of rural people:Remedial measures :

To identify the most suitable medium to ensure maximum spatialreachIt is important to understand the behavioural & psychographiccharacteristics of the rural audience for effective communicationstrategyOne must keep in mind the fact that the mass media reach barely

30% of rural audiences so they should be used as supplementarytools. the marketers have no option but to use traditional media &events like haats,jatras & melas, folk media & mandis,Important to include the touch & feel aspect in any promotionalactivity.


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ConclusionTo sum up it is clear that in any form of rural communication, whilewe may have a national strategy, we have to think & act locally.

The indian advertising industry has to immerse itself in localcolours , customs & modes of communication in order to be

relevant to the needs & desires of rural society.

Multinational giants like coca-cola & pepsi recognised need for regionalising their ad, by featuring locally popular heroes in their tvcommercials, is a step in the right direction.

There is a need to invest much more than we are doing at present,in understanding rural consumer & owning rural india


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