RURAL MARKETING PROJECT ON EFFICIENCY OF MEDIA VEHICLEWALL PAINTINGS vs NAUTANKI

Submitted to: Mrs SHILPI SAXENA HOD, IISE

Submitted by: DIVYA SINGH 1079

PGDM II

INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR SPECIAL EDUCATION

ACKNOWLWDGEMENT

When emotions are profound, words sometimes are not sufficient to express our thanks and gratitude. With these words, I am trying to express my extreme gratitude and sincere thanks to Shilpi Saxena Ma’am my guide who have helped and provided the very much enthusiasm and consistent encouragement required for the completion of my project.The successful completion of my research is the blessing of my teachers, parents and sincere advice of my friends.

Divya Singh

RESEARCH OBJECTIVE

1) To study the efficiency of media vehicle in rural marketing especially of wall painting vs nautanki.

2) To find out what role does advertising play in the rural markets.

3) To analyse the problems faced by companies when advertising in rural India.

RESEARCH DESIGN

The research design is basically exploratory as I have tried to find out the basic knowledge about the types of media available for advertising in rural markets. It’s a very basic study tring to generate an insight about the need of using different kinds of Mass and Traditional media in rural markets.

DATA COLLECTION METHODS

My research is based on primary data. For this I have prepared a questionnaire.

INTRODUCTIONROLE OF ADVERTISING IN RURAL INDIA

In India, the advertising is mostly in English or Hindi. As Rural Markets widen beyond the English and Hindi knowing people, there are problems of translation into the vernaculars. Good translations are seldom easy, and there is often the need for thinking out the advertising concepts and the brand image in the local language itself.This is a problem for local copywriters to conceptualise in the vernacular, where necessary. Advertising in the local language in the absense of shortage of professionals, makes success of rural advertising campaigns difficult. It is a general assumption of advertising theory that advertising helps to create demand. It may be worth saying to what extent advertising creates demand particularly in our rural society, which is in transition from traditional to modernity and to what extent it helps only to accelerate demand after the social and environmental changes have taken place. The basic trends for demand of products are determined primarily by prevailing social and environmental conditions.

Advertising itself serves not so much to increase the demand for a product as to speed up the expansion of demand that may come from favourable conditions and to retard advances due to unfavourable conditions. Most of the marketers treat as a unsoluble problem, because other factors also stimulate demand for eg. Price cuts, quality changes and increasing real income.

Advertising caters to rural society with divergent life styles and value systems presented an unusual challenge between the strategy of homogenization (overcoming the barriers between segments ), and one of the heterogenization (capitalizing the very existence of many small riches). This sort of advertising involves constraints individual in the form of cost duplication of facilities and fragmentation. In such areas, the basic objective of advertising and market research may be to find and develop products, which may cut across heterogeneous preferences with common brands and similar or advertising.

Our rural marketers should keep an eye on important substitution and upgrade raw materials on the basis of research and development before they can ensure that adequate raw materials reach the manufacturing areas for products which would then reach rural market individual a steady flow and at relatively stable prices. Tourist advertising and motivation pose a most fascinating challenge to our country with its old culture.

Rural India is a set of regional markets where cultural factors play a very important role. The raw material come from the soil, and the relatively low productivity of Indian farmers is reflected in the low purchasing power of the rural buyer. The rural advertising problem in our country like India is related to political, social and economic problems. With low income from farms the question that arises is: can we afford the infrastructure of mass media for rural markets ?

RURAL ADVERTISING : CURRENT SCENARIO

There have been two schools of thought among Indian advertisers on rural advertising. The first school believed that products and marketing techniques, which worked in metro and urban areas, could be transplanted with little or no modifications to rural India. But the more sophisticated Indian advertisers, quickly perceiving certain very basic differences between town and country, in augurated the second school: the belief that rural marketing required radically different skills and techniques from its urban counterpart. As a result of the swing of extremities, which naturally attends such realizations, several new beliefs have become popular:

1) The rural market offers a vast market for consumer goods.

2) The distribution task involves covering several lakh villages.

3) Low-priced products should be more successful in rural markets because of the per capita income in rural India.

4) Rural consumers form one homogenous group with similar needs, values and aspirations.

5) Advertising should be simple and unsophisticated and in terms of media, use local fairs, opinion leaders, etc., as opposed to press, film, radio and such other ‘urban-oriented’ media. This was deducted from the low media exposure figures for rural India.

Underlying these beliefs has been the model of a rural consumer who is relatively poor and illiterate, whose only media exposure is the local opinion leader, who remembers brands by picture symbols as opposed to brand names, and who is unable to comprehend anything other than the most simple of commercial messages.

The myth of the impoverished rural consumer seems to have some basis, considering the fact that the vast portion of the rural population spend less than Rs 43 per month. However assuming that as soon as the per capita expenditure reaches the level of Rs 100 per month, the consumers become of interest to the marketers of branded products, we see that more than half of such consumers are in rural areas. There are more rich consumers in rural India than in urban IndiaThere is no uniform pattern covering all villages. The structure of competition in rural India can be classified as follows: competition from other urban national brands, from regional brands, from unbranded urban products, from unbranded products of that village and finally indirect competition from substitutes.

a) Other urban national branded products. In certain villages the proliferation of national brands is quiet evident. This more likely in villages which are on the periphery of larger towns because of the spill over from urban centres. There are exceptions to this: certain national brands have reached

the remotest of villages perhaps because of the consistent efforts made by manufacturers through their marketing and advertising efforts; this is more striking in case of branded tea.

b)Regional urban branded products. In some villages

regional brands or brands of unorganized sector are quite

common. This is so for soaps in north and south, detergent

powders in Gujarat, and talc’s in Tamil Nadu and Kerala.

c) Unbranded urban products. These products are

manufactured at an urban centre and find their way into rural

India through whole sale channels: they are commonly

washing products, confectionery items, ribbons ,bangles etc.

d) Unbranded products of village origin. These are

productsmanufactured in village itself: the hardware of the village smith, the ropes made in the surrounding fields or the bread and food products made by local baker or sweetmeat maker.

e)Substitutable products or indirect competition. A

further classification can be made for competitive products,

which can be substituted. Such products are ‘majaans’,

neem twigs for the teeth where toothpaste have not yet

entered, or soaps where synthetic detergents are not

common. In villages which are around Banaras, villagers use

the mud from the river-bed to wash their clothes and

themselves too!

Central to the current beliefs on rural advertising are as

follows:

a) Because of the low literacy level and for other reasons,

the ruralconsumer has very low exposure to mass media (press, film, radio, outdoor) normally used in urban India: that communication in rural India must depend on ‘non-conventional media’ such as drama troupes, mime groups, personal communication, etc.

b) Because of the lack of sophistication of the rural

consumers the

creative treatment must be kept ‘simple’, and depend on

visual

treatment more than on copy.

Here again, it is worth examining these beliefs. The first one –that conventional urban style media are relatively useless for rural India- is so deeply rooted that many marketing executives are likely to be willing to even discuss it. This belief squares with our commonsense of the poor illiterate farmer.

SELECTION OF THE ADVERTISING MEDIA

A company that seeks a long term presents in the rural market has to squarely encounter the constraints and find a way of communicating effectively with the rural target audience.

OUTDOORS: The outdoor lend itself well to rural

communication. In fact, currently many companies are using

the outdoor medium imaginatively in their rural

communication mix, through hoardings, wall paintings,

illuminations and other displays in the rural areas.

PRINT MEDIA:The relevance of print media for rural communication

needs careful examination mainly because the literacy level is low in rural areas. Print media consist of a wide variety of items – Newspapers (dailies), periodicals (weeklies, monthlies) and also the literature. Pamphlets, booklet produced my manufacturers and marketing men.

Advantages of rural specific media :- The accessibility is high.- Involves more then one sense.- Interest arousal capability is high.- Less operational liability Minimum cost.

A variety of non-formal media have been developed over the years by rural marketing firms to meet the specific requirements of rural communication. Some of them are interpersonal media and others are mass media.

MEDIA VEHICLE

Conventional Media-

(a) Television: For rural market they don’t have a separate

advertisement but they play the same advertise in the

regional language.

Doordarshan- Tata Salt’s around 40% reach is because of

its advertisements on Doordarshan.

It also advertises on Star Plus, NDTV, etc.

Regional Channels like- Alfa, Sun, Surya, etc. depending

upon the State Language.

(b) Wall paintings: They also communicate to rural market

through the wall paintings in Haats. Urban consumers shop

daily and have 365 opportunities a year to switch brands

while the rural purchasers who buy their goods in weekly

haats have only 54. Considering this Tata Salt makes

ultimate use of this opportunity to educate the customers

about the product.

(c) Video on Wheels: Tata Salt uses van marketing to

reach the satellite villages.

Non-Conventional Media-

Kalnirnaya: Tata Salt advertises on Kalnirnay Calendars

which are printed in 8 languages. Out of the 1.2 crores

calendars issued, 50 lakh are sold in Maharashtra. This

advertising is a reminder to the consumer of the Brand- Tata

Salt which is in its Maturity stage.

WALL PAINTINGS

Wall Paintings are an effective and economical medium for advertising in rural areas. They are silent unlike traditional theatre. A speech or film comes to an end, but wall painting stays as long as the weather allows it to. Retailer normally welcomes paintings of their shops, walls, and name boards. Since it makes the shop look cleaner and better. Their shops look alluring and stand out among other outlets. Besides rural households shopkeepers andpanchayats do not except any payment, for their wall to be painted with product messages. To get one's wall painted with the product messages is seemed as a status symbol. The greatest advantage of the medium is the power of the picture completed with its local touch. The images used have a strong emotional association with the surrounding, a feat impossible for even a moving visualmedium like television which must use general image to cater to greatest number of viewers.

While Nirma makes extensive use of wall paintings, a soil

conditioner called Terracare uses images of Sita, Luv and

Kush to attract the rural consumer.

Companies like Coke, Pepsi, agricultural implement

companies HMT tractors, TAFE also use wall paintings.

However the company that has very widely usedthis medium

in Thumps up.

DISADVANTAGES OF TRADITIONAL MEDIA

*  Range of mode choice is narrow.

* Potential for cognitive gain retention is possible but

restricted.

* Depends on the skill of the performer, but for optimum

effect all elements in the rural communication system will

have to be orcheastered into a united whole.

* Extensive research of each and every village is needed.

PUPPETRY

Puppetry is the indigenous theatre of India. From time immortal it has been the most popular form and well-appreciated form of entertainment available to the village people. It is an inexpensive activity. The manipulator uses the puppets as a medium to express and communicate ideas, values and social messages. The companies can develop a story line relating to the brand and show the characters using the brands to their advantage. The dresses of the characters could be those of the brand's packaging.

Thus in rural India puppetry is a source of livelihood, avenue for entertainment and creative expression which is ritually sacred and meaningful as a means of social communication and vehicle of social transformation. Song and Drama Division of the Government Of India makes wide use of puppets in its campaigns to promote various government projects. Several other organizations, government, semi-government and private, have also used puppets in support of individual schemes..

- Life Insurance Corporation of India used puppets to educate rural massesabout Life Insurance; enlisting the help of the literacy house in Lucknow.

- These plays were shown to the audience in villages in UP, Bihar, & MP. The number of inquires at local Life Insurance Companies during the period immediately

following the performance was compared with normal frequency and found to be considerable higher. The field staff of the corporation also reported a definite impact on the business.

- Thumps Up is another company that has used puppetry to promote its soft drink. The shows comprises of puppets of Thumps Up and other rival soft drinks. The thump up puppet comes and strikes down the other soft drinks thus reinforcing its slogan “taste the thunder”.

RESEARCH AND FINDINGS

Rural consumers place more emphasis on the experience of others who have used the brands to make their purchase decision. Opinion leader in rural area can be defined as a person who is considered to be knowledgeable and is consulted by others and his advice is normally followed. Opinion leaders could be big landlords, teachers, social workers etc. They become important especially in the marketing of consumer durables.

Moreover the marketers are focusing more on puppetry shows and small act as the number of illiterate people in villages are more than the literate ones. They are less interested in wall paintings and give importance of watching small plays as this act as a mode of entertainment as well as informative.

CONCLUSION

Promotions in rural areas need to be carried out very carefully as the people are becoming brand conscious and brand loyal. Now no longer is every washing powder Surf and every bathing soap Lux.

Carrying out promotions in rural India is no mean task. As technology has not been used extensively to cover this market, it is the knowledge base that is more critical.

In the end I can only say that both the media vehicles i.e.wall paintings and nautanki are equally important as they both have their importance in promotions.Wall paintings remain in front of the eyes of people but a small and interesting act remains at the back of the mind of people and the information gained from it.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

www.indiatimes.com Business world Magazine Book: Rural Marketing – Gopalaswamy

QUESTIONNAIRE

1) Name : Mr/Mrs.

2) Age: Below 20- 21- 25- 26-35- Above 35-

3) Education: 8 Pass- 10 pass- 12 pass- Graduation-

4) Income (per month): 3,000- 5,000- Above 10,000-

5) Other Sources Of Income:

6) Joint Family or Nuclear Family:

7) Members in the family: 8) Category of house: Kuccha-

Pucca- Own house- Rent-

9) Assets – Tractor- Jeep- Any other asset-

10) Do you have electricity- yes- no-If yes then,

11) Do you have: T.V.: Refrigerator: 12)Means of entertainment:

13) Status attached to it:

14) What do you do in your leisure time?

15) Are you interested in group entertainment or Individual?

16) Are you interested in reading newspapers, magazines or watching movies ?

17) If you want to convey a message which media will you choose ?

18) And why ?

19) How much time you spend on street wandering around ?

20) How much time you spend for yourself ?

21) Who are your inspiration ?

22) how much you share new things ?

23) Are you found of new things ?

24) Do you like to experiment ?

25) how many times have you tried to experiment ?