Rural Markets: land of opportunities

In a country, where almost its 70% population lives in villages,It has taken so long to Go Rural mantra to start in the marketers.Well the villages whose number almost touches 6.5 lakhs grows at compounded growth rate of 6.2% from the 2000s. And its been almost the 1.5 times its urban counterpart.Well looking at the projected numbers for the rural markets it would be dumb to ignore it.

Well thats the figure only for the Fmcg products. The total spending of the rural consumers out paced its urban counterpart by 25% during 2009-2012.This is just an indication of the might of the rural markets.In the last decade only 75% of manufacturing factories were built in rural areas which contributes 55% of the manufacturing GDP. With the focus on the Make it in India its bound to go up.Rural multiplier effect is the most exciting prospect in this.The growth  bound to happen in is exponential rather than the linear.

The reasons for the marketers to follow the Rural hullabooo are many fold.some are :

• Sheer Number of population in rural area;around 11% of world population.
• Purchasing power capacity of the rural consumers has been on the rise for past decade and so.
• Market growth.
• Government initiatives has lead to better Infrastructures which is doing better and better.
• Increase in Aspirational factor for the Rural people.
• Changing taste and preferences. Times  are gone when rural market was used for dumping ground for outdated urban products.Now the rural people are more aware.

  But as they say All that Glitters is not gold.There are lot of challenges faced by the companies.few of them are:

• Reaching the rural consumer:it is the biggest challenge even now.sheer scattered population of the rural population makes it even harder to reach.The cost of reaching the consumers is high making it some sort of barrier.
• Seasonality of the rural demands make it tough for the marketers and so does the need for specialized sales force.
• Language barriers:nothing more to be said about this.
• Illiteracy
• Underdeveloped logistics and infrastructure

 But challenges can be overpowered Through focusing on the Basics of rural marketing that is :

• Availability
• Awareness
• Acceptability
• Affordability

Making the goods available should be the first priority as its a challenge as well; project shakti, ITC e-choupal are example of that.Acceptability it focuses on convincing the consumers to buy the products Here personal selling approach is required more in rural area than the urban area.Affordability means making products focused on value pricing.But with rise in aspirational group R1 in the villages affordability is becoming less of a concern.But awareness is the most important point In the country where the literacy rate leaves much to desire, consumers himself doesn't know that he requires a specific product .so Awareness is much required factor in rural marketing.

At last I end with Hope that Rural marketers overcome the challenges as it will not only Help the bottom-line of the company, it will also help in socio-economic development in rural areas.

Social media marketing :The way forward.....

Above picture says it all ....It was just last monday when more than a billion users were on facebook,that's every one out of every person on the planet was on facebook. well  barring china and India it was more than a population of any country.It just shows the growing fascination of the people with social media.
Well,its almost a certainty that companies wold promote their products where the  people are .. so with help of the magic words Likes,Share,Tweet etc etc. comes the phenomena of the social media marketing.
Before Rambling on and on about the benefits let me put words to what is social media marketing??well basically Its about using the social media platforms to achieve the marketing communication and the brand positioning goals.If we can increase our web traffic for our web sites ,increase the click through rate the more the merrier.But the most important part is about joining with the customers interacting with them. In the world of clicks, posts and shares it becomes more and more important that consumers get to see you on these social media sites which in turn does a part of product promotions and part of putting your brand concept in the minds of the consumers.

Because so much of the customer experience now lives on the web, social media enables brands to take part in a customer's online experience outside of the typical channels

we have established that social media acts as word of mouth,now it all depends on the the goals of the company what do they want to achieve through it?
a)web traffic
b)conversions
c)Brand awareness
d)communication and interaction with consumers
Depending on the goals of the company It can go for the planning process :keywords to use which audience to target,going for google adwords or facebook ads,twitter promotion or even promoting through instagam. these all come under planning.
next comes the content,it is the make or break content should always be of the good quality.As good quality means shares ,likes etc etc which the motive of ours.
lastly, analytics plays an important role in not only tracking your content and all but also your competitors'.
Well there is also matter of feedback and accountability in social media marketing as companies should always be ethical about it.
Few of the channels for the social media marketing are as follows:

1. facebook
2. Google +
3. pinterest
4. twitter
5. youtube
6. linkedin
7. reddit
8. foursquare
9. level up
10. And many more.....     

Before ending I just want to add social media marketing is not just about the numbers of likes,shares,
and views,in the coming future its going to be the way of life.....

Make or Made:India's growth that matters.....

Before going on to the topic,lets us think what is development??is it the common economic growth which also includes social and human factor.let's cut the chase and make it a tad simpler;development is just coping with the growing needs of the population.it also relates to the demand and supply theory of the economics.

Whether be its make or made in India,there will be development in our country so why so much of drama over this ??

Before evaluating,let me try to define it.Make in India is a national Program through which policies will be made to increase or boost the laggard i.e manufacturing sector.Its main objective is to make India a manufacturing hub.with recent slowdown in chinese economy it can be made feasible also.

Its basically based on the model of PPP (public private partnership).Arguments in favour of Make in India campaign is that it will give a much needed boost to the Indian economy.It covers 25 sectors.

                             Make in India can add 90million jobs in the next decade”

                              – CEO & MD, ICICI bank, Mrs. Chanda Kochhar  

Well if Mrs kochhar says it then its almost validated that Make in India will generate a lot of jobs.

Statistically speaking Make in India will lead in growth of exports which will help in Reducing the current deficits(Export-import)Make in India will help in growing the GDP with multiplier effect.Brain drain can also be reduced.And my favourite point,technology brought to India would instrumental in its growth.We can also add the point of Infrastructure development.

Coming to the Made in India means that just like China the production will be done fully in the country on the basis of the indigenous industries.well it has a gandhian root (swadeshi).the points in favour of made in India are that it will include socio economic factors.while the Make in India Mncs can withdraw anytime.some people argue that technology would not be transfer in the Indian hands etc for arguing against the make in India.

From my perspective both has the positive and the challenges i.e.

Economy	Ease of Doing Business Rank ▲	Starting a Business	Dealing with Construction Permits	Getting Electricity
India *	142	158	184	137

India is very difficult place to do business. whether be it through make in India or made in India or whatever name u want to give.end result will matter.for that to happen changes in labour and land laws etc. is much needed. And the red tapes they will have to go. Lets not forget licences it must be available in less time.

From my perspective creating the right environment for the business matters more as the result will follow. whether be make in India or Made in India;India should grow and develop.

बस उनकी याद में।

गमो  का गुलदस्ता लिए चलता हूँ ,
इस बरसात में ।

दिल के टुकड़े संभाले  चलता हूँ,
बस उनकी याद में।
बस उस पलों को संजोता हूँ ,
इस काली रात में।

गमो  का गुलदस्ता लिए चलता हूँ ,
इस बरसात में ।

बस उन मंजर की धुंधली तस्वीर हैं,
हमारी याद में।
सोंचता हूँ यादें मिट जाएंगी,
इस जाम के घुट में।

गमो  का गुलदस्ता लिए चलता हूँ ,
इस बरसात में ।

कोई उनसे भी तो पूछे हमारी यादें मिट जायेगी ,
बस कुछ साल में।
दिल लगी उन्हों ने भी की थी ,
इसी आग  में।

गमो  का गुलदस्ता लिए चलता हूँ ,
इस बरसात में ।

खता ना उनकी न मेरी ,
बस उस प्यार में।
बेबस था जो,
जात के ज़ंजीर में।

गमो  का गुलदस्ता लिए चलता हूँ ,
इस बरसात में ।

consumers changing behaviour.

Consumers buying behaviour has changed with the evolution in technology. we can say with growth of social media the way consumers interact with brands has changed.An example would be Let say a customer has a problem with specific brand he posts about it on the facebook,twitter,and other social networking platforms which creates a negative publicity about the brand and diminishing its image.It can be just opposite too with right amount of positive interaction can help in building a better brand image and creating loyal customer.

 From what can be seen in today's scenario we can reach for the following conclusions about the consumer;that consumers no longer compares the products/brands with its competitors but with all the brands if a brands service is better then that will become the benchmark for comparing even if its not in the same category.

second point would be the consumers have become less tolerant with few words brand image can go down the drain if customers are not properly satisfied.Complaints have gone up and overall satisfaction level of consumers have come down in general sense.So it is paramount for the companies to see that customers have a positive reaction for the brand.

Next point would be the consumer to consumer association,with advance in technology People are becoming more aware about the product and the brand.consumers are affected by the reviews of others and social media is more than happy to build the bridges between the consumers by ways public groups,blogs,expertise opinions etc.

Going further we can say that customers are no longer loyal.Here demographics clearly present an interesting picture with most of the developing and emerging countries has young population(median age of population less than 30)mix them uncertain ever changing  digital technology we got the recipe for disaster for the traditional marketing.awareness has already spoiled them with the choices leading to the less loyalty.

It has already become clear that customers no longer accepts what is thrown in their way by the marketers.opinions are formed elsewhere word of mouth plays an important role here in giving the direction to the consumers perception.Social media is just what a tool for word of mouth but let just say much faster.

Awareness,It traditional marketer's bane;with asymmetry about the product/brand knowledge just a click away consumers do not take everything at face value now they search,compare,judge and then decide with whole process becoming easier for consumers and acquiring new customers harder for the companies. 

Last headache for the companies is that now consumers decide which channel will be preferred by them for the communication, not the other way around.

Now this changes creates a need for customer driven communication strategies to satisfy the consumers.Well there is a silver lining in it if wrong message can threaten the brand and the product,a right message can build it.here comes the part of co creation of brand by consumers which can happen with two way communication channel.

Before ending Just one one message IF YOU WANT YOUR BUSINESS TO SURVIVE AND THRIVE;GO SOCIAL ......