Rural Communications

Abstract

The effectiveness of rural marketing communications, to a large extent is influenced by the media habits of the rural consumers. Though all types of media is being used in rural area, in view of low level of literacy, audiovisual media- radio, TV and films assume major importance. For this reason most of the marketers prefer mass media to reach rural audiences, however, Mass media, which might work wonders in urban areas, cannot be that effective in the rural masses. This is primarily because of shortage of electricity, language diversity. To communicate effectively with rural audiences, it is important to understand, the aspirations, fears and hopes of the rural customers, in relation to each product category, before developing a communication package to deliver the product message.This study is an attempt to understand current trends in rural communications in India and thereby identify related prospects and problems. For a conceptual overview, relevant literature in this area was studied. To gain an insight into current practices, communication strategies employed by various manufacturers and service providers through secondary sources were compiled. The paper provides an empirical view of the range of communications employed by the various corporates in the Indian rural market place from 1990 to 2006. Some differences in trends are found across FMCG, Consumer Durable and Service sectors. A detailed description of each type of communications is provided along with a suitable package of communication strategies are suggested for various sectors to communicate effectively to reach the rural audiences. The paper ends with the broad conclusions and implications of this research.Keywords: 3PL (Third PartyLogistics), Joint sales promotion, collaborative partnership, downtrading.