Urban bias shows in rural ads

The Hindu – Business Line, (October 06, 2001)

"When you are not a rural person, you cannot think rural or emote rural," said Mr. Harish Bijoor, CEO, Zip Telecom, referring to the handicap most marketers have when they want to sell their products in the rural market.

Participating in a panel discussion on FMCGs in rural markets, he said there was an "urban hegemony" in marketers carrying out rural marketing activities. This is because people who planned rural campaigns were those educated in urban areas.

Mr. Bijoor also emphasised the need to understand the rural consumer. Products needed to be tailor-made for the rural consumer and re-versioning "urban products" will not work.

On advertising to the rural consumer, Mr. Bijoor said agencies must begin to think in the regional language. "This translation culture must go," he added.

He believes the conventional urban-rural divide is diminishing. "A farmer in North India lives in a palatial bungalow and there is also a farmer on Airport Road in Bangalore. So which is rural and which is urban?" he asks.

He explains that ‘rural’ is a psychographic factor and not a demographic or a geographic factor.

Mr. P.Easwaradas, Executive Vice-president, Amrutanjan, said the aspirational levels of the rural consumers had increased. He also said there had been a rise in the disposable incomes of the rural consumer. He pointed out that geographical reach was the biggest hurdle for a marketer to sell his products.

In his presentation, Mr. Nirupam Sahay, Marketing manager, Asian paints, said logistics was not the only problem marketers faced when they attempted to sell in the rural market.

Understanding the rural market was even tougher because of its complexity.

He claimed that Asian Paints’ Utsav brand of distemper had successfully penetrated the rural market by following a well-planned strategy of understanding the consumer’s need and communicating the product’s benefit effectively.