short answer questions 1.what is brand loyalty? 2.define rural market. 3.

mention two reasons for slow down in rural development. 4.what is opinion marketing? 5.mention two most popular brands in FMCG in rural India. 6.What do you mean by product differentiation. 7.what is unique selling proposition? 8.define market segmentation. 9.Expand NABARD. 10. what is cooperative marketing? 11.what do you understand by GDP? 12.Give two objectives of market research. 13.Define Marketing infformation systems. 14.Give two socio-cultural factors affecting rural consumer buying behavior. 15.Mention four criteria for rural market segmentation. 16.what are the main reasons for growing attractiveness of rural markets? 17.what is NAFED? 18.What is a regulated market? 19.what is a commodity market? 20.Mention two agricultural credit institutions in India.

Descriptive questions 1. Discuss the problems in rural marketing. 2. Give an account of Indian companies specialising in rural marketing. 3. Write a note on market segmentation. 4. Describe the role of prices in competitive economy. 5. What are the constraints of communication in rural marketing? 6. Explain the importance of personal selling in rural markets. 7. Describe the functions of central and state warehousing corporations. 8. Describe the role of any four Commodities Board. 9. Explain in detail the factors contributing the change of demand in rural market. 10. Explain the role of Government in pricing for rural markets. 11. Will the market targeting strategy differ from positioning between the rural and urban markets? 12. Describe the various methods marketing communication in rural marketing. 13. Discuss the objectives and advantages and limitations of co-operative marketing. 14. Explain the problems in physical distribution of products in rural markets. 15. Explain in detail Cotton and Textile Marketing. 16.Explain the "opinion leaders" with reference to rural marketing. 17. What are the different types of fake products available in the rural market? 18. Explain Captive-Product Pricing v/s Product-Bundle Pricing. 19. Draw a diagram to explain any one distribution model that has succeeded in rural markets. 20. How can Product Positioning be done in rural markets?

21. What are the political factors that influence in rural consumer behavior? 22. Differentiate a mandi from a Mela. 23.Why do marketers find rural India one of the most difficult markets in the world? 24. Explain how companies have used demographic and geographic segmentation in rural India. 25. Explain some new distribution strategies and distribution models being used by companies to counter the problems of distribution in rural areas. 26. What are the common misperceptions about BoP markets? 27. HUL is reputed to be among the best rural marketers in the country. Discuss reasons for its success. Explain any 2 government scheme for rural reform. 28.Explain Consumer Behavior model. 29.Write a note Marketing Information systems. 30.Explain the Indian Agricultural scenario, and how far the cooperatives contributed for the economic development of India.

Analytical questions

1. What are the components of rural environments that you would need to consider while planning the physical distribution of fast moving consumer goods? How do political environment and the structure of the rural society affect the consumption behavior of rural consumers? Explain by taking examples. 2. By talking to 5-10 rural consumers around your city or to people with a rural background, collect information on what are the most influential reference groups for the following products and services purchase decision for the rural consumers. How is this influence exercised? Purchase of a tractor Decision to send a child to high school outside the village Purchase of insurance Purchase of household detergent 3. You have been retained by an FMCG company to assess the market potential of their well-established brand of toothpaste in the rural market in a part of Central India. Knowing that the awareness of oral hygiene products in the belt is low, the company would also like you to assess the prevailing consumer perceptions about toothpaste in general and their brand in particular: What type of research design would you select and why? Justify. What are the data collection instruments you would use and why? Justify 4. A leading marketer of personal hygiene product like toilet soaps, shampoos, fairness creams and hair oil wants to make his entry into the rural markets. For each of the product categories, what are the possible product, package and pricing adaptation that be he may have to make? Advise him, giving reasons to justify your suggestions. 5. Most FMCG companies are today battling with the menace of spurious products. A nationally established manufacturer of shaving blades and safety razors has sought your advice to enable him to

overcome the problem of spurious brands eating into his rural market share. How would you advise him? Give justification for the advice proposed by you. 6. You have been retained by a company producing a complete range of consumer durables goods. The company has decided to promote the following products in the rural market. sewing machines bicycles mini generation sets What are the advertising media options that would you suggest to the company, in each case and why? 6. On the basis of your understanding of the rural buyer behavior, what sales promotional programmes would be most successful for bio fertilizers launch of a brand of cold drinks for the rural markets How would you plan the sales promotion effort in each case? 7. One of the key determinants of distribution efforts in the rural markets is the relative market potential of different villages. You have studied several measures like the Thompson Rural Market Index, MISH and MRMR. How can marketers use these measures to assess their inventory and warehousing requirements? Respond with respect to the following products. Cooking oil Battery cells 8.Study carefully the behavioral dimension in rural distribution covered in Unit 12 in your material. As a marketer, explain clearly the implication of these variables in planning the distribution of the following products Black and White TV sets Biscuits Branded Tea 9. Collect detailed information on the ITC experiment of e-choupal . Write a note on the present coverage of e choupal the current activities being undertaken by e choupal what is the role of choupal sanchalak. 10.Just a mention of Chik Shampoo gives rise to varied perceptions. To the rural and semi urban population of India, it is the preferred daily use shampoo. To the market and its players, the second largest selling shampoo in the country. Chik Shampoo was launched in the late 1980s. In a highly competitive FMCG category that seemed impenetrable to most marketers, Beauty Cosmetics (a company that later changed its name to CavinKare) identified an opportunity in rural and semi urban India. Combining innovative sachet packing, strategic pricing (At Re.l and 50p) and a strong and motivated distribution network, Chik Shampoo transformed the very nature of shampoo packaging and usage.

With a tropical climate round the year, it is a difficult task to maintain hair softness and shine in rural India. The company developed unique formula - Active Double Conditioners that cut across age, sex and loyalists of other shampoos and made them adopt Chik Shampoo. The company developed a highly successful communication campaign to build its brand. It was targeted at the rural and semi urban masses and showcased the possibility of soft and manageable hair. The iconic Chik Girl in every Chik Shampoo commercial treated her hair with the shampoo and demonstrated with almost ease and confidence her ability to untangle her hair with just a single motion of running her fingers through her hair. Her testimonial signature Yun Kiya Ho Gayal became a popular phrase amongst both girls and women. The company also went to the rural areas of South India where people hardly used shampoo or saw TV. Here they used personal demonstrations. They showed customers how to use shampoo. They did live demonstrations on young village boys. After the wash they would ask villagers assembled to feel and smell his hair. CavinKare held Chik Shampoo-sponsored shows of Rajniknath's films. They showed their advertisements in between, followed by live demonstrations. They also distributed free sachets among the audience after these shows. This worked wonders in rural Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. After every show, our shampoo sales went up three to four times. In 2003, Chik Shampoo was declared the winner of the best performing brand in 2003 by AAAI, amongst the top ten brands in household availability. However after that the brand has begun coming under intense pressure from competitors . The shampoo market has been changing in the last 5 years and has become very cluttered .The company is facing intense competition from other brands like Sunsilk, Clinic Plus, Pantene, Ayush, Dabur Vatika, Nyle etc. (a) Set new objectives for Chik Shampoo and design a new Promotion Strategy for the brand so that it can mating its leadership position Or (b) Considering the rural shampoo market today what will be the key internal and external factors affecting the price of Chik Shampoo. Also suggest some Product strategies that Cavinkare can use to help develop the Chik brand further 11. Introduction: The bio-agri market in India India, the largest democracy in the world, is highly dependent on agriculture which generates almost one quarter of

its GDP and provides two thirds of its people with their means of survival. India is a nation of small resource-poor farmers, most of whom do not make enough income to cover their meager basic needs and expenditures. Sixty percent of the farming households own less than 1 hectare of land and only 5% own more than 4 hectares. Marketing of seeds to this rural population is thus an important activity in the Indian market. Biotech crops are being touted to hold some quick fix solutions to the problems of Indian agriculture. The are being seen as having the potential to play a role in food, feed and fiber security, contributing to poverty alleviation and hunger, reducing environmental footprints in agriculture, mitigating climate change and contributing to cost-effective biofuels. Seed companies have aggressively begun marketing seeds for the only transgenic crop1 approved in India so far, BT 2 cotton. They are also lobbying with the government to ensure approval of BT seeds for food and fiber crops. These companies are offering farmers' customer service, technical knowledge and innovative products that are constantly updated and improved. These services were previously unheard of in the Indian market. Companies are beginning to invest vast amounts in state of the art facilities for the collection, processing, string, testing and breeding of seeds in different climatic zones across the nation to match the climate, soil and land of different segments of framers. Most of these seed companies use technology developed by Monsanto. These companies have to pay Monsanto a royalty per packet of seeds sold. While BT seeds accounted for a bulk of the bio-agri market, bio pesticides, bio fertilizers and markers accounted for the rest. International panacea, Multiplex Biotech and Biotech international are some of the other major companies in the bio pesticides and bio fertilizers category. International panacea reported sales of Rs. 21.17 crore in 2006 compared to Rs. 17 crore in the previous year. A short history of biotechnology in India Agriculture Agriculture biotechnology is making disease resistant grains, fruits, oilseeds and vegetables, and cash crops like cotton through genetic modification. India has so far approved a single transgenic crop, BT cotton for commercial cultivation, while a number of other transgenic crops, including some genetically modified (GM) food crops are in the pipeline for approval. Amidst the raging row over use of genetically modified crops, the area covered under BT Cotton has surged . BT cotton, which confers resistance to important insect pests of cotton, was first adopted in India as hybrids in 2002. "There has been 125-fold rise in area under biotech crop in India in the

last six years, while globally it is only 67- fold increase in 12 years," says International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications, Chairman Clive James. The study conducted by his organisation shows that 3.8 million Indian farmers opted for BT cotton in 2007 compared to 2.3 million in 2006. The study also shows that India has overtaken the US to become the second largest cotton producing country in the world after China. India, which had one of the lowest cotton yields in the world, has become a net cotton exporter, with potentially five million bales available for export in 2007-08. BT cotton was a major factor contributing to higher rate of production from 15.8 million bales in 2001-02 to 31 million bales in 2007-08, it said. The income of the cotton growers in India has also increased up to Rs. 10,000 or more per hectare over a period of 3 years. The study claimed that strong farmer confidence in the crops with nine of 10 Indian farmers replanting biotech cotton year on year. The major states growing BT cotton in India are Maharashtra followed by Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. The study also said that the GM technology alone will not be sufficient to meet the global food demand and stressed on adopting an integrated approach to increase the crop yield. The report suggested that seed marketing companies should promote a crop improvement strategy which will integrate both the crops in its approach to optimize productivity. The Major Players Monsanto's technology is still the dominant BT technology used in India. Each of the seed marketing companies paid Monsanto Biotech about Rs. 1200 per packet of seeds as royalty. Today approvals have been given to 16 major seed companies in India to market GM seeds i.e. Mahyco, Rasi, Ankur Seeds, Nuziveedu Seeds, JK Seeds, Nath Seeds, Ganaga Kaveri seeds, Tulasi seeds, Ajeet seeds, Emergent genetics Vikki Agrotech, Vikram seeds, Pravardhan Seeds, Krishidhan, Prabhat and Vikram Seeds. The Genetic Engineering Approval Committee of the government of India has approved 38 new varieties of BT cotton hybrids for commercial cultivation in the 2006 season in addition to the 20 BT cotton hybrids approved for sale in the 2005 season. Future plans India first allowed commercial cultivation BT cotton, the country's first GM crop in 2002, leading to protests from activists, who say GM crops are a health hazard. This delayed approval of GM food crops. India's first expected GM food crop is brinjal. Field trials of GM brinjal started in August 2007 and is expected to

be commercialized by 2009, said C.D Mayee, a senior scientist, and chairman Agricultural Scientists Recruitment Board. Among food crops the biggest opportunity is perhaps in rice. India, second largest rice producer in the world, is field testing GM rice, and expects commercialization by 2011, Mayee said. In rice, India is competing with China, the largest producer. China is in final stages of commercializing GM rice, James said. BIO-FUEL OPPORTUNITY Biotech can solve bio-fuel needs of the world. India, the second biggest producer of sugar, is likely to gain. India is working towards getting technology for developing GM sugarcane with better ethanol output from Brazil. India is sitting on a stock pile of sugar with output of about 27.5 million tones and a carryover stock of over 6 million tones against an annual consumption of about 20 million tones. Discuss the basic objectives of the seed marketing companies. AK Seeds wishes to enter this market and has obtained approval to market 3 varieties of BT cotton. Develop a marketing strategy that will be beneficial to the company as well as to the farmers. Glossary: 1 Transgenic Crop - Contains a gene or genes which have been artificially inserted instead of the plant acquiring the gene(s) through pollination. 2 BT cotton - BT cotton seeds are genetically engineered to carry the gene from the soil bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis. These seeds have an in-built pest control mechanism created in the cotton plant to fight against certain pests.