ICT IN M ARKETING
Media for rural marketing
Indian agricultural industry has been
Media Rural growing at a tremendous pace in the last
few decades. The rural areas are consuming
marketing uses both a large number of industrial and urban
manufactured products. The rural
kinds of media i.e. agricultural production and consumption
process plays a predominant role in
the traditional developing the Indian economy. This has
designed a new way for understanding a
media as well as the new process called Rural Marketing. The
concept of rural marketing has to be
modern media. distinguished from Agricultural marketing.
Marketing is the process of identifying and
Rural marketing satisfying customers needs and providing
them with adequate after sales service. Rural
requires the marketing is different from agricultural
marketing, which signifies marketing of rural
understanding of products to the urban consumer or
institutional markets. Rural marketing
the complexities and basically deals with delivering manufactured
or processed inputs or services to rural
this article reviews producers, the demand for which is basically
a derived outcome.
some of the key Rural marketing scientists also term it as
developmental marketing, as the process of
issues. rural marketing involves an urban to rural
activity, which in turn is characterised by
various peculiarities in terms of nature of
market, products and processes. Rural
marketing differs from agricultural or
consumer products marketing in terms of
the nature of transactions, which includes
participants, products, modalities, norms
and outcomes. The participants in case of
Rural Marketing would also be different
they include input manufacturers, dealers,
farmers, opinion makers, government
agencies and traders. The existing approach
to the rural markets has viewed the markets
as a homogeneous one, but in practice, there
are significant buyer and user differences
across regions as well as within that requires
a differential treatment of the marketing
problems. These differences could be in
S.Gopalakrishnan Iyer terms of the type of farmers, type of crops
India and other agro-climatic conditions. One has
gopal@ei-india.com to understand the market norms in
agricultural input so as to devise good
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marketing strategies and to avoid unethical
practices, which distort the marketing
environment. Many of the inputs used for
production process have implications for
food, health and environmental sectors.
Rural marketing needs to combine concerns
for profit with a concern for the society,
besides being titled towards profit. Rural
market for agricultural inputs is a case of
market pull and not market push. Most of
the jobs of marketing and selling is left to
the local dealers and retailers. The market
for input gets interlocked with other markets
like output, consumer goods, money and
labour. The importance of rural marketing
can be understood from the fact that today
modern inputs i.e. diesel, electricity,
fertilisers, pesticides, seeds account for as
much as 70% of the total cash costs and
23% of the total costs incurred by the
farmers in the Green Revolution areas.
Further the percentages were higher at 81%
and 38% for small; farmers owning 1.85
hectares of land.
Strategic aspects
Rural marketing in India is not much
developed there are many hindrances in the
area of market, product design and
positioning, pricing, distribution and
promotion. Companies need to understand
rural marketing in a broader manner not only
to survive and grow in their business, but
also a means to the development of the rural
economy. One has to have a strategic view
of the rural markets so as to know and
understand the markets well. In the context
of rural marketing one has to understand
the manipulation of marketing mix has
to be properly understood in terms of
product usage. Product usage is central to
price, distribution, promotion, branding,
company image and more important farmer
economics, thus any strategy in rural
marketing should be given due attention
and importance by understanding the
product usage, all elements of marketing mix
can be better organised and managed.
i4d | January 2006
 NanaSala Vouchers
The ‘NanaSala Dahasak’ (1000 NanaSalas) Project of ICT Agency
which is being implemented under the patronage of H.E. the
President, is well under way with 150 Centers already operational.
The ICTA nevertheless understands that the subject of Information
Communication Technology is new to most of Sri Lanka’s
population, especially in the rural areas, and that they may not be
fully aware of the benefits of ICTs. They may even be un-informed
of the services offered at the NanaSala centres. Even for the segment
of population that understand these benefits, and also know where
the closest NanaSala is, the affordability factor may dissuade them
from using these services.
In order to address this affordability gap, the ICT Agency has
begun an innovative voucher program, which is currently being
administered by Pricewaterhouse Coopers Sri Lanka. Customers
can visit the NanaSala, ask for a Rs. 50 voucher and use a computer
or the Internet for the exchange of this voucher. The owner is then
reimbursed by ICTA for the cost of the voucher, also providing a
source of income for the owners. Currently, the awareness and
voucher programmes are in operation the NanaSala: Rural
Knowledge Centres in 3 districts, Hambantota, Moneragala and
Badulla, and will be extended to the rest in the near future. ICTA
has also obtained the services of SEEDS - an institution with
extensive experience in communicating complex concepts in rural
areas - to create awareness of this voucher programme. SEEDS are
currently running outdoor advertising campaigns with village
meetings in areas near the NanaSala centres.
Client and location specific promotion
Increasing specialisation in the farming sector has marketers to this
strategy. The marketer under this strategy has to design location
and carry out farmer specific promotional campaigns.
Recommending the use of the products at micro level would result
in increasing productivity of the input and thereby increasing the
image and the sales of the product can raise the input demand for
rural markets. Joint or co-operative promotion A personalised
approach is required under this strategy of rural marketing. Under
this approach there is a greater scope for private sector and farmer
organisation to get into input supply and especially into retail
distribution, as it is a low risk activity.
Bundling of inputs
In order to reap the benefits of, the economies of the scale a rural
marketer has to resort to bundling of inputs. ‘Bundling of Inputs’
is the process by which the marketer would provide a bundle of
products to the retailer so that he can meet the requirements of the
farmers in one place. The village level co-operatives and other agencies
can play an effective role in the distribution of inputs. Establishing
linkages with financial agencies and other input sellers can help
greatly as the bank credit plays an important role by making the
purchase possible. Management of Demand A marketer apart from
maintaining good supplies in terms of quality and quantity also has
to focus on the demand side of the operations also. Continuous
January 2006 | www.i4d.csdms.in
Already in its short existence, the voucher programme has made
positive impacts on the people in the target areas. In Moneragala,
the Nanasala owners speak of people from the community doing
CAD drawings and chatting with relatives who are in foreign
countries. In Badulla, NanaSala owners help people find jobs
through the government’s JobsNet website and receive e-Learning
in certain A and O level subjects. In Hambantota, people come to
the NanaSala to learn English through e-Learning software, access
government services through the web, access market prices and do
typesetting and desktop publishing. NanaSala owners, who
understand their communities better than any outsider, are coming
up with creative and innovative ways to popularise the centres by
mobilising segments of their communities through ICT-learning
groups called ‘e-societies’, visiting nearby schools and giving free/
low-cost computer classes at the centres.
The ‘digital divide’ between the rural areas and urban areas,
the poor areas and affluent areas is striking in most countries, both
developing and developed. This divide leads to an opportunity
gap where rural populaces are denied some of the prospects that
are available to those in urban areas and many a concept has been
proposed and actioned to bridge these gaps. The ICT Agency is
executing some of the more promising ideas - with the voucher
programme being the front runner among them - to ensure that
the digital divide, in Sri Lanka at least, becomes a thing of the past,
and every student, entrepreneur or any citizen, regardless of
location, gets an opportunity to reach their fullest potential.
Source: ICTA, Sri Lanka
market research should be undertaken to assess the buyer’s needs
and problems so that continuous improvements and innovations
can be undertaken for a sustainable market performance.
Developmental marketing
Developmental marketing refers to taking up marketing programmes
keeping the development objective in mind and using various
managerial and other inputs of marketing to achieve these objectives.
A prerequisite for developmental marketing is Development Market
Research, which can be termed as the application of marketing
research tools and techniques to the problems of development. The
research tools of marketing like product testing tests marketing,
concept testing and media testing or message test and focus groups
are used in this work. Developmental marketing has started to find
its roots in India where researchers are using focus groups and
products tests to learn more about rural markets and products needs
and USPs (Unique Selling Proposition) can be tried out. Media
rural marketing uses both kinds of media i.e. the traditional media
as well as the modern media. The traditional media includes puppetry,
drama, folk theatre e.g. tamsaha (role play of different characters by
one or two persons), nautanki (short skits with songs and poetry),
street plays, folk songs, wall paintings and proverbs. Marketer uses
traditional media as it is more accessible, personalised, familiar and
carries a high potential for change. The modern media includes the
print media, the television and the radio USPs.
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 Some of the USPs of the companies engaged in rural marketing
are given below. Mahindra Tractors- ‘Mera Desh Mera Gaon’ (My
country my village) Tafe Tractors-‘Grameen Bharat ki Dhadkan’
Tafe ka Massey Ferguson(The heart beat of rural India its Tafe’s
Massey Ferguson) Swaraj Tractors- ‘Pragati aur Khush-hali ke liye’
(For development and happiness) Escorts- ‘Nayi technique ke sath,
Bharosa Jeevan bhar Ka’ (A life long trust with new techniques)
Eicher-‘Ghazab ki takat, ghazab ki shaan’ (Incredible strength,
Incredible pride) Sun Seeds- ‘Grow with Sun’ ICI Karate Insecticide-
‘Keedon ka Maha-kaal, Phasal Ka Pehredaar’ (Insects enemy protector
of the crops). Pesticide India- ‘Desh ke liye Phasal Anek, Keedon ke
Naash ke liye Foratox Sirf Ek’ (Numerous crops for the country but
only for destroying pests i.e. Foratox). Thus the companies use
different formats to influence the target audience in order to produce
the desired results. Extension Services. There are several limitations
of rural marketing in the Indian context, this leads to the need for
extension services to supplement the efforts of the firms engaged in
rural marketing. The various extension services could include credit
facilities, competitions among the farmers, educating the farmers
regarding the appropriate agricultural practices, etc. Extension
services would thus play a crucial role in the development of rural
marketing in India.
Ethics in Business
Ethics occupies a special place in rural marketing, and has been at
the heart of all the transactions whether cash or kind. In order to
make a lasting impact on the rural clients, the firms need to built a
trustful relationship and that is possible by no other means but
only by ethical conduct.
Partnership for sustainability
There is a need to build partnership with rural clients for a sustainable
business relationship and sustainable marketing relationship.
There should be a long-term relationship between the firms and
farmers for agro business projects, which are risky, long drawn and
technical in nature. Partnership is required in rural marketing
business so as to award distributorship to local groups and individuals
employing locals, staff secondment in local projects, preferential
purchase of local product, training to locals and discount on product
supplies in some areas. Rural marketing firms can work with NGOs
also because NGOs have better linkages and understanding of the
local communities and their problems. Nagarjuna fertilisers and
Chemicals Ltd has set up an agro output division which is known
as FMS (Farm Management Service) which provides packages to
the farmers right form soil testing to post harvest stage of the crop
system. The FMS aims at enhancing farm productivity optimising
cost of production, improving economic returns to farmers
and enhancing the cost of production and enhancing the
produce quality.
Conclusion
Rural marketing in India has still a long way to go, rural marketers
have to understand the fact that rural marketing in India has a
tremendous potential in our country. Rural marketers should
understand this fact and try to tap the huge untapped potential in
our country.

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NepaLinux
NepaLinux is a Debian and Morphix based GNU/Linux
distribution focused for Desktop usage in Nepali language
computing. It contains applications for Desktop users like:
OpenOffice.org, Nepali Gnome Desktop, Nepali input systems
etc. Since January 2004, Madan Puraskar Pustakalaya, the principal
archive of books and periodicals in the Nepali language, undertook
the Nepal component of the 30-month long PAN Localisation
Project (www.PANL10n.net), a multi-nation localisation project
being conducted in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia,
Laos, Nepal, and Sri Lanka, with the support of International
Development and Research Centre (IDRC), Canada. This project
includes a Nepali GNU/Linux distribution ‘NepaLinux’
comprising of localised GNOME, OpenOffice.org, Mozilla suite,
and other utilities that include Nepali Spellchecker, Thesaurus,
Nepali Unicode support, etc. This distribution can be used in
Nepali as well in English environment.
Though NepaLinux is basically a live CD it can also be installed
in the computer. The work for the installation process has been
facilitated through the European Commission supported Bhasha
Sanchar Project (www.bhashasanchar.org) which is led by the Open
University (UK). NepaLinux is a Free/Open Source Software
(FOSS), in which the source code is open and the users have the
freedom to use, study, modify according to one’s needs and
redistribute it. NepaLinux, being a Free/Open Source Software,
does not charge for its software unlike proprietary software, which
cost a lot and also do not allow the users to study, modify, or
redistribute. The official website for NepaLinux is
www.nepalinux.org. Other available places to look for assistance
are: Madan Puraskar Pustakalaya support forum (www.mpp.org.np/
forum), NepaLinux Mailing List (www.nepalinux.org/lists),
NepaLinux Wiki (www.nepalinux.org/wiki), IRC for realtime
queries (#nepalinux on irc.freenode.net). The web space for the
hosting of NepaLinux for the users inside Nepal has been provided
by Everest Net. Information regarding the download of
NepaLinux for users outside Nepal is available on the website.
Digital cinema – Virtual multiplexes
When UFO (United Film Organizers) Digital Cinema Systems
was launched, they had promised that their systems will provide
scheduling flexibility to their Exhibitors. The exact implication
of this statement is now been reflected in theatres. With zero
investment in print costs, distributors are using UFO Digital
Cinema System to convert single screen cinemas into virtual
multiplexes. In a manner similar to multiplexes where multiple
films are exhibited on a single screen. Single cinema screens like
Central Plaza in Mumbai, Mahalaxmi in Surendranagar and Vinay
in Adipur are getting released with simultaneous screening of Ek
Ajnabee and Kalyug. Similarly Kalyug and Apharan are being
released simultaneously in Bangbasi in Howrah, Central Plaza in
Mumbai, Durgapur in Durgapur, Manoj in Asansol, Paradise in
Porbandar and Rakhi in Salkia. This is possible solely due to UFO
Digital Cinema’s unique capability of hosting 8 to 10 films at a
time on their servers for exhibition in their theatres.
More information can be found at www.ufomoviez.com
i4d | January 2006