Rural Marketing Mix Strategies.pdf

Rural Marketing Mix Strategies

A Project as a Course requirement for

Master of Business Administration Tadakamalla Rangasai 17477

Department of Management and Commerce Prashanti Nilayam Campus December 2018

A HUMBLE OFFERING…

DEPARTMENT OF MANAGEMENT AND COMMERCE

SRI SATHYA SAI INSTITUTE OF HIGHER LEARNING (Deemed to be University)

PRASANTHI NILAYAM CAMPUS, PRASANTHI NILAYAM – 515 134 Anantapur District, Andhra Pradesh, India

CERTIFICATE This is to certify that this Project titled “Rural Marketing Mix Strategies” submitted by T. Rangasai, Regd. No. 17477, Department of Management and Commerce, Prasanthi Nilayam is a bonafide record of the original work done under my supervision as a Course requirement for the Degree of Master of Business Administration.

………………………..

……………………..

Prof. Viveck Kapoor

Dr. N. Siva Kumar

Project Supervisor

Place: Prasanthi Nilayam Date: 20th December, 2018

Head of the Department

DECLARATION The Project / Dissertation titled “Rural Marketing Mix Strategies” was carried out by me under the supervision of Prof. Viveck Kapoor, Department of Management and Commerce, as a Course requirement for the Degree of Master of Business Administration and has not formed the basis for the award of any degree, diploma or any other such title by this or any other University.

………………………….. Place: Prashanti Nilayam

Tadakamalla Rangasai 17477 II MBA

Date: December 20, 2018

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

At the very outset, I would like to offer my gratitude to my beloved lord Bhagwan Sri Sathya Sai Baba, without whose grace this endeavour would not have been successful.

I am forever grateful to my parents who have shaped my life at every step. My heartfelt gratitude to Prof. Viveck Kapoor for guiding me in this project all throughout with a lot of enthusiasm and making this journey an exciting one. Without his insights and faith in me this project would not have been possible.

It is my duty to thank all the research scholars of the department who helped me in various ways in completing this project.

I take this opportunity to thank Dr. N. SivaKumar, Head of Department, Department of Management and Commerce and the institute for providing us with required support and guidance, especially with respect to permissions required for usage of computer facilities.

I also extend my gratitude to Mr. Ganesh for facilitating the printing solutions for all the students and enthusiastically putting a lot of work to get the printed versions ready.

I would like to thank all my classmates and roommates especially Vinod, Rinil & Jagadeeshwara for all the love and support.

Rangasai

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1

INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................ 3

2

THEORETICAL BACKGROUND ........................................................................... 11 2.1 Rural areas ................................................................................................................ 11 2.2 4P’s of marketing ..................................................................................................... 11 2.3 4A’s of marketing..................................................................................................... 11

3

LITERATURE REVIEW ........................................................................................... 15 3.1 Rural Consumer Behaviour ..................................................................................... 15 3.1.1 Profile of Rural customer .................................................................................. 15 3.1.2 Characteristics of Rural Customer ..................................................................... 16 3.1.3 Changing Rural Customer ................................................................................. 16 3.2

Issues and challenges of rural markets .................................................................. 18

3.2.1 Reaching rural customers .................................................................................. 18 3.2.2 Acquiring rural customers ................................................................................. 18 3.3.3 Retaining rural customers .................................................................................. 19 3.3 Strategies for Rural markets ................................................................................... 21 3.3.1 Mastering the rural customer reach ................................................................... 21 3.3.2 Mastering rural customer acquisition ................................................................ 21 3.3.3 Mastering rural customer retention.................................................................... 22 4

METHODOLOGY ..................................................................................................... 27 4.1 Nature of the study ............................................................................................... 27 4.2 Research objectives .............................................................................................. 27 4.3 Scope of the study................................................................................................. 27 4.4 Limitations of the study ....................................................................................... 28

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ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION .................................................................... 31

5.1 Acceptability ........................................................................................................... 31 5.2 Affordability ............................................................................................................ 39 5.3 Awareness ............................................................................................................... 49 5.4 Accessibility ............................................................................................................ 62 6.4 Sector wise importance ........................................................................................... 71 6

CONCLUSION .......................................................................................................... 75 6.1

Summary ............................................................................................................. 75

6.2 Future Scope........................................................................................................... 76 7

BIBLIOGRAPHY ...................................................................................................... 79

TABLE OF FIGURES Figure 1 Rural FMCG market ................................................................................................... 3 Figure 2 FMCG sales ................................................................................................................ 4 Figure 3 Two wheelers zonal share ........................................................................................... 5 Figure 4 Telephone subscriptions.............................................................................................. 6 Figure 5 Indian internet population .......................................................................................... 7 Figure 6 challenges to Acceptability ....................................................................................... 32 Figure 7 Godrej Chotukool ...................................................................................................... 36 Figure 8 Impact of urbanisation on rural behaviour .............................................................. 38 Figure 9 NABARD report on financial inclusion .................................................................... 41 Figure 10 Conventional value chain........................................................................................ 45 Figure 11 E-choupal, new business model .............................................................................. 46 Figure 12 e-choupal coverage ................................................................................................. 47 Figure 13 factors influencing the selection of target markets ................................................. 48 Figure 14 Market wise TV penetration .................................................................................... 51 Figure 15 video on wheels campaign ...................................................................................... 57 Figure 16 WhatsApp users in rural and urban India .............................................................. 58 Figure 17 Shift of influencers .................................................................................................. 59 Figure 18 Components of Accessibility ................................................................................... 63 Figure 19 Challenges to acceptability ..................................................................................... 64 Figure 20 Overcoming challenges to Availability ................................................................... 65 Figure 21 Hub and spoke model .............................................................................................. 66 Figure 22 Overcoming challenge of non-availability of channel partners ............................ 67 Figure 23 sector wise importance............................................................................................ 71 Figure 24 Strategies for 4A's of marketing in rural areas...................................................... 76

ABSTRACT

“ To get rich, sell to poor”, says Pradeep Kashyap. Rural areas are no doubt the future battlegrounds in India. The huge population and rising disposable income of rural India along with the satiety that urban market is confronting adds to the allurement of rural markets. However, these promising and enticing rural markets posit various challenges that act as hindrances to the success of companies. Customer centricity is key to overcome these challenges in rural areas. The 4A framework is considered to be one of the most customer-centric approaches in marketing. The purpose of the study is to use the 4A framework to identify various challenges and propose strategies to overcome these challenges in rural markets. This study found that ‘Inclusive marketing' as a strategy can be effective in enhancing both the Affordability and Accessibility in these rural hinterlands. ‘Value engineering' helps improve the functional acceptability of an offering by catering to unique needs of value-conscious rural customer and ‘Edutainment',‘Societal marketing' elevates the Awareness aspect of the 4A's in rural markets. In conclusion, a mere replication of urban strategies in the rural markets will not ensure success. Customer centricity has to be at the heart of strategy for a company to emerge successful in rural markets.`

Key Words – Value engineering, Societal marketing, Inclusive marketing, Edutainment.

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

Introduction

1

INTRODUCTION

C.K. Prahalad says, “The future lies with those companies who see the poor as their customers.”

The Indian rural market with its vast size and diverse demand offers profitable opportunities to the marketers. According to 2011 census,70% of the total population lives in rural India in around 630000 villages. Rural markets contribute around 46% of Net Domestic Product and employ 70% of the total workforce. (Ranjani, 2018).While these facts validate the lucrative opportunities these rural hinterlands offer on overall nation's perspective, there is also industry-specific evidence that show the tremendous potential these rural markets possess. Rural markets are darlings of the FMCG companies as the rural FMCG market is expected to increase to $100 billion by 2025. (refer to figure 1)

Figure 1 Rural FMCG market

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Introduction

According to MART, a rural marketing and rural development agency, 53% of FMCG sales come from rural markets. The growth in rural consumption of FMCG products stood at 9.7% in the year ended 31 March compared to 8.6% growth in urban spending. (refer to figure 2) (Agarwal, 2018).

Figure 2 FMCG sales

So it is clearly evident that the success of an FMCG company is dependent on its performance in rural markets. Consumer Durable industry also has a great growth potential in rural areas as the rural customers are aspiring to imitate their urban counterparts. The rural consumer durable market is growing at a CAGR of 25%. Currently, around one-third of the revenue of consumer durable companies is generated from the rural hinterlands. (IBEF, 2018).

The Automobile industry is no exception to this scenario, the demand for two-wheelers and passenger vehicles in rural markets outpaced the urban markets. Figure 3 illustrates the increasing demand in eastern and northern regions which includes states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, and Odisha. Typically, rural areas contribute more 4

Introduction population to these zones than urban ones. The southern areas which have the larger urban mix in the population are seen lagging in growth. (kamat, 2018).

Indian automobile Companies are anticipating robust revenues from rural markets as a result of favourable monsoon and faster economic growth that are boosting farm incomes. The demonetisation effect that slowed down the growth of the automobile sector waned over the past two years as good monsoons and the stable economic growth boosted the incomes of the rural population.

Figure 3 Two wheelers zonal share

According to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, telephone subscriptions have seen a surge of 7.21% in rural India compared to 0.75% in urban India as on Dec-17. Rural Tele density also rose at a rate of 6.36% compared to 1.10% of urban areas as on Dec-17. (India, 2017) (refer figure 4)

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Introduction

Figure 4 Telephone subscriptions

The main reasons behind the major contributions of rural markets to the top and bottom lines of the companies in various industries are as follows1) The stability in the rural household income due to declining dependency on farm incomes is eliminating the uncertainties in the purchasing capabilities of the rural population. According to the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO), only 40% of rural households are depending on farming as their main source of income. This, in turn, is improving the consumption of rural markets in various industries. 2) The rise of the Minimum Support Prices (MSP's) of 14 crops grown in the kharif season by the government is increasing the purchasing power of the rural households. (Broadcast India Research Council, 2018) 3) Increase in the cash flows to agriculture and allied sectors through improved access to finance and institutional credit is facilitating the contributions of the rural markets to growth prospects of various industries. (Accenture, 2010) 4) One of the most important reasons behind rural markets outpacing the urban markets is increasing aspirations of the rural consumer. Rural customers are emulating the behaviour of their urban counterparts in the lifestyle and consumption habits fuelled by the rise in their purchasing power. Global research company McKinsey referred to India as ‘Bird of Gold' and the bird is ready to fly due to the increasing appetite for better and lifestyle products by rural customers. (Fareeda & , 2016)

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Introduction 5) An increase in literacy rate, development in infrastructure, increase in government spending is boosting the rural economy. The central government is spending as much as 14.34 lakh crore in rural areas for construction of roads, new houses, toilets, provide electricity connections…etc. (PTI, 2018) 6) There is a significant rise in internet users in rural India. There are around 163 million internet users in rural India as of December 2016. According to a report by BCG, half of the internet users will be rural by 2020. (Consultancy.in, 2017) This will improve the digital literacy of the rural customer and companies can leverage upon this in by establishing cost-effective communication channels. (refer figure 5)

Figure 5 Indian internet population

Rural markets are pivotal to the growth of various sectors and companies. They are the lucrative markets that offer great opportunities for marketers to focus upon.

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Introduction A company has to overcome the challenges and difficulties that are associated with these markets in order to be successful. The fact that only a few companies succeeded irrespective of a large number of entrants highlight the level of difficulties these rural markets pose. So the success of a company depends upon the marketing mix strategies it deploys in these unpredictable rural markets.

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CHAPTER 2 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

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Theoretical Background

2

THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

2.1 Rural areas "The rural is means any place as per the "latest census" which meets the following criteria: 

A population of less than 5000



The Density of the population less than 400 per square km and



More than ‘25% of the male population' is engaged in agricultural pursuits". (Natinal Portal Content Management Team, 2011)

Rural marketing mix refers to a set of tactics, tools or variables that firm pursues to achieve its marketing objectives or goals in rural markets. Rural marketing mix can consist of 4P's or 4A's of the marketing.

2.2 4P’s of marketing

The 4P's of marketing constitute the marketing mix which helps in understanding what a product or service can offer and in planning for successful product/service offering. The 4P's are namely Price, Product, Place, Promotion.

According to Investopedia, “‘Price’ refers to what consumers pay for buying the product or service. The price must reflect the perceived value of the product. ‘Product’ refers to tangible good or that satisfies a particular need or want of customers. ‘Place’ refers to the where the product is sold and the delivery part of it. The goal of business executives is to get their products in front of their customers who are most likely to buy them. ’Promotion’ includes advertising, public relations and promotional strategy”.

2.3 4A’s of marketing “The 4A framework is a tool that helps marketers align their actions with the four essential values sought by customers. These values can be summarized as:

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Theoretical Background Acceptability - The extent to which the firm’s total product offering meets and exceeds customer expectations. It has two dimensions: functional acceptability and psychological acceptability. Affordability - The extent to which customers in the target market are able and willing to pay the product’s price. It has two dimensions: economic affordability (ability to pay) and psychological affordability (willingness to pay). Accessibility - The extent to which customers are able to readily acquire and use the product. It has two dimensions: availability and convenience. Awareness – The extent to which customers are informed regarding product characteristics, persuaded to try it and if applicable, reminded to purchase it. It has two dimensions: brand awareness and product knowledge.” (Seth & Sisodia, n.d.) Customer centricity can be defined as the ability of the company to look at every business action through the lens of the customer. The 4A framework will help companies achieve this across all business actions. The 4A's of the marketing define requirements for overall business success rather than only for marketing success. These tools help managers to look at every business action through the eyes of the customer and also in aligning all aspects of the organisation around a set of common customer-centred goals. The growing level of sophisticated modern marketing demands simple and conceptually elegant framework. The 4A's framework with its ability to be applied in any context proves to be a simple and conceptually strong tool to deal with modern marketing demands. It will be the most appropriate tool to be used in the heterogeneous and uncertain rural markets. (Seth & Sisodia, n.d.)

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Literature Review

CHAPTER 3 LITERATURE REVIEW

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Literature Review

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Literature review

3

LITERATURE REVIEW

Research and studies done in this field are being studied and divided into three major aspects in order to facilitate understanding. The three main divisions are Consumer behaviour of the rural customer, Issues, and challenges of rural markets, Strategies for rural markets.

3.1 Rural Consumer Behaviour

3.1.1 Profile of Rural customer

Rural India is embedded in various traditions, customs, and beliefs that have a profound impact on the psyche of the rural consumer. The whole life of the rural customer is greatly influenced by the implanted traditions and beliefs of the rural customer. Indian rural customers are largely illiterate and live in poverty. Local panchayat members, caste and religious leaders... have considerable influence on the purchasing decision of the ignorant and illiterate rural customers. Rural customers purchase in small quantities due to irregularities of the income and don't believe in the concept of blocking money and storing products. Brand stickiness is not present in the rural customers.

Packaging plays an important role in driving the purchase of the illiterate rural customer he/she identifies a brand based on the colour and packaging of the product. Brand awareness of rural customer can be improved by endorsing the products through local stars and movie celebrities. The current rural customer has a desire to upgrade the standard of living fuelled by the rise in the purchasing power. Government schemes like MNREGA and rise in the rural spending in the budget are helping in increasing the income of the rural population. Cash inflows from immigrant labour in rural families have led to a demand for lifestyle products from rural customers. Increase in media exposure and literacy levels is increasing the 15

Literature review demand for lifestyle products in rural markets. ‘Rural yuppies' (males in the age group of 15-34) are helping in increasing the disposable income of the family by moving to urban areas for employment and are also acting as opinion leaders in influencing the purchase decisions of their families. (Srivastava, 2010)

3.1.2 Characteristics of Rural Customer

1. The Rural customer is not very educated as compared to an urban customer but possess a lot of common sense. 2. The Rural customer is ‘value-conscious' and doesn't always go for cheaper products. They value basic functions of the product and aren't likely to go for fancy features that don't enhance the functionality of the product. 3. Rural customers don’t trust outsiders easily and are hard to convince. 4. The life of rural customer is highly routinized. There is high involvement in purchase decision made by the rural customer. Since they are unaware they tend to ask the village head, local leaders etc. before making any buying decision. 5. The rural customer understands colours better and endorsements by local icons will appeal to them.

3.1.3 Changing Rural Customer

Rural customers are changing and changing at a rapid phase. This is due to their increasing appetite for high-quality products triggered by the rise in the purchasing power. The advancements in technology also incited the change in the purchasing decisions of the rural customer. Rural customers are changing in three demanding fronts. (Accenture Strategy, 2014). They are – 

Aspirational



Networked



Discerning

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Literature review Aspirational – The rise in the income levels of the rural customers led to deep-seated desire to provide their children with bright future through education and health care. They are also seeking products that improve their convenience and make their lives comfortable. The mobile and internet penetration has helped them in understanding the urban lifestyle and improving their aspirations. This is validated by the fact that there is a rise in the purchases of the branded products as rural customers see them as trustworthy and high quality. These aspiring rural customers are trading up in terms of wanting more features, better design to boost social image etc. They are willing to explore new categories and new products.

Networked – The traditional rural areas are closely knit communities and purchase decision is made by the heads of the villages, regional leaders or by the word of mouth. Even though the current rural areas still contain these traditional influences, rural customers are better connected to their urban counterparts and seek information through multiple sources for purchase decision making. The high penetration rates of mobile telephony and DTH services have further enhanced their connectivity and decisionmaking ability. The current rural customers are more proactive than the traditional one in the purchasing process. They compare prices and product attributes by collecting information from digital channels which are available as a result of increasing internet penetration in rural India.

Discerning – The current empowered rural customer is ‘street-smart'. The availability of information from various sources keeps them one step ahead of the shopkeeper in their buying decisions. They are no more wavered by the endorsements by celebrities and fraudulent influences of the shopkeepers. They are more ‘value-conscious' today by evaluating products on their attributes, design etc. Today's rural customers are more socially active and involve in interactions with others sharing experiences about their purchase of product and services. They don't hesitate to share their experiences and opinions about the products or services they consumed.

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Literature review

The disruption in the telecom industry by players like Jio has increased the pace of the change in terms of the connectivity in these untapped rural hinterlands.

3.2 Issues and challenges of rural markets

The rural markets offer significant growth opportunities but in order to capitalize on them, companies must overcome sales and distribution barriers they pose. According to the Accenture report, these challenges can be classified into three major categories. They are – 3.2.1 Reaching rural customers Rural markets are fragmented and are geographically dispersed. This makes it difficult and costly for the distribution of goods to these far off places. ‘High cost- to- serve' is one of the main reasons behind many companies staying away from these untapped markets. They neither possess adequate social nor physical infrastructure. This would result in higher logistics costs and require more monies to serve rural customers than urban counterparts. The lack of appropriate infrastructure and deficiency in supply chain networks makes the selection of channel partners very critical. Recruiting and selecting the channel partner stands as a critical challenge in the rural markets. Companies try to tie up with the partners who can connect with the target markets and can understand the company's objectives and goals in order to enhance productivity and efficiency. However, the available channel partners have limited capabilities, lack required skills and infrastructure.

3.2.2 Acquiring rural customers The customers in rural areas are no more closed books. There is a dramatic shift in the connectivity and their awareness about the products/services due to the disruption in the telecom sector. The rural youth working in urban areas not only led to an increase in disposable income but also in knowledge about the products. As the customers become more aware it is important for companies to lure them with enthralling value propositions. 18

Literature review The finding of qualified sales staff in rural areas who will be able to understand customer's demands is another challenge that companies face. The skill sets required for salespersons in rural areas is different from those of urban areas. The cost to train salespersons to work in these closely knit areas is quite high because purchases in these areas are based on community trust and personal bonds. The seasonality of demand in rural markets depending on the harvest and the monsoons is yet another challenge as it highly unpredictable. The decision making in rural areas is typically influenced by strong social fabric these areas contain. So the companies must find innovative ways to ensure the establishment of credibility in these closely knit areas. There is a greater dependency on credit in these rural hinterlands due to the seasonality in the demand and the companies should build credit-based financial models to facilitate the acquisition of the rural customers.

3.3.3 Retaining rural customers With increasing competition in rural markets and high customer acquisition cost, it is indispensable for companies to spend on retaining customers to operate profitably. The companies must enrich the experience that the product delivers across the lifecycle and spread positive word of mouth. However, the ability of a company to provide consistent and reliable after sales service is still a big question in these markets. These diversely spread rural areas increase after sales – service cost act as a barrier to developing the reliable after sales service. (Accenture, 2010)

The other challenges faced by the rural markets are as follows –

1. Indian rural markets are fragmented. There are around 6,30,000 villages in India with different customs, social norms, beliefs and traditions. These differences stand as an obstacle for companies to replicate the strategy of one region in other. (Kumar, 2013)

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Literature review 2. Infrastructure continues to be a big problem in rural areas. There are rural areas which, even now lack facilities in terms of basic necessities like electricity, water, health and education…etc. The absence of adequate transportation facilities makes it difficult for companies in reaching the customers of remote villages. Around 50% of the villages in the country don't have adequate road facilities making it difficult for companies in establishing cost-effective distribution networks. (Ramanjaneyalu, 2012) 3. According to the 2011 census, around 70% of Indian population lives in rural areas and are broadly spread out. The villages in India are not uniform in size. The population of nearly half of the villages in India ranges from 1100 to 6000 persons. This type of distribution of population stands as an impediment to the establishment of cost-effective distribution systems that covers the entire widespread rural markets. (Ramudu, 2017) 4. Per-Capita income of a rural household is low compared to the urban counterpart. This leads to the low purchasing power of the rural customer. ( Zabiullah, 2017) 5. An Improper balance between production and demand is also a major challenge in rural areas. The rural producers are unable to offer customized services to customers. They are also unable to achieve economies of scale because of low production and are failing to provide products at cheaper rates to value-conscious rural customers. ( Zabiullah, 2017) 6. Weak customer relationship management is leading to a loss of potential and prospective customers. There are no records of rural customers maintained by the companies so it is impossible to communicate to the customers about the new arrivals and availability of products. ( Zabiullah, 2017) 7. A Large number of intermediaries in the supply chain of rural markets can lead to high costs. There are also difficulties in payment collections in these rural hinterlands as the penetration of advancements in banking sector like non-cash payments haven't reached these markets.

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Literature review

3.3 Strategies for Rural markets

The various strategies that can be deployed to overcome the above challenges and succeed in the rural markets are as follows 3.3.1 Mastering the rural customer reach There are two strategies that companies can execute to overcome the issue of reaching the rural markets. 1. To take a dynamic approach to the last mile- This can be achieved by creating multiple channel strategy that allows deep rural reach. There are four different approaches that most companies follow: using traditional vans for direct distribution, establishing sub-distributors in some defined geographical areas, using 2-wheelers and 3-wheelers to directly reach the customers and companies like ITC use their own parallel sales and marketing platforms like E-choupal for activating customers in rural areas. Companies like Hero added another layer in form of authorised representative dealers (ARD's) to the existing hub and spoke network. The usage of e-commerce as a platform to reach rural customers is rapidly growing with 1270 hubs. Some of the companies use the ‘feet-on-street' model, where they use rural entrepreneurs to help in the process of distribution. Tata global beverages use alternative channel partner called ‘Gaon' to build relationships with rural people and help in selling the products.

2. To focus on market expansion- Companies can select a cluster of villages which have comparatively higher potential than others, through deep and systematic study to be cost-effective in these dynamic markets. 3.3.2 Mastering rural customer acquisition The most important step after reaching rural customers is acquiring them. Companies entering the rural markets must have their unique value propositions to attract the customers. The products with smaller packs that suit the lifestyle and needs of the customers should be developed with the purchasing power in mind to acquire the

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Literature review customers. The products should be utility oriented. (Puneet bansal & veerpaul kaur khan, 2013). In order to acquire the rural customers, companies should also engage set of stakeholders to prove the point that their business is good. They should be perceived by customers as focusing on needs rather than business profits. The companies must also invest in consumer analytics to track the buying behaviour pattern, price elasticity and the change in consumption pattern…etc. They should engage right influencers who have the credibility to influence the customers like NGO's, Anganwadi workers, the village head…etc. (Mamta Kapur, Vineet R. Ahuja, et al., 2010). The use of local fairs has and Malls as a medium to spread awareness will help companies in acquiring rural customers.

3.3.3 Mastering rural customer retention It is important for companies to retain the existing customers after acquiring them because they can be a source of constant revenue and play a good role in spreading positive wordof-mouth. According to the Accenture survey, one of the best ways to retain customers is to provide reliable and cost-effective after-sales service. This helps companies in receiving customer feedback and in facilitating brand focused communication thereby increasing the customers brand loyalty. Apart from these, businesses will need to focus more on satisfying needs of the customers rather than increasing sales. Since rural areas are socially knitcommunities, investing in developing areas like improving education, roads and healthcare will help the customers in creating a deep connection with the company.

The various strategies that can be implemented with respect to each of the 4A’s of the marketing mix are as follows 1. Acceptability – Product offered by the company should suit the lifestyle and needs of the rural customer for it to be accepted. The product should be offered in small units and low priced packing so that it is line with the disposable income of the 22

Literature review customer. Acceptance of the product will be high in rural markets if it is sturdy and strong in order to adapt to the rough handling and improper storage capacities of the rural customers. Rural consumers value functional aspects value and multiple usages of the products. They also look for durability of the product. (Naidu, 2017)

2. Affordability – Rural population are extremely price-sensitive due to the irregularities in the income. "Value engineering" is one of the strategies that can be followed to make the product affordable. Value engineering means replacing the costly raw materials with cheaper ones without compromising on the quality of the product. The companies should avoid sophisticated packaging to reduce the cost so that it can be passed on to the customer. 3. Accessibility – The companies should come up with innovative and cost-effective distribution channels in order to far-flung rural hinterlands. There are various innovative distribution channels built by various companies like bicycle entrepreneurs', feet on the street model, hub and spoke models etc. Companies like HUL and ITC established their distribution models with the help of self-help groups from rural areas. (Naidu, 2017) 4. Awareness – The awareness in the rural markets can be spread through local haats, mandis etc. There are companies which used vans, opinion leaders like village heads, religious leaders etc. to spread awareness about their products. (Naidu, 2017)

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Literature review

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Methodology

CHAPTER 4 METHODOLOGY

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Methodology

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Methodology

4 METHODOLOGY 4.1 Nature of the study This research uses secondary data method and is qualitative in nature. The various steps involved in this secondary research process are as followsStep 1 - "Rural Marketing Mix Strategies" is identified as the research topic for this study and the objectives of the study are defined. Step 2 – The data is collected from various sources like Government of India's websites & reports, white papers of leading consulting firms like Accenture, Nielsen, BCG, media sources and various reputed journals with the objectives of the study in mind. The data collected is cross-checked to ensure its credibility. Step 3 – Finally the data collected is analysed to identify the challenges in rural markets and to suggest approaches for companies to be successful in rural markets using the 4A framework.

4.2 Research objectives 1. To identify the challenges faced with respect to each of 4A’s of the marketing mix in the rural markets. 2. To study the Rural marketing mix strategies of companies across industries. 3. To suggest approaches for companies to be successful in rural markets. 4.3 Scope of the study 1. The study of the Rural marketing mix is restricted to 4A's of marketing

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Methodology 4.4 Limitations of the study 1. The data collected and analysed for this study includes only a narrow range of academic scholarly works, periodicals and research did mainly by consulting companies. While perusing through all the existing works is not the aim of the study, referring to more literature would surely add to the insights received from this study. 2. While this study cherry picks examples of successful rural marketing strategies a comprehensive view of how rural strategy works could be better understood by undertaking a few detailed case studies.

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CHAPTER 5 ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION

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Analysis and Interpretation

5 ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION This chapter involves analysing the data collected to identify the challenges in rural markets and to suggest strategies for rural markets using the 4A framework. The following are the 4A’s

5.1 Acceptability

Acceptability is defined as an ability of the firm's total offerings to meet and exceed the expectations and needs of the customer. Total offering in acceptability not only includes product but also intangibles like service…etc. Acceptability has two components. They are Functional acceptability and psychological acceptability.

Acceptability

Functional Acceptability

Psychological Acceptability

Functional acceptability refers to attributes that are commonly associated with product class's target market. Psychological acceptability refers to the quality of customer experience while consuming the product. All the aspects of acceptability can be classified into these components. 31

Analysis and Interpretation Companies need to follow ‘User-centric approach' for designing offerings for rural markets. The best product in urban markets may not succeed in rural markets because the needs of the rural customers and environment of rural markets are completely different from urban areas. So designing the offering based on rural customer's needs is pivotal to the acceptability of an offering in these rural hinterlands. Sometimes companies become ‘product myopic' focusing too much on developing the best product that they lose the vision of customer and doesn't take customer needs into consideration. This will lead to failure in these markets. So developing offerings based on ‘User-centric approach' is of paramount importance in Indian rural markets.

CHALLENGES

There are many challenges that companies face to make their offerings acceptable by rural masses. They are listed in figure 6.

Limited usage knowledge

Risk averse customers

Presence of fake brands Challenges to Acceptability in rural areas

Unique customer needs

Low standard of living

Figure 6 challenges to Acceptability

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Analysis and Interpretation

Low standard of living Standard of living is very low in rural areas compared to urban areas. This is due to low disposable income, cultural and social environment of rural customers. The social and cultural environments of rural areas are driven by various traditions and customs. These traditions and customs keep the need to change and impact of westernisation low on rural customers. Hence standard of living remains low in rural areas compared to urban counter areas which are more open to change and are better witnesses to westernisation. Limited knowledge Most of the rural customers have limited technical knowledge in the usage of products and low literacy skills for identifying brands. This is because of low literacy in rural areas. Rural customers identify brands based on the colour, shape, numbers…etc. not based on names and text as they won't be able to read it. Presence of fake brands Rural markets are natives of fake brands. Fake brands capitalize on the fame and brand reputation of famous brands. They design their offerings in such a way that they completely resemble the famous brands except in small often unidentifiable aspects by rural customers like the spelling of brand, logo…etc. They take advantage of the low literacy rate of the rural customer. Examples of fake brands are as follows-

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Analysis and Interpretation

Unique customer needs Rural customer needs are unique and completely different to that of urban customers. Rural customers are ‘value-conscious' and are often misunderstood as ‘price conscious'. They don't accept low priced or stripped version of urban products and demand value for every rupee paid. So there needs to be lot of understanding of rural customers in order to design offerings that will be accepted by them. Risk-averse Rural customers are generally risk averse and always goes for tried and tested products. They don't believe in taking the risk by trying new products. This is mainly because of their low wallet share. So it is extremely difficult for companies introducing new products to get rural people to purchase them. Packaging is yet another problem in rural areas due to poor infrastructure and warehousing facilities.

STRATEGIES TO OVERCOME THESE CHALLENGES AND TO IMPROVE BOTH ASPECTS OF ACCEPTABILITY

Companies have to be spot on with their strategies to overcome these challenges to acceptability which improve both functional and psychological aspects. The various strategies companies need to follow are as follows‘Value engineering’ Value engineering is a principle which deals with replacing the expensive raw materials of a product with less expensive raw materials. This is done without comprising on the overall 34

Analysis and Interpretation quality or functionality of the product. The aim of value engineering is to improve the value derived from the product and suit the needs of the rural customers. Frugal engineering is similar to value engineering and aims to reduce needless costs.

Value engineering is a strategy followed to improve the functional acceptability of the product by overcoming challenges like unique customer needs, limited product usage knowledge, low standard of living. This concept can be of paramount importance only when rural customer needs are studied in detail through market research. There are many companies that are have dedicated ‘Rural teams'. These rural teams comprised of employees from all major departments like production, R&D, marketing…etc. to understand the needs and life of rural customer better and produce an offering that is acceptable by the rural customer.

Value Engineering

Improves Functional Acceptability

Low standard of living

Unique customer needs

Limited knowledge

Godrej ‘Chotukool' is a perfect example of value engineering and disruptive innovation. Chotukool is a consumer durable product of Godrej developed for rural markets. This is a product born out of customer insights. Godrej has a management team going around villages in India observing the lives of the rural populace. This team found that rural customers are not in need of a cheap refrigerator but want something that helps them to 35

Analysis and Interpretation store left over food items, milk and vegetables overnight. A small refrigerator does not serve the full purpose as there is lack of proper electricity in rural areas. These small refrigerators cannot be carried to farmlands or to work since they need a continuous supply of electricity and are quite heavy.

Figure 7 Godrej Chotukool

Godrej used ‘Value engineering' to tackle the challenges of low standard of living, unique customer needs and limited knowledge of rural customers. It launched ‘Chotukool', a mini portable fridge which weighs around 4.5 kg. It doesn't use any traditional processers to cool down as it would increase the cost but uses thermoelectric chips to keep the temperature between 5°C to 15° C. It also comes with a plastic body. It runs either on battery, inverter or solar power. (refer figure 7)

Chotukool addressed the low standard of living of rural customers by pricing it at around ₹3500 only. It satisfied the unique rural customer needs like portability by weighing around 4.5kg and also by running on solar power, battery by eliminating the need for the continuous supply of electricity. Godrej kept the product simple to use without any need for technical skills to operate thereby overcoming the challenge of limited knowledge of the rural customer. Godrej also excelled in branding as well by naming the brand in the local language as ‘Chotukool' which means ‘small instruments that cools'. Functional acceptability can also be improved by designing the product such that it has multiple uses and caters to the unique needs of rural customers. TVS XL is a perfect example of products designed to cater to multiple needs of the rural customer. It has been a huge success in rural markets. This is introduced in the moped 36

Analysis and Interpretation category and provides great mileage of around 60Kmpl and can be used to commute from village to town by carrying a significant amount of load a scooter can carry. This product has seen a series of upgrades to it. The 2018 version of XL super has the USB charging option to address the need of rising smartphone users in rural India. Presence of fake brands Fake and spurious brands are prevalent in rural India. There are two major ways to overcome this threat from spurious brands. One is to spread awareness about the presence of fake brands through media and educate them about the different ways to identify an original brand. The other way is to regularly update packaging and spread awareness about it so that the fake and spurious brand owners find it difficult to copy.

The above strategies aimed at improving functional acceptability by overcoming challenges like the low standard of living, unique customer needs and limited customer knowledge. The problem of risk averseness of rural customer restricts the psychological acceptability of an offering. One of the ways to improve it is to provide service guarantees like easy return policies, cashback guarantees…etc. and to avoid fear, uncertainty and doubt in the minds of rural markets. This can also be done by establishing a robust after sale service systems and processes in rural areas especially in the case of consumer durables and automobiles. Resale values also play a significant role in reducing the risk in certain categories. For example, when ‘Eveready’ launched plastic torches for rural markets people still stuck to torches made of brass because of their higher scrap value of brass. Most of the companies considered functional acceptability of product to be most important in rural context. They leave out the psychological acceptability which includes customer experience social image, status, prestige…etc. The trend is changing because of free information flow and exposure of rural customer to urban behaviour. Urbanisation is playing a key role in rural people trying to emulate the behaviour of their urban counterparts. This is explained with the help of figure 8.

37

Analysis and Interpretation

Figure 8 Impact of urbanisation on rural behaviour

The above model explains the impact of urbanisation on rural customer behaviour. Once the rural youth goes to urban areas for better work there is not the only flow of income to his/her home in rural areas but also youth gets the behaviour of urban customers along with him/her. The purchase decision making of rural youth staying in urban areas will be influenced by urban practices. The youth will then educate his/her family about the benefits of usage of branded products and making informed purchases. This will result in rural customers opting for branded products since they provide superior customer experience. Urbanisation also led to an increase in disposable income of rural households so their purchasing power is seeing a rise so do their appetite for branded products. This is proved by a survey done by Accenture wherein 71% of the rural customers purchased branded products because of trustworthiness and reliability. So it is time for companies to improve even the psychological acceptability of their offering along with functional acceptability.

38

Analysis and Interpretation

5.2 Affordability

Affordability is one of the main elements in the rural marketing mix that determines the purchase of a product or service. This is an important element to be focused upon by the companies entering the rural hinterlands. Affordability refers to ‘willingness' and the ‘ability' to pay for a purchase of a particular product or service. The willingness to pay reflects ‘economic desirability' and the ability to pay reflects ‘economic viability' from customer's perspective. Economic desirability arises when the value that the customer gains surpass the total costs incurred. The total costs in this aspect include monetary and also non-monetary costs like time and effort. These nonmonetary costs are incurred differently by various customers depending on the time and situation they are in. The Economic viability of a product or service exists when the purchase of such product or service does not risk the financial comfort of the customer. The job of a responsible marketer is to look at the long-term and make sure that the customer doesn't deteriorate his/her financial health by purchasing the product/service.

Affordability

Willingness to pay

Ability to pay

The willingness to pay and the ability to pay has to be high for a transaction to be desirable from both company and customer perspective. A Transaction will usually not take place if either of them is absent. So a company has to find creative ways in enhancing these two components to succeed in the rural hinterlands. 39

Analysis and Interpretation

CHALLENGES There are two main challenges that need to addressed to improve the ability to pay in rural areas. They are: 1. Low disposable income 2. Seasonality of income

Low disposable income

Seasonality of income

Problems that reduce ability to pay

Low disposable income Rural areas have low disposable income compared to urban counterparts. So the purchasing power of an average rural customer is much lower than the urban customer. For instance, the per capita income of rural areas is ₹40,772 compared to ₹1,01,313 of urban areas in 2011-12. (PTI, 2016). Low disposable income in rural areas is due to the low per capita income of rural households. So they cannot afford to spend like the urban customers. Seasonality of income Seasonality of income is yet another challenge restricting the ability to pay of rural customer. This is mainly due to the over-dependence of the rural populace on agriculture as the major source of income. According to the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO), 40% of rural households are dependent on farming as the main source of income. Since rural people are highly dependent on agriculture, it is only the harvest season that brings money in their hands. 40

Analysis and Interpretation There are certain states that contain the high number of agriculture households compared to others. So the problem of the seasonality of income is quite high in these states compared to others. A report by NABARD showed that north and north-east states contain a high number of agriculture households compared to other parts of India (refer to figure 9). So seasonality of income is no more a pan India problem but is restricted mainly to certain states.

Figure 9 NABARD report on financial inclusion

STRATEGIES TO OVERCOME THESE CHALLENGES THAT REDUCES ABILITY TO PAY

These above-mentioned challenges are to be dealt with practically to improve the ability to pay of rural customers. There are two ways to approach this problem. They are: 1. Design the offerings in such a way that they are affordable by rural people keeping in mind their disposable income. This is from the company's perspective. 41

Analysis and Interpretation

2. The other way is to look from the customer's point of view and increase the disposable income of rural customers. There are many ways in which companies followed the first approach i.e. to design the offerings in such a way that they are affordable by rural masses with their current level of disposable income. ‘Sachet Revolution’ is a big revolution that took place with an aim to make product offerings affordable by the rural masses. This is one of the major strategies adopted especially by FMCG companies in rural hinterlands and found to be very successful. This revolution was pioneered by Cavinkare way back when it launched ‘velvet' shampoo in sachet form in 1976. This has been followed by Cavinkare launching ‘Chick' brand of shampoo in 1999. This launch of shampoo in form of sachets led to an increase in market share of the brand from 5.6% in 1999 to 23% in 2003. (Singh, et al., 2009) This sachet is then being followed by various FMCG companies like HUL, ITC…etc. Sachet strategy more or less became a norm to be followed by companies entering emerging rural markets. Companies can improve their margins by selling their products in sachets because per ml price that customers pay for products sold in sachets is higher than that of products sold in bottles. So companies gain more by selling sachets than bottles keeping economies of scale in production aside. Some of the companies who emerged successful by following this sachet revolution are Coco-cola, Parle, Godrej…etc. Coco-cola conducted a survey in 2001 and discovered that 300 ml bottles priced at ₹10 was found be costly by rural customers and a bottle of 300 ml was shared by two people. So taking these findings into consideration and to penetrate further into rural India Coco-cola brought out new 200 ml bottles priced at ₹5 and found it to be successful in rural markets. Nestle did the same by launching KitKat at ₹5 and making it affordable to rural masses. So did Godrej by introducing the Cinthol priced at ₹4-₹5. The main reason behind the rural customer purchasing a shampoo sachet is low disposable income. The daily income of a rural household is in some hundred rupees. Most of which goes in procuring food items and other eatables. So rural household cannot afford to spend ₹100 or more in buying a shampoo bottle rather he/she buys a shampoo sachet costing ₹1 or ₹2 which is within his/her daily budget. 42

Analysis and Interpretation The sachets also provided an opportunity for rural customers to try products which they never tried because of the high cost. This thereby drives the consumption in rural areas.

Sachet strategy is also adopted by various other industries like the airline industry, telecom industry…etc. Airlines like Indigo has adopted this strategy by providing ‘no frills' travel at an affordable cost. Telecom industry also adopted this strategy by offering small plans at as low as ₹10,₹20...etc. The post Jio era witnessed small internet packs at ₹25 with an expiry of 1 day and many such low priced packs to target the bottom of the pyramid. There are also cases in product categories like jam, milk ...etc. where sachet strategy didn’t succeed as well as it did in shampoo and other FMCG category. (Singh, et al., 2009) FMCG, telecom and other industries, where rural customers purchase is ‘expense’ in nature adopted sachet strategy while industries like automobiles, consumer durables…etc. can use various strategies like seasonal payments, third party payments, EMI’s where planned purchase is ‘investment’ in nature. Automobile and Consumer durables industries need to concentrate on overcoming challenges that restrict the ability to pay of rural customer because purchasing these products is more of investment in nature and requires a large sum of money to do so. These companies can provide EMI's and provide options for customized payments to rural people to influence them to purchase. For example, ‘Tata Ace' is a mini truck launched by Tata Motors. It helped rural customers to finance the truck with the help of its own financing firm. It also tied up with third-party financing firms to offer 5years loan at low monthly instalments compared to three-wheelers loans. These industries can design seasonal payment options which involve paying the price of the product only in harvest seasons. This is basically like EMI's but the instalments to be paid only in harvest seasons. This can be implemented in states dominated by agriculture households who are dependent on farming as their main source of income. The fast-growing E-commerce industry can adopt strategies like ‘Harvest wallets' to improve the ability to pay by reducing seasonality of income in rural areas. This strategy involves attracting customers to fill their wallets with cash in harvest seasons by providing them with additional benefits like cash back, interests on wallet balance after certain limits and discounts on purchase through wallets…etc. This strategy eliminates seasonality of 43

Analysis and Interpretation income because the income earned from crops in harvest seasons can be spent throughout the year whenever necessary and will earn interests, as it is maintained in wallets of these E-commerce firms, not in the hands of rural customers.

This approach of designing low-cost offerings and solutions is from a company perspective to improve the ability to pay of the rural customer. The second approach that can be used to improve the ability to pay of rural customer is looking from the customer's perspective. This involves great efforts by companies because it requires developing lives of rural customers. ‘Inclusive Marketing’ is a trending concept being applied in these rural markets. This concept basically involves viewing poor people not only as customers but also as producers and suppliers. This concept guarantees to add economic value to the goods and services offered by the BOP people. (Kashyap, 2010) Inclusive marketing aims at creating ‘winwin' situation for both the company and customers. ITC e-choupal is a perfect example of inclusive marketing. India has second largest cultivable land in World but has one of the least per hectare productivity. The main reason behind this is the fragmented nature of Indian farming and inability in achieving economies of scale due to its fragmented nature. Since they own small piece of land, usage of modern technologies proves to be expensive for them. Quality takes a hit due to all these reasons. So there is a need to improve the income earning capacity of farmers which will indirectly

44

Analysis and Interpretation improve quality and productivity. A typical farmer's produce has to go through a lot of intermediaries to reach the processors. (Figure10)

Figure 10 Conventional value chain

The large number of intermediaries decline the profit of the farmers and exploit them without giving them what they deserve. So in order to raise the income level of the farmers and to reduce the high level of intermediaries, ITC developed e-choupal, where choupal means ‘village meeting place'. (refer to figure 11) It is basically a virtual marketplace which eliminates non-value adding middlemen by helping farmers directly contact with processors. This model uses the internet as a base for communication. There are physical support houses established in each village where an educated farmer called sanchalak will help farmers by informing them about the weather conditions, best farming practices, raw material costs and best prices available for their produce. The information regarding all these will be uploaded by ITC on its websites.

45

Analysis and Interpretation

Figure 11 E-choupal, new business model

Farmers wishing to sell their produce to ITC itself can do so by giving them to sanchalak house in their village which will be collected by ITC. Farmers can order various raw materials from different suppliers through choupal centres. ITC e-choupal basically helps in improving productivity, minimizing transaction costs and increasing income earning capacity of farmers.

46

Analysis and Interpretation

Figure 12 e-choupal coverage

This initiative not only helped farmers to improve their disposable income but also made sure ITC gets high-quality raw material for its products like Aashirvaad, Sunfeast…etc. It created a win-win situation for both the company and the customer. There are many companies following this approach in recent past as it proved to be winning. Willingness to pay is a function of acceptability of product and can be improved only by delivering a product that provides value which is higher than all the monetary and nonmonetary costs incurred in buying the product. So it depends wholly on the acceptability of the product. However, not all companies have resources and strengths either to develop low-cost offerings by investing in R&D or to help rural customers improve their ability to pay. So companies who cannot afford to take these two approaches and improve the ability to pay can be selective in choosing rural markets. They can choose rural markets with high disposable incomes compared to others. These markets can be found by observing various factors as mentioned in figure 13.

47

Analysis and Interpretation

Irrigation facilities

Technological advancements

Factors impacting choice of target markets

Type of crops grown

Government Budget

Government investment

Figure 13 factors influencing the selection of target markets

For example, a company can choose a rural market where government schemes like MGNREGA are implemented at its best since they improve the ability to pay off the customer and where irrigation facilities are abundant. They can also choose markets that grow commercial crops which leave more money in the hands of the farmer. In conclusion, choosing a target market in the rural area depending on various above-mentioned factors would no doubt decrease the number of resources to be spent but it cannot guarantee that rate of success, which adopting the two methods of increasing ability to pay would probably do.

Affordability, one of the most important of 4A’s is extremely important to drive purchase of product or service. It basically involves increasing the ability to pay and willingness to pay of rural customers. Ability to pay can be improved by designing an affordable offering and by increasing the disposable income of rural households. Willingness to pay can be delivered by designing an offering whose value surpasses the costs customers incurred.

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Analysis and Interpretation

5.3 Awareness Awareness is one of the 4A’s that is pivotal to the success of a product in rural markets. Awareness is all about arousing a quiescent need in the customer and triggering the purchase process of a particular product or service. Awareness can be defined as knowing and understanding both the brand and product. An ideal awareness campaign should equip customers with knowledge about the product and brand. Product knowledge helps customers in understanding the benefits that it provides while knowledge about the brand helps in ‘top of the mind recall’ of the brand. The goal of awareness is not only to educate the rural customer but also to form a positive attitude towards the brand. The task of spreading awareness about a particular product or brand in rural areas is not as easy as it is in urban India. The various challenges that the rural hinterlands pose make it difficult for the companies to make the rural customer aware about their product and brand.

CHALLENGES

There exist many challenges that restrict the success of companies in their awareness endeavours with respect to their products and services in rural India. These challenges don’t exist in urban areas. So any attempt by companies to replicate urban awareness practices in rural areas will prove to be disastrous and may even cause significant leakages to their advertising budgets. Hence companies have to be aware of the challenges that rural markets constitute in order to be effective. The challenges that these rural hinterlands pose with respect to spreading awareness can be classified into three main categories. They are – 

Low literacy rate



Limited media reach



Cultural differences

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Analysis and Interpretation

Low literacy levels Low mass media penetration

Cultural differences Challenges of Awareness

Low literacy The literacy levels in rural India is low compared to the urban areas. According to NSSO, the literacy rate in rural India is 71% compared to 86% of urban areas. There is also a high gender disparity in literacy rates in rural India compared to that of urban areas. The Literacy rate of rural women is significantly lower than male. The design of the awareness campaigns and the selection of the channel should be made keeping in mind the challenge of low literacy rates. For instance, using print media as the channel would do no good in educating the rural customer about the product or brand since they have limited ability to read and write. Low media penetration According to Broadcast survey, the penetration of TV in rural India is about 55% (refer figure 14). In 2016, there are 99 million households who own a television and this grew at a rate of 10% to 109 million households. Even though there has been a growth in television penetration in rural areas, the penetration rate stands at 55% only. The mass media penetration stands at 57% in rural areas. (Shah & Desai, 2013) So advertising through mass media alone cannot be an effective option for a company to reach entire rural markets.

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Analysis and Interpretation

Figure 14 Market wise TV penetration

Cultural and language differences There exists a huge amount of differences in the dialects and languages spoken in rural India. The impact of westernization is high in the urban areas and not so evident in most of the rural areas. Traditional practices and customs are still very much prevalent in rural hinterlands. So since there are differences in cultures of rural areas, the awareness campaigns should be tailor-made to each of these areas which exhibit variations in culture and languages are spoken. If a company follows ‘One size fits all' principle in developing an awareness program it would lead to disasters as a particular action in a culture would mean completely opposite in another. This would also lead to complete misunderstanding of the message designed by the company and would cause irrecoverable reputation loss to the company.

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Analysis and Interpretation

STRATEGIES TO OVERCOME THESE CHALLENGES

There are different strategies that various companies executed to overcome these challenges and emerge successfully. The various ways in which these strategies manifested with respect to each of the challenges are as follows-

Low literacy

• Experiential campaigns • 'Edutainment'

Limited mass media penetration

• Non-conventional media • Mobile marketing • Local influencers

Cultural and Language differences

• Customized content

Low Literacy

Low literacy is one of the most prominent challenges in rural India. It acts as an impediment to the awareness activities of the companies. So in order to overcome this challenge of limited reading and writing capacity of rural customers, marketers need to find alternatives to educate and inform people about their products and brands.

52

Analysis and Interpretation

Edutainment

‘Edutainment’ has been one of the successful strategies that various companies adopted to build awareness. It basically means ‘Educating’ through ‘Entertainment’. This involves blending the information about the brand or product with entertainment so that it is easily understood by the rural customer.

Axis bank used this innovative method to make people aware of the banking services. Axis bank designed comic strips that speak about banking services and distributed them across the villages to create a positive brand attitude in the minds of potential customers. The advertising team of Axis bank also performed skits blending comics and information about banking services in local languages in rural areas. (Accenture Strategy, 2014) India is on its way to become a sporting nation. Rural areas are no exception to this. Sports like cricket, football and kabaddi attract a significant number of users across age groups. According to BARC, the number of viewers in rural India was 1,93,000 compared to 176000 in urban areas. This data clearly shows that apart from IPL, the most celebrated cricket festival in the country, ISL also attracts a significant number of rural folks. These platforms give a great opportunity for companies to use them to base their awareness campaigns in form of sponsoring teams or advertisements during matches…etc. Television has been one of the widespread mass media in rural areas. According to Broadcast India research council, the average time spent on watching television has seen a jump of 26% in rural India compared to urban areas. There is also high viewership in the categories of serials and film-based programs in rural markets. (Broadcast India Research Council, 2018) . The typical day of rural populace ends early compared to urban ones and they have enough time to spend watching serials and film-based programmes in television. So companies can make effective use of these entertainment channels to spread awareness by blending them with the information that needs to be conveyed to the rural customers.

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Analysis and Interpretation Experiential campaigns

‘Experiential campaign' is another way to advertise a company's products or services and build a positive brand image. These campaigns involve companies organizing events wherein potential customers get to experience the product and get educated about the usage, benefits and advantages of the product. Experiential campaigns help companies in winning the trust of the rural customers by creating a positive brand image in their minds. HUL’s most famous ‘Khushiyon Ki Doli' is a rural marketing initiative that aims at driving brand awareness and educating people about its products and brands. This campaign was initially launched in Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra. It focused on educating all the village people by playing Audio visuals and television video commercials on its brands. This campaign also involved live demonstrations highlighting the hygiene benefits that these brands offer on their usage. HUL also organizes games and quizzes based on the demonstrations and the TVC's shown in order to reinforce the names of its brands and their health benefits to the rural customers. ‘Khushiyon Ki Doli' helps HUL not only in spreading awareness about its products but also in instilling belief in minds of a customer about the health benefits that these brands offer. (Kaur, 2013) These experiential campaigns help companies gain the trust of risk-averse rural customers by making sure they experience the benefits and advantages of using the product or service. The prominent goal of ‘Edutainment’ and ‘Experiential campaigns’ is to eliminate roadblocks that low literacy poses in spreading awareness about a particular product or service.

Limited Mass Media penetration The mass media doesn't have the pan rural presence. So companies have to find alternate channels to make rural customers aware of their products. The various ways in which companies can spread awareness in the absence of mass media are as follows:

54

Analysis and Interpretation Non-conventional media Mandi, haats, folk media, melas...etc. are the prevailing unconventional media existing in rural hinterlands. These media play a prominent role in communicating about the products and brands of the companies to the customers.

Haats

Melas

Nonconventional media

Mandi

Folk media

Haats Village haats are avenues for social get-togethers’ of rural people. There are around 47000 hats in India. (Dr. Sathyanarayana & Dr B. H. Suresh, 2017) They are weekly markets where rural people come with an intention to buy necessities, garments, farm inputs...etc. These haats can act as potential touchpoints for companies to leverage upon. Melas Melas are very much part of the Indian culture and are still prominent in rural areas. There are religious as well as festive melas. Kumb mela is an example of religious melas whereas melas that are organised for Diwali, Eid…etc. are festival melas. Melas are the best aggregators of the otherwise dispersed population. These are also useful in attracting substantial customers with money in their pockets at one go. (Balakrishnan & Bapna, 2015) HUL's 3 Roses, largest selling tea brand in South India used the melas during Maha pushkaram to promote its improvised formulation. 55

Analysis and Interpretation It distributed around 3000 cups of hot beverage across 250 small tea stalls organised in mela in Andhra Pradesh. These cups have the brand logo and message appearing on them as and when filled with the hot beverage. This is something novel and fascinating to a rural customer and evoked ‘wow' moments from him/her. HUL claims that this initiative saw a sales rise within 12 days of the festival. Dabur, one of India's largest ayurvedic and natural consumer product manufacturer used the religious melas like ‘Kumb Mela' to spread awareness about its product odomos. Dabur distributed odomos sachets to spread awareness about its both indoor and outdoor protection against mosquitoes. (Balakrishnan & Bapna, 2015) Mandi Mandis are markets for agri-produce and inputs. These are good platforms for durable products like tractors, farm equipment, pumps…etc. and also non-durable like fertilizers and seeds, pesticides. There around 7000 mandis in India. (Dr. Sathyanarayana & Dr B. H. Suresh, 2017) Mahindra used these mandis as prime locations to conduct test drives and display their tractors. Folk media Folk media refers to folk dances, magic shows, street theatres and puppetry...etc. that is the source of entertainment for rural people. These can act as good platforms for spreading awareness about the company's products and services. For instance, Life Insurance Corporation took the route of puppet shows in villages to spread awareness about their insurance products.

Mobile vans are also being used by companies to inform customers about their products in rural areas. Maruti's video on Wheels campaign is a perfect example of marketing through mobile vans. Maruti identified the need in two-wheeler customers to upgrade to fourwheelers in rural areas. It used vans with air conditioners and television sets to show commercials based on the need to upgrade to four-wheelers and benefits of upgrading. The commercials communicated about the reliable products and extensive service networks of Maruti Suzuki.

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Analysis and Interpretation

Figure 15 video on wheels campaign

Mobile Marketing Mobile marketing is the most happening thing, especially in rural markets. According to Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, rural India has around 499 million subscribers out of which 109 million own a smartphone. The penetration of mobile devices is much higher than televisions in rural India. This forces brands to use mobile marketing as a tool to connect with its customers and to educate them about their products. Mobile marketing is found to be one of the most effective ways to reach rural markets which are otherwise disconnected. A mobile-based awareness strategy also helps companies and brands in gathering precious customer data which can be used to customize communication. HUL's Kan Khajura Tesan initiative was aimed at states like Bihar and Jharkhand which have a low media presence. This campaign was aimed at providing entertainment to rural people who gave missed call to the given number. The information about the different brands of Hindustan Unilever is juxtaposed with the entertainment. This initiative not only helped HUL in educating about its brands but also helped in a creative positive attitude in the minds of the customer. Mobile internet penetration in rural India is around 18% and likely to see a rise. (Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) 2017). The disruption in the telecom sector initiated by Reliance Jio led to a sharp fall in the prices of data thereby making it affordable to the rural populace. CMR research found that 35% of 4G subscriptions from rural areas. Government is also aiding the internet access by establishing 15000 Wi-Fi hotspots in rural 57

Analysis and Interpretation areas. So the internet is no more a faraway dream to rural customers. Since smartphone sales are also on the rise in rural hinterlands the usage of social media platforms like WhatsApp and Facebook is growing exponentially. According to a survey done by MOTN, usage of WhatsApp has risen drastically in India. Rural areas saw a growth rate of 100% in WhatsApp penetration. (refer to figure 16) (Lokniti-CSDS Mood of the Nation (MOTN), 2018)

Figure 16 WhatsApp users in rural and urban India

These statistics show tremendous potential these social media platforms have in rural India as a low cost yet effective channels of communication. The usage of social media in rural markets to spread awareness is still in its nascent stages. One of the most important aspect companies should keep in mind before using these channels in rural India is not to replicate strategies of urban India. Rural India demands customized content keeping the culture and literacy of the people at the heart of it.

Local Influencers Rural areas are closely knit communities and hence local influencers play a significant role in purchase decisions of the rural customers. Local influencers can act as a trusted source of promoters of brands and companies.

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Analysis and Interpretation Asian paints used these local influencers like sarpanch and others by painting their houses to communicate to the people that their paint lasts long. Since influencer's house is painted, it created a buzz in the village and made people aware of Asian Paints. (Naidu, 2017) Accenture survey claims that the traditional influencers like sarpanch, village heads…etc. are being wiped out and are replaced by educated youth, family members and sectorspecific experts like barbers for grooming products, mechanics for consumer durables. (refer to figure 17) The new influencer's opinion is valued because of their expertise in that particular field and in-depth knowledge. (Accenture Strategy, 2014)

Figure 17 Shift of influencers

The role of women in family decision making grew in rural areas due to the rise in woman employment and empowerment. So it is a great opportunity for marketers to leverage upon these new influencers and turn them into brand advocates in these rural markets.

There is no one channel that fits all markets, so the decision on channel selection should be entirely dependent on the product to be marketed, the behaviour of the target market and strategies of competition. There is a general tendency to use a mix of conventional and nonconventional media to educate the rural customer about one's brand and product.

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Analysis and Interpretation

Cultural and language differences This is one of the most significant but often overlooked challenges in rural India. India is a land of various cultures, languages and traditions. Urban areas witnessed dilution of these ancient cultures and traditions due to the impact of westernization but most of the rural areas still follow these. So it is extremely important for companies not to burn their fingers by ignoring cultural and language differences in these rural hinterlands. The strategies companies must follow in order to overcome these cultural and language barriers are as follows:

Customized content The communication content should be customized to each of the regions and states where these rural markets exist. Maruti used different languages in different states in its ‘Video on wheels' campaign to make sure that it's commercials are tailor-made to each of these markets and are most effective. It is very important that the content shouldn't be against the culture and traditions of the place. There would be a loss of brand image and monetary resources of the company if the content is against culture. So in order to avoid these calamities, companies should have a ‘Rural Team' that studies in detail the culture, tradition and the values of a particular target market. These teams should contain members from the marketing team and at least one member who is native of the village and has a thorough knowledge of the village. The awareness campaign should be designed only after studying the target market thoroughly.

The goal of awareness is not only to make target customers knowledgeable about product and brand but also to aid in forming a positive attitude towards brand in the minds of the customer. So in order to gain positive brand reputation companies are following ‘Societal marketing’, a concept wherein marketing decisions will take into account society's longterm interests as well.

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Analysis and Interpretation Tata Chemicals is one of the many companies which has used ‘Societal marketing’ to its best. The white shark is one of the fishes that is being massacred at a huge rate in and around regions of Okhamandal. This led to a fear of the extinction of white sharks. Tata chemicals along with Wildlife trusts of India came up with an awareness campaign that urges locals not to kill these sharks and asked them to treat them as daughters of Gujarat coming home. This campaign was quite successful and was depicted by the fall in the rate of their killings. This initiative helped the company to create a positive brand image in the minds of the customers.

Common

Ideal

Worst

Unusual

Low

Product knowledge

High

Performance of Awareness

Low

Brand Knowledge

High

The final goal of awareness is to reach the ‘Ideal' stage. An Ideal stage is where customers have high knowledge about both the product and brand as well. Companies with their awareness campaigns at ‘Ideal' stage enjoy ‘ top of the mind' or spontaneous recall. This drives their sales and profitability. 'Common stage' is where most of the companies lie

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Analysis and Interpretation because they concentrate more on spreading awareness about their brands rather than about the products. They don't realize that product knowledge is as important as brand knowledge. These companies ignore the fact that it is product knowledge that makes customers decide whether purchasing a product would satisfy his/her need or no. So the champion companies of rural markets should make sure that their awareness campaigns should be at the ‘Ideal' stage. Product knowledge makes the rural customer aware about the specifications of the product and the needs it satisfies. It helps rural customers in deciding whether or not a particular product satisfies his/her needs. Once a rural customer decides to buy a product, the next question that arises is of which brand’s product should be purchased. Brand knowledge eliminates the question of choice and drives the purchase of a particular brand which scores high on educating rural customers about itself. Awareness in rural areas is not an easy task and involves overcoming challenges like low literacy, limited mass media penetration and cultural differences. However, a study of the target markets and the use of conventional along with non-conventional media and integrating the content to be communicated with entertainment helps companies in not only educating the rural customer about its products and brands but also in building a positive attitude towards their brands.

5.4 Accessibility

Accessibility can be defined as the company's ability to ensure that its offering meets up with the customer, at the time and place of the customer's choice. The aim of the accessibility is to minimize the effort from the customer side in obtaining the offering. Accessibility is the biggest problem faced by corporates eager to enter the Indian rural hinterlands. Companies may excel in all the other 4A's like awareness, acceptability and affordability but if they don't make their offering accessible to customers then all those efforts are of no use. Accessibility also has two major components to be dealt with. They are (refer to figure 18) 62

Analysis and Interpretation

Accessibility

Availability

Convenience

Figure 18 Components of Accessibility

Availability refers to making sure that supply matches with demand as accurately as possible. The main aim of availability is to make sure that situations of excess demand and situations off excess supply are as minimal as possible. The situation of excess supply exerts pressure on reducing the price of the offering while that of excess supply would result in a lost customer. Convenience refers to the ability of a company to ensure that customer is able to acquire the right product at the right location and at right time. This is extremely important especially in rural areas where it is not easy for the customer to obtain the needed product in efficient time. Accessibility is not about firm distributing the products to the customer instead it is about how easily customer is able to access the product or service of a company. CHALLENGES The various challenges that companies face in improving accessibility to rural areas are as follows listed out in figure 19.

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Analysis and Interpretation

Fragmented villages

Lack of technical knowledge

Challenges to Acceptability

Poor infrastructure

Nonavilabilty of channel partners

Figure 19 Challenges to acceptability

Fragmented villages There are around 630000 villages in India and are widespread over 29 states. These villages are extremely fragmented. The population most of the villages is around 2000. These villages are extremely widespread and have low population. Since they are widespread, the cost to serve these villages is high as companies cannot experience economies of scale. This acts a big obstacle for companies entering rural markets. Poor infrastructure Infrastructure has always been a huge problem in rural areas. Transportation has been difficult for these hinterlands due to non-availability of proper roads. Electricity has also been a major problem resulting in poor storing and warehouse facilities in rural areas. Unavailability of channel partners Urban areas contain an ample number of logistic firms and competent channel partners but their presence in rural markets is sheer minimal. 64

Analysis and Interpretation Since widespread rural markets do not offer profitable opportunities there is the very low or negligible presence of logistic and channel partners. Lack of technical knowledge Rural customer's low technical knowledge serves as an obstacle to accessibility. This is due to low technical literacy. Limited technical knowledge makes the availability of products through E-commerce platforms almost an impossible option.

STRATEGIES TO OVERCOME THE CHALLENGES OF ACCESSIBILITY AND IMPROVE CONVENIENCE & AVAILABILITY There is no ‘one strategy fits all’ that provides solutions to all the problems of Accessibility. Companies have been extremely innovative in overcoming challenges to accessibility and improving convenience & availability.

Availability

Fragmented villages

Non- availability of channel partners

Poor rural infrastructure

Figure 20 Overcoming challenges to Availability

Availability component can be improved by overcoming the challenges of fragmented villages, poor rural infrastructure and non-availability of channel partners. (refer to figure 20)

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Analysis and Interpretation

Fragmented villages Fragmented and widespread villages act as an impediment to cost-effective distribution systems. Hub and spoke models is one of the prominent models used to overcome the problem of widespread villages. This model of logistics eliminates the need for a point-to-point system or direct routes. Hub is at the centre of different spikes. It is basically like a bicycle wheel where the hub is the centre part holding all the spikes together.

Figure 21 Hub and spoke model

Figure 21 clearly shows that Hub and Spoke model allows a company to ship the products to different hubs. The products from hubs are shipped to spokes thereafter. So instead of the company distributing from point to point each time it can distribute goods to the hubs which distribute goods to the spike centres. Coco-cola and Pepsi are among the companies that follow the hub and spoke model of distribution to improve the efficiency of distribution systems.

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Analysis and Interpretation One more cost-efficient way to implement these Hub and spoke models is to identify the feeder markets. Feeder markets are the villages which are relatively bigger in size and it is basically a marketplace for the small villages nearby. So identifying these feeder markets and establishing company’s outlets will help further reduce the costs related to distribution. The small retailers will purchase their stocks from the outlets in feeder markets and then sell to their local customers. This model helps companies to overcome the challenge of fragmented villages as they stick themselves to feeder markets and don't need to be present in all widespread villages. Non-availability of channel partners The non-availability of channel partners is yet another major challenge to accessibility. There are no competent channel partners in rural areas because of the high cost to serve, poor infrastructure…etc. The two main ways of overcoming these challenges. They are (refer to figure 22)

'Co-create' Non-availability of channel partners 'Collaborate'

Figure 22 Overcoming challenge of non-availability of channel partners

The most proven successful strategy to overcome this challenge of non-availability of the channel is ‘Co-creation'. The main aim of this is to create a ‘Win-Win' situation for both parties. HUL's project Shakti is a trademark example of the ‘Co-creation' strategy. Project Shakti is used by HUL to sell its beauty and health care products to rural customers in far-flung

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Analysis and Interpretation and media dark villages. There is a low presence of traditional media in these villages and the usage of marketing channels like E-commerce and retail stores will be inefficient. HUL hired females of the village in around 15 villages. These local women called ‘Shakti Amma's' purchase products from locations organised by HUL and sell them in their villages. These Shakti Ammas earn income through commissions from HUL on the number of goods sold. Shakti Ammas earn income between ₹2000-3000. HUL also train these women in hygiene techniques which help not only in marketing the products but also in staying away from diseases. This project not only benefitted HUL in reaching out to far-flung rural areas and increase its rural presence but also improved the income earning capabilities of rural women. This project thereby created a Win-Win situation both for rural women and HUL. Colgate bicycle entrepreneurs are also a similar project which involves unemployed rural youth selling and distributing the products to small retail stores in villages. Rural youth basically buy products from Colgate and distribute them to retailers at 3% margin and sell them in mandis at 8% margins. This rural youth were initially given a regular income of around ₹1500 which will decrease gradually as the sales of these bicycle entrepreneurs pick up. This project also created a ‘Win-Win' situation for Colgate as it increased its rural presence as well as for youth as it gave them a source of income. One more way to find competent channel partners in rural areas, especially for companies with limited resources is to collaborate with the existing ones. This saves resources and can still help in entering rural markets. For instance, Amazon partnered with India post to offer delivery services to around 19000 Pin codes. Companies like Patanjali are also making use of Common service centres (CSC’s) to deliver their products. CSC is a government’s physical facility to deliver various government schemes. There are around 250000 CSC’s in rural areas in India So companies’ tie-up with these government outlets to increase availability and convenience of their products. Companies entering rural markets can initially go for collaboration to find competent channel partners. They should try to co-create with the rural people to develop a strong and sustainable channel strategy once they see a strong demand for their products in these rural hinterlands. 68

Analysis and Interpretation

Poor rural Infrastructure Poor rural infrastructure is a huge challenge to accessibility in rural markets. There are two ways can overcome this challenge. One is to improve the existing infrastructure and the other is to choose markets with better infrastructure.

Maha cement, a cement manufacturing company improved the infrastructure of roads in Mellacheruvu village, Telangana. Maha cement found roads that connect the village to nearby towns are in poor state. These roads will dampen its efficiency in connectivity as it owns a fleet of trucks which transports the cement manufactured to various cities and states through them. So it took up the initiative of laying down roads for this village. This improved its transportation efficiency and also decreased the maintenance cost of vehicles which used to often visit housekeeping departments due to poor roads. The cost of laying down roads that Maha cement incurred are much lesser compared to the benefits that are derived in terms of saving maintenance costs and increased transportation capacity. This move by Maha cements also improved its brand image in local people. However, companies should go with this step only if the overall long-term benefits from developing infrastructure exceed the costs incurred in it by the company. Companies who don't have the required resources to develop infrastructure and are new to these rural markets should be selective in targeting markets where there is adequate infrastructure. The selection of target markets can be dependent upon various elements like Government schemes, budget expenditure of government…etc. Limited technical knowledge of rural customer This play a big role in obstructing companies in improving convenience to rural customers. Rural customers, unlike urban customers, don't have technical knowledge. So this is a huge challenge for especially for the booming E-commerce industry. The Inability of the majority of rural customers to use E-commerce sites makes it extremely difficult for companies to improve convenience inaccessibility.

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Analysis and Interpretation However, Inthree a hybrid E-commerce firm has improved the convenience aspect by building a customer centred business model. Inthree created an online platform called Boonbox.com. It is multilingual in nature and has tied-up with many leading manufacturers of electronic appliances, furniture, apparels…etc. It identifies local influencers in rural areas and provides them with a tablet with Boonbox app. These associates have e-catalogue in multiple languages and book orders from rural customers by making them go through the catalogues. They even collect cash and send them to the Inthree. Inthree uses Hub and spoke models to deliver the products. The products will be delivered to the house of the rural customer by Boonbox associates. The company even established multilingual call centres to solve issues regarding returning the product. Accessibility can be improved by enhancing availability and convenience by overcoming the above-mentioned challenges. It has been a major problem since many years that restrict the success of companies in their rural endeavours. Co-creating and Collaborating will hold key to the accessibility of products and services in rural markets.

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Analysis and Interpretation

6.4 Sector wise importance

•Banking •Automobiles

•Insurance sector

Acceptability

Awareness

Affordability

Accessibility

•Automobiles •Consumer Durables

•Consumer durables •E-commerce

Figure 23 sector wise importance

All the 4A's are equally important for all the industries. However, the importance of each of the 4A's changes with time depending on the life cycle and the penetration of the industry. Figure 23 shows most important A's for different industries based on current situations. The banking industry has to concentrate on improving the acceptability of their services in rural India. According to NABARD, there are around 88% of rural people have savings A/C. The usage of these accounts has been minimal. The banking sector has to leverage upon the awareness created by financial inclusion and design customizable offerings so that its acceptability improves in rural hinterlands. Automobiles have to cater to rugged and multiple needs of rural customers to improve their acceptability and make them affordable to rural masses to win in BOP markets. The insurance sector is still in the nascent stage in the rural areas and awareness has to play a key role in improving the acceptability of this sector. Consumer durables are nothing new to rural customers but have to improve their affordability to penetrate into untapped rural markets. 71

Analysis and Interpretation The e-commerce industry is no longer a dream in rural markets due to the growing internet and smartphone penetration. However, accessibility is the main factor that hinders the entry and success of e-commerce firms.

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CHAPTER 6 CONCLUSION

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6 CONCLUSION 6.1 Summary

Indian rural markets are definitely going to be markets for companies looking for sustainable growth in their top and bottom lines. There are tremendous challenges that these rural markets pose that act as hindrances to the success of companies. ‘Customer centricity' is key to success in the rural hinterlands. The 4A framework helps companies to achieve customer centricity in every aspect of their business. This study deals with identifying challenges that companies face under each of the 4A’s namely Awareness, Acceptability, Affordability and Accessibility. It also suggests strategies to overcome the challenges using the 4A framework. Acceptability of an offering involves both functional and psychological acceptability. Functional acceptability of an offering has been key to success in rural areas. ‘Value Engineering' is one of the strategies to improve the functionality of the products for the value conscious rural customer. However, the urbanisation led to the adoption of urban lifestyle by rural people and the need for psychological acceptability is increasingly growing in these rural hinterlands. Affordability is one of the most important of the 4A’s and plays a major role in driving the purchase of a product or service. It involves the ability to pay and willingness to pay of rural customers. Ability to pay can be improved by designing an affordable offering and by increasing the disposable income of rural households. Willingness to pay can be delivered by designing an offering whose value surpasses the costs customers incurred. Awareness in rural areas is not an easy task and involves overcoming challenges like low literacy, limited mass media penetration and cultural differences. However a study of the target markets and the use of conventional along with non-conventional media aids in spreading awareness. The awareness campaigns should not only result in educating customers about product and brand but also in building a positive attitude about the brand in minds of the customers.

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Accessibility has been one of the major problems for companies entering rural areas. ‘Co-creation’ and ‘Collaboration’ can enhance Accessibility in rural markets. (Refer to Figure 24)

Acceptability

Value Engineering

Affordability

Inclusive Marketing

Strategies for the 4A framework Awareness

Societal marketing & Customization of Content

Collaboration &

Accessibility

Co-creation

Figure 24 Strategies for 4A's of marketing in rural areas

6.2 Future Scope The future research can be done in using the 4A framework in a particular industry. The impact of technology on the 4A’s can also another area of research.

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CHAPTER 7 BIBLIOGRAPHY

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

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