Book Description

In this book, I have endeavoured to study all the facets of marketing, concerning "Rural Markets". Rural markets are blossoming in India and in many regions like Asia, Latin America, Africa and the Middle East. The villager is becoming more affluent in countries like India, China, Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, etc., due to improvements in agricultural productivity, dispersion of industry in rural areas, exposure to media like television and the rapid advancement of the Internet and mobile phone technologies. The exploding rural markets pose a prodigious challenge to marketers. They have to harvest these markets comprehensively.Ever since I started working in 1975, the assimilation of consumer products in the villages and their consequent impact on the lifestyles and habits of villagers, has fascinated me. Since then, I have been an avid student of rural marketing in India and the countries I worked in abroad, marketing and selling a host of products like soaps, detergents, toothpaste, shampoos, food products, animal feeds, etc., to the villagers in Asia, Latin America, Africa, etc. In this book, I have covered all the four P's of marketing, i.e. the Product, Place, Pricing, and Promotion. The evolution of the Indian urban and rural markets has also been covered. The book is written very substantially in anecdotal form, to make it an interesting reading. It is based on my personal interactions with rural consumers, shopkeepers and wholesalers in hundreds of villages in India and abroad. These narratives are analysed within conceptual frameworks.