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LEAD FEATURE 4 September 2011, EXPERIENTIAL MARKETING 19
Road to Rural with
Engagement
By Karan Iyer
A Bollywood movie released in 1971 had a very interesting
title, Mera Gaon Mera Desh, which literally means my
village, my country. The title of this movie seems very
appropriate when one takes into context the fact that 72
per cent of India’s population still lives in rural areas. If
one considers this fact, the largest number of India’s
consumers dwells in small towns or villages. As India’s
economy grows, the spending power of this massive
audience is also witnessing an increase and so is their
understanding of brands. The potential of this market is
significant enough to make both brands and marketers
stand up and take notice.
“If you take the top 20 cities out of your list, still a good
percentage of people live in either small towns or villages
and modernisation is happening in these places. For
example infrastructure developments like a power unit or
an auto plant cannot be put in metros. These are being
developed in small towns or SEZ zones. This means not
only will locals get employment, but a large number of
professionals are also going to be there. A lot of money that
will be spent in developing a project will go to locals, giving
a boom in economy and when there is money exposure
there is a market so small towns have a high potential,”
Rajkumar Jha, National Creative Director, Ogilvy Outreach,
Ogilvy Action, told ExM.
Road to Rural
However, the rural market is a challenging and different
type of market for brands to tap into and requires a different
approach from the usual advertising and marketing
strategies used for the urban audience.
Probal Gaanguly, Director, Think Tank, told ExM that
marketers in recent years have realised that rural India
only differs from its urban counterpart, but the scope of the