PENETRATING THE COUNTRYSIDE: OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES

Abstract

Indian Rural markets are not only attractive but easy accessible for many corporate and MNCs today. The rationale behind this is the comprehensive growth of the economy which has led to considerable increase in the purchasing power of the rural coterie and saturation in urban markets in different categories of consumer products. Marketers are focusing to put forth their products to unexplored rural market. India is a country where three fourth of its consumers are living in rural areas and half of the country’s national income is accelerated from rural market. Indian rural markets have untapped potential and growing purchasing power has stoked a great deal of interest in many companies to explore cost effective channels to tap these markets. Large quantities of industrial and urban manufactured products are consumed by rural markets. However, there are several problems that resist the effort to completely explore these markets. This paper examines the impact of marketing strategies on rural India and shift of Multinational Corporation’s concentration towards the Indian rural market. Rural segment is extremely splintered and spread over a huge geographical base where behavioural and cultural differences vary from village to village. The objective of this paper is to make a modest attempt at grasping the stimulated growth of rural markets and approach to supply products to meet the expectations of rural consumers. The main aim is to observe the potentiality of Indian Rural Markets, problems faced and to suggest various ways to tap these markets.