Volume: 1, Issue: 1
INTRODUCTION
The Indian Rural Market with its vast size and a large demand base definitely offers huge opportunities to marketers. We have two thirds of the consumers in the country living in rural areas generating almost half of the national income. It is thus quite natural that rural markets assume an important role when compared to the total market of India. India is classified in around 450 districts comprising approximately 6.3 lakh villages which can later be sorted out on different parameters namely literacy levels, accessibility, income levels, penetration, distance from nearest towns etc. The success of a brand in the Indian rural market is as unpredictable as expecting rain.from the skies nowadays. It has always been a difficult task to gauge the rural markets. Many brands, which should have been successful, have failed miserably. More often, companies attribute rural market success to luck. Therefore a need is felt at the marketing level to understand the social dynamics and attitude within each village, though nationally it follows a consistent pattern. The rural market has been growing·steadily since the 1980's and is now bigger than the urban market for both FMCG's [53% of the total market] and Durables (59%]. The annual size of the rural market, in value terms, is currently estimated at around Rs.50,000 crores for FMCG's, Rs.5000 crores for durables, Rs.45,000 crores for agri inputs and implements and another Rs.8000 crores for automobiles.
