MARKETING MASTERMIND

INTRODUCTION-

Rural India with a population of over 740 million in 6, 40,000 villages, offers as much potential for
goods and services as urban markets.

SOME SUCCESS STORIES-

 FMCG sector is growing at 18% as compared to 14%in urban, i.e., 23% of sales happen in rural.
 LIC sold 50% of its policies to rural customers.
 Hero-Honda had 50% of sales from rural in the year 2008-2009.
 Out of the 120mn bank consumers, 70 million are from rural India.

1. SUCCESS STORY OF HINDUSTAN PETROLEUM-

Background-

The constraint faced by cooking gas company in penetrating rural market is that they cannot replicate the
same business model which they applied in urban.

Reality-

They set up community kitchen, ‘Rasoi Ghar” established in a pucca house with eight gas store stations
with a meter to record the usage of gas, the hourly charge for this is Rs. 6/-. Women, Self Help Group
(SHG) was formed and roped as franchisees. This was set up in the year 2002 and now they have
benefited 20000 households.

Website- Hindustan petroleum.com/ rasoighar

2. COMAT TECHNOLOGIES- (Example for Communication)

It is based from Bangalore which provides satellite based educational services and retail insurance
products to rural customers in 10 different states. It is simply considered as access points for
informationally disabled rural people.

3. GOOGLE INDIA- (Example for Technology for External Environment)

Google launched Google Map Maker in August 2009, a tool to map local businesses in rural locations.
This is done by dialling a toll free number without the need of a computer. Such an innovative service
will be a boon for farmers who cannot afford their own computers and also lack technical skills.
According to Prasad Ram, Centre Head of Google India said, “We found that India had large numbers of
semi-literate people who use phones and may not want to use computers.

4. MAX NEW YORK LIFE INSURANCE-

A product called Max Vijay was introduced in Allahabad District targeting low income rural consumers.
Initial payment of Rs. 1000/- followed by as low as Rs. 10/- as premium amount. These payments can be
made at local kirana centers.

5. VILLGRO STORES-

It was started in January 2007 in a small town Gobichettypalyam in Erode District, Tamil Nadu.

Villgro focuses on four sectors-

 Agriculture
 Daisy
 Energy
 Water

These products are offered which are innovative in nature with the objective of making innovations
accessible to end users.

Eg. - Organic Fertilizers like supernume, Biophos, Bio-potash, megacal, etc.

6. GODREJ & BOYCE-

It introduced Chotu Kool, a nano refrigerator in September 2008. It is like no other fridge, it does not
have compressors and it runs on battery. It weighs 7.8kg and costs Rs. 3200/- and is candy red in colour.

Chotu Kool is a product in itself with an innovation. It is sold through SHG (Self Help Groups). Shanti
Priya Vashi Village in Maharashtra is carrying the innovation on her head and has already sold six chotu
kools and has also earned Rs. 150 as commission for every chotu kool sold.

7. BP ENERGY INDIA COOKING STOVE-

It costs Rs. 1050/- and was initially introduced in Jagjee village in Maharashtra. At present, about 2 lakh
stoves have been sold across the company by the BP energy

8. ARTICLE FROM MANAGEMENT NEXT, July 2010 Issue-

Bisleri for Masses/ BOP

Parimal’s Sarajal Project is an enterprise with a mission of providing affordable pure drinking water at
BOP. It sells under the brand name, Sarvajal- “Water for everyone”. It sells water at 25 paisa per litre
and prepaid cards are available for 10 litre and 20 litre denominations. Through this project 60,500
people got clean drinking water. This was introduced in Shekhawati region of Rajasthan where fluoride
contamination was found in the drinking water.

9. MOBILE IS ATM OF THE POOR-

SBI has tied up with Eko Aspire Foundation to give bank accounts to all. Vision is to promote mobile
phones as a financial identity for people at BOP. Eko is just one year old and has 470 outlets across
Delhi. It works with a simple mobile phone in which mobile number becomes sbank account number of
customer.