India is a country where majority of the population lives in villages. Appreciating the size and business potential of rural sector, major companies, including Hindustan Unilever and P&G have made special strategies for targeting rural markets. The thrust on rural markets is getting stronger day by day and it needs complete knowledge base of rural marketing. The book is meant to create interest in business management students to get into the rural marketing mindset for bringing the desired organisational focus on the subject. Considering the importance of rural markets, most business schools have included Rural Marketing Management as a key knowledge area in their syllabus. The present book has endeavoured to cover the entire gamut of Rural Marketing with inputs from discussions with rural marketing practitioners, besides valuable studies conducted by the major companies and the author's own experience in the area. There are few books on rural marketing which mostly deal with the subject as extending the urban marketing process into the rural zones. The book contains a number of live-wire national and international case studies, meant to enthuse the students in probing the business opportunities and threats in the rural markets. The method of handling the case studies is also provided for the convenience of students. The book is written in simple, easy to understand and lu

Rural Marketing as a separate discipline in management teaching has emerged recently. The growing importance of the subject has been well realized by the marketers, policymakers and management interns. However, there is dearth of quality literature on the subject, comprehensive coverage of all the dimensions, aspects and managerial issues pertaining to rural marketing. In most of the management institutions, a half-baked knowledge of rural marketing is being imparted to the management interns while there is more emphasis on marketing perspective on harnessing the immense potential offered by rural areas through suitable marketing planning, product mix, pricing, distribution, promotional mix, branding and communication strategies. Present book is a serious attempt to bridge the need gap in the subject.

With 700 million prospective consumers including about 40 per cent of the country middle-income group, the sheer size of India rural market itself speaks of its huge This new textbook discusses how the application of traditional marketing theories transforms when the ‘fourth sector’, or the emergence of social business, comes into play. Drawing from latest research, Rural Marketing: Challenges and Opportunities closely analyses two crucial components of the rural market—marketing to rural areas and empowering the ‘bottom-of-pyramid’ (BoP) markets to create successful business ventures. Written as per the prescribed curriculum of rural management and rural marketing courses offered by the major universities in India, this book goes beyond discussing just the strategies to sell products to village economies. Infused with numerous real-life case studies of companies that have ventured into the field, this book will prove to be an extremely useful resource in understanding the uniqueness, dynamics and challenges of marketing in rural areas. Key Features: · Rich pedagogy including opening and closing case studies, mini case studies, engaging chapter-end exercises and project assignments · Inclusion of references to recent research data, important journal articles and videos for classroom teaching · Comprehensive overview of the future of rural marketing through BoP approach, social enterprises and use of big data

The book provides an in-depth understanding of the market for agricultural input and suggests specific solutions for their better marketing.

This book explains the theory and practice of rural marketing. The theory deals with profiles of rural consumers, techniques of rural marketing research, product pricing and distribution in rural areas, sales force management and promotion. It also deals with the economics of agriculture, especially agricultural finance. Carefully selected case studies illustrate how this theory works in practice.