Click to play videoMumbai: India's 742 million strong rural population, outsizing the US and Europe, is moving towards branded products. CNN-IBN reports on the correlation between women's education and branded buying.
Education for women is more than a politician's promise; it's a marketer's delight. This study from MRUC-Hansa gives marketers reason to smile.
The study shows refrigerators penetrated only 1.5 per cent of rural households where housewives are generally illiterate. But it rose to 29 per cent in areas where she was a graduate.
Similarly in villages where housewives were illiterate toilet cleaner penetration was 1 per cent but when she was a graduate, the penetration was 30 per cent.
Floor cleaners penetrated a mere 0.5 per cent of households with an illiterate housewife but 17 per cent of households where she was a graduate.
In Wadghar village, about 50 kilometres outside Mumbai, women like Nivedita Patil, who have passed high school, make buying decisions for some products.
“I make the list for kitchen products and my husband buys them, but he decides on buying big items like the television set and two-wheelers,” says Nivedita.
The study shows that although only 30 per cent of rural households own TV sets, this access has influenced what rural households buy. People are more inclined towards packaged brands.
Sowjanya, a resident of Girigambakkam says, “There will be no adulteration in branded products. It will be more hygienic. Unpackaged products are measured by hand and may be contaminated. To avoid that, I use branded products.”
That was a well-informed rural consumer in south India. Television, cable TV and FMCG products have penetrated the south far more than any other region in India. Consequently marketers adopt different strategies for the south and other regions.
Ashok Das, MD, Hansa Research says, “Penetration driving strategy better for east and north, while for south the question is how to get value from consumer already using your product and brand.
Though it seems simple enough on the face of it, the rural Indian market has posed one of the biggest challenges to Indian marketers.
Mainly because of lack of research and inadequate understanding, companies have been accused of lazily tweaking around urban offerings for the rural market.
And in many categories, they are still to get crucial pricing strategies and distribution right.
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