Rural marketing becomes a task for the companies, as most of them are in the way to capture the market. The market is full of opportunities, where they can get good business from. So to reach the market there are few challenges to meet. The marketers need to be aware of these challenges that are in the market, so as to tackle them with Strategies and Tactics of marketing. The rural market is a untapped one, it may be for the 3D's , Distance,Diversity, Dispersion. The statement is from Mr. D.K.Bose ,VP, O&M Rural. So these 3D's are one of the cause to challenge the marketing factors. The companies which are succeeded in the market have tackled the challenges with Innovations and Marketing strategies. So the challenges are of different factors such as Distribution, Psyche of consumer, Communication, Fake Products, Budget,Culture, low literacy levels and so on.

Due to the bad infrastructure like roads, Electricity it is really difficult to reach the remote locations. The infrastructure plays a tough role for Logistics. And Logistics plays an Important role to reach the product in the market. The physical distribution and Channel Management plays a vital role for the companies to reach in the market. As the market is diverse in terms of geographically , so it became difficult for the companies to reach the market . The lifestyle of the rural consumer is different than urban people, because of the culture, low literacy levels, Communities, Cast feelings etc. These things need to be considered by the companies so as to understand the consumers behaviour. so for this the companies need to work in the market with up to date research and development center. The communication in the rural market is tough. For the advertisement of products and services the words and languages should be used in a proper manner. Due to the low literacy levels the consumer cannot understand the message that has been done through advertisement of the respective product or service. So the communication needs to be considered as a challenging factor to overcome. Rural consumers need the message in direct and clear way to understand about product and service.

So because of the lack of communication , there will be more number of fake products in the market. There are lot of companies which have faced the imitation of their products. Most of the products are sold in haats as the organised market does not reach there. The companies which cannot reach the remote locations face these kind of problems in the market. For ex: Ponds with polons, Lifebuoy with Lifeboy and lifejoy , Fair and lovely with friends and lovely and so on. So these things became a challenge for the companies to tackle. To tackle these type of situations companies need to improve their Distribution and need to reach the market including haats.

But if all these things happen then there is a problem with budgetary allocations in the company . So if the budget is good then it may not be a challenge for the company to think over, but if this is not the case then it may be a great challenge. So by looking at all these we can say that these challenges need to be tackled in a proper manner with good marketing and business strategies.

There might be some practical problems with costs like van for promotions , labour, and so on. which are practical problems for the companies. So these are the challenges where company need to work with their innovative strategies. The companies which have done this became the leaders of the market. The companies like HUL, ITC, and LG have created a well established market for themselves.

To conclude , "This is a potential market where companies can get good business from". But to tackle this there should be a proper Marketing Mix . As there is a changing scenario in the rural market day by day so the companies need to get update depending upon that. The companies which does this well, Then there is nothing tough to crack this market.

About Author / Additional Info:
An MBA from GITAM University, India.

Reference: Mr. Balram Dogra and Mr. Karminder Ghuman