Original Vs Duplicate products in Rural Markets of India

Other face of challenge is opportunity!!

Lack of awareness, low literacy level & low purchasing power are three major challenges in rural market. Local manufacturer earning good profit because of these challenges in rural India. One of my friend is working with a leading NGO in Uttarakhand. He was sharing his experience with me. He went to a shop and found lot of copy products of big brands. He was surprised! He enquired about these copy brands and found that people buy these copy brands because, they are-

 Cheaper & affordable
 Available in small sizes & packs
 Unable to differentiate

My friend was amazed to know that maximum people knows that they are buying a duplicate product. But still they prefer because duplicate products has wider reach and available in small quantity packs.

It reminds me lines from 'Bottom of Pyramid'. Mr Prahlad Kakkar said, “In rural India if you want to succeed than you must have very good supply chain and small quantity packs.”

Big companies are spending lot of money, time & energy on marketing. And ultimately small local players reaping the enormous benefit of the spent. If big companies want to penetrate in rural India and want to succeed, they will have to have strong supply chain and small quantity packs for need based products.

If we take an example of Pepsi & Coke, we will find that in rural area, consumer has never accepted any duplicate brand of soft drinks. Even RC Cola & Nimbooz could not succeed as soft drink is not as they are not a need based product. Soft drink multinational companies are investing huge amount of money on marketing & advertisement. Rural consumer likes to flaunt with these brands. When it comes to need based product consumer has ‘Chalta hai’ attitude. Small purchasing power forces them to buy small quantity at a time. And lack of awareness leads them buying duplicate product.
Big corporate can learn from small local manufacturers how they are eating up a big pie without spending money on marketing & communication. Also government & NGO needs to play an important role in educating Indian rural consumer & eradicating such mal- practices. Duplicate products can be harmful.

The success of a brand in the Indian rural market is as unpredictable as rain!!!!!!

Rural Market Research

Bharat gaon mei basta hai!! Its a great feeling when you realize you belong to a great nation India, where agriculture is main occupation. I belong to one of the rural area of India.
Few days earlier I went to nearby rural area of Delhi. Farmers are owning all latest gadets. Well aware about whats going on in the world. I met a old lady. She was housewife. She saw a Onida Split AC. First she said, " only Hitachi ACs are worth, rest all are rubbish."
I was surprised. Old lady in a rural area knows well about brands.

I felt like writing about Rural Market Research.

Finally I am writing about Market Research. Starting this blog with very elementry information. What market research is. Gradually I will talk about rural market research.

Market Research-

Market Research
Market research is any organized effort to gather information about markets or customers. It is a very important component of business strategy. The term is commonly interchanged with marketing research; however, expert practitioners may wish to draw a distinction, in that marketing research is concerned specifically about marketing processes, while market research is concerned specifically with markets.
Market research, as defined by the ICC/ESOMAR International Code on Market and Social Research, includes social and opinion research, [and] is the systematic gathering and interpretation of information about individuals or organizations using statistical and analytical methods and techniques of the applied social sciences to gain insight or support decision making


History

Market research began to be conceptualized and put into formal practice during the 1920s, as an offshoot of the advertising boom of the Golden Age of radio in the United States. Advertisers began to realize the significance of demographics revealed by sponsorship of different radio programs,
Market research for business/planning
Market research is for discovering what people want, need, or believe. It can also involve discovering how they act. Once that research is completed, it can be used to determine how to market your product.
Questionnaires and focus group discussion surveys are some of the instruments for market research.
For starting up a business, there are some important things:
• Market information
Through Market information one can know the prices of the different commodities in the market, as well as the supply and demand situation. Information about the markets can be obtained from different sources, varieties and formats, as well as the sources and varieties that have to be obtained to make the business work.
• Market segmentation
Market segmentation is the division of the market or population into subgroups with similar motivations. It is widely used for segmenting on geographic differences, personality differences, demographic differences, technographic differences, use of product differences, psychographic differences and gender differences.
• Market trends
Market trends are the upward or downward movement of a market, during a period of time. The market size is more difficult to estimate if one is starting with something completely new. In this case, you will have to derive the figures from the number of potential customers, or customer segments. [Ilar 1998]
Besides information about the target market, one also needs information about one's competitors, customers, products, etc. Lastly, you need to measure marketing effectiveness. A few techniques are:
• Customer analysis
• Choice Modelling
• Competitor analysis
• Risk analysis
• Product research
• Advertising the research
• Marketing mix modeling