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.