Book Review: Rural Marketing by SAGE calls for Creating Social-Business in Rural India, not just Sales

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MBAUniverse.com News Desk |
October 23, 2018
Recently published book titled ‘Rural Marketing: Challenges and Opportunities’ by SAGE publishing and authored by Dr Dinesh Kumar, former Associate Professor at Birla Institute of Management Technology (BIMTECH) Greater Noida and Dr Punam Gupta, Associate Professor, Dev Samaj College for Women, Chandigarh takes a different approach and goes beyond the selling of products in rural areas and shares how to transform Rural Marketing business into a successful Social Business
Rural Marketing Book by SAGE

Mahatma Gandhi famously said, "India lives in its villages." That was true then and even now. The hinterlands in India comprise approximately 650,000 villages which consist of 850 million consumers that make up for about 70 per cent of India’s population and contribute around 50% of India's Gross Domestic Product (GDP). With Green Revolution and recent Government initiatives to double farmers’ income, consumption patterns in our rural areas are gradually changing to resemble those in urban areas. Some of India's largest consumer companies like HUL, Dabur and P&G get one-third of their consumers from rural India. Market research firm Nielsen expects India’s rural FMCG market to reach a size of US$ 100 billion by 2025. Another report by McKinsey Global Institute forecasts the annual real income per household in rural India to rise to 3.6 per cent in 2025, from 2.8 per cent in the last 20 years.

But, while rural markets are significant in size, they are quite complex for marketers due to logistics and consumer behaviour. No wonder Rural Marketing has evolved as a separate discipline of management study in last decade across B-schools in India. Faculty, teaching the subject at B-schools, are always looking for updated text books that can help them teach effectively. Although there are many books, most of them discuss the traditional role of Rural Marketing as selling goods to rural areas and to the underserved Rural population. The recently published book titled ‘Rural Marketing: Challenges and Opportunities’ by SAGE publishing takes a different approach and goes beyond the selling of products in rural areas and shares how to transform Rural Marketing business into a successful Social Business.

Authored by Dr Dinesh Kumar, former Associate Professor at Birla Institute of Management Technology (BIMTECH) Greater Noida and Dr Punam Gupta, Associate Professor, Dev Samaj College for Women, Chandigarh, ‘Rural Marketing’ aims to help the students, faculty and companies involved in Rural Marketing with the insights to take right approach instead of moving traditionally with “supply side” mindset only.

Accordingly, while reading this book, one can get acquainted with a new perspective on Rural Marketing, learn the Rural Marketing Strategy, Marketing of Agriculture inputs and produce, technology initiatives with the help of images and case studies. The book keeps a balance between theory and practical implementation. 

Running into 494 pages, ‘Rural Marketing’ is divided into three broad sections and twelve chapters covering key areas. The first section discusses in detail the ‘The Rural Market’. The second section elaborates on ‘Strategies for Rural Marketing’, where the authors share how to formulate the Marketing Strategy and also analyze Distribution Channels for Rural Areas. The third section analyses ‘Marketing for Rural Areas’.

Part I of the book discusses Rural Marketing with a new approach that covers the size, structure and segmentation of Rural Markets along with a comparative analysis between Rural Market and Urban Market. The first part elaborately describes and analyses the rural consumer with Hofstede’s cultural dimensions, shopping habits and changes in consumption trends in rural areas.

The Part II of the book on ‘Strategies for Rural Marketing’ is divided into four well defined chapters describing how the companies are changing their approach on Rural Marketing with the changes in the principles of Rural Marketing with the suggested approach to design and use the distribution channels for rural areas.  This part describes in detail the process of pricing, promotion, importance of Below-the-Line (BTL) techniques, personal selling and the use of Media for Rural Marketing.     

The Part III of the book focuses on agribusiness and management that includes the marketing of agricultural inputs and produce, Rural Marketing trends, role of Agricultural Produce Market Committees (APMCs). The importance of technological initiatives, HR aspects in Rural Marketing to manage the sales force in rural areas is well discussed with the help of visuals and case studies in this part.

A unique feature of this book is that it sees rural markets as not just “markets” for corporate gains, but an opportunity to solve big challenges by building sustainable businesses. “This book goes beyond describing mere efforts to sell products in villages. We feel that it is important to involve people and solve rural problems, and the market will develop itself. The book describes process involved in rural marketing and the transformation of businesses into social businesses,” note the authors.

The book uses many pedagogical approaches to make the text lively and engaging for readers.

Case studies in each chapter close with a question – keeping alive the interest of the reader, visuals in the form of images are added to each chapter to understand the text well. There are three types of exercises at the end of each chapter – Review exercises, Critical thinking exercises and assignments & Projects to create research ideas and real life exposure. References from many reputed journals are added in the book. Mini case studies are integral part of all the chapters of the book and provide real life learning. For example, the Mini Case in Chapter 4 on ‘Fabindia’ where the company analyzed that the artisans & weavers were desperately poor in India in spite of rich variety of handloom fabrics. Fabindia began exports of handloom home furnishings sourced from villages. Today, Fabindia has empowered these rural people and links over 55,000 rural producers to modern urban markets thereby providing marketing supports for the producers while also creating sustainable rural environment.

Endorsing the book, Payson E. Johnston, Adjunct Professor, University of San Francisco, said, “The concepts discussed in Rural Marketing hit at the heart of what is wrong with global contemporary business culture today.” He adds further, “Rural Marketing will impact and improve the lives of billions in the world’s poorest countries. It will make a much needed impact on the current state of the globalized business enterprise that is selfishly focused on fuelling its own desire. Change is needed, and Dr Kumar effectively points to us all in the correct direction.”

To sum up, ‘Rural Marketing – Challenges and Opportunities’ is a useful book for B-schools to teach the high potential Rural Marketing area with a social-business approach.

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