A Revision of Product Mix Strategy for Rural Market

Rural markets are complex and dynamic in nature. India's population is 1.21 billion1. The spread of population is in 5161 cities and towns and 6,38,588 villages speaking 33 languages, 1652 dialects and having sub-cultural and diverse requirements. The growth rate of population for India in the last decade was 17.64%. The growth rate of population in rural and urban areas was 12.18% and 31.80% respectively. As rural consumers are very large in number it is necessary to consider different product mixes for them.

In India, ever since Independence, marketing has acquired an urban bias, largely. Hence, there were very less attempts on the part of marketers to develop products to satisfy theneeds of the rural buyers. This was also due to the assumption that the rural consumers are economically poor and had no purchasing power to buy expensive branded products. Other factors like lack of transportation, weak communication links and limited reach of mass media were also responsible for neglect of the rural consumer by the business firms