Rural marketing: its potential & challenges – a study of Ludhiana city

Fast pace of technology advanced every sphere of social, economic, political, cultural life, produce, reduce costs, distribute, and expect higher profits. The retail sector of India has come-forth as one of the most dynamic and second fastest growing industrial economy with several players entering the market. Marketers have realized that rural India has become the hot spot for the corporate firms with tremendous potential and with increasing focus of the policy makers on injecting money to pump the rural economy have all contributed towards an increased interest of businesses towards rural India In the recent years, rural markets in India have undergone considerable changes as the urban markets have hit saturation and relative growth has slowed down. The Indian rural market has a huge demand base and offers great opportunities to marketers. Two-thirds of Indian consumers live in rural areas and almost half of the national income is generated from there. The importance of rural sector in Indian economy cannot be undermined. There have been many multinational organizations that have been attempted to tap the potential of rural market through aggressive marketing strategies. This paper focuses on the potential of rural market in the Indian economy and also determine the various challenges faced by the Indian rural market in the current competitive world. It also assesses the reason for paradigm shift from urban to rural market. This study even identifies the significant problems faced by companies in marketing their products to rural areas & suggests marketing strategies and methods to be followed in order to overcome those problems.