Introduction
India is a completely unique place. It has more than 600 districts, about 8,000 towns, and more than 0.6 million villages spread out over 29 states and 8 union territories. The villages cover 3.2 million square kilometers and are home to 65% of India’s people. Different religious and linguistic groups, as well as sociocultural and caste-based divides, make up a very diverse population.
In India, it is especially important to make sure that data collection and study methods can be used by people who speak different languages, have different levels of literacy, and have varying levels of access to or familiarity with the internet.
Research on the rural market has existed for much longer and followed a defined structure even before urban markets fully developed. It’s funny, but this is true: most studies that have looked into health, learning, family planning, or building projects always start in the suburbs or the country.
However, research on marketing and its associated issues has only recently begun. This is because companies like HLL, Dabur, Colgate Palmolive, and Richardson Hindustan Ltd. (now P&G) started to do business in rural areas and found that they didn’t know much or anything about those markets. There was information about socioeconomic groups, like occupation profiles, school profiles, or ownership profiles. But there was no information about income, how it was spent, or what people liked to buy. Therefore, it became hard to divide the markets into different groups. Most businesses that wanted to get into rural areas either used published sources or paid for their studies.
A. Steps in rural marketing research
Understanding the applicable marketing strategy requires the development of a research plan.
The eight stages below assist in developing a plan for rural research:
1. Establish the Research Problem and Goals
The problem description phase specifies the subject matter to be examined. It is possible for the objectives of research to include the investigation of rural markets, distribution methods, or consumer behavior in rural areas. We will utilize different approaches to data collection for each of these aims. At this stage, the company must establish a clear understanding of the research and the intended outcomes.
2. Create a customized research plan for each district.
Given the diversity of rural consumers, it is crucial to customize a research strategy for each district. The organization is responsible for determining the essence of the research that will be carried out, coming up with the essential research questions and the recipients who are most suitable for them, and coming up with methods for data analysis.
This phase involves the formulation of hypotheses that can be tested, the specification of the processes for selecting a representative sample, and the establishment of the methodology for collecting the sample data. Qualitative research typically takes place in villages due to the limited number of participants.
3. Conduct a Secondary Data Search
Secondary data comprises publicly available information from government agencies, including but not limited to census, transportation, school, and public health data. Although secondary data on rural areas is limited in scope, researchers have the option to access industry associations, consultancies, and rural journals, as well as trade associations such as the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).
Professional research firms such as Nielsen, Accenture, McKinsey, Ernst and Young, and the Indian Market Research Bureau (IMRB) publish reports and conduct research on rural markets. However, it is important to note that these secondary data sources, along with others, provide a macro perspective of villages.
4. Construct a main research investigation
Primary research is frequently required when secondary data from rural areas is inadequate. It is determined whether primary data will be gathered through a survey, interview, observation, or online source. In addition to formulating and translating questionnaires into local languages, the methodology for conducting a primary study is also delineated.
5. Sample Selection
When selecting samples, it is essential to maintain objectivity and ensure that they are adequately representative of the overall population. Because of this, cluster or stratified sampling is necessary in order to include all of the socioeconomic groups that are present in a community.
This method is frequently not possible in rural locations, although metropolitan areas have a tendency to favor conducting random sampling. When doing sampling in rural areas, it is vital to use convenience sampling. Only the researcher can ensure comprehensive coverage of all socioeconomic, caste, and religious categories to the maximum extent possible.
6. Gather Primary Source Data
Field workers face a significant obstacle in primary data collection: not only must they travel great distances, but rural residents are also wary of urban individuals carrying questionnaires. It is nearly impossible to conduct one-on-one interviews because villagers typically congregate around the researcher. For researchers to converse with women, females are required. People are also unfamiliar with brands, which further complicates comparisons.
Respondents frequently provide responses that align with perceived expectations rather than reflecting their true emotions, posing an additional challenge for the researcher. To conduct interviews, participants are questioned in small groups. However, the researcher must be able to conduct interviews with villagers in their native tongues while simultaneously providing explanations and gathering information. Occasionally, casual observation of markets and consumers can yield valuable insights into rural existence without the need for formal inquiries.
7. Data Analysis
Statistical tests are utilized to assess the validity and reliability of data. Nevertheless, statistical techniques such as factor analysis, correlation, regression, and discriminant analysis are only applicable when the data set is substantial in size. However, such an outcome is improbable to occur in rural areas. Cluster analysis, which identifies elements’ commonalities, could be one method utilized in rural market research. It would be a significant undertaking to eliminate researcher bias in qualitative research.
8. Apply the findings to guide marketing decisions.
In the last stage, meaning is derived from the analysis of the data, and recommendations for the marketing plan are formulated in a realistic manner.
B. Sampling Methods
You need sampling because you can’t talk to or question every customer or non-customer. Sampling aims to find what works for a small group so it can be used for the whole community. Sampling means picking a small group of people from the whole community to talk to. There are two main requirements for the sample: it must be fair and true to the whole community.
In an ideal scenario, each member of the population should have an equal chance of selection from the group. At the same time, this is not possible in rural places. Generally, we exclude certain groups of people, such as women and members of specific castes. So, methods that aren’t based on chance are used, and easier sampling is often used. In towns, it is important for probability methods to use stratified sampling so that the person answering the survey picks people from each group. If groups are easy to spot, cluster sampling could also be used.
Here’s how to understand these:
1. Stratified sampling
Stratification is the process of dividing people in a town into smaller groups that are similar to each other. Then, within each subgroup, either simple random selection or systematic sampling is used. One way for a researcher to find out how people in the whole community behave as consumers is to pick a sample from each of the three social classes: the upper, the middle, and the lower.
2. Cluster sampling
The whole population is split into groups, and then random samples are chosen from each group. For instance, we could divide the people in a town into groups based on their jobs and then pick people at random from each group.
When experts choose samples based on their own opinions, the process is called non-probability sampling. It’s often done because of real concerns, like not having enough time or resources to carry out full-fledged surveys. Researchers must use easily accessible groups to survey villages.
In non-probability sampling, there are three popular ways to do things:
a. Convenience sampling
Convenience sampling is a type of non-probability sampling in which people are chosen as subjects because they are easy to reach. In villages, it means talking to people who are there at a certain time. Even though it’s quick, the method might not work well.
b. Quota sampling
In quota sampling, the population is split into subgroups that can’t be joined together. Then, things are chosen from each subgroup based on a certain percentage. A company may set a goal to interview 30 people in each village.
c. Judgemental sampling
Judgment sampling is when a researcher picks things from a community based on his or her opinion. For example, a researcher might choose to talk to the sarpanch or other important people in a village or ask them for recommendations to get good answers. This type of study is known as judgmental sampling.
C. Rural Market Research
It’s not easy or a set of steps to do rural market research because customers live far away and don’t always see brands and goods. There is a lack of secondary data on how people in villages buy things.
Because of this, traditional ways of doing market research don’t work well in rural places. Many companies have wasted a lot of time and money trying to build supply chains to rural areas because they don’t have correct information about what people in villages buy. Most businesses only need to look at the population data—about 850 million people who aren’t getting enough service—to see what a significant chance it is. But marketing in rural areas will fail if people don’t know the people who live there and what they buy.
Researching what customers want helps with every part of marketing strategy. You need it to answer questions and help with your marketing plan.
It helps businesses do the following:
1. Identify potential customers and segments
A big part of rural market research is finding buyers in rural areas and wealthy groups within the rural population. To achieve this, you need to collect detailed info.
2. Getting People to Use Products
Why do people buy certain things? That’s an important question to answer. For instance, people may purchase a washing machine in cities to wash clothes, but in rural areas, they may use it to make milk. These kinds of insights can help businesses change their goods.
3. Know your current customers.
People who buy things from companies need to know what those people value and why they buy. They can find out who makes people buy things and what role models are popular in rural areas. Also, businesses find out which items people buy because they work and which ones they buy because they look appealing.
4. Figuring out buying habits
Some of the most important factors are where people like to buy things, how much they buy, and when they buy it. As a result, special channels of distribution are set up to serve rural areas. A village store sells some things, but a close town has other things that can be bought.
5. Make a plan for marketing
Market research helps with decisions like how to create, price, package, distribute, and communicate about a product. Research also tells businesses about their rivals, which helps them come up with counteroffers.
D. Key challenges in Research data collection.
India has many different cultures and landscapes, which makes it hard for marketers and researchers to make surveys for rural India. Here are some of the most significant problems they face:
1. Reach: The 2011 Census found that about 58% of India’s rural population lives in 115,080 villages with 2,000 or more people. In practice, this means that about 80% of all towns in India are small or minimal, with less than 2000 people living there. FMCG companies face a big problem when they try to reach end customers in rural areas, which is called the “last mile.” Also, companies have a challenging time getting their products to the 33 million stores in rural India because it costs a lot to deliver them. To reach into rural areas, it’s important to have a focused and targeted reach. This important factor needs to be taken into account when planning the survey’s scope of study and sampling method.
2. The business can make money: In India, 85,000 large villages are home to about 40% of the people and 60% of all processed food and beverages. For business reasons, it’s not possible to cover all of rural India because the population and buying power aren’t evenly distributed.
3. High level of heterogeneity: “One size fits all” doesn’t work well when making a survey or plan for India’s rural areas. For instance, more than 75–80% of the people who live in poor and backward states like Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, and Madhya Pradesh live in rural areas. On the other hand, the spread of people living in urbanized states like Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, and Telangana is more fair. Because of this, every state has its own unique demographic and sociocultural profile, which should be taken into account when planning the sampling method for any primary research study.
4. Gender Equality: In rural India, women are important buyers and makers of many product categories, but men are more likely to be the main buyers. “Whom to interview” is therefore one of the most important questions to answer when making a poll.
5. Many different languages: India has 22 legal languages and a lot of different local languages, dialects, and everyday words. Therefore, being able to communicate well in more than one language is necessary for running surveys in rural India.
E. Methodologies for rural research
Developing a method that accurately captures the diversity of rural India requires consideration of the following factors:
1. Regional representation
In India, which is very big and has many different kinds of people, it is important to reflect heterogeneity and make sure that the study is representative. For example, Northerners and Southerners have very different views and behaviors. In the same way, people from other places have different social and cultural backgrounds that often affect how they think and feel, especially about touchy topics.
So, choosing Socio-Cultural Regions, or SCRs, is often the first step in figuring out how people in rural areas buy things. The regions help us understand people and their actions by putting them in the context of common farming practices, social and cultural differences, and income and spending habits that depend on the crop season.
2. Adequacy of sample
India’s different states have very different amounts of people living in them. For instance, Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state, is home to almost 15% of the country’s people. On the other hand, less than 0.5% of India’s people live in the tiny state of Goa. So, in a pan-Indian or multi-state survey, it is important to divide the group by state. Most of the time, states are divided into groups based on their population, such as high-population states, middle-population states, and low-population states. The sample is then set for each band based on the size of that band’s population to make sure it is a good representation of the whole.
The sample size would also rely on things like how detailed the data needed within a state is and how different the population characteristics are within a state (et al.).
3. Defining rural
According to the Indian Census, a rural village is a place that meets all three of the following criteria:
- There are less than 5,000 people living there.
- 75% of the men work in non-agricultural jobs.
- There are also less than 400 people living in every square kilometer.
However, this huge and very large area covering is hard for any marketing company to cover for business reasons. Because of this, different meanings of “rural” are used to make things more practical. Many businesses use the “hub and spoke model” to show how their distribution routes connect with rural areas. They look at areas that are close to or within a certain distance of the feeder towns.
Most businesses in rural India have trouble with the last mile of connection. It’s not seen as a good idea to cover the center or remote parts of rural areas. The “immediate” possibility for targeting rural India is in the villages on the edges of small towns or feeder towns that are easy to get to. The “Ringing Method” is another name for this way of choosing your village.
The things listed above have big effects on how researchers come up with a good method and, even more importantly, how they choose a good sampling method for their study.
4. Other Imperatives
When planning methods for rural study, there are a few other things that you need to keep in mind:
- Permissions: Before doing any fieldwork in a village, it is important to talk to the village leader, who is called the “Sarpanch,” about the study and its goals and get permission to do fieldwork. This is official proof from the head of the village that they know about the study and give their official permission.
- Village Map: Before you start fieldwork, you have to make a rough map of the village to get a sense of its plan and the most important buildings, such as the hospital, school, panchayat office, temple, or any other place of worship. The team leader usually does this activity with the help of an older person from the town, like the sarpanch, schoolteacher, or someone else. Rural homes and households in a village are not organized or follow a plan like homes in cities. Maps also help choose and sample clusters of homes and households in that village.
- Using slang: Because Indian states have a lot of different languages, certain sentences or words have different slang meanings. So, to make it easier for people to understand the questions, it is usually suggested that the local language be added to the instrument based on comments from a knowledgeable person in the area, like a schoolteacher.
Multinational companies and marketers are now focusing on people in rural areas. This means that spending on rural market research in India is expected to rise soon. It looks like this is a good chance for market research firms to improve the way they do research with country customers in mind. At the same time, researchers should keep in mind some of the problems that come with doing research in rural areas, such as a community that isn’t very tech-savvy, doesn’t read or write well, or isn’t well connected, when planning how to do research with this group.
About the Author
