Training HR for

Rural Marketing- B.V.Raghunandan

National Conference

Alva’s College of Engineering and

Management

February 14-02-2015

Misconceptions About

Rural Marketing

-Rural marketing should be delinked from rural production

-Production is different from Marketing

-Coverage is not SMEs

-Coverage is all the products marketed in rural areas, but

produced everywhere, urban or rural

-Engages the study of rural consumers and their psychology

HR Training: Nature-Training in conformity with the socio-

cultural set-up of the trainees

-Men are not produced by machines to

have a standardized behaviour

-Trainees have differing loyalty,

competence, confidence, attitude and

work culture

-Rural consumers are vastly different

from urban consumers

Nature of HR Studies

Purely Western

The socio-cultural

background of the West,

particularly the studies in

the US forms the basis

Designed to Extract and

Exploit the maximum

Liberal Hire & Fire Policy

Indian HR Practice

-Practices followed by Indian Industry

- J.N.Tata introduced 8 hours each shift

- On the job training

- -Life time employment

- Regularisation of employees

- Fair Treatment of Employees

- Facilities to All the Employees

- Regarding employees as the

members of family

- Training the HR for rural marketing

should be on the lines of Indian HR Practice

Rural Consumers: A Profile

Rural Consumers live both in urban

areas as well as rural areas

Their profile defines them rather than

their location

Savings Backed Purchases

Value for Money Approach

Expecting Truth from the Salesman

Loyalty to Product & Inertia for

Change

Profile of Rural Consumers

Relationship Maarketing

Bargaining is an essential

part

Essential Products are given

importance

Luxury Items also sell well

for securing status

Higher Paying Capacity

Cash Based Transactions

Training to the Salesmen

Language and Local Dialects

Blasting the Arrogance out of the

personality of salesmen

Service has to be efficient as rural

consumers do not have shopping

pleasure or browsing pleasure

Service has to be personal

Familiarity is Premium

After Sales Service Training to Salesmen

Language and Local Dialect

Basis for Communication

Makes Relationship Marketing Easy

Can understand the full requirement of

the customers and their families

Consumer will open up, thus avoiding

consumer frustration

Better Salesman-Customer Equation

Efficient Service

Rural consumers are less inclined to

browsing or shopping pleasure

Self-Service Stores are Irrelevant

Long-lasting products by sending the

feedback to Production Department

Less Procedures & Less Signatures

Importance to Festivals & Special Offers

Personal Service

Training to Salesmen to enhance

memory of names

Acquiring knowledge of families

Avoiding imposing sales outlets and too

many staff

Multi-tasking

Should not terminate the talk

Respecting the consumer

Familiarity Has a Premium

Familiarity makes the consumer feel

more comfortable

Advanced Knowledge of the

requirements of the consumers

Consumer will have a better acceptance

of the salesmen

Using local customs for enhancing the

sales

After Sales Service Training

The salesmen should be given after

sales service of minor problems

Product Demonstration by salesmen

Truthfulness in warranties and

Guarantees

Prompt service

THANK YOU