Industry Realises the Significance of Audio Medium at 5th Annual Rural Marketing Strategies Conference

July 25th, 2012 | Posted by vrittivaani in i-Media Updates - (1 Comments)

The 5th Annual Rural Marketing Strategies Conference held at Mumbai between July 18th and 20th, 2012, was a must-attend for professionals that stand to gain from marketing insights shared in the conference. It covered a range of areas starting from Marketing & Sales, Trade Marketing, Customer Propositions, Branding, Advertising & Communication, to Product Research, Marketing Analytics & Intelligence, Business Analysis & Planning and Strategic Management. Organised by global event and corporate services company Marcus Evans, the event was a platform for marketers looking for new opportunities to network and assimilate intelligence on aspects of rural marketing strategies. Subjects delving into distribution innovation; promotion, pricing innovation and cost management; partnership-building; communication and brand management; consumer insights and use of technology in rural strategies were discussed.

The list of key speakers at the event included industry big-wigs like S Sivakumar, CEO, ITC Agri Business; G Sundararaman, Executive Vice President, Corporate Development, Godrej & Boyce; BM Vyas, Former Managing Director, GCMMF LTD (AMUL); Dr Anurag Priyadarshee, Director Rural Business and Planning, Department of Posts, Government of India and Sanjeev Goyle, Senior VP Marketing, Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd Farm Equipment Sector (Tractor Division). Vritti i-Media was a Silver Sponsor at the event, where Mr. Rajesh Radhakrishnan, Marketing Head, Vritti i-Media, presented his views on new trends and developments with respect to rural marketing and advertising inIndia.

In his presentation, Mr Rajesh elaborated on grasping the invaluable demand base and consumer loyalty in rural markets by harnessing novel breakthroughs in distribution, promotion, pricing and media technology vehicles. Although wall paintings, hoardings, puppet shows, road shows, dramas, free sampling and onsite demos were tried and tested tools of rural marketing, the need for a more flexible, easily manageable, cost-effective medium has been felt by the leaders of the industry.

In this regard, Vritti i-Media has initiated a ground-breaking innovation in rural advertising by developing a computer-controlled audio advertisement network across ST bus stations in Maharashtra. The fact that the iMedia Audio Network is available at 100+ MSRTC bus stations in the state only highlights the vast reach and ensured effectiveness of the medium. Through its public private partnership with MSRTC, the company has been able to extend its marketing channel to the state’s most inaccessible regions by covering all districts, important taluka towns as well as pilgrimage towns. In fact, the company has strategically touched those towns where its marketing channels can reach populations from every village in Maharashtra.

To evince the success of these methods, Mr Rajesh shared several success stories with the audience. He explained how by employing the mentioned medium, Lokmat’s newspaper sales at bus stands grew 25%, while the company was also able to effectively entrench top-of-the-mind recall and encourage sales for FMCG brand Suhana in Maharashtra. In the case of Maruti, the brand garnered top of mind recall in talukas and received 100+ enquiries at ten taluka locations for a month. In fact, there have been instances when farmers have come to bus stands just to listen to the farmer advisories issued by the government. Moreover, Maharashtra State’s agriculture department has bagged several e-governance project awards for this innovation.

Nielsen conducted a Media Effectiveness Study of audio advertising at bus stations and compared this medium with other media at bus stations. It found that 98% respondents rated the audio medium as useful, while 99% of respondents highly appreciated its sound clarity. An average of 2.2 brands were recalled through this medium, which was also found to have a captive audience of 85% at ST bus stands. However, the list of iMedia Audio Network’s benefits does not end there.

In addition to a sure captive audience, the medium also integrates public utility value with its PA system to reach a floating population of 100 million. Apart from this, the medium is highly cost-effective with a price of less than a paise per person. It creates ten times more impact at 10% of the cost of traditional media. Since it can be centrally controlled, its content delivery system enables advertisements to go live in a few minutes. The company is shortly looking to provide its rural marketing services in Punjab and Karnataka. Rural social-economic conditions in these states make them perfect candidates for increased marketing exercises here, allowing Vritti i-Media to leverage their channels for the benefit of advertisers looking for greater ground-level marketing reach in these regions.

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Consumer Electronics Biggies Switch on Exponential Demand in Rural India

July 20th, 2012 | Posted by vrittivaani in Articles and Opinions - (0 Comments)

India’s consumer market has witnessed sea change over the last decade. Like urban markets, consumers in rural markets are now more technology-savvy and are increasingly demanding sophisticated electronic durables and white goods. This trend has been driven by Minimum Support Price incomes to farmers as well as an ameliorating power situation in small towns and villages. In fact, where farmers get facilities like instant payment of cash when they sell their produce at stores like the ITC’s Choupal Saagars, they are empowered to pick up consumer products like washing machines, televisions, refrigerators, DVD players, microwave ovens, etc from that store itself. At these stores, consumer electronics comprise 15% of sales, growing at 40% each year. These factors, along with a growing perception of white goods as assets, has revolutionised the electronics segment in the consumer durables category.

Industry experts say that the consumer durable market, pegged at Rs 50,000 crore, for products like TVs, washing machines, refrigerators and air conditioners is growing between 15-20% annually in urbanIndia; in contrast to the rural market, where growth is much higher – at about 60% a year. With such a clear reason to target rural areas, several electronics big-wigs are charging ahead, and LG electronics is leading the pack. As of May 2011, 21% of this company’s turnover came from the rural market. But success has not come easy to LG, which has tried its hand at a spectrum of activities to build its presence in rural India.

 LG Electronics has made use of vans and road shows to showcase their goods to villagers and, local language advertisements to communicate with rural targets. To penetrate the hinterlands, the company set up 45 area offices and 59 remote area offices, in addition to participating in rural haats, melas and mandis. LG has tied up with stalwarts in the rural space, ITC and DCM Shriram Consolidated Ltd (DSCL) to employ unconventional distribution modes. The company is now looking to boost promotional efforts in 14 states with high disposable incomes. For this, it will harness the hub-and-spoke model, by roping in distributors of commonly purchased items such as fertilisers and two-wheelers.

Another white goods brand which has always thrived in small town Indiais Philips India. The company has always used local language advertising, graffiti and radio advertising to drive its growth. It has also been reported that the company demonstrates its products to village headmen and pursues a sale to influence buying decisions in villages. Another example is of Godrej Appliances Ltd. A household name in the Indian home appliances space for generations, the company test marketed its battery-powered ChotuKool refrigerator priced at only Rs 3,700 or half the cost of a fridge, in regions that had irregular electricity. For the launch and promotion of this prototype project, locals were employed as entrepreneurs selling ChotuKool in their villages at a fixed commission. Furthermore, a tie-up with India Post helped Godrej sell the product through post offices too, and helped boost distribution and coverage in villages where there were no retailing alternatives.

ChotuKool enabled local vendors and businessmen to engage novel methods of growing their businesses. Rural flower vendors and kirana store owners were able to stock a larger range of goods for longer using this innovation. Having achieved such positive results, the company now hopes to add more low-cost innovations to its ‘Chotu’ family, namely a low-cost washing machine ChotuWash as well as a low-cost water purifier.

Today, like Whirlpool, several electronics companies face traditional hurdles and prejudices regarding the utility of goods like washing machines and refrigerators. Akin to many white goods companies, Whirlpool is already present across price points and is continually strengthening its distribution network. More and more companies are now leveraging their networks and knowledge of rural markets for the next phase of growth. In this way, several behemoths in the space are etching unique growth trajectories for striking it big in the rural India.

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Social Networking Offers Marketers an Expressway to Rural India

July 10th, 2012 | Posted by vrittivaani in Articles and Opinions - (0 Comments)

In India, Facebook is synonymous with internet social media networking. Although India’s media-dark regions have miniscule internet connectivity, the mobile medium ushers tremendous hope for marketers, and change is gradual but sure

 For city dwellers, social networking represents employing Facebook or Orkut to touch base with long-forgotten friends or using text and photo blogs to share opinions and experiences. However, in the far flung hinterlands of our country which remain largely media-dark, social networking is an invaluable means of two-way communication that allows villagers to benefit from access to education, medicine, trade and governance. A case in point is E-Healthpoint, which creates affordable healthcare facilities through a hub-and-spoke model for those located beyond big cities while creating water-points for access to clean water. Delhi-based professional Santosh Kumar reportedly teaches maths to students in the village of Chamanpura, Patna, his hometown over chat client Skype. These instances indicate how opportunities in rural social media are being increasingly recognised by a spectrum of agencies working in close proximity to rural folk. The transformation is fuelled by internet and primarily, mobile phones.

Facts and Figures

Here’s a fact—social networking site Facebook is extremely popular in Indiaand as per research by IMRB International (erstwhile Indian Market Research Bureau), it has a penetration rate of 45% not only in urban India but in rural areas as well. According to the company, increasing use of smart phones in India is stimulating the growth of its internet community, which has grown 47% in 2010, compared to a global growth rate of 23%. As a result, access to social media has increased 13% from 2009 to 2010. Research and consulting specialists JuxtConsult has found that ruralIndia (218.9 million) has more users and active SIMs, as well as greater increase in penetration and tele-density than urbanIndia (188.4 million).

Relevance of Social Media

So the real questions is—are the conditions ripe to make marketing on social media relevant to reach rural folk? There is no simple answer to this question yet; but speculations based on current trends look positive. Earlier this year, it was reported that turmeric farmers in Maharashtra’s Sangli district connected with their counterparts in Andhra Pradesh to regulate the prices of their loss-making stocks due to an over-supply condition. After communicating a mass boycott of commodity auctions through social media and chat, the farmers were able to revive pricing from Rs 4 to Rs 8 a kilo. Organising such action would traditionally take upwards of a week, but social media made immediate action possible, saving these farmers huge losses.

This is not an isolated example.West Bengal’s tea growers are looking to launch a website and link it with Facebook and Twitter to enable cultivators to interact directly with global buyers. Similarly, industry experts opine that farmers involved in dairy, horticulture and floriculture are increasingly using social networking sites for the same purpose.

Facebook, which has more than 50 million users in India, has learnt from this trend and is preparing itself accordingly by adding support for Hindi to its app for all types of mobile phones. The social media giant has also announced plans to roll out the same support in seven additional Indian languages, namely Gujarati, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada, Punjabi, Bengali and Marathi, in phases. The move is obviously aimed at penetrating the entire fabric of Indian society, pointedly locations beyond big cities.

The most important take-away for marketers from all this, is that Facebook communication is two-way. There is immense potential for marketers to reach out to a growing numbers of tech-savvy rural folk through social media.

Positive Prospects

Marketing agency We Are Social has compiled findings from numerous sources and unearthed that in comparison to 61% Indians with TVs, 71% have mobile phones, presenting marketers with a clear opportunity. Also, according to Internet & Mobile Association of India, 60% online shoppers are expected to come from beyond the top eight metros by late 2012. Marketers must also consider that India has a large population of youth with disposable incomes and 75% of e-commerce users are under 35. The combination of all these factors works well for group buying and social commerce, say experts. To say the least, social media marketing could be integrated with traditional channels in the long run. On an optimistic note, however, the opportunities for marketers are boundless.

 

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Key elements for a successful OOH campaign

June 9th, 2012 | Posted by Veerendra Jamdade in From the CEO's desk - (2 Comments)

Most marketers these days acknowledge that the largest, most challenging as well as the most lucrative consumer groups today, reside far beyond our metros. More and more people are recognising a truth about Indiathat Mahatma Gandhi, the father of our nation, noticed decades ago—that it is a country with boundless potential at the grassroots. Indeed, the consumer market is not only growing but becoming more sophisticated in our hinterlands due to a rising standard of living in small towns and villages. A recent study by MART shows that milk supplement brands like Bournvita and Horlicks and a variety of electronic goods have now made their way into rural households. According to Hindustan Thompson Associates’ research arm, IMRB International, in the FMCG category, milk food and drinks has witnessed tremendous expansion in rural volumes to 41% in 2011 over the previous year. Better options in healthcare, real estate and education are auguring this hunger among the emerging consumer class. These signs are promising because they signify an important shift in the Indian consumer market.

Choosing the right medium

Given this backdrop of golden optimism, the problem that most marketers continue to face revolves around attracting this consumer group. To create a bridge, marketers firstly need to understand the rural mindset and tap the right nerves. For instance, modernisation or not, Indian villages continue to suffer gaping inequities relating to infrastructure. The availability and adequacy of power continues to be a pressing concern in small towns and villages. Given such handicaps, advertising to this population through TV channels like Doordarshan cannot guarantee visibility. On the other hand, it is possible to create alternative touch points. In small towns and villages, locals are seen regularly travelling intra-district or further for studying, employment, shopping, legal work or business. The opportunity to reach them while they are on road can invaluably help advertisers connect to the masses. In fact, advertising on a local level has a better chance to connect to people than through TV and cable. It enhances not only brand visibility, but also brand loyalty. For instance, Vritti i-Media’s OOH audio network medium has helped advertisers draw impressive enquiries. Given lower literacy levels, such media also allow masses to easily grasp audio and visual content better than newspapers.

Creating a memorable campaign

Speaking of OOH, hoardings, information boards, ST bus panels, public vehicle branding, pole kiosks and audio networks for announcements at ST bus stands are among the most successful offerings of Vritti i-Media for rural reach. These modes offer fabulous opportunities to advertisers to communicate interact and engage with people when they are on the move for work, education or recreation. Yet, the real challenge is styling OOH or Digital OOH (DOOH) communication to aptly convince the audience. So, it is important for communication to be different, unique and relevant. A right balance should be created between disseminating and withholding information, with regard to the advertisement, so as to create curiosity about the brand.

For effective OOH, the core idea should be simple and easy to grasp. The OOH campaign should be unique and clutter-free, while the theme should resonate with the social fabric of the region to trigger mass sentiment or a wow factor. Vritti i-Media’s Digital OOH audio network at ST Bus stands, for example, garners plentiful interest of its captive audience as it integrates advertisements with content of public utility. Since advertisements are meshed with bus arrival and departure announcements, it engrains the advertising message in the minds of alert travellers, presumably people who impact buying decisions in their households. This is a very innovative concept and has worked well for several prominent brands inIndia.

Rural insight

An interesting case is that of 9X Jhakas, a newly launched Marathi music channel. Since the intent was attracting residents of small towns inMaharashtra, Vritti i-Media adopted a cent-percent OOH approach for them. To this end, an MSRTC bus was hired and embellished with the brand identity of 9X Jhakaas. The bus was then used to provide free rides to commuters. Audio announcements as well as hoardings and sign boards were further put up at MSRTC bus stands to inform masses about the free rides provided by 9X Jhakaas. The point was to garner significant captive audience through the rides for ensuing engagements with them during their travel by the bus, which included quiz contests and music shows. Participants were awarded a range of freebies. The initiative was a true 360-degree awareness connect through an outdoor medium for rural masses and its success helped 9X Jhakas reach out to more than 15 target districts in Maharashtra.

Given the growing dynamism of life in metros and beyond, such a 360-degree integrated approach can immensely impact consumers. Appropriate implementation of an integrated marketing strategy will vary as per industry vertical and dictate which medium will have greatest impact when coupled with OOH. For instance, FMCG sector loves to combine outdoor with TV, while banks go for a 360-degree approach by roping in TV, newspaper, radio and outdoor media. Today, DOOH media such as Vritti i-Media’s audio and audio-visual networks bring both, time and cost efficiency to the table. They are the very embodiment of dynamism in rural advertising today and are extremely affordable as well. Given the invaluable benefit of reaching consumers inIndia’s remotest areas, the relevance of DOOH will only increase in times to come.

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Rural, semi-urban areas to boost banking growth

November 24th, 2011 | Posted by Veerendra Jamdade in From the CEO's desk - (0 Comments)

While I was browsing the internet for information on the changing  banking scenario in India, I came across this interesting research report by McKinsey on the banking industry titled ‘Gateway to the defining decade’.

No doubt that rural & semi urban markets offer a huge potential to the banking service sector in India, but there are a certain aspects which I feel will bring in a drastic change in the way banking is done in India.

On one side of the coin there is going to be a paradigm shift in way people bank in rural areas. Use of Mobile as a wallet was launched by  Union Bank in March in association with Nokia, and they have plans to expand its service to pan India level by next year. Consumers, using the service, need not have a bank account to make use of this service. A prepaid mobile account can be opened with the help of a photo identification card and address proof. The service allows an individual to transfer money, make utility bill payments and recharge mobile phone accounts. Money can also be transferred from one bank to another using this service. The focus market for this banking service is semi urban and rural markets and also below average income urban markets. Many banks are venturing into this kind of Mobile banking. Thus Technology is going to play a vital role in banking industry. Vritti i-Media can communicate  and educate masses on such  technological modes and thereby helping the banking penetration to every Aam Aadmi of India.

Other side of the coin working on the fundamentals ie Financial Inclusion. Which is the delivery of banking services at an affordable cost to the vast section of disadvantaged and low income group. Financial inclusion also means extending the banking habit among the less privileged in urban and rural India and weaning them away from unorganized money markets and moneylenders. Every Bank has a mandate for this Financial inclusion. Thus disseminating information and educating the masses about having  savings account ,various schemes offered by the government for the under privileged ,repayment of loans on time etc  becomes very important for the banks.

Our audio network is already helping largest bank of India SBI ,Largest Private bank ICICI bank , and many co-operative Buldhana co-operative bank in this mission of Financial inclusion. The Banks are also coming out with innovative and customised products like “Crop loan”, ” marriage loan”,” business loan” against gold which is a commodity available in every household of rural India. Banks are using our services at ST bus stands inform and educate the masses about such unique schemes which is helping the banking penetration to every Aam Aadmi of Maharashtra.

You can read through the findings of the research report here:

http://www.mydigitalfc.com/banking/rural-semi-urban-areas-boost-banking-growth-004

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Transit media advertising: Does your ad campaign have what it takes?

September 16th, 2011 | Posted by vrittivaani in Articles and Opinions - (2 Comments)

Transit media is defined by Wikipedia as : Transit media is a form of out-of-home advertising that uses vehicular platforms to establish a mobile brand presence. Typically, transit media campaigns are employed in denser urban environments to maximize brand exposure to both pedestrian and on-road traffic. The medium has traditionally been limited to featured advertisements on buses and trams, but in recent years has extended to various sub-categories, such as dedicated car, van or truck advertising.

This definition gives a glaring insight into the way media planners and advertisers have looked at transit media traditionally and mostly with a bias in perception adopted from the “western or developed” point of view.

1)      Transit media is typically for high-density urban environments

2)      Used of pedestrian or on-road traffic

Even today, even though population density and migration indicated an urban or city-based trend, as the old adage suggests – close to 70% of India’s population still resides in villages – still holds true. Especially if you factor Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities and towns. So what is the dynamic and impact of transit media on rural audiences in India? If we take just one out of the total 28 States in India, Maharashtra, close to 90 million people reside in semi-urban and rural pockets across the geography. Well, these are a few points an advertiser should consider to understand the potential of this medium for brand campaigns and product marketing:

1)      The average population at high density transit points in Rural Maharashtra is 40,000 per day

2)      If you only account for State Transport (ST) bus stands operated by Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation  (MSRTC), the total population which goes through 85+ locations  is a whopping 10+ Crore or 100 million .

3)      Of the 90 million residing in rural pockets, with 55 million in semi-rural or rural areas, only 40%-45% have access to Print & TV as mediums

4)      Close to 46% of this population is in ‘media darkness’ or not being approached effectively by any media

With increasing innovation in transit media and better understanding of media planners and advertisers of alternate and established  mediums Corporates and brand are able to effectively reach out to rural markets and audiences in India.

As the market in Urban India saturates, marketers will have to seek more smart, cost-effective and intelligent means to reach out to the right target audiences and expand their reach to a potentially untapped market opportunity which exists today. Those who seek to think beyond the ‘A-Z’ of media planning and venture to truly understand the dynamics of Indian rural markets and audiences will survive in time to come.

Vritti i-Media is an award winning technology and media innovation company, which  has set-up an established network of technology enabled audio advertising solutions at bus stands across 80+ locations in Maharashtra and audio-visual advertising network at critical hubs with high population density like food-courts on highways.  With their unique outdoor advertising (OOH) solutions they have helped large corporates, SMEs, entrepreneurs and small business owners to effectively use their network of ‘transit media – media on the move’ to reach out to audiences in rural Maharashtra.

Image (Source)

Recommended  related posts you should read:

For Rural Maharashtra, Edible Oil matlab Kirti Gold!

Duality of Bharat and India

Vritti i-Media win Gold and Silver at the Outdoor Advertising Awards 2011

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