MANAGING RURAL MARKETS

Rural Marketing has emerged as an important branch of learning given the significance of rural markets and bottom of pyramid populations across the globe and more so in developing countries which have grown fast in the past few decades. Rural markets are now part of the new growth and development agenda not only in their own right but also as part of the inclusive growth and development agenda of the state. But, understanding of the subject and its application remains poor in business and development circles. There are very few courses being offered which add value and which attend to the needs of business executives especially in developing and emerging markets. This book takes a fresh look at the rationale and practice of the discipline by examining major aspects like definition and scope of rural marketing, nature and magnitude of rural markets, segments in the rural sector, innovative product and distribution management strategies and major promotional measures besides examining creation of new rural markets across product categories. The book contains many cases and caselets to make it useful to executives and students to help learn not just concepts but learn them from a real life context. The book is targeted at the undergraduate and post-graduate students in business management, agribusiness management and rural management and at the business executives in management training and learning programs across the developing world. The book brings in many years of experience of the trainer in rural and agribusiness markets across programs at IIMA, IRMA and the like. The book combines the conceptual and the empirical insights on various topics in rural marketing and offers a research based analysis and examination to dispel many rural marketing myths.