Developing Markets beyond Cities: Emerging best practices

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An organization grows healthily when the top line keeps growing. Indian cities are rapidly getting saturated and organizations are increasingly looking at smaller towns and villages. A huge hurdle to success in the BoP market has been a lack of understanding that this market is very different from the mainstream consumer culture.
 

In a country where every state has a distinct culture, history and lifestyle preferences, developing new markets and retaining them is easier said than done. The entire market has to be created from scratch as there is generally no existing supply chain, distribution network or marketing and promotional reach among the rural population. Advertising and promotion notwithstanding, communication should resonate with their world view and make them understand the benefits of parting with their limited and often unpredictable income for the products. Hence, through product and pricing innovations, the products developed should have high value for money and should be modified to adapt to the market’s needs and buying capacity. At the same time, it really is a myth to look only at the rural markets for the BoP that most of the marketers have done so far. There’s more to the concept of BoP than rural alone; BoP is a reality of both urban and rural markets.
 

Marketing to the BoP is both an art and a science. Along with that, and most importantly, it is a philosophy - a philosophy that corporate organizations need to ingrain into their DNA. Apart from market share and money, it will lead to consumer affection. The road ahead for the Inclusive India agenda is an exciting one and it should be treaded carefully.