Rural Project on Consumer Behavior and Category Perception

Submitted By:

ANAGH 011 | ANUPRIYA 015 |ARATHI 016 |DEEKSHA 023

RURAL RESEARCH PROJECT STUDY: CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR AND BRAND PERCEPTION

BIJOURI VILLAGE, JABALPUR DISTRICT, MADHYA PRADESH

GROUP 07

RURAL REPORT - BIJOURI 1

Acknowledgement

The rural research opportunity at Bijouri Village, Madhya Pradesh was a great chance for

learning and professional development. Therefore, we consider ourselves lucky to take part

in this enriching opportunity. We are also grateful for having a chance to meet so many

humble and generous people who led us through this period.

Bearing in mind we are using this opportunity to express our deepest gratitude and

special thanks to our Guide Prof. Pravin Mishra who in spite of being extraordinarily

busy with his duties, took time out to hear, guide and keep us on the correct path and

allowed us to carry out project in the right direction.

We express our deepest thanks to Mr. Umesh Singhal and Mr. Sudhir Sharma for taking

part in useful decisions, giving necessary advices and guidance and arranged all facilities to

make our life easier. We choose this moment to acknowledge their contribution gratefully.

It is our radiant sentiment to place on record our best regards, deepest sense of gratitude

to Mrs. Sombati Bai, Sarpanch - Bijouri village, Mr. Dharmendra Rai and Mr. Lokesh

Rai for their careful and precious guidance which were extremely valuable for this study.

Last but not the least we would like to express our deepest appreciation and thanks to

Prof. Manisha Shelat and Prof. Shreya Biswas for providing us with this opportunity.

We perceive this opportunity as a big milestone in our career development. Hope to

continue cooperation with all of you in the future.


Certification



Contents

Understanding Rural Marketing..............................................................................................................4

Rural Marketing ......................................................................................................................................4

Rural in Numbers.....................................................................................................................................5

Research Objective .................................................................................................................................5

Village Selected ......................................................................................................................................6

Research Methodology ...........................................................................................................................6

Village Profile..........................................................................................................................................6

Entry into the Village...............................................................................................................................7

Village Climate .......................................................................................................................................9

Village Topography ................................................................................................................................9

Demographic Composition ...................................................................................................................11

Village Resources..................................................................................................................................13

Village Life and People ........................................................................................................................14

Amenities...............................................................................................................................................19

Caste System..........................................................................................................................................26

Political system......................................................................................................................................27

Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana.................................................................................................................28

Media Consumption...............................................................................................................................30

Brand Consumption ..............................................................................................................................33

Marketing Strategy ................................................................................................................................44

Communication Need Assessment ........................................................................................................46

Lack of Sanitation .................................................................................................................................47

Communication Strategy .......................................................................................................................50

Designs to Bring Change ......................................................................................................................52

Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................52


Understanding Rural Market

Market in India has evolved rapidly in the past few years. Most of the brands have shifted their

focus to rural areas. The rural market has been growing exponentially and is now even bigger

than urban market. More than 800 million people in India lives in villages that constitutes to

nearly 70 percent of the overall population. ‘Go Rural’ is the marketers new slogan.

Rural Marketing has now become a two-way marketing process. There is inflow of products

into rural markets for production or consumption and there is also outflow of products to urban

areas. The urban to rural flow consists of agricultural inputs, fast-moving consumer goods

(FMCG) such as soaps, detergents, cosmetics, textiles, and so on. The rural to urban flow

consists of agricultural produce such as rice, wheat, sugar, and cotton. There is also a movement

of rural products within rural areas for consumption.

Since Rural Marketing is in its nascent stage, brands need to appreciate the first mover

advantage and catch the domain and make a brand area by assuming control over the psyche

space of the rural buyer before different brands come in. In any case, the vast majority of the

organizations additionally understand that it is not a simple market and is extremely diverse.

The scene, the dialect, the socio-cultural conduct are changing and hard to understand.

Henceforth, a ton of research is being done to understand the mind of the rural purchaser.

Rural Marketing

According to the Census of India Survey the definition of rural areas in India is any place that

has a population less than 5000 with a population density of 400sqkm. Also the primary

occupation of 25 percent of male working male population is engaged in some kind of

agricultural pursuits. Traditionally the rural areas have been seen as a place where marketing

process flow has been on directional i.e. the urban sector uses the products such as rice , wheat,

crops etc. that are brought out from the rural sector. But today increasingly the rural area have

also beginning to come under two-way marketing process. This is because the rural counterpart

are today displaying a demand for cosmetics, durable and other branded products. The change

has caused more and more companies to make a beeline for the rural areas. These areas unlike

the urban population are untapped and nascent. The opening up of this avenue can be attributed

to the increasing information availability even in the lower sectors. The proliferation of mobile

phones and the movement of people to other tertiary employment have all widened the need

gap that all the companies are trying to exploit. The rural landscape of today is undergoing a

transition. Most places in India can now be looked at as either “peri-urban” or “semi-rural”.

Increasing purchase power of the rural people is causal to such shifts. Nearly 70 percent of

today’s population lives in the rural. The sheer volume of consumer that is untapped makes the

need to understand the rural consumers very important. Though it is a fact that rural areas are

perceived as change averse and have low standards of living, this picture is changing very fast.

The demand pattern of the rural consumers is an opportunity to set up good and efficient

distribution channels and build brand awareness. One thing that marketers are beginning to

realise is that you cannot sell the urban products on the rural masses. There is a need to

understand the specific need of them and treat them with the same consideration as the urban

counterpart. In essence for any company to maintain a healthy growth rate in the coming years,

the need of the hour is to have a good rural go-to-market plan and all the plan must start with

a holistic understanding of their consumers


Rural in Numbers

As per the information by the Census India Survey 2011, IRS survey, Reports by the Ministry

of Rural Development etc. the fast emerging face of rural market is clearly evident. This section

of the population represents an opportunity that can be tapped into.

Some of the major statistic that are an indicative is as follows:

Total Number of Individual: 83.3Mn

Percentage of Indian Population in Rural India: 68.84%

FMCG Sales: 53%

Consumer Durable Sales: 59%

Market for tractors and agriculture Inputs: Rs 45000 Crore

States with maximum Rural Population: UP, Bihar, West Bengal

State with minimum Rural Population: Sikkim, Mizoram, Goa

Popular Government Schemes:

MNREGA: Mahatma National Rural Employment Act

PMGSY: Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojna

NSAP: NATIONAL SOCIAL ASSISTANCE PROGRAMME

IWMP: Integrated Watershed Management Programme

IAY: Indira Awaas Yojana

NRLM: National Rural Livelihood Mission

Total Sanitation Campaign or the Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan

SAGY: Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana

Media Penetration in Rural India

TV penetration: 1764 Lakhs

Total TV Homes in Rural India: 731 Lakhs

Cable and satellite Homes in India: 652 Lakhs

Digital DTH Homes in Rural India: 321 Lakhs

Print Penetration: 11%

Internet Penetration: 6.7%

42% Internet Users prefer local language

9% Internet Users transact Online

Active Mobile User: 25 Mn

Total Budget Allocated by the central budget for Ministry of Rural Development: 79,526 crore

Research Objective

The primary aim of the research has been carried out to study village of India and identify the

need gaps which needs to be addressed through a communication strategy.

In the process, the different areas to be studied are:

Understand the rural consumer and their lifestyle.


Find out factors that affect their decisions and behaviours.

Understand their consumption pattern of brands and media.

Village Selected

Name: Bijouri and Kohla (it is a small village within Bijouri where all the tribal belt live)

District: Jabalpur

State: Madhya Pradesh

Area (as obtained from Patwari)

Total Area: 310.323 hectares

Krishni (Agriculture Area): 209.252 hectares

Van Bhoomi (Forest Area): 101.071 hectares

Research Methodology

A seven day ethnographic research was carried out in the village of Bijouri. Exploratory

research was initially carried out to understand the rural scenario and the village level details.

Additionally, we did observational study and in-depth interviews to identify and understand

the grass root level of several issues.

Village Profile

The village Bijouri is situated in Jabalpur district of Madhya Pradesh. It is 345 km’s away from

the capital city of the state Bhopal and is 30 km’s away from the nearest city Jabalpur. The

village is very well connected with road. The village has 388 families with 58 families which

have female Mukhiya and 330 families with Male Mukhiya. The overall population of the

village is 1482.

In Bijouri village population of children with age 0-6 is 46 which makes up 15.59 % of total

population of village. Average Sex Ratio of Bijouri village is 928 which is lower than

Madhya Pradesh state average of 931. Child Sex Ratio for the Bijouri as per census is 917,

lower than Madhya Pradesh average of 918.

Bijouri village has higher literacy rate compared to Madhya Pradesh. In 2011, literacy rate of

Bijouri village was 77.11 % compared to 69.32 % of Madhya Pradesh. In Bijouri Male

literacy stands at 85.27 % while female literacy rate was 68.33 %.

As per constitution of India and Panchyati Raaj Act, Bijouri village is administrated by

Sarpanch (Head of Village) who is elected representative of village.

Bijouri is surrounded by various other villages. One of them is Kohla which is a tribal

dominated village. This village is located 3-4 Km’s away from Bijouri and is a part of


SANSAD ADARSH GRAHM YOJNA. This is the primary reason why we visited this village

is to study the yojna which is being implemented there in detail.

Entry into the Village

The first impression of the village is very good because of the quality of the road. The village

starts with a government school followed by a big commercial area which consists of hardware

shops, barber shop, retail shop along with a bank and computer centre. Going further we will

see a private doctor clinic and post that the residential area of the village starts. There is also a

handpump located opposite residences. Going ahead there is a turn which takes us inside the

village. It has a gate where again we see the residential area followed by three temples. Out of

which the Jain temple is located at the “tiraha” and further away there is a Ram Temple.

The wine, the cigarette and the non veg food shop is located at the periphery of the village.

There is only one big hospital called Uday Hospital.



Village Climate

The climate of the village is like any other state of central India, which is majorly dry and hot.

During summers, it is extremely hot. The temperature goes upto 45 ºC. However, winters are

pretty cold. The rainfall in moderate in the region with maximum rainfall during the months of

July to August. This year the rainfall was very less.

Village Topography

Residential Cluster

There are around 12-13 streets in the village and the areas are distributed in terms of different

castes and religion.

The village is primarily distributed into 4 areas:

1. Hindus: The village is Hindu dominated and more than 80% of the region is covered

by Hindu population.

2. Jains: Along with Hindu population there is a Jain committee which resides in the

centre of the village. They have a separate Jain Mandir

3. Muslims: There is only one Muslim family in the village and they live at the

periphery of the village.

4. SC/ST/OBC: All the SC and ST’s live together and they have been given a separate

region which is called Kohla. The village is completely dominated by Tribal

population. This is the largest population in the village. Nearly 88% of the population

belong to this strata


Soil

The type of soil in the village is Black Cotton Soil and the major crop grown is Peas, Rice,

Dal and Wheat, which is also called “Dhaan” in this region. Bijouri is in fact one of the

largest producer of peas in the country and imports peas to different parts of the country.

Central Bijouri has the highest yielding soil for Peas. As we go further towards Kohla the

productivity of the soil reduces. Other crops which are grown are Corn, and some local

vegetables. Central India is extremely rich in Black Cotton Soil. It has extremely high

moisture content and it also very rich in organic matter. For this reason it is a very rich soil

and used extensively for Wheat, Rice, Sugarcane and Peas. One drawback of the soil is that it

is very sticky and has to be ploughed before the rains.


Demographic Composition

The number of Household in the village are 388. Nearly 85-90% of the families are Joint

families and around 10-15% families are

nuclear families.

The total population of the village is 1223.

The population segmentation of the village

can be done in various ways:

(The accurate data was obtained from the Sarpanch of the village)


Based on Caste

General: 48

Schedule Tribe: 73

Schedule Caste: 44

Other Backward Classes: 223

Based on Policies

ST/SC: 36

AAY (Antyodya Ann Yojna): 12

BPL (Below Poverty Line): 148

SSP (Social Security Pension): 17

Based on Occupation

Farming: 80%

Wages: 20%


Village Resources

Nearest Town

The nearest town from Bijouri is Jabalpur. It is 30 km’s away and takes approximately 1 hour

to reach. Jabalpur is the main centre and most of the people in village send their children for

education to Jabalpur. They also go to Jabalpur for major medical needs.

Transportation

There is no bus stop in the village. People travel majorly by Tata Magic. Most of the teachers

and other government employees use Tata magic and they come to Bijouri from Jabalpur. The

local people use bikes and cycle for transportation. Most of them had a 100 to 125 CC bike.

Occupation


The major occupations of the villagers is Agriculture. The upper caste people in the village

owns acres of farm where they recruit tribal people to work and pay them wages on a daily

basis. The tribal people also have their own farms which they use for their personal food and

sustenance. Their major money comes from the wages they earn. Their aspirations are low and

they expect just basic amenities to be provided to them.

As agriculture is a major occupation. Water is a big concern for farmers. Many a times small

farmers go under huge losses because of less rainfall.

Other occupations include business. So many people have opened their shop of hardware, retail

etc. They are trying to diverse they income to other sources and don’t want to be dependent

just on agriculture income.

Village Life and People

The experience of staying at the village brought out the different facets of a life in the village

which were different to the life in an urban space. The predominant occupation of the area was

agriculture and that had its manifestation in varies ways. The roads along the villages had fields

have field on either side. The presence of cattle and other agrarian animal suggest that

many farmers in the areas still don’t rely completely on machinery. The shops, bank and other

governmental institution like the school and healthcare centre are at the entrance of the village

followed by the residential areas. The village had a clear caste based division when it comes

where people live. The lower caste members of the village have their house separate. The upper

caste Hindus and the Jains had their house together and in proximity to temples. There is only

one household that is Muslim and they live alone on the margin of the village. The higher

section of the society had pukka houses.


The people are very warm and welcoming and not as suspicious as other people in the cities.

One man Mohan who we met at the granary took us to his house around noon as it was very

hot outside. His wife and his four girls were very hospitable. They live in a small one room

house. And own little to no durable inside. There was a dearth of any products that were

branded in the house with minimal

amount of utensils. They were a little

shy in the beginning. The wife works in

the field around the area during season

but the major bread earner was Mohan.

Both their parents were farmers and it

has been 10 years of their marriage. This

brings to focus the fact that the youth in

rural India generally get married at a

much younger age than in urban. When

asked the actual age of the wife, both of

them were reserved about the issue. But

they were very happy to talk about their

children. All their children are going to

school. Both the parents were very happy

about the fact that their children were

going to get educated. It was very

refreshing that girls are given the similar

opportunities. Since the family had many

mouth to feed and so didn’t have money

to buy products the small girl of the

family used the door of the house to practise her lessons. This was a very rude reminder to us

about the disparity and difficulty many children like her face in India to get Primary education.

All of these show the shifting attitude of the young people in rural areas. Another interest

observation is that the house didn’t have a loo attached. This indicates that most people in the

village still follow the practise of open defecation. When we discussed this with the

Government officials they said that the fund had been sanctioned and would be implemented

soon. This is an opportunity that can be tapped well in the village to bring about development

and make it better living conditions.


Houses of people of the similar caste were similar in the construct. There is a conspicuous

absence of products that are branded and excess of what is required by a person to survive. We

also visited the house of a farmer who lived in a three room house along with his entire family.

The man had been a farmer since his father introduced him to the occupation. Today he has a

small area of land that we grows his crops on and owns his own cattle. What can out the most

is the disgruntle way that the government treats the farmers. His mother pointed out that

nothing mush had changed in her life for all her life. She continues to live in the state of abject

poverty that she grew up in. The man works the whole day in the field but gets cheated in

promises that the MLA make to him. He has sent his son out to the city of Jabalpur after a lot

of struggle with the bank. This led us to understand the constraint that the rural and BPL

families fight but still hold onto aspiration for the next generation. He wants and is trying to

get his son out of the vicious cycle that his occupation has caught him in.


In the absence of electricity due to

load shedding, most of the work

within and outside the house is done

manually. Our host pointed out that

this meant he had to get up very early

in the morning to go to his fields and

get back home to have his supper by

7 PM because there would be no

light in the area. The women cook

the food in ‘chulas’ using firewood

as the source of heat. The firewood

is collected from the surrounding

and hung from the ceiling for use

later.

The farmer also spoke to us about the caste discrimination that is still prevalent in these parts

of the country. He has faced a lot of difficulties in his life because of this.

One of the most interesting thing we noticed was that the farmer had a mobile which he used

to elevate boredom during evening and when he was busy tilling the land. He didn’t have any

other durable in his house. He viewed his phone as an instrument to entertain himself. In in in

spite of the fact that he owns a radio. He prefers to listens to songs on his phone. When asked

about recharging it he said that he managed it by going to shop where they would also fix his

mobile up with some music.

The way the people in the village dress has also is specific to the state of the country they

belong to. But it was noticed that only people of the older generation stuck to their traditional

outfit. Also this was seen with the women and girls of the community. Men and boys of the

younger generation have started wearing westernised outfits. When asked for reason why most

of the people said that comfort was one of the most important reason. But on close examination

it is evident that the caste and class are the primary reason for such variations. This is

specifically true for men.


We also saw women who still wore their tradition form of ornamentation. Perhaps it will be

some time before women are allowed to change the kind of projection they are supposed to

show in the patriarchal society like India. The people from the higher cast are better off in

regards that they don’t have to fend for themselves on a daily basis. We meet Mr Santosh from

the computer centre who had opened a institute to teach children computer. He had to close the

institute as he didn’t find enough people to take up the course. As the village is primarily

devoted to farming most of the people are not very oriented towards usage of technology that

they do not see as instantly useful. This in our minds is the reason that people had basic mobile

phone sets but not interested in computer.

Mr Santosh then proceeded to open a SBI bank branch and is very hopeful of the way it will

grow. This is because the money in banking was very good. He is a PhD holder in Sanskrit and

had had a stint as a teacher but the money that he made from it was abysmal. He started his

business venture to make his lifestyle better and in some way help the people of Bijuri. The

upper set of individuals had television in their homes. One important observation was that more

people had direct to home than cable. But the kind of channels that were available don’t have

content that are that current.


Amenities

The basic amenities present in the village are:

School

There are 3 schools in the village

Primary School (Till class 5th)

Middle School (5th – 8th Class)

Secondary School (9th – 10th )

The primary school is located at the periphery of the Bijouri village. The teachers come from

Jabalpur and travelled by Tata Magic. There were 2 teachers in this school. The school had just


one small building and a kitchen. They used to provide lunch to students and elerly people of

the village.

The school uniform and books was provided by the government. So the government directly

transfers the money to the family’s account through which they can buy uniform and books for

their child. The teacher complained that many families used this money for their personal

benefits and didn’t invested it for their children welfare.

There were nearly 30 – 40 students studying in this school. The ratio of girls was higher than

the boys. According to the teachers the children who came were slow and not that interested in

studying. There were few students who were bright but didn’t get much support from their

parents for higher studies. She mentioned a girl who was very sharp at studies but her parents

weren’t interested in getting her educated further. So she used to push their parents to get their

children enrolled for higher education. Many students used to drop out in between the academic

session. So the teachers used to go home to home to convince parents to send their children to

school.

According to her the parents were not worried about their children study and just wanted them

to work with them.

She also highlighted the issue of the policy which the government has passed that every student

needs to be promoted to next class till class 5th. She told us that many student didn’t even know

how to count numbers or write alphabets but had to be promoted just because of the norm.

The primary school also had an Aanganwadi attached with it.


The middle school and secondary school is slightly better equipped than primary school. They

have 1 building each with 3 classrooms in Middle school and 2 classes in Secondary. Both the

schools were located in the centre of the village and were located just beside each other

The number of students as the classes progressed got reduced and the male to female ratio got

highly skewed with just 2 – 3 girls studying in Secondary classes. Again the reason for this was

the same that the parents thought that girls don’t need to study and they should help their mother

in household work.

For higher secondary education they used send their children to Jabalpur.


The newly introduced Mid-Day Meal policy is implemented in the school and followed

thoroughly. The school gets a fixed amount of ration based on the number of students enrolled.

They used to buy vegetables and other food masala from their own school fund.

We witnessed the Mid-Meal and inspected the kitchen and preparation of the food. The food

was cooked on chulha and the kitchen was clean as compared to other places. They had a fixed

menu of food which was prepared on a daily basis


Student’s used to pray before having their meal. We shot a video of the prayer. Here is the link

for the video (https://youtu.be/6I7T-FsXTQU)

The school had separate toilet for girls. The toilet was clean and well maintained.

Bank

The bank services were available in the village but it was 5-6 km’s away. The villagers weren’t

happy with the services provided by the bank and was upset with the behaviour of the staff

towards them. According to the villagers they were exploited and were asked to visit more than

5-6 times to get their money from the bank. Many people found that their account was closed

by the bank without giving them any notice about the same.

https://youtu.be/6I7T-FsXTQU


When we met the staff in the bank they denied these acquisitions and said that the people in

village are stupid and are too stubborn. They said that they try to explain the policies to the

people but they are just not interested and create ruckus in the bank.

Overall the bank was decently staffed and had online services available for transaction. There

was also a 24/7 ATM.

Hospital

There is one UPSWASTHYA KENDRE in the village. It has 2 doctors. It can take care of

primary diseases but for anything major the villagers have to go to Jabalpur which is nearly 30

km’s away. Medical facilities within the village is not that good and lacks basic infrastructure

and machinery. The number of doctors are also less as compared to the population in the

village. This is one area where the government really needs to focus.

Power Supply

The percentage of households with legal electrical connections is 60 -70%. The power supply

of electricity is just for 12- 12 hours a day. However, most of the houses have low watt bulbs

in their houses and do not waste energy or rather cannot afford to pay high bills. Solar panels

will be a good option to provide 24/7 electricity to villages.


Water Supply

The water in the village is obtained from wells and hand pumps. They don’t have direct water

supply at home.

Irrigation Facilities

There is lack of irrigation facilities in the village. The villagers are not aware of the latest

technology which they can use to improve their fields and have better overall productivity.

Agricultural Facilities

Agriculture is the primary source of their income. But still very limited people own tractor in

the village. There are hardly 3 – 4 tractors in the village. Others who need tractor get it on rent

from Jabalpur at Rs600/hour.


NGO Presence

There is no NGO present in the village.

Temple

The village consists mostly of Hindus and Jains. There are three temples in the village. One

Ram mandir, one Hanuman mandir and a Jain Temple. The temples are all concentrated in

areas that are have upper caste Hindus living around them. The people of the village happily

celebrated Ganapati Jayanti and we saw colourful processions. During the same time the Jains

were celebrating ‘Paryushan’ festival. This was very new to most people in our form city

haven’t seen or heard of this festival before.

Caste System

The caste system was highly prevalent in the village. The complete village was following the

caste system. Every caste has a separate residential society. So “Chamars” had a different area,

“lohars” had a different area, “Soni’s” had a different area. “Brahmins” lived together in a

separate segment.

Even the work distribution till date was according the caste system. So the jeweller was from

Soni caste and when asked about what why are you selling jewellery his reply was that what

we do we are “Soni’s”. We have been selling jewellery from ages. He personally knew each

and every one in the village and used to go home to home to sell his jewellery.


All the iron related work was done by lohars. Again we can see how the profession defined in

the caste system is strictly followed by the committee. The worst was with the Shudras, they

were still doing the cleaning and sweeping jobs. They were not entitled to do any other job in

the village. There houses were made outside the village and were still considered untouchables

by elderly people in the village.

Marriages are done in the same caste and religion. Also majority of the marriages are arranged

marriages. The wedding is pre decided by the parents when the children are small and once

they come of age they are married. Average age of marriage for girl is 19 years and for boy is

22 years in Bijouri.

Political System

The local government is Panchayat. The Sarpanch is selected by local people through voting.

Currently the Sarpanch is Smt. Sombati Bai. The election is done democratically and it is a

huge affair in the village. The Sarpanch of the village is the leader of the village and therefore

the election is fought for pride and prestige and not for power.

In Bijouri the ruling candidate spent nearly 50 lakh to win the election. She donated her land

to make road for the local villagers. The Sarpanch is the focal point of contact between

government officers and village community.

The election is run on the community support and in Bijouri it is dominated by the Rai family.

The Rai family has done a lot for the village and is a very respectable family in the village.

They have been responsible for implementing many policies by government.

The Rai family is dominated only in Bijouri but also in Jamunia. It is a nearby village and Rai

family’s hometown. They live in a joint family and members of the family are part sarpanch,

upsarpanch etc.

The government has introduced reservation for women for the post of Sarpanch and they are

called Sarpanchni. Therefore we see a huge chunk of women being the sarpanch. Both at Kohla

and Bijouri we had female sarpanch.

The problem we observed was they weren’t really aware with the day to day functioning of the

government and were usually used as a dummy. Their husbands were the real decision makers.

We also got the opportunity of attending the Grahm Panchayat. So all the people from nearby

village came to Bijouri and all the sarpanch’s addressed their issues and also declared new

policies and schemes for the people. More than 500 people participated in the event.


We tried to take a video interview of the Sarpanch but they were too afraid to give out the

interview and it was stopped mid-way. We then took the complete interview without any

recording instrument. The sarpanch was completely unaware of the working and all the

working was taken care by the other government officers. Here is the link of the 1 min interview

we took before they asked us to stop it ( https://youtu.be/w1OQtQHFTdc ).

The Sarpanch told us about her plans to improve the condition of people in the village. She

wanted to improve the education system. She was unhappy with the quality of government

teachers in the school and said they need to be changed. Also she pointed out that electricity is

a major issue and because there is no electricity in the village people don’t tend to study or do

other work.

In the Panchayat office we also observed how the local cases were solved. So people used to

come to the panchayat office instead of police station to report their issues. Even issues of theft

and fight were reported there and the panchayat office took the responsibility to solve the issue.

Because the village is a small community and every person in the village knows each other, it

was easier to resolve issues amongst people for the panchayat.

Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana

This programme was launched by Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India on the birth

anniversary of Jayaprakash Narayan, on 11th October, 2014.

The aim of the yojna is to make a MP to take the responsibility of devoloping physical and

institutional infrastructure in a village and make it a model village. In this each MP choose a

village of his choice and make it a model village by 2016.

https://youtu.be/w1OQtQHFTdc


We visited Kohla because it was chosen by Shri Rakesh Singh as his model village. This was

a tribal belt and we primarily went there to see the impact of this yojna. We were surprise to

see the reluctance and fear the authorities had in that village. Even the sarpanch was afraid to

speak up and they just wanted to put forward good things of the village and the plans which

are promised to be implemented.

After an offline talk with Sarpanch we realised that the Yojna has still not been implemented

and the village still lacks the basic infrastructure need of electricity, water, food and job

opportunities. The condition of people in the village was bad and people had already started to

move to different villages for employment.

With just 1.5 years to go it looks difficult that any drastic changes will come in the village. The

government launches policies year on year but they need to make sure that whether those

policies are being implemented or not.

The only thing which we got to know was about the sanitation problem which was planned to

get solved by making more than 30 toilets in the village. But all of that was on paper and

nothing substantial has been their yet.

We were able to get our hands on the official documents. Below is the snap of those documents


Media Consumption

Print

Another area that we studied while our stay at Bijuri was the media consumption of the

household. We enquired with the residence of the village about their patterns of newspaper

consumption. Not many people in the village subscribe to any daily on day to day basis from a

vendor. Most of the people buy a newspaper as and when they want according to their interest.

Nava-Bharat, Hari Bhoomi and DainikBhaskar are the three newspaper that are found around

the village. From all the households ten odd of them get the newspaper delivered to them by

8:00AM. The reading pattern of the newspaper starts with the head of the house who spends a

good 45-60 mins to go through the paper. The headlines is something that they pay great

attention to because, as they say, they want to know what is going on around them. The rest of

the family then subsequently follows suit and read it whenever they get the chance. Although

educating women is seen in a positive life, not many of the women read the newspaper on a

daily basis. When asked why they responded that they usually don’t have the time out of their

household chores.

It was also found that many households also shared their copy of newspaper after they had

finished reading it. This goes to explain the low levels of subscription amoung the population.

Also it doesn’t appear like a daily ritual amoung them. People who are want to read the paper

go out and buy then at tea stores. The tea stores are common spaces where people get together

and discuss the article and happening. Many get into discussions with each other to keep

themselves updated. All of this means that lesser number of people actually buy a newspaper.

From a ground level research point of view the reception of English dailies is very low and

Hindi newspapers are widely accepted.


Radio

Radio is used as one of the most important sources of information in the village. We were able

to come to this conclusion as the number of households that owned a radio are higher than the

once that read newspaper daily. Most of the men in the families used the radio to get

information and facts like News. They also used the radio to entertain themselves with music.

But primarily people listened to songs on their mobile. As the major population of the village

were farmers a lot of them listen to the farmer specific programmes ran by AIR that gave tips

about how to farm inn a better way. The farmers felt that the innovations and information that

they got through these programme were very helpful. The two channel that were listen to the

most in the village were All India Radio and Vividh Bharathi. Some villagers also

acknowledged that they have listened in to sponsored programme. Amoung the women the

programs were skewed mostly towards entertainment centric shows like that on Vividh

Bharathi. The wide spreads the radio could also be due to the fact that it is a cheap equipment

and everyone can feel included. Many of the shops in the area also have radio that have popular

Hindi movie songs playing on them. Though many of the people who can afford it are moving

towards television as their mode of entertainment. As men are generally busy with their work

the majority usage of the radio during the day time is by women and by senior citizens. The

most popular language seems to be Hindi.

Television

Television is fast becoming the mode of entertainment in households that can afford it. The

increasing access of direct to home services in the rural area, like in Bijouri, has made it more

prolific in the area. But these programming that is available of these dish TVs are limited. The

kind of content that they consume are popular Hindi movies and songs but mostly of a decade

ago. The concept of community television is not present in the village and most of the audience

prefers to watch at their leisure at their homes. On an average people watch TV for 2-3 hours

a day. The men watch more of news and sports and women watch Television for the

entertainment segments. Some of the people who we spoke to told us that generally men and


women do not sit together and watch TV though it’s not a norm. The children have a huge part

to play in the kind of programme that are watched. People said that when there was any special

occasion like a Cricket match the neighbours would come together to watch the match on a

single television screen. Television is central in the sense that most felt that it helped the family

bond along with the neighbourhood. Caste discrimination is a problem and most of the people

don’t accept people from lower caste coming to their home for watching matches or any such

programmes.

Ambient Advertisements

The villagers already use a lot of wall painting around the public space. One of the reasons for

its popularity is the fact it is one of the cheapest form. The advantage is that most of the

paintings stay for as long as the weather allows them too. Also the fact that most of the

shopkeeper do not mind letting you paint the walls as it gives the shops a clean look.

Around the village of Bijouri the walls bear the painting of both commercial branded

communication and messages from government that are issued in public interest. But most of

the messages are in a bad condition. The newer looking once are the once done by companies

to sell their products.


Brand Consumption:

Business Model

We studied the supply chain model of the village. Bijouri village was the biggest village

amongst its neighbouring villages. Therefore all the people from nearby villages used to come

to Bijouri to buy all the products of their need.

Bijouri has shops ranging from Kirana stores to Hardware store, Utensils etc.

Product Sourcing Model - Bijouri

So Mumbai is the main centre where products are made. All the street clothes, utensils

etc are either manufactured their or is imported from other parts of the country.

The wholesellers in Jabalpur buy these products from Mumbai and sell it to the retailers

of Bijouri. The products ranges from consumables to hardware items.

These products are then sold in bijouri to nearby villages.

Mumbai

Jabalpur

Bijouri

Other Villages


This is the complete cycle of product.

The margins of retailers in bijouri is very less as the wholesellers in Jabalpur doesn’t

give them much discount on products. Most of the products are small ticket items

therefore the overall margin on the product is also less.

Many a times the retailers sell its product on break-even price to the consumer. Profits

are less and mostly they focus on clearing the inventory. They are not capable to enough

to hold the inventory cost.

Market in Bijouri

Every Tuesday the village has a weekly “haat”. As most of the interior villages doesn’t have a

direct access to the market. Bijouri host as a Business center, which is open only once a week.

More than 300 visitors from around 8-10 interior villages within a radius of 25 km visit this

haat on a weekly basis to purchase or sell all types of goods ranging from daily need items like

rice, sugar, salt, spices, vegetables to toys, jewellery, clothes etc.

Bangles are extremely important and popular for Indian women. One of the interesting

observation which we did was that the shopkeeper was putting bangles on the women’s hand,

they didn’t wear it themselves and once they wore the new bangle the seller broke off the old

ones


There was one more interesting observation. So none of the upper class women were allowed

to come for haat. The shopping was done by male members or else the shopkeepers will go

their home to sell the products. Whereas in tribal community all the women came to shop. They

were the primary buyers and their husbands just assisted them in decision making.

In soap, people just used one soap. They didn’t had a separate soap for bathing and separate

for handwash. Only few people considered that differentiation. The most popular soap was a

local brand “Fresh”. It was a replica of Lux and was way cheaper than that. People brought that

soap because they found it cheaper and better than brands like Lifebuoy, Dyna etc. They said

it made their skin soft and hair shinny.

In toothpaste they only bought Colgate. In fact we weren’t able to find any other brand other

than Colgate in the market. The brand was so dominant that people directly asked for Colgate

and not “toothpaste”. “Bhaiya ek chota colgate dena”.


In hair oil segment we noticed a local player “Priya”. This product was a copy of parachute.

From bottle size to colour combination they imitated each and every aspect of the product.

When asked to a customer why are they buying “Priya” and not any other product they said

“Ki iska ad aata hai na… Deepika wala”. They clearly got confused between Parachute and

Priya.


In cooking oil segment all the oils companies were from local players. The point to notice was

all the oils were of Pure Soyabean oil. Most of the customer still prefers ghee and dalda over

oil and very few people came to the shop to buy Soyabean Oil. These consumers belonged to

the higher strata of the society and had relatives in Jabalpur city through whom they got

influenced and started using oil.

The biscuit category was completely dominated by Parle with Parle-G being the most biscuit

in the region.


In talcum category Ponds was sold. The thing to notice is that the smallest pack of ponds was

available. No other size of the powder was being sold in the market. The complete family used

this powder and the powder used to last for a month. They used it to put it on their face. Mostly

people from tribal background used to buy this product because they thought that this powder

makes them look fairer.

Grains was sold in open packets. They had very limited variety of rice and dal grains. They

kept only lower cost variety as that was the preferred grain which the consumer can afford.


All the clothes which were sold were non-branded. Other than shirts and tees all the clothes

were unpacked and people can touch and see the cloth and then buy it. There was no space for

trying out the clothes. So people used to buy clothes which they felt will fit them. In case it

didn’t fit then they used to return the cloth to the shopkeeper next week and instead buy a

bigger size.

Married women used to buy saree and girls preferred buying jeans. The variety and number of

pieces were very limited. According to shopkeepers selling clothes was a very bad business as

they incurred huge losses. People hardly buy products and the margins were so low on these

products that weren’t able to make any profits. One of the shopkeeper told us that he will shut

down this business and instead sell some other products.

Fair and Fair& Glow were again local brands which were competing against Fair & Lovely.

The surprising thing is here people knew the difference between the original product and the

fake ones. They only bought fair & lovely. They were able to differentiate the product based

on the packaging. It was a brilliant strategy which was applied by fair & lovely. They just had

this packaging based product for the rural market which completely differentiated them from

other local players.


In washing powder category again the competition was between a local brand and an

established national brand. “Saaf” and “Ghadi” were the only two washing powders available

for sale. The sales of “Saaf” was higher than “Ghadi”.as per the shopkeeper. “Saaf” being the

local brand was cheaper for the shopkeeper as he was able to make more money on the product

so he pushed this product more as compared to “Ghadi”. Even the number of SKU’s for “Saaf”

was way more than “Ghadi”. People really didn’t care much while making this purchase

decision. For them both of them were equally good.

Milan tea was sold in the market. Again a local brand manufactured and packaged in Jabalpur.

There was no other brand of tea which was sold in the market. It was a small SKU and the price

of this pack was just Rs 5. Customers bought this brand like hot cakes. Tata tea and other big

brands were sold in big shops which was bought by people from higher strata of the society. In

most families only the males had tea. So this small pack used to be enough for a week.


VIP no. 1 was a local brand who was selling these cleaning scrubs. There was only one brand

and 10 pieces available in the market and no one was interested in buying it. People washed

their utensils using their hands.

Below are some other products which were sold in market. This includes jewellery, vegetable,

slippers, spices, utensils, tobacco etc. The thing to notice here is the arrangement of green mirch

and adrak. They arrange it in Rs 2 and Rs 5 form.


We then went to the barber shop to see what kind of products they use. We observed that most

of the brands which were kept outside were local brands. They used branded products only

when someone asked for it. They had kept those products in a shelf. They had a huge amount

of colouring products mostly of the brand Color Mate. They used either Dettol or Axe shaving

cream. The rates were very cheap as compared to city prices.

He told us that people usually come for shaving and haircut. Facial and head massage is usually

done on special occasions like Marriage, Diwali, Pooja etc.


Our last stop was at the Alcohol and Pan Shop. The Alcohol shop had only local made

alcohol which is purchased by color “Safed” and “Narangi”. “Narangi” was more popular as

it had a higher alcohol content and gave a good amount of high to the consumer.

In cigarettes Bistol was the highest brand. Very few people bought cigarettes, most of them

preferred smoking Bidi.


Marketing Strategy

The penetration of mobile in the country has been on an exponential growth and will have over

919 million subscribers by March 2015. This large scale acceptance of the device in rural India

could be because of its ability to provide the user with timely information about subjects as

different from intimation of job opportunity to avenues of higher education for their loved ones.

The is a rise of number of people who use mobile phone to gather information about agricultural

and other purposes along with keeping the influx of migrant population in touch with their

relatives. It also helps in the easy transfer of money in many cases. In short it is able to provide

services in the rural area that is need based and user-centric at prices that now are affordable.

Even in the village Bijouri, most of the male population had the possession of a mobile phone.

It is important to note that this is a skew against the women of the region. As discussed before

most of the farmers use their mobile for entrainment purpose equally if not more for

communicating purposes. They use it when they are out in the fields and when they sit ideal in

the homes.

One peculiar behaviours that we noticed is that most of the farmers would buy a SIM which

would give them a talk time and free internet for INR 30 for a month. If they were to get a new

recharge for internet access they would be required to spend considerably higher amount (close

to rupees 60). This means that people usually discard their SIM and get a new one instead of

getting it recharged. Behaviour of this sorts could be because they primarily switch SIMS

because they want internet access and are network agnostic.

Marketing Opportunity

A state like Madhya Pradesh has three-fourth of its population working for agricultural

pursuits. As we have elaborated on before most of the people in the village did seem to have a

mobile phone though they were basic one. They use to bridge the entertainment needs in their

life. Many of the young people we spoke to had had heard of WhatsApp. This is an opportunity

that can be tapped into.

By using the correct kind of marketing activity the network agnostic farmers have to be

converted into loyalist of the Telecom brand. The Telecom Industry can use this to their

advantage. You have to keep the principle in mind that the rural audience like any customer

wants value for money. Given below is the possible marketing mix

Product

An easy and low cost recharge option that allows internet top up in these areas. A special plan

can be created for the use of the farmers. Since listening to songs are a favourite pastime, free

download to music tailor-cut for them

Pricing

Since the income levels of the farmers is not very high the cost of the recharge has to be less

than Rs 30 which is the cost of the new SIM that they buy. The people in the village are value

conscious.


Place

The place becomes very important in the case of rural distribution. This is because the rural

places are difficult to reach. All the companies that want to tap this market needs to spend

special attention for the expansion of marketing activities. The lack of such a tailored marketing

endeavour is why the companies haven’t made any headway into this territory.

The recharging facilities should be found at the same place the consumer today seek to recharge

his phone. In order to make the facility more noticeable as well as easy to access you can have

a travelling representative that connects moves around the area to boost sales.

Promotion

Since from our research it is found that radio is prominent in the lives of the farmer of the

region it is a good media to advertise about the new service catering them. Also wall painting

are ubiquitous in the village. They are low cost and remain intact for a couple of season. This

makes its use a viable and good option.

In addition to the above mentioned forms of promotion there should be a Rural Marketing

Vehicle that is mobile and can move from one part of the region and both endorse and generate

sales. This method would work to reach those that other media might not be able to target as

the distribution of markets in rural is not homogenous. For this approach to be successful the

sales person to be trained consistently in the ways of village life.

Process

Here we want to make the buying experience of the consumer to be as smooth as possible.

Since technology is in transition in rural areas and is relatively new, the use of the service

should be as less alienating as possible. The pack should have instruction in Hindi. Also the

shops that sell the service packs should be handed out Pictorial poster about the benefit and use

of the service/ plan. This pictorial representation will be able to create more resilience in the

minds of the customer and help the mind create a mind space.

Communication Need Assessment

During our visits to Bijouri we have tried to understand the various problems faced by the

villagers. We believe that with proper communication to the people about most of these issues

could lead to an improvement in their conditions. Few of the key issue as identified by us are

given below.

a) Prevalence of social evil of Casteism

We found that this was a crippling problem faced as a daily reality by many of the people who

live in the village. The barrier of caste are so strongly drawn that the houses of the people were

distributed according to the caste the people belong. There is also the case of one Muslim

family that lives in the peripheries of the village away from all the others. Some of the lower

caste folks that we spoke to also cited cases when there banking requirements were being

hindered due to the division on lines of caste.


b) Problems with Sanitation

Sanitation is another issue that is plaguing the village. Though all the required governmental

communication can be found in the village, the state of most of the public urinals are pathetic.

The ‘Maryaada Abhyaan’ has been implemented by the Madhya Pradesh government to stop

the practise of open defecation in the villages. Nevertheless most of the people in the

community that we spoke to hadn’t had any idea about the proposal of such a scheme even

though most of the information was available as wall painting. The condition is a little better

when it comes to schools were the concept is being talked about whether or not the children

speak to their parents amount this is not clear. All the houses of people of lower caste and strata

didn’t have any toilets in or around them. This is a major concern as open defecation endangers

the life of the entire community as it facilitates the spread of diseases. It also need to be stopped

to preserve the dignity of women and prioritize their health at home and at school.

c) Dropouts from school

As per the information given to us by the primary and secondary well teachers in Bijouri the

number of students who join the school at a younger age is fairly high. Most of the households

send their children even girls to the school. But as the classes progress more and more students

dropout and the gender ratio skews towards the male. The problem is the lack of interest by the

students according to teachers. The student don’t seem to be interest in making any progress.

Even when the teachers approach the parent they too are not very keen. One important reason

for this to happen is that the children and their guardians do not know what to do with the

education they get. The lack of direction makes the children under appreciate the value of the

education.

Lack of Sanitation

According to us the most important issue that plagues the village is that of open defecation and

lack of toilets. This becomes very important for bring about gender equality as it is mostly the

women who have to face the indignity of not having a toilet at home.

Even in public places where toilet are provided it is the women who find it difficulty. As seen

from the pictures below the men’s latrine has a commode but it is conspicuously missing from

the female’s side. The fact that the toilets are not clean and littered with waste suggest that

nobody really uses the loos.


This sums up the problem faced by the government in trying to implement any scheme. It is

not enough to that the government builds the infrastructure it also becomes important that the

villages understand and become aware of the problems that they can face. The government

wants to provide quality sanitary facilities to all the population but unless the behavioural

change is not brought about by effective communication the target of Nirmal Bharat Yojna

cannot be realised. This endeavour will also protect the children form diseases that are now

prolific due open defecation. It order to bring about change in the mind-set of the villagers it is

important that the women and children are given agency.


Communication Strategy

To break this habit you must first understand the behaviour and the reason why they are

reluctant to bring about any kind of change even when incentivised. One of the major reason

is the fact that the concept of latrine in or around the house to them is very alien. The

government officials we spoke to pointed out that the villages didn’t see the toilets near their

home to be sanitary. Also the fact that they were so used to defecating in the open the close

confines of a toilet was something new to them. This coupled with the general lack of

awareness about the benefits of having a latrine at home are the major causes that we were able

to gather from our visit to the village.

Even though the children were being told about it in the schools and the schools putting up

communication near the toilets, the children were not aware as they should be. We think this

could be because it wasn’t entertaining enough to catch their attention

To tackle the issue we sought to reach out to the women and the children as they can be

effective harbingers of change. The change is not brought about by normal information

dissemination but through communication that targets behavioural and social change.


The diagram shows the step by step implementation plan to involve the villagers and to get

them to continue to use toilets. The awareness building will be done for the children and

women of the community.

OBJECTIVE METHOD Women Children Men Comment

Reach the village 1. Wall painting x x x

2. Mails to opinion

leader of the area x x x

Generate Interest 1. Puppetry x In schools

2. Drama with

message x x x In public spaces

Create Awareness

1. Talking at

Aanganwadis x

2. Going door to

door and educating

women x

3. Use of radio

shows x x

As radio is

preferred in the

village

4. Stalls on days of

important festival x x x

5. Drama and

Nukad natak x x x

Addressing issue

of women safety

6. Creative pictorial

sessions x

To get them to

understand the

concept with ease

7. Get health

officail to visit and

do checkup x x x

This will ensure

that a credible face

is given to the

campaign and

people will listen

in.


The table defines the different kind of activities that we will carry on during the campaign in

all the 4 stages. The activities have been divided into

Reaching the village

Generating interest

Creating Awareness

The third activity is the most important and needs the facilitators to create awareness that

addresses all the concept that stop the people from toilet.

The last step of the process is the one that needs you to sustain the behaviour change through

continuing engagement with the people do that they are aware of the ways to maintain their

sanitary facility

Designs to Bring Change

One of the additional steps mentioned talks about using the designs that will get people to use

toilets more often. This borrows principle from a discipline called behavioural architecture.

This stream of thought believe that most of our behaviour is control by our non-conscious mind.

Any true change in the behaviour has to come when an individual’s non-conscious mind reacts

to a stimulus. One way of doing this is by using designs changes in the structure of the toilet

as an example. Some of the ways behavioural architecture can be used as a form on non-verbal

communication are:

1) Putting mirrors and stands in the toilet, so that the household can personalize and so get over

their feeling of alienation. Providing them with paints so that the doors can be painted

2) Make sure that the toilet have open slits so that the enough sunlight trickles in. Wider slits

near the roof will make them feel less claustrophobic. In some way mimic the fields they are

used to

3) Use posters which are repeated three times on a wall at regular interval as it increases the

stickiness. This is called the ‘power of 3’ principle.

Conclusion

Our immersion into the rural area of Bijouri Village, Madhya Pradesh opened up a fresh

perspective to life. The life and people in rural India have a flare of their own and the research

that we conducted help us understand the distribution and marketing difficulties that our

country faces. The needs, wants and issues of our rural counterpart will now be easier for us to

picturise and will help us make decision that are far less ignorant. On the most fundamental

level we now realise the development issues that this single and every other village faces. We

hope to make changes that would trickle down to the many smiling faces that greeted us during

our journey.

Date post:	27-Jan-2016
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Rural Project on Consumer Behavior and Category Perception

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