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TRANSCRIPT
Women Consumers in Rural India:
Who They Really Are—and How to Win Their Business
Masters of Rural Markets Series
Women living in rural India have for long been ignored by companies seeking to capitalize on growth opportunities presented by India’s hinterlands. These consumers today represent a substantial market for brands, and ignoring them could cause companies to miss out on a significant opportunity. Why? The buying preferences of India’s female rural consumers are changing fast, and their decision-making power and independence is increasing. These women are eager to purchase branded, high-quality products, use mobile devices to stay in touch with family and friends and even research brands. They are no longer willing to accept inferior products simply because such offerings cost less than higher-quality ones.
Our research on women consumers in India uncovers surprising realities about what they want and why. To capture share of mind and wallet of these consumers, companies must treat this segment uniquely and offer rural Indian women a tailor-made proposition. Companies will have to differentiate themselves clearly through products and services to build trust and win rural female consumers’ hearts. Today, we see very few companies meeting these imperatives.
We developed this report to address this issue. The fourth in our Masters of Rural Markets series, the report draws on extensive conversations with a wide range of female consumers in India’s hinterlands, macro-trend analysis and discussions with business leaders across an array of industries to illuminate the aspirations, purchasing behavior and “pain points” of female rural consumers in India.
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Contents Foreword 4
Executive Summary 6
1. Getting to Know India’s Rural Women Consumers 9
2. Uncovering New Realities about India’s Female Rural Consumers 13
3. Building Trust Throughout Rural Women’s Purchase Journey 16
4. Charting a Path Forward 33
Consumer Stories 34
Appendix 36
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ForewordIn the recent past, marketers have recognized and acted on India’s rural opportunity. Early movers have benefited from the insights they gathered on rural consumers’ behavior and preferences, using those insights to stay one step ahead of the competition. Yet others have struggled to navigate the scale and diversity of this market—a fact highlighted in our previous report—“From Touch Points to Trust Points”—the third in our Masters of Rural Market Series.
This report, the next in the series, seeks to highlight the opportunity companies can gain by segmenting India’s rural market and treating each segment uniquely. Specifically, we recommend that brands and companies pay attention to the rural woman consumer.
Our extensive research clearly shows that the rural woman consumer, much like her urban counterpart, has grown increasingly independent in her views. She makes a wider range of decisions, is very well connected socially and can discern superior and sub-standard offerings. Indeed, she has become increasingly brand conscious. She has also emerged as a strong brand advocate in her community—a fact that no company with aspirations to win in the rural market can afford to ignore.
We are excited about these developments in the India growth story, and I hope that the insights we share in this report will help you accelerate the pace of your journey to greater success in rural India.
Sanjay Dawar Managing Director and India Lead – Accenture Strategy
Our continuing focus on rural India and reading of macro-economic shifts occurring in India lead us to continue to believe in the rural growth opportunity. This view is supported by findings from extensive conversations on this topic I have had with business leaders and rural marketers.
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Executive SummaryIn this report, we have dived deeply into the mind of the rural woman consumer through extensive quantitative and qualitative research across rural India. And our findings have been affirmed by those of early movers and leading companies in rural markets. The realities we have uncovered and the resulting insights are invaluable for companies seeking to emerge as rural winners.
Getting to know India’s rural women consumers
Women in rural India are changing in the way they consider products, compare brands, make purchase decisions and advocate brand considerations to those in their community. They are also breaking away from stereotypes and unwilling to accept substandard offerings that have limited functionality.
A host of factors have contributed to this transition. For example, there is a clear evidence of literacy rates being on the upswing among rural women, and increased literacy will drive greater awareness, independence and affordability. Moreover, the number of working rural women is rising every year, along with income levels. Better road connectivity has brought more shopping choices and opportunities closer to these consumers. And the mobile revolution has brought the world into their hands.
Uncovering new realities about India’s female rural consumers
Our conversations with rural women across diverse age groups in 8 Indian states have uncovered interesting realities about these consumers. For example, women have more influence on purchase decisions than many executives have assumed. They’re surprisingly willing to travel outside their home town to make purchases. They participate in final purchase decisions for high-value goods, not just low-value impulse items, and they’re more willing to make purchases independently than many companies expected.
Building trust throughout rural women’s purchase journey
Building trust is the cornerstone of winning with the woman consumer in rural India. Companies can discover several opportunities to connect with these consumers at every stage of their purchase journey—by understanding what they view as important and relevant. Such understanding is critical right from the need-recognition stage to the final purchase and resulting advocacy stages:
Staying relevant in the need-discovery stageFor most rural women, need recognition is driven by practical concerns such as product breakdown or obsolescence. Therefore, companies must understand female consumers’ basic functionality requirements and promote brand awareness through channels of trust such as local retailers and community groups. Doing so will help ensure that a brand stays top of mind when a replacement or purchase opportunity is triggered in the mind of the rural consumer.
Rural India is witnessing a significant transition in the consumer landscape: the emergence of female consumers as a distinct and attractive segment with clearly expressed needs and requirements. Companies ignoring this shift risk losing out if they treat all rural Indian consumers alike. Building trust with the increasingly independent and aspirational woman consumer must become a top priority for marketers wishing to capitalize on this opportunity.
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Companies that have successfully generated trials of their products and have increased market share in rural India have leveraged trust-building channels by integrating such key opinion makers into their supply chain and brand promotion mechanism. Examples include socio-commercial models such as woman entrepreneurship networks.
Providing clarity and reassurance during evaluation and purchaseRural Indian women focus sharply on product functionality first and then value-added features as they evaluate products. And they believe that a branded product must deliver on both these counts. During the consideration stage, such consumers are not necessarily always looking for the cheapest product; rather, they want the one that offers the expected functionality at the best price.
Closer to the time of purchase, rural women rely on their social circle to validate their decisions. Once they are at the point of purchase, they may change their mind if influenced by a retail sales representative or local retailer.
Therefore, companies must simplify the purchase experience by guiding rural women consumers through the “functionality + price” combination of the available product offerings, highlighting the presence of an affordable range of options and demonstrating the product promise if possible. An investment in recruiting and training the right point-of-sale (POS) representatives to provide such guidance will go a long way toward enhancing brand share.
Ensuring reliability after saleRural female consumers expect products to be reliable and to uphold a brand’s promise. If a product malfunctions, they will count on the company to swiftly and effectively address the problem. Companies that fail to build an agile and efficient after-sales network risk losing these consumers’ trust and seeing their relationship erode. This can be fatal in an environment where relationships and success stories are built on trust.
Charting a path forward
To win and keep rural female consumers in India throughout the entire purchase journey, companies must excel on four fronts:
Offering reliable products and services—by understanding the product features that rural women value, ensuring that products hold up to consumers’ use of them, extending the service model into key rural markets and fostering brand advocacy among satisfied customers
Emphasizing value for money— by understanding affordability’s role in consumers’ selection of products and helping women consumers understand and compare features and benefits as well as prices of different offerings
Building networks founded on trust—including integrating their brand into local rural communities, helping rural women realize their aspirations, understanding these customers’ needs and using mobile technology to reach and communicate with rural female consumers
Engaging with key retail partners— by understanding who exerts the most influence on what kinds of purchases, identifying the best ways to engage with and incentivize channel partners and helping retailers create compelling purchase experiences for women consumers
Understanding and serving the needs and aspirations of rural women in India as they transition through each stage of the purchase journey takes time, effort and an upfront investment in enabling tools and technologies. Forward-thinking executives will roll up their sleeves and delve into this work. In particular, they won’t shy away from asking themselves important questions, such as whether their company has made the rural female consumer market enough of a strategic priority, how differentiated their go-to-market model is for this market and whether they have a roadmap to guide evolution of their offerings so their brand remains relevant to rural female consumers in India.
Business leaders who commit to this effort will vastly improve their odds of moving ahead of rivals in the race to win and retain rural women’s business.
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1. Getting to Know India’s Rural Women ConsumersIn our report “From Touchpoints to Trustpoints: Winning over India’s Aspiring Rural Consumers” (the third report in Accenture’s Masters of Rural Markets series), we drew on extensive research to describe how the buying preferences of people living in India’s hinterlands are changing. We identified the major growth opportunities these changes are presenting for companies, and offered ideas for how businesses could capitalize on such opportunities. (See “About Our Research.”)
Our research also revealed much about female consumers in rural India, including how these buyers are changing and what the changes may mean for companies seeking to identify and capture additional growth opportunities in rural India. We found that a number of forces are indeed driving a transformation in the consumption attitudes and behaviors of women living in these regions.
For one thing, the literacy rate among rural women in India is rising; it jumped from just over 46 percent in 2001 to nearly 59 percent in 2011, increasing more quickly than it has for India’s urban female population. (See Figure 1.) Meanwhile, more rural women than urban women in India hold paying jobs (35 percent in rural versus 21 percent in the cities), and their income levels are rising. In fact, female casual laborers
saw their wages double from 2005 to 2010. In addition, women in rural India appear to be taking somewhat greater advantage of social security schemes. (Enrollment data for three such schemes shows the number of rural female participants at 1.98 crore; the
number for urban female participants is 1.93 crore.) These numbers suggest that rural women may be somewhat more concerned about their own and their families’ security than their urban counterparts are.1
Literacy %
1961 1971 1981 1991 2001 2011
Rural Male
Rural Female
Urban Female
44
37
1117
21
30
46
59
4348
56
71
79
5358
64
7380
Double incomefamilies
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%No kids,
double incomeShare of
working women
RuralUrban
26%
35%
21%
35%
22%
42%
Figure 1: Rural women are catching up to their urban counterparts in terms of literacy
Source: Census 2011 Provisional Population Totals
Source: Census 2011 Provisional Population Totals
Figure 2: There are more working women in rural India than in urban India
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These trends suggest that women in rural India are more informed than ever about the opportunities open to them, and are more economically empowered to seize advantage of them. The upshot? Companies eyeing rural India as a source of new growth have a whole new customer segment to consider. What’s more, increased mobility and connectivity, thanks to penetration of the Internet into India’s hinterlands, point to potentially attractive new channels through which companies can market and sell to rural female consumers. Consider these statistics, drawn from the Internet & Mobile Association (IAMAI) of India:
• Since June 2014, the number of Internet users in rural India jumped by 33 percent, putting the total number of users at roughly 77 million. (Urban Indian users number about 180 million.)
• As many as 27 million consumers in India’s rural regions have access to mobile Internet. Indeed, 70 percent of active Internet users in rural India also access the Internet using mobile phones, and 32 percent of them engage with it only through mobile devices. For 40 percent of rural Internet users, community service centers and cyber cafes constitute their main points of access to the Internet.
• As of April 2015, of the 143 million Indians who use social media, 25 million live in rural regions of the country.
The number of rural women in India who have access to the Internet may be set to rise, thanks to initiatives like Internet Saathi, a partnership between Tata Trust and Google.2 The program aims to provide basic training on the usage and benefits of the Internet for women through specially designed Internet cycle carts that will visit villages to provide easy access to women. The goal is to reach 500,000 women in 4,500 villages in 18 months. Intel, a partner of Google India’s Helping Women Get Online (HWGO) initiative, will also be involved. The Internet carts will visit each village for several days each week during a four- to six-month period.
These and other similar efforts could mean good news for companies seeking to capture a greater share of rural women’s wallets in India.
”On the Internet, we can get all the information about the product. Friends will give us an overall review of the product which is also based on their experience of the product, but if we want to know more about the product, we need to use the Internet. I trust the Internet as a more reliable source of information.”—woman from Madhya Pradesh
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Our study has confirmed that women consumers too are undergoing the three fundamental life shifts that we highlighted in our earlier report:
• Independent and aspirational. They are driven by a deep desire to provide their children with a better future through education and healthcare. Many plan to spend more on education and healthcare for their family in the coming year. They are also savvier about brands, and are trading up to get higher-quality product features and to boost their social image. In addition, women in India’s countryside are experimenting with new product and service categories, including purchasing branded products because they see such offerings as trustworthy and reliable. All of this is being driven by a more educated woman consumer who is increasingly working and earning for herself.
• Networked. Women in rural India are better connected in both the physical and digital sense. Many proactively seek information about companies and their offerings through multiple channels, including digital. They share more information with an increasing number of peers. And they travel to nearby cities to make relatively large purchases.
• Discerning. Women in India’s rural regions have become “street-smart” about common retailer schemes aimed at winning their business. Indeed, they don’t allow advertisements to exert undue influence on their final purchase decisions. What’s more, they view value through a broader lens, weighing offerings’ attributes in addition to price, such as whether a product or service will meet a unique need and whether it will prove durable.
These findings suggest that companies would benefit by paying attention to India’s female rural consumers’ hopes and dreams and crafting the right strategies for fulfilling them. Comments from some of our female study participants reveal much about what these women have in mind. For example, a woman in Harohalli, Karnataka, said to us,
“I kept telling [my husband] that others are buying vehicles and that we have to buy a car and also move up.”
A woman from Himatnagar, Gujarat, explained,
“We have lived our life, but our children should live a better life. They should have all kind of facilities in their life like [their] own house and all electrical equipment.”
But merely appreciating rural Indian women’s aspirations isn’t enough. To devise offerings and marketing campaigns that will appeal to these consumers, companies need to understand—and then let go of—all-too-common myths about female consumers in India’s hinterlands.
“We earlier used Kesh Nihar soap, now we are using shampoo. We earlier used normal hair oil; now we use Shanti Amla hair oil. We used to use Colgate powder; now we use toothpaste.” —woman from Gujarat
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2. Uncovering New Realities about India’s Female Rural Consumers As part of our research project, we conducted in-depth interviews with women from villages and rural towns across 10 Indian states, asking them questions about their consumption-related beliefs and behaviors. What we heard helped us identify many significant and hitherto poorly understood truths about these consumers.
Who has influence on purchase decisions?
What sales channels do rural women use to make their purchases?
What types of goods do rural women buy?
AssumptionWomen in India’s rural regions have no influence on purchase decisions. It is men who make most decisions.
RealityWomen can exert significant influence on purchase decisions. Indeed, a female consumer from Gujarat told us,
“My husband [said] ‘I don’t know about the color, so you come along [to buy a refrigerator].’ So then I went along.”
A woman from West Bengal said,
“If I want something today, [my husband won’t] come with me [until] tomorrow or after two days. So it is better if I go and buy my own stuff.”
A female consumer from Karnataka explained,
“Before, we used to ask our husbands to buy it for us. But now, because we are earning, we will take the independent decision of buying anything if we like.”
AssumptionWomen seldom travel to the point of purchase to buy and bring home products. It is the “man of the house” who performs such tasks.
RealityAs much as 84 percent of women travel outside their own village or town to a nearby city or district headquarters to
make purchases and bring the products home. When asked about this, a woman from West Bengal explained to us,
“We go to Big Bazaar in Kolkata, because we like the experience; everything is available under one roof. Even though we get most brands at the nearest town, buying all under one roof is so much more convenient and fun.”
AssumptionMost of rural Indian women’s purchases consist of low-value goods.
RealityFemale consumers in rural India buy high-value goods as well. As a woman from Gujarat put it,
“We will buy whichever [mobile phone] model we like. Even though our [husbands say] that this model is good, still we buy the mobile which we like.”
A female focus-group participant from Karnataka said,
“I asked my sister-in-law. She has all these appliances and uses Samsung and other brands. She also [said] it was good, and I went for it.”
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With whom do rural women shop?
The landscape is changing—fast
AssumptionRural Indian women rarely make purchases alone.
RealityIn our study, 37 percent of the women we interviewed make purchases on their own, and this number goes up to 40 percent for working women. As one interviewee from Karnataka pointed out.
“If we go back five or ten years, there was no freedom for girls. But now that has changed and benefited us, because of the women’s organizations that are there. Because we are getting money... we can do small things like [purchasing].”
Many signs indicate that female consumers in rural India are defying common assumptions. Yet our survey of executives from companies in an array of industries suggests that few enterprises are actively tailoring their strategies to these women. Yes, most companies have moved to capture opportunities presented by changes in India’s rural consumption landscape in general. And the most progressive of them have pulled strongly ahead of rivals in terms of their market presence by refining their go-to-market models and winning rural communities’ trust.
However, rural India —including attitudes and behaviors among women consumers—is still changing, and it’s doing so quickly. In fact, it’s catching up with urban India on a number of fronts, including female consumers’ income levels, their awareness of different forms of value and their aspirations for a better life. Companies that don’t continually rethink their offerings to appeal to India’s female rural consumers will miss out on an immense opportunity. To capitalize on the collective growth opportunities presented by these women, companies will need to understand the “purchase journey” that such consumers travel—and master key imperatives associated with each stage of that journey.
“We keep changing soap. During [the] summer season, I use the soap which has lemon [scent] in it. I change oil as per season.”—woman from Uttar Pradesh
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3. Building Trust Throughout Rural Women’s Purchase JourneyLike all consumers, women in rural India transition through a number of stages in their “purchase journey”. (See Figure 3.)
First, they recognize that they have a need. Second, they become aware of the different options, in terms of products and services, available for satisfying that need. Third, they consider a subset of the total array of offerings available, by mulling over various attributes and features. Fourth, they evaluate the options in their “consideration set” to determine which one to purchase. Fifth, they select what seems to be the best option for them, and they buy it. Sixth, they use the product or service they have bought. And seventh, if they’ve had a satisfying experience with the offering, they spread positive word of mouth about it—spreading negative word of mouth if they’re dissatisfied with some aspect of their purchase.
But while women in rural India might progress along the same path as any other consumer, how they experience each step is shaped by different forces. Below, we examine these differences more closely and consider their implications for companies seeking to win these consumers’ business.
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Figure 3: Female consumers in rural India travel a “purchase journey”
3. Consideration 4. Validation/Evaluation
7. Advocacy
6. Use/Experience
2. Awareness1. Need Recognition
5. Purchase
1 2 3
4
57
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• Deepen understanding of buyer value of rural women
• Understand purchase triggers & influencers
• Build innovative campaigns to tap into the replacement market
• Right reach through right channel mix
• O�er right product mix & SKU sizes
• Run impactful POS campaigns basis identified consumer buyer values
• Build trust & loyalty through unique shopper experience
• Understand product performance expectations and deliver on the same
• Di�erentiate through strong after sales service
• Deliver on the brand promise to inspire trust & loyalty
• Seek customer feedback proactively
• Set-up agile customer grievance redressal systems
• Nurture advocates; leverage word of mouth
• Build strong brand communication through word of mouth, customer re�errals, and brand advocacy
• Identify local influencers and incentivize them to build a robust awareness channel
• Rural women consumers need a healthy mix of Brand, Features, & Looks at a good Price
• Tailor value proposition by deep understanding of the rural women consumers
• Engage the relevant set of influencers—namely the social circle and the local retailer; explore beyond traditional ones
• Invest to make retailers as informed advisors
Validation/Evaluation
Use/Experience
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Recognizing a needFor many female buyers in rural India —working and nonworking alike—practical concerns powerfully trigger recognition that they have a need. For instance, in answer to a survey question about what causes them to realize they have a need, 46 percent of our female respondents cited obsolescence of a product they’re currently using (that is, the product is aging or is no longer functional). Additional triggers included a sense of necessity and advice given by family or friends about a product or brand. (See Figure 4.)
Implications for companiesThese findings suggest that companies can benefit by designing marketing campaigns that tap into the opportunity to replace female consumers’ existing goods. Companies also need to deepen their understanding of what female rural consumers want and value. Doing so requires an investment in data collection and analysis, carefully developed insights into subsegments of the female demographic in rural India (such as women from different socioeconomic groups) and sometimes even on-the-ground observation.
For instance, through a chance visit by executives to Uttar Pradesh’s Gorakhpur area, Indian FMCG company Dabur realized that rural women are increasingly interested in making facial bleaching part of their skin-care regime, with an eye toward emulating their urban counterparts. To increase its footprint in rural India, Dabur introduced its Fem facial-bleach brand to these customers, including smaller packaging options for consumers and diverse packaging sizes for use in beauty parlors. Sales of the product have taken off.3
Companies may also have to find creative ways to glean such insights, such as investing in new market research capabilities and data-visualization tools, tapping into local social networks and partnering with agencies that possess usable customer data. These moves can help companies gain the market insights they need to craft offerings and market campaigns that are relevant for and appealing to women in India’s hinterlands.
In addition, many companies are recognizing that they can gain a greater share of rural female consumers’ wallets if they empower such consumers; for instance by promoting entrepreneurial spirit and skills among rural women. Empowered women who build successful enterprises by partnering with companies can then strongly influence other women’s perceptions of a company and its brands.
Figure 4: Product obsolescence powerfully triggers need recognition
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Non-Working WomanWorking Woman
46%
41%
19%
31%27%
32%
Old brand/product getting old/stopped working i.e.
replace product/item
Necessity/need as per requirement
Advice given by family/friends w.r.t to a product/brand
Vodafone’s Mobile App for Rural Women Entrepreneurs
The Vodafone Foundation in India recognizes the power of mobile technology to address some of India’s most pressing challenges. Empowering women to strengthen their business skills, improve digital literacy and raise their economic status is a key area of the Foundation’s focus. In this regard, the Vodafone Foundation in collaboration with the Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) developed a unique mobile-based MIS application for rural women entrepreneurs of the Rural Distribution Network (RUDI).
Currently operational across Gujarat, this solution called RUDI Sandesha Vyavhar (RSV) enables rural women entrepreneurs – known as RUDIbens, to sell farm produce more effectively within their local communities and generate more business opportunities. Using the app, they are able to place orders in real time, record sales and maintain sales reports and customer ledgers.
This solution has benefited over 3500 women helping them report significant increases in their monthly sales and incomes. In some cases, women have nearly quadrupled their personal incomes. In addition, RUDI has experienced a 7% increase in their annual turnover.4
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“Like other girls of my age, I too wanted to look pretty while I was growing up. That is when I started using face wash.”—woman from West Bengal
“I started using room fresheners during functions and the monsoons. I have always wanted my room to smell nice and fresh.”—woman from Gujarat
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Becoming aware of options for satisfying the need How do rural women in India gain awareness of the various offerings available that may satisfy a need they’ve identified? When we asked them this question in the survey, “word of mouth” came out as the top answer. Next in line came village “mom and pop” shops, and then came “retail outlet in the nearest town.” (See Figure 5.)
Interviews shed further light on this: One woman from Karnataka told us,
“I asked my friends and then decided to buy one. I wanted something that lasts longer.”
Another from West Bengal said,
“We discuss with friends and come to know from them. They tell us sometimes which products are better.”
Figure 5: A large percentage of women gather information through word of mouth
Working Non-Working
53%
46%Word of Mouth
34%
37%
Village Local mom and pop shops
19%
20%
Retail outlet in the nearest town
“More than the ad, I take the opinion from the people who have used it.”—woman from Karnataka
“My cousin’s sister used Fem bleach and said it is good, so I also bought it. My sister-in-law was using Dabur Red toothpaste and she said that it cures your toothache and it tastes good, so we also started using it.”—woman from Gujarat
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Implications for companiesClearly, women in rural India rely heavily on the opinion of others they trust. Companies seeking to enhance these consumers’ awareness of their offerings and ultimately win their business would do well to build a go-to-market model that leverages influencers in local communities, such as women’s offline social networks and rural retail partners.
Take Shell. The fuel company partnered with marketing communications firm DDB Mudra to create an ad featuring Khidki Amma, “the village gossip.” Khidki Amma helps rural women become aware of the perils of using wood and cow dung as fuel for cooking in their homes. The resulting indoor air pollution is particularly dangerous for people with asthma and eye diseases. One simple way to combat these dangers is to open a window to let smoke out and to
leave children outside while meals are being cooked. In the ads, Khidki Amma stands outside windows and chats with neighbors as they cook. The effort has doubled rural women’s awareness of indoor air pollution, and many have begun opening windows as they cook.5
Cause-related marketing can also help companies boost female consumers’ awareness of a business’s social values and its brands. Dabur, for instance, has launched a social media campaign aimed at helping to build toilets in rural India. The company cites not only the overall poor sanitation in India’s rural areas but also the challenges that most directly affect women. Such challenges include loss of dignity and risk of rape and exposure to water-borne diseases as they walk long distances seeking places to relieve themselves in private. The campaign includes a web site featuring stories of the hardships that women
face owing to lack of toilets and invites visitors to help out with tasks related to building toilets. As people contribute assistance, Dabur will contribute money from sales of its Sanifresh toilet-bowl cleaning product.6
Companies also need to carefully weigh their choices about which media to use to foster rural women’s awareness of their offerings. For instance, marketing of new products or categories that have achieved relatively limited penetration in rural markets and that thus require customer education is best done through below-the-line (BTL) activities. Examples include- demonstrating such products in the village haat (market) or at a mela (fair or festival), which optimizes reach by creating more face-to-face interactions with consumers.
Hindustan Unilever Limited: The Perfect Village Campaign
Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) is an example of a company that has excelled at choosing the best settings to drive awareness of its brands among rural women. A leading player in the Indian fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) market, HUL boasts a strong rural distribution network. For most FMCG categories, rural growth has been outpacing urban growth in recent years. However, operating in India’s hinterlands presents unique complexities. For example, in the countryside, the top 17 percent of villages (totaling about 110,000) in terms of personal income contribute 60 percent of the rural market’s wealth, while the bottom 34 percent of villages (about 220,000) collectively contribute only 10 percent.
HUL executives knew that adopting a one-size-fits-all approach for going to market would be unwise. Accordingly,
they designed a strategy to expand sales, extend HUL’s distribution network and strengthen awareness of its brands in specific rural markets. The strategy is embodied in HUL’s Perfect Village campaign targeting the top 8,000+ villages in India’s countryside in terms of economic potential. The campaign aims to grow markets for categories still nascent in terms of penetration in those villages, such as hand wash, hair conditioner, face wash, body lotion and fabric softeners.
The hallmark of the Perfect Village campaign is a one-day, promoter-led experiential marketing program coupled with efforts to engage key influencers in local communities—individuals whose opinions female residents respect most. For example, in the presence of teachers, the promoters demonstrate an interactive skit to children in the village schools communicating the importance of hand washing and night-time teeth brushing. HUL promoters
also demonstrate the benefits of hair conditioners, fabric softeners and other products to groups of women gathered in homes or community centers. Local retailers and beauty-parlor owners are educated about the benefits of these new product categories so they can further advise the consumers they interact with.
This campaign is conducted twice a year, before and after the monsoons, at each targeted village. It has enabled HUL to initiate contact with millions of new potential customers as well as thousands of local store and beauty-parlor owners, who are powerful influencers. Sales in these emerging categories in the targeted villages have been almost twice the sales of these same categories in villages not covered by the program.7
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Forming a “consideration set”Women in rural India, working and nonworking alike, are more discerning than many outsiders might assume. Of course, given their practical orientation, price matters when it comes to narrowing down available offerings they’re aware of that could satisfy an identified need. When asked which product or service attributes they give the most weight to while making a purchase decision, 34 percent of the working women in our survey and 35 percent of the nonworking women cited price. But they also carefully consider other attributes—including a brand’s image, functional aspects of an offering (such as TV picture clarity, refrigerator storage space or laundry-detergent effectiveness) and products’ aesthetic qualities. (See Figure 6.)
Implications for companiesCompanies can sweeten the odds of getting their offerings into female rural consumers’ consideration set by ensuring reliable functionality and good value (in terms of product features and benefits) for the price consumers pay. They can also benefit from building brand strength by emphasizing the value and desirable attributes offered by their brands.
It is critical at this stage of the purchase journey to tailor value propositions to meet female rural consumers’ unique needs. Defining the right value proposition is not as simple as stripping out costs or features to make a cheaper product. Given rural female consumers’ evolving requirements and aspirations, companies must look beyond pricing as a long-term source of differentiation
and clarify the product’s emotional and functional benefits. Such benefits include value for money, quality and the opportunity for female consumers to elevate their social standing or gain important benefits such as increased convenience, comfort or freed-up time.
Demonstrating the benefits that a product delivers can further help companies ensure that their offering survives the transition from female
consumers’ awareness sets to their consideration sets. For these women, “seeing is believing,” and this is particularly important for high-value, high-involvement product categories. With such categories, showing potential buyers tangible results can help reassure them that they are making a good choice. Experiential marketing campaigns that let consumers “touch and feel” the product as well as experience the associated benefits firsthand can go a long way.
Figure 6: Rural women consider attributes in addition to price
Brand Image
Functional Aspects
Aesthetics/Appearance
Price
23%
23%
34%
20%
23%
22%
20%
Working Woman Non-Working Woman
35%
“I went to a showroom to buy a Samsung mobile. There were five models. The shopkeeper explained the features of each model and told about the ongoing offers – display screen replacement warranty for I year, free 8GB memory card, water resistant.” —woman from Maharashtra
Dabur’s Experiential Marketing for Hair Oil
Dabur has achieved success with this stage of the purchase journey with skillful deployment of experiential marketing campaigns. Such campaigns have helped the company deepen penetration of its Amla hair oil product in rural regions of India.
One campaign consists of a rural beauty pageant. A beautician travels to target villages and announces the pageant, giving hair-care tips and hands out sachets of Amla to girls who will take part. The pageant is then conducted in village schools. In the first round, a
hair expert assesses each contestant’s hair quality and styling. In the second round, the girls have the opportunity to demonstrate their competencies and manners. The winner is decided by the hair expert, village elders, school teachers and village social workers. She then has an opportunity to become part of the distribution network for the brand in her village. As a result, she can begin earning income.8
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Evaluating offerings in the consideration setOnce women have narrowed down all available options to a consideration set, they assess the choices in that set to determine which offering they will purchase. Our research shows that female consumers in rural India are strongly brand conscious, and that this powerfully influences their purchase decisions. To the survey question “Do you buy branded products?” 69 percent of all the women in our study—working and nonworking—answered “Yes.”
Their responses to additional questions shed light on the importance of this brand awareness. When asked what their reasons were for buying branded products, 60 percent of the working women in our study and 67 percent of the nonworking women cited trustworthiness and reliability. (See Figure 7.) Focus-group discussions uncovered nuances related to these qualities. For instance, one woman from Gujarat told us,
“Warranty is important. Relatives told me that one to two years [of] warranty is given by Videocon for their TVs.”
And a focus-group participant from West Bengal said,
“Sony’s [after-sales] service is very good. My parents have got Sony, so if there is a problem and I call them up, within twenty-four hours they give service and go.”
Figure 7: Rural women buy branded products for their trustworthiness and reliability
Women (Working) Women (Housewife)
60%
67%They are trustworthy and reliable
22%
10%
They have much better features than unbranded/local products
3%
8%
They have much better aesthetics/design compared to other products
6%
7%
They have long warranty/after sales support
6%
5%
They have di�erent types of models available
“Those who come to sell different shampoos, like Pantene, Sunsilk, etc. do a test and show us. They make foam in two bowls and show us which one has jhaag (foam) and which one doesn’t. Company officials come to our villages to conduct campaigns.”—woman from West Bengal
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Implications for companiesThe lesson here for companies is to focus on not only delivering superior product functionality and after-sales service but also communicating those brand strengths to potential customers. To do so, executives need to recognize that rural women in India have high expectations of branded products. Companies cannot assume that these consumers will be willing to accept substandard offerings.
Businesses must also generate positive word of mouth about their offerings, in the right ways. This effort starts with identifying the most relevant influencers for a particular product or service for the targeted female rural consumers and then establishing a dialogue with those influencers to inspire trust and loyalty. In identifying the right influencers, companies must remember that the nature of influence is changing in rural India. In some places, traditional influencers (such as the heads of villages) are giving way to newer influencers, such as family members, educated youth, friends and individuals with specific expertise (like electricians who can advise women on consumer durables).
During the evaluation stage of the purchase journey, women in rural regions also look to the opinions of trusted others while deciding what to buy. Yet whose opinion they rely on most depends on whether they’re making a planned purchase (high value and high involvement) or an impulse buy (low value and low involvement). For example, while word of mouth from friends and acquaintances matters with both planned and impulse purchases, opinions of spouses carry more weight when women are making planned purchases. And village shop owners’ opinions have more influence on impulse purchases.
One female focus-group participant from Punjab told us,
“When we go to buy makeup products, the salesgirls there show the new brands which have come or recommend other products which are good for hair or skin.”
These findings suggest that companies need to build trust with not only potential consumers but also their social circles, as well as engage with local retailers to set up point-of-sale initiatives such as product demonstrations.
Emami’s Experiential Marketing Strategies
FMCG firm Emami is tapping more states —Gujarat, Chattisgarh and Karnataka—to expand sales in India’s rural markets, beyond its established markets in the rural parts of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal. Around 40 percent of its total revenues come from the country’s semi-urban and rural markets. To support its expansion plans, Emami has designed experiential marketing campaigns. Through its van promotions, for example, it displays products, and it broadcasts television ads that educate consumers on the application and strengths of the products.
For some offerings, such as Emami’s Boroplus antiseptic cream, the company has partnered with BIG CBS channel in melas in Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar on a talent-hunt program called “Mele ka BIG star” (“Village roadshow star”). Through this program, rural women gather at melas to demonstrate multiple talents. Televised and telecast live by BIG CBS, the program has attracted numerous rural women who are eager to showcase their skills, and has captured widespread attention from viewers.
Melas provide occasions where women emerge from their homes and gather with other women, making it easier for companies to interact with them in groups and educate them on product and service offerings.9
Godrej’s SALONI Program
Godrej Consumer Products Limited (GCPL) launched a program called SALONI, which trains young girls and housewives in beauty and hair care. More than 12,000 candidates graduated from the program in 2014. The program comprises several hundred hours of training in basic beauty and hair-care skills, using GCPL products, which graduates can purchase at a discount. The curriculum is available both online and through audio-visual technology. Separate modules on enterprise development and employment readiness have also been developed to help students achieve success early in their
career. More than 85 percent of the graduates are now self-employed, using their skills to generate income.
Companies like Godrej have recognized the power of social circles. Indeed, they have built it into their business models to drive not only positive word of mouth but also a spirit of entrepreneurship among rural women in India—both of which go a long way toward earning rural female consumers’ trust.10
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Deciding to buyOur interviews revealed that rural women are asserting their power of choice more than ever. As one woman from Punjab explained to us,
“Things that we use more, like a washing machine or fridge, we decide which one to buy. About a car, it would be the husband who will decide more. TV, fridge, washing machine can be fifty-fifty or sixty-forty also.”
Type of purchase makes a difference when it comes to additional decisions related to buying, such as which channel to use and what kind of product packaging to select.
Planned purchasesWith planned purchases, 84 percent of our survey respondents said they buy such products from shops located in nearby towns, cities or district headquarters. (See Figure 8.) When asked what benefits they associate with buying from their preferred channel, responses included trustworthiness; a broad range of offerings; better information and advice; the best offers, deals and value for the money; and the fact that particular offerings were available exclusively through the chosen channel.
For rural women making a planned purchase, value for the money paid is the most critical factor, according to 84 percent of our respondents. (See Figure 9.) Indeed, these consumers seek out value for money by selecting lower-priced offerings that have fewer features or more limited functionality than more expensive choices. But, 25 percent of the women we surveyed also said they’re willing to spend more for superior products, provided those offerings have additional functionality. In fact, product or service quality came in second place among the most important factors influencing purchase decisions.
Figure 8: Rural women buy mostly from shops in nearby towns, cities or district headquarters
Figure 9: Value for money is a key factor in deciding what to purchase
Preferred Choice
84%I buy from shops from a nearby town/city or district headquarters
37%I go to a nearby town/city or district headquearters to buy the product from a...
35%Friends/relatives go to a nearby town/city and make the purchases for me
12%I order over the phone directly or after seeing on TV
1%I order via Internet
Preferred Choice
84%Price/value for money
66%Quality of product/service
54%O�ers/discounts
34%User friendly/ease of usage (automatic, minimal e�ort, etc)
32%Brand name
31%Advertisements (TV, Newspaper, etc.), Celebrity (filmstar/criceter)...
20%The product should have good spread of showrooms
20%Design/packaging/aesthetics
12%Durable & long lasting product
10%Rewards/loyalty points that may be tied...
10%Ability to purchase locally at a store
9%Good after sales services/return policy/maintenance/good resale value
7%Based on past experience of the product/brand
6%Payment flexibility (credit, EMIs, etc.)
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Implications for companiesIn light of these findings, companies would do well to design their point-of-sale product range in nearby centers to appeal to both urban and rural consumers shopping there. They need to coach point-of-sale representatives on rural women’s purchase-related needs, such as how to emphasize an offering’s functionality, demonstrate key features and help shoppers compare products’ features and pricing. Businesses can also benefit by enhancing the in-store experience, given that rural women enjoy shopping and that many view it as a leisure activity. Store format—including location, size and layout—matters to these consumers. And companies should offer a product range that has a choice of affordable entry-level price points, to persuade potential buyers to try the products. Tailoring the purchase experience to rural woman can also help.
“We wish to buy something that is cheap and best.”—woman from Gujarat
“[Companies] shouldn’t make us wait for long because we have bought an expensive product from them. It is their responsibility to repair it.”—woman from Punjab
Hero’s Just4her Showrooms
India-based Hero MotoCorp Ltd. (formerly Hero Honda Motors Ltd.) is the world’s largest manufacturer of two-wheelers. Hero created “Just4her,” women-only showrooms for the company’s Pleasure scooter model, which was developed specifically for female drivers. Just4her dealerships are managed by all-female staff, and the showrooms are designed to look more like attractive boutiques than typical two-wheeler outlets. Boasting air-conditioned waiting lounges and Internet connectivity, the showrooms exude warmth and friendliness—and are driving large sales volumes for the model.
Hero also launched the GoodLife Lady Rider Club, which today has more than six lakh members. The club is an exclusive relationship-building program designed especially for female customers. Members are rewarded with points based on money they spend. And they enjoy a host of benefits, such as exciting offers and invitations to exclusive events. Members also get three years of rider insurance coverage for free—a 1 lakh value.11
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Impulse buysFor impulse buys, 76 percent of our survey respondents said they make such purchases in their own village or in a nearby village. But interestingly, 20 percent reported ordering such products over the Internet. (See Figure 10.)
When it comes to impulse buys, women living in rural India also have preferences about packaging. For instance, 43 percent of our survey participants said that with products that come in multiple packaging configurations (such as shampoo, biscuits and laundry detergent), they buy smaller-size packages for their affordability. Some women choose the smaller packaging because they don’t need a larger supply of the product. For these kinds of purchases, value for the price plays the biggest role in women’s final buying decision, according to 85 percent of our respondents, while product quality comes in second place and brand name is third. (See Figure 11.)
Figure 10: Ordering impulse purchases over the Internet is on the rise
Figure 11: Value for money is the critical factor in impulse purchases
Preferred Choice
76%I buy in my own village or nearby villages
20%I order via Internet
8%I buy from shops from a nerby town/city or district headquarters
3%I go to a nearby town/city or district headquarters to buy the product from a shopping mall
Preferred Choice
85%Price/value for money
62%Quality of product/service
55%Brand name
42%O�ers/discounts
35%User friendly/ease of usage (automatic, minimal e�ort, etc)
29%Design/packaging/aesthetics
25%Ability to purchase locally at a store
24%Durable & long lasting product
13%Good after sales services/return policy/maintenance/good resale value
11%Advertisements (TV, Newspaper, etc.), Celebrity (filmstar/criceter)...
11%The product should have good spread of showrooms
7%Based on past experience of the product/brand
“I need not go to the market [to buy online]; [can] get everything while sitting at home. [Delivery] charge is also not much, then we save on commuting also.”—woman from West Bengal
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Implications for companiesFor impulse buys, companies can encourage women to trial-test products by designing low-value, smaller-packaging options. Brands can also benefit by making desirable impulse offerings available for online purchase and ensuring that the ordering process is convenient and easy for rural consumers. While rural women’s awareness of online purchasing is on the rise, many lack confidence in buying over the Internet, are unsure about available modes of payment, have concerns about the quality of products and wish that more companies would offer doorstep delivery to villages. Companies can overcome such challenges by educating women consumers about digital channels and by offering safe transactions, multiple payment options and doorstep delivery. Conducting community events, demonstrations and awareness campaigns can further help educate female consumers on how to order online safely and effectively.
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Using the product or serviceWe found that what companies do to engage and reassure female customers after a purchase is equally (if not more) important than what they do before women buy. For the women in our study who were not satisfied with their experiences with something they bought, 84 percent of them cited poor performance (including insufficient quality or short product life) as the reason for their dissatisfaction. Additional reasons included being promised one thing but being delivered another and concluding that company employees were not knowledgeable about the customer’s specific needs. (See Figure 12.)
Implications for companiesIn rural communities, where purchase choices are powerfully influenced by perceptions of trust, companies must fulfill their brand’s promise over a product’s lifetime. Product breakdowns combined with unpleasant after-sales experiences can swiftly erode customers’ trust in a company and its offerings. And once broken, trust is extremely difficult to rebuild. Indeed, when asked what would most enable companies to serve rural consumers more effectively, 92 percent of our survey respondents answered, “Service features.”
However, many rural women shy away from logging formal complaints with companies if they have a dissatisfying experience with a product or service they have bought. Thus, companies should proactively reach out to customers to seek post-purchase feedback and to resolve any complaints swiftly and effectively before customers start spreading negative word of mouth. Helpful practices include offering toll-
free numbers for customers, creating an automated call-back system for missed calls and ensuring that dedicated customer service personnel can speak the local language. Providing training to help customers get maximum value from their purchases constitutes another powerful strategy that enables companies to differentiate themselves through high-quality after-sales service.
Figure 12: Poor product performance is the biggest reason for post-purchase dissatisfaction
% Response
84%Product performance (quality, product life, etc.)
35%Having them promise me one thing but deliver another
24%Employees who are not knowledgeable or acknowledge my specific needs
“The first thing is that the product should not have any kind of problem.”—woman from Gujarat
“Sometimes we have to switch brands. If we are satisfied with the product, we continue using the same brand. If there is a problem, then we change.”—woman from Punjab
Mahindra & Mahindra’s Tractor-Driving Program
Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) has found a unique way to excel at after-sales service. The India-based multinational is a leader in utility vehicles, information technology, tractors and vacation ownership. With more rural men moving to cities in search of jobs, the need for mechanization of farm tasks through tractors has increased in the countryside.
In a path-breaking initiative, M&M’s Farm Division customer care department has partnered with Kerala Agriculture University to develop and test the Lady Tractor Drivers Training Program. The program trains women to operate and maintain the tractors their farming households have purchased. More than 1,000 of these programs have been held across the country to date.12
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Building—or destroying— brand advocacy If companies need additional convincing of the importance of after-sales service, they can look to our research findings about what female consumers do when they’re dissatisfied with a product or service they’ve purchased and used. Specifically, 63 percent of the working women in our study and 66 percent of the nonworking women said that in the past year, they have told people around them about a bad experience they had had with a company’s marketing or sales practices. Others had switched brands or had decided to stop buying from the offending company. (See Figure 13.)
Implications for companiesTo avoid the damage that negative word of mouth can inflict on their brand, companies need to ensure that their rural female customers are delighted with their purchases, not merely satisfied. Delighted customers will likely become repeat buyers and may even skip the pre-purchase stages entirely with subsequent buys—reducing the company’s risk of losing them during any of the earlier stages. These loyal customers can also become informed advisors who persuade friends and family members to become customers by explaining why the offering is better than other alternatives.
With these points in mind, companies need to listen to their female customers across all touch points, to understand what is making them happy about the products or services they have purchased and what may be making
them unhappy. Businesses can also benefit by nurturing brand advocates at the local level by identifying and regularly engaging with existing delighted customers and by developing loyalty programs.
Figure 13: Most rural female consumers tell others when they’re dissatisfied with a purchase
Working Non-Working
63%
66%Told people around me
32%
25%
Started engaging with other companies/brands
26%
27%
Stopped buying products and services of that company
“You can purchase this washing machine as I have used it. I can give all details about its features. Other machines have the problem of water being stuck inside, and there are some problems with the fan inside. So I can also give suggestions on alternatives.”—woman from Karnataka
Bharatha Swamukti Samsthe’s Microfinance Program
Bharatha Swamukti Samsthe (BSS), a not-for-profit trust, provides microfinance services to rural and urban poor consumers. Operating predominantly in Karnataka, BSS has a network of 67 branches. BSS Microfinance follows the Grameen Bank model of group lending and offers group loans for a two-year period, with fortnightly repayments.
When introducing its program to a village, BSS representatives hold meetings with local leaders, often teachers, business owners or heads of local savings groups. The representatives depend on word of mouth and advocacy, through which current customers and local leaders pass along information to other households. People in such households are seven times more likely to become new customers than individuals in non-participating households.13
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4. Charting a Path ForwardCompanies striving to market and sell to rural female consumers in India must master specific moves at each of the seven steps in the purchase journey (as depicted in Figure 3).
To chart a path forward for winning—and retaining—the business of increasingly empowered, independent female consumers in India’s hinterlands, companies must devise strategies that excel on four fronts:
Offer reliable products
• Understand key product features valued by rural women.
• Ensure that products deliver on promised functionality and are robust.
• Have a service model that extends reach into key rural markets.
• Foster brand advocacy among women who believe that a brand has performed as promised.
Emphasize value for money
• Understand that affordability plays a crucial role in product selection.
• Emphasize the price to feature benefits of a product.
Build networks founded on trust
• Integrate the brand into the community through route-to-market (RTM) models that also drive female entrepreneurship and help the community.
• Create a synergistic relationship by helping rural women realize their aspirations.
• Use mobile technology creatively to reach and communicate with rural female consumers.
Engage with key retail partners
• Identify local retailers (for impulse goods) and POS retail representatives in nearby larger towns (for high value items) who most powerfully influence female consumers at the moment of purchase.
• Identify the best ways to engage with and incentivize channel partners to guide female consumers to choose the company’s brands over rivals’ brands.
Key questions to ask
For companies new to focusing on female consumers in rural India or seeking to assess their current efforts in this area, we recommend that executives also ask themselves some important questions:
• Has our organization quantified the growth opportunity presented by the new rural female consumer in India, and have we included this opportunity in our strategic priorities?
• Have we begun gathering and acting on insights about these consumers’ lives and their consumption-related attitudes and behaviors?
• Is our go-to-market model for India’s rural markets differentiated enough to gain the trust of women in these markets?
• Are we delivering the basic components that matter most to these consumers—such as strong product functionality, dependable after-sales service and value for money?
• Are we working effectively enough with rural retailers and channels to influence women consumers’ point-of-sale purchase decisions?
• Do we have a roadmap to guide evolution of our offerings so that our brand remains relevant to rural women in India?
An honest acknowledgment of any shortfalls on these strategic imperatives can help executives make the improvements needed to capitalize on the growth opportunities presented by women in India’s countryside.
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Consumer Stories
Lalitha wanted to buy a new mobile phone as the battery for the old one was not working very well. She had seen many advertisements on TV but was confused on which brand and model to buy. So she reached out to her friends and relative who advised to evaluate various brands before choosing her mobile phone. In her next trip to nearest city, she went with her friends to a showroom—looked at various brands—compared features such as touch screen, battery life, price and also warranty. She had been saving up for this purchase for the last 6 months and now is quite happy with her new mobile even though she is worried that she is talking on the phone a lot and using up her talk time quickly.
Sharada’s husband just built a new bigger house and so now she has parents and in-laws visiting her frequently—which has replaced her workload at home. So she decided to buy a fridge and a washing machine to lessen her burden at home. She went to the showroom with her husband to choose the electronic items. Even though the husband wanted to buy a cheaper semi-automatic washing machine, she insisted that they buy a fully automatic one—she had seen her neighbor use a semi-automatic machine which was not very convenient. She also chose a fridge with floral designs as she wanted a model that was different from what she had seen in other houses. She even evaluated the models on load capacity, power consumption and warranty before choosing the final model. Now even when she has guests at home, she can easily handle the laundry and also serve them cold beverages in summer.
Mouli is proud of the development in her village over the last few years. Now there are more brick houses and continuous electricity supply through the day—the village now has street lamps lighting up the roads at night. At home, she now has a fridge, a microwave and a TV—items she had never used when was growing up. Even in her personal habits—she has now moved from soaps to bodywashes, uses hair conditioners to soften her hair and even applies sunscreen to prevent skin darkening. She chooses her personal care products very carefully—consulting friends, shopkeepers and even company representatives before trying a new brand. She finally selects one which suits her skin type and only if she is satisfied does she continue with the product.
Female, Karnataka Female, Karnataka Female, West Bengal
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Appendix1. About our research
Our research for this fourth report in the series comprised three studies across key stakeholder groups: rural consumers, business leaders and channel partners. We also drew on articles in the business press to further illuminate trends we saw in our research.
The studies were designed to answer the following questions:
• How has the behavior of rural consumers in India, including women, changed in the past few years, and how have such changes affected their purchase decisions?
• How aware are business leaders of these changes? If they are aware, how are they responding?
• Which companies are best capturing the opportunities presented by these changes, and what can other companies learn from them?
For the rural consumer study, Accenture conducted focus-group discussions with consumers in 10 Indian states: Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. Participants were diverse in terms of age, gender, occupation and income. Facilitators guided the discussions to better understand how these consumers make purchase decisions and what influences such decisions. The discussions were complemented by a quantitative survey conducted with more than 2,800 consumers in 320 villages and 32 census towns in 8 states, using a stratified sampling technique.
For the business leaders study, Accenture interviewed more than 40 CXOs, including heads of marketing, sales, strategy and customer insights. Interviewees came from organizations across seven sectors: Agribusiness, Automotive, Banking/Financial Services/Insurance (BFS), Consumer Durables, Engineering/Industrial/Chemicals, Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) and Telecom/DTH. The businesses surveyed had annual revenues above US$200 million. The in-depth interviews explored the customer insights and marketing strategies that these companies are using to serve India’s rural consumers.
For the channel partner study, we interviewed 72 channel partners across traditional and emerging categories. Traditional categories included retailers, wholesalers, dealers and sales representatives. Emerging categories included alternate sales channels, self-help groups, sarpanches (village heads or chiefs) and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs).
Accenture also used advanced analytics techniques, such as factor analysis and correspondence analysis, to arrive at conclusive results from the survey data.
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2. Sampling methodology
The methodology used for identification of target districts for the consumer survey is outlined below:
• For each state, districts were divided into four quartiles based on the market potential value (MPV) for villages and census towns (CTs).
• Target districts were chosen from the top two quartiles, which were identified as highly prosperous.
For selection of subdistricts and CTs, the following weights were assigned:
Parameter Weight
Internet Connection 10%
Telephone (Landline + mobile phone)
15%
Ownership of 2 wheelers 5%
Ownership of 4 wheelers 15%
Computer/Laptop 10%
Cooking gas 15%
Drinking Water 15%
Type of House 15%
For selection of villages, the following weights were assigned. Villages were then divided into five equal intervals, and one village was shortlisted from each interval.
Parameter Weight
Persons Literate 25%
Persons Cultivators Main 25%
Persons Agricultural Labourers Main
5%
Persons Household & Industry wokers Main
10%
Persons Other workers Main 10%
Persons Cultivators Marginal 12%
Persons Agricultural Labourers Marginal
3%
Persons Household & Industry workers Marginal
5%
Persons Other workers Marginal
5%
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- 3,000
3,001 - 5,000
5,001 - 10,000
10,001 - 20,000
20,001 - 50,000
Occupation Female
Number of members in family Household monthly income for rural working women consumers (INR ‘000s)
Working
Housewife50%50%
13%
28%
41%
15%
3%
< 3
3%
3-5
61%
6-10
32%
> 10
4%
SEC profile
SEC R1 SEC R2 SEC R3 SEC R4 SEC R5
24% 24%23%
11%
19%
• 10 Focused Group Discussions of Woman Consumers across 10 states
• Detailed interviews with 361 woman respondents across 8 states
• More than 40 in-depth qualitative interviews with CXOs
Overall
Education
SSC/HHC
Semi-literate
Literate
Illiterate
College/Gradutes/PG/Prof.
34%
16%
28%
12%
10%
Regions
West Bengal
Uttar Pradesh
PunjabMaharashtra
Madhya Pradesh
Karnataka
Bihar
Andhra Pradesh
15%
14%10%
14%
12%9%
14%
11%
45-60 YO
35-44 YO
29-34 YO
Age-Group
41%
40%
19%
3. Survey demographics
Our study participants came from a diverse array of regions in India, age groups and educational and economic backgrounds:
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4. Accenture’s rural journey
This report is the fourth in a series drawing on our continuing research into the opportunities presented by India’s rural markets.
Our first report, “Masters of Rural Markets: The Hallmarks of High Performance in India”, probed rural market opportunities as new revenue streams for businesses. The research established that companies recognize rural markets as the next big growth frontier and are gearing up to capitalize on this opportunity.
Link to the report: http://www.accenture.com/inen/Documents/PDF/Accenture_Masters_of_Rural_Markets.pdf
The second report, “Masters of Rural Markets: Profitably Selling to India’s Rural Consumers”, identified sales and distribution as the pressing business challenges to doing business in India’s rural markets. It offered recommendations for profitably reaching, acquiring and retaining rural customers. Developing a granular understanding of rural consumer emerged as a key success factor. However, our research revealed that most companies have limited understanding of how rural consumers’ behavior is changing.
Link to the report: http://www.accenture.com/sitecollectiondocuments/pdf/accenture-masters-of-ruralmarkets-selling-profitably-torural-consumers.pdf
The third report, “From Touchpoints to Trustpoints: Winning over India’s Aspiring Rural Consumers”, focuses on the changing psychology of India’s rural consumers and seek to unearth the values and expectations driving their consumption decisions. This report offers unique insights and identifies business imperatives companies must meet to succeed with India’s rural consumers.
Link to the report: https://www.accenture.com/in-en/form-ruralmarkets-registration-2015
Our fourth report, “Women Consumers in Rural India: Who They Really Are—and How to Win Their Business”, draws on extensive conversations with a wide range of female consumers in India’s hinterlands, macro-trend analysis and discussions with business leaders across an array of industries to illuminate the aspirations, purchasing behavior and “pain points” of female rural consumers in India. The report focus on the opportunity companies can gain by segmenting India’s rural market and pay attention to the rural woman consumer.
In an article titled, “Unlocking the Wealth in Rural Markets” in the June 2014 issue of Harvard Business Review, we share observations from our extensive surveys and interviews with Indian business leaders in multiple industries to understand how the most successful companies are finding and serving India’s hard to-reach customers. The article reveals several strategies for increasing revenues and profits in rural markets.
Link to the report: https://hbr.org/2014/06/unlocking-the-wealth-in-rural-markets
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Join the Conversation
@AccentureStrat
@AccentureIndia
AccentureIndia
Contact the Authors
Raghuram Devarakonda [email protected]
Vikram Rao [email protected]
Additional Contributors
Mamta Kapur [email protected]
Nilanjan R Choudhury [email protected]
Anshu B Sharma [email protected]
Shweta Ram [email protected]
About Accenture
Accenture is a leading global professional services company, providing a broad range of services and solutions in strategy, consulting, digital, technology and operations. Combining unmatched experience and specialized skills across more than 40 industries and all business functions—underpinned by the world’s largest delivery network—Accenture works at the intersection of business and technology to help clients improve their performance and create sustainable value for their stakeholders. With more than 358,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries, Accenture drives innovation to improve the way the world works and lives. Visit us at www.accenture.com.
About Accenture Strategy
Accenture Strategy operates at the intersection of business and technology. We bring together our capabilities in business, technology, operations and function strategy to help our clients envision and execute industry-specific strategies that support enterprise wide transformation. Our focus on issues related to digital disruption, competitiveness, global operating models, talent and leadership help drive both efficiencies and growth. For more information, follow @AccentureStrat or visit www.accenture.com/strategy.
References1 Shishir Sinha, “Rural women beat urban counterparts to use social security schemes,” The Hindu, July 19, 2015.
2 Ramnath Subbu, “Taking internet to rural women,” The Hindu, July 4, 2015.
3 Amrita Nair-Ghaswalla, “Gorakhpur’s booming beauty biz prompts Dabur to roll out facial bleach brand for rural women,” The Hindu, February 28, 2014.
4 http://mobileforgoodvideoplayer.vodafonefoundation.org/videos/watch/india-cherie-blair-foundation-sewa-app
5 “How Lifebuoy and Shell reaped success far away from the city,” The Economic Times, May 18, 2015.
6 Vinaya Naidu, “This toilet cleaner brand boosts the most timely initiative on #WorldToiletDay,” Lighthouse Insights, November 19, 2014.
7 https://www.hul.co.in/Images/hul-annual-report-2013-14_tcm1255-436326_en.pdf
8 “Hair and how: Dabur promotes hair oil through rural beauty pageant,” www.afaqs.com, October 29, 2009.
9 Ravi Balakrishnan, “Lessons in mela marketing from some of India’s best marketers,” The Economic Times, August 26, 2015.
10 http://godrejcp.com/resources/pdf/good-green-brochure.pdf, http://godrejcp.com/Resources/uploads/reports/Businees%20Responsibility%20Report.pdf, http://www.godrejcp.com/about-us.aspx
11 http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2013-02-27/news/37330958_1_showrooms-hero-moto-corp-small-town-india, http://www.heromotocorp.com/en-in/uploads/Annual_Reports/pdf/20150729114321-pdf-13.pdf
12 http://www.mahindra.com/, www.scoop.it/doc/download/5zyghj7kwZaT_3oMnrZJhdG
13 http://www.bssmicrofinance.co.in/mission.html, http://news.mit.edu/2013/how-anti-poverty-programs-go-viral-0725
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