Most of us having been schooled in the occidental mode of thinking have managed to apply our learnt paradigms to urban markets with reasonable success, weaving in minor modifications to “Suit Indian Conditions” (The Eco-Times, Brand Equity, 1994). After all, there is not much difference between a consumer in cosmopolitan Bombay to one in London. However, the next logical step of extending our bag of tricks to rural areas has not met with the same level of success simply because the rural setting is fundamentally different from the urban.
Like the products themselves, most advertisements that are created for urban audience often leave villagers cold. For instance, the members of some rural communities in Rajasthan were put off by the Halo Shampoo spot,featuring female models with beautiful, bouncy hair. Reason, in those parts, it is considered ‘indecent’ forwomen to flaunt their tresses for all to see. The same villagers were bemused by the strepsil’s “Bahut MazaaAya” advertisement. In their dialect, the word mazaa has a strong sexual connotation and they couldn’t understandhow any one could get corporeal pleasure from a cough lozenge (Business World, 1994). To refer this case study click here Rural Marketing Challenges in the New Millennium