How To Select Deserving And Best Rural Marketing Agency?

Everyone is always talking about how difficult it is to devise a rural marketing campaign but let us talk about what makes this process easier and much more effective.

Assistance of a rural marketing agency

What is a rural marketing agency?

As per the official definition it is an independent agency which supplements the organization’s efforts to promote a product or a service. The various functions involve handling overall marketing, sales promotion and branding strategies.

Functions of a rural marketing agency:-

Other Benefits

• Client attraction and retention .

• Market Research.

• Planning and devising marketing campaigns .

• Selection of media channels.

• Content development.

• Sales promotion

• Public Relations

• Communication and co-ordination

However, in reality the functions of an agency go well beyond the sentence can entail, they are the force assisting the fulfillment of overall branding strategy of the company. This means they help create the perception of the consumers towards the brand a desired one.

Why is a rural marketing agency important?

Given the complexity of rural marketing campaigns, the following benefits can be reaped by using a marketing agency such as:-

• Availability of expert advice on issues that seem out of the reach of an organizations regular operations.

• An agency has experience with on ground implementation and therefore can deal with problems more efficiently than the organizations.

• It saves time and efforts as well as mitigates wastage that can be caused sue to misappropriation of resources.

• With experience and expertise, agencies can assist in building brands that last.

Factors affecting the choice of a rural marketing agency?

Portfolio

An agencies work speaks for itself, may it be big or small in size, and you can always get a fair idea about how it is going to perform through its previous established works. This holds a very significant meaning in rural areas as the way of operation is particularly different than the urban areas and therefore experience in rural areas is very important.

Reach and network

One of the many reasons to use a rural marketing agency is to ease the weight on the shoulders of the organization and therefore such an agency should be chosen which can provide a variety of services. That means it can cater to all possible mediums and channels to satisfy the needs of the client in rural areas, even the old school ones specific to the area.

Reasonable Pricing

Marketing is a creative job based on constant innovation and thus, it is difficult to put a price on it but it is also important for the organization to look for an agency who can fit in their budget.

Good working relation

When an organization hires a rural marketing agency, it starts to depend on it for proper introduction to the area and represent it. This makes the cordial relationship between them very important to ensure a successful rural marketing campaign.

Endorsement of the agency

Organizations venturing into rural area might find it difficult to place their trust and therefore, agencies with online and media presence should be preferred because their credibility is vouched for.

Creativity and Talent

Last but not the least, selection of agency should depend on the talent that you can find through it. It is possible can you may find an agency in your proximity satisfying the above conditions but where the senior executive just left. This leaves imprints on the work of the agency and therefore should be studies while making a decision.

There are several other industry specific factors that can be listed here but the basic requirement is to find an agency which can help you achieve your marketing objectives and understands how you want to reach there.

Puppet Show Is A Proven Medium For Rural Marketing Campaign Giving Meaningful Engagement With Rural Audience

The life that people have in this era basically involves work and worry, there are issues that need to be dealt with at house, office and self. This amplifies in rural areas, contrary to popular belief life is complicated when you live without the resources that promise to make your life more convenient.

This adds to the stress that rural marketers are already in, imagine trying to sell a product to people who are easily agitated and already grieving the economy. This way the challenge extends to easing the audience into the marketing process before actually being able to sell the product.

People are not ready to accept the age old selling methods, to some extend they work but when creating a distinct name for a product or service that puts the brand in the headlines is considered, innovation is the key. Finding a way that not only makes the audiences want to stay but also listen and understand the features of the product.

Registration of the emotion and retention of the name is the key to succeeding through a rural marketing campaign but how to break through the monotony of life and create magic is the real question.

What is the problem?

Making rural marketing campaign interesting enough to attract and hold audience’s interest.

What can be the solution?

Three words, plain and simple-
Entertainment, Entertainment and Entertainment.

• If people want refreshment, give it to them and subtly combine your marketing objectives under the pretense of fun and rejuvenation

• One of the best ways to do that in rural areas is through, everyone’s favorite- Puppet shows.

• A dramatic performance delivered by a puppeteer with dialogues and background music using human looking dolls controlled through strings by the puppeteer.

Advantages of using puppet shows in rural marketing campaigns

Attendance and participation of audience

In rural areas, puppet shows are considered an attractive option for entertainment and thus attracts a lot of crowd easily. This also attracts some unlikely candidates who shy away from other promotional activities. This is best suited to draw out women out of the houses with the whole family as it is not considered a business activity but rather fun one. This way a diverse audience can be accumulated which can be useful while trying to market homely products or services.

At the same time, the crowd brings the promise of participation as they often enjoy responding to a puppet rather than a foreign looking salesman.

Keeping things interesting
The puppet show is designed to make the audience jump now and then, this dramatic value ups the excitement of the crowd. This energy brings a positive aura to the event and people wish to stay longer in such places.

Efficient branding activity

The puppet show is designed to make the audience jump now and then, this dramatic value ups the excitement of the crowd. This energy brings a positive aura to the event and people wish to stay longer in such places.

Sharing and caring

The thing about rural areas is that almost everyday people like to get together and share each other’s daily adventures. When a brand breaks through using a puppet show, it is sure to become the talk of the town during these discussions. This positive word of mouth and exposure goes a long way with the brand.

Cost benefit

It goes without saying that in comparison to its impact, the cost is utilized in an effective manner. Even the return on investment remains nearly impossible to be devised, no one can deny the impact.

Nukkad Show Has Been Proven Traditional Art Form For Dramatic And Effective Communication In Rural Markets

Why do we indulge in marketing?

The primary purpose of marketing and advertising, doesn’t matter through what medium executed is promotion of the product and improving awareness of the brand. This depends largely on communication of the information pertaining to the respective product or brand.

In case of rural marketing, this is where the hurdle appears, the transportation of this message is not as smooth as in urban areas. The fact that the target audience is so varied and so are their needs and preferences, has a substantial impact on the effectiveness of the rural marketing campaign.

The problem and the solution

Usually, the approach taken in urban areas prove to be ineffective in rural areas. As a result, the information is not successfully distributed among the target audience, rendering the branding activities futile.
The best way to remedy such situation is to bring in creative alternatives to the conventional mediums of rural marketing.

The birth of the art

“One fine day, a rural marketer left his office- tired and restless, when asked the reason; he shrugged and sank into thought. At this point, he decided to take a walk home. Suddenly, he found refuge in the serenity of age old entertainment of a street drama aka Nukkad natak. While the actors fiercely talking about issues such as domestic violence, environment etc and the audience sprang into applaud. It occurred to him, could this be a feasible way to get the attention of his rural audience? Could this work where other ways were failing?”
And we saw the edutainment change from there…

Use of Nukkad Natak for communication for rural marketing campaigns

Nukkad Natak is a form of art play whereas the actors perform on a street with live audience. Even though street plays have been around for centuries, their use in marketing has been established fairly recently.
The concept is rather simple and entails the use of a street play/ nukkad natak where the actors convey the information about the product or brand with the purposes of promotion. The same can be used as a prelude to other activities or individually with print support.

Advantages of using Nukkad Natak for communication in rural areas

·         Entertainment sells
Convincing a potential customer to attend an evening of dance and music is always easier than to convince them to attend a sit down information exchange.
Why?
because leisure is more attractive than work.
Therefore, it is easier to attract audience and ensure attendance through nukkad natak.

·         Effective communication
Retaining the initial interest of audience is a significant factor to the success of a rural marketing campaign and the refreshing pattern of giving necessary information assists in doing just that.

·         Higher brand recall
Answer a simple question, would you remember a brand that whose pamphlet you saw or the one who explained you their product or service through a performance of street plays?
The answer is enough to comprehend the relationship between use of nukkad natak and higher brand recall.

·         Support through word of mouth
It is human nature to appreciate something different than ordinary and it is only natural that such efforts are shared among groups. Nukkad Natak can make your brand topic of discussion for the evening in many different groups and increase reach as well as awareness.

·         Assists in social media marketing
If you believe in social media marketing or video marketing, think how much it would help associating nukkad natak to them?
A video made with the objective of selling might be ignored by many customers but simultaneously the one whose content is a entertaining street play may get their attention.

Colleges In Small Towns Are The Best Touch Point To Target Rural Youth For Rural Campaign

Around 70 % of Indian population resides in small towns and rural areas and about 49% of them belong to the youth group. This points towards the significance of keeping them in mind while devising a rural marketing campaign.

Rural youth is defined as people aged between 15 and 35 living in rural areas and small towns; they also coincide with the maximum of active working population of India. Hence, they can also be called the next generation of decision makers, either they are in process of completing their education and obtaining a job or are already employed. They are also the risk takers and change makers of the country, this brings them in focus when long term plans are made.

A study into the approach of rural customers prove that new products are best introduced to the younger members of the business fraternity as chances of them being educated and acceptance are positive.

How to reach the rural youth?

Now that we have established the importance of targeting the youth, let us talk about how they can be reached. The conventional methods have not proven to be very successful in attracting the youth and therefore innovation is required to command attention for the rural marketing campaign. While many marketers argue the viability of digital marketing at this point, some have found an offline manner of conducting these promotional activities. – College.

College as a touch point

The first place you can think of as a youth hangout is a college campus in small town and thus, its use can be productive for rural marketing. There are other added benefits to this approach, such,as

Attentive and participating audienceOne of the biggest challenges of implementing a rural marketing campaign is getting feedback and reactions from the audience but in a college, this challenge is reduced. Here, not only is the audience attentive, they also believe in satisfying their curiosity which helps in retaining their interest in the campaign.

·         Volume of participants
Otherwise than on a college campus, marketers have to ensure attendance of potential customers but here, it is not the case. Numbers can be ensured without much efforts which increases reach of the product.

·            Brand awareness
The fact that people in college are educated but also have a basic understanding of urban influence is an added bonus as they tend to recognize brand faster than their elder counterparts.

·         Effective delivery of the message
Finding a target audience that is literate, educated and aware is almost impossible in rural areas and small towns. However, the closest a rural marketing campaign gets to such an audience is through targeting college students. The objective of a rural marketing campaign is to provide information about a product or a service or a brand and colleges are the best way to achieve this, when the target audience is youth.

·         Easy availability of resources 
As compared to other means, resources can be availed easily in colleges such as projectors, computers or even helpers.

Therefore, when youth of rural areas and small towns are considered, college as a touch point is a smart and effective choice for rural marketing campaign.