Understanding Rural Consumer Psyche Is Very Important For Devising Rural Marketing Campaign

What does marketing campaign mean?

The marketing campaign is a set of activities specifically designed to promote a product or a service through the use of several media channels, the scope of such campaigns go beyond advertising and spreads through other alternatives such as word of mouth.
Simplistically speaking, the end results of such campaigns have to be better sales, increased revenues and enhanced brand awareness and visibility. However, the process cannot be simplified the same way, a lot of planning goes into devising a successful campaign to forge required outcomes.

The most basic elements

Every plan needs a careful curation of prerequisites to ensure its smooth functioning, the same goes for a marketing campaign. It remains the same when the prefix rural is added to it, a Rural Marketing Campaign requires preparation more than an urban one.
Why?
Since, contrary to popular opinion, rural people are more complicated than urban ones as they perceive needs differently. Marketers usually come from an urban background themselves and this makes it difficult for them to predict buying behavior of rural customers which makes understanding it all the more important for devising rural marketing campaigns.
As Jonathan Lister said, “Speak to your audience in their language about what’s in their heart” and in order to do so you need to comprehend the psyche of the rural consumers. Technically, Consumer behavior of individuals, groups, or organizations and the processes they use to select, secure, use, and dispose of products, services,
experiences, or ideas to satisfy needs and the impacts that these processes have on the consumer and society.

Significance of this knowledge

Following questions can be answered through this understanding:-

• What does the consumer want?
• When does the consumer buy?
• How often do they buy?
• What is the worth of the product to the consumer?
• Where do they get their information from?
• What qualities attract their loyalties?

The answers to these questions are the secret to the success of any marketing campaign, especially rural ones. Their decision is always based on more than just desire or amenity, they have seen lower economic growth and lesser opportunities over the year while living in a completely different cultural environment, which makes them more complex to an urban eye. Understanding of consumer behavior and psyche helps appreciate the factors that influence the purchasing decision of the consumers, factors such as:-

• Social status
• Economic factor
• Family and group influences
• Cultural factors
• Individual factors such as attitude, experience, the perception towards the cost, product worth, usability etc.
• Demonstration of the product or service

Clearly only one of the above is in control of the organization. However, there is a way to remedy that, by letting the last one depending on the above; the company creates an illusion of a relative air. This attracts the consumer and sparks the start of a relationship which may end in sales if stirred in the right direction through clever persuasion and delivery.
If the product or the brand is presented in a light that is similar to the needs of the consumer and fills boxes in their checklist, the marketing campaign can achieve its objectives easily. Knowledge of the items on the checklist comes from the understanding of consumer behavior and psyche.
Therefore, understanding rural consumer psyche is fundamental to a successful rural marketing campaign.