Boosting Up the Morale of Trade Partners Has Become Routine Feature of Retail Marketing Program

The use of retail outlets to spread awareness about the product and services by the company is termed as retail marketing. Retail marketing is one of the most powerful disciplines in which prominence is placed on usage of consumer channels as opposed to direct or trade marketing. Whilst this concept is trending and has proven it effectiveness in most industries, it does not come without its cons.

The success of the theory depends on various factors but one specific addition to the list when retail marketing programs are implemented is the interference of the trade partners in the utility of the program. In simpler words, if the sales have to be increased through the use of platforms provided at the consumer level, the direct link between the final consumer and the brand goes through the trade partners. This unavoidable and significant bridge needs strengthening and maintenance on a regular basis to keep up with the changing market conditions.

Role of Trade Partners in Retail Marketing

Data is collected first hand by trade partners and thus is comparatively more accurate as they are aware of the actual scenario based on facts and not fiction. Even though our technology has enabled us to do the math easily, we still need the correct numbers to input. A product sells better if it is tailor-made to the feedbacks of the customers and the easiest and most cost-efficient way to get these feedbacks is through trade partners who get it through the grapevine. Price determination in a competitive market is based on the demand and supply pull which cannot be measured without on ground eyes and ears. It is important to know what the customer wants but it is also equally important to know how much they are willing to pay for it.

Effective communication techniques require strong communicators and this responsibility falls in the hands of the retail partners. One thing that is common to the achievement of the above is the attitude of the partners, if retail marketing was a complicated dish with numerous ingredients, trade partners would be the salt adding the flavor and bringing out the taste overall. Therefore, it is very important that a relationship is established with them that go beyond professional exchanges and occasional chit-chat. A regular routine should be adopted to keep the partners motivated.

Why is motivation important?

Since the involvement of trade partners in marketing programs makes their contribution significant to the achievement of ultimate marketing objectives, the quality of their work reflects that of the organizations. Their continuous allegiance and support should be reciprocated. If the increase in sales and revenue is to be ensured, a lasting relationship with every part of the chain should be encouraged. Few are the reasons why boosting the morale of trade partners should be considered a part and parcel of the program:-

• Highly motivated partners are more likely to be innovative and give better results.

• An energized environment gives more chances to produce pure genius.

• Hard work should not be forced but encouraged and motivation achieves just that.

• Breeding loyalty in this competitive era gives you a competitive edge

There are many reasons why boosting the morale of the trade partner is considered a regular feature of marketing trade programs and there are many ways to do it. Both monetary incentives such as gifts, trips etc. or non-monetary ones such as awards and recognition are regularly used to encourage trade partners.

A wise man once said,

“For every sale, you miss because you’re too enthusiastic, you will miss a hundred because you’re not enthusiastic enough.”

Ad-Hoc Planning Cannot Be Relied For Rural Marketing in India, It Requires Nothing Less Than Conscientious Planning

There are two types of plans, one that was and one that becomes. Naturally, the latter is the one that comes together as a result of the combination of the real plan and a pinch of improvisation. However, the rural marketing agencies in India have concluded that even the improvisations need to be premeditated in case of rural marketing. When strategizing for rural market penetration, every move of the brand activation activity should be deliberate and well thought out.

Why the fuss?

Rural marketing in India is no cakewalk; the size of the market alone can be intimidating. More than half of Indian population (approximately 59%) resides in rural areas. It also presents the challenges that brands in urban areas are not used to tackling.

The Foreign Land

Villages and small towns in India differ in culture and living standards. At times, the cultural difference is so vast that brand managers might not be able to accurately predict the customer’s needs. This lack of understanding and difference in culture can often lead to ineffective communication strategies being adopted.

Resources or their lack thereof

Truth be told, every campaign brings unique challenges with it. The blow can come in unexpected ways and often rattle the brand before or during the campaign. These challenges can gain prominence when the accesses to resources are cut off or are way too expensive.

The Scarcity of Information

Market researches done in rural markets of India are scarce and rather undependable. Either they paint a rosy picture of accepting markets or they scare the brands with stories of rejection by the common folks. Statistics that would help the brand formulate a policy is not found easily.

Innovation: Demand vs. Supply

Rural audiences are always looking for magic and attach to the sentiment of the brand more dearly than their urban counterpart. This puts up the question of bringing something new to the table, new products and newer ways to launch them. When you venture into “new”, you are standing at the starting point.

Ad-hoc planning does not work in rural India

Impromptu solutions and makeshift campaigns don’t get results in rural areas, what it needs is a considerable amount of planning and strategizing to win the hearts of consumers in villages and small towns.

What goes into such extensive planning?

In a word, efforts but most of all it is about taking all the right decisions at the right time.

Do Your Homework

Do not underestimate the power of rural India and how easily it can overwhelm anyone. Therefore, knowing what you are getting yourself in is necessary.

Strategize and Then Strategize For When That Strategy Does Not Work

Assuming that a strategy or a plan would go as planned is naive. So plan for success and also for failure, a common mistake that ends up costing the brand is when it is not prepared to handle the leads that are generated from a successful brand campaign. So, the lesson is, stand in the middle of the crossroads and be ready for whatever comes from whichever side.

Get Professional Help

An experienced rural marketing company or brand activation agency can elevate the brand using their understanding of the markets, familiarity with it and years of hard work.

Bike Campaign over Age-Old Van Campaign Is New and Cost-Effective Solution in Rural Marketing Campaigns for Marketers

Rural marketing is known to create opportunities for innovation in product promotion and branding, this may be the result of the hardships faced by rural marketing agencies in implementing campaigns with such scarce availability of resources. Nevertheless, difficult circumstances often yield developments that change the direction of winds to pave a path for success. As Jamie Notter has wisely put into words,

“Innovation is the change that unlocks new value.”

Is innovation time bound?

The most alluring thing about change is that it is constant, which means that what seems like a creative solution right now, may need refinement few years down the line. This is best explained through the age-old Van campaigns used to promote products, majorly in small towns and rural areas. Simplistically speaking, the use of a van by a marketing agency in order to undertake promotional activities and enhance branding efforts is referred to as van campaigns. The concept was born years ago as a solution to the problem of a decent movable stage to promote the product in the rural areas as well as small towns. This introduction might have been speculated at its inception but the concept has seen much success since then, however, as time has changed its viability has transformed too.

Is it time for something new?

One of the many reasons for the triumph of the van campaign as an effective tool of brand communication in rural areas and small towns was the fact that it swept the audience with something new, something they were not expecting, an element it seems to have lost now. In order to replace it with a suitable alternative, bike campaigns are being launched by rural marketing agencies. It is the usage of one or a group of bikes that roam around the villages and small towns making appropriate stops. This is done in order to interact with the public with the aim of dispensing information about the product or the brand.

However, bikes are under tremendous pressure to deliver value to the rural marketing agency in order to replace the age-old van campaigns. There are several benefits that it provides over its ancestral counterpart, such as:-

Cost Efficient

It is no surprise to anyone that running a bike campaign is cheaper compared to running a van campaign. The fuel charges, rental as well as maintenance totals up to a sum lower than what would have been required if a van campaign was being run.

Better Reach

India has reported a substantial amount of development in rural areas, especially in the construction of roads. There are still areas that face the problem of establishing a comfortable connection in and out of the villages. In such cases, a bike campaign can foster more reach than a van campaign due to easy accessibility.

Attracting attention

The creative manner of advertising is sure to get the attention of more people as compared to ways they have already seen and appreciated. Curiosity is the mother of all reasons and the same can be used by rural marketing agencies to attract more people during their attractions or presentations.

Therefore, bike campaign should be selected over age-old van campaign as a more cost-effective solution for rural marketing campaigns.

10 Commandments of Rural Marketing

1. Listen and understand

This golden rule will not only assist you in attracting clients but also retain them. As Dalai Lama has wisely quoted, “When you talk, you are only repeating what you know but when you listen, you learn something new.” Listening to the client helps a marketer understand the product,
the brand ambitions, and requirements. Simultaneously, listening to the audiences can help develop the connection with the target audience which creates a room for personalized connection.

2. Research

Never assume a perception to be a fact, always support your theory with statistics that provide credibility to your ideas. Knowledge can only help you build a better campaign and help you in identifying the unexplored avenues.

3. Selection of Relevant Marketing Channels

Selection of online or offline medium to promote the product can be a tricky question but letting your judgment take a hit and selecting every possible channel can be more complex. Avoid selecting all the channels together as it might just drag their effectiveness and value down the
impact.

4. The Thumb Rule

Collection of information is essential but at the same time, the theory can only take you so far and therefore a marketing agency should know when to start acting upon the strategies into action.

5. Walk the talk

Anyone can be attracted to a product, if and only if, a marketer can establish a link between them and the product. The same should be done by concentrating on the audiences and letting the product impress them, rather than take a basic sales techniques.

6. The more the merrier

Never ever restrict the number of audiences – add volume, diversity, and quality in deliverance in order to ensure effective and smooth functionality.

7. Achieve and Inform

For a marketer, achieving results is the final destination, however sharing these results with the client is perhaps even more important;
therefore there should be real-time reporting and proper information channels to keep the client in the loop.

8. Be Innovative

Always find innovative ways to achieve the goals and objectives, as a marketer, never limit you and stay well equipped for taking risks and trying hands on something new. Talk to your client about ideas and ways to add value to their brand.

9. Leave no stone unturned

Do not allow yourself to be distracted by the external forces and never leave any lead unattended. Set your own targets and see them through.

10. Keep it up and don’t let it go

Change is constant and so is learning, never back down from an opportunity to learn new things about rural areas and small towns as the trends here keep fluctuating.

Therefore, the only way to stay on top is to stay updated and notified.

E-Commerce Companies Are Looking At Much Bigger Market Other Than Metros for a Larger Consumer Base

The next horizon will be deep integration of the physical and interactive worlds.

The future of online is offline. – CyriacRoeding (Angel Investor in many e-commerce companies)

E-commerce, a sector that created a buzz in the late 90s, has bounced back. India has emerged as the fastest growing and largest Internet market in terms of a number of users. However, the strongest argument against e-commerce – the buying behavior of Indian customers is non-virtual, is forcing the e-commerce industry to go offline. This time, it is showing a lot of interest in outdoor advertising and BTL.

The aim of these companies is to take online shopping to a wider audience – especially customers from B grade cities, who perhaps haven’t experienced online shopping at all. The non-virtual attitude of Indian customers being the biggest hindrance, BTL or experiential marketing again plays a very crucial role in their marketing strategies.

It is seen around the corner, e-commerce companies involving extensively in outdoors BTL campaigns. Flipkart, for example, has adapted to a mix of mediums in its outdoor campaign – billboards, ads/wraps on buildings, branding on buses/trains along with BTL/experiential marketing activities.

E-shops have also tried using smart outdoor media plans for mass visibility over the recent times. eBay India had undertaken a high visibility outdoor campaign after a period of two years for a duration of two months by investing 25 percent of its budget only on outdoor advertising. Apart from the traditional outdoor buzz, the e-commerce brand had tied up with PVR Cinemas in more than 20 locations.

In this activity, eBay India gave discount coupons with every PVR ticket purchased. Branding across these locations was also a part of this partnership. In addition, eBay also collaborated with a popular coffee chain Café Coffee Day to exploit in-café branding opportunities. Since youngsters are their soft target and show maximum adaptability to online shopping, the corporate & colleges become their obvious choice for touch points, when it comes to BTL activations and experiential marketing.

In-retail promotions are also coming handy for these e-commerce brands. The data indicates that the footfall across the electronic stores like Croma & e-zone is increasing by the day. Advertising in 20 odd TVs of these stores becomes a lucrative option for these marketers. This apart, setting up touch & feel zones for the walk-ins can be another activation that can be tried at these stores.

When it comes to further targeting Tier-III & Tier-IV cities, Van Campaigns are the tried and tested activation modules, applying with the same efficiency to the e-commerce companies.

Apart from this, TG based activations at touch points like colleges can also be fruitful. Given the current scenarios, Outdoors BTL are the best foot forward for any e-commerce company trying to expand its user base.

Dos and Don’ts of Campaign Planning For Rural Marketing in India

Whatever activity you undertake is executed well with a list of do’s and don’ts because it forms a loose boundary around the formations which is not rigid enough to distract creativity but clear enough to avoid mistakes.

The holy grail of rural marketing in India- THE DOS

The golden rule of paying attention

Rural marketing starts with conversing to the client whilst keeping their perception of the brand. The similarity in this connection cannot be established without the knowledge of the brand and the product itself. Therefore, the first and foremost rule of rural marketing is to pay attention to the client’s requests and needs, rather than hearing them out, listen to them carefully.

The three Ps- Prioritize, Plan and Prepare

To pursue multiple ambitions, it is a prerequisite to know what comes first and what goes next and understand fully the reasons behind the same. For example, the client might be looking to target one particular market before others as per their overall strategic goals. Once the priority has been sorted out, the planning can start with full throttle.

Any campaign cannot be designed without sufficient planning which starts with market research about the audience type, constructing marketing objectives which are realistic and ambitious at the same time. It mainly involves the drafting of a suitable marketing strategy fit for the brand and the product.

Once the planning stage is over, the importance is transferred to preparing for the campaign to ensure its implementation without many surprises or hurdles.

Mix and match

Given the benefits using technology can provide, it should not be ignored due to the campaign being rural. Rather a way should be found to use technology for increasing operational efficiency and effectiveness of the campaign. Integrate online and offline activation activities to reap best results.

 Communicate to update

There are many times when the client is kept in the dark about the campaign progress, this may due to non-availability of time or resources. In any case, the rural marketing agency should realize that nowadays every organization prefers real-time communication of results. This satisfies their worries and reassures their faith in the campaign.

Deliver in a form they understand

While conversing with a client, marketing jargon should be kept aside and performance indicators should be adopted. Even though the calculation of ROI of the rural marketing campaign is nearly impossible, try to provide numbers that show progress such as sales revenue, open rates, closure rates, value per lead, number of incremental contacts etc. This helps the client to understand the results better and they are more inclined to use the same services again.

The wrong turn on the road to successful rural marketing campaign- THE DON’TS

Thou shall not misunderstand my audience

There is a popular school of thought that considers people belonging to rural and small towns to be extremely simple. There was a time, where this approach prevailed, however, we live in a time where predicting the complex behavior and psyche of rural consumers is very difficult. Therefore, a rural marketing agency should never rely on this approach completely as understanding the needs and desires of the target audience is the key to a successful rural marketing campaign.

Thou shall not mistake rural areas with their urban counterpart

Another common misconception among rural marketing agencies comes in shape of believing that the lines between rural and urban markets have become completely blurred. While this may prove to be true after a decade, here and now, this approach can render your rural marketing campaign ineffective.

Thou shall not ignore the client’s requests and advice

Yes, it is true that the client may not be aware of the trends and channels of rural marketing when compared to the agency. However, they are the makers of the product and curators of the brand, their insights can never be harmful, these should be considered before being considered unhelpful.

Thou shall not underestimate content

The biggest mistake a rural marketing agency can make is failing to realize the importance of engaging content. The scope of content development goes beyond its digital presence and the understanding of the same can make a lot of difference in the performance of the campaign.

Thou shall not do commit the cardinal sin of over budgeting or under budgeting

While spending too much is considered wrong, not agreeing to pay enough can also affect the campaign negatively. The right way is to be cautious in your spending but be firm to not let it affect the quality of your work.

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Farmer Meets If Effectively Done Can Give You Better Results in Rural Campaigns

“There is only one winning strategy. It is to carefully define the target market and direct a superior offering to that target market.” – Dr. Philip Kotler

There might only be one winning strategy but its applications seem two-fold, as per the well-known marketing guru the secret lays in following a step by step pattern. The initial landmark is the identification of target audience which is followed by its pursuit.

What is the target audience?

Marketing strategies are focused on the potential customers, however, it is impossible to relate to everyone and therefore a particular group is segregated from the audience on different parameters. The marketing efforts are aimed at the said group. These are selected on the basis of age, demographics, product features etc. so that the people who are most likely to use the product are being focused on. This improves the efficiency of the rural marketing campaign and increases the chances of a positive reaction to the product.

What is the target audience for rural marketing campaigns?

Devising a rural marketing campaign does not come without its challenges and therefore this first step becomes that much more important. However, the fact that around 58% of the total rural population in India is engaged in farming activities has contributed greatly towards solving this dilemma. Marketers find this number delighting because now that their mark is set, they can create a path to reach it. Farmers not only dominate by numbers but in a conventional society structure, their influence is widespread and steady.

How to reach the target audience?

Identifying the target audience is not sufficient, finding a way to make them aware of the brand is equally vital to the success of the rural marketing campaigns. A platform is a necessity to connect with the target audience as a group, rather than individuals. A stage that can be used curate a personal relationship with them as farmers and potential customers.

The best way to put this together is through a “farmer meets”– where the community gathers with their peers to discuss and resolve common issues. Such meets are often organized by the council or village heads for various purposes and can provide the marketer with an active stage of communication that employs the marketer’s interpersonal skills to increase awareness about the brand.

FARMER MEETS AND ITS ADVANTAGES

Organization of one such meet does not put strain on the marketing budget but fulfills multiple objectives of the marketing campaign, such as:-

• Interactive session with the target audience where a link between the features of the product and needs and preferences of the farmers can be established. This can act as a great way of promotion of the product as well as enhancing awareness.

• Direct feedback can be from the farmers regarding utility and pricing of the product and used to create better strategies for future campaigns.

• Various other methods such as edutainment can be incorporated in such meets to ensure that the message is communicated to the farmers in a way that allows them to understand and retain it.

• It is a perfect opportunity to engage the target audience in the promotional activities so that they process remains interactive and thus effective.

• Cost utilization is optimum since the reach is magnified as compared to other means that sought to reach the target audience separately.

The Effectiveness Conundrum

While all testimony provides positive responses to the usage of farmer meets in rural areas, there is still a factor unspoken of while reviewing the efficiency of the same as a part of rural marketing campaigns.

Effective Implementation

A farmer meet should be organized through the correct channels and by deciding on the perfect agenda in order to make the most of it. It is a common understanding that a farmer is more likely to show up to a meet where he gets a solution to his problems rather than one that aims to increase sales of a product.

Therefore, farmer meets are capable of offering results as listed above only if organized and implemented effectively.