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

Cinema Branding Could Be Best Medium In Small Town To Target Rural People For Brand Message And Engagement

Cinema can be explained as a 360-degree marketing environment, where placement opportunities are numerous. The easiest form of advertising through cinema is capturing the ideal screen space before the movie starts and during the interval.
The best example for cinema branding is Vicco, in the early 2000s, almost everyone in the theatre had a reaction to Vicco Vajradanti. They created a brand through targeting the best and the average cinema theatres alike, where their print ads ran for years. At a point of time, their jingle was stuck in moviegoers’ minds and people even started singing along.
Cinema advertising has grown at a CAGR of 11% in the last five years and it is predicted to grow further in the next five years. Entertainment remains to be a necessity to everyone even today and thus tapping that to find a way to warm into the hearts of the audience has proven effective. It is known to be most suited for smaller towns and rural areas due to the fact that cinema advertising has been the lowest avoidance medium. However, there are many more advantages to it than that.

Advantages of Cinema Branding in small towns and rural areas.

• Brand Awareness
  One of the noteworthy things about cinema branding is the great reach it provides, every show has hundreds of people and there are multiple shows in the day. This can mean thousands of audiences can be reached in a day and thus brand awareness becomes the biggest benefit of cinema branding.
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• Diversified audience 
  The spread provides the unique advantage of having a segmented audience without putting in any efforts. Every moviegoer cannot be defined in the same category and they often differ in age, gender, socio economic background etc. This diversification, if targeted through any other medium has to be executed very carefully and requires a lot of efforts during implementation but through cinema branding, the same can be done without breaking a sweat.

• Effectiveness
  Few other advantages unique to this medium when compared with others such as TV, radio etc. relate to the audience’s behaviour. When seated in a movie theatre, they are relaxed and their undivided attention is towards the screen, which is very difficult to achieve otherwise. The relax mood leads to better engagement while the undivided attention ensures that the message is being conveyed to the audience. This makes cinema branding more effective than other means of advertising as discussed above.
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• Environmental factors 
  A cinema hall has the benefit of a surround sound system, dim lighting and perfect visuals. When an ad is played in a theatre as against when it is played on the TV or radio, it captures the audiences completely and thus has better impact because in a theatre, it more like a media performance with the whole equipment set. The environment adds a lot of superficial value to a visual ad by giving it the required oomph.
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• Cost Benefit
  Even though cinema branding cannot be listed as a cheap or low cost way of advertising, it’s worth can surely be estimated. The volume of reach and the impact make the few minutes, worth the expense incurred to make it happen.
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Bioscope As An Effective Tool Of Communication

What is Bioscope?

Essentially, a bioscope is a movie camera belonging to the earlier era, when digitalization was not so common and widespread. It is often referred to as a traveling movie theatre due to the system involved. To the common eye, it is a colorful box with multiple round windows on the front and sides, an attendant takes you through the journey from window to another to tell a story with the use of graphics or non-mobile pictures set in slides.
Bioscope was once, the most popular medium of storytelling, before the introduction of motion cinema. During its peak, it managed to create a crowd on its merit alone, the story took the side seat. However, as our technology grew stronger, our cinema experience evolved to High Definition (HD) and Bioscope was left with the remains of that time.
The good thing about change is that it often comes with a silver lining wrapped around its gift wrap. Even though technology and innovation have made bioscope almost obsolete, its charm still remains untouched from the winds of modernization.



The future of Bioscope

As the walls of this century crumble upon their makers, people tend to dig into the past to hunt for liable alternatives of entertainment. The same principle is applicable for marketing, as things so awry with the older methods, marketers search for better alternatives. It is only natural that as the preferences of the audience changes, marketers will have to follow. Thus, the realm where these two realities collide is where the birthplace of “Edutainment”.
Edutainment is the joyful union of education and entertainment, popularly used by rural marketing agencies as a tool of communication. The concept precludes the connection of entertainment to better retention. Other methods of Edutainment include Nukkad Natak, puppet shows, etc.
Edutainment has been preferred by rural marketing agencies as a tool of communication in rural areas and small towns due its effective results and popularity among people in these areas.



Bioscope as an effective tool of communication in rural areas

Bioscope has a special pull in rural areas and small towns where the technological storm has not hit in all its glory. It is a part of the remainder traditions lingering around, trying to survive in the world of monotony.
Where most marketers keep their eyes tightly on Digital marketing as the innovative technique of marketing, they lose sight of the essence of rural India. Therefore, they often complain about lack of interest and participation among the audience. In order to get the desired reaction, rural marketing agencies jump to edutainment for aid. The truth is that the culture that revels in the old methods of entertainment should be approached behind the veils of innateness.
This pushes the marketer towards more fun ideas of storytelling, such as Bioscope.
The excitement felt by people waiting in line to peep in the windows is reason enough to consider Bioscope as a tool of communication in villages but let us look at some more:-

• The entertainment value.
  There is no point in debating the fact that entertainment attracts more crowd than a promotional activity and therefore using bioscope assists in creating the audience.

• The cost Value.
  Bioscope is as cheap as they come, their activity is very cost effective and worth the investment as it attracts a lot of local people from rural areas and even small towns.

• The emotional value.
  Either the parent sees their past through the little windows in the bioscope or they see their children’s joy, both of which generate a strong emotional reaction. This helps the brand to create a lasting connection with the audience.

• The brand recall value.
  The introduction of the entertainment aspect of the Bioscope and its unique way of giving information leaves a mark on the audience. This also helps them relate to the brand while remembering the product.

Rural Mela Is One Of The Best Congregations In Rural India For Targeting Rural People Cost Effectively

When we hear the word Mela, we are often plagued with the images of villagers naively concentrating their resources on games and food while a group of dancers magically attain synchronization in the crowd. Our vision on the subject is obstructed due to the portrayal of same in Hindi cinema but the fact is that this stereotyping is blinding rural marketing agencies.
In 2016, Fairs or melas organized in rural areas or small towns have a different aspect to their marketing opportunity. In the last few years, India saw brands such as Colgate, Dabur and Vodafone leading the way into mela marketing through Kumbh Melas and other big names like Sonpur mela, Navchandi mela etc.
They are no longer attributed to Hindu festivals but to an advertising alternative to target audiences in rural markets and small towns. We can safely say that if there is any rural equivalent of “mall activities” which has been chosen by several giants, it is rural Mela.
Similarities between the two can baffle you at once;-

• Availability of ideal crowd looking to have a good time.
• No rush as people visit both only with time to spare on their hands.
• Active participation from the crowd and ease in getting response.
• Buying behavior predictable.

If you equate both with the assistance of a catalyst for rural conversion, you get the same results.


What can this catalyst be?
In the most basic sense, the attitude and perspective of a rural marketing agency can act as the catalyst and assist in devising a successful marketing campaign in a mela .There are certain difference between rural areas and urban areas that need to be considered before exporting of this alternative into villages and rural areas. The feel of familiarity is one of the most challenging one to achieve in this transformation, villagers are attracted towards brands that seem highly functional and have a slight western influence but at the same time, they need the sense of association to trust the marketing agency.
For example, while in metro cities, a well-dressed individual with good spoken English and sarcasm might generate better reaction from the audience but in villages, the same is replaced by rhymes, loudspeakers and colorful settings. It is more about going big and extravagant in rural parlance; low driven efforts are not known to create the impact which is needed.
A rural marketer has to comprehend the preferences of his rural counterpart and serve their needs in a way they would most desire.



What are the benefits of Mela marketing?
Mela organized in rural areas are one of the best congregations for targeting audience from rural areas and small towns, here is why:-

• Brand visibility and exposure
  Thousands of people belonging to diverse groups attend these melas; the advantage does not lie solely in numbers but in variety. Generally, all age groups and social economic status categories visit them. This provides brands visibility and exposure in circles they covet.

• Higher chances of conversion
  People visiting these melas are relaxed and their buying walls are down, that simply means that they can be convinced more easily compared to interactive activities where they are invited on regular working days. Researches show that 73% of the visitors ended up making unplanned purchases in melas.

• Cost Effective
  Given the benefits that brands can derive by the use of melas as a marketing opportunity, it seems to be providing return on investment. Expenses are minimal when this alternative is chosen as the creation of aura and environment is not the rural marketing agency’s responsibility. The brand gets a readymade platform.

ROI of Rural Marketing Campaign to Justify Marketing Budgets

Companies spend a sum ranging from 7% to 11% of their revenue annually on marketing efforts and while this might seem like a decent amount to some while others would call this risky.
Why is this so?
The reasoning behind this argument can be the conventional approach taken whereas this expense is considered as a charge on profit rather than an investment made in order to gain future benefits. Traditionally, the emphasis used to be on the tangibility of the paybacks which were considered near to impossible to prove for the outlay required for rural marketing.
This lead to the issue of rationalization of the investment so made, how to justify the increasing pile of funds an organization allocates in the name of rural marketing, promotion, and advertising.

How to justify rural marketing budgets?

The answer can be summarized in three golden words:-

Return on Investment (ROI)

Return on Investment or ROI as it is commonly known is a profitability ratio which can be calculated using different approaches and formulas. It is a mathematical yardstick to measure the benefits reaped from the investment made in rural marketing. The rationale behind the inclusion of numbers is to provide a clear and precise result to people who are otherwise unable to read between the lines.
For the uninitiated, let us take an example pertaining to our daily life where you are approached by two different salesmen selling their schemes.

• Mr. XYZ comes to you and offers you an opportunity to invest Rs.5, 000/- in his scheme, if you do invest, he promises that you will see a return of 8% within the next six months.
• Mr. ABC comes to you and offers you a unique opportunity to invest Rs.5, 000/- in his new company but he cannot promise you a percentage of return. The return is designed based on the future growth of the company which is difficult for you to assess.

What would you do?

Even when the amount is less, we would prefer to be assured on what returns it is yielding us, without which our desire seems to fade away.
Now, imagine the perplexity of top management or finance officer when they are asked to approve up to 8% of their revenue on rural marketing. This is exactly why there is a pressure on marketers to justify the requirement for these funds but the trouble sets in where the calculation becomes a big puzzle.

Why is calculating ROI important?

• In order to satisfy the doubts that may surface in management’s mind over the improbable returns of marketing campaigns and prove their success.
• The rural marketing agency should incorporate performance parameters such as ROI in order to communicate its worth to the clients.
• Management of the organization is not necessarily trained to identify and calculate such indicators and therefore ROI assists them in taking better decisions.
• Plays a significant role in placing reassurance in the services of the rural marketing agency.

How to calculate ROI?

Even though it is incredibly difficult to establish a direct connection to the expense made and benefits received by the company. Even when indirect links are being built, there remains suspicion of involvement of other external factors. However, parameters can be trusted to give a near accurate replica of the actual results to play to the vanity of financial inclusion.

Few ways to calculate the ROI:-

• Sales Approach
  ROI = (Increase in growth- Marketing Cost) / Marketing Cost
• Gross Profit Approach
  ROI= (Gross Profit- Marketing Cost)/ Marketing Cost
• Profit approach
  ROI= (Gross Profit- Incremental Expenses)/ Marketing Cost
• Customer Approach
  ROI= (Customer Value – Marketing Cost)/ Marketing Cost
• Incoming Leads Approach
  ROI= (Increase in leads- Marketing Cost)/ Marketing Cost

Haats Can Be Used As Effective Touch Points In Rural Areas

What is a Haat Market?

The flea markets people so often enjoy in urban areas these days were adopted from their rural counterpart and famous cousin- Haat. These are markets organized on a regular basis in rural areas and small towns where people from village and nearby places put up temporary shops to sell their produce. Haats have not lost their charm and still attract a lot of crowd in the rural areas, in fact, it has only grown in size and volume. More buyers are making their way to these transient markets and sellers depend on them for their needs.



The Ulterior Use of Haats

When you read the above passage, you picture a lively space with lots of carts and sellers showcasing their products in a humble background. People roaming around with shopping bags in their hands while children enjoy the occasional snack.
Yes, a haat is a lot like a modern day flea market in the mall organized in a city.
But, there is something you should be able to see that goes beyond the obvious colors in the palette. Ask rural marketing agency, you should see potential for a touch point.
Some features of this market that are noteworthy:-

• Large assembly of potential customers
  Since the haat is an age old happening, which ensures a large number of visitors that come to the market. This crowd gives opportunity for marketing of the product and provides necessary coverage to the brand.
  The haat serves various products like vegetables, spices, cleaning products etc. and therefore increasing the prospect of the brand to blend in the market technically while still standing out in presentation.

• Input and output
  The haat has a lot of attractions but the most prominent one are the products, people come with the mindset to buy in these markets. This state of mind makes them more perceptive and open to being participating in interactive activities or promotional events. Many of these customers are eager to have their problems as well as their feedback recorded which can be a way to engage and introduce them to the brand.

• The right frequency
  Haats are not a permanent establishment, rather they are a weekly one. This gives them the perfect amount of coverage, not too much and not too less. This is not a forceful repetition but at the same time it gives enough element of recall to the brand.

• Low cost and higher benefits
  Haats are planned without considering the advertising spaces and marketing opportunities it provides, this means that when approached the same would be available for a lesser amount than other spaces with the same crowd and coverage.

What does this mean?

A simple read of the above reminds you of every feature you look for in a counter to approach and interact with potential customers and hence Haats prove to be an effective one. Even though this is a new way of looking it, it surely is a refreshing way to look at touch points in rural areas.

Conceptual Marketing Campaign Works In For Long Lasting Imprints In Consumer Mind

Any great campaign starts with a raw idea that needs transformation that comes from curation done by experienced and creative hands. In order to create magic to mesmerize and capture the interests of the customers, innovative and distinctive ideas are needed but is that all? Does a single idea has the potential to create a brand and build a lasting impression?
The truth is, a good idea is like a good seed, even though it has the potential of growing into a big tree that provides shade, it needs help getting there. It needs someone to sow it in the field and provide it with water and care. Similarly, a great idea can only provide benefits if it has caretakers, a team to simplify it and create a conceptualized representation.



What is conceptualization?

Technically, it is the process of development and clarification of concepts. In regards to marketing campaigns, it can be understood as a process of creating an idea and working towards incorporation of the same in a campaign. Features forming steps that can help understand the process of conceptualization are as follows:-

• Stating the marketing goals for the product or the brand
• Understanding the target audience, its needs and preferences
• Comprehending geographical and regional differences
• Matching the use and needs to find the link between the two
• Listing out the requirements
• Drafting a strategy to accomplish the said goals
• Taking assistance from past experiences ,examples and market trends
• Consideration of cost and social benefit

The theory of conceptualization is an adamant supporter of development of a concept which is an abstract idea. Instead of going head on into it, it begs the use of a more effective way of designing a campaign. It is distinct and unique to every single campaign. It can be utilized as a special purpose framework intended to result in the fulfillment of the marketing objectives of the company. Benefits of conceptualization reaches deeper than the surface and are seen as essential when it comes to being creative.

Why conceptualize?

Effectiveness and efficiency are qualities that need no advocacy or explanation but those are not the only reasons marketers are attracted towards it. It is because even though the process is long and road rocky, it gives the competitive edge the brand craves. We all keep talking about how important marketing is but how would you stand out when there are thousands other who agree with the same point?


That is where Conceptualization comes to focus as it helps to create a campaign that is not only based on a powerful idea that appeals to the masses but also executed in the correct way. For example, use of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan to market cleaning products- every other cleaning product will tell you that it removes all stains and gives shine etc. but we have all heard that so we don’t bother but when they start with telling us the importance of cleanliness in our schools, streets and country as a whole, we listen.Why?
Is it that “Daag achhe hote hai?” No, it is because we have never seen the link between a central government project and a cleaning product.
When you base your campaign on an idea instead of basic instincts of revenue maximization, it creates a more lasting impression on the target consumer. Everyone is aiming to fit their needs but is that enough to last the elimination round and thinning of the herd?
No, for that your campaigns needs to break barriers of communication and reach out to the sensibilities of the customers that do more than satisfy their needs. Conceptualization of marketing campaigns is the best way to leave lasting imprints on the customers and the most effective way to do so.