Sustainable Marketing Strategies with respect to Brand Preference of Rural Consumers in India

With an approximate population of 700 million people, the rural Indian market is important for multinational corporations to tap. Although rural Indians need to purchase consumer goods just as their Western counterparts do, rural Indian consumers have a different set of needs that must be met by both package and product. Spending time researching the rural Indian consumer as well as the market before diving in can help to prevent unnecessary struggles and failures. If the opportunity exists, partnering with an existing Indian company upon market entry can provide several key advantages to a company. Understanding the available distribution networks in rural India is crucial to making a successful entry into the rural Indian market. Packages need to be designed to withstand more distribution abuse due to poor roads and more primitive modes of transportation. Finally, when creating a package for rural India, small sizes allow consumers to try new products. It also caters to the fact that most rural Indians have low disposable incomes and little storage space at home. By applying the strategies in terms of sustainable marketing from multinational corporations in the past, the task of entering the rural Indian market should be promising.

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