ICT in marketing
Promotional campaigns. Recommending the use of the products at micro level would result in increasing productivity of the input and thereby increasing the image and the sales of the product can raise the input demand for rural markets. Joint or co-operative promotion A personalised approach is required under this strategy of rural marketing. Under this approach there is a greater scope for private sector and farmer organisation to get into input supply and especially into retail distribution, as it is a low risk activity.
Bundling of inputs In order to reap the benefits of, the economies of the scale a rural marketer has to esort to bundling of inputs. ‘Bundling of Inputs’ is the process by which the marketer would provide a bundle of products to the retailer so that he can meet the requirements of the farmers in one place. The village level co-operatives and other agencies can play an effective role in the distribution of inputs. Establishing linkages with financial agencies and other input sellers can help greatly as the bank credit plays an important role by making the purchase possible.
Management of Demand A marketer apart from maintaining good supplies in terms of quality and quantity also has to focus on the demand side of the operations also. Continuous January 2006 | www. i4d. csdms. in market research should be undertaken to assess the buyer’s needs and problems so that continuous improvements and innovations can be undertaken for a sustainable market performance. Developmental marketing Developmental marketing refers to taking up marketing programmes keeping the development objective in mind and using various managerial and other inputs of marketing to achieve these objectives.
A prerequisite for developmental marketing is Development Market Research, which can be termed as the application of marketing research tools and techniques to the problems of development. The research tools of marketing like product testing tests marketing, concept testing and media testing or message test and focus groups are used in this work. Developmental marketing has started to find its roots in India where researchers are using focus groups and products tests to learn more about rural markets and products needs and USPs (Unique Selling Proposition) can be tried out.
Media rural marketing uses both kinds of media i. e. the traditional media as well as the modern media. The traditional media includes puppetry, drama, folk theatre e. g. tamsaha (role play of different characters by one or two persons), nautanki (short kits with songs and poetry), street plays, folk songs, wall paintings and proverbs. Marketer uses traditional media as it is more accessible, personalised, familiar and carries a high potential for change. The modern media includes the print media, the television and the radio USPs. 21 Some ot the USPs ot the companies engaged in rural marketing are given below.
Mahindra Tractors- ‘Mera Desh Mera Gaon’ (My country my village) Tafe Tractors-‘Grameen Bharat ki Dhadkan’ Tafe ka Massey Ferguson(The heart beat of rural India its Tafe’s Massey Ferguson) SwaraJ Tractors- ‘Pragati aur Khush-hali ke iye’ (For development and happiness) Escorts- ‘Nay’ technique ke sath, Bharosa Jeevan bhar Ka’ (A life long trust with new techniques) Eicher-‘Ghazab ki takat, ghazab ki shaan’ (Incredible strength, Incredible pride) Sun Seeds- ‘Grow with Sun’ ICl Karate Insecticide’Keedon ka Maha-kaal, Phasal Ka Pehredaar’ (Insects enemy protector of the crops).
Pesticide India- ‘Desh ke liye Phasal Anek, Keedon ke Naash ke liye Foratox Sirf Ek (Numerous crops for the country but only for destroying pests i. e. Foratox). Thus the companies use different formats to influence the target audience in order to produce the desired results. Extension Services. There are several limitations of rural marketing in the Indian context, this leads to the need for extension services to supplement the efforts of the firms engaged in rural marketing.
The various extension services could include credit facilities, competitions among the farmers, educating the farmers regarding the appropriate agricultural practices, etc. Extension services would thus play a crucial role in the development of rural marketing in India. Ethics in Business Ethics occupies a special place in rural marketing, and has been at the heart of all the transactions whether cash or kind. In order to make a lasting impact on the rural clients, the firms need to built a trustful relationship and that is possible by no other means but only by ethical conduct.
Partnership for sustainability There is a need to build partnership with rural clients for a sustainable business relationship and sustainable marketing relationship. There should be a long-term relationship between the firms and farmers for agro business projects, which are risky, long drawn and technical in nature. Partnership is required in rural marketing business so as to award distributorship to local groups and individuals employing ocals, staff secondment in local projects, preferential purchase of local product, training to locals and discount on product supplies in some areas.
Rural marketing firms can work with NGOs also because NGOs have better linkages and understanding of the local communities and their problems. NagarJuna fertilisers and Chemicals Ltd has set up an agro output division which is known as FMS (Farm Management Service) which provides packages to the farmers right form soil testing to post harvest stage of the crop system. The FMS aims at enhancing farm productivity optimising cost of production, improving conomic returns to farmers and enhancing the cost of production and enhancing the produce quality.
Conclusion Rural marketing in India nas still a long way to go, rural marketers nave to understand the fact that rural marketing in India has a tremendous potential in our country. Rural marketers should understand this fact and try to tap the huge untapped potential in our country. NepaLinux NepaLinux is a Debian and Morphix based GNU/Linux distribution focused for Desktop usage in Nepali language computing. It contains applications for Desktop users like: OpenOffice. org, Nepali Gnome Desktop, Nepali input systems tc.
Since January 2004, Madan Puraskar Pustakalaya, the principal archive of books and periodicals in the Nepali language, undertook the Nepal component of the 30- month long PAN Localisation Project (www. PANLIOn. net), a multi-nation localisation project being conducted in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, Laos, Nepal, and Sri Lanka, with the support of International Development and Research Centre (IDRC), Canada. This project includes a Nepali GNU/Linux distribution ‘NepaLinux’ comprising of localised GNOME, OpenOffice. org, Mozilla suite, and other utilities that nclude Nepali Spellchecker, Thesaurus, Nepali Unicode support, etc.
This distribution can be used in Nepali as well in English environment. Though NepaLinux is basically a live CD it can also be installed in the computer. The work for the installation process has been facilitated through the European Commission supported Bhasha Sanchar Project (www. bhashasanchar. org) which is led by the Open University (I-JK). NepaLinux is a Free/Open Source Software (FOSS), in which the source code is open and the users have the freedom to use, study, modify according to one’s needs and redistribute it. NepaLinux, being a Free/
