Marketers face innumerable challenges related to awareness, affordability, availability, and accessibility to reach the Bottom of Pyramid (BOP) markets The objective of this paper is to enumerate the challenges faced by marketers in making their product available to the rural population during COVID-19 The study focuses on 25 challenges, identified from past studies, for marketing in rural areas Along with the identification of the challenges from a literature review and marketing practices, an attempt is made to contextually relate the challenges to one another, for which three extensive focus group discussions each among six experts were conducted After this step, Matrice d’Impacts Croises Multiplication Appliquee a un Classment (MICMAC) analysis was conducted to plot the challenges based on driving power and dependence power An Interpretive Structural Model (ISM) is also developed from the MICMAC analysis This paper will allow marketers to identify and formulate an action plan based on the preference order generated from ISM to create maximum impact Further, the research, marketing, and societal implications of the study are discussed © 2021 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

Marketing at the Bottom of the Pyramid: Overcoming the Challenges through MICMAC Analysis

Constructing a conceptual model of purchase behaviour of village shopkeepers – a study of small rural retailers in Eastern India

Online shopping is very new to India, but is catching up very fast in recent days. In less than 5 years it has reached to around 2 percent of the total retail. The growth rate is more than double as compared to the organized retailing India. What could be the reasons? As per the review of literature one of the main reasons is trust of the shoppers in e-retailing. The online vendors have successfully established their brands in the minds of the online shoppers. The question arise does males and females equally having the trust in online shopping, especially in Pune city? In the current paper, the researchers tried to find out the answer to the above question. Independent samples of males and females have been tested through independent sample t-test. 205 is the sample size. Two components of trust- Integrity and Benevolence (intention/willingness) have been taken into account for the current study. It has been found that there is no difference of trust between the male and female shoppers of Pune.

A Study on Trust in Online Shopping in Pune: A Comparative Study between Male and Female Shoppers

Purpose




The purpose of this paper is to draw qualitative insights about Indian rural markets and marketing. First, the key aspirations of the rural customers are listed; then the paper explores an understanding about this potential market among marketing professionals; and finally, issues and concerns of customers in the Indian rural market are discussed.




Design/methodology/approach




In order to achieve the objectives, qualitative methodologies were used. An interview approach was adopted to identify the aspirations of rural customers. To draw insights into the perspectives of marketing professionals, focus group discussions (FGDs) and open online responses along with content analysis were used. FGDs were conducted to obtain insights pertaining to issues and concern from rural customers.




Findings




The paper enlists and ranks the key aspirations of Indian rural customers; a well-furnished concrete house tops the list followed by acquisition of land and property. The marketing professionals discuss their understanding of rural markets from the perspective of brand consciousness to the wave of changes they see. The rural customers speak about how children are new opinion leaders to the cultural threat they perceive.




Research limitations/implications




The Indian rural market, where roughly 12 percent of the global population resides, provides umpteen business opportunities. An understanding of the rural market would help marketers and business organizations build appropriate market strategies to tap the market.




Originality/value




The paper attempts to explore an understanding on the Indian rural market, which has not been researched extensively. The research frame work is holistic and involves the views and perspectives of key stakeholders.

Exploration of Indian rural markets and marketing

Today retail in not a new word for Indian customer, however the rising retail formats are changing the entire image as well as creating tough issues and challenges in front of Indian retailers. They are now designing and modifying their retail format having variety of retail products with several services for untouched segment of the rural market. In this paper, researcher examines the retail prospects in the development of rural market and share the challenges faced by the retailer for capturing rural market. This review paper attempts to provide a brief literature on rural marketing and finally offers policy recommendations for better performance of rural markets and to observe the potentiality of Indian Rural Markets This study is also an attempt to find that how to explore the potential of rural retail market of India, accessing their needs for products, brands and finding out various problems are being faced by rural markets. Further, this paper explores how retail companies have been able to have an impact in the rural segment through effective marketing strategies.

http://www.mercglobal.org/uploads/1/5/0/3/15039924/merc-m-151.pdf

A Review on Retailing Prospects of Indian Rural Market: Issues & Challenges

Around the world, four billion people live in poverty. And marketing firms are still struggling to turn them into customers. For the past decade, business visionaries have argued that these people, dubbed the “Base of the Pyramid”, make up an enormous, untapped market. Some of the world's biggest, savviest corporations have aimed to address their basic needs — by selling them everything from clean water to electricity and from FMCG to consumer durables. “Improving the lives of billions of people at the bottom of the economic pyramid is a noble endeavour. It can also be a lucrative one.” C.K. Prahlad. The paper studies the changing scenario of Indian rural markets and implies some suggestions in improving the marketing strategy in rural selling and market promotion. An improved marketing mix is the call of hour, with strategies framed by deeply considering the dynamic rural buying behaviour. This is in context of Indian rural market which is stands tall due to its cultural diversity. This throws an open ground challenge to the marketers in a country with multi-cultural, multi-lingual varsity. This paper is an attempt to provide some mettle solutions to these challenges as it studies and follows some successful rural marketing strategies of modern times. This is particular in context of rural sales strategies rural promotion mix.

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/Delivery.cfm/SSRN_ID2352405_code1847003.pdf?abstractid=2352405&mirid=1

Rural Marketing in India – Challenges and Opportunities

Researchers typically study how levels of risk perception about online shopping affect and how consumers use the channel to buy products In this paper, researchers are attempting to study how different types of attitudes towards online shopping are formed, considers both the benefit and the risk of using the internet to do their shopping Researchers pay particular attention to the concept of online shopping skepticism where consumers may fully realize the benefit of using the internet to do their shopping, but also express a certain level of concern about the risk of using that channel

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/Delivery.cfm/SSRN_ID2287643_code1847003.pdf?abstractid=2287643&mirid=1

A Study of the Attitude Towards Online Shopping: A Conceptual Model Regarding Intention Formation, the Role of Perceived Risks.

Web-based instruction, also called e-learning, is currently one of the most talked about education and training media. To prepare courses for online delivery and to maintain their effectiveness, the designer must have an understanding of e-learning instructional design principles. Action learning is a proven, effective management development process that has not been implemented to date as an e-learning instructional methodology. The purpose of this exploratory case study was to examine the impact of the action learning process on the effectiveness of management level web-based instruction (WBI). A leader-led, management-level course using face-to-face delivery was converted to web-based instruction where action learning was the delivery methodology. It was found that, though challenging to facilitate, the action learning online method is effective and yields changes in participants’ knowledge.

Sumit Mishra

Papers

Rural Marketing in India – Challenges and Opportunities

A Study of the Attitude Towards Online Shopping: A Conceptual Model Regarding Intention Formation, the Role of Perceived Risks.

E-Learning: A Study of Action Learning Applied Online