Evolution of rural media

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: 6,38,365) villages and speaks in numerous tongues.

The dispersion phenomenon poses a twofold challenge for advertisers and mass communicators wishing to reach rural audiences, namely, that of geographic dispersion as rural audiences are scattered and remain beyond the reach of conventional media (so that rural corporate giants that are champions of rural marketing, such as Hindustan Lever are struggling to reach them); and linguistic dispersion: India is a multilingual country with dozens of major languages and hundreds of dialects/varieties.

There are other variables too, such as understanding the needs and aspirations of consumers (consumer segmentation), and marketing the products that they need. Therefore, the important issues for advertising in rural India that are of concern to Indian advertisers and marketeers include:

* To reach the as yet unreachable with the most suitable media to ensure maximal spatial reach;

* To reach them linguistically and effectively;

* To unify this highly fragmented market through some standardised pan-Indian or global advertising strategy; and

* To mobilise villagers to the point of sale or the focal point of action.

How to reach the unreachable

The easiest solution would be to reach rural India by means of conventional electronic media (radio and TV). However, there are several limitations in the use of conventional media forms:

* Television

* TV is beyond the reach of rural India. Electricity is not yet accessible to many if not most people living in remote rural areas. According to NRS 2005, TV reaches 108 million households, reflecting a 32% growth since 2002. Cable and satellite TV penetration jumped from 40 million in 2007, 61 million in 2005. Nevertheless, the reach of TV is still limited.

* More than half the reach of TV is created through secondary viewing programmes such as community viewing.

* Reach and frequency of regional language and vernacular programming is still limited.

* Channel surfing is common; viewership is not guaranteed; clash of value systems results in special resistance to television advertising.

* Ownership of colour TV sets is extremely low, which places severe limitations on the artistic delivery of the message.

* In spite of the emergence of interactive TV, viewers have low involvement with advertised messages.

* Radio

* Although it has maximum reach, radio is still under much government control.

* Programme options are limited.

* There is no visual content.

* Like TV, there is a low involvement level of the listeners with ad messages.

* Cinema

* Cinema is experiencing a downward trend in viewership.