Best summer projects from students of some of the leading business schools across the country were recently felicitated by Rural Marketing Association of India (RMAI), at the third edition of the ?Uncover Rural Markets Awards?. In a function held in New Delhi recently, RMAI in association with rural marketing consultancy MART, chose 10 best projects from 46 entries.

BW presents a peek into the top six projects that helped some of the leading rural marketers fix their unique problems. The jury for the awards comprised Raj Kumar Jha, vice-president, RMAI, and national creative director, Ogilvy Action; Pradeep Kashyap, president, RMAI; and Kartik Raina, ex CEO, Dabur Foods and Dalmia Consumer Care. The six projects detailed here underscore how resolute marketers can carve out a meaningful space for themselves in the growing rural markets.

The company: Mahindra Automotive, part of $6.3 billion Mahindra Group that is into manufacturing and marketing of utility vehicles and light commercial vehicles

Student: Sushant Jain, IIFT Delhi; winner of the gold award

Project objective: To gauge and enhance the efficacy of the sales and services network of the company in semi-urban and rural centres and to devise ways of enhancing penetration in rural markets

Execution: Jain divided the project in four parts. At the first stage, he mapped the sales and services network of the company and its major competitors across more than 500 non-urban towns in India. This helped in understanding where Mahindra Automotive stood vis-?-vis its rivals. In the second stage, he tried to weigh in customer expectation by touching base with them at the dealer owned outlets and other sales points.

Third stage comprised comparison of the company?s infrastructure and manpower with its rivals to understand if it was investing enough resources in its rural marketing network. Last stage comprised identifying the alternate penetration strategy for the Mahindra automobile network.

Recommendations: The project successfully identified the distribution channels employed by automobile companies across a number of states. It presented a report on customer expectation from sales and services teams and also, gave a comparative picture of infrastructure deployed by other industry players to serve these markets. It also recommended partnership with group company Mahindra Tractors to leverage synergies on market penetration and distribution fronts. All recommendations made by the project have been adopted by the company.

The company: Kisan Khazana, an agri-business initiative of Godavari Biorefineries Ltd, which has interests across sugar, power, industrial alcohol, heavy organic chemicals, and specialty chemicals sectors

Student: Vijay V Adhyapak, Institute of Management Technology, Ghaziabad; winner of the silver award

Project objective: To explore the feasibility and viability of a Super Bazaar store in Sameerwadi in Bijapur district of Karnataka

Execution: The student studied the business model of successful rural retailers such as ITC Choupal Sagar, Triveni Khushali Bazaar, Hariyali Kisan Bazaar, Tata Kisan Sansar, Mahindra Krishi Vihars, and Godrej Aadhar, among others to understand the dynamics of such retail centres. Interactions with farmers and rural consumers helped understand their needs and expectations. They were explained the use of retail credit.

Recommendations: The main takeaway was that brands must partner with farmers and involve local retailers to better manage their supply chain. This could help them leverage ?relationship marketing??a prerequisite for a survival in the hinterland.

The company: Rallis India Ltd, a leading agrochemical company and a Tata Group enterprise with a turnover of Rs 800 crore per annum

Student: Zafar Ahmad, College of Agribusiness Management, Pantnagar; winner of bronze award

Project objective: Studying farmers? buying behaviour and gaining insight into the triggers for choosing a Rallis product against a rival brand in Gorakhpur, Faizabad, Jaunpur (Purvanchal-Eastern Uttar Pradesh). Also, to gauge consumer awareness, involvement, and satisfaction with the company?s products.

Execution: Interaction was held with farmers and other target consumers on how they liked to receive information on Rallis products, and on factors that led them to make their final purchase decision.

Recommendations: The interactions led to the conclusion that while rural consumers are cautious and conservative buyers, they put a premium on brand name as well. Price sensitivity was found to be the most among poor and marginalised farmers, followed by those in higher income bracket, especially those who could avail of institutional credit arranged by the retailer.

The project recommended that Rallis should consider launching a ?Rallis Model Shop? in rural centres to display all its products and agri-solutions at one go. Packaging must also commensurate with ease-of-handling. And the company must keep a strict vigil on spurious pesticide brands that also thrive in the market.

The company: Gram Tarang, the rural marketing wing of Centurion Group of Institutions. It?s known for its cost effective and scalable rural distribution and extension services

Students: Kiran Jyoti Mahasuar and Anup Kumar Singh, Xavier Institute of Management-Bhubaneswar; winners of bronze award

Project objective: To develop a three-year operational plan for the company by offering a quarter-on-quarter analysis on business and scaling up plans, besides making financial projections for the next decade for expansion in the non-urban markets of Orissa, Karnakata and Andhra Pradesh.

Execution: The project undertook a detailed study of various distribution channels across remote and non-accessible markets of Orissa, attempting a comprehensive competitor analysis in the consumer products market, identifying issues related with human resources that may have been damaging the performance of its sales team. The project also studied how established consumer products companies such as ITC, Hindustan Unilever and Godrej positioned and sold their products to rural consumers and if there were any learnings in their strategy for Gram Tarang.

Recommendations: The report concluded that despite growing consumption, rural markets in Orissa, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh remained underserved and there was a room for a player like Gram Tarang to expand its network in these markets and it suggested ways in which this can be achieved. Another recommendation to Gram Tarang was to be present in other forms such as rural entertainment and marketing of non-FMCG products and services?saris and dress materials, agri-input marketing etc to cash in on the goodwill it has and expand its revenue base.

The company: Hariyali Kisaan Bazaar is a rural retail chain headquarted at Noida, a Delhi suburb, that hawks a slew of products to remote markets across the country

Student: Varun S Pilla, International Management Institute, New Delhi

Project objective: Hariyali Kisaan Bazaar?s operations are centrally planned at Noida whereas the actual execution takes place at various remote centres and hence, it needs different strategy for different centres. The management of the Bazaar sought the students? help to devise ways for the successful implementation of its Summer Launch project that comprised products such as Lux, Hariyali Dal, Daurala sugar, etc

Execution: The students undertook field studies of 14 Hariyali Kisaan Bazaar stores in four northern states, Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. The survey also involved exploration of rival rural brands and kirana stores and interaction with consumers on their expectations and dissatisfaction.

Recommendations: Various discrepancies existing in the implementation, and suggestions for improvement were made to the company. These included undertaking efforts to improve customer experience in stores, changes in the layout to improve product visibility, changes in rack arrangements to improve buying impulse.

The company: ITC-ABD, an agri-business division of consumer products maker and hospitality company ITC that sells a wide array of products by involving rural households, and giving them income opportunities

Students: Debasish Maitra and Kushankur Dey of the Institute of Rural Management, Anand, Gujarat

Project objective: To propose a new business metric in rural marketing for ITC-ABD

Execution: The study was carried out in two districts of Madhya Pradesh?Ujjain and Dewas. The project involved a detailed field study of the various rural distribution channels of companies such as Hindustan Unilver, Marico, and Procter & Gamble, among others. The focus was on evaluation of an existing channel of ITC?s much-acclaimed e- chaupal, and figuring out more creative ways and means of increasing the brand?s reach and scalability. The study of bottlenecks in the channel eventually threw interesting ideas on how not to fall into these traps and enhance distribution network and encourage buying behaviour.

Recommendations: The report reiterated the importance of alternative routes to traditional marketing and distribution channels. It emerged during the course of the discussions that partnering with BASIX, a micro finance institution operating in rural markets, would help ITC increase its penetration, brand awareness, and sales.

This would also help partner companies increase their sales volume, while BASIX and livelihood service provider would be able to generate better livelihood concepts and be instrumental in increasing earnings for its targets.

Lastly, retailers would get door-step delivery with merchandising support resulting in increased consumer satisfaction.