Part -1
(
Excerpted from my book on rural marketing titled `Don`t Flirt with rural
marketing)
I am
a city boy who spent the first 29 years
of my life in an urban environment. I was brought up in Bombay, as it was
called then. I was still in school, when I first visited Rayalacheruvu a
village in Andhra Pradesh,. My maternal
uncle was the Assistant Station Master there. It is a small station near
Guntakal on the Chennai-Mumbai line. The visit gave me a taste of life in rural
India. A taste that would lead to my getting involved in rural marketing later in life. A good case
study of a city boy becoming a rural specialist!
The modest quarters that my uncle’s
family lived in was close to the railway station. Whenever a train stopped, the
station became a beehive of activity—with travellers, vendors and beggars
running around. For me and my sister, visiting the station two or three times a
day became the desired pastime. After each train left, the lone tea stall
holder would offer us a cup of hot tea with some biscuits—a privilege, courtesy
our uncle, we looked forward to.
Not far from the station, there was a big well. My uncle
and his colleagues used to swim there regularly. My uncle used to force me to
take a dip holding me tight in his hands. A mere seven years old, I was scared
of the water and used to scream, mad with fear. But I knew that my uncle meant
well. He used to take us all on bullock carts to the nearby village haat (the
weekly market). While my aunt busied herself with purchasing the many items
needed for a household, we youngsters used to have fun playing games and
gawking at the wares that were arrayed for sale. In the course of my career as
a rural marketing specialist, I have visited many weekly haats in different
parts of the country; yet that first visit is still green in my memory.
One thing I remember vividly about the visits to my
uncle’s village, are the trips to the touring talkies. We went almost every
Friday, to watch a new movie being screened. The ‘theatre’ was a temporary
structure. The front part of the ‘theatre’ was for those people who sat down on
the floor, some actually preferred. to lie down, and was called the
‘tharai’ ticket (floor ticket). The more genteel ‘balcony’ was at the back, and
was separated from the front portion by means of a cloth partition. The higher
rated ‘balcony’ was furnished with chairs. As an Assistant Station Master, my
uncle was considered an important enough man in the village to get free tickets
to sit in the balcony (!).Another thing that I clearly remember about my visits
is that practically every day villagers would come to give us some of their
farm produce, be it fruit or vegetable. Life in the village was not easy then,
as there was neither electricity nor any other conveniences which city folks
are used to. . All the same it was a different kind
of holiday experience both my sister and I enjoyed as kids.
City boy to a Rural
Specialist- Part 2
The next brush I had with rural India was in 1972 when I was associated
with a Communication Education Programme on Nutrition in rural UP & AP for
CARE, an NGO headquartered in US working in the area of Health & Nutrition.
As part of its ongoing efforts, to choose a right communication strategy, CARE
decided to conduct a study on Nutrition Education in rural India.and based on
the findings develop a communication
strategy to be tested in two States before rolling it out nationally.
Advertising Consultants India Ltd., ACIL, as associate
company of Clarion Advertising, where I was working , was appointed as the
agency to handle the account. Tara Sinha,
CEO of the agency was heading the
task force. I was part of this team and it was my first experience of rural
India as an ad professional. Based on market research findings we recommended
two alternative communication strategies—one ‘positive’ to be tested in the
villages of Uttar Pradesh and another ‘negative’ to be tested in the villages
of Andhra Pradesh. While the positive campaign tried to highlight the benefits
of good nutrition, the negative campaign
exploited the ill effects of bad
nutrition. I remember that the theatre film for the negative approached for AP
was produced by Krishnaswamy Associates of Chennai and the film for UP in Hindi
was produced by M.S.Sathyu of Garm Hawa fame. In the absence of TV every other possible media, both conventional and unconventional,
were used to discover their relative
impacts. At CARE, a benchmark study and a post study were conducted by
Ronald Parlato, who was in charge of the
project.The post
study revealed that the negative approach, using fear, worked better than the
positive approach. It also revealed the importance of the language press in
reaching the opinion leaders in the villages.
A report prepared by Ron on the study, was printed and circulated
to the relevant government departments and also to the media. Thanks to the
publicity this generated, ACIL was approached by Madras Fertilizers Ltd. (MFL),
a fertilizer company headquartered in Chennai to pitch for the change of name
campaign (from MFL to Vijay Fertilizers). Tara Sinha assigned the project to
Subash Chakravarthy, who undertook an exhaustive desk research and came up with
an excellent background note on the fertilizer industry based on which we
worked out a strategy. Tara Sinha and I presented it to client at their office in Chennai. I remember both of us
taking a Dakota flight from Delhi to Chennai via Nagpur. It was an aircraft
that was used to carry mail in the nights, with only limited passenger
capacity. We took that flight to save on cost, in spite of it being very
uncomfortable! The client was thrilled with the insights we brought to the
table and decided to award the account to us. There was great jubilation back
in the agency as we had managed to wrest the account from JWT, the No. 1 agency
in the country. I did not realize at that time (in 1973) that this was going to
be the beginning of my long association with rural markets!
A City boy to Rural Specialist – Part 3
In 1974, I moved over to head the Chennai office of Grant Kenyon &
Eckhardt, a multinational agency. This was the No.2 Agency in the country in
late fifties and early sixties.
I had the experience of handling FMCG accounts like Forhans
toothpaste, Colgate, Coke, Nestle etc. in the first decade of my career. When I
shifted to Chennai, I found that there were hardly any FMCG brands to handle.
When I heard that Shaw Wallace Agri Division was inviting agencies for a pitch,
I immediately decided to try my luck.
Using the knowledge I had gained about the fertilizer
market, while handling the Madras Fertilizers (MFL) account in ACIL, I pitched
for the agri-business of Shaw Wallace. Clarion was the incumbent agency and
R.K. Swamy, who had started his own setup a couple of years earlier, was also
in the fray. `My big boss Tuku Ganguli came from Bombay on the day of the
presentation to hold my hands! Impressed by the deep understanding of the
fertilizer market evident in the presentation, Grant was awarded the fertilizer
account (a part of the agri-division). It was not a big account, but for me it
was an important breakthrough in the Madras market. Word spread around that despite stiff competition, Grant Madras headed by a
young man had managed to get the Shaw Wallace account,
. I had to put together a small team to
handle the Shaw Wallace account .In the next two years, we did some good work
for Shaw Wallace, which helped us bag the pesticides division’s account as
well. To help develop effective communication packages, I started travelling
extensively in the interiors of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, where Shaw
Wallace’s products were popular. I accompanied their sales force, meeting
farmers and dealers. As part of the exercise, I spent time at dealer outlets,
observing the purchasing habits of the farmers visiting the shops. I would go
into the field shooting pictures of crops at different stages. I did not
hesitate to share the frugal meals offered by some farmers, sitting cross legged on the floor
inside their modest homes.
There were days during my travel when I
did not get any decent food to eat and had to be content with bananas and tea!
I remember a particular visit
accompanying the AV van in the hill districts of Kodaikanal. After an arduous
and rough journey through the mountain roads on a jeep, along with the Shaw
Wallace team, we reached a village where we were to conduct a show in the
evening. As we had reached by early noon, we spent some time talking to a
farmer harvesting mountain garlic; a specialty in the area. This farmer was
also the sole dealer of Shaw Wallace, serving a few villages nearby. The
evening came and the projection team took out the 16 mm projector and was ready
to show a popular Tamil film interspersed with the promotional films of the company.
As
the show time approached, there was a lot of excitement and a large crowd had
gathered. As the show progressed, I realized that the audience constituted of
80% children and the remaining were men and women who were not the target
audience of the products we were trying to promote. Some of the farmers who
were expected to come had not turned up. They had gone to sleep after imbibing
the ‘millie’ (country liquor known as ‘Nautak’ in the North), after a hard day’s
work in the field.
The
same picture was painted in the other villages where we had our shows. But the
reports from the van crew talked about the success of the shows based on the
number of people who attended the get-together. I was appalled and it got me
thinking. The ideas that I recommended to clients based on these visits not
only helped me earn more respect from them but also enhanced my reputation as a
rural communication specialist. This led to my agency bagging the prestigious
MRF Farm Tyres account. Another
important turning point in my professional career.
` A
City boy to Rural Specialist -Part 4
During my travels in the hinterland of South India, I also
had the opportunity to visit a number of Haats or Sandhais/Chandies (weekly
markets) visited by people from twenty to thirty villages nearby. Chandies were
held on the same day, time and venue
every week. It was a great opportunity for marketers interested in rural
marketing to promote their products. Though a few companies like HUL, ITC,
Brooke Bond, and Aspro were already utilizing the Haats for their promotional
activities, the idea I came up with for Shaw Wallace was a magic show with a difference to be performed by a trained
magician in Haats..
!
The difference for Shaw Wallace, was in
blending the product story with the magic trick. We had to study all the tricks
performed by the magician and identify items which could be used in our shows.I also explained to our
client, that conducting several shows in a day at the Haats, not only helped us
reach a focused target audience of farmers, but also helped us reduce the cost
per contact; because we were reaching more people from more villages for the
same cost. While the results were encouraging, the efforts
also taught us some useful lessons. Based on the experience, I wrote an article
that was published by ‘Industrial Times’ the only business magazine of the time
edited by Subash Rele. The review of my piece in the popular weekly column of the legendary adman Mr.K.
Kurien of Radeus Advertising in the Economic Times under the pen name ‘Zachary‘
got me some recognition in the marketing world as someone who was trying to do
things differently in terms of rural initiatives.
Later, when my agency bagged the Farm Tyre Division
of MRF to handle their bullock cart and tractor tyre accounts, I applied the
lessons I had learnt earlier in developing strategies for MRF. To promote
bullock cart tyres, I recommended a slide and tape presentation at the weekly Haats
in the UP market. It was a ‘first of its kind’ promotion. As the Haats were
held during day times, we had to provide
a black cloth canopy on the back of the van to provide enough shade so that
visuals projected from the van on the screen using back projector technique was
reasonably visible to a group of fifty to sixty people. Further I recommended a
journey cycle plan for the AV van which was considered unique at that time.
As against the van programmes prevailing then where
Vans travelled from one end of the State to the other end without any
breaks for the crew leading to many
setbacks in the schedule, , I developed a plan under which the
whole programme was centred round a district headquarters town, or a feeder
market town. As soon as the van reached the town, the crew checked into a hotel
and reported to the leading dealer of the town, who was roped in to supervise
the programme. The journey cycle was such that the Haats to be visited were
within 50 to 60 km radius of the town. Every morning, the van would proceed to
a pre-determined site, conduct the show and return to the hotel in the evening;
so that the van crew could rest and recoup.
Besides, since their
location was known during those ten days, communication with the families was
possible. And if there was any change in programme, because of any unexpected
development, the lead dealer was kept informed. If and when the company
executives came for surprise checks, they could first check with the dealer,
and then proceed straight to the village concerned. The whole process helped in
vastly improving the performance of the van crew, besides drastically reducing
the wastage of time and resources. Though this kind of journey cycle plans has
become very popular these days, thirty years ago, we were the pioneers. Besides,
these days, mobile technology has made a
huge difference in dealing with rural
markets.
A City boy to Rural Specialist -Part 5
The
year 1986 saw me turning into an entrepreneur after 22 years of service in two
multinational agencies.. It was the year when Grant decided to merge with
Contract Advertising, an associate company in the JWT Group. As I had opposed
the merger, I quit my job and started
Anugrah Marketing & Advertising as a fully accredited advertising agency handling both rural and general campaigns for a variety
of clients. All our rural campaigns in the initial years were for agri- input clients like Shaw Wallace, EID
Parry, MRF (Farm Tyre Division), T Stanes, Mahindra Pumpsets etc.
Only
in 1997, Anugrah, for the first time got
an opportunity to handle a major rural initiative for the Consumer Electronics
Division of Philips in Tamil Nadu. The agency which was until then was dealing
with only farmers , had to come up with a campaign targeting the entire rural
community – young, old, rich, poor, educated, uneducated, farmers and others. It
was a fascinating experience. The `Enga Veettu Super Star – Philips`
campaign that the agency developed
helped Philips register a substantial incremental sales when the whole consumer
durable industry was seeing a down
turn. It became a successful case study
widely covered by business magazines of the time. The campaign helped Anugrah to
get national recognition. It also brought the legendary Sam Balsara of the
Madison World fame to our door steps.
Impressed with our credentials and experience in rural marketing,
Sam Balsara mooted the idea of a joint venture with Anugrah to be positioned as the rural division of
Madison Communication and to be called
Anugrah Madison. This happened in 1998.The association with Madison certainly
did open the doors of many blue chip clients
to us but did not result in addition of
big business . The real breakthrough came only when we began to handle major integrated campaigns in rural India for Shriram Transport Finance and ACC Cements. Over the years Anugrah Madison handled rural assignments for
a long roster of blue chip clients gaining enormous insights into the
functioning of rural markets.
At the end of the third year of the joint venture, I realized the need for doing something to
fight competition from agencies like Ogilvy Outreach and Linterland (both
having pan India presence and also support from Hindustan Lever). I mooted the
idea of starting a ‘Rural Network’ consisting of single branch agencies known
for their involvement in rural marketing. Out of the seven agencies I
contacted, Kashyap of Mart, Patankar of Sampark and Pradeep Lokhande of Rural
Relations attended the first meeting in Delhi.
The Rural Network, was an informal association of four
leading rural marketing specialists, with subject and regional specializations.
The group had come together, to form a business alliance to take on the
competition from multinational agencies. Though we did not land a single big
assignment, all of us benefited from some business leads we got through
reference from other members of the network. More than the business, the four
of us became good friends ( we continue
to be), regularly exchanging notes and gaining new knowledge on the
subject. In this, the contribution of Kashyap of Mart, who was the first to
respond to the idea of the ‘Rural Network’ was phenomenal. His vast knowledge base of the
subject, and also his ability to articulate his thoughts lucidly became an
important asset to the network.
Once again, based on my initiative we
converted the Rural Network into Rural Marketing Agencies Association of India
(now known as Rural Marketing Association of India - RMAI)— an industry body to
promote the cause of rural marketing in India and also help dispel several
myths about Rural marketing. RMAI was formally launched in April 2005 at a
press meet in Mumbai with 11 founder members that included big names like
Ogilvy Outreach, Linterland, RC&M, Impact Communications et al.
I was elected the First
President of RMAI at the ripe age of sixty three. My dream of presiding over an
all India body had become a reality. I continued in the role for four years and
thoroughly enjoyed being a spokesperson for the rural marketing industry. At a
personal level, I had completed my dream journey, that began at Rayalacheruvu
in Andhra and took me through all the pristine hinterlands of the country. In
the process, I had evolved from a city
boy to a rural marketing specialist. I
was happy when RMAI recognized my contribution to the subject when I was
conferred the Life Time Achievement
Award in 2009. It was at a two in one function of RMAI in Chennai where my
autobiography `Courage my Companion` was also released. I continued my
association with Rural marketing for a few more years until the publication of
my book titled Don`t Flirt with Rural Marketing` in 2013. The book published by
Productivity & Quality
Publishing Pvt. Ltd. Chennai became my swan song for
a career I pursued for over forty years.
These days I am enjoying my new Avatar
as a writer/author, far removed from the world of marketing and advertising! (Concluded)
