A Study: Potential for Personal Care Products in Rural Market of India

Abstract

From soaps and shampoos in the morning to overnight face creams, personal care products literally touch daily lives of people. The personal care products we use are in some measure the signature of our lifestyles and standards of living.

Rural marketing means marketing those activities in the rural areas where favourable infrastructure may not be available. Rural marketing & urban marketing are identical as regards their basic marketing structure. However rural markets as well as rural marketing have special features and problems as compared to urban markets.

The rural market offers a greater scope for a concentrated marketing effort because of the recent increase in the rural incomes and the likelihood. The rural markets dominate Indian marketing scene and need special attention for the expansion.

Today the rural market offers a vast untapped potential. Development programmes in the fields of agriculture and allied activities, health, education, communication, rural electrification, etc. have improved the life styles of rural population & some market agencies forecast that the rural demand will supersede the urban demand in the near future. Estimates are that the rural market is growing twice as fast as the urban market for durable products like wrist watches, fans, television & also non-durable goods like lipstick, ice cream & shampoo.

Among the items whose market share is on the rise in rural areas are colour and Black and White television sets, VCRs, Ceiling fans. In this paper the rural markets offers a larger scope for a concentrated marketing effort because of the increase in the rural incomes and the likelihood that such incomes will increase faster because of better production and higher prices for agricultural commodities.