Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Non-formal/Rural-Specific
Media
AV/Publicity Vans/Puppet shows
Demos/Music Records/Meetings
Cinema: Most large & medium villages have one or more cinema
houses. Also, >1/3rd of all rural people do see cinema as a matter of
regular lifestyle. Ad-films, short feature films with disguised admessages & documentaries that combine knowledge & ads, can be
employed for rural communication.
POPs: The POPs are also quite useful in the rural markets. POPs
meant for the rural markets should be specially designed to suit the
rural requirements. Symbols, pictures & colors must be used
liberally in POPs meant for the rural markets. The effective
communicator uses such cues.
Audio-Visual/Publicity Vans
The AV unit or the publicity van is very useful for rural
communication. The van is a comprehensive mobile promotion station
at the exclusive command of the concerned firm. The firm can exhibit
its films & other AV presentations, such as slide shows, sound & sight
presentations, puppet shows etc., from this instant promotion station.
A portable shamiana or platform often forms a part of the van. Even
public meetings can be organized using the portable shamiana. Portable
exhibition kits can also be carried in addition to promotion campaigns.
It can also be used for product demos. In short, the van can be used for
carrying & delivering a tailor-made communication program to the
rural target audience.
Colgate-Palmolive has supply vans that offer free samples & screens
video films on oral hygiene. It has an on-going rural van program,
which covers on an average 80 m rural consumers per year. Vans are
supplemented with bicycle vendors, who go to villages not accessible by
the vans.
Godrej has vans that play music & announce free gifts in the village
square. The van then goes to few shops in the village to sell its products.
While the AV van is an effective tool in rural promotion, its cost is
rather high as the target population is highly scattered. In market
development stage, in particular, the cost involved in the AV vans may
be disproportionate to the sale generated.
But in view of its effectiveness, big companies make a conscious decision
to use the van as a long-term market development effort.
Recent
years have witnessed the emergence of tools that are more innovative
than the AV van. Jain TVs Video-on-wheels is one of them.
Music Cassettes: