COMMUNICATION STRATEGY

Advertising goes hand in hand with economic growth. With economic liberalization & increasing rural prosperity, marketers are keen to inform villagers about the benefits of buying & consuming their products & services. The influence of electronic media, in particular television, video & the hindi film industry, is contributing to the growth of rural aspirations, which are being manifested in rural India In the form of increasing consumerism. The rural environment is different from the urban & therefore communicating to potential customers in a proper & effective manner, is a major challenge for corporate marketers.

Challenges in Rural Communication

There are many challenges to communication in rural. Low literacy levels. Poor media reach & exposure. Heterogeneous & diversely spread rural audience. Variation in languages. Culture & lifestyle. All these factors pose multiple challenges to marketers looking to take their messages to largely media-dark or Media-grey areas, of rural markets.

 Heterogeneity & Spread: The communication pattern in any society is a part of its culture. No communication medium can exist in a cultural vacuum. Communicating the message to rural consumers has posed enormous challenges to the rural marketer, because of the large numbers of consumers scattered across the country. The problem is further compounded by the heterogeneous nature of consumers. There are 16 scheduled languages & 114 local vernaculars. Some key characteristics of the heterogeneous rural markets are: 1. Widespread geographical dispersion, many of them are still beyond the reach of conventional media. 2. Vast variations in levels of literacy. 3. Literacy. 4. Variations in reach of electronic media & print media.

National Languages Hindi/English Scheduled Languages Assamese, Bengali, Guajarati, kannada, Punjabi, Urdu, Telegu, Marathi, etc.

Languages with Widespread Use 47 languages used for primary education 98 used in print media 71 used on radio, 13 used in films
Local Vernaculars over 114 recognized varieties 216 mother tongues with more than 10,000 speakers were recorded in 1991

 Understanding the Rural Audience: it is not sufficient to understand rural communication challenges, rather what is equally crucial is the need to understand the behavioral & psychographic characteristics of the rural audience, in order to develop an effective rural communication strategy. There are 2 distinct sets of audiences in rural India: 1) A growing number of educated, upwardly mobile, middle class people with aspirations & high exposure to mass media & with considerable purchasing power, in many ways similar to their urban counterparts. 2) The illiterate masses, who are poor & who cannot be easily reached through the mass media.

The Communication Process Model

Sender Encoding

Message ---------Media

Decoding

Receiver

Noise

Feedback

Response

The senders task, is to communicate the message to the receiver. The environment exercises considerable influence on the receiver & therefore he/she may not receive the intended message for any 1 of the 3 reasons: 1. Selective attention: where the consumer may not notice the stimulus provided. 2. Selective distortion: where the message is deliberately twisted so that the consumer hears what he/she wants to hear. 3. Selective recall: where the consumer retains only a small fraction of the message that reaches him/her.
The comprehension of the message is therefore, a critical problem in indian rural markets.

Developing Effective Communication

Developing effective communication involves the following steps: Profiling the target audience. Determining the communication objectives. Designing the message & ensuring the effectiveness of the message. Selecting the communication channels. Designing the promotion strategy & integrating the communication process.

The AICDA Model of Communication

Awareness Interest

Conviction
Desire

ACTION

The AICDA Model of Communication, although the best known response-hierarchy model, is relevant even today. Any communication should get the prospects attention, foster the customers interest in the offer, build desire for the product or service & generate a favorable action by the customer. The marketer may seek 1 or more of the following objectives: To bring about awareness among a certain percentage of the target audience. To improve knowledge to generate interest. To strengthen the liking or preferences for the product. to persuade the consumer to buy the product.

Designing the Message

Message Content: The Communicator has to figure out what to say to the target audience in order to produce the desired response. This process has been variously called the appeal, theme, idea or Unique Selling Proposition (USP). 3 types of appeals are: 1. Rational Appeal: They appeal to the audience's self interest. 2. Emotional Appeal: They attempt to stir up negative or positive emotions that will motivate purchase. Communicators have employed the theme of fear. 3. Moral Appeal: These appeal to the audience's sense of what is right & proper. These are often used to exhort people to support social causes such as childbirth spacing. The language needs to be local, simple & direct.

 Message Structure: The effectiveness of a message depends on its structure as well as its content. The content for rural audiences has to be simple, short & self-explanatory Pictorial Presentation: The use of symbols in promoting the brand helps rural customers easily identify the brands at the point of purchase. Message Format: The communicator must develop a strong format for the message. The components of the message & their presentation are important aspects of the message design. Pictures, dramatic voices, attractive expressions & strong colors have more influence on rural consumers. Effective communication addressed to rural consumers should be utilitarian & narrative. Rural consumers prefer messages that link benefits to product attributes.

 Context Association: The rural audience is influenced by the context of the advertisement. Marketers need to pay attention to the rural environment, dress styles, food habits & other cultural preferences in order to draw a close association/ identification with rural audiences. Message Source: Messages can be categorized into 3 : 1) Likeable Source: Testimonial advertising using film stars. 2) Trustworthy Source: Rural markets depend on word of mouth communication to a large extent. Villagers prefer to use a source that they can trust; these are generally friends, relatives & neighbors. 3) Expert Source: For the purchase of big ticket, high involvement items like durables, opinion leaders are consulted to find out more about the product. Opinion leaders are defined according to the product category.

 Message Effectiveness:
Language

Meaning: Words have different meanings. Simple: Improves Receptivity

Pictorial Presentation

Improves Recall Utilitarian: Influences attitudes & preferences.

Form Message

Narrative: Increases retention through involvement

Trustworthy: Used for feedback on product performance.

Source Likeable: Increases acceptance. Expert: Effectiveness increases in evaluation for complex products. Creates interest & improves comprehension.

Associations

 Selecting the Communication Channels: The communicator must select efficient channels of communication to carry the message. There are 2 types: 1) Personal Communication Channels: It involves 2 or more people communicating directly with each other. They might communicate face to face, person to audience, over the telephone or through mail. Personal communication is further divided into: Advocate Channels: consists of company salespeople who contact buyers in the target market. Expert Channels: consists of independent experts who make statements to target buyers. Social Channels: consist of neighbors, friends, family members & associates who talk to the target buyers. 2) Non Personal Communication Channels: They include the mass media, atmosphere & events.

 Deciding the Promotion Mix Advertising: it is a highly public mode of communication. Its public nature confers a kind of legitimacy on the product & also suggests a standardized offering. It can be used to build & enhance a long-term image for the company/ product. Sales Promotion: it includes coupons, demonstrations & sampling. It has 3 distinctive characteristics: 1) Communication: they gain the consumers attention & usually provide information that may lead the consumer to the product. 2) Incentive: they incorporate some concessions, inducements, or contributions that offer value to the customer. 3) Invitation: they include a distinct invitation to the customer to engage in the transaction now.

 Direct Marketing: the need to establish direct contact with retailers & village consumers has become very important. One to one communication delivers effectively. Such relations are establishes through mailers & salespersons. Direct mailers are the most commonly used tool in rural. Public Relations & Publicity: High Credibility. Personal Selling: it is the most cost effective tool at the later stages of the buying process particularly in building the buyers preferences, convictions & actions. Personal selling has the following advantages: - Personal Confrontation: it involves an alive, immediate & interactive relationship between 2 or more people. - Response: Personal selling makes the buyer feel that he/she is under some obligation for having listened to the sales talk.

 Factors in Setting the Promotion Mix Type of Product Market: Consumer-goods companies rank Advertising, sales promotion, personal selling & public relations in that order. Push versus Pull Strategy: the promotional mix is heavily Influenced by whether the company chooses a push or a pull Strategy to create sales. A push strategy calls for using the sales force & trade promotion to push the product through the channels. A pull strategy calls for spending a lot of money on advertising & consumer promotion to build consumer demand.

Marketing Activities Manufacturer Intermediaries

Demand End Users

Demand

Push Strategy

Pull Strategy

Marketing Activities

Demand Manufacturer Intermediaries End Users

Rural Media
Rural media can be classified broadly into conventional mass media, non-conventional media & personalized media. The various media vehicles are:
Conventional Mass Media Television Radio Press Cinema Outdoor: Wall painting, hoarding Non-Conventional Media Haat & Mela Folk Media Video Van Mandi Personalized Media Direct Mailer Point of Sale (demonstration, leaflet) Word of Mouth Interpersonal Communication Animator