Bangalore to host meet on rural marketing

A seminar on 'The Challenges of Rural Marketing in the 21st Century' will be organised by Rural Network on August 6 in Bangalore.

In the context of the focus of the new Budget on agriculture and the consequent boost it is expected to give the rural economy, the rural market is bound to pick up.

Though many corporates are talking about going rural, the seminar will examine if the initiatives taken by the corporates are enough and what needs to be done to take the products to the hinterland of the country.

The seminar will focus on the changing profile of the rural consumer, role of mass media and technology in reaching the rural customers.

There will be specific case studies covering FMCGs, durables and automobiles. The highlight of the seminar will be the panel discussion in which specific questions from the floor regarding rural marketing issues will be answered by a panel of experts in rural marketing/communication.

Speakers include Pradeep Kashyap of MART-Delhi, N D Badrinath of TNS India, J Ravindra Kumar of ITC, Rama Bijapurkar of Strategic Marketing Consulting, Karthik Raina of Dalmia Consumer Care, K G George of TTK Prestige, Harish Bijoor of Harish Bijoor Consults, Rajesh Jejurikar of Mahindra & Mahindra, R V Rajan of Anugrah Madison, Pradeep Lokhande of Rural Relations among others.

Rural Network is an informal alliance started two years ago by four leading rural agencies -- Anugrah Madison-Chennai, MART-Delhi, Rural Relations-Pune and Sampark-Mumbai. Through various initiatives, Rural Network has been promoting the cause of rural marketing.

The first of these was a seminar in Mumbai, followed by a round table on 'Rural Communication' in Mumbai. Rural Network has also supported an FICCI seminar on 'Rural Marketing' held in Delhi last year. The current seminar is the next in the series aimed at the South.