With 700 million prospective consumers including about 40 per cent of the country middle-income group, the sheer size of India rural market itself speaks of its huge This new textbook discusses how the application of traditional marketing theories transforms when the ‘fourth sector’, or the emergence of social business, comes into play. Drawing from latest research, Rural Marketing: Challenges and Opportunities closely analyses two crucial components of the rural market—marketing to rural areas and empowering the ‘bottom-of-pyramid’ (BoP) markets to create successful business ventures. Written as per the prescribed curriculum of rural management and rural marketing courses offered by the major universities in India, this book goes beyond discussing just the strategies to sell products to village economies. Infused with numerous real-life case studies of companies that have ventured into the field, this book will prove to be an extremely useful resource in understanding the uniqueness, dynamics and challenges of marketing in rural areas. Key Features: · Rich pedagogy including opening and closing case studies, mini case studies, engaging chapter-end exercises and project assignments · Inclusion of references to recent research data, important journal articles and videos for classroom teaching · Comprehensive overview of the future of rural marketing through BoP approach, social enterprises and use of big data
Dinesh Kumar, PhD, is Professor of Marketing at Chandigarh. He has been associated with well-known management schools such as Birla Institute of Management Technology (BIMTECH); Fore School of Management; Amity Global Business School, Mohali; University Business School, Panjab University, Chandigarh and others as visiting faculty member. After finishing his MBA from Panjab University, Dr Kumar gained a wide experience in sales, marketing and rural distribution for over 15 years. He switched to teaching in 1995 on receiving a teaching fellowship from Norway. He has taught at leading business schools and written extensively on sustainable development, environment and social marketing. In 2015, he presented a paper at Queen Mary University of London (co-authored with Punam Gupta). He is the author of Marketing Channels (2012), Consumer Behaviour (2015) and The Connected Consumer (2016). Punam Gupta, PhD, is Associate Professor at Dev Samaj College for Women, Chandigarh, where she has been working since 1980. She did her PhD research in English literature. She was awarded gold medal during her BA Hons (English) and again for obtaining the first position in Panjab University in MA (English). Dr Gupta has written many research papers and participated in seminars on issues such as gender sensitization, green economics, environment studies, value education, media and society. She also participated in UGC SAM Workshop on Capacity Building for Women Managers in Higher Education. She was the co-author of the paper on Social Marketing and Behaviour Change, presented at Queen Mary University of London in 2015. She has also recently published a book on English grammar for Indian students.
