Several years ago, Timex, a company that Prof RJ Masilamani of the Birla Institute of Management Technology (BIMTECH) happened

to work for, was summoned by his Norwegian boss who wanted to know: How many villages are there in India? Masilamani was prompt: Over, 600,000. The Norwegian manager paused to draw in his breadth and said, If two woman in every household were to sell just two Timex watches, do you realise how many watches can we manage to sell in just one year? Masilamani didnt have the foggiest idea but on his bosss instructions dispatched mobile vans to some villages and Rs 15 lakh later, after the villagers had a rollicking time watching Timex promos, the company managed to sell just two watches!Thats the marketing paradox. If you want to sell to the 742 million consumers in rural India, that comprise 12% of the worlds population, you will have to stop... flirting and enter into a serious marital relationship with them, said Pradeep Kashyap, team leader, MART. Kashyap was deposing to a rapt audience on the second (concluding) day of the Indian Marketing Summit 2007 that was held at India Habitat Centre. Invoking the example of Coke and their hurried withdrawal of the Aamir Khan-endorsed Rs 5 Chhota Coke, he said, The mistake that Coke made with that product was to assume that it had the prerogative to define the affordability of a rural customer. Rs 5 may sound like a pittance to an urban customer, but for a person who survives on Rs 50 as daily wage, its still a huge sum that he cannot afford to shell out on luxury items. It would be a bigger mistake to assume that price is the key driver in the rural market. The consumer there often has a higher disposable income... than an urbanites. Yet, if he owns just 3 durables in comparison to the eight owned by an urban consumer, its not because of price or affordability, but due to other factors, such as erratic electrical supply or fluctuation in the hinterland, he elaborated. Thats why HMT introduced an agri-tool that could withstand 200-300 volts fluctuation, Kashyap recounted. Because rural market is more diverse than the urban market, Kashyap urged marketers to come up with innovative business models, such as ICICIs franchise model for retail banking encapsulated in its no white spot campaign and engage their customers on conventional, local planes. Informing that theres been a huge increase in government spends on rural development (from Rs 300 crore to Rs 1,200 crore in the past one decade), Kashyap declared that the sleeping giant is waiting to be proddedyou just need to know how to approach it. He claimed...