Status is an Important Benefit for Rural Consumers

While most of the time we tend to look down on rural folk, they are perhaps no different in many ways from any of us urbanites.

But because we often tend to under estimate them when we come up with communication  that is rational, straight, educative or sometimes plain boring.

Status as a benefit works as well with rural folk as it does with urban folk.  And one good example is the TV satellite dish.  For urban folk, the dish is an ugly large appendage that must be hidden from sight, which is why it is discreetly placed on your roof or terrace where no one can see it.  If you live in a house it is normally at the back of the house invisible to most, and if you have a flat it is normally out of view because it is installed on the terrace where again no one can see it.  

But for rural folk the TV satellite dish is a status symbol.  Which is why you will find it right outside their house placed almost like a status symbol.  The picture above is from Arunachal Pradesh, but the wonderful thing is that this is universal.  Whether it is rural Africa or rural Thailand or even Eastern Europe the picture show that all rural folk treat it like a status symbol.

13 year old Mia (on right), stands in front of a shed with a cable Television satellite dish, in the "old" part of the village of Sintesti, in Romania

Nearly half of India's 1.2 billion people don't have access to toilets, especially in rural villages. The lack of sanitation is the cause of one in every ten deaths here. Supported by the World Bank, the Government introduced a sanitation campaign called 'No Toilet, No Bride' in 2013 to educate villagers about proper waste disposal.The United Nation's film on No Bride, No Toilet explored an interesting way to position a toilet as a status symbol in Indian rural households.

Flipping Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs 

So in a sense toilets which are a purely physiological need can be promoted as a need for esteem in rural areas. This neatly flips the traditional script on the Maslow's needs hierarchy.  Or television viewing which is becoming a fundamental need for entertainment is also a reflection of status as shown in the example of the satellite dish above.

Instead of seeing rural targets as being underdeveloped often the key to unlocking their motivations is not to underestimate them or box them into a stereotype.  If we are willing to change the paradigm in our own minds we can create more engaging and persuasive ways of  engaging rural targets with  an idea, a concept or a product.

All humans have a need to feel respected; this includes the need to have self-esteem and self-respect. Esteem presents the typical human desire to be accepted and valued by others. For example, people often engage in a profession or hobby to gain recognition.

The Accenture Report of March 2015 titles 'From Touchpoints to Trustpoints : Winning Over India's Aspiring Rural Consumers' adequately makes the point that rural consumers are changing fast in terms of their attitudes, priorities and behaviours.  Specifically the report says that they have grown aspirational, networked and discerning.

Source : Accenture Report ' From Touchpoints to Trustpoints'

This chart shows that we may be wrong in thinking that rural consumers care only about price and seek stripped down low cost versions of products.  The Accenture research  shows that respondents attribute 66% weightage to brand image, functionality and aesthetics while making purchase decisions.  In addition there is no one rural consumer it appears from the report. Rather just like urban targets Village Elites and Young Enthusiasts may behave differently from the Traditionalists ( typically we tend to think of all rural consumers as traditionalists). 

So in many ways our assumed stereotype of the rural consumers is changing fast. Both companies and institutions would do well to keep the changing  rural consumer in mind while designing marketing communication that will appeal to the Indian rural consumer of the future.

I would like to thank  Birender Ahluwalia of the Positivity Company for triggering this thought about Rural consumers 

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