A STUDY ON INTEGRATED INNOVATIVE AND INCLUSIVE FRAMEWORK FOR MOBILE TELECOM SERVICE USERS IN RURAL PUNJAB

Abstract

ABSTRACT newlineA substantial growth has been noticed in India s rural market since last one decade due to newlineinfluence of increasing purchasing power, improvement in literacy level, disposable income, newlinegrowth in digital infrastructure, and increasing media exposure. The rural household newlineconsumption in India is expected to attain INR 26,383 billion by 2025 from the present INR newline16,701 billion with compound annual growth rate of 5.1 per cent and per household rural newlineconsumption is estimated to count on INR 104,000 and INR 158,000 per annum by 2015 and newline2025 respectively. The presence of many national and foreign national companies related to newlinefast moving consumers goods (FMCG) category such as Hindustan Unilever Limited, ITC, newlineGodrej, Procter and Gamble, Colgate-Palmolive, Marico, and PepsiCo; consumer durables newlinemakers like LG, Maharaja, and Samsung; automobile companies like TVS, Hero MotoCorp, newlineand Maruti Suzuki; retail companies such as ITC s Chopal Sagar, Tata s Kisaan Kendra and newlineDSCL s Hariyali Kisaan Bazaar; and banking and insurance companies such as ICICI newlinePrudential in rural corner of the country manifest a huge opportunity to capture the untapped newlinepotential of rural market. Over the last few years, the companies recognized the fact that it is newlineimperative to penetrate rural markets to secure long term profit sustainability in hyper newlinecompetitive saturated urban markets in general and for mobile telecom sector in particular. It newlineis also important to note that doing business in rural areas seems to be challenging due to lack newlineof infrastructure facilities, unstable demand, improper supply chain, high distribution cost and newlinedistinct rural consumer psychology as compared to urban counterparts. newlineThe present study is based on distinct marketing strategies of various national and newlinemultinational companies with aim to capture untapped potential of rural markets for mobile newlinetelecom services. The study critically examines the latest rural marketing approach and offers newlinean integrated, innovative and inclusive (3Is) framework for rural mobile telecom se