Modeling the Barriers to Rural Marketing Using the Interpretive Structural Modeling Approach

One of the major roles of marketing is to deliver the right kind of product to the right customer at the right time and at the right place. Rural marketing is gaining a great deal of attention these days due to the large population living in the rural areas. As urban markets have saturated, rural India is consistently facing a new heat of the world of brands, be it in FMCGs, consumer durables or automotives. Marketing to rural customer has now become a necessity for marketers if they want to stay competitive in the volatile and turbulent market conditions. Although it seems to be so easy and marketers do not leave any stones unturned to market their products in rural areas, the fact is far from reality. In the present paper, a number of barriers that critically inhibit marketers' successful foray into the rural markets and their interrelationships using the Interpretive Structural Modeling (ISM) have been derived. The identified barriers have been categorized with respect to their driving power and dependence. Through ISM approach, order can be imposed on the complexity of these variables. This approach would enable the rural marketers to identify the critical points where maximum effort could be focused for success