INTRODUCTION

Long before industrial revolution, when the world was in the practice of barter economy, it was felt by the people that there should be something that can be the prudent source of exchange, because those who were producing something extra were not getting anything for their hardships in return. Although no fundamental change was unearthed in this era regarding distribution of the goods and fulfillment of the needs of the consumers. This change was restricted to the replacement of the barter system. It was a big break- through, because now there was a common mechanism in the process of exchange in the form of money that facilitated exchange.

It became evident that knowing consumer needs and desires is a road to success for the marketers, but the question is how? It is not a simple task. At the first instance we can feel that whatever consumer is telling may be perceived as correct but actually he may act otherwise. They may respond to your message but may be influenced at the last moment by their friends, family members or by their other reference groups. It may happen that they intend to seek products as their counterparts are using but their cultural setting may not allow them to use those products. They may not be in touch with their deeper motivational level and may not exactly know as to what they really need. Even after conducting survey and knowing their needs, while trying to convey a message, a marketer may entirely fail to make audience perceive the message as desired. A marketer, for the convenience of the consumers tries to make the goods available at their doorstep, while they actually may prefer going to market place. The marketers’ study finds varied types of personalities which require different sort of appeals to convince them according to their self-concepts. So, there are hundreds of questions, which come in the way of conducting research on consumers for knowing their deep-rooted needs and desires, but nevertheless marketers must study their target customers’ needs, wants, perceptions, preferences and buying behaviour. So, the aspect of studying consumer behaviour is another paradigm in the field of marketing which requires a huge attention on the part of marketers. Although it needs a full life-span to study and understand a person’s consumption decisions but for practical reasons marketers have to study consumer behaviour. The study of consumer psyche facilitates designing of more effective solutions to marketing problems2. Therefore, a marketer’s task is varied and much complicated than it actually seems to be. It’s not only the need and wants the marketers have to look for. Rather, marketers’ real task is looking for various satisfiers to satisfy these needs which is something like hallucination. These satisfiers are not mere tangible products and services but a complicated expression in terms of products and services of consumers’ hidden desires and dreams, of consumers’-personality make-up and its complicated relation with cultural and social values disseminating from socialisation process and from onslaught of globalisation of culture. As it has already been discussed, the most crucial issue for the marketers is to identify the needs of the consumers. Only the identification of needs is of no value unless and until this is transformed into a meaningful and appropriate satisfiers. For this whole process of converting needs into actual satisfaction one needs to understand the complete makeup of consumer’s mind. And this whole process is known as consumer behaviour. So, it needs to be discussed in brief as to what determines consumer’s action and reaction towards various marketing stimuli. The substantial attention accorded to agriculture during the successive five-year plans has helped in improving agricultural productivity. Adoption of new agronomic practices, selective mechanisation, multiple cropping, inclusion of cash crops and development of allied activities like dairy, fisheries and other commercial activities have helped in increasing disposable income of rural consumers. Over 75 percent villages in India have been electrified12. This facility has been responsible for a shift from rain dependence to irrigation. Farmers are getting high return for their cash and food crops. In the whole process, the dependence on seasonality has reduced, and in return there has been increasing disposable income. By observing this scenario, India’s one of the biggest giant Hindustan Lever Ltd. has entered into rural market for more penetration through the operation ‘Bharat’. Since December 1999, HLL has reached out to 35,000 villages, 22 million households and spent Rs. 20 crore. This has been one of the largest sampling exercises in recent times conducted by a big business house. 1.5.2. Emerging Role of Bio-Tech. in Indian Agriculture Sector It is evident from the facts that Indian agriculture is trailing in terms of yield when compared with leading countries of the world. Countries like USA, Canada, Israel and Germany have achieved high yield in agriculture production but countries like India, Brazil and Nigeria are having agriculture yield much lower than international average. The major difference created in this respect is the use of the applications of bio-technology. Bio-technology has vital role to play in so far as enhancement of agriculture yield is concerned. For instance the yield of wheat in USA per hectare is almost three times more than that of India and the yield of sugar cane is two and half times more if compared with the Indian yield of sugar cane per hectare. These advance countries have been making an extensive use of bio-technology whereas in developing countries the concept is not yet very popular. When we are living in the era of globalisation everything is becoming globally competitive and therefore, we can not live in isolation in terms of agriculture yield also. We have to make use of the applications of the bio-technology in an agriculture sector both in terms of generating quality seeds and cropping the same in compliance with the theories of biotechnology. Our farmers, who are normally not aware of this fact have to be got educated and the responsibility lies on the shoulders of researchers, scientists, administrators and the policy makers of the country. It will provide more discretionary income in the hands of the rural farmers.

Latika Malik1, Dr. Rahul Goyal2

role. It has long been applied in the field of marketing by the businessmen to promote their products properly as it helps in positioning and segmentation. It determines the need structure, choices of advertisement to reinforce male or female image, attributes in the product, value perceived and response pattern towards the marketing stimuli. The following table describes the distribution of the respondents on the basis of gender. Table 1.6 Distribution of the Respondents on the Basis of Gender Table 1.6 reveals that males are absolutely dominant as they have 88.7 per cent share in total respondents and it is quite evident that in Haryana most of the decisions regarding purchasing of durable are taken by the male members. Female constitutes a meager 11.3 per cent of the total respondents, where they have had some role in decision making. 3.2. Possession Level of durables Since sample constitute of those respondents who possess at least one of the consumer durables. So, it is important to know that which consumer durables are mostly used by the ruralites which will help marketers in determining their marketing strategies. The following table shows the distribution of the respondents on the basis of their possession of durables. Table 3.2 Possession Levels of Durables The table 3.2 depicts that the percentage of the respondents possessing televisions is highest, as it constitutes 96.7 per cent of the respondents, followed by Two-wheelers and Refrigerator as these are possessed by 82.3 and 77.3 per cent of the respondents respectively. Small number of ruralites possess washing machine with 28.3 per cent respondents. The above table shows that media in form of television has made in roads into rural India which is a significant development clearly indicating towards growing interest of ruralites towards outside world in form of entertainment, news items and sports etc. Two-wheeler has also been possessed by significant number of respondents. It may connote varied reasons like convenience in transportation, time saving and even for status symbol. It is closely followed by refrigerator which is also possessed by a good number of respondents clearly depicting its increasing liking. Possession of washing machine is still quite low in rural Haryana, as it seems that people perhaps prefer handwashed clothes and it has not yet become a necessity. So, the above table features that rural Haryana can be a lucrative market for the producers of these durables, but specifically, the possible reasons can be found in the subsequent analysis which will discuss the possession level and possible reasons for that. 3.3. Brand Preference of durables While developing marketing strategies, the marketer has to confront with many decisions, and branding is one of them. It is a major issue in the overall strategies of the marketing. Branding is a long-term investment especially in case of advertising and promotions. The subsequent tables show the brand preferences of the respondents. 3.1. Two-wheeler Table 3.1 Brand Preference of the Respondents Regarding Two-wheeler

The preceding table depicts that in case of two-wheeler Bajaj is the leading brand, possessed by 46.15 of the respondents followed by Hero Honda (20.6%). LML Vespa has also made a good impact on ruralites as it is possessed by 16.2 per cent of the respondents. Rajdoot and Bullet have also made their presence felt with 5.67 and 4.05 per cent of the respondents possessing these brands, Yamaha and Kawasaki hold a minimal share (5.27%) of respondents whereas TVS and Suraj have failed to make an impact on the ruralites. It is evident from the table 3.3.1 that Bajaj, Hero Honda and LML Vespa, as a brand, have been able to make a substantial impact on rural population of Haryana. Rajdoot has also created a niche for itself. These are the leading brands mainly due to milage, better service, after sale services provided, credit facilities offered, certain schemes, gifts or value of brand itself etc. These will be discussed with aforesaid variables in subsequent tables. But surely the marketers of these brands can capitalise on their existing name by better penetration in rural areas with specific schemes aimed at rural folks. 3.2. Television It is evident from the table 3.2 that Texla is the most possessed brand by ruralites constituting 19.4 per cent of the respondents followed by Videocon with 12.5 per cent. Onida and BPL as a brand name have also established themselves with 9.7 and 9.4 per cent respondents preferring these brands. Equally important in rural area are the local or desi brands with 9.7 per cent share of the respondents. 6.9 per cent respondents are possessing crown. Salora and Samsung have also captured good share with 5.5 and 4.5 per cent respondents possessing them. Akai, Philips and LG have also left some impact on the rural consumers. 3.3. Type of Television

possess. Table 3.3 The Type of Television Possessed The table 3.3 shows that 66.5 per cent of respondents possessing televisions, have colour televisions. Black and White televisions are possessed by remaining 33.5 per cent of the respondents. It can be gauged from the table that colour TV has made a tremendous impact on ruralites in Haryana. It seems that in the time to come B & W TV will be wiped out even from rural areas. The preference for colour TV is increasing due to certain factors like better and clear picture, remote facility, better technology, etc. in comparison to B & W TV. Various exchange schemes launched by the companies like Akai and Videocon have also contributed to this shift. Companies like Daewoo and LG are also coming up with certain schemes like payment at the time of crop and in installments, which have led the people to think about having a colour TV. So, the marketers of colour TV may enjoy more penetration in rural area if they are able to reduce consumers dissonance in terms of service, price etc. 3.4. Washing Machine Table 3.4 exhibits that Videocon is the most preferred brand as it is possessed by 28.2 per cent respondents of those who possess Washing Machines. BPL has also made a dent in the rural Haryana with 14.1 per cent respondents. Whirlpool with 11.7 and Godrej with 7.05 per cent respondents are also coming up fast in this market. LG, Onida, IFB and TVS have also made an entry into rural market of Haryana but yet to make an impression on the ruralites. The significant feature of this table is that huge number of respondents use local make of washing machines (29.4%).

Latika Malik1, Dr. Rahul Goyal2

users of unbranded machines into branded ones. It requires in-depth penetration by the marketers in form of adopting certain sales promotional schemes. 3.5. Refrigerator Table 3.5 Brand Preference of the Respondents Regarding Refrigerators Table 3.5 depicts that in refrigerators, Godrej is the leading brand in rural Haryana with 34.9 per cent respondents possessing it, and is closely followed by Kelvinator with 31.9 per cent respondents. Whirlpool has also made an impression on ruralites as this brand is the liking of 12.5 per cent respondents who possess refrigerator. BPL, Allwyn and Voltas also constitute a little portion of the market. It is clearly indicated by the table that Godrej and Kelvinator have made significant inroads in rural areas, may be due to varied reason which will be discussed in the subsequent analysis. Although Kelvinator is the brand of Whirlpool but Whirlpool as a brand has also penetrated itself well in rural Haryana. The new entrants like Samsung, LG and BPL in this field have still to work hard to make a dent in the minds of the rural consumers.

CONCLUSION:

advertisements. The brands like Samsung, LG, Akai and Philips are also making their way into rural area. So, it’s a clear indication that rural people are also known to big names in the field of electronics particularly in case of Television. Reasons for their preferring these brands, can be traced in the subsequent analysis. One of the important aspects of marketing is positioning and while positioning the product, differentiation is the core component, because it is the differentiation which is communicated to the target audience to make a desired impact in their mind. The product may be positioned on the basis of many factors but tangible features and it’s linkage to uses first attracts the consumers. The subsequent tables describe the distribution of the respondents on the basis of objectives they kept in mind while purchasing these durable.

REFERENCES:

1. Kotler, Philip, “Marketing Management-Analysis, Planning, Implementation and Control”, Prentice Hall of India, 9th edition, 1997, p. 20. 2. Vyas, Shayam Babu, “Marketing and Consumer Behaviour”, The M.A.R.C. Group Publication, 2nd edition, 1998, p. 19. 3. Bijoor, Harish, “Go Rural”, Economic Times, June 14, 1999. 4. Sehgal, Reshme, “Going e-class in the country side”, Times of India, May 14, 2000. 5. Shukla, R.K., “New perspective in Marketing”, Rural Marketing : Thrust and Challenges, National Publishing House, New Delhi, Jaipur, Ist edition, 1997. 6. News Item published in Economic Times, Aug. 29, 1999. 7. Gopalaswamy, T.P., “Environment, Problems and Strategies”, Wheeler Publishing, New Delhi, Ist ed., 1997, p. 6. 8. Ibid, p.7. 9. Pande, G.M., “A Profile of the Background of the Rural Marketing Today”, National Publishing House, New Delhi and Jaipur, Ist ed., 1997, p. 28. 10. Ibid. 11. Census of India, 1991.

No. 185, Dec., 1995, p. 58. 13. “The Strategies”, Business Standard, Aug., 3, 1999. 14. Gopalaswamy, T.P., “Environment, Problems and Strategies”, Wheeler Publishing, New Delhi, Ist ed., 1997, p. 21. 15. Business India, Feb. 23-March 8, 1998. 16. Gopalaswamy, T.P., “Environment, Problems and Strategies”, Wheeler Publishing, New Delhi, Ist ed.., 1997, p. 22. 17. Suresh, K., “Country Connection”, Advertising and Marketing”, June 30, 1999. 18. Gopalaswamy, T.P., “Environment, Problems and Strategies, “Wheeler Publishing, New Delhi, Ist ed., 1997, p. 18. 19. Ibid, p. 19. 20. Budget 2000, Kurukshetra, April, 2000. 21. Drabu, Haseeb, A., “Back to Basics”, Business Standard, June 9, 1999. 22. Tyagi, Kumar, Lalit, “Rural Communication”, Kurukshetra, May, 2000.