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Group 8 Vedanti Ganwir P1116 Prathamesh Bute P1108 Pankesh Sethi P1130 Bharat Mittal P1136

 Maruti Suzuki India Limited (MSIL, formerly Maruti Udyog Limited), a subsidiary of Suzuki Motor Corporation of Japan, is India's largest passenger car company

Indias largest Car Maker for the last 25 years

Has sold more than 1 crore cars Enjoys over 50% market share The company offers a wide range of cars across different segments. It offers 15 brands and over 150 variants Initially was a major urban player now ventured into rural India

 Rural Marketing is defined as any marketing activity in which one dominant participant is from a rural area It is very different from urban marketing because 1.Intra community influences are relatively more important than intercommunity ones 2. Scarcity of media bandwidth 3. Slow to adopt brands. Slow to give them up 4. Expenses are year long; income is seasonal(Income is lower than urban) 5. Information hungry; but entertainment starved

6. Higher receptivity to experience advertising. Retail outlets in rural areas have many demonstration areas along with markets for tasting
7. Commercially profitable; and socially acceptable. Brands with demonstrable local, rural, environmental and/or social credibility stand a better chance

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Opportunities

Large market Growing purchasing power Increasing aspirations Enablers such as financing Infrastructure Development

Diversity in tradition and culture Lack of distribution channels Poor understanding of customers

Challenges

Large Customer Base

70% of Population

Purchasing Power

Increase in Minimum Support Price (MSP) National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) Sixth Pay Commission Farm loan waiver

Enablers

Strong credit structure with Regional Rural Banks (RRBs) Kisan Credit Card (KCC) Cooperative societies have been the traditional source of finance in rural areas

Infrastructure

Infrastructural development in India's rural belt has gained momentum in recent years The Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) Telecom Penetration

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Has been targeting the rural market as a strategic initiative from 2008 Has been the most effective player in the Passenger Vehicle industry in tapping the opportunity

Targeting Opinion Makers

Customer Engagement

Innovative Distribution

Other Initiatives

In rural markets, the endorsement of opinion makers takes precedence over an informed objective judgment. Maruti Suzuki launched a Panchayat scheme for such opinion makers, covering the 1. Village Sarpanch (head of local governing body), 2. Doctors 3. Teachers in government institutions 4. Rural bank officers An extra discount is given to make a sale.

 Various types of melas (mass events) are organized wherein local flavor is added by organizing traditional social activities or by leveraging local festivals While some events such as the Gramin Mahotsava are conducted round the year Others are organized near the harvesting season to utilize the cash generated from farm sales These are In addition to the service camps and used car melas the company organizes on a routine basis

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Distribution
To maximize coverage and be cost-effective required nontraditional distribution network

Extension counters

RDSEs

 These are stripped down dealerships, which operate as a satellite outlet for a main dealership in a nearby town All the enquiries generated from the extension counters are channelized to the parent dealer and deliveries are made at pre-specified dates

Because of its cost-effective sales network, Maruti has been able to cover more than 200 cities The company has also embarked on its plans to double its sales outlets in rural areas to around 450 in the next two years and aims to sell 250,000 cars per annum in these areas

 Appointing a local resident of the village as a salesman has also been a successful selling strategy This strategy has been named as Sons of Soil The RDSE tries to generate sales enquiries from local government offices, banks, schools, hospitals, etc.

Rural customers feel more comfortable interacting with a local person

MSIL has announced its plans to appoint 10,000 Resident Dealer Sales Executives in rural areas

Around 5239 are of them already recruited

* Maruti has tied up with lTC's agri-business division, e-Choupal, to market its
products in rural areas

* e-Choupals will provide display demonstration and customer engagement services

and facilitate meetings with prospective clients

* Maruti has been actively associating with PSU banks such as SBI, which have vast
networks and relationships with rural consumers

* Further, to utilize the local "intelligence" to judge the credit worthiness of a rural * Offering discount from time to time to buyers and setting up mobile vans to
service at the doorstep

customer, more effectively, Maruti has also been tying up with regional rural banks and local NBFCs

* Displaying up cars on trucks