Rural: Mobile Solutions Widen The Reach

By Author: Chetan Mahore
Total Articles: 46
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Marketing is a wide term that encompasses a variety of options right from the offline mode to the online mode. The offline mode is the precursor to all things marketing in the world, yet new technologies have entered the market and changed the entire perception of how marketers use the tools to market their products and services. Online marketing entered the foray a decade ago and is still in the beginning stage, yet it has managed to change entire strategies and budget allocations of companies for advertising of a product or service. Online marketing today is a million dollar industry though it has just begun in comparison to the age old offline marketing techniques like newspapers, hoardings, handbills, TV ads, radio etc. An offshoot of online marketing that is making waves today is mobile marketing. Mobile marketing is in its nascent stage, but is being used a lot for rural marketing in India.
Mobile market and mobility solutions in India grew more than any other new technology used to sell products and services. Mobile phones have entered the lives of Indians very quickly and managed to make themselves indispensable ...
... to the people. This technology has entrenched itself so deep and so quickly that marketers are now looking for ways to use this technology to showcase their products in order to increase their reach. rural marketing in India is being done using custom made-to-order mobility solutions today. Mobile telephony today has changed the shape of rural India, with introduction of low cost mobile phones with every possible application loaded onto it, increasing number of service providers offering services at low tariffs. Increasing per capita income and rampant use of mobiles in the rural areas has made mobile the best bet for marketing today.
According to reports a wireless mobile solution provider along with Airtel is looking to invest 120crore rupees in a new initiative called Behtar Zindagi in the rural areas in a year. The Indian Mobile Value Added Service is slated to post a turnover of Rs 280 billion in the year 2013, posting an increase from a mere Rs. 97 billion after 3G services were launched in India. This startling number is enough to tell you that mobile technologies will help change the face of marketing and usher in the era of mobile commerce much faster than online commerce. Access to smart phones and technologies has made it compulsory for marketers to take into consideration mobility solutions while deciding on strategies to market and advertise their product. Increasing demand from the rural markets for new and innovative ideas with newly developed brand consciousness has made companies and advertising agencies notice the rural areas to today. New initiatives like m-banking, m-learning, m-governance in the world of mobile commerce are making way for people and rural marketing in India.