Firstly, thanks to our ever-accommodative students (the batch of 2011) and the esteemed colleagues at the Academy who bore the brunt of inconceivable inconveniences during those three days, we could have a first hand experience of rural consumers.
Before I share my observations from our rural immersion workshop (GRAMDARSHAN), let's ask these questions:
(a) What is RURAL? Is there any standard definition of RURAL as defined by someone like Nactional Council For Applied Economic Research (NCAER), or Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India or any other apex institution in the country?
(b) Who is a rural consumer? What are his/her income generation sources and what are his/her spending patterns?
(c) What are unique and distinct characteristics of rural consumers?
(d) What is his/her educational background and what are his priorities in life?
(e) How does he/she measure the progress of his/her life? In other words, are there any specific yardsticks with which he/she measures the progress of his/her life?
(f) What are their priorities? In other words, how does Maslow's hierarchy of needs framework works in the case of rural consumers?
(g) Who/What influences their buying decisions?
(h) What are their aspirational values and lifestyle statements?
(i) What are the moments of truth when they shop around?
(j) Is there any significant between standard of living and standard of life for the rural consumers?
In the next post, I would try to answer these questions from the survey that our students did in the three villages. There are some very interesting insights that we got from this wonderful field study. More than exposing the students to the ground realities, the GRAMDARSHAN became a window for them to see through the lenses of the rural consumers firsthand.
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