NEW DELHI - Jagran Solutions has recently set up its rural division to address the marketer’s needs to activate emerging Indian markets and consumers.

Urban market is reaching towards the saturation point, thus bringing in urgent need to focus on rural development. Also the sheer volume of consumers with liquidity ready to adapt new trends and products into their lives have made the emerging Indian markets a natural choice for progression of any business. Just about a year into its formalization this division alone is currently handling activations business worth 35 Crores.

Commenting on this, Ambika Sharma, National Head, Jagran Solutions said, “The dynamics of rural markets differ from other market types and also the rural marketing strategies are also different from the strategies aimed at an urban consumer. So to handle the emerging rural Indian markets need, it was imperative that its operations should be handled by a dedicated team with expertise.

Consumer insight, creativity, Reach, scale, control, and result orientation are the driving forces of this division which addresses emerging Indian marketing needs.”

While reaching the metros fairly limits the geographical scale a step beyond the golden heartland spans the top 60+ cities of the country, rural markets are far larger.

With its emerging markets division Jagran Solutions will concentrate on long term result driven activations which are strongly integrated with the marketing plans of its clients.

Rural markets offer a large potential volume growth for all brands. Rising rural income levels, huge investment by government on rural infrastructure, increase in literacy and education level, thrust on rural health programmes, emergence of lifestyle all these factors shows a complete change in the rural market. Emerging rural markets have already witnessed a growth of 20 per cent in the last 3-4 years.

According to one study, Telecom is growing at 31 per cent, FMCG at 23 per cent. The low penetration levels itself indicates the potential such rural markets hold.

According to Ambika Sharma, “Now activations for rural markets are not restricted to mobile vans anymore, gone are the days when this medium was perceived as the only workable method of reach. Innovations have found their way quite successfully to this segment. Activations now need to sync with the consumers thought and beliefs, they need to speak the language of the locals and yet be aspirational. The future will belong to the long term vision and in depth understanding; it will belong to those who have invested time effort and expertise in the emerging Indian markets.”

The rural division of Jagran Solutions handles clients like Hindustan Latex Limited, State Government Clients of Bihar, MP and Haryana, Escorts and FMCG brands with clients like Dabur and HLL.

The largest project undertaken is for the Government Bihar - Mobile Medical unit project worth Rs 22 Crores. (ANI)