Chakan – A window into Rural Marketing

Our journey started early morning at 7.15 a.m. Taking the institute bus, we reached the University from where we took a PMT bus to reach the stop from where we would board the ST bus taking us directly to our destination, Chakan.

The ride in the ST bus was quite an experience – whilst for us it was an experience; it was apparent that a number of passengers were daily commuters making the trip back & forth to make ends meet back home. Most of the male passengers were dressed in the characteristic Maharashtrian attire of white dhoti-kurta & Gandhi topi on the head. On the other hand, amongst the women, the sari and salwar-kameez had an equal popularity.

Some of the noteworthy facts of the journey were the building blocks of what lay ahead for us in terms of the rural experience. It was appreciable that none of the women were standing; as soon as a woman would alight the bus, a male passenger would stand up (as though by default) and offer his seat to the woman. It seems like a paradox, given that the fairer sex is discriminated against in almost every walk of life in a country like India. But, then again, the dichotomy of the Indian male to present himself differently when making private vis-à-vis public appearances may be the cause of such behavior. Whatever be the reason, so long as the trend continues, it shall prove beneficial to the fountainhead of procreation.

The rural population is a very God-fearing or lets say God-loving populace. Most people had a dark red or sindoori tikka on their forehead.

A few people seemed to be traveling a long distance and hence had their large suitcases put up at a corner of the bus. On account of the space constraint inside the bus, the suitcases were used to sit on and not only were the owners seated, they also allowed others to be seated on the same.

On entering the bus, we purchased the tickets and requested the conductor to indicate to us the time when Chakan would arrive. We stood with the other passengers in the bus. After a few minutes the conductor came up to me and whispered to me that there was a group of passengers seated upfront that would be getting off at the next stop and hence we should move forward to secure the seats. A number of passengers had been standing since a long time awaiting their chance to be seated. The point here is that the everyday travelers look up to urbanites like us when we make our one-off trips. But, as the famous saying from Spiderman goes, we need to be cognizant of the fact that “With great power comes great responsibility!”.

A woman seated close by, not wanting her time to get wasted, was reading out of notes that were photocopies of a Marathi script printout. Once in a while, here & there, the beep of a mobile phone would suddenly break the rut of the noise made by the bus speeding away in the direction of its destination on the open highway.
Technology surely is touching people’s lives everywhere & everyday. The best part is that it is affordable enough for all to get access to it and the enrichment that it is bringing to individuals.

After a 50-minutes ride in the bus on the Pune-Nashik highway, the conductor indicated to us that the Chakan village stop had arrived. Once down from the bus, we had a look around to identify whether the rural marketing project had actually got us to a rural area or was it a misnomer for an area that had transformed into a semi-urban region.

On enquiring further, it became clear that Chakan is actually a ‘Rural Oasis’, serving as a feeder market to the villages within almost 50km radius of itself. By no stretch of imagination could it be called a rural market; generating a business volume of nearly 25 lacs every Saturday during the weekly mandi.

As per the requirement, we started gathering information for our study. Our first stop was the Gram Panchayat – the picture of a Panchayat with a group of senior people seated under a Banyan tree was completely distorted in our minds when we came across a building, which had a Reliance Infocomm mobile tower located above it. Well, the shade-providing Banyan was replaced by the communication-providing tower – an indicator of how the power dynamics in the rural areas has been undergoing a transformation with the needs and wants changing over time.
With low recreation facilities, the local politics is a major draw for the rural population – large posters announcing the victory of a candidate in the recent elections at Panchayat level were strewn all over the place with gulal and burnt fire-crackers visible in the compound.
The members of the Panchayat were extremely cooperative and forthcoming with the desired statistics about the village – they handed us a photocopy of the documents available with them.

On the way to the main market of Chakan, a few significant nuances were revealed to us. Poly bags with RIM Prepaid logo were indicative of the need for status orientation of the rural masses. Mobiles are seen as upmarket, with RIM being the more popular brand in the area. Hence, the sale of the polybags to appear upmarket in the area.

Large posters of Shivaji Maharaj & B.R.Ambedkar were indicative of the need of the rural populace for affiliation with national heroes and local posterboys. Some of the other paraphernalia on sale included fake notes like the ones sold outside primary schools. Be it the hero worship of posters or the magic realism of the notes, the take back for us was that the rural population is at the crossroads of a metamorphosis to get transformed but at the same the chrysalis that it is trying to break away from has kept the grips firm – the process is a long-drawn one, both in terms of time & effort; but the fact is that it is occurring nonetheless.

A theatre located in the main market had a poster put up which read ‘Now Showing - Harami’, an Ajay Devgan starrer film that was unheard of until then by any of us. Certainly, going by the popularity of Bollywood and the high aspirations of the rural people, there is no reason why such movies should be on screen at a time when any urban multiplex cinema boasts of not less than 7 screens, each showing a different movie – underserving these markets can certainly cost the producers dearly.

We moved on to the Bazar Samiti, which is the main location for all the trade related to agri-produce as well as animals. The local farmer there was forthcoming, explaining the technicalities and issues involved in trade. He informed that with the increasing need for communication on account of ability to make informed decisions regarding sale of agri-produce, mobile phones had become a rage among the local farmers. He also offered us tea and was not at all cursory in his invitation.

After collecting the requisite information from the market regarding the business & commerce of Chakan, we moved towards the Chakreshwar Temple & Maratha Fort, 2 main tourist destinations of Chakan. The fort was in a dilapidated state with the importance of it being the fort where the last British-Maratha battle was fought, being hidden in the background.

After the fulfilling experience, we made a beeline for the nearest restaurant on the highway for a late evening snack.

All in all, it was a satisfying day for all of us. The lesson that we would like to take back with us is that of humility. Whilst marketing is all about satisfying customer needs better than competition at a profit; in the rural context this definition does not suffice.

The attitude counts a lot – it is not only about commerce but also about the emotion behind the commerce – there has to be an attitude of ‘serving profitably’. The rural masses look upon us as torchbearers and solution providers – you fulfill their requirements and they’ll fulfill yours.