Factors like cultural dimensions, including lifestyles in the area, literacy rate, average standard of living, consumption pattern, type of communication facilities and above all the actual size of the rural market should also be taken into consideration in formulating a correct marketing strategy. But the surveys widely differed in their estimates of the size of the Indian rural market, which varied from 25 million to 620 million.

Most surveys stated that the Indian consumer market is big and has the potential to grow further. Part of the growth will come by penetrating the rural market, a process which has already started. The domestic consumer goods companies should, in particular, tap rural markets vigorously as the demand for consumer goods in today's urban market has sloweddown.

The need for aggressive or promotional efforts was stressed to make the rural population more consumption-oriented over a period of time. Right marketing strategies and efforts are needed to help change the cultural and attitudinal patterns developed over a long period.

Whilst the surveys agree on the need for the above mentioned strategies to target rural markets, they differ in their assessment of the size of the rural market. Kurt Salmon Associates, Technopak, a global consumer goods consultancy firm, has recently concluded that the Indian market for known and branded consumer products is around 25 to 40 million. According to a Japanese survey conducted in the wake of liberalisation, the size of the Indian market is around 320 million.

The National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCEAR), however, in its study `Indian Market Demographics' has systematically segmented consumers into five distinct homogeneous categories with regard to ownership or purchase habits, not of individual productsbut of groups of similarly priced products. These five categories are: the destitutes consisting of 33 million households who consume very little of manufactured products, the aspirants, consisting of 44 million households who purchase few inexpensive consumer goods, the climbers, consisting of 54.1 million households who purchase slightly more expensive goods, the consuming class, consisting of 39.5 million households who buy expensive consumer products and the very rich class, consisting of 1.2 million households who buy the most expensive consumer products.

The annual income range of the destitutes is below Rs 16,000, that of aspirants is between Rs 16,000 and Rs 22,000, that of climbers is between Rs 22,000 and Rs 45,000, that of consuming class is between Rs 45,000 and Rs 2,15,000 and that of very rich class is over Rs 2,15,000.

According to the market potential ratings done by the Ahmedabad-basedMudra Institute of Communications (MICA), Sangrur district in Punjab has a rating of 91.38, while SouthArcot district in Tamil Nadu has a higher rating of 95.91. MICA, whilst fixing these ratings for districts has taken into consideration factors like population, gender ratio, literacy, number of electrified houses, number of houses having LPG connections, occupation and education of the people and number of shops, eateries, hotels, factories, workshops, bank units in the area. The MICA survey is based on the 1991 Census data covering 459 districts of the country.

The size of the rural market according to MICA is 620 million with a total of 13,113 villages each having population of over 5,000. Seventysix per cent of such villages are in seven states of UP, Bihar, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. About 2,09,360 villages are connected by `pucca' roads out of which 57 per cent villages are connected by `pucca' roads in south zone and 220 per cent of the villages are connected by `pucca' roads in east zone. Almost all villages in Kerala, Punjab and Pondicherry are connected by`pucca' roads.