Title

Building rural market share

Author

Hussain Ali Talib

Degree

Master of Business Administration Executive

Faculty / School

Faculty of Business Administration (FBA)

Year of Award

2015

Project Type

MBA Executive Research Project

Access Type

Restricted Access

Keywords

Brands & branding, Rural market, Products

Executive Summary

This report provides an analysis and evaluation of the opportunities and challenges for creating rural market share for Unilever in Pakistan.

The methods of analysis were selected using a dual strategy involving secondary research comprising literature review followed by primary research based on qualitative and quantitative studies. The primary research involved opinions sourced from a variety of experts from a diverse field including.

- Brand

- Rural Marketing & Sales

- Community Sensitization

This was followed by a small pilot project with a captive audience in the vicinity of Unilever's factory locations in Punjab. This study provided a microcosm of the potential and pitfalls of the rural space and allowed a small case study for the expansion of potential ideas in this space.

The primary conclusion drawn from the research indicates that there is increasing potential for creating market access and generating revenues from the rural space considering the increasing revenues of these groups. However, the marketing and sales approaches will need to be customized for these markets with a sizeable effort needed to develop channels that will ensure consumers can access relevant products conveniently.

Unilever must first build trust by enabling rural consumers to get access and build trust in the brands within the context of the rural space. Unilever must also boost market access in the rural space through innovative marketing and sales approaches that are structured for the rural market.

The research and evaluation offers the development of the following route-to-market approaches that are structured differently for men and women in the rural space:

FEMALE CONSUMERS

Vocational skill building

Livelihood enhancement through

o Consumer Goods Retail

o Nutrition Retail

MALE CONSUMERS

- Small Scale Distribution

- Ice Cream Retail

Pages

47

Link to Catalog Record

https://ils.iba.edu.pk/cgi-bin/koha/opac-detail.pl?biblionumber=55323

Recommended Citation

Talib, H. A. (2015). Building rural market share (Unpublished graduate research project). Institute of Business Administration, Pakistan. Retrieved from https://ir.iba.edu.pk/research-projects-emba/253