In addition to the conventional media vehicles, a lot of innovative mediums are used in rural advertising and marketing. Some of the most striking ones are:
Puppetry
Puppetry is the indigenous theatre of India. From time immortal it has been the most popular form and well-appreciated form of entertainment available to the village people. It is an inexpensive activity. The manipulator uses the puppets as a medium to express and communicate ideas, values and social messages.
Life Insurance Corporation of India used puppets to educate rural masses about Life Insurance; enlisting the help of the literacy house in Luck now. These plays were shown to the audience in villages in UP, Bihar, & MP. The number of inquires at local Life Insurance Companies during the period immediately following the performance was compared with normal frequency and found to be considerable higher. The field staff of the corporation also reported a definite impact on the business.
Folk Theater
Folk theaters are mainly short and rhythmic in form. The simple tunes help in informing and educating the people in informal and interesting manner. It has been used as an effective medium for social protest against injustice, exploitation and oppression.
Government has used this media for popularizing improved variety of seeds, agricultural implements, fertilizer etc. Punjab Agricultural University produced Two Audio Cassettes.
Balliye Kanak Biye – Wheat Cultivation.
Khiran Kepah Narme – Cotton Cultivation.
Both were well received by farmers.
BBLIL used Magician quite effectively for launch of Kadak Chhap Tea in Etawah.
Demonstration:
“Direct Contact” is a face-to-face relationship with people individually and with groups such as the Panchayats and other village groups. Such contact helps in arousing the villager’s interest in their own problem and motivating them towards self-development.
Demonstration may be
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Method demonstration
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Result demonstration
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Simple Demonstration
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Composite Demonstration
In result demonstration, help of audio -visual media can add value. Asian Paints launched Utsav range by painting Mukhiya’s house or Post office to demonstrate that paint does not peel off.
Wall Paintings
Wall Paintings are an effective and economical medium for advertising in rural areas. They are silent unlike traditional theatre .A speech or film comes to an end, but wall painting stays as long as the weather allows it to.
Retailer normally welcomes paintings of their shops, walls, and name boards. Since it makes the shop look cleaner and better. Their shops look alluring and stand out among other outlets. Besides rural households shopkeepers and panchayats do not except any payment, for their wall to be painted with product messages. To get one’s wall painted with the product messages is seemed as a status symbol. The greatest advantage of the medium is the power of the picture completed with its local touch. The images used have a strong emotional association with the surrounding, a feet impossible for even a moving visual medium like television, which must use general image to cater to greatest number of viewers.
