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1. Introduction
It is estimated that by the year 2017, the Indian rural economy would touch the one trillion US dollar mark, and by the year 2020, the middle-income consumers in the Indian Rural market would be more than 500 million, arguably more than whole European Continent (Kashyap, 2012). As per The Economic Times Fourth Rural Strategy Summit (2016), the fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) sector is anticipated to go over US dollars 20 billion by the year 2018 and over US dollars 100 billion by the year 2025 in Indian rural markets. As per the Indian Brand Equity Foundation study (2016), “The overall rural consumption of FMCG products in 2015 was USD 18.92 billion and expected to grow to USD 100 billion by 2025” and the rural economy is expected to be a 1.8 trillion US dollar economy by 2021.
It is established beyond any doubt that Indian rural markets provide plenty of business opportunities, and marketers would love to reap the benefits, especially when proper understanding and knowledge about such markets are available. The concept of rural markets and the very idea to explore them may not be new now, but an understanding of such markets has always been questionable.
Most of the time, people’s behavior, consumption, and thoughts revolve around their happy living, well-being and ambition in life. In a complex and diversified society, it would be interesting to assess the kind of ambitions, the Indian rural consumers possess since being ambitious, makes a man compare his possession with others’ in the community, leading to lesser satisfaction in life. People’s ambitions and aspirations mostly shape consumption patterns as well. Thus, an exploration of ambition and aspiration of customers in the Indian rural market is definitely an interesting proposition.
2. Background of the study
The population figures as per census shows that the Indian rural market consists of around 69 percent of nation’s total population, with 833.1 million potential customers. Roughly 12 percent of the global population lives in Indian rural markets, and so it is absolutely not wise for companies not to focus on this part of the population.
In India, as per the Census of India “rural” means “Revenue villages with clear surveyed boundaries; where the density of population is not...