29 Mar BTL: An integral part of Rural Marketing
The importance of Below the Line (BTL) activities in any rural marketing effort can never be underestimated. The need for focused communication aimed at specific target audiences, with varying traditions, cultures, languages and dialects.The traditional belief is that mass media does not reach everyone in rural India. Today, the rural market is a vast area with around 895 million people in over 664,000 villages. It is estimated that this population will increase by 1.7% by 2022. All BTL activities are aimed at generating word of mouth publicity for the product or service being promoted among the target audience, in a specific geographical location using specially developed communication packages. I would include any non-media activity or roadshow which takes the route of either one on one or group communication using different delivery mechanisms. For expensive consumer durables or services, where promotional efforts have to build in the ‘touch & feel’ or demonstration aspects,...