India is a country where majority of the population lives in villages. Appreciating the size and business potential of the rural sector, major companies, including Hindustan Unilever and P&G have made special strategies for targeting rural markets. The thrust on rural markets is getting stronger day by day and it needs complete knowledge base of rural marketing. The book is meant to create interest in business management students to get into the rural marketing mindset for bringing the desired organisational focus on the subject. Considering the importance of rural markets, most business schools have included Rural Marketing Management as a key knowledge area in their syllabus. The present book has endeavoured to cover the entire gamut of Rural Marketing with inputs from discussions with rural marketing practitioners, besides valuable studies conducted by the major companies and the author?s own experience in the area. There are few books on rural marketing which mostly deal with the subject as extending the urban marketing process into the rural zones. The book contains a number of live-wire national and international case studies, meant to enthuse the students in probing the business opportunities and threats in the rural markets. The method of handling the case studies is also provided for the convenience of students. The book is written in simple, easy to understand and lucid language.Table of Contents Rural Marketing: An Introduction Marketing Management: An Introduction Rural Marketing Management: Concepts and Systems Rural Marketing: Plans and Policies Pricing Systems Rural Customer Purchase Process Advertising, Sales Promotion and PR in Rural India Marketing Research Rural Competitions Rural Development Plans Rural Sales Force Management Distribution of Goods Rural Product Plans Rural Marketing for the 21st Century Indian Village Vignettes Critical Marketing Strategies Strategic Innovations in Marketing Strategic Audit Marketing of Agricultural Produce Rural Cottage Industry and Artisan Products Case Studies Index