The Infomercial Comes to Life in India’s Rural Villages

We wanted to share a notable and amusing article in today’s Wall Street Journal—“The Infomercial Comes to Life in India’s Remotest Villages.” In the article, reporter Eric Bellman captures the creative approaches that many major consumer products companies are using to reach the rural Indian consumer. He shadows one of the army of salesman that global advertising agencies are dispatching to promote products by staging dances, skits, music, demonstrations and game shows in remote villages of 100 houses or less. Bellman also aptly highlights that rural markets in India (and many other low income countries) have been relatively insulated from the global recession and that India’s rural consumer spending is actually increasing.

This article really captures the cardinal rule of understanding your customer. The methods include everything from recognizing the cultural context—first approaching the village elders for permission to perform—to using alternative media like live entertainment to grab the new customer. These lessons translate to social enterprises in obvious ways.

Some of our investees have already mastered these creative marketing strategies. Global Easy Water Products’ (GEWP) parent organization, International Development Enterprises – India (IDE-I), has produced a number of short Bollywood movies featuring their KB Drip irrigation products. KB Drip salesmen will arrive at a village market, set up their projector and let the crowd form. Here are two examples of these masterpieces (with English subtitles):

KB Drip video 1

KB Drip video 2

Of course, the devil’s advocate to this article might argue that this type of advertising could be exploitative and persuade poor families (who have limited access to information) to buy things that they do not actually need. Aneel Karnani, a professor at the University of Michigan, has accused our sector of “Romanticizing the Poor” and of exploiting the poor’s “bad choices”. But, it is food for thought on whether you believe a rural poor consumer in India deserves the freedom of choice and whether they are adequately informed to make appropriate consumer choices for themselves and their families.