Conceptual Expansion of the Discipline of Rural Marketing: An Objective Analysis

Abstract

Researchers have analyzed the variations in rural marketing concepts and offered definitions relating to these varying concepts. However, there seems to be a general disagreement regarding the aspects which should be included in rural marketing. This article studies the contents of various definitions of rural marketing using quantitative techniques in order to discern the probable conceptual expansion of rural marketing. Only definitions of the term ‘rural marketing’ (not just a mention of ‘rural marketing’) are considered for the present study. Dimension reduction technique and frequency tabulations are used for the content analysis. Apart from providing a definition of rural marketing using the results of the content analysis, the present study also found a strong relationship between developmental marketing and the need for rural marketers to stimulate demand through developmental activities such as appointing local inhabitants as distributors, wholesalers and retailers of their products; or by employing local manpower in other operations such as trade marketing, procurement of raw materials and selling and disseminating information on the marketer’s products directly to rural consumers.

Keywords

Rural Marketing Developmental Rural Marketing Holistic Rural Marketing Content Analysis Principal Component Analysis

Introduction

Rural marketing started showing its revenue potential in the 1960s (Agadi & Paramashivaiah, 1995) and emerged as a commercial proposition in the early 1970s (Anitha, 1995). In the 1980s, authors (e.g., Jha, 1988; Rao & Tagat, 1985) presented specific studies on the definitional issues in rural marketing. This article studies the contents of multiple definitions of rural marketing using quantitative techniques in order to discern the apparent conceptual expansion of rural marketing. The present study attempts to identify the factors that comprise the definition of rural marketing based on a quantitative content analysis using the technique of categorical principal component analysis (CATPCA).

Both early studies (e.g., Jha, 1988; Rao & Tagat, 1985) and later research (e.g., Jha, 2012; Modi, 2009) have argued that ‘rural marketing’ has eluded attempts at presenting a precise definition. Hence, multiple studies (e.g., Jha, 1988; Modi, 2009) have attempted to conceptualize and define ‘rural marketing’. However, the concept of rural marketing has remained in a state of evolution. Walmsley (2012) stated, ‘There remains little academic consensus on a definition of rural marketing, and as a concept, rural marketing has therefore struggled to establish its own terminology and ideas’ (p. 49). For a complete analysis of the evolution of rural marketing from agricultural marketing, with commodity and institutional focus, to a more comprehensive three-dimensional perspective of rural-to-urban, urban-to-rural and rural-to-rural focus, in terms of flow of goods, services and ideas, to a developmental rural marketing perspective, the reader may refer to Modi (2009) or Jha (2012). The organization of the article is as follows:

It first provides a review of the existing research on the concepts of rural marketing. Through a review of literature, it points out the need for an effective domain definition of rural marketing. The propositions regarding the domain of rural marketing are listed down after a review of the existing literature for content on this subject. Based on the propositions, two hypotheses are framed for testing. The methodology of gathering data and thereby categorizing the terms used in rural marketing along with the categories has been explained.

The statistical method of CATPCA via alternating least squares has been used—its methodology is explained briefly. The results of CATPCA are presented in tabular as well as graphical formats—inferences regarding the hypotheses are drawn from the results. Drawing on the statistical analysis and a review of existing literature, it then discusses the findings and analyzes the domain of rural marketing from a definition perspective. The present study also statistically analyzes the temporal evolution of the definition of rural marketing, as represented by researchers and authors. Finally, it describes the limitations of this article and its suggested implications for further research and practice. Using the present, statistically validated, domain of rural marketing, researchers can conduct further empirical studies on the various aspects included in the domain. It is also pertinent to note here that the present research uses only definitions which expressly use the term ‘rural marketing’ (not just a mention of ‘rural marketing’); hence, it excludes the definitions which are based on use of terms such as ‘agricultural marketing’, ‘farm marketing’, ‘agro-input marketing’, ‘bottom of pyramid marketing’, ‘marketing to the poor’, ‘marketing to the underprivileged’, ‘tourism marketing’ and ‘rural destination marketing’.

Literature Review

Egger (1925) seems to have made the first use of the term ‘rural marketing’ in the context of ‘rural marketing societies’ in USA. McFall (1930) analyzed the information generated from the first census of agricultural distribution in USA and appreciated the benefits of this information for the participants in the domain of ‘agricultural and rural marketing’. The problems of ‘rural marketing’ in the context of agricultural marketing, in terms of its dependence upon transportation and national, or even international markets were analyzed by Wright (1940). In India, the first mention of ‘rural marketing’ was made by Shah (1947), in the reports of a sub-committee set-up in 1937 by the National Planning Committee. None of these initial articles that use the term ‘rural marketing’ refer to any preceding articles mentioning the same term but the underlying subject of all these articles is the marketing of agricultural produce from rural production centres to rural or urban consumption centres. These articles with the initial use of the term rural marketing do not appear to be referred by later articles on rural marketing, except the work by Shah (1947) which is cited by Jha (1988, 2012) and Nangia, Sharma, Sengar and Mahajan (2013).

‘Rural marketing’ seemingly originated as a separate subject in a seminal article by Skinner (1964) who analyzed rural marketing in China. Skinner (1964) wrote about agricultural marketing and has been cited by multiple research articles on rural marketing (e.g., Lado, 1988; Porter, 1993). The seminal studies on rural marketing of consumer goods (Rao, 1973; Viswanathan, 1972) are focused on India, and present the unique challenges faced by marketers in rural marketing of consumer goods. It may be inferred that from a beginning in agricultural marketing, rural marketing, as a subject, has evolved to include marketing of consumer goods (e.g., Dannhaeuser, 1987; Jha, 1988), developmental marketing (e.g., Modi, 2009; Rao & Tagat, 1985) and holistic marketing (Jha, 2012).

Rural marketing has been defined as all the flows from urban-to-rural areas, from rural-to-urban areas and from rural-to-rural areas (Jha, 1988). In a similar vein, Rao (2013) has defined ‘rural marketing’ as an ‘umbrella’ term used for the people who dealt with rural people in one way or the other.

Rao and Tagat (1985) have defined rural marketing from the lens of a developmental marketing paradigm. Developmental marketing, in this context, is the need for marketers to generate wealth among rural inhabitants by employing their services and entrepreneurial ability in marketing efforts, which in turn will enable villagers to consume more of the marketer’s products. The uplifting effects of marketing on the rural populace and the need to involve rural entities in the marketing efforts of companies that desire to sell to rural consumers were highlighted by Prahalad and Hart (2002) and by Prahalad (2005). Rural marketing may play a role in bridging the widening gap between rural and urban economies—this may be achieved by linking agriculture and rural enterprises to rural and urban markets through marketing efforts (Vaswani, Aithal, Pradhan & Sridhar, 2005). Pankaj (2005) analyzed the reasons for the relative inability of marketers to tap into the rural markets in India and concluded that there may be a need to generate wealth among rural consumers through the use of developmental marketing as a long-term strategy. Modi (2009), after reviewing the literature on marketing and economic development, also proposed that development of rural people should be the perspective of rural marketing.

It has been recommended that rural marketing possibly needs to move to a holistic marketing orientation, that is, marketing strategy should be developed by thinking about the business as a whole, its place in the broader economy and society and in the lives of its customers (Jha, 2012). A review of existing rural marketing literature shows that a seemingly good body of knowledge exists in the representative domains indicated in Table 1.

Table 1.

Domains of Studies within Rural Marketing

Domains	Examples of Relevant Studies
Conceptual issues in rural marketing	Jha (1988) and Modi (2009)
Profile of rural markets through a marketing lens	Mathur (1981) and Viswanathan (1972)
Segmentation and selection of rural markets	Krishna (2005) and Rao (1973)
Comparison of urban and rural markets	Baig (1980) and Balakrishnan (1978)
Challenges and strategies in rural marketing	Kaushik (2009) and Saini (1972)
Rural consumer behaviour	Jha (2003) and Sayulu and Reddy (1998)
Rural marketing mix	Anderson and Bilou (2007) and Dawar and Chattopadhyay (2000)
Rural supply chains	Aithal and Vaswani (2005) and Srivastava (2006)
Rural periodic markets	Eighmy (1972) and Symanski and Webber (1974)
Rural advertising	Bhatia (2007) and Gaur (2013)
Rural marketing of consumer goods and services	Desai and Prasanth (2004) and Rao (1973)
Organized rural retailing	Miller, Besser, Gaskill and Sapp (2003) and Ozment and Martin (1990)
Developmental rural marketing	Dantwala (1950), Modi (2009) and Robert (1979)

Source: Review of literature as part of the present study.

The Arguments on Definition of Rural Marketing

Jha (1988), in an early conceptual research on rural marketing, suggested that the concepts ‘rural’ and ‘marketing’, though having been used frequently in various studies, have eluded any precise and non-controversial definition. More than two decades later, there still remains no academic consensus on a suitable definition of rural marketing, and rural marketing has therefore not been able to establish its own vocabulary and concepts (Walmsley, 2012). Modi (2009) also suggested that the definition and domain-related issues of ‘rural marketing’ need further explanation and amendment since existing literature uses concepts borrowed from mainstream marketing discipline.

Identifying the Categories within Definitions of Rural Marketing

Formulating an integrative definition of rural marketing may begin with an analysis of the categories (factors) that are manifested in the extant definitions of rural marketing. We develop certain propositions which can be used to categorize the factors manifested in definitions of rural marketing. These propositions are intended to aid in the categorization of relevant content from extant literature, as is the accepted methodology in content-analytic studies (Verbeke, Volgering & Hessels, 1998).

The concept of rural marketing is seen to have originated in agricultural marketing (McFall, 1930; Shah, 1947). Rural marketing includes rural-to-urban flows of artisan products (Aithal, 2008), agricultural products (Modi, Mishra, Gulati & Murugesan, 2009) and other village produce since studies (e.g., Erda, 2009; Vaswani et al., 2005) specifically define that if one of the dominant participant is from a rural area, then it falls in the domain of rural marketing. The consequent proposition therefore is

P₁: ‘Rural to Urban Flows (Agro/Artisan marketing)’ of products and services is a theme manifested in definitions of rural marketing.

Villages not only are providers of products to be moved up the market hierarchy, but also are recipients of foods and non-food goods which have their starting point in urban or international factories (Dannhaeuser, 1987). Agri-inputs were probably the first products to be made in urban centres and sold in rural areas (Ashra & Chakravarty, 2007). Viswanathan (1972) and Rao (1973) analyzed the challenges and opportunities in rural marketing of consumer goods (manufactured in urban locales) to rural consumers. Thus, the proposition that follows is

P₂: Rural marketing includes ‘urban to rural flows’ of products and services.

Since researchers (e.g., Erda, 2009; Vaswani et al., 2005) have defined rural marketing to include the flows where at least one dominant player has to be from rural area, the flows from rural to rural will also be included in rural marketing. The resulting proposition is

P₃: ‘Rural to rural flows (farm marketing/unorganized sector)’ of products and services is a constituent of rural marketing.

Specific studies have been conducted on the subject of rural marketing mix (e.g., Anderson & Markides, 2007; Joshi & Srivastava, 2011). In the context of developing nations, Kashyap and Raut (2005) suggested a four A’s framework to better define the rural marketing mix: the challenge of Availability replaced Place, the challenge of Affordability replaced Price, the challenge of Awareness replaced Promotion and the challenge of Acceptability replaced Product. Anderson and Bilou (2007) further developed and tested this construct and presented a two-year study on serving customers at the bottom of the economic pyramid to exemplify the four A’s of rural marketing. The proposition that follows is

P₄: Rural marketing requires a ‘customized marketing mix’.

Some definitions (e.g., Iyer, 2009; Kumar & Dangi, 2013) consider the function of stimulating demand as part of the definition of rural marketing. Studies which define rural marketing from a viewpoint of developmental marketing (e.g., Modi, 2009; Rao & Tagat, 1985) also affirm that the development of rural denizens would lead to wealth creation and will provide the resultant stimulus to demand. The following proposition may be adopted:

P₅: ‘Stimulating demand’ is an important job of rural marketers.

Some scholars (e.g., Krishnamacharyulu & Ramakrishnan, 2011; Rao, 1973) suggest the inclusion of marketing planning function and the implementation of marketing strategies and plans within the definition of rural marketing. We may therefore undertake the following proposition:

P₆: Rural marketing requires ‘planning and implementation’.

Rural consumers are possibly different from their urban counterparts, when it comes to purchase decisions (Kaur & Singh, 2005) and specific brand building activities are often needed (Rahman, 2009). The inclusion of the term ‘rural consumers’ in some definitions of ‘rural marketing’ (e.g., Iyer, 2009; Rao, 2000) possibly constrains the domain of rural marketing to only urban-to-rural flow of goods and services. The converse flow would need the definition to be consumer category neutral (since urban consumers consume rural produce) or specifically include ‘urban consumers’ also in the definition. The proposition that emerges is

P₇: Rural marketing focuses on ‘rural consumers’.

Some definitions of rural marketing have specified the domain of rural marketing in terms of what is getting sold. Singh (2004) has included all of agro-inputs, products and services while other studies (Dannhaeuser, 1987; Rao, 2000) have specified only products as part of rural marketing definition. We can make the following proposition:

P₈: Rural marketing deals with ‘agro-inputs, products and services’.

Rao and Tagat (1985) define rural marketing from the lens of a developmental marketing paradigm. Developmental marketing, in this context, is the need for marketers to generate wealth among rural denizens by employing their services and entrepreneurial ability in marketing efforts, which in turn will enable rural denizens to also consume more of the marketers’ products. Pankaj (2005) analyzed the reasons for the relative inability of marketers to tap into the rural markets in India and concluded that there is a need to generate wealth among rural consumers through the use of developmental marketing as a long-term strategy. After reviewing the literature on marketing and economic development, Modi (2009) also proposed that development of rural people should be the perspective of rural marketing. This discussion leads to the following proposition:

P₉: ‘Developmental Marketing (Marketing-oriented CSR or stimulating purchase power)’ is a focus of rural marketing.

Authors (e.g., Ingavale, 2011; Kumar & Dangi, 2013) have also suggested the inclusion of the need to meet organizational objectives as a component of rural marketing definitions. Corporations have possibly realized the potential of rural markets and are incorporating rural marketing strategies to fulfil their organizational objectives (Kumar & Madhavi, 2006). The following proposition may be developed:

P₁₀: Rural marketing should be aligned with ‘Organizational Objectives’ and help in meeting them.

Rural marketing often requires a segmentation of markets on the basis of geography, demographics and psychographics, followed by selection of relevant segments as target markets (Rajasekhar, 1995). Krishnamacharyulu and Ramakrishnan (2011) have defined rural marketing to include the concepts of segmentation, targeting and positioning for the purpose of designing the marketing mix and evolving and implementing marketing strategies. The following proposition summarized the preceding discussion:

P₁₁: Rural marketing requires ‘Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning’.

Segmenting and targeting rural consumers often begin with market research (Agadi & Paramashivaiah, 1995). Dogra and Ghuman (2010), Ramkishen (2002) and Kashyap and Raut (2005), among others, have included this need for rural marketing research in their definitions of ‘rural marketing’—rural marketing research is necessary to understand and evaluate the potential as well as to build suitable marketing strategies. The following may be proposed from this review of literature on the demand factor:

P₁₂: ‘Rural research’ is necessary for rural marketing.

Market research may lead to the development of products and services targeted specifically for rural consumers. Some definitions (e.g., Iyer, 2009; Rao, 1973) advocate the development and marketing of products which are meant specifically for rural consumers. The subsequent proposition is

P₁₃: Rural marketing often requires ‘tailored products and services’.

Rural marketing should lead to profitable exchanges for the organization and their customers and consumers (Dogra & Ghuman, 2010). The proposition of the aforesaid profit motive may be stated as follows:

P₁₄: Rural marketing should lead to ‘profitable exchanges’.

The concept of ‘satisfying latent consumer demand’ is also manifested in the definitions of rural marketing (Ingavale, 2011; Kumar & Dangi, 2013). The probability of adoption of a product in rural markets is higher if the product is of good quality and gives value for money (Narsimham, 1995). The proposition that may be framed is as follows:

P₁₅: ‘Satisfying consumer demand’ is an objective of rural marketing.

Jha (2012) recommended that rural marketing should move to a holistic rural marketing orientation, that is, marketing strategy should be developed by thinking about the business as a whole, its place in the broader economy and society and in the lives of its customers. Hence, the final proposition is as follows:

P₁₆: Rural marketing is moving to a ‘holistic marketing’ paradigm.

Hypotheses

This study aims to analyze whether the discipline of ‘rural marketing’ has a conceptual core, and whether authors are proceeding in a similar direction in defining rural marketing. If conceptual expansion proceeds rationally, the concepts have to have a core on to which individual variations are attached (Verbeke et al., 1998). Based upon these suggestions, we propose two hypotheses:

Hypothesis 1: Dimension reduction of the categories within the definitions of rural marketing will show a common core concept and a set of clusters, which represents conceptual variations around the core concept.

Hypothesis 2: The clusters which emerge during the content analysis of definitions of rural marketing will reflect the same conceptual concepts as suggested by at least one research article which is not used (to prevent cyclic conclusions) during the content analysis process.

Research Method

Content Analysis and Principal Component Analysis

This research tests the hypotheses using the statistical technique of content analysis. Content analysis is a research method for making replicable and valid conclusions with respect to the associations among terms that are present in texts (Krippendorff, 1980). First, the meanings of the listed definitions of rural marketing are evaluated by external authorities on rural marketing to club the components of the definitions into categories by clubbing similar-meaning worlds. Second, using principal component analysis, associations are examined between the categories. The found associations among the categories point out what is common among all the categories and also which clusters of related categories can be found in the concepts of rural marketing as suggested by at least one research article which is not used (to prevent cyclic conclusions) during the content analysis process; then, they will be considered as validated clusters.

Data Gathering: Searching for Categories

The sampling method is a systematic citation index search. Definitions of rural marketing have been taken from 30 different sources. This type of sampling has benefits as well as limitations: the benefit is that the articles are acknowledged by authorities in the field; the limitation is that some work of marginal importance or some less-cited work or some plausibly good work in a low-impact journal has not been used in this study.

Analysis of Temporal Movement in the Conceptualization of Categories

While a cross-sectional analysis of categories may reveal patterns in what authorities feel about the definition of rural marketing, a temporal analysis enables a study of evolution of concepts in rural marketing. Research works (e.g., Furrer, Thomas & Goussevskaia, 2008; Järvelin & Vakkari, 1993) suggest the use of a temporal method of content analysis to trace the evolution of management concepts and this research also uses such a method.

Table 2.

Category Frequencies of Terms within Rural Marketing Definitions

Rank	Category Frequencies within Definitions of Rural Marketing (30)	Frequency
	Category
1	Urban-to-rural flows	23
2	Rural-to-urban flows (agro/artisan marketing)	16
3	Products	12
6	Developmental marketing	10
5	Rural-to-rural flows (farm marketing/unorganized sector)	11
3	Stimulating demand	12
7	Services	8
8	Customized marketing mix	7
9	Rural research	6
9	Organizational objectives	6
11	Tailored products and services	5
12	Planning	3
12	Implementation	3
15	Rural consumers	2
15	Profitable exchanges	2
12	Satisfying consumer demand	3
17	Agro inputs	1
17	Segmentation, targeting and positioning	1
17	Holistic marketing	1

Source: Result of categorization of words in the definitions of ‘rural marketing’ available in literature by using the statistical method of frequency tabulation of content.

In Table 3, the categories of concepts within rural marketing have been classified for different periods of time. As far as the ordering in time is concerned, the time period is classified in three nearly equal periods, based on availability of literature, starting with the first research work of Rao (1973) and ending with the last research work by Kumar and Dangi (2013).

In Table 3, the categories related to definition of rural marketing are ranked for different periods of time. The ranks are more important than the frequencies in order to judge the primacy of categories, as indicated by authorities, over a 40-year period. The domain of urban-to-rural flows remains the highest ranked (first rank) throughout the study period—this implies that the phrase ‘rural marketing’ has been used mainly in the context of urban-to-rural marketing in the definitions of rural marketing. Rural-to-urban flow has also maintained its second highest ranking in the first and last period of study (dropping by only one rank in the second period), indicating that the marketing of agricultural and artisan produce to urban markets is also an important part of the definition of rural marketing. An important caveat here is that the earlier articles (e.g., McFall, 1930; Shah, 1947) on agricultural marketing never defined the phrase ‘rural marketing’, and are not part of this research—if articles defining ‘agricultural marketing’ or ‘farm marketing’ were also included in this research, then results may have been different. However, the exclusion of these articles is justified since this research deals with only definitions of the specific phrase, ‘rural marketing’. Developmental marketing has also maintained a nearly consistent rank over the period of study owing to an interest by researchers (e.g., Modi, 2009; Pankaj, 2005; Vaswani et al., 2005) in defining ‘rural marketing’ from a developmental perspective. The theme of ‘stimulating demand’ through improving rural livelihoods has also maintained a high ranking over the period of study. The references to ‘service’ in the definitions remain low as compared to references to ‘product’ in the first two periods of study, but converge to a similar rank in the last period. For rest of the factors, no valid temporal pattern can possibly be discerned with certainty.

Clusters of Categories

After the identification of the categories within rural marketing, we trace the conceptual core and the clusters—conceptual variations. Various researchers (Kassarjian, 1977; Namenwirth, 1967) have used principal components analysis (PCA) to identify relationships between the categories in different contexts. When categories consistently occur together in multiple definitions of ‘rural marketing’, it indicates that they form a cluster. A casual reading of the text does not reveal the clusters. Therefore, the method of a PCA for categorical data is suggested by researchers (Kassarjian, 1977; Namenwirth, 1967).

Categorical Principal Components Analysis

Principal components analysis is a procedure for finding hypothetical variables (components) which account for as much of the variance in your multidimensional data as possible (Davis, 1986; Harper, 1999). The statistical technique of PCA for categorical data (the presence or absence of a term in a definition, in the present study) is CATPCA. The goal of PCA is to reduce an original set of variables into a smaller set of uncorrelated components that represent most of the information found in the original variables (Muelman & Heiser, 2012). The technique is most useful when presence of a large number of variables prohibits effective interpretation of the relationships between objects (Muelman & Heiser, 2012). Standard PCA assumes linear relationships between numeric variables. On the other hand, the optimal-scaling approach, used in CATPCA, allows variables to be scaled at different levels. As a result, nonlinear relationships between variables can be modelled (Muelman & Heiser, 2012). Therefore, with CATPCA, also known as dimension reduction method, it is possible to summarize the relations between categories in a multidimensional space (as in Figure 1).

Table 3.

Category Frequencies for Terms Present in Rural Marketing Definitions in Different Periods of Time

Period: 1973–2005			Period: 2007–2011			Period: 2012–2014
Rank	Category	Frequency	Rank	Category	Frequency	Rank	Category	Frequency
1	Urban-to-rural flows	8	1	Urban-to-rural flows	8	1	Urban-to-rural flows	7
2	Rural-to-urban flows	5	3	Rural-to-urban flows	5	2	Rural-to-urban flows	6
2	Products	5	6	Products	3	4	Products	4
5	Developmental marketing	3	5	Developmental marketing	4	6	Developmental marketing	3
4	Rural-to-rural flows	4	10	Rural-to-rural flows	2	3	Rural-to-rural flows	5
5	Stimulating demand	3	2	Stimulating demand	6	6	Stimulating demand	3
7	Services	2	10	Services	2	4	Services	4
12	Customized marketing mix	1	3	Customized marketing mix	5	9	Customized marketing mix	1
7	Rural research	2	6	Rural research	3	9	Rural research	1
12	Organizational objectives	1	6	Organizational objectives	3	8	Organizational objectives	2
7	Tailored products and services	2	6	Tailored products and services	3	13	Tailored products and services	0
7	Planning	2	13	Planning	1	13	Planning	0
7	Implementation	2	13	Implementation	1	13	Implementation	0
12	Rural consumers	1	13	Rural consumers	1	13	Rural consumers	0
12	Profitable exchanges	1	13	Profitable exchanges	1	13	Profitable exchanges	0
17	Satisfying consumer demand	0	10	Satisfying consumer demand	2	9	Satisfying consumer demand	1
12	Agri inputs	1	18	Agri inputs	0	13	Agri inputs	0
17	Segmentation, targeting and positioning	0	13	Segmentation, targeting and positioning	1	13	Segmentation, targeting and positioning	0
17	Holistic marketing	0	18	Holistic marketing	0	9	Holistic marketing	1

Source: Result of categorization of words in the definitions of ‘rural marketing’ available in literature by using the statistical method of longitudinal frequency tabulation of content.

Analysis, Interpretation and Results

Justification of Using a Dimension Reduction Method

The CATPCA in two dimensions yielded eigenvalues of 3.626 and 3.019 (as shown in Table 4). Eigenvalue is an index of the strength of the component. The eigenvalue for a dimension should be, in general, higher than (1/number of variables). In the analysis of rural marketing categories of concepts, both dimensions have an eigenvalue higher than 0.0526 (1/19 variables). The total Cronbach’s alpha derived from this dimension reduction technique is 0.897 (as shown in Table 4), which is higher than the minimum 0.7 value suggested by Lance, Butts and Michels (2006). Component loadings were calculated for the categories in the analysis and presented in Figure 1. Appendix 2 presents the matrix which gives the Pearson correlations between categories. The component loadings of the categories placed in a two-dimensional diagram provide a visual means for interpretation. Categories that fit into the same cluster will have a similar loading on a dimension, while categories that do not fit into the same cluster will have loadings that are dissimilar. In the CATPCA, the default number of two dimensions has been used. Muelman and Heiser (2012) recommend keeping the number of dimensions small to make meaningful interpretations of the clusters possible. Approximately 35 per cent of the total variance is explained by the two dimensions (Table 4), which is considered acceptable when using dimension reduction techniques for content analysis using categorical data (as suggested for CATPCA by Buijzen and Valkenburg [2004] and Campos-Herrera et al. [2008]). The total variance explained is the summation of variances explained by each dimension.

Table 4.

Measures of Validity of CATPCA

Model Summary
Dimension	Cronbach’s Alpha	Variance Accounted for
Dimension	Cronbach’s Alpha	Total (eigenvalue)	Percentage of Variance
1	0.764	3.626	19.083
2	0.706	3.019	15.889
Total	0.897^a	6.645	34.972

Source: Output of CATPCA conducted using IBM SPSS 21.0.

Note: a—total Cronbach’s alpha is based on the total eigenvalue.

Determining Core Concept and Clusters for Rural Marketing

Figure 1 presents the cluster chart and Appendix 1 presents the factor loadings of each category of rural marketing to the two dimensions—a relatively higher loading on a dimension implies that the dimension is represented relatively better by the factor. On the first dimension (the horizontal axis), stimulating demand (–0.81), developmental marketing (–0.75), rural research (–0.6), segmentation, targeting and positioning (–0.56), planning (–0.31), implementation (–0.31), customized marketing mix (–0.3), organizational objectives (–0.15), agro-inputs (–0.14), tailored products and services (–0.12), profitable exchanges (–0.09), rural consumers (–0.05), satisfying consumer demand (–0.05), services (–0.03) and holistic marketing (–0.01) have negative component loadings, while the remaining categories product (0.09), urban to rural flows (0.59), rural to rural flows (0.68) and rural to urban flows (0.74) have positive component loadings. The categories with negative factor loadings seem to collectively indicate the aspects of rural marketing. The categories with positive factor loadings, with the exception of ‘product’, seem to collectively represent the domains of rural marketing flows. Owing to the loadings of these categories, this dimension can be possibly named as aspects versus domains dimension. This is because the categories with negative loadings are possibly related to the aspects of rural marketing, whereas the categories with positive loadings within the first dimension are possibly related to the domains of rural marketing (the three separate flows of goods and services within rural marketing).

On the second dimension (the vertical axis), the categories rural–to-urban flows (0.03), tailored products and services (0.06), rural-to-rural flows (0.1), segmentation, targeting and positioning (0.43), planning (0.73) and implementation (0.73) have positive factor loadings and the categories services (–0.68), products (–0.64), organizational objectives (–0.55), satisfying consumer demand (–0.43), holistic marketing (–0.39), stimulating demand (–0.29), developmental marketing (–0.25), agro–inputs (–0.24), customized marketing mix (–0.19), rural consumers (–0.13), profitable exchanges (–0.07), rural research (–0.03) and urban-to-rural flows (–0.01) have negative factor loadings. In the second dimension, the higher positive loadings are for segmentation, targeting, positioning, planning and implementation and the negative loading is high for services (–0.68), products (–0.64), organizational objectives (–0.55) and satisfying consumer demand (–0.43). Therefore, the second dimension can be possibly named as strategy versus objectives.

Once the dimensions have been determined, the core concepts and the different clusters can be determined. Factor loadings of around 0.3 or above on both dimensions (in a two-dimension solution) indicate a cross-loading (Verbeke et al., 1998). There is a substantial overlap among some categories as seen from the cross-loadings which run across the two dimensions as can be seen through a visual examination of the factor loadings presented under the graph in Figure 1. The main overlaps are in the categories of stimulating demand, planning, implementation, segmentation, targeting and positioning. In a minor way, there is overlap in developmental marketing. These overlaps represent the conceptual core of rural marketing. Thus, while CATPCA creates two dimensions, there appears substantial overlap among the categories across the dimensions —hence, we can possibly conclude that rural marketing has certain common conceptual core.

From the factor loadings for the two dimensions, some clusters can be discerned. Stimulating demand and developmental marketing form one cluster—both have close levels of loadings for dimension one as well as dimension two and can be visually discerned if a graphical plot is made of the values in two axes. Planning and implementation form a second cluster. It will also be checked if these clusters reflect exact content from conclusions in at least one research article which is not used (to prevent cyclic conclusions) during the content analysis process.

Substantiation of the First Hypothesis

Based on the analysis using CATPCA, as presented in Figure 1, hypothesis 1 is substantiated. That is, there is a core concept and a set of clusters, as seen from Figure 1, which represents conceptual variations around the core concept. This core concept of rural marketing includes the overlapping categories of stimulating demand, planning, implementation, segmentation, targeting and positioning, and developmental marketing.

Substantiation of the Second Hypothesis

Categorical principal component analysis has yielded two discernable clusters as seen from the analysis of Figure 1. Stimulating demand and developmental marketing form one cluster; planning and implementation form the second cluster. The clusters which emerge during the content analysis of rural marketing definitions will have to reflect exact content from definition in at least one article which is not used (to prevent cyclic conclusions) during the content analysis process. Presented here are some definitions of rural marketing by researchers (not included as part of content analysis), which correspond to the clusters which emerged through CATPCA:

… Stimulating and converting the purchasing power into an effective demand for specific products and services in rural areas to create satisfaction. The philosophy behind rural marketing is marketing with social concepts, developmental marketing … (Kakati & Ahmed, 2014, p. 59)

… Rural marketing (defined) as function that manages all activities involved in assessing, stimulating and converting the purchase power of rural consumers into effective demand for specific products and services to create satisfaction and a better standard of living for achieving organisational goals … there is a greater need for strategic rural marketing practices which include client and location specific promotion, joint or cooperative promotion, bundling of inputs, developmental marketing , and extension services …. (Kotni, 2012, pp. 202, 211)

… In simple words rural marketing is planning and implementation of marketing function for the rural areas. It is a two way marketing process which encompasses the discharge of business activities that direct the flow of goods and services from urban to rural areas and vice-versa … (Sharma, 2014, p. 216)

The services sector has been growing at a very fast rate and the (subject of) rural marketing emphasis of MNCs and Indian Companies … There has been renewed emphasis on installing decentralized pro-poor participatory planning and implementation processes being initiated at various levels … (Karmakar, 2008, p. 33)

This reflection of cluster in conclusions in research articles which are not part of the statistical content analysis substantiates the second research hypothesis.

Discussion

Developing a Comprehensive Definition

Definition of rural marketing has been actively argued and discussed by researchers and its conceptual evolution does not become clear from a casual reading. To develop a systematic insight into the domain of rural marketing, it becomes important to statistically analyze the content of the widely scattered literature and organize the content as per the identified categories. This is possibly a seminal attempt to conceptualize the definition of rural marketing using statistical techniques. The set of categories identified through the statistical content analysis may be combined in the form of a comprehensive definition of rural marketing. Since ‘stimulating demand’ and ‘developmental marketing’ appear as a single cluster during the principal component analysis, these two elements are presented in a single phrase. Similarly, ‘planning’ and ‘implementation’, which are found to form the second cluster, are also combined in a single phrase in the all-inclusive definition of ‘rural marketing’ presented below:

Rural marketing may be defined as the segmentation and targeting of rural consumers with tailor-made products, services and agro-inputs after conducting rural research; and the subsequent planning and implementation of a customized marketing mix with an objective to stimulate and satisfy customer demand through developmental marketing; as a result of which the organization’s holistic marketing objectives should also be met through profitable exchanges between urban and rural markets and within rural markets themselves.

Testing of the Hypotheses

The results from testing of the first hypothesis suggest a conceptual core for rural marketing definitions. These accepted core clusters indicate that despite the pushes and pulls in the direction of expansion of rural marketing concepts, the conceptual expansion of this discipline, as gathered from the definitions, is possibly maintaining its basic core concepts. It also indicates that rural marketing focuses on stimulating demand, planning, implementation, segmentation, targeting and positioning, and on developmental marketing.

Developing the Clusters for Rural Marketing Study

Propositions specified in this article and the clusters identified also have some implications for future research. The factors (categories) within the discipline of rural marketing are presented in Table 2, along with their ranks. The ranks denote the significance of each theme within ‘rural marketing’, as manifested in available literature. The dimensions with high ranks are as follows: urban-to-rural flows, rural-to-urban flows (agro/artisan marketing), products, developmental marketing, rural-to-rural flows (farm marketing/unorganized sector) and stimulating demand. These dimensions can be investigated further through empirical research in the context of rural marketing.

Identifying the Evolving Path of Rural Marketing

This research also presents a longitudinal analysis of the categories over a period of 40 years. The phrase ‘rural marketing’ seems to have been used mainly in the context of urban-to-rural marketing in the definitions of rural marketing. Rural-to-urban flow has also maintained its second highest ranking in the first and last period of study (dropping by only one rank in the second period), indicating that the marketing of agricultural and artisan produce to urban markets is also an important part of the definition of rural marketing. Developmental marketing has also maintained a nearly consistent rank over the period of study. Stimulating demand for products and services through increasing the livelihood possibilities in rural areas has also remained an important theme. The longitudinal study of factors within ‘rural marketing’ also brings out the increasing convergence of the focus on products and services within rural marketing.

Managerial Implications

In analyzing the evolution of factors within the discipline of rural marketing, this study highlights the significance of developmental marketing for rural marketers. A strong relationship between developmental marketing and stimulating demand is suggested by the analysis conducted. The implication for practitioners is that the success of rural marketing efforts may possibly depend upon the impact made by the marketer in uplifting the financial situation of rural consumers. It is the responsibility of the rural marketer to increase the purchasing power of rural consumers through developmental activities such as appointing local inhabitants as distributors, wholesalers and retailers of their products; or by employing local manpower in other operations such as trade marketing, procurement of raw materials and selling and disseminating information on the marketer’s products directly to rural consumers.

This article has some limitations. First, it may have left out some studies and books of minor importance. The result may be made more robust by including more definitions on rural marketing. Second, the categorization of factors is based on judgemental calls by the experts consulted. Some judgemental errors may have crept in while categorizing the terms found in literature.

Conclusion

The present study points out that the discipline of rural marketing comprises a conceptual core. The aim of this research is to analyze possibly all available definitions of rural marketing and propose a comprehensive and integrative definition of rural marketing. Content analysis is used to find out the categories of terms used to define rural marketing. The evolution of factors within the discipline of ‘rural marketing’ is also studied. This study provides 19 categories (factors) within the discipline of rural marketing. These 19 factors may be studied further using empirical methods.

Footnotes

Appendix

Appendix 2.

Relation between Categories

	Urban to Rural	Rural to Urban	Rural to Rural	Customized Marketing Mix	Stimulating Demand	Planning	Implementation	Rural Consumers	Agro Inputs	Products	Services	Developmental Marketing	Organizational Objectives	Segmentation	Rural Research	Tailored	Profitable Exchanges	Satisfying Consumer Demand
Rural to urban	0.43	*
Rural to rural	0.26	0.71	*
Customized marketing mix	–0.07	0.20	–0.09	*
Stimulating demand	–0.35	–0.60	–0.48	0.19	*
Planning	–0.08	–0.13	–0.02	0.08	–0.05	*
Implementation	–0.08	–0.13	–0.02	0.08	–0.05	1.00	*
Rural consumers	0.15	–0.29	–0.20	–0.15	0.06	–0.09	–0.09	*
Agro inputs	0.10	–0.20	–0.14	–0.10	0.23	–0.06	–0.06	–0.05	*
Products	0.13	–0.06	–0.06	–0.13	0.03	–0.27	–0.27	0.33	0.23	*
Services	–0.02	–0.04	0.01	0.02	0.12	–0.20	–0.20	0.14	0.31	0.74	*
Developmental marketing	–0.45	–0.61	–0.39	0.11	0.87	0.00	0.00	–0.19	0.26	0.00	0.05	*
Organizational objectives	–0.12	0.13	–0.04	0.71	0.10	–0.17	–0.17	–0.13	–0.09	0.10	0.26	0.18	*
Segmentation	–0.34	–0.20	–0.14	0.34	0.23	0.56	0.56	–0.05	–0.03	–0.15	–0.11	0.26	–0.09	*
Rural research	–0.32	–0.20	–0.38	0.32	0.44	0.11	0.11	0.20	–0.09	–0.07	0.08	0.18	0.17	0.37	*
Tailored Products and Services	0.25	0.06	–0.34	0.39	0.00	0.15	0.15	0.24	–0.08	–0.18	–0.07	–0.32	0.22	–0.08	0.45	*
Profitable exchanges	–0.17	–0.02	–0.20	0.17	0.06	–0.09	–0.09	–0.07	–0.05	0.06	0.14	–0.19	–0.13	–0.05	0.20	0.24	*
Satisfying consumer demand	–0.08	0.09	–0.02	0.34	–0.05	–0.11	–0.11	–0.09	–0.06	0.18	0.30	0.00	0.67	–0.06	0.11	0.15	–0.09	*
Holistic marketing	0.10	0.17	0.24	0.34	0.23	–0.06	–0.06	–0.05	–0.03	0.23	0.31	0.26	0.37	–0.03	–0.09	–0.08	–0.05	–0.06

Source: Output of content analysis data for CATPCA using SPSS version 21.0.

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