How to you sell Ipods in rural areas?
I was asked precisely this question during one of my mock interviews.
Take a minute, there is no hurry, i was told. And the target was to sell 50 ipods of Rs 2500 each, with a marketing budget of 1 lakh. Hmm. So how do I do it?
I thought on it and answered on the following lines:
1. Ipods = rich young chaps, probably some rich farmers kids with some amount of disposable money at least. They probably own a cell phone already maybe using it for their music needs. So this was the target market.
2. Price & place? Not much innovation here, since the selling price and Maharashtrian rural market is already mentioned. Maybe give them some discount and advertise this.
3. Promotion. This is where I was stuck. I had no clue how to go about spreading the message in far flung rural areas, with just a few people in each village willing to even think about this product. I said something on the lines of telephonic ads, local newspaper/magazine pamphlets etc. Maybe hiring salesmen after making a list of potential buyers. The panel wasn't convinced :-(
And again, I thought whether really a marketing budget (1 lakh) about 80% of the expected revenue (1.25 lakh) ? Perhaps it might be when they are entering the market initially to gain a foothold and alter consumer mindset. But I don't really see the point of selling Ipods in rural Maharashtra - its not sustainable, and that is why its not done today. I should maybe have mentioned this to the panel.
I urgently need a crash course on marketing now. How to sell products from different sectors (FMCG, technology, services etc) in different markets (urban, semi-urban, rural) to different demographic profiles (men,women, youth, middle aged people, old people, rich people, middle class) etc.
Dada! Gonna call you soon.
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