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.

Comments

Kishor said…
Promotion.That is where marketing comes in.People are giving freebies such as pen-drive, camera, TV etc with high tech products used in molecular biology! The end result should be, instead of you selling to the buyer, buyer should feel compulsion to purchase. Then you have won.
Yes, agreed. But how do you promote an ipod in rural Maharashtra? The question is not what has to be done (convincing or motivating or compelling the customer to buy the ipod), but how do it - in a way that will work?

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