Rural India, of late, has received much desired attention from the marketers given the fact that the urban markets have either become saturated or sales have leveled off. Furthermore, given the fact that more than 60% of the Indian population lives in rural areas, it became worthwhile to investigate rural consumer behavior. The study also explores whether innovative marketing activities of firms targeted towards the rural consumers are meeting the criterion of affordability, accessibility, availability, and awareness. The present study addresses these research questions with the help of an exploratory study conducted across four villages in the state of West Bengal, India. The major findings from the study indicate that: 1) media used for advertisements or awareness differed across occupational categories, 2) grocery purchase is mostly on credit in contradiction to what is generally believed, 3) consumers were, at most, willing to travel 12 km to purchase grocery items, 4) consumption level may not be low, but low disposable income leads to purchases in small amounts, and 5) innovative marketing activities undertaken by firms in rural areas, though they meet the accessibility and awareness factors, are affected by problems related to affordability and availability, which act as major hindrances for the rural consumers.

1. Anderson, J., & Markides, C. (2006). Strategic innovation at the base of the economic pyramid. MIT Sloan Management Review, 49 (1), 83 - 88.
2. Aneja, R.K. (1993). Test-marketing of new products in rural areas. Economic and Political Weekly, 27 (22), M77-M79.
3. Applebaum, W. (1951). Studying customer behaviour in retail stores. Journal of Marketing, 16 (1), 172 - 178.
4. Balakrishnan, M. D. (1978). Rural marketing: Myth and reality. Economic and Political Weekly, 13 (34), M75-M80.
5. Bijapurkar, R., & Murthy, R. (1999). Consumer durables in the villages: Who is buying? The Economic Times. Retrieved from <a href=http://www.bijapurkar.com/demanddrivers/ruld_rldbuying.php target="_blank">http://www.bijapurkar.com/demanddrivers/ruld_rldbuying.php</a>
6. Gaikwad, V. R. (1973). A search for the rural consumer in new opportunities in changing agriculture (pp. 159-172). Ahmedabad: Indian Institute of Management.
7. Gaikwad, V.S. (2010). Go rural!! Hinterland - Challenges, insights, opportunities and strategies. Indian Journal of Marketing, 40 (7), 47- 56.
8. Government of India. (2011). Census 2011. Retrieved from <a href=http://www.censusindia.gov.in target="_blank">http://www.censusindia.gov.in</a>
9. Government of India. (2001). Census 2001. Retrieved from <a href=http://www.censusindia.gov.in target="_blank">http://www.censusindia.gov.in</a>
10. Jha, M. (1988). Rural marketing: Some conceptual issues. Economic and Political Weekly, 23 (9), M8-M16.
11. Mckinsey & Company. (2008). The great Indian bazaar: Organized retail comes of age in India. New Delhi : McKinsey & Company Inc. Retrieved from <a href=http://www.mckinsey.com/App_Media/Reports/Asia%20Consumers/The_Great_Indian_Bazaar_Secure.pdf target="_blank">http://www.mckinsey.com/App_Media/Reports/Asia%20Consumers/The_Great_Indian_Bazaar_Secure.pdf</a>
12. Meserole, W.H. (1938). What do you mean - rural and urban? Journal of Marketing, 2 (3), 233-235.
13. Modi, P. (2009). Rural marketing: Its definition and development perspective. International Journal of Rural Management, 5 (1), 91-104. DOI: 10.1177/097300520900500105
14. Nagaraja, B. (2004). Consumer behaviour in rural areas: A microlevel study on buying behaviour of rural consumers in Kavali Mandal. Indian Journal of Marketing, 34 (11), 30-37.
15. Navelkar, V. R., & Banker, M.D. (1978). Marketing of pharmaceuticals in rural India. Economic and Political Weekly, 13 (34), M95-M99.
16. Paninchukunnath, A. (2010). 3P framework: Rural marketing in India. SCMS Journal of Indian Management, 7 (1), 54 - 67.
17. Rao, S.L. (1973). Rural marketing of consumer products. Economic and Political Weekly, 8 (34), M77- M79.
18. Sakkthivel, A.M., & Bishnupriya, M. (2005). Effectiveness of sachets in modifying rural consumers' buying behavior and their consumption pattern - A researcher's view. Indian Journal of Marketing, 35 (2), 33 - 38.
19. Vaswani, L.K., Aithal, R., Pradhan, D., & Sridhar, G. (2005). Rural marketing in development paradigm. International Journal of Rural Management, 1 (2), 245- 262. DOI: 10.1177/097306800500100206
20. Velayudhan, S.K. (2005). Rural marketing: Targeting the non-urban consumer (pp. 120-134). New Delhi: Response Books.