Master of Management Studies (M.M.S) Rural Marketing Syllabus - Mumbai University 2026

Course objectives

• 1 To familiarize students with unique characteristics, challenges, and opportunities in rural markets.
• 2 To develop analytical skills to assess rural consumer behaviour and segment rural markets effectively.
• 3 To equip students with strategies for product design, pricing, distribution, and communication specific to rural consumers.
• 4 To foster understanding of social, economic, and cultural factors influencing rural buying decisions.
• 5 To cultivate strategic thinking for implementing sustainable and inclusive marketing practices in rural areas.

Course outcomes

• CO1: To understand the scope and opportunities in Rural Marketing in current scenario.
• CO2: To know applications of rural marketing in context of Product, pricing, distribution and communication among rural segments.
• CO3: To analyse Rural economy, rural marketing environment and rural consumer behaviour.
• CO4: To assess role of financing and cooperative institutions in rural markets.
• CO5: To develop marketing strategies for marketing of agricultural & cottage industry produce.

Unit 1 CO1 · 3 hours

Rural Marketing Opportunities • Taxonomy of Rural markets • Rural Marketing Model • Bottom of the pyramid approach • Rural versus Urban Marketing • Innovative and Inclusive Growth

Unit 2 CO3 · 3 hours

Understanding Rural Economy • Rural Marketing environment and its implications on marketers • Social environment • Economic environment • Technological environment • Innovations • Political Environment

Unit 3 CO3 · 5 hours

Rural Consumer Behaviour • Buying behaviour and decision process • Opinion Leaders • Environmental factors affecting buying process • Buyer Characteristics • Buying behaviour patterns • Brand Loyalty

Unit 4 CO2 · 3 hours

Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning in rural markets • Basis of segmenting rural markets • Evaluation and selection of Target Market segments, Coverage of Markets • Identifying and Selecting Positioning Concepts for rural markets

Unit 5 CO2 · 4 hours

Product and Pricing Strategy in Rural Markets • Product concept and classification of Rural products • Packaging for rural markets, The Sachet Revolution • Branding and problems of fake brands • Price setting strategies for Rural markets • Credit in rural markets – need, sources, innovative strategies

Unit 6 CO2 · 3 hours

Rural distribution and communication • Challenges in rural distribution • Channel behaviour and Distribution models in rural markets • Challenges in rural communication • Developing an Effective Rural Communication message • Emerging models eg: Amul, e-Choupal, Project Shakti

Unit 8 CO5 · 4 hours

Marketing of agricultural produce and rural and cottage industry products • Marketing of agricultural produce Regulated markets • Formation of cooperative organizations • Contract farming • Agricultural exports zone (AEZ)

Unit 9 CO4 · 3 hours

Role of financial institutions in rural marketing • Agricultural credit situation • Types of credit • Rural credit institutions – NABARD – commercial banks – state cooperative banks (SCB) – state cooperative agricultural and rural development banks (SCARDB) – regional rural banks RRB – local area banks – flow of institutional credit to agriculture – kisan credit card scheme – impact on rural market

Unit 10 CO4 · 2 hours

Role of cooperative institutions in rural marketing • Cooperatives as organizations Structure of cooperative organizations – types – share of cooperatives in national economy • Impact of cooperatives on rural marketing

Text Books

• 1 Rural Marketing – Pradeep Kashyap, Pearson
• 2 Rural Marketing – T P Gopalaswamy – Vikas Publishing House
• 3 Rural Marketing – Habeeb Ur Rahman Himalaya
• 4 Cases in Rural Marketing: An Integrated approach – Lalitha Ramakrishnan, CSG Krishnamacharyulu – Pearson Education
• 5 Rural Marketing : Text and Cases – U.C. Mathur (2008) Excel books

Reference Books

• 1 Agricultural Marketing In India – Acharya – Oxford I B H
• 2 Rural Marketing – C G Krishnamacharyulu, Lalitha Ramakrishnan – Pearson Education
• 3 A New Approach to Rural Marketing by Kaushik Sircar