In the session on ‘Winning strategies for creating loyalty and goodwill with rural consumers', Rahul Sharma, Head - Centre for Rural Information and Insights, Mahindra & Mahindra, spoke about how with rural income increasing, a lot of higher value consumer durables are making their way to rural customers. With the rise of the ‘new rural consumer', organisations can expand their reach through channel networks to meet these new demands. He stressed on the importance of engaging with the rural sector and cited the example of ‘Samridhi Centres' which Mahindra and Mahindra set up to help farmers increase their output and so increase their income. The project targets a million farmers, and helps them with soil testing, water testing, and provides expert advice on the economy, thus acting as an agricultural extension mechanism. In addition it also provides free medical check-ups to any farmer visiting the centre.

The members of the panel for the next session were V N Saroja, CEO, Indian Agribusiness Systems, Mandeep Singh, Managing Director-India, d.Light Design, and Amit Mehra, Founder and Managing Director, Reuters Market Light. The entire panel had experience in introducing and educating rural customers on using products that are technology-driven. There is still a lot of skepticism regarding technology amongst the TG, which creates challenges for marketers seeking to educate rural consumers on the benefits of these products, especially if the product is intangible and technology-driven. The importance of engaging the TG through demonstration of the product was stressed, like in the case of the prototype created for RML, which saw a huge response from farmers in Nasik, where 85% of those who engaged with marketers and the prototype product were convinced of its value and were willing to pay for personalised SMS updates and forecasts that would help them in farming related activities.

Commenting on the significance of BTL activities in engaging rural audiences, Mandeep Singh, MD - India, d.Light Design said, "To build the trust of rural consumers, it is important to to create channels that allow for reasonable engagement with them. In order to connect with rural consumers and educate him regarding the product, engaging him is important, and this is what we are aiming at."