Mass Media is a bit expensive but the most popular and easy medium for any company to reach out to its customers specially when they aim to target the mass, but the primary question is that is it effective enough to convey the right message to all the segments and will it be able to convert the potential customers that easily. The primary objective of mass media is to spread awareness and create a pull for customers to buy the product. However its effectiveness differ from segment to segment. A rural consumer may be illiterate according to the Census definition, but he is very clever, blessed with a lot of common sense. He is highly conscious of value for money. There is a high involvement of the rural customer in any product purchase, more so for high-end products, which involve shelling out a few thousand rupees or more. It is clear that in any form of rural communication, while we may have a national strategy, we have to think and act locally. An integrated package consisting of mass media and below-the-line activities works well. Though rural folks receive all types of selling messages through multiple sources, it has been found that the two-tier system opinion leaders and the masses continues to exist. Opinion leaders continue to play an important role in the decision-making, which is still community or group-based. Mass Media is invariably the primary medium used by most brands. As television does not distinguish between urban and rural, whether one likes it or not, the commercials are also exposed to a vast majority of the rural audiences. While mass media helps create awareness about the brands, it has been found necessary to have BTL activities or road-shows as part of direct marketing efforts aimed at specific target audiences. Since the opinion leaders can be easily identified in each village, and they are small in number, direct marketing efforts aimed at opinion leaders must always precede any effort aimed at larger audiences.
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