The future for companies is in rural and semi-urban markets, believes Jyoti Thakuria, who heads a rural business venture selling low-cost televisions in the villages and small towns of Assam and the Northeast for Mirc Electronics, makers of the Onida brand of products (its once immensely popular devil mascot, incidentally, has been recently put to rest). For the hinterland, the company has a different brand, Igo. “The urban market has reached a saturation point. The high-end TV market is no longer as lucrative as it once was because the target group has pretty much got it all. They have TVs in every room. What else can you give them?” he asks.
Spoilt for choice: A family takes home a new TV set in Bijnore, Uttar Pradesh
Thakuria points out that 70 per cent of India’s population lives in rural areas. “There is a big demand for low-cost televisions which the rural people can afford. In this segment, very few individual households own separate television sets. In some villages, there is one community television, which everyone flocks to.”
But, he feels, it’s a fallacy that rural folk don’t have money, as the rural economy is different. There is big money in their hands at specific times of the year—harvest time for instance, after the crop has been marketed. And since saving is not a habit in rural India, that money gets spent. The market, thus, is huge and he is glad his company is tapping into this market. He is also firmly convinced that he is in the right place at the right time.
Born and brought up in Guwahati, Thakuria received his MBA degree from Guwahati University in 1999. He then worked for Peerless and Exide before joining Mirc, where he found his true passion—rural marketing. Such was his dedication that he did not leave his city when offered a job in Calcutta in a big corporate house that promised him a higher pay packet. But this sacrifice was not all that altruistic. He had a hunch that one day it was the countryside that would draw big business—a conviction that is finally coming true now.
As far as Thakuria is concerned, there is no downside worth mentioning for working in the hinterlands. He frequents Lower Poa and Patharkandi in Assam, Churachandpur near Imphal, Saisa and Lunvei in Mizoram, and Tezu in Arunachal Pradesh. However, he rues the dearth of post-sale service opportunities in these areas, as he feels there are a limited number of qualified engineers who can deal with the bulk of the complaints in a growing market. That’s the next challenge.
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