Voice-based communication, a high engagement medium in low internet areas of UP and Bihar: Kantar and GroupM

Kantar recently released a report titled 'Communicating with many Bharats' at the GroupM Brew 2023 event.

Ninety-five percent have made use of voice-based marketing and 41 percent have considered it the most effective medium for rural marketing in India, stated the report.

Advertisers have mentioned that rural India needed separate planning, especially emphasising on emerging victorious in media dark markets. Sixty-nine percent stated that they plan for rural areas separately. Sixty-three percent mentioned that it is crucial for their business to reach dark markets of rural India.

On the other hand, 57 percent and 31 percent have mentioned that they have a strong understanding of rural markets, and are repurposing urban advertising for rural India respectively.

Eighty-nine percent are of the opinion that word of mouth recommendation is vital in rural India. Seventy-seven percent think that voice tech is a vital option to reach rural consumers. And, 49 percent think that distribution is the best option to create salience in the rural region.

Voice-based marketing gets majority share (32 percent) of rural marketing budget. The usage of voice-based marketing in rural also leads to better results, the report said. Marketers who use voice-based marketing extensively also express higher satisfaction with their organisation’s efforts in rural marketing. But, the utilisation of rural influencers ranks the lowest relative to its preference.

While Haryana, Punjab and Maharashtra have great media exposure; Bihar and Uttar Pradesh rank as the two most media dark markets in rural India. Due to low affluence and education levels, they have significantly lower traditional media exposure. However, feature mobile phones. makes up for this gap.

The report highlights that the usage of mobile surpasses that of television, especially in regions with limited media access.

Since access to internet is significantly lower amongst people in UP and Bihar, voice-based communication stands out as a high engagement medium. But, ̶access, awareness and affordability remain the most pronounced barriers to using internet by these two states. Amongst older age group and males, voice based search is more prominent. This is because, it offers high engagement across these two states.

Two in three pre-disposed to listening to the entire message, especially when message is conveyed in local language or talk about a community issue, states the report.

The report mentions that ~46 percent of India's one billion mobile subscribers are in rural areas, who make use of basic feature phones.

̶Price, battery backup, digital illiteracy, and network issues are the primary barriers for smartphone upgradation. Even low priced smart feature phones face low penetration and data affordability challenges.