Abstract
Rural markets have always been a challenge for market researchers. Conventional tools applicable in urban areas are not directly adaptable in the rural setting. With the emergence of rural markets in terms of brand awareness, and the shift from nominal decision-making process to a more extensive decision-making process, more innovative research tools are required to capture data about rural consumers in a more effective way. Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) is one tool that does precisely that. The tool itself, however, has evolved over time and has recently caught the attention of rural market researchers for commercial projects. The tool has so far been limited to application by NGOs for the implementation of either government projects or donor NGO-funded initiatives. This paper strives to highlight the evolution of PRA as well as its interpretation by MART (India's leading rural market research firm) in terms of one commercial project undertaken for a telecom player.
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