VMPL
Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], October 9: Marketing leaders, brand custodians and industry experts at the Rural Marketing Summit 2026, presented by Can Image, a rural advertising and digital wall printing company, and curated by ET Edge, called for a rethink of how brands approach rural marketing in India. Speakers highlighted the need to move beyond traditional rural-urban distinctions and recognise rural consumers as increasingly informed, aspirational and diverse.
Held under the theme “The Power of Presence”, the summit explored how brands can reimagine rural marketing by moving beyond conventional approaches to create deeper relevance, stronger affinity, trust and lasting recall. The discussions highlighted the importance of understanding the evolving rural consumer, embracing local nuances and building a consistent brand presence that goes beyond reach and visibility to create meaningful connections.
Across keynote addresses, panel discussions, case studies and leadership conversations, speakers examined the changing rural consumer, the role of culture and context in brand communication, the evolution of rural media and rural advertising, and the need for marketers to rethink long-held assumptions about India's rural markets.
A recurring theme across the summit was that rural India can no longer be viewed as a single, homogeneous market or as a separate category of consumer. As connectivity, information access and aspirations continue to grow, speakers emphasised the need to understand the people behind demographic classifications and build communication around their lived realities, aspirations and cultural contexts.
Rural vs Urban Marketing: Moving Beyond the Divide
The summit opened with a keynote by Prasoon Pandey, Co-founder & Director, Corcoise Films, who spoke about the importance of understanding what a brand stands for beyond its visual identity. Using Fevicol as an example, Mr. Pandey highlighted how enduring brands are built around a distinctive character, voice and way of looking at the world rather than simply maintaining consistency in colours, logos or visual assets.
He emphasised the importance of drawing from real-life observations, particularly in a country as diverse as India, where different communities, cultures and experiences offer a rich source of ideas. For Mr. Pandey, the challenge is to remain consistent about who a brand is while allowing its expression to evolve with changing audiences.
The idea of seeing consumers as people rather than predefined audiences was echoed by Rohit Arora, Director – Strategy, Can Image Media Tech, who argued that the distinction between rural and urban India, and between rural and urban marketing, can often obscure a more fundamental human connection. He pointed to the growing penetration of digital media in rural India and the need for brand stories to flow seamlessly across digital and physical environments.
[Quote for Can Image approval] “Rural India is not a separate audience, and brands that treat it as one risk losing the trust they work hard to build,” said Mr. Arora. “Presence in rural markets has to be consistent, accountable and measurable, which is why every campaign we run is verified wall by wall.”
The New Rural Consumer Is Aspirational and Informed
The changing profile of the rural consumer emerged strongly during the “The New Growth Map: Winning Consumer Trust Across Rural India” panel.
Shefali Khalsa, Sr. Director & Head of Marketing and PR, TransUnion CIBIL, highlighted how dramatically rural and semi-urban consumers have evolved over the past decade. Sharing an anecdote about a cab driver who knew his CIBIL score and understood its implications for accessing credit, she pointed to the growing financial awareness and aspirations among consumers beyond India's metros.
Prashant Choudhari, Head – Marketing, Fino Payments Bank, similarly highlighted aspiration and premiumisation as important characteristics of today's rural market, while Pushkal Upadhayay, AVP – Crop Solutions & Services, Agri Solutions, Deepak Fertilisers and Petrochemicals, framed the rural consumer through three interconnected lenses: affordability, aspiration and value.
V. Kaushik Vedula, Vice President Marketing - India and South Asia (INSA), Castrol India, highlighted the need for brands to find the right balance between affordability and aspiration as consumers in smaller markets increasingly seek products and experiences that reflect their ambitions.
Together, the perspectives pointed to a rural market where aspiration does not disappear with geography, an important consideration for any brand building its rural marketing strategy. Instead, brands need to understand how aspiration, affordability and value intersect across different consumer segments.
Why One Rural Marketing Strategy Does Not Fit All
The “More Than a Billboard: Innovative Media Strategies for Rural India” panel challenged another longstanding assumption: that rural India can be approached as one homogeneous consumer market.
Rupa Murudkar, Vice President Marketing, Cholayil Private Limited (Medimix), questioned the way marketers define rural audiences, pointing out that the classification largely describes where people live rather than their aspirations, occupations, expectations or consumption behaviour. She highlighted the diversity of livelihoods, incomes and aspirations within rural markets.
K. Adaikalam, DGM, Market Development & Customer Service, Greenstar Fertilizers, reinforced this view, describing rural India as a heterogeneous market of informed consumers who actively analyse, compare and make decisions rather than simply waiting for brands to educate them.
Puneet Avasthi, Director - Specialist Businesses, South Asia, Kantar, highlighted the need to move beyond averages when looking at rural India. He pointed to multiple opportunities across categories including the growing role of women in household spending and decision-making.
Girish Hingorani, Vice President, Marketing (Unitary Cooling Products Group) & Corporate Communications, Blue Star, offered a perspective from consumer durables, noting that smaller towns can represent significant demand even for products traditionally perceived as premium or aspirational.
Monish Debnath, Brand Marketing & Growth Leader, challenged the tendency to simplify rural communication on the assumption that consumers in these markets require simpler messaging, arguing that rural consumers are increasingly educated, informed and evolved.
From Visibility to Memory: Rural Advertising That Builds Affinity
The summit's central idea of “The Power of Presence” also found expression in discussions around brand building, media and rural advertising.
Mr. Pandey emphasised that brands cannot rely on product communication alone. In an environment crowded with messages and entertainment, brands need to create stories that earn attention and build an emotional connection. He noted that while a brand may be able to sell once, building trust is what brings consumers back.
The conversation around consistency also moved beyond repetitive advertising. The challenge is to retain the core character of a brand while allowing its stories, characters and expressions to evolve with changing audiences.
Mr. Arora similarly emphasised that rural communication can no longer be viewed through the lens of reach alone. With consumers moving between digital and physical environments, brand stories need to remain connected across touchpoints. The discussion pointed to a broader shift from simply being visible to creating affinity, familiarity and memory.
Culture and Context at the Heart of Rural Engagement
The importance of cultural understanding came into sharp focus during “Reaching the Heart of India: The Future of Rural Brand Engagement”, featuring Ashish Vidyarthi, National Award-Winning Actor.
Drawing on his travels across different parts of India, Vidyarthi spoke about the people, traditions, festivals, food and everyday experiences that give different regions their distinct identities. He highlighted how consumers across the country are increasingly exposed to one another's lives through digital platforms, while retaining strong local and cultural identities.
He also stressed that communication cannot always be built around assumptions formed in one market and transported unchanged to another. Gestures, expressions, cultural references and even the interpretation of an idea can vary significantly across regions.
This theme was reinforced by Prasoon Joshi, Chairman, Prasar Bharati India & Omnicom Advertising India, who urged marketers to move away from thinking of rural consumers as “them” and instead recognise the continuity of aspirations, creativity and intelligence across communities.
Joshi also challenged the tendency to view innovations emerging from rural communities through a condescending lens, arguing that solutions developed within constraints should be recognised as innovation. He pointed to traditional approaches to sustainability and collective participation as examples of practices that can offer lessons rather than simply receive them.
Recognising Excellence in Rural Marketing
The summit also featured the “Excellence in Rural Marketing” recognition ceremony, celebrating individuals and organisations that have contributed to strengthening brand engagement, consumer connections and innovative approaches across India's rural markets.
The recognition underscored the growing importance of rural marketing as brands look beyond conventional definitions of geography, audience and reach to build deeper and more meaningful connections.
As India's rural and smaller-town markets continue to evolve, the discussions at the Rural Marketing Summit 2026, presented by Can Image and curated by ET Edge, reinforced a broader shift in how brands need to think about presence. The next phase of rural marketing in India may depend less on treating rural India as a separate audience and more on understanding the people, aspirations, cultures and contexts that make up the country. For brands, the opportunity lies not simply in being seen, but in becoming relevant enough to be remembered.
About Can Image
Can Image is a rural advertising company and the rural engagement service brand of CAN Image Media Tech Pvt Ltd, headquartered in Mumbai. It runs digital wall printing campaigns across rural and semi-urban India using its patented Digital Wall Printing Media, a water-activated, plastic-free and PVC-free film that converts to print on the wall surface. Can Image manufactures the media, prints creatives and applies them on the ground through its own field network, with every installation GPS-tagged and photographed for verification. [Its clients include Coca-Cola, Cadbury, Nestle, HUL, UPL, Reckitt and J&J.]
About ET Edge
ET Edge - an Initiative of The Times Group is India's leading B2B intelligence, community and market platform. Since its inception in 2015, ET Edge has been at the forefront of creating unique thought leadership initiatives with the objective to empower multiple sectors, industries, and segments by dispersing critical business knowledge through strategically developed specialized conferences and summits.
Explore Can Image's work in rural advertising and digital wall printing at canimage.com.
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