Rural marketing agencies join hands to form RMAAI

Company release, March 31, 2005

New Delhi

With the growing importance of the Rural Markets in corporate marketing strategies, there is an increased recognition of rural specialists in helping companies plan and implement their rural marketing activities. This has resulted in a number of players, both big and small entering the field in the last couple of years.

A few leading players who have been providing tremendous value added rural marketing services all across the country have decided to come together on a common platform and work towards recognition, credibility and meeting of needs of the Rural Marketing industry.

Announcing the formation of the Rural Marketing Agencies Association of India (RMAAI) today, Mr. R V Rajan, Founder President said that the Association has been formed to promote, improve, develop and further the cause of Rural Marketing.

One of the important objectives of the Association would be to set industry benchmarks in areas of performance evaluation and financial practices. To improve the overall understanding of Rural Markets by the corporate world, the Association will conduct seminars, workshops and conferences, besides offering guidance to Management Institutes in running courses in Rural Marketing. The Association will also undertake syndicated research in Rural Marketing on selected topics, which will help increase the knowledge base of Rural Marketers which in turn could help marketers develop better and more effective Rural Marketing strategies.

The Founder Members of the Association are Anugrah Madison, MART, Rural Relations, Sampark, Ogilvy Activation, Linterland, RC&M, Impact Communications, Kripa Outdoor Publicity, Indian Agribusiness Systems and Rural Eight

Additional Activities

Further on, the Association also plans to conduct Award functions to recognize individuals and organizations who have actively contributed to the growth of the Rural Marketing industry. Later in the year RMAAI will also be hosting a two day Rural Marketing Conference in an effort to bring together all the Rural players in the field under one roof and share developments in the industry as well as the advantage of being part of the Association network. Details of the conference scheduled for November will be announced in due course.

For more information, please contact

R V Rajan Navin/Gina

President RMAAI Madison PR,

Geo Towers, 465 Anna Salai, Chennai 35 91-9845094507/9845104401

(044) 2436 3622-4, (0)9840392082 navin/gina@blr.madisonindia.com