International Journal of Management Studies ISSN(Print) 2249-0302 ISSN (Online)2231-2528 http://www.researchersworld.com/ijms/ Vol.–VI, Special Issue 3, February 2019 [16] DOI : 10.18843/ijms/v6si2/03 DOI URL :http://dx.doi.org/10.18843/ijms/v6si2/03 Rural consumer preference for mobile phone with reference to villages of Kolar District, Karnataka Dr.Kavitha R Gowda, Assistant Professor, Department of Marketing, Institute of Management, Christ Deemed-to-be University, Kengeri Campus, India. Dr.R.Satish Kumar, Dean-Research & International Relations, India Dr. K. S. Gopala Krishna, Associate Professor, Department of Commerce, BES Evening College, Jayanagar, Bangalore, India ABSTRACT In this era of globalization, marketers have not just focused on serving urban consumers profitably, but are also focusing at rural markets due to success of HUL, LG, Dabur, ITC, Chick Shampoo and many more brands in FMCG. These brands were successful very early in 2005 by focusing on just 10,000 villages on a total of over 6,30,000 villages. Now, Indian rural market is more potential market due to improved literacy rates and high TV penetration. Indian rural literacy rate is 71% as on 2015, while 86% is the literacy rate of Urban India (The Economic Times of India, 30th June, 2015). Indian rural market is a potential market due to improved literacy rate, improved purchasing power, and better infrastructure. Mobile as a product for communication has become most essential product for rural consumers. There is a change in Indian Telecom industry compared to past 10 years. According to Gartner report, after China, India would be fastest growing mobile telephony market in Asia Pacific. The companies need to make proper assessment while marketing for the rural India and hence the need to understand the value of unique marketing mix in retailing for rural areas which again is not uniform based on geography, infrastructure, etc. This research is an attempt to understand buying behavior of rural consumers of Kolar district. Keywords: rural & urban consumers, literacy rate, telecom industry etc. INTRODUCTION: Government agencies from IRDA & NCAER define ‘Rural’ as “a village with a population of less than 5,000 with 75% of the male population engaged in agriculture etc” 1 The Census of India defines any habitation with a population density less than 400 per sq.km, where at least 75 per cent of male working population is engaged in agriculture and where there exists no municipality or board, as a rural habitation 2 . Indian Rural Market: Rural India comprises around 840 million people; around 70% of population, with over 600,000 villages and 56 per cent of national income. The Indian rural market with its vast size and demand base offers greater opportunities to many marketers. It accounts for around 55 per cent of the manufacturing GDP; rural areas were host to nearly 75 per cent of new factories built in the last decade, and rural factories account for 70 per cent of all new manufacturing jobs. In incremental terms, spending in rural India during this period, increased by US$ 69 billion, significantly higher