• Public Relations

How communication can help EduTech brands to achieve market penetration in rural areas

How Communication Helps EduTech Brands Penetrate Rural Markets

What started with the Digital education initiative by the GOI’s National Education Policy, was accelerated with the first wave of the pandemic, during the lockdown in 2020. Today, with the largest population of youth under the age of 25, and the second-largest user of smartphones in the world,

EduTech has been rapidly growing, and being accepted across age groups. Although EduTech has been here in India for quite some time now, its role pre-COVID had always been limited to assisting learning and use of tech-enabled visual aids that were largely used in conventional classrooms. Now, tech innovations and digitization have enabled not just continuing ‘learning from home’ but also created an ‘impactful engagement’ and enhanced learning possibilities, for students, with benefits like focused attention span, parent involvement, and ease of operation and tracking of student progress, among other features.

Digitization of education in rural India remains a challenge, due to various factors like lack of digital literacy, language barrier, lack of trained teachers who are comfortable with tech-based teaching, and access to quality digital learning tools. While a lot of EduTech start-ups and companies are trying their best to understand and solve these challenges, it is a slow and uphill task. However, with the help of effective communication outreach, the effort can be eased, at least in some areas. 

Here are 4 ways why EduTech companies can leverage PR to gain access to rural Indian markets:

1. Educating the rural stakeholders: 

With each passing day, technology is becoming better but also equally complex, making it harder than ever for the digitally illiterate to make sense of it. In terms of the rural population, with the limitation of English as a language, these complex tech innovations become a burden. When it comes to e-learning, brands must educate stakeholders on the simple use-based operations, and the long-term benefits, impact, and significance of the technology. This is even more important in the case of education technology since parents, who are at times intimidated by tech themselves, often vary about technology access to children. PR tools allow for a long-term, informative approach towards EduTech, offering content-driven solutions that go beyond language barriers, to assist brands in creating awareness about the product and services, all of which can go a long way in creating positive brand valuation in the eyes of the stakeholders.

2. Promoting customized solutions: 

Educating the stakeholders through content-driven communication outreach helps build a positive receptivity and acceptance of innovation in particular and technology as a whole. While this is the first step, creating and promoting solutions that specifically address key challenges like the language barrier or the cost of acquiring a digital product like tabs or smartphones, is the next step. A PR outreach with the help of local influencers can help build strong awareness and affinity towards the new product range and thus help garner customer interest and long-term loyalty.

3. Enhance reach and visibility: 

For any business to succeed it is important to first create differentiated visibility followed by strong reach and brand recall. In the case of a rural audience across the country, PR can help build customized communication outreach programs that suit the brand’s ethos while engaging and influencing positive behavior across various tier 2, tier 3, and rural markets. Through compelling narratives that can impact the trust and buying decisions of parents and academicians as secondary consumers, is vital for a segment like EduTech, given its potential to shape and impact young minds. PR helps build trust, visibility, and recall through interesting and research-based narratives that can generate trust and reliability among parents and teachers. 

Way forward:

In line with the above-mentioned pointers, it is reasonable to say that PR is one of the most indispensable tools of communication for the EduTech sector and its growth across rural markets. Even as innovations continue to disrupt the market more and more brands are turning towards innovative storytelling concepts to drive home the significance and the potential of EduTech, helping create and share positive brand communications that reflect their key philosophy, corporate growth, goals, and value offerings.

Why Scenic Communication?

We have created a distinctive advantage by giving holistic and Integrated Marketing Communications solutions to our client’s needs. As Scenic Communication is one of the Best PR Agency in Mumbai, India therefore takes pride in not only providing effective public relations solutions to a brand but also with its girth, width, and penetration, providing integrated communications solutions to the brand objectives of a client. With our strategic alignments and specialists on board, we have geared innovation and value creation into all aspects of Brand & Reputation building, Public Relations & Marketing Agency

Having had domain expertise in multi-dimensional categories like – Corporate & Finance, Education, Real Estate, Infrastructure, Automobiles, IT & ITES, Government Development Boards, Tourism & Hospitality, Retail, FMCG, Fashion, and the Entertainment industry; we provide innovative communications programs that focus on tangible business results. Best Public Relations Agency in Mumbai, Top PR Firm in Mumbai. Having had versatile experiences across domains and team experiences that span over three decades in the industry, we understand the Indian consumer psyche. And having worked intrinsically with International giants gives us the expertise to understand the needs of the off-shore markets.

Scenic Communication has been featured in: 

• The Times Of India – https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/blogs/voices/why-pr-and-brand-building-needs-to-become-an-integral-part-of-annual-marketing-investments/
• Financial Express – https://www.financialexpress.com/business/brandwagon-decoding-the-earned-versus-paid-media-dilemma-2508791/
• Adgully – https://www.adgully.com/tag/scenic-communication
• Business World – https://businessworld.in/article/scenic-communication-successfully-on-boards-new-clients-despite-market-adversity-335731
• And more

For more information, visit the Scenic Communication website.