AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS OF MARKETING OF SERVICES IN RURAL UTTAR PRADESH

India, being an agrarian economy, where agriculture sector makes its significant contribution of about 18% to the national Gross Domestic Product, has been divided into two: Urban India and Rural India. The gap between the two is getting widened due to high concentration of services’ sector in Urban India. The urban India has resultantly raised its living standard in the presence of various urban facilities, which are not easily available to and accessible by the rural counter part of the country. No organized efforts have been made by the services’ companies in supplying the various services like - medical facilities, vaccination, fast foods, matrimonial services, retailing, e-commerce, telephone and telecommunication, banking, postal and courier services, employment agencies, computer programming, information relating to higher and professional education, career counselors, advertising and marketing, research, consultancy, accountancy, hotels, restaurants, wholesaling, telecasting, share and stock broking, healthcare and health clubs, beauty parlors, beauticians, tourism, business process outsourcing etc. in rural India. This creates a big social gap between the urban and the rural. In view of the existing dichotomy in availability of the services in urban and rural areas creating a yawning gap between rural and urban masses of the society, the study aims at analyzing the marketing prospects of the services especially- courier services, beauty parlors and computer education, which are easily available to, and accessible by urban people and not by rural and suburban people, in the rural and suburban areas of Uttar Pradesh