Hyundai Motors India has launched a new marketing initiative to tap the huge and largely ignored India rural car market. The marketing initiative title “Ghar Ghar Ki Pehchaan” aims at tapping the rural market for Hyundai’s compact offering, The Santro.

Claiming it to be a one-of-a-kind initiative, the company said it has rolled out special schemes for government employees in rural areas and members of gram panchayats on the purchase of Santro.

The scheme was launched on May 1 and will continue till July 31st, 2008. Through this special rural scheme HMIL plans to touch base with at least 58% of Indian villages with a population of 500 or more. HMIL senior vice-president (sales & marketing) Arvind Saxena said: “Nearly 70% of India resides in rural areas, which presents an enormous demand base and a market too huge to overlook.”

Hyundai dealers will contact panchayats and conduct regular road shows, distributing pamphlets and posters to promote the scheme and will also make the villagers aware of this new initiative. The company is also in talks with a bank with huge network to extend easy finance options for the people in rural India.

According to a recent survey, almost 50% of the 220-million households in rural India are potential car buyers due to the agricultural subsidies extended by the government and also due to increase in the productivity of agri-based products.