Agriculture is the backbone of the Indian economy providing employment to nearly 70% of the population. As we have been analyzing the Automotive Sector for quite some time now, we thought it would be incorrect to miss out on Tractors, which are an important component of modern agriculture. Tractors are used to pull a variety of farm implements for plowing, planting, cultivating, fertilizing, and harvesting crops, and can also be used for hauling materials and personal transportation. The uses of the Tractor in agriculture suggests that spends on this category should be seasonal, in line with the agricultural season in India. Let's look at the below graph check whether this is true.

It is clearly visible that Tractor advertising was at its peak during the Fourth Quarter (October-December) of 2003 accounting for 40% of the advertising spends in this category in 2003. The 2nd Quarter (April-June) was the second best at 26%. The share of Q1 and Q3 was equal at 17% each. The increase in Q2 can be attributed to the fact that this is the period just before the monsoons when the farmers get ready for the rainy season during which the seeds are sown and thus is a good time to buy a tractor. Q4 naturally sees spends soaring as this is the harvest season and farmers are ready to reap what they have sown. This is the period when the tractor has its maximum usage.

After three to four years, the monsoons have been excellent in 2003. This has come as a boon for the agriculture industry. One would also expect this into transform into high spends on Tractor advertising in 2003. The below graph shows the trend of advertising spends in the Tractors category from 2000 to 2003.

Interestingly, the graph shows that this is a falling category on Print advertising. After a slight increase in 2002 compared to 2001, spends have been more or less the same in 2003. But, when we consider that we at AdEx India have expanded our Publication monitoring base in 2003, it is indicative of the fact that Tractor advertising has effectively been far less in 2003. So, amazingly, Tractor advertising was very high during the years when the monsoons were pretty bad. The reason could be that due to the poor rains, demand for Tractors had fallen down considerably, resulting in the tractor industry being plagued by an inventory overhang. Manufacturers would, therefore have had to bring in aggressive advertising measures to counter this.

Another interesting analysis would be to know in which States Tractor advertising is strong. Normally, in any analysis done on Print Advertising one sees Maharashtra topping the lists as its a big state and there are a lot of publications across various languages published from Maharashtra. So, does Maharashtra top the list of Top states on Tractor Advertising? Let's look at the below graph.

One can see the Northern States ranking high on the list on Top States on Tractor advertising. Nearly 27% of the money spent on Tractor advertising is pumped into publications originating from Uttar Pradesh. Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat are some other top States. Interestingly, in Kerala as most of the rice and paddy fields are still cultivated using older methods Tractor spends are almost Zero.

Next week, we shall have a look at the Top Advertisers and Brands in this category.

(Analysis from AdEx India- A Division of TAM Media Research)