choices sales

8/9/2019 Choices Sales

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/choices-sales 1/3

The Indian growth story is now spreading to India's hinterlands. The rural consumer market, which grew 25 per cent in 2008, is expected to reach US$ 425 billion in 2010-11 with 720-790 million customers. Large number of potential customers, rising rural prosperity and increased government focus are making it all the more important for modern businesses to shift their focus on this untapped market. According to the 2001 census, around 73% of theIndian population (about 74 crore people or 12 crore households) are classied as “rural population”. Thispopulace is scattered over 570000 villages, and more than 50% of them earn less than INR 25,000 annually.2010

TeamSWAYAM

C

h o i c e sINDIA

“Choices” aims to signicantly benettwo million people by 2015

The team & Why it is poisedto make a differenceThe entire team has a keen interest in ruralmarkets and realizes the hidden potential.The team comprises of people with diversebackground and skills. Team members havea long history of living and working in ruralarea and hence can develop a goodunderstanding of the given context.Given the experience and interest of the

team members, they are best suited to takeup the project for “Choices India”. Thedetailed proles of the team members arelisted below:

Kam alj ee t Sin gh Vir k i s pu r su ingAgribusiness management from IIMLucknow. He graduated in Agriculturalengineering from G.B. Pant University. Hehas lived in a village for almost 20 yrs andhas an experiential understanding of ruralIndia.• Developed a CRM model for Sriram

Bioseed Genetics India Ltd. toincrease the effectiveness of sales

force.• D es ig ned a nd devel op ed a nentrepreneurship venture processingseeds for companies such as TATA’s.

• Designed and fabricated a singlerow animal seed drill suitable for hilly areas.

• M a d e a m o d e l f o r d i r e c tprocurement of wheat from farmersfor Parle biscuits ltd.

Pawas Sharma is pursuing Agribusinessmanagement from IIM, Lucknow. He is anAgricultural engineer and has worked withTAFE undertaking direct sales and marketingof tractors in rural townships and villages of UP.• Visited 50-60 rural villages in a span

of 4 months to understand thebuying behavior of rural people

• Conducted 8 motivational training• D ea le r S ys t em a nd P ro ce ss

development and enhancement for

optimum utilization of resources.• Anticipated & capitalized on markettrends, identifying prot potential,creating value, & positioning thecompany’s products

A n i r u d h M a n i i s pursuing PGP inmanagement from IIM, Lucknow. He is aComputer Science engineer from IIITHyderabad. He worked with Computer Associates where he was responsible for client side interaction and solution provider .He has also worked for Coca-Cola Indiawhere he determined the potential of themarket, developed a cost-effective sales and

dis t r i but ion pla n and execu ted i toperationally on the ground.• Visited over 300 outlets in a span of

2 months to understand thebeverage industry, buying behaviour and outlet prioritization in urban andrural India.

• Developed a Go-To-Market strategyfor the domestic and export marketsof a rm in the Indian organic foodindustry

• Building a cost-effective agriculturalinformation dissemination system todisseminate expert agricultureknowledge to the farming communityto improve the crop productivity

• Co nce pt ua li zi ng M ar ke ti ng a ndBusiness Development strategy,u n c o v e r i n g / c r e a t i n g n e wopportunities, identifying dynamicand exible solutions for customer problems

Avishek Ray is a student of Marketing at IIMLucknow. After graduating as an engineer,he worked extensively on Customer Relationship Management (CRM) processes& tools. His areas of expertise include SalesF o r c e A u t o m a t i o n , S a l e s O r d e r Management, Loyalty Programs & CampaignManagement.At IIM Lucknow, he has worked on severalretail projects, notable being a live projectwith Arvind Mills which involved studying themarket potential for Organic staples anddevising a marketing strategy (branding,

The proposal structureTeam Profile 1Research Objectives & Methodology 2Secondary Research & Example 2Timelines & Executive Summary 3



Research Objectives

The following are theresearch objectives that willhelp us deliver our recommendations

1. Identify the typical “Choices” consumersand understand their typical buyingbehavior Demographic & psychographic proles of targetrural villages, regular and seasonalincome .Needs, purchase occasions, purchasemotives & reference groups

2. Size the potential market for “Choices”products and dene the catchment areaUnderstand the market for different productsand explore existing and future opportunities.Size the requirements of villages, communitiesand individuals

3. Identify the attributes for evaluatingexisting rural retail modelsDefine the basis for evaluating the rural retailmodels

4. Study the operational aspects of therural retail modelsNo. of outlets, product lines sold per outlet,outlet ownership, banking & credit facilities,service mix in target Villages

5.Study the marketing & sales models of existing rural retail modelsUse of Advertising & Promotion campaigns,Marketing mix, Media & creative strategy incomparable rural retail schemes

6.Study downstream channel partners inexisting rural retail schemes andunderstand their roles & responsibilities

Methodology--In-depth and telephonic interviews with targetaudience and Rural retailers via simple randomsampling--Secondary sources: Online articles, PublishedPapers, Industry Reports--Reference Book “Rural Marketing- Targetingthe Non-Urban Customer”--Study existing warehouse locations, distributionmodels

Secondary ResearchThe two approaches we have studied areProject Shakti (HUL) and D.Light (Solar Lantern Manufacturers).

The Project Shakti approach is as follows:HUL --- (Directly Supplies) --- ShaktiAmma’s (Self Help Groups; or SHG) ---(Retail) ---Sells to local villagers.

The Shakti Amma has to pool in initialcapital which can be borrowed from theSHG/Co-operative societies. HUL helps

by providing training & organizing fairsto promote the concept, while the Ammagets a 10% margin on every HUL productsold. Sometimes, HUL supplies to MACTS(Multi-State Co-operative Societies) whichin-turn supply to the Shakti Amma’s.

The D.Light approach is considerablydifferent. They are in the business of selling solar lanterns as a replacement for kerosene lanterns. They target thepoorest of the poor and follow a villageentrepreneur approach.

The D.Light approach is as follows:D.Light ---(Sets up) --- Local Dealers ---(Supply to) --- Rural Village Entrepreneurs--- (Employ) --- Sales force and servicestaff --- (Retail) --- Sells to local villagers.

At th e in it ia l st ag es, th e ru ralentrepreneur sells directly due to lack of scale. The initial capital must be paid bythe entrepreneur himself. While D.Lightprovi des trai ning and help s theentrepreneur set up his trade, the actualbusiness of selling is completely under hiscontrol. The entrepreneur could beworking part time/full time (on a xedwage basis) or as an agent (on acommission basis) depending on the scaleinvolved. The entrepreneur is responsible

for setting up shop, recruiting sales force

and service personnel. The marketingactivities are also largely under hiscontrol.

An Illustrative Example:Objectives & DeliverablesWe illustrate the above objectives and tiethem to the project deliverables throughan example. Let’s take the case of Choices

India launching a solar lantern as areplacement for conven6onal kerosene

lanterns in remote villages.

1 s t Object ive Through secondaryresearch, we determine that the averagetarget customer household would

Typically comprise a family of 4,Household income = INR 15k-30kannually, Depends on farming, Livesin a remote village with limitedaccess (6-10 hrs) to electricity andwould possess low educationalqualications (primary school level)

Further, through in-depth interviewsand ethnographic study, we woulddetermine that these households usekerosene lamps for 7-10 hrs daily,rely extensively on its light for evening & night activities, aresuspicious of trading it for alternate/new “technologies” and are highlyinuenced only by people known tothem (relatives, local shopkeepersand opinion leaders like village

elders, gram panchayat leaders andrespected businessmen)



timelines weeks

1 to 4Aug - Sept 5

5 to 8Sep 6 - Oct 3

9 to 12Oct 4 - Oct 30

2nd Objective, we look at viable markets wherethe product could be launched. Secondaryresearch leads us to Bhojaka, a village in theAligarh district of Uttar Pradesh (UP). UP, oneof the most populous states in India, has closeto 1 Lakh villages, 40% of them (40080 to beprecise) un-electried. A whopping 80% of thehouseholds are un-electried. Bhojaka isamong the more backward of those villages.The electricity rarely stays on beyond 6 pm

and kerosene lamps are a way of life.Each household spends approximately4% of their annual budget on kerosenefor the lamps

Lamps are bought when they break down(i.e. once every 8-12 months) or atfestive/family occasions

Based on answers to the quantitativequestionnaire and the number of villages,it is estimated that the demand for solar lanterns is expected to be near around

5000-7000 annually (for 50,000households)

Based on available transport options, it isestimated that a village entrepreneur could handle a captive market of 2000households

3rd objective is crucial to helping us build the“Choices” rural value chain.

Factors such as availability of publictransport, roads, infrastructure andwarehouse costs are important whendeciding the distribution model.

Factors such as viability of retail outlets,banking & credit facilities, communicationmediums and cheap availability of manpower are important when decidingthe retail model

Factors such as creativity, patience,hardworking, willingness to share prots,good reputation and availability of tran spo rt are vit al for the rur alentrepreneur

4 th Objective would help us build thedistribution model

The FMCG model of rural distributionmight not work since visibility at retailstores might not be enough to sell theproduct

Tying up with SHG (Self-Help-Groups)might help get traction (E.g. HUL’s ProjectShakthi)

The best model might be to employ part-

time/full time “village entrepreneurs” whowould directly procure “Choice” productsfrom “Choice” dealers and pass it on toconsumers

The manufacturers would ship the goodsto the “Choice” mandated dealers whowould be responsible for maintaininginventory. Each dealer would handleroughly 2-3 villages

5th Objective would help prepare the retailmodel, i.e. the part of the value chain from thestore to the customer.

Insight – Consumers have built thelifestyle around kerosene lamps and theyfeel at home with its smells and light.Asking them to switch to solar lanterns islike asking them to change lifestyles

The entrepreneur must demonstrateproduct benets to the consumers topersuade them to buy. He might have toloan them his own lantern

Product benets must be extolled byvillagers who are well known to thecustomer

The sales force must be trained to pitch inthe local dialect and must stress onbenets, localization of the product andmonetary savings due to product use

6 th objective deals with selecting theentrepreneur itself.

The rural entrepreneur must be willing towork on a part-time or revenue sharingbasis and inuences opinion leaders

An initial list of possible entrepreneurs

would be generated by talking to villageelders and gram panchayat ofcials.Later on, product users would also beselected as entrepreneurs. This wouldsave on training costs.

Adequate training would be provided tothe rural entrepreneurs. The trainingwould focus on selling and servicing skillsrequired

Their margins would be tied to units sold.However, a small xed component wouldensure stable incomes

Secondary ResearchTelephonic Interviews

GeneratingPreliminary modelsand hypothesis

Primary Research: InDepth Interviews

Rural VisitTesting Hypothesis

Analyzing the

informationPresenting the finalrecommendations

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The objective of this proposal is to come up with a complete value chain for innovative,ready-to-use products for rural India. Our client is “Choices India”,an MNC in start-up mode.We start by looking at comparable projects in thissegment. Going forward, the objectives are established and linked to theproject deliverables. An illustrative example explains the process followed.

We expand on the project deliverables and provide a detailed breakup of the timelines followed. Finally, we wind up by providing our team prole andlisting relevant experience in the rural and/or retail domain.

TeamSWAYAM

choices sales

Documents