Ideas Considered:

We considered 3 Ideas to implement which help in Standardizing the business of Self-help groups.
They are

1. Building an Online presence through a Website

2. Establishing relation with appropriate channel members
3. Designing an appropriate training module and train SHG members

1. Building an Online presence through Website: The main intention behind this is to have a
online presence and drive traffic through Digital Marketing to increase brand awareness and
establish brand credibility.
 Constraints in Implementation:
 Lack of technical capability: Considering the technical literacy level of the SHG group
members even if a website has been built, they lack the capability to maintain and take
it forward as they are technology agnostic.
 SEO Optimization: Building a website itself is not sufficient as optimization is required.
We need to bid on certain keyword to increase traffic which incurs huge advertising
costs.

2. Establishing relation with appropriate channel members:

 The demand for prawn pickle is very niche in and around Manipal.
 The SHG starts preparing the pickle only when they get the order (Make to Order)
 Given the high cost involved in buying prawns they have very low profit margin.
 The demand for Prawn Pickle is high in Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities where the consumers have
more health awareness and disposable income.
 We considered getting a shelf space in retail stores would increase the visibility of the
product and also the demand would be certain.
 We conducted market research by talking with retailers what is the demand for prawn
pickle per month and what is the price margin they charge for that.

3. Designing an appropriate training module and train SHG members:

 By studying and understanding their business practices we understood that their
business practices have to be standardized to increase the sales and scale up their
business.
 No individual sales targets and accountability. The competitiveness and determination is
lacking in the SHG
 Individual Sales targets may will increase competitiveness and members will become
more accountable
 Negotiation skills to deal with retail stores and secure reasonable shelf space
 Channel management skills

After coming up with 3 ideas we zeroed in to options 2 and 3 as there are many constraints which
are stated above in implementing option 1.