RURAL

MARKETING

PRESENTED BY:

Anu Mathew
Hariharan
Jackson
Manoj
Monisha
Introduction

 Introduced by Hindustan Unilever

Limited (HUL) in 2001
 It was started in the district of Nalgonda,
in Andhra Pradesh
 HUL identified rural India as a key
source of growth and competitive
advantage
 Its aim is to increase the company’s rural
distribution reach and to improve the
living condition of rural women by
providing regular income
 This is the combination of social goals
and business goals
Objective of project Shakti

 It is an initiative to financially
empower rural women and Social
Aspect
improves their livelihood
opportunities by regular
income flow (Social aspect) PROJECT
SHAKTI
 It is developed to capture the
rural market by increasing the Busines
s
sales (Business aspect) Aspect
 How does it function ?
 Villages with a population more than 2000 are identified and selected by HUL
 It functions with SHG (Self Help Group), where women form their group and pool in
their money and also sponsor from small credit agency
 HUL selects women from the village with the help of panchayat and call them as
SHAKTI AMMAS
 These Shakti Amma’s are given training for selling products
 These Shakti Amma’s invest their money or with the help of SHG and buy HUL
products(Rs.15000-20000)
 Later these HUL products are sold door to door by them or during the ‘Shakti day’
organized by them
 Brooke bond tea for get-together
 On an average Shakti Amma’s makes 10% margin on the products she sells (Rs.1000
and above profit per month)
Distribution Channel
Why Women ?

 Women are the primary target customers for most of the HUL products
 Rural women are more likely to appreciate the extra income and they will be
willing to take the initiative
 Rural women are the most marginalized group
 Generally women in rural areas have easy access to their neighboring households
and have the ability to boost the sales
 Targeting women will have great impact on health, education and other hygiene
factors which will improve the rural lifestyle
 Also, men would be occupied with other employment and will not have time to
focus on this project
 Challenge
 Rural women are not aware of the
marketing process and effective
communication
 Almost all households in rural areas
are low-income consumers
 Since they have to invest for starting
their business which is quite
challenging
 Certain villages have restriction of
men going inside the house to buy
products
Solution
 Rural sales person hired to teach all
necessary techniques for selling
 HUL introduced various cash
rewards for houses visited and
delayed the loan instalment payment
 SHG group and micro-creditors
helped them
 Shakti day was introduced to do
selling process in public forum
 Shakti Vani
 A social communication program
was introduced to help rural women
to improve their communication
 Trained local women was appointed
as Vani to guide the rural women to
improve their health, communication
and hygiene factors
i-Shakti
 An online portal was created in
order to provide online guidance and
training to all women who can
access internet
 Various clarification on education,
agriculture, health, personal care,
legal matters etc… were provided
 IMPACT
Economic impact
 the average income of a Shakti household can increase up to approximately 20
percent compared to average household incomes in the geographies.
 this income is directly attributed to the Shakti Amma. This has increased the
confidence of Shakti Ammas to participate in household decision making and
augmented their sense of self-worth.
Social impact
 Shakti Ammas feel that the project has positively impacted their position in their
family and society.
 made them more confident and comfortable speaking with people, while increasing
their respect in their community.
 catalyst for entrepreneurship and economic empowerment while being a key driver
of distribution and growth for HUL.
SWOT Analysis
Strengths
 Strategic movement using Self Help
Group (SHG) and micro creditors
 Employees are appointed to train the
rural women and also uses technology
Opportunities
 Untapped segment of rural market
 Demand for income is high in rural
market and also increase in self
awareness
 model
Integrating social and business
responsibility
Weakness
 Training rural women is still a major
challenge
 Skepticism in the minds of local people
Threats
 It takes time to capture the rural segment
 Increase in competition as there is huge
potential in untapped market and also
some of them are following the similar
Project Shakti in India

Global Presence

 Sri Lanka
 Vietnam
 Bangladesh
 Africa
Benefits
 Overall 10% margin and in that 3% goes in interest and principal. So remaining
7% is profit
 Give independence to all the rural women and the income generated is highly
appreciated
 Increases the per-capita income
 Gives opportunity to lakhs of rural women to become entrepreneurs
 HUL’s business strategy of penetrating deep into rural market was also achieved
using project Shakti
 Overall development of rural livelihood and HUL’s distribution reach was achieved
 HUL, has nearly 110,000 women micro-entrepreneurs across 18 states boosting the
distribution reach of the company’s brands.