Unilever in India -Project Shakti
U
2011
Unilever in India: Hindustan Lever’s Project Shakti- Marketing FMCG to the Rural Consumer
Riddhi Biswas
PGP/14/236
Section E
Q1. What are the key features of Shakti? What are its positive aspects and what are its drawbacks?
Key features of Shakti: Axiomatic truly , ‘Rural caravan’ of HUL as it can be popularly called is Project Shakti. Untapped and unexplored for years Indian rural market remain unnoticed and undiscovered as par as the business opportunities, especially in FMCG sectors, are concerned. As its Balance sheet and income statement had been quite less heavy due to the loss turnover in sales and net profit, HUL was all afoot to launch something new to be used as the springboard to jump to higher level of revenues and make its financial corpus to look promising.
Keeping these spectrum of issues in mind HUL introduced project Shakti, a flag-ship programme was initiated by HUL to capture untapped rural markets. The model of shakti built on the features that best suit the rural folks. So the project shakti featured to win a big pie of the rural market and also wanted to create a deep social impact.HUL partnered with recipients of the micro-credits by offering the village women to be micro-entrepreneurs. HUL tied up with MACTS to sell its products, which subsequently would sell it into the SHGs. A member of each SHG was appointed entrepreneur by the SGH members. The entrepreneurs sold the products to the local outlets at a price that enabled the retailer to win a margin when sold to consumers. HUL sold its products at a discount to the entrepreneurs in such a price that it can avoid the channel conflict. To help the entrepreneurs to create and grow businesses , HUL hired RSP to coach the women. Sensing the low sales volumes in initial months HUL pressed into service the incentive mechanism for newly appointed entrepreneurs, rewarding them in cash for visiting a cluster of homes independent of the amount sold attached with it the
2011
Unilever in India: Hindustan Lever’s Project Shakti- Marketing FMCG to the Rural Consumer
Riddhi Biswas
PGP/14/236
Section E
Q1. What are the key features of Shakti? What are its positive aspects and what are its drawbacks?
Key features of Shakti: Axiomatic truly , ‘Rural caravan’ of HUL as it can be popularly called is Project Shakti. Untapped and unexplored for years Indian rural market remain unnoticed and undiscovered as par as the business opportunities, especially in FMCG sectors, are concerned. As its Balance sheet and income statement had been quite less heavy due to the loss turnover in sales and net profit, HUL was all afoot to launch something new to be used as the springboard to jump to higher level of revenues and make its financial corpus to look promising.
Keeping these spectrum of issues in mind HUL introduced project Shakti, a flag-ship programme was initiated by HUL to capture untapped rural markets. The model of shakti built on the features that best suit the rural folks. So the project shakti featured to win a big pie of the rural market and also wanted to create a deep social impact.HUL partnered with recipients of the micro-credits by offering the village women to be micro-entrepreneurs. HUL tied up with MACTS to sell its products, which subsequently would sell it into the SHGs. A member of each SHG was appointed entrepreneur by the SGH members. The entrepreneurs sold the products to the local outlets at a price that enabled the retailer to win a margin when sold to consumers. HUL sold its products at a discount to the entrepreneurs in such a price that it can avoid the channel conflict. To help the entrepreneurs to create and grow businesses , HUL hired RSP to coach the women. Sensing the low sales volumes in initial months HUL pressed into service the incentive mechanism for newly appointed entrepreneurs, rewarding them in cash for visiting a cluster of homes independent of the amount sold attached with it the