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What’s new in marketing channels in India? - Marketing Channels
MARKETING MANAGEMENT - Marketing Channels
What’s new in marketing channels in India? - Marketing Channels
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Project Shakti: Among the new channels is Project Shakti, which is already operational in 11 states.
What’s new in marketing channels in India?
Project Shakti: Among the new channels is Project Shakti, which is already operational in 11 states. The vision is to reach over 100,000 small villages, touching over 100 million rural Indians. Project Shakti provides micro-enterprise opportunities for women from Self-help Groups, making them direct-to-home distributors of HLL. The ‘Shaktiammas’ work as brand ambassadors for HLL and they sell its products directly to village consumers at their homes.
Hindustan Lever Network: Hindustan Lever Network leverages the opportunity of Direct Selling, and already presents customized offerings in 11 Home & Personal Care and Foods categories. With a consultant base of over 250,000 entrepreneurs, it operates in over 1,500 towns and cities, covering 80% of the urban population.
Out-of-Home Opportunity: HLL is also aggressively responding to the rapidly growing trend of out-of-home consumption. The company is already the largest in hot beverages vending with over 15,000 tea and coffee vending points. This is being aggressively expanded in offices, the burgeoning services sector and, through specially designed kiosks, in the education, entertainment, leisure and travel segments.
Health & Beauty Services: To respond to the increasing consumer need for health and beauty services and products, HLL has pioneered Lakme Salons and Ayush Therapy Centres. Lakme already has 64 salons in 26 cities, servicing over 4 lakh consumers a year. The Ayush Therapy Centres provide easy access to authentic Ayurvedic treatments and products, addressing the ever-growing concern for health among consumers.
Mr. Banga of HLL concluded, “Our distribution initiatives create significant employment and vocational opportunities. Our countrywide network of 7,000 Stockists and 6,000 sub-stockists employs over 60,000 people. In our current channels, we work with the local retail trade, which has dispersed ownership and already involves a large number of people. Our new initiatives by themselves create large vocational opportunities for people. Hindustan Lever Network aims to create over a million self-employed entrepreneurs. Project Shakti aims to engage 25,000 underprivileged rural women, giving them economic independence. Services, by their very nature, are employment intensive and will also provide significant employment. All our channel initiatives are thus completely aligned with the national interest and priority of employment generation.”
One of the major purposes of marketing is to satisfy the human needs and wants by delivering products to buyers when and where they want them at a reasonable cost. One of the key aspects we find in this process is delivery. Over the past two decades, economic clout has shifted from the producers of goods to distributors of goods. The shift in economic power has been significant in the retail level of marketing channels, where mass merchandisers like Wal-Mart, Big Bazaar have become dominant players. As a strategic marketing tool, the distribution channels had for many years taken something of a backseat to the other three strategic areas of the marketing mix namely the product, price and promotion. Today there has been a shift in the emphasis and this has been credited to four developments, viz.
1. Explosion of information technology and e-commerce
2. Greater difficulty of gaining a sustainable competitive advantage
3. Growing power of distributors especially retailers
4. The need to reduce distribution costs
Project Shakti: Among the new channels is Project Shakti, which is already operational in 11 states. The vision is to reach over 100,000 small villages, touching over 100 million rural Indians. Project Shakti provides micro-enterprise opportunities for women from Self-help Groups, making them direct-to-home distributors of HLL. The ‘Shaktiammas’ work as brand ambassadors for HLL and they sell its products directly to village consumers at their homes.
Hindustan Lever Network: Hindustan Lever Network leverages the opportunity of Direct Selling, and already presents customized offerings in 11 Home & Personal Care and Foods categories. With a consultant base of over 250,000 entrepreneurs, it operates in over 1,500 towns and cities, covering 80% of the urban population.
Out-of-Home Opportunity: HLL is also aggressively responding to the rapidly growing trend of out-of-home consumption. The company is already the largest in hot beverages vending with over 15,000 tea and coffee vending points. This is being aggressively expanded in offices, the burgeoning services sector and, through specially designed kiosks, in the education, entertainment, leisure and travel segments.
Health & Beauty Services: To respond to the increasing consumer need for health and beauty services and products, HLL has pioneered Lakme Salons and Ayush Therapy Centres. Lakme already has 64 salons in 26 cities, servicing over 4 lakh consumers a year. The Ayush Therapy Centres provide easy access to authentic Ayurvedic treatments and products, addressing the ever-growing concern for health among consumers.
Mr. Banga of HLL concluded, “Our distribution initiatives create significant employment and vocational opportunities. Our countrywide network of 7,000 Stockists and 6,000 sub-stockists employs over 60,000 people. In our current channels, we work with the local retail trade, which has dispersed ownership and already involves a large number of people. Our new initiatives by themselves create large vocational opportunities for people. Hindustan Lever Network aims to create over a million self-employed entrepreneurs. Project Shakti aims to engage 25,000 underprivileged rural women, giving them economic independence. Services, by their very nature, are employment intensive and will also provide significant employment. All our channel initiatives are thus completely aligned with the national interest and priority of employment generation.”
One of the major purposes of marketing is to satisfy the human needs and wants by delivering products to buyers when and where they want them at a reasonable cost. One of the key aspects we find in this process is delivery. Over the past two decades, economic clout has shifted from the producers of goods to distributors of goods. The shift in economic power has been significant in the retail level of marketing channels, where mass merchandisers like Wal-Mart, Big Bazaar have become dominant players. As a strategic marketing tool, the distribution channels had for many years taken something of a backseat to the other three strategic areas of the marketing mix namely the product, price and promotion. Today there has been a shift in the emphasis and this has been credited to four developments, viz.
1. Explosion of information technology and e-commerce
2. Greater difficulty of gaining a sustainable competitive advantage
3. Growing power of distributors especially retailers
4. The need to reduce distribution costs
Tags : MARKETING MANAGEMENT - Marketing Channels
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