Marketing, Branding and Pricing Strategy for boosting the domestic business of an MSME enterprise by leveraging distribution channels
Ma Foi’s extensive market research and a sound strategic acumen helped a state-owned enterprise to identify important products, markets and channels to consolidate its business in India
Situation
A public sector undertaking (PSU) dealing with coir products commissioned a study to understand the market potential of various coir products and evolve strategies to leverage it for expansion in the domestic market.
The PSU operates via company owned stores across India and exports coir raw material in the international market. A greater emphasis on raw exports resulted in limited awareness about the market potential of coir products in the domestic market.
The mission of this initiative was to strengthen client’s understanding of the market potential, identify key products for the domestic market and thrust areas of the sector, and formulate the strategies for Go-To-Market (GTM) and Brand building/ Promotion. It is a fact that organized selling channels of coir products in the country at present are not sufficient to tap the vast and unexploited household sector in India.
Corrective Action
During the first phase, Ma Foi conducted a diagnostic study to shortlist important coir products with the client and assessed the potential of various value-added coir product in domestic market. This was followed by a market feedback exercise on the prevalence and acceptance of shortlisted products. The methodology adopted industry assumptions vetted by SMEs. Field visits (manufacturer and consumer) and analysis were done for validation, along with SWOT analysis and Need-Gap analysis for each product. The Total market potential, replacement market potential and incremental market potential was calculated for each product. The factors taken into consideration were product applications, usage, substitute products and price points. To obtain a holistic view, surveys were conducted across the stakeholders including client team, industry technical experts, manufacturers, exporters, wholesalers, retailers, consumers, research agencies and competitors. By leveraging such extensive data, robust GTM strategies were formulated for each product.
Result
Ma Foi identified and developed priority areas for 15 products based on PLC, time to impact and effort to impact matrix. Key strategies were developed across these categories, and for individual products. pricing, placement and branding. Go to Market strategies were formulated for the identified categories. Ma Foi formulated action points to address the challenges faced in branding across different geographic locations, reaching out to the market in these locations and technical collaboration through relevant channels partners.
