(Contributed by:
Preeti Mathews & Megha Bagaria
Students, IInd Year FT MBA, NMIMS, Mumbai)
The Ambernath fair is an annual fair organized on the day of Maha Shivratri, when the Ambernath temple is overcrowded with pious devotees who come there to seek the blessings of Lord Shiva. This was the venue for the field activity in the “Business at the Bottom of the Pyramid” course, and the objective was to experience the art of selling to rural and semi-urban customers. A brainchild of our professor, Dr. Anshu Jalora, all the second year students of NMIMS’s MBA Core program, who had taken up this elective, were divided into a total of 9 groups each comprising of around 6 students. The task given to each group was to choose a product which could be sold in a rural market, pool money within the groups, buy items from wholesale markets, and sell the same in the fair. An experiential marketing campaigm was deemed a must. The groups chose products like food products, stationary items, sports goods and games, while one group chose a service of applying mehandi and nailpaint.
At 5:30 am on 20th Feb, the students left for Ambernath in an attempt to reach early and catch the customers while they were on the way to the temple. However, on reaching the venue, they found that all the stalls had been taken and there was no place for them to sell their products. So, they had to resort to techniques such as collaborating with the other stall people to share space and revenue. Some groups found places in stalls which were not occupied and set up their shop there temporarily.
The students also faced many challenges on the way. Food and water had to be carried on the trip as it was hard to get these things at the fair. Washrooms were scarce and students had to walk some distance before they could access one. Also, the customers were predominantly Marathi and spoke in the local language. Students had to learn few words of the local language to engage the customers in a more meaningful manner.
After this, began the hard task of convincing people to buy the products and service. Initially, people were sceptical of buying the products as did they not associate much value to the products the students were trying to sell. This activity was an eye opener as most teams found that their initial strategies they had come prepared with were not working in the field. They were compelled to think on the fly and make sure they didn’t lose their own investments.
For instance, one of the groups which was finding it difficult to sell its food products had to change its strategy to one in which they convinced people to play a game of darts at a certain price and then gave away their food products as prizes. This worked well because customers attached more importance or significance to winning and paid less attention to the prize that they received. This change in strategy was an immediate success as it played well on the consumer psyche and the group was able to sell all the products it had.
Other groups followed suit and played games like snakes and ladder, pencil sharpening etc. Each one customized their offerings to the public to make it more attractive and appealing. For example, the group playing snakes and ladder customized their game by asking questions every time a player proceeded to the next stage. The questions were mostly from Bollywood films and movies, which greatly appealed to the audience, so much so that they were more eager to answer the questions rather than playing the game.
The sole group which was trying to sell its services of applying mehandi and nailpolish was also an instant success. The target group of women was kept in mind. The group did adequate preparation and took posters and pamphlets to distribute among the customers. Bright and colourful nail paints were brought to appeal to the customer segment. The group found that ladies were mostly shy and it was their husbands who were coaxing them to apply nail paint and mehandi. Also, the group realized that customers were paying them for the whole experience of someone applying nailpolish for them, being able to choose the nailpolish/design of mehandi and relaxing. Hence in the end, when the group tried selling off its nailpolish bottles in bulk, it did not meet with much success. People were willing to get nailpaint applied for Rs 5, however they were sceptical of buying a nailpolish bottle for Rs 10 even though they could have applied nailpolish 10 times over with that bottle. Hence, the lesson learnt was that an experiential campaign is very important to engage the customers at the BOP
The popularity of each of the activities organized by the students was stupendous. The games played by each group attracted huge excited crowds. One group attracted so many people that they actually blocked the flow of traffic. This resulted in the interference of the local cops who asked them to shut down their stall or move to a more suitable location.
The trip to Ambernath also saw the active participation of the french (exchange) students. The enthusiasm and commitment showed by them was commendable. They mingled with the crowd, tried learning the local language and shouted slogans like “das ka maal paanch mein” and “dah ka paanch, chamki shiny pen” along with the other group members.
As a class, the students realised that the customer at the bottom of the pyramid is no different from any other customer. The spending capacity of the local people was more than the students expected. People had no hesitation in paying Rs 20-30 to play a game of snakes and ladder. However, they are not willing to compromise on the quality of the product/service. They want value for every penny of their hard earned money. While they are shy and difficult to approach, once you have them at your stall, they examine everything with an eagle eye. They are particular about the products and services they use and make sure nothing is of sub-standard quality. Also, the students realised that language is a big factor while selling to this segment of the population. If you can speak to them in their own native tongue, it establishes some amount of instant credibility with them and gets them to atleast hear you out. Many are brand conscious, as consumerism and advertising are causing this information to seep into their psyche, and they compare what you have to offer to established brand offerings.
What the students learnt in that half a day was far more than any number of classroom sessions could have taught them. There was a marked change in the body language of the students as the day progressed. Students who started out with soft voices, hesitantly approaching customers were soon shouting slogans that overpowered that of the local vendors. Initially unsure about the viability of their selling proposition, students were soon managing crowds at their stall and employing different methods of customer engagement.
In a particular instance, a group actually collaborated with the stall setup by a political party and used their loud speakers to promote their offerings. This just proved how the students used the whole experience to showcase their innovative skills, passion and zeal for what they loved doing.
The whole experience was one of its kind. It turned the students into professional sellers and marketers. It filled them with enthusiasm and passion for selling their products. They changed strategies according to consumer sentiments. They persevered till they sold their last product. They approached customers with zeal, passion and confidence. Some students even realized their hidden talents. Almost every student in the class felt that he or she was now better prepared to develop marketing strategies for serving BOP markets.This exercise in experiential marketing truly resulted in experiential learning for the students!
At the end of the activity, out of the 9 student teams, except for one team that went into a loss of 50 rupees, every other team either broke-even or ended the activity with profits. Each team felt that they could have sold double the quantity they had planned and saw tremendous opportunity in the market there. They regretted not carrying more inventories as few teams had sold out all their products within one hour of reaching the fair.
Ultimately the success lay not in the profits but in the sheer pleasure of being able to sell to the customer at the bottom of the pyramid.
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