The subject has been pursued and irking many consumer product companies in India. I would classically take a case for tea companies who have a garden and looking for profitability and margins to come out of their distress . This being a comfort zone for me ,I have taken this up as a case study and I am sure you can too build up cases as per the behaviour of your vertical.
The first focus should be to reduce the cost of production. Then of course upping the quality to improve realization .
Having achieved that one should focus on setting up own and franchisee shops to further improve realization and get close to the customer. India is a land of kiranas, so distribution to nearby shops must be initiated from the central shop. As this expansion happens the brand should get nationally recognized gradually .
Ultimately the graduation from shops to packets must take place. There must be a clear distributor appointment policy with distributors in every block. A focus on advance payment is essential . A cheque book of the distributor can be kept .
There are other channels of distribution especially pertaining to army, railways , institutions that the company can focus on .
Also thinking laterally liquid tea is a great business and one can focus on setting up express parlours and dispensing liquid tea through machines. Green tea and teabags are other businesses.
A company then should try to go international either in bulk or slowly develop brands in select countries through agents. I will delve on such strategies later.
Also to be remembered is leveraging the distribution network through other health related products.
It would make sense to do a thorough case study of select successful companies who achieved this.
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