FMCG cos hit upon unique point of sales

BOTTOM OF PYRAMID

Tie Up With Barbers, Dhabas

FMCG marketers have found a new league of extraordinary consumers: Kanwariyas in Bihar, barbers of Meerut, Mumbai's dabbawallas, devotees at Kumbh Mela, highway dhaba owners and resident welfare associations. 

    Companies such as Emami, Godrej, Dabur, PepsiCo and Perfetti Van Melle are chasing these unlikely customer groups to keep demand ticking at a time when prices of grocery items like soaps, shampoos, hair oils and beverages inchup. And it's working. 
    "In Bihar, what our (Himani) Fast Relief brand sells in one month is equivalent to its sales from the remaining 11 months," says Aditya Agarwal, group director of Emami, which sets up massage parlours for Kanwariyas (devotees of Lord Shiva who walk 40-50 kilometers every day for a month to reach the Ganges on Maha Shivratri) on their routes during the Kanwariya season, particularly in Bihar. 
These parlours provide free massages to the Kanwariyas and retail the company products. Himani Fast Relief pain reliever and Navratna hair oil are hot favourites in Bihar during the Kanwariya season. "These are low-cost, effective ways to reach core target consumers," says Mr Agarwal. Huge opportunity for creating awareness 
LOW COST and out of the box. Many marketers have embraced this kind of direct group marketing to drive up demand, as prices of various grocery items have increased 3-5% since the Union Budget. 
    Godrej is tapping one-lakh barber shops to push shaving creams and hair colour, Dabur has tied up with dhabas (for its candies), Kumbh Mela (to push its Amla hair oil) and beauty pageants (for Fem bleach), PepsiCo has tapped resident welfare associations for Tropicana juices, and Perfetti Van Melle has tied up with Mumbai's dabbawallas to sample its Mangofillz candies. 
    Some 50,000 barbers in towns like Meerut, Nashik and Ghaziabad now useGodrej shaving creams and hair dyes and accessories sporting its brand. The company is now in the process of tapping another 50,000 barbers in tier-2 and tier-3 cities, as its pilot project, which ended in December last, proved a success. 
    "If we can physically reach half-a-million barber shops in this country with our products, we perhaps don't even need to advertise," says Dalip Sehgal, MD of Godrej Consumer Products, which makes Godrej shaving cream, Expert and Renew hair colours and Cinthol talc. 
    It sells special kits to barbers, which include products and accessories, for Rs 150 each and conducts workshops and seminars for them. "More than points of sale, the barbers are a great endorsement for us," adds Mr Sehgal. 
    Such strategy, even if it doesn't result in heavy sales, gives huge opportunity for creating consumer awareness. 
    Dabur has set up camps called 'Champi Clinics' for its Amla hair oil at the Kumbh Mela now taking place in Haridwar. The company has also joined hands with 'Nukkad Natak' companies and puppeteers to spread the message of oral hygiene and with street-food outlets (dhabas) for its post-meal digestive candy Hajmola. 
    "There's a large, untapped set of consumers we can reach out to through such exercises," says Dabur CEO Sunil Duggal. He said the company plans to cover over 1,000 street-food outlets across the country. 
    Dabur's Fem bleach brand also sponsored a beauty pageant in Punjab, attended by 5,000 women, who are potential consumers. 
    Last month, Italian confectionery maker Perfetti Van Melle's Indian arm sampled two lakh Mangofillz candies with Mumbai's dabbawalas, who distribute two-lakh lunch boxes to the city's office-goers daily with clockwork precision. Mumbai is known as a big mango candy market, and it was the first time the company was tapping the fruit-based candy category. 
    "The sampling worked well for us. We would consider it again," says Sameer Suneja, CEO of Perfetti Van Melle India. "Through the dabbawalas, you know you are reaching a focused target audience."