Napoleon Hill, one of the greatest writers on success, once said, “If you cannot do great things, do small things in a great way.” Companies and manufacturers seem to have taken this quote quite seriously with sachet marketing trending everywhere, and turning out to be very profitable for businesses.
For those scratching their heads as to what ‘sachet marketing’ means, it is basically serving a company’s products which are usually big in volume or nature into smaller and affordable sachets, portions or sizes. The manufacturer or organization can earn good profits from the total overall volume because of more buyers, despite the small size of the product.
Right from the introduction of pan masala’s in small packets, all the way to Shampoo’s available in sachets; this form of marketing has come a long way in gaining acceptance among users. The convenience and affordability of these smaller products have made them consumer friendly.
The major industry sachet marketing has influenced, is that of personal care products. Chic Shampoo sachets were launched by Cavinkare pricing them at 50p and Re.1. Mini Colgate and Pepsodent tooth pastes, soaps of various companies and even hair oil came in small packages at low prices.
Seeing the emerging popularity for low-priced micro products, telecom companies are also in the scene. Vodafone Essar Ltd. was one of the first to enter the market in this regard and launched Rs. 10 micro top-up cards for their prepaid customers as “chota recharge.” Following this other telecom majors like Reliance and Airtel came up with their own versions of the “chotta recharge.”
An ORG Rural Consumer panel study shows that the share for branded goods was pretty high in rural areas. The demand for non-branded goods was diminishing dramatically. These markets were targeted by the companies so as to improve product penetration in these areas using the affordability factor to their advantage. Lower income groups in the urban areas also find sachet marketing suited to their needs due to the low-prices.
Micro-financing institutions are adopted versions of sachet marketing as they are making huge profits by providing micro-loans to the rural population to set up their own enterprises. Seeing this micro-financing methods blossom in emerging economies like Africa and Asia, the more mature and stable economies are looking catch on to its potential. Rural areas have benefitted through this marketing in other ways too. An example being in our neighbouring Bangladesh, where leading cell phone operator GrameenPhone offers special low priced packages to phone-ladies in small villages where telephone lines aren’t around. For a few pennies, the phone-ladies share their cell phones with other village folk to make calls.
Whirlpool is trying to target the Brazilian, Chinese and Indian markets by coming up with inexpensive and sleek versions of their washing machines. So soon, all companies can be expected to come up with sachet versions of their products as a sustainable marketing option.
Aw, this was an exceptionally nice post. Taking a few minutes and actual effort to make a good article… but what can I say… I put things off a lot and don’t manage to get nearly anything done.