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Product : Biscuits

Location: Loni Bhapkar a small village in the interiors of Mararashtra

The Rural Consumer:

The Family: Radhabai lives with her 2 sons and 5 grandchildren in a small hut in the village of Loni

Bahpkar. On asking her and her 2 family about their biscuit consumption patterns we got the

following insights:

- Highest brand recall was for Parle-G. They doconsume other brands like Tiger. Cream biscuits

are not consumed as much as normal biscuits.

- Biscuits are bought mainly for the kids of thefamily and bought by the teenage kids of the

family

- They are not stocked. They are bought andconsumed on the same day

- The elders of the family sometimes consumethese biscuits with tea

The Rural Retailer:

Retailer 1.

Name of Retailer: Daulatbi

Location: Loni Bahpkar

Background of the Retailer: Daulitbi has one married son and two grandchildren. The family earns its

bread by selling meat and the small retailer store that she runs. Her son drives a tourist vehicle and

travels to near villages and cities.

Our interaction with Daulatbi and her daughter-in-law gave us the following details:

POP Presense: Being a small shop all the products in the shop were visible. Some of the products

that were very prominently visible were shampoo sachets, egg crates, bulbs, soaps, etc. Biscuits

were also noticeable. The most prominent biscuits were:

- Parle G- Marie- Parle Nimkin and Parle Kreamz

Shelf Space: Shelf Space was common for all the biscuits available in the shop. And in that one shelf

there was a lot of clutter.

Figure 1: Radhabai with some members of the family

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Shopkeepers Reaction: Daulatbi was delighted and answered all our questions willingly. She was of

the opinion that parle G and other cream biscuits were the most popular biscuits and were sold the

most. In spite of cream biscuits being the same price as parle g, consumers preferred to buy Parle G.

Retailer 2:

Name of Retailer: Nanda Dattaray Deshmukh

Name of Shop: Deshmane Kirana Store

POP: the store display was cluttered. There was a string hanging

from one end of the store to the other. On this string there were

sachets of products like shampoos, masalas, Mehendi, tea,

washing powder, etc. There was local products as well as other

well known brands like Everest, red label, chic, etc.

Shelf Space for Biscuits:

There one shelf dedicated to all the various kinds of

biscuits available in the shop. The biscuits were a less

cluttered and could be identified by looking at the shelf.

Marie and ParleG had the maximum shelf space. This is

again because of its high demand.\

Variety: This store being bigger in size had a wider

variety of biscuits. Some products available were:

- Monaco Classic and Zabardast Zeera- Tiger Coconut Energy- Parle Kreamz: Pineapple, Orange and Elaichi- Good- Day: Cashew and Butter- Britannia 50:50

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Additional Findings:

Competition from Substitutes: In these retail outlets, Khari toast and Muska were also being sold.

These local products are a lot cheaper than biscuit packets. Thus a large chunk of the adult

population in the villages prefers this over biscuits. Also these packs have MRP printed but the

retailer sells it at a price lower than the printed price.

Credit facility: A one month credit facility is provided by the stores. A register is maintained by the

retailer with details about the customer and his purchases.

Local Competitors: there are no local players in the rural areas with regards to Biscuits. This is most

likely because of parle g and tiger capturing the market completely.