David Lemuel E. Garcia

10564721             BS-IM

ANNAPURNA SALT CASE STUDY

1. What is the role of NGOs (Non-Governmental Organizations) in BOP markets according to Prahalad?

Do you agree with this position?

                -  they serve as an interface between people meaning they bridge the gap between the rich and the poor. Yes I agree. Because they are the ones that helps out the poor people for them to be able to reach out what are their needs and wants.

2. According to Rekha Balu of Fast Company, "poor people ... can become just as discerning about brands as rich customer". Do you agree with this statement? Is this applicable in the Philippines?

                - Yes I agree. It can definitely be applicable to the Philippines. Why? Because here in the Philippines, people tend to judge the a certain product according to its popularity and its brand name, most of the basic necessities are called not from its generic name but from its brand name like “safe guard” but the truth is the person saying it means “soap”.

3. What is the nature of the breakthrough of K15 Technology in your own words?

                - the K15 technology is a great discovery that keeps the iodine in-tact from the salt itself keeping the iodine within the salt despite the effects of the external environment. This breakthrough is great because it definitely suites the need on how to keep the iodine from the salt.

4. What are the issues/difficulties in branding something like salt according to Vishal Dhawan?

                - The difficulty lies on the brand names that confuse the consumers like the “Captain Hook” which actually is an imitation of the original “Captain Cook” and “Tota Salt” for “Tata Salt”.

5. Why is the Annapurna evolution necessary according to Vishal Dhawan?

                - He said that “the number of re-launches is not too frequent in this market” which means, they remain to be the strongest name in the market and that they always gain a market share with each launch.

6. What would the nature of the "differentiator" for Dr. Amitava Pramanik?

                - The nature of the “differentiator” would be the difference in the iodized-salt platform as they would make the iodine level stay as high as possible even if the salt was being stored in the storage area.

7. What is the effect of advertising for the marketing strategy for Annapurna with K15?

                 - It gained great results and even received awards from different organizations adhering their advertisement and immediate recollection of the advertisement’s message was 90% as stated here in the paper.

8. What are the innovations of HLL with regards to transporting salt?

                - Rail Transportation. Rake-sized rail carriages are the ones that carry-on the salts. Salt Buffer Depot is also added to the process of delivering the salts before it reaches the wholesaler and retailers area.

9. What is Project Shakti and what are its goals?

                - It is an entrepreneur development training to operate as rural direct-to-home sales force. Its goals are to create incomes for people at the bottom of the pyramid and for HLL to also gain profit.

10. How would you imagine SANGAM, an "e-tailing program for daily ordering and delivery"? If you were its designer how would you describe it?

                - it would be inefficient because it consumes a lot of time and it won’t be appropriate for delivery and ordering.

11. Project Shakti caters exclusively to men. There have been requests for men to become

Shakit dealers but HLL turned them down. If you were the decision-maker, would you allow men to become Shakti dealers? Why?

                - No. Because women can create a more sustainable relationship with other people and can handle more in terms of public relations. And women can be of lower risk than that of the men in terms of negative insights and doings in business.

12. What is i-Shakti? As an IM student how can you improve i-Shakti?

                - an IT-based version of Shakti. I’d probably create an online interaction between the seller and the buyers to eliminate the time consumed in going door-to-door just for transactions.

13. HLL's would-be competitors decided to have a watch-and-wait policy. If you were a would-be competitor for HLL would you decide to get into HLL's market? Why? How?

                Yes. Because their market would be a great catch. I would create a better and improved way on how to catch the market’s attention and pull them out from HLL.

14. Should HLL keep their K15 technology proprietary? Why?

                - Yes. Because this technology is their competitive advantage over their competitors but then they can distribute its secret and gain an income from the users of their technology.

15. Do you think a program like Project Shakti would succeed in the Philippines? What do you think would be some of the anticipated difficulties?

                - Yes. Difficulties as such in terms of handling the people that would participate would be a problem and the choosing of right people to participate would also be another problem.