D.Light: SELLING SOLAR TO THE POOR Case Solution And Analysis, HBR Case Study Solution & Analysis of Harvard Case Studies

D.Light: SELLING SOLAR TO THE POOR Case Solution

Psycho-graphic:

Because the organization operated in different regions across the world. The cultural differences greatly influenced the product sale in different regions.
Like in Southeast Asian culture, when a new product was purchased, they used to share with others.
Whereas, the situation was totally different in East Africa, they were reluctant to share about the product they purchased and avoid talking about it.
Such behavioral and cultural values required the evaluation of consumer perception about the product and a strategic marketing approach to bring improvement in brand awareness.

Behavioral

Due to lack of brand awareness and low-income of the households, the consumer loyalty of the people towards the product is relatively low.
Despite the increased sales of the product, the usage of D-light’s lamp is low.
Because the consumer tends to be reluctant to purchase products that are relatively high in cost as compared to their household income.
But, the customers of D-light represented the spending of 5 and 30 percent of their income on the purchase of Kerosene.

Targeting:

The target market of the product mainly included the customers who were the base of the pyramid.
The target market represented relatively low income, illiteracy, and inexperience in purchasing as retail customers.
Based on the population percentage of people in different countries, the target customer base mainly involved the people of Africa and Asia.
Targeting such countries represented a challenge of efficient management of cross-border logistics and cultural differences across regions.

Positioning

According to the Development Program of the United Nations, the provision of products with indoor quality lighting is expected to increase the revenue generation by around 30 percent.
Based on the consumer preferences and needs, the organization can improve its position in the market by offering products with good quality of money.
Current position of the organization is not highly competitive because despite low pricing, the customer base of the organization is limited.
An improved positioning of the organization requires the identification of a distribution channel in each country to create awareness about the product and make it easy for customers to reach.

VRIO Analysis:

An analytical technique - VRIO analysis is primarily used for the evaluation of organizational resources to remain competitive in the market. The evaluation of the resources is based on four factors i.e. valuable, rare, imitable, and organization of the resource. Thus, the resources of that would be analyzed to determine the competitive advantage of the organization is shown in Appendix C, which mainly include the following:

Brand image and awareness.
Creativity and innovation.
Organizational culture.
Financial Stability.
Global presence.
HR management.
Consumer Loyalty.

Alternatives:

Alternative 1 - Social media marketing

The success of a social media marketing campaign is largely based on the campaign itself. Posting just one piece of informative content does not mean the campaign will be successful. There is a need to post many pieces of informative content throughout a course of time to accurately gauge the true effectiveness of the campaign.

Pros:

Creating a social media marketing campaign on a variety of social media sites will allow the organization to easily find people to target the content with.
It will provide the organization with an ability to interact with the audience.
This will allow the organization to engage in conversations and get the audience involved in the campaign by responding to their comments and questions.
Using social media platforms will give the organization with an opportunity to build a following which can be significantly used to market your products and services, which means the people who are your most interested in the products and services will become your customers.
If case of a successful campaign, this could lead to the organization to build a large network of loyal customers.
Social media is also helpful in increasing the awareness of certain products and services. The promotion of website on the social pages will allow the organization to become more popular i.e. a significant increase in brand awareness.
The organization will be able to gain new customers by becoming a member of a social networking site and providing relevant content.
In terms of marketing, the platforms that can be used as social networking websites,include: Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Instagram etc.

Cons:

One of the main disadvantages is that the organization cannot make any changes to the website until your campaign has been running for a number of weeks. This means that the results from the marketing are not as immediate as they would be on a blog or social media website.
It will not allow the organization to reach as many people. Since it takes longer to reach people through the internet, the organization may only receive a percentage of the audience that the company had hoped for.

Alternative 2 - Consumer feedback

There are also many different types of customer satisfaction survey forms. Some of the most common include telephone surveys, mail-in surveys, web-based surveys and the ones that are completed on line. Customer survey forms can be very effective in collecting valuable feedback regarding your products and services.

Pros:

The primary purpose of the form is to help to gather as much feedback as possible about the products and services.
A good customer satisfaction survey form will provide you with detailed statistics about the responses and trends that may indicate a need for further improvement.
Another advantage of customer surveys is that they give you an immediate indication of the demand for a certain product or service. Without any delay, your marketing budget can be increased or decreased accordingly based on the results.
It would also provide the opportunity to obtain useful insight from customers. By using them as a means of marketing research, the organization might be able to uncover the hidden opportunities that might not have been otherwise apparent.
It will also help to create a more personal relationship with their clients and this will increase brand awareness.

Cons:

Customer survey might result in loss of money in case of incomplete survey. This represents the need to collect information from the customer in order to get a reliable analysis.
The customer survey are very important to look at, but they are just temporary problems which can be fixed with the help of some changes and modifications.

Alternative 3 - Contracting with local retailers

One reason to improve relationship with suppliers and distributors is to gain a better understanding of the market. For any company to succeed in today's economic climate, it needs to be able to offer the best product to their customers. It is important to provide them with accurate information about the products and services that they will be selling. A business that can create a good product can increase their customer base. This in turn will allow the company to increase profits.

Pros:

A company that has a good relationship with suppliers will be able to provide more benefits to its customers and business partners.
The company will not only provide better quality, but will also offer more value than the one which does not have a good relationship with its suppliers.
The company will be able to make more profits, which will help it in saving on raw materials that are not used by the company.
It will also bring improvement in the company's performance and their productivity.
Suppliers will be often willing to give discounts and incentives to the companies who work closely with them. This is a great way to attract more clients and to do business with them.
An improved relationship with suppliers include the fact that they are also able to help the company with their marketing activities.
They are able to provide new ideas, strategies on how to make the company more profitable so that it can grow. This helps in increasing their sales and profits.

Cons:

If the organization is not clear about any questions that they have or if the supplier cannot give the organization with required-answers. There will be increased probability of communication issues.
The negotiation might be difficult to think clearly when the organization is new to any type of relationship.
The company might experience issues in establishing and maintaining a solid relationship with their suppliers.

Decision Matrix:

Attributes	Alternative 1	Alternative 2	Alternative 3
Increased sales	6	8	9
Increased market share	5	8	7
Brand awareness	5	7	9
Revenue generation	6	7	7
Customer base	5	8	8
Total Score	27	38	40

Recommendation:

Based on the analysis and the issues faced by the organization, the organization is recommended to consider the options as an alternative strategic approach i.e. conducting a customer survey and social media marketing. This will allow the organization to engage in conversations and get the audience involved in the campaign by responding to their comments and questions, leading the organization towards building a large network of loyal customers. The organization will be able to gain new customers by becoming a member of a social networking site and providing relevant content...................

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D.Light: SELLING SOLAR TO THE POOR Harvard Case Solution & Analysis