RURAL MARKETING

CASE STUDY
New Product Development: Improved Biomass Stove by Shell
Foundation

Allan Edward G J , D.No: 20PBA116

Yonas Francis Stalin S , D.No: 20PBA118
Raymond C , D.No: 20PBA117
Gowsik Kumar P , D.No: 20PBA125
Shabanaa Azmi M , D.No: 20PBA127
INTRODUCTION
 The Shell Foundation, under its Breathing Space Programme, aimed at a
significant long-term reduction in the incidence of indoor air pollution.

 The two states of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu were identified as the target
markets.

 In collaboration with MART, a research study was conceived covering rural

households for information on their knowledge, attitude, behavior, and practices
towards the biomass stoves in use, the improved biomass stoves being promoted
by government agencies, and indoor air pollution. It also focused on
understanding cultural and social behavior in the kitchen environment.

 The important fact is that Household air pollution from open cooking fire kills
around 4.3 million people a year which is more than HIV, TB and Malaria
combined.
 A technical study was also conducted to study the size of utensils used for
cooking, stove size and the fuel wood used to design a concept product.

 One of the important findings from the study is that black fumes
blackened the cooking utensils and the kitchen walls, which have to been
cleaned and maintained by the household women.

 Mud Stoves were made in the kitchen by women.

 Terracotta stoves were available in market for Rs.50

 Astra Stoves were built by a mason and costed around Rs.125- Rs.150
with the masons fee. It was not portable.

 LPG Stoves were uncomfortable as they are to be standing while cooking.

And it was not affordable either for many.

 The stoves will reduce 17 million tons of CO2 emissions, the equivalent of
taking 1.18 million cars off the road for an entire year.
The Big Idea
The new product design have the following features:
 It should be manufactured and be available commercially in the
market. Quality has to be maintained.

 It should be designed in a way that ensured that households

continued to use their old cooking vessels and continued to cook
sitting on the floor.

 It should be able to use biomass as fuel, since that is most readily

available.
Feedback on cooking experiences with the stove and observations made were
taken together to understand the acceptance of and intent of use for the
concept.
Feedback on the features of the concept stove included:
 The height of the single-burner stove was high and inconvenient. The new
stove should be at least 1–2 inches lower in height.

 The uneven size of the fuel wood used required that the fuel space be
increased. This was a challenge because technically the burning chamber
had to be of a height that enables all the wood to burn with maximum
efficiency and allows all gases to get burnt. This had a bearing on the
smoke emission from the stove.

 The pot support needed to be more stable to balance the utensils. This was
important from the point of safety while cooking.
The Marketing Strategy
 To promote the new concept, the Foundation launched a pilot project in
Karnataka to raise social awareness about the dangers of smoke in the
kitchen and promote simple measures to reduce smoke inside the house in
2008.

 The campaign was a part of a global effort to raise awareness about the
dangers of kitchen smoke in rural India, especially villages with a
population of 5,000–20,000.
 The Shell Foundation has established new distribution and sales networks
to reach rural homes at affordable costs.

 The foundation has signed up a partnership with Envirofit International, a

US not-for-profit organization to design and market a new range of
improved stoves and to find commercial partners to manufacture and
distribute stoves.

 Since unveiling its first line of clean cook stoves in May 2008.

 Envirofit has sold over 100,000 cooking stoves in emerging markets

around the world, with India as its primary focus.

 The objective of the programme is to sell 1,000,000 units in the next five
years.
Learnings
• Adapt, Innovate and Respond to Consumer Preferences:
Shifting from beneficiary driven to Consumer-driven design.

• Centralized Manufacturing Ensures Quality and Creates Local and

Global Jobs: Pioneering the use of centralized local manufacturing for
clean cookstoves,

• Scale at The Right Pace to Maximize Impact: Building a sustainable

cookstove market for low-income consumers requires multi-level
partnerships. Shifting from a B2C model to a B2B model reduced
operating costs by 75 percent and doubled sales.

• To Reach the Last Mile, Behavior Change Needs to Be Incorporated

From Design to delivery: Training female sales agents to sell stoves
demonstrated women could outsell men three to one after completing a
women’s empowerment training program.
https://youtu.be/BMe_gYQiIkw

https://youtu.be/rTpQ0CK7wVM