MNCs eye frugal innovations for rural market

MNCs are going back to the drawing boards in search of frugal, yet effective, innovations to tap the country's rural markets.

With their traditional markets in the throes of a downturn, blue-chip transnational firms such as GE, P&G, DuPont and Novartis are among those setting the pace in producing tailor-made products for the price sensitive, ethnocentric Indian rural hinterland.

GE's healthcare business, for instance, has been developing low-cost portable diagnostic and imaging equipment to bring down their prices and make for easier logistics, so that they can be introduced in primary health centres and small-town hospitals and clinics. While its portable ultrasounds are already being used in developing regions, in the pipeline are around 50 basic products tailored to suit the needs of rural realities.

P&G is doing the same with the Gillette razor. It realised that the rural consumer did not shave everyday and had little access to running water. So, P&G has innovated on design, and introduced a plastic ejector between the twin blades. It slashed prices as well.

Novartis India, too, has tapped the space rather resourcefully. Under the Arogya Parivar initiative, it follows a decentralised model where the field force is assigned to autonomous cells. The cells, equipped with health educators and supervisors, team up with local health professionals, pharmacy chains and NGOs to address what they call the “patient flow.” Hence, patients are offered integrated solutions to health issues rather than the usual route of selling medicines to health professionals. Products selected for the initiative are typically easy to use, and in small sizes to keep costs low.

While the company initially addressed ailments such as cough, cold, allergies, skin and genital infections, malnutrition, diabetes, intestinal worms, and tuberculosis with their own products, they later expanded to include medicines of partner firms. According to the company, it has covered 33,000 villages in 10 states till date.

DuPont, too, is on the lookout for more products relevant to the rural consumer. “We were on the field with DuPont to look for products in thematic areas such as water and energy. They are now involved in R&D for product design,” reveals Mr Saroj Kumar Mohanta, Partner at the rural marketing and research organisation, MART. The organisation works with companies such as GE, Intel, PepsiCo, Honeywell, Novartis, DuPont and others in the rural space.

“We in India are frugal innovators, our engineers too prove to be much cheaper, so a lot of companies are now coming here to develop low cost products for our market. MART does research for them, helps them identify the specifications, which their R&D teams develop into products. We then do the prototype testing,” says Mr Pradeep Kashyap, CEO, MART.

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