As part of an assignment of a course in India Marketing taught by well renowned Prof. Harish Bijoor who is an ace in the field of Market Research and Marketing. Information was complied by personal interviews and three field visits made by the group in the month of February and March 2020 and have tried my best to maintain correctness and credits as much as possible.

1. Great Lakes Institute of Management Chennai
IM Group Project
Group - 5
Disha Ghoshal FT201032 disha.ft201032@greatlakes.edu.in
Arpit Agarwal FT201019 arpit.ft201019@greatlakes.edu.in
Siddharth Kaushik FT202080 siddharth.ft202080@greatlakes.edu.in
Aakash R FT202001 aakash.ft202001@greatlakes.edu.in
Divya Lakshmi G FT204026 divya.ft204026@greatlakes.edu.in
Shirapthi Kaushik NJ FT202073 shirapthi.ft202073@greatlakes.edu.in
Vishnubhotla Sai FT204100 vishnubhotla.ft204100@greatlakes.edu.in
Akshay Kumar FT203012 akshay.ft203012@greatlakes.edu.in

2. Introduction
Tamil Nadu is a state with a population of 7,21,38,958 according to 2011 census of India. Of this,
the urban and rural population are distributed almost equally. The state of Tamil Nadu has 15979
villages distributed among 32 districts.

3. Kadambadi is a village situated in the Tirukalukundram Tehsil of Kancheepuram district in Tamil
Nadu. The village is spread around an area of 1773 acres of land and has a population of 1774
according to 2011 census data but is now over 2000. The other towns nearby are
Tirukalukundram, Mamallapuram, Pudupattinam etc.
The village is further subdivided into Melakuppam and Thoppanampattu. The subdivisions are
majorly based on the caste of the population. While the major sub village consists of people from
higher caste, the minor sub village has people from the SC/ST community.

4. The main sub village operates around the
Agastheeshwarar temple. Lord shiva is the main deity
in the temple. The temple was buried under the rocks
until 2013 when the village people decided to renovate
the temple and conduct Kumbhabhishegam. Now
festivals are conducted twice a year where the whole
village celebrates. Temporary shops are set up by the
farmers and local people around the temple that sells
variety of items like pottery items, agarbatti, Pooja
items etc. They even set up small circuses in the ground
nearby.
The village also has a Government school situated near
the temple. The school has students from class 1 to class 8. According to the headmistress of the
institution, every child in the village are mandatorily sent to school and there are no kids left behind.
Buying behaviour of the people of Kadambadi
In Kadambadi, we went about asking people what they buy, where they buy from and due to
sparseness of the availability of shops and retailers, we realised that it is comparatively easier to
measure what rural consumers buy, where they buy from and how much they buy than in urban
parts of the country. However, understanding why they buy is a difficult thing to gather and what
factors induce them to buy as well.
We tried to find out the factors responsible for different buying behavior of the residents
and how these factors play an important role in their buying decisions. The factors such

5. as family size, product packaging, age, culture, and advertising predominantly affect the
people’s decision making process, whereas the prices are associated to the products they
are buying.
We found out that most of the people either work at Great Lakes or work as labourers in the
nearby Kalpakkam Township. The literacy level is between std. eight to plus two and they work
according to that as helpers or Sodexo employees. In terms of shops we observed that most of
them keep local home-made snacks and there is limited exposure to various products and severe
absence of brands.
We saw that he daily provision stores kept a few groceries like tomatoes and potatoes and other
than that we found out that the major items that accounted for 45-50 percent of their sales were
washing soaps, cleaning materials, toiletries, food and beverages. One kirana shop also had toys
and other products like gift items and clips and make up items. The lady owner of the shop opined
that the growth rate was very significant for certain items like cosmetics and toiletries over the
period of five years.
We also asked her about sanitary napkins and she said that they do not sell pads in the local
shops. We did a bit of laddering there, trying to find out the relevance of sanitary pads in the
Kadambadi context, and after shying away initially, the lady told us that the ladies do use pads but
they get it from the bigger shops and supermarkets in Kalpakkam or Mahabalipuram.
My friend made a unique observation depicted in this picture.
They even sell broken parts of Rubik’s cube which goes on to say that people don't discard their
toys rather they get them repaired even if it is something as small as a Rubik’s cube.
This observation of the consumers being rational and frugal in terms of buying was further
reiterated by certain observations that we made in a school we visited. We got into a long detailed
conversation with the principal of the school and while she gave a brief perspective about the
population spread and occupations across them.
The village as mentioned has a population of about two thousand people which approximately
translates that it is an R4 village that is rapidly moving towards R3. It has a school but lacks other
amenities like daily needs and healthcare which greatly affects their buying behaviour which is

6. mostly sourcing goods and products from either Mahabalipuram or Thirukadikundram which are
bigger more established areas.
The Kadambadi Temple festival that takes place twice a year and it happens to be the main source
of income for the people there. A lot of products, mostly factory manufactured local goods are
sold like pots and utensils, materials required for the worship of the deity and flowers and
garlands that are sold by the residents. The cost of these are higher than the prices during the
normal period still people buy them courtesy the festival.
We observed that ‘Sprite’ had installed life sized coolers to store aerated drinks and we saw more
than ten cartons of Sprite and 7up , in three different sizes both in plastic and glass bottles costing
from Rs. 10 to Rs. 25 to 2 litre bottles which was still less in quantity. We also saw a new product
that is limited to this village and has not surfaced in cities, a 10 rupee Minute Maid grape cola in
use and throw bottles that will be sold during the festive time.
The insights that can be drawn from this are that the people spend more money on items that are a
little above their daily necessities and the companies who have been able to penetrate this market
have found a good base of customers who already to buy new products in the beverage category.
Having said that, we also saw crates of Bovonto, which has already been a popular drink down

7. south, also in small plastic bottles which might mean that actually people already are brand
conscious and there might be a set of people who actually are loyal to a brand, if not we can see
how the new product is received.
All in all we can say that people in Kadambadi live foot to mouth, however the scenario might
change with the youth now having access to technology and automobiles that has made their lives
easier and more accessibility to apps might help generate avenues for them to bring more
structure to commerce and more jobs which might push their aspirations of buying things towards
an urban approach.
Issues Faced by People in Kadambadi
I. Still No Bathrooms: Open Defecation & Open Bathing
The village of Kadambadi has a festival every 6-months for which they fill the pond of the
famous Kadambadi Temple. The people over here use the pond water to bathe and wash clothes.
The reason being infrequent water supply in the village only 2 hours in the morning. Moreover,
barring the school and one-two pucca houses no one has bathrooms/washrooms. As per the Govt.
scheme of Swattch Bharat Abhiyaan(SBA) houses are eligible for the toilet subsidy of INR 15,000
to 20,000 post completion of toilets. Sadly, that’s not the reality. On enquiring from the villagers,
we found some reasons –
a) Some of the most significant obstacles is the capacity of a family to collect the initial funds
required to build the toilets. Based on our initial visits to rural Karnataka, it has emerged
that the actual cost of building a toilet is highly variable and can often surpass Rs 20,000.
b) The refund shall be postponed by a total of six months. People are still paying interest to
money-lenders until then. This makes households unwilling to build toilets.
c) Urban slums are characterized by congested lanes with inadequate light and ventilation and
single-room wall-to-wall houses per household. Fourty-five per cent of households in urban
slums have single quarters, according to census 2011. It is apparent that a household does
not have the spare room available to build a toilet, or maybe too little.
d) SBA focuses mainly on the building of toilets, not the IEC (Information, Education and
Communication) operations. Fifteen per cent of the fund in the budget was spent on IEC
activities in the earlier Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan system but it was reduced to eight per cent
under SBA.
Although some of the obstacles (such as enhancing information dissemination) are relatively easier
to overcome, space limitations can be the most difficult. Removing these initial obstacles could
increase access to sanitation at household level.
II. Casteism Issue
As mentioned earlier, casteism is rampant in the village of Kadambadi. The village is separated
into two groups of Upper Caste and Lower Caste i.e. SC/ST Population. The upper caste part of
the village is much more affluent than the lower cast village.

8. For thousands of years Dalits — formerly known as Untouchables — Have been forbidden from
drinking at the identical wells, worshiping at the identical temples, or maybe wearing shoes within
the presence of upper castes. Modern laws against this type of discrimination are rarely
implemented, and poverty and violence still compel Dalits to try and do the dirty work of the
country.
In Kadambadi, the SC/ST people can’t enter the main village. They are denied from buying
fruits and vegetables/ groceries from the one shop present in the main village. Moreover, they can’t
even use the seasonal pond for drinking and bathing purposes. If any of the above-mentioned
activities are carried out then it results in dire consequences like humiliation, chasing down
eventually leading to beating/death.
III. No Vegetable/Fruits Market
In Kadmabadi, there was only one grocery shop that was catering to needs of people. This place
was also selling some basic vegetables like onion, potatoes, green chilli and garlic. The vegetables
were not as fresh as they should be. Moreover, the villagers rely on nearby big mandis like
Kalpakkam/Anupuram to purchase vegetables.
There is no storage facility or storage catchment area to store vegetables. In the absence of
markets, there’s no trade/commerce in the region. The rural life is largely dependent on agriculture
produce. These is no excess income, limited employment opportunities, it leads to self-
sustainability, can provide food for livestock. The other related industries surrounding this also get
impacted. For example, packaging industry for selling of goods and veggies.
IV. No Banks/No Taluk Hospitals nor Pharmacies
There are no banks, post offices or clinics in the Kadambadi village. The economy is very much
still cash-governed or credit-based. The nearest bank available to them is in Mahabalipuram around
7 KM away. This problem gets compounded by the fact that there are only three designated TNSTC
bus that operates in the villages. They come at 9AM, 12PM and 3PM. This greatly limits their
movement. Moreover, they are not even direct bus, the villagers have to take an interchange
bus/auto from the main road to reach the bank/hospital. This added Transactional Cost deters them
from taking on the new banking services. Same is the case with pharmacy.
The reason for this banking exclusion is that the banks are profit making organization and they
don’t get much business from these low-income group of people who don’t even deposit much. The
problem of NPA also plagues these regions, hence, not in business interest to operate there. In
addition to this, lack of infrastructure and amenities both for banks and employees deter them.
Same is the case with hospitals and pharmacies – lack of infrastructure, and initiative in rural people
to consult to doctor prevents them from setting up branches.

9. Possible solutions to the issues
Tremendous problems arise in terms of sanitation and proper waste management because
of the high rates open defecation. Based on the interviews conducted in the village people, most of
the households do not have a restroom and people empty their bowels in open areas. Lack of
government support and the poverty status are the main reason for open defecation. This problem
can only be solved by ensuring that there are enough toilets. Local organizations such as NGOs
should step in to help solving the issue. Pit latrines can be constructed and other toilet options such
as compost toilets can be constructed in order to deal the problem of lacking sewer systems. People
should be educated about the incentives offered by the government and proper awareness has to
create among the people regarding the effects on human health and environmental effects. People
should know that various subsidies are being provided by the government for people to build their
own toilets and also for putting up public toilets at strategic locations.
Casteism is one of the major problem prevalent in India and it is intense in the rural areas.
The biggest remedy to casteism is creating awareness and proper knowledge about caste. Proper
education must be provided to each and every individual of the caste regarding casteism. Proper
precautions need to be taken for the minimum use of the term caste. Most importantly younger
generations should be educated well to give least important to caste. Economic gap between the
upper cast and lower cast is the main reason for widening of the social distance and development
of casteism.
People in Kadambadi do not have refrigerator in their households and they buy vegetables
on a daily basis. Only one or two shops sold vegetables to the people in the village. On other times
people had to go to nearby towns to get them. This can be solved by having a daily market or even
a weekly market for a particular amount of time wherein people can make purchases. Having a
market provides people to buy a wide variety of products without hassle.
Presence of hospitals, banks or pharmacies help in boosting the economical standards of
village. Government and NGOs should provide initiatives by providing them proper infrastructure
for having these facilities. Also, awareness can be created among the people about the availabilities
of various mobile apps related to financial aids and other medical related uses.

10. Business Model
Traditional Model
There will be lot of wastage in the traditional model and huge clout of mediators. Farmers are
losing because of this and many of the villages are lacking fresh vegetables even though the
production is happening in neighboring villages.
The company engaged in marketing and supply chain operations of fruits and vegetables through
a partnership with farmers and vendors. At the warehouse, the vendor will coordinate with the
farmer for adequate supply and demand will be managed in the whole process.

11. Our Model
Phase -1:
Meeting Farmer for supply and type of vegetable they can grow and quantity they can supply.Set
up weekly mandi at the nearby ground and promote of using fresh vegetables.
Phase -2:
Set up of Refrigerated warehouse as the hub and makes all supply reach the center through
various vendors. Create a point of sale for vendors through the app. Deal with a local restaurant to
supply of raw vegetables

12. Phase -3:
Set up packed vegetables set up for nearby cities and villages to meet order from the app. Better
customer satisfaction and high turnover ratio from both vendors as well as farmers.
What is Weekly Bazaar?
A weekly bazaar is one that is held once a week and it can include a variety of things ranging
from foods and vegetables to cloth to foot-wears and any general utility products. The concept is
to hold a market for once a week. The shop is put in the morning and removed later in the
evening. Meaning the shop is not bought on a permanent basis and that is what helps in reducing
the cost. Not every village has a weekly bazaar.
Business Plan-
We are planning to set a weekly bazaar there as this village does not have one.
1) Getting Permission- First step is that we need to get permission from the village
panchayat or the local authorities to set up a weekly bazaar.
2) Market Analysis – We analysed the market thoroughly and found that there is no weekly
bazaar available. People generally buy from local vendors who charge them whatever they want
depending on the supply of the products.
3) Customer analysis- The customers are mostly local village people who are not earning
very high and irked by local vendors charging them extra money and also it becomes difficult for
them to buy more than a certain limit of vegetables. They are very price sensitive and are looking
for cheap products with acceptable quality.
4) Sales and Marketing – Since it’s a village and people are mostly irked by local vendors
charging them a bit higher price than the normal and these people are highly price sensitive we
will market our products as cheap and affordable at the best quality that can be offered at such a
price.
5) Competitive Analysis – As the village does not have any weekly bazaar available at
present and they want one so we can actually have a first mover advantage here.
6) Products for Bazaar- We are planning to sell fruits and vegetables. We are limiting the
offerings in the beginning to get a feel of market and then we gradually plan to increase the
offerings slowly.
7) Locating Place- We have located a place where there is enough space available. It’s a
small piece of land but is sufficient enough to sell the products that we are planning to sell.
8) Supply chain – We are planning to source the vegetables and fruits from a nearby place
and then sell it here. Since the sourcing is going to be in bulk we are going to negotiate on the
price heavily. The reason for this is that if we are unable to sell some products in the market that

13. particular day we plan to sell the same the next day in a different market nearby to reduce
pilferage and optimize the cost.
9) Initial Setup cost – The set up cost will include cost of setting up the shop. Since the shop
is removed the same day in the evening so the material can be recycled. The cost includes leasing
cost, raw materials cost, cost of supply chain and the vehicle cost, and cost to hire around 2
employees.
10) Supplying raw materials to the shop – To minimize cost on this we are planning to
either use a bullock cart or solar powered vehicle so that we can save cost on vehicle maintenance
as well as fuel cost. Also there are a few people who come from the nearby place where we are
buying the material to Kadambadi village, so we are consider paying them some extra
Future Scope and Expansion
The demand-supply matching will be the perfect tandem for this business plan. Once the
customer base is formed, the next thing is to expand it to another village market. The technology-
enabled factor will further narrow down the actual requirement of each and every customer. We
will work in a hub and spoke model, by having one warehouse for every 5 villages as a hub and
one day one village as a spoke model. We will work in a Public-private partnership model
through the local government for land to set up market. The surplus is sold to nearby restaurants
and other city vendors. To reduce wastage vegetable processing units will be added in the future.