Tata Tea's Rural Marketing Initiative in U.P

Businessworld points out this week about Tata Tea's unique rural marketing initiative "Gaon Chalo" in U.P which drove Tata Tea's all India share from 18 per cent in January-March 2006 to 21.4 per cent in January-March 2008. In the same period, Hindustan Unilever (HUL), lost its market share from 21.2 per cent to 18.9 per cent. In UP, Tata Tea consolidated its market share from 18.1 per cent to 26.6 per cent, while HUL lost more than 6 per cent from 22.8 per cent ( according to A.C.Nielson Audit). Tata Tea realized that it was not selling in more than 100,000 villages in UP. so Tata Tea for penetrating rural markets decided to partner with NGOs the people with greatest reach among rural villages of U.P. The project has created a completed new channel of distribution with NGO's acting as the first tier and followed by 2 other tiers from villages thus providing a means of funding to NGOs and as a source of steady income to youths who become a distributor at level 2 or 3. The article quotes one of the youth as saying that he sells 1300 Kg of tea per month do read the complete article here