Internationalization: Unilever in India by ozumcan demir

UNILEVER IN INDIA

ID4050 - Internationalization Assignment 1-4 Andrea Pallarès Roca 4269802 Özümcan Demir 4270363 Muhammet Ramoglu 4273362 Dung Ly 1527525

Table of contents Introduction 5 Assignment 1 7 Assignment 2 17 Assignment 3 29 Assignment 4 39 Conclusion 47 References 48

Introduction One of the aims of this course is to gain understanding about other cultures and behaviours in our working environment. By choosing a company in a certain country that we can fictively work for throughout different assignments, we gain insights in the organization structures and their underlying cultural background. For this course we have decided to choose the company Unilever. Unilever is an international fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) organization, which makes the company an interesting subject; food and other FMCG are highly sensitive to culture. We have chosen a country that the whole team was interested in, but which was not close to any of our own nationalities. This resulted in our choice of India.

The goal of the third assignment is to come up with objectives for a new project of Unilever in India that will function as a base for the fourth and final assignment. We have looked at the India’s socio-economical situation and its position compared to its fast growing neighbour China and the USA. We have chosen these two countries since we think that China and the USA are two of India’s biggest global competitors. Especially China is interesting since it has been more or less a ‘big brother’ to India, having gone through quite similar developments (both being large developing Asian countries that are highly populated), the difference being that China has always been one step ahead. In the fourth and final assignment we are presenting the concept that we have made to fulfil the objectives as mentioned in assignment three. We will first critically discuss a selection of papers about the BOP method that were provided by this course. Then we explore how large India’s BOP market is by looking at the previously collected data. We already explain India’s main problems in assignment three and therefore use the formulated objective from that assignment as a starting point for our concept in assignment four. We will give a descrpition of a solution regarding this objective and explain how this product will contribute to quality of life in India’s BOP market.

The first report will dig into Indian customs, values and behaviour and sets the stage not just for the first assignment, but also for assignments two, three and four. We first compare India’s Hofstede cultural survey scores with our own, and then look for the cultural differences underlying those scores. Next, we look at Indian consumer behaviour in the FMCG industry, and look at what Unilever has already achieved in this particular country and industry. Finally, we propose an organization structure for a new product development team in India. Our aim of the second assignment is to come up with recommendations on the Unilever website. We will look back at Hofstede’s cultural dimensions about India, as mentioned in the first assignment, and indicate what it means for the lay-out and usability of Indian websites. Furthermore, we will have a look at other international organizations and see how they have adjusted their websites to different cultures. We compare Unilever with Sony, Philips, Shell and local Indian websites to see what Unilever can learn (or should not learn) from them. The second assignment concludes with recommendations for Unilever’s homepage, brands page and ‘About us’ page.

ASSIGNMENT 1

Hofstede cultural survey SCORES OF THE TEAM Each person in our team did the Hofstede Cultural Survey. The results are shown below in table 1. Even though our team members come from different countries, many scores turn out to be quite close to each other. We have taken the mean of each cultural dimension (shown in the ‘overall’ row) and compared these to the Indian scores. We will also give our own explanations of why our scores might differ from the country we have lived and grown up in (Turkey, Spain and the Netherlands).

PDI

IDV

MAS

UAI

LTO

PDI

IDV

MAS

UAI

LTO

Muhammet (Turkey)

Turkey

Andrea (Spain)

Spain

Dung (Netherlands)

Netherlands

Özümcan (Turkey)

Overall

India

Table 2: Hofstede’s Cultural Survey scores of all team members’ countries.

Table 1: Hofstede’s Cultural Survey scores of all team members, compared with India.

HOFSTEDE CULTURAL SCORES FOR INDIA Scores of India in Hofstede’s test strongly relate with Indian culture, lifestyle and society. We will give a description of what these scores mean and their connection with India’s culture. POWER DISTANCE - 77 India has quite a high score on this cultural dimension. It means there is a big gap between workers and boss. In other words, they prefer a vertical structure and superiors in the organization tend to have all the power. Employees have to be functional and loyal to their managers and it is expected that they do their jobs without questioning. Hierarchy is very important in these kinds of countries. To sum up, power is not distributed equally in organizations (Hofstede, 1991).

INDIVIDUALISM - 48 When the score is high in individualism it means society is living more individually than collectively. If the score is low, family or group goals tend to be more important than personal goals and people have a responsibility towards others (Hofstede, 1991). 48 points is slightly lower than the central midpoint of the scale and therefore makes the society collective. The main reason of the low individualism can be related with family relationships in India. According to Sinha (1993), three generations in one family tend to live together in one house. The oldest male member is the head of the family and makes the critical decisions (Facts About India, 2011). Organizations also have this family structure and you are expected to take care of others, be loyal and respect the decisions of your manager. People may have some problems with speaking up their minds out loud in public.

The caste system is one of the biggest demonstrations of power distance in India. They have five different classes in the caste system, namely: Brahmin (priests), Kshatriyas (warriors), Vaishyas (traders), Shudras (workmen) and Dalits (untouchables). All of them have a clear definition except Dalits. These people are called untouchables because they clean streets, take care of animals and dead people and take care of other things that are seen as the worst and most dirty jobs. This gives a bit of an idea about how big the difference is between different classes in the society.

The team’s individualism scores are twelve points higher than India’s. This is again due to the western culture where individual growth and development are important values. This is also illustrated by the fact that children move out of their parents’ house when they are ready to take care of themselves, instead of remaining in one house for generations to take care of each other.

There is a remarkable difference between the team’s score and the Indian score of more than thirty points. This could be explained by the team members growing up in a mostly western culture where values of equality and freedom are deemed more important than hierarchy.

MASCULINITY - 56 A high score in masculinity defines a society that cares about success in a very competitive environment. The main difference between masculine and feminine countries is that one puts priority at becoming successful and other prioritizes life quality and care. (Hofstede, 1991).

Compared to India, our western culture has a relatively high uncertainty avoidance score (higher by 24 points). People like things to go as planned (time is money) and tasks should be properly done. This is illustrated by some companies investing in the education and training of their employees, expecting a better job performance in return over a longer period.

This score shows India has a moderately masculine society. In the ancient India women and men were both equal (Mishra, 2006), but it changed during the medieval era; society became more masculine due to the Muslims conquest between 13th and 16th centuries. In its history India has inclined both towards femininity and masculinity in different periods and as a result India has now a modestly masculine society.

LONG TERM ORIENTATION - 61 The long term orientation term is used to define how people perceive time. Can they do multitasking or can they do only one thing at a time? Is time ever changing, without a beginning or an end or is time linear to them and less flexible? The relatively high score of India shows that they can manage different task at the same time. There are no time blocks between different activities and things such as meetings or project deadline are more flexible. Hinduism and Buddhism have exerted some effects on the perception of time due to the emphasis on rebirth after death. The cycle of life can be given as a clear demonstration of time notion in India.

The team’s masculity score is lower than India’s score by 16 points. Western culture shows a lower level of masculinity for example through job functions that are not clearly divided between men and women. There are both men and women working in high as well as low functions in organizations. You can also see women work as engineers and men working in the health sectors.

In western culture however, people tend to be more inflexible with appointments and deadlines. Again, time is money, and people like to finish one task before starting another. The team’s long time orientation score was higher than India’s by 18 points.

UNCERTAINTY AVOIDANCE - 40 Uncertainty avoidance shows how people are afraid of unknown things in the future. Are they willing to take risks or do they want make sure everything goes as planned? India has a slightly low score, which means that they do not try to control their future too much. Moreover, they are not too scared of making mistakes. In India, people exert low uncertainty avoidance and as a consequence of this, it is normal to rearrange meetings and deadlines. There is always a “somehow we will do it” and the ability to “adjust” in business discussions. This can also be related to Indian people’s attribute that they do not like to say no. Perfection is not high on the list; there is always an opportunity to rearrange things. Besides, failure is not a discouraging factor for business people.

Individual scores vs countries MUHAMMET - TURKEY “My scores differ a little bit with scores of Turkey. The overview of scores shows that my power distance and uncertainty avoidance scores are lower than Turkey’s, the individualism score is higher and there is not too much difference in the masculinity score. The main reasons of these differences are probably the social environment that I grew up in and the social and political opinions that I formed. When looking at power distance my score (40) is lower than my country’s (66). I do not believe that a very strict hierarchy is useful, neither in the working environment nor in society. The society that I grew up in was a modern and educated environment. It might explain why I have higher Individualism score (65) than the score of Turkey (37). The score is also affected by my personality; I like to spend my time alone. The Uncertainty avoidance score (85) is not as high as the score of Turkey (85) but I think this might be due to the fact that the scores are slightly outdated, if we consider these tests are done many years ago. 85 is too high for the UAI score of Turkey, in my opinion.”

DUNG - NETHERLANDS “My personal scores are slightly different from the Dutch scores, especially regarding power distance (Dutch – 38, personal score – 50), individualism (Dutch – 80, personal score– 65) and masculinity (Dutch – 14, personal score– 40). I think this can be explained by me being raised in an Asian household. My parents are Vietnamese and I’ve been raised bilingually, experiencing the Vietnamese culture at home and the Dutch culture outside of home; at school, at work and with all my friends. Even though I mostly felt like a Dutch person during my teens (with the necessary struggles with my parents) my values have apparently still been affected by Asian influences, since the Vietnam scores are typically higher for power distance (70), lower for individualism (20) and higher for masculinity (40). My scores are not close to those of Vietnam either (except for masculinity) but they have found a nice way somewhere inbetween both cultures. ANDREA - SPAIN My scores are very close to the standard Spanish person ones with the only small difference that in Uncertainty avoidance I got 11 points less. People in Spain like to have rules for everything as changes cause stress and they tend to think and plan a lot about the future. I think I scored less because of my personality, as I am somehow carefree and tend to not plan everything as much as Spanish people do.

ÖZÜMCAN - TURKEY “Compared to the score of Turkey, which can be classified as high (66), I have a low power distance score (35). The reason might be, being raised by educated parents in an environment where every individual has the same level of importance. Even when I was a child, they were asking my opinion before deciding important stuff for the family. I think my family structure affected my perception of authority. Unlike the lower individualism score of Turkey (37), I have a higher score (60). I think it is because I travelled abroad a lot and finally studying in The Netherlands. My score for masculinity is quite close to the score of Turkey. Turkey has high uncertainty avoidance score according to Hofstede; however, Turkey is a country where people are more relax and not afraid of making mistakes. I think my score (55) is more realistic for Turkish people since 85 is way too high for it.”

Unilever Global

Consumer behaviour in India India is a complex country with a large gap between the rich and the poor, rural India and urban India. Rural India holds three times as many people as urban India but only accounts for approximately 50% of the Indian FMCG market (Rajan, 2007). These big differences result in large varieties in consumer behaviors. According to a research conducted by Shukla and Devi (2010), consumers in India have given more importance on their culture, tradition and values nowadays. Any company who wants to enter Indian market should be aware of that fact and modify their products accordingly. Another interesting finding is that price is not such an important criteria as it was before. People are willing to pay more money for the products that offer a more valuable experience to them. They wonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t hesitate using credit cards or taking loans for an expensive purchase. Even though people tend to buy products according to its features rather than its brand name, local brands tend to be more successful than the globally known brands. However, among young consumers a western trend has started to become popular which results in the widely accepted foreign brands. Eco-friendly products are another growing trend in India. People prefer healthy products, which affects the marketing decisions and packaging design of companies. The companies emphasizing the healthy and eco friendly aspect of their products are more successful in the Indian market. In the past, all the purchase decisions were made by men but today there are more working women, which has resulted in more active participation of women in purchase decisions.

Unilever Unilever is an Anglo-Dutch multinational consumer goods company founded in 1930 by the merger of the British soap maker Lever Brothers and the Dutch margarine producer Margarine Unie. It makes and sells products for around 1.600 brand names in more than 190 countries, generating sales of €51 billion in 2012. Furthermore, the company employs more than 173.000 people. Among the biggest selling Unilever brands are Aviance, Axe/Lynx, Ben&Jerry’s, Calvin Klein fragrances, Dove, Flor/Becel, Heartbrand, Hellmann’s, Knorr, Lipton, Lux/Radox, Magnum, Omo/Surf, Rexona/Sure, Sunsilk, Toni&Guy, TRESemmé, VO5 and Wish-Bone. In September 1999 Unilever announced its intention to focus on fewer, stronger brands to promote faster growth. This strategy is known as ‘The Path to Growth’ and involves whittling the company’s brands down to 400 to accelerate top line growth and step up the rate of margin improvement in five years time. Unilever’s mission statement is ‘meeting the everyday needs of people everywhere’, and a multinational company definitely has a huge and expanding global reach. To make sure the brand names do not go unnoticed, Unilever spends huge amounts of money on marketing and advertising and it is considered to be the world’s number one advertiser. Like any large company Unilever is structured under very strong list of values, including respect for human rights, no forced of compulsory labor, no use of child labor and right of employees to freedom of association. Concerning the value chain Unilever is also very aware in reducing their environmental impact.

Unilever and Fast Moving Consumer Goods The values of Unilever have also become apparent in their Indian subsidiary, Hindustan Lever Ltd (HLL). HLL has implemented strategies in rural India with awareness and education programs while at the same time broadening their market due to this increase of awareness (e.g. about necessary hygiene and health). Here, Unilever shows that â&#x20AC;&#x153;selling to the poor can contribute to poverty alleviationâ&#x20AC;? (Rajan, 2007).

Not all characteristics can be applied to the FMCG market in rural India. Many competitor products fail to reach rural India due to the low level of accessibility. Hindustan Lever has innovated its distribution network in a way that has enabled their products to reach areas where their competitors have not. This reduces the level of competition in those areas and also limits the bargaining power of consumers and shops, since their range of product choice is also a lot smaller.

How did Unilever do this? India can be seen as a subsistence economy with 80% of its population living on less than two dollars a day. Nearly 800,000 Indians live in rural India; consisting of small, badly accessible villages and hamlets. Rajan (2007) points out that for these types of economies, a different approach is needed in order to successfully handle the consumer goods business. As opposed to the durable or luxury products market, demand for products in the FMCG industry is still high even for people with a lower income. However, people in these remote areas most often do not have access to branded consumer products like the ones from Unilever.

Consumer behaviour is also a lot more predictable due to the lower incomes and them being paid by the day. This results in the posession of only small amounts of money which makes it hard for consumers to buy larger product quantities of 30 usages or more (which is often the case with laundry detergent, shampoo, etc). Consumers only have the choice to buy what is made available to them. This is why Hindustan Lever has innovated its packaging, making it possible for consumers to buy single-serve-sachets instead of the large quantity packs (Rajan, 2007).

Therefore, assuring availability and awareness of products in the rural areas can make the big difference in sales and turnover, as opposed to the fighting for shelf space in the big cities where all other brands are. Achieving availability and awareness forms a challenge due to the lack of accessibility, few means of communication and low levels of literacy of the rural areas.

Hindustan Lever has generated its own local distribution by educating and training female entrepreneurs in villages. Almost 80,000 entrepreneurs, including 48,000 women, in over 135,000 villages across India have now joined the organizationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s rural selling operation, Shakti. This has increased the awareness and sales of HLL products, assuring that the products sold by a Shakti are real and not from an imitator brand, but has also improved the local quality of life by generating awareness about hygiene and health.

Usually, the FMCG industry is characterized by:

Unpredictable consumer behavior. (Datta, 1996) Product lines are easy to imitate; there are many (cheaper) imitators Retailer power is high, fight for shelf space

Short product life cycles, shorter time to market (Nijssen et al, 1995) High level of competitors Improved product versions tend to cannibalize current sales by differentiating supply rather than addressing new needs. (Green and Krieger, 1987)

Workflow For a new product development team for Unilever in India we propose a combination of a product-focused and a market-focuses structure (Lehmann & Winer, 2002), as depicted in figure 1. The product focused structure is a clear hierarchical structure that sets clear boundaries between different functions and responsibilities. “The one responsible for the product’s success is the product manager and no one else”. Since the two markets, i.e. rural and urban, react in such different ways to products and show large differences in competition and accessibility, two different strategies are applied to these markets. Such an example is shown by the large quantity packs available for urban areas as opposed to single-use sachets in rural areas. Separate marketing and customer support is needed whereas product development for both markets can run in parrallel, since they are the same products, but applied differently for the two markets. According to Hoecklin (1994), countries with a high power distance and low uncertainty avoidance score tend to think of organizations as traditional families. “The most likely coordination and control mechanism for the family is a standardization of work processes by specifying the contents of work; who does the chores.” Lehmann and Winer (2002) stated that one of the downsides of the product-focused structure are managers showing shortsighted behavior, for instance in reaching quarterly goals and tools. However, this might be desirable for the ‘family organizations’ within this context since tasks for the short term are usually more concrete than long term goals. Loyalty and hard work will be rewarded with protection (physically and economically) by the ‘patriarch’ and the organization (Hoecklin, 1994). We must note that even though tasks should be clear and roles clearly defined, activities can (and should) still be structured in a way that allows space for flexibility due to the long term orientation and the ‘somehow we will do it’ attitude of Indian culture.

Marketing research

Support

Manager rural market Manager product A

Manager product B

Manager product C

Manager product A

Manager product B

Manager product C

General manager

Manager urban market Marketing research Figure 1: Combination of a product-focused and market-focused organization structure (Lehmann & Winer, 2002).

Support

ASSIGNMENT 2

Website criteria Based on the Hofstede’s cultural survey scores and literature we have established some website criteria for Hindustan Lever. Recommendations will be made based on these criteria.

INDIVIDUALISM Usually high context countries are collectivists. Cultures prioritize group welfare over the goals of the individual. The family’s history often has an influence on the way people see an individual, whereas personal accomplishments will play a minor role (Würtz, 2005). Thus, in a website we expect to find images of socialpolitical achievements. We expect to find pictures not of individuals using products by themselves but products used by a group of people. The imagery chosen on HC websites will reflect collectivist values, such as family values (Würtz, 2005) and traditional and historic themes. It will emphasize on experience and wisdom rather than on innovation and youth.

HIGH CONTEXT India is a country with high context (HC) communication. Information is most of the times expressed not by words but with para-verbal cues and behaviour. HC communication draws on physical aspects as well as the time and situation in which the communication takes place, not to mention the relationship between the interlocutors (Würtz, 2005). Gudykunst et al. (1996) identified HC communication to be indirect, ambiguous, maintaining of harmony, reserved and understated.

On a commercial website the emphasis won’t lie on the visitor of the webpage but on the goal of the company; for instance focusing on the official slogans of the home page. Individualism and collectivism also have their influence on the consumption of different media such as newspapers, televisions and websites, since most newspapers and websites are read by only one individual at a time, whereas TV may be watched and listened to by a whole family or other type of group (Hermeking, 2005).

POWER DISTANCE High context countries tend to have a high power distance (PD) score which means that ranking and status are perceived as very important. It also means that power is distributed unequally within the society. It influences some aspects of user-interface and web design. In a high PD website we will rather find strong axial symmetry and highly structured access to information frequently organised regarding social roles. Besides, the websites’ navigation is supposed to be parallel: the sites are expected to be diverse and not transparent. The user will have to look for the information as it can be hidden underneath other information on the same page or on other pages. This implies the presence of many sidebars and menus and the possibility of the opening of new browser windows for each new page, which may frequently include restrictions and barriers on users with severe error messages. The big amount of links promote an exploratory approach to navigation on the website. Concerning the topic it probably focuses on success of leaders, monumental things and buildings as HC countries tend to exhibit tall hierarchies.

MASCULINITY India has a moderately masculine society. Even though it is mildly above the mid range in Hofstede’s score, India is actually very masculine in terms of visual display of success and power. While designing, the Web designer will have to take into account traditional gender, family and age distinctions instead of blurring these characteristics. Attention will be attracted by games, competitions, graphics, sounds and animations rather than poetry or visual aesthetics. Moreover, navigation will be oriented towards exploration and control.

CRITERIA SUMMARY

UNCERTAINTY AVOIDANCE When we face a country with a low score in uncertainty avoidance (UA) like India, the culture tends to be less expressive and less openly anxious. People behave quietly without showing aggression or strong emotions (Marcus & Gould 2001). In user-interface and Web design, low-UA cultures would emphasize complexity and less control in navigation. As previously mentioned, the user will encounter maximum content and choices. Besides, it is not only likely to find more imagery, animations, music and sound effects but also more colors and differences between typographies. LONG TERM ORIENTATION India has a long-term time orientation culture.Time is not linear, and thus not as important as to western societies that score typically lower on this dimension (Hofstede, 1991). In this regard, concerning the aspects of user-interface design Indians will behave as more patient users. For example, they would probably wait longer for an animation to load since time is not a problem in achieving results and goals. CULTURAL MARKERS Results from a study carried out by Sun (2001) suggest that it is beneficial to include cultural markers on websites. These are“interface design elements and features that are prevalent, and possibly preferred, within a particular cultural group” (Barber & Badre, 1998). This will help visitors feel more familiar and comfortable with the website and manage their ‘cultural shock’ when entering the website. They increase the usability of the interface and create “a virtual landscape with its own landmarks where users feel at home.” This includes not only the website style such as the use of colours, either a lot of text or a lot of images and the website infrastructure, but also the use of recognizable images such as those of familiar landmarks and of people dressed according to the culture.

HIGH CONTEXT

Information is communicated by para- verbal cues. Indirect and ambiguous communication. Many and large images and little text.

POWER DISTANCE

Exhibit hierarchy. Focus on success of leaders. Strongly axial symmetry, highly structured information.

INDIVIDUALISM

Exhibit collectivist values such as family and socio-political achievements. Emphasize experience and wisdom, not innovation and youth. Webpage is designed to be read by multiple people in front of one screen.

MASCULINITY

Take into account traditional gender, family and age distinctions. Display success and power. Grab attention by using games, competitions, sounds and animations.

UNCERTAINTY AVOIDANCE

Emphasize complexity, maximize content and choices. Many colors and different typographies.

LONG TERM ORIENTATION

Not a big problem if the website needs a bit more time to load.

CULTURAL MARKERS

Use cultural markers (e.g. familiar landmarks and people) to make the website visitors feel comfortable and at home.

Table 3: A summary of the Hindustan Lever website criteria in India.

International websites We have chosen three other international companies, namely Shell, Philips and Sony, to compare with Hindustan Leverâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s website. The main reason for this comparison is that they are all strong, global companies within their industries and they all have their own website adapted for the countries in which they are present, including The Netherlands and India.

PHILIPS The Philips websites in figure 4 are somewhat confusing, since they seem to have made the Dutch and Indian website in exactly the opposite way. The Indian website seems to be more suitable for the Netherlands, with its clinical look and textual descriptions, whereas the Dutch website looks more suitable for India, with its short description, animations and vibrant colours. Both websites look quite western because of the displays of solely cocasian people. Philips could have clearly made more use of cultural markers. The only thing that seems to acknowledge Indian culture on the Indian website are the images of a seemingly successful businessman (masculinity) and couple using a mobile phone together (collectivism).

SONY When looking at other international organizations apart from Unilever, we can see that Sony is a clear example of a company that has adapted its websites to cultures quite radically. Figure 2 shows an example of the Chinese website (left) and the Dutch website (right). The websites are clearly moving from a very high context style (China) towards a very low context style (Europe). The Chinese website closes in on a person and seems to communicate product experience through imagery, whereas the Dutch website focuses on concrete information display and the products themselves. SHELL At first glance Shell has quite similar websites all over the world. The left image in figure 3 shows the New Zealand website, the right shows the Chinese website. All images are the same size, the lay-out is identical and the amount of text is more or less the same. However, Shell has paid attention to cultural markers. The Chinese homepage displays a Chinese group of people (also exhibiting collectivism) and New Zealand homepage displays western farming vehicles and landscaping methods - focusing directly on the functionality of Shell products - without showing any people.

Mexico

New Zealand

NewIndia Zealand

China

national Websites Figure 2: Sony websites for China and the Netherlands

Figure 3: Shell websites for New Zealand and China.

Figure 4: The mobile phone section of the Dutch and Indian Philips website.

Local websites Figure 5, 6 and 7 display Indian (left) and Dutch (right) governmental, university and newspaper websites, respectively. Overall, the Dutch websites look quite clean, whereas the Indian websites are more crowded, colourful, with many links, typefaces and borders. Striking is that all three types of websites don’t show a big difference in the amount and size of images. It almost seems like the Dutch use larger, more profound images while you would expect it more from high context India. The university websites show a clear difference in power distance; Delhi University has images of the teachers and the Vice Chancellor in the top, with images of students underneath. One image shows how the older people teach the younger ones. TU Eindhoven shows a student very prominently in the top banner and

teachers are nowhere to be seen. Furthermore, at the Delhi University website there are many articles and interviews that emphasize status, such as “Vice Chancellor’s interview on CNN-IBN”, “Walk the talk with Vice Chancellor of Delhi University” and “Letter signed by highly distinguished faculty of the university”. The Indian websites seem to emphasize links a lot more than the Dutch websites. They are most of the times recognizably blue and invite you to click and move on to other pages. The Dutch websites show links in many different ways, as titles, tabs or simply as text. You will sometimes only recognize it as a link once you move over the spot with your mouse. The obvious presence of many links on the Indian websites encourage an exploratory approach and tell users to ‘dig into the website’.

Government Government

Figure 5: Governmental websites of India (left) and the Netherlands (right).

Newspaper23 Newspaper

University NewspaperNewspaper

Government

Figure 6: University of Delhi website (left) and University of Technology Eindhoven website (right).

Government Figure 7: Newspaper websites of Manorama India (left) and the Dutch Algemeen Dagblad (right).

Newspaper 24

The Unilever website Unilever is a huge multinational consumer goods company and its website is adapted for 104 different countries. Despite this fact, its structure is always the same. All the side bars and menus are set equally and most of the time also the pictures are similar, regardless of the cultural differences that exist between countries.

While analyzing the site we notice that the basic structure is typical from a low context communication culture. An explanation for its reason was given by WĂźrtz stating that it seems that HC cultures might have grown accustomed to the way in which websites are designed in Western societies and adopted many of the same functional menu structures before exploring how communication on the Web can be reconfigured to conform to HC communication patterns.

Comparing Unilever global website to the Hindustan one, we spot that the latter is a bit more colorful and more people appear in the pictures. However, as mentioned before, the difference is very subtle.

Figure 8: The global (left) and Indian (right) Unilver â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;about usâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; page.

Recommendations on the new webpage GENERAL CHANGES Considering the criteria listed above, some changes in the website design are suggested. Existing website already have axial symmetry and parallel menu bar. Submenus are hidden under the buttons which also support the high power distance of Indian culture. Without changing the main structure, the working area is extended in order to give enough room for larger images. The font was Calibri, which was quite serious and boring. Meiryo is chosen as the new font due to its curved structure and ease of read. Extended work area allowed us to apply bigger sizes in text which contributes to reading easily.

BRANDS PAGE All the brands, except the first one was small and at the same size. We used larger images besides small ones in order to create more contrast and get more attention. Existing page has a different colors for different product categories. The colour coding was already quite suitable for Indian users. Therefore, the shapes and colors havenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t been changed. PAGE WITH TEXT Pages full of text are not very inviting to read. Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve added some relevant images to make it more interesting for Indian people. Images are chosen by keeping the collectivist aspect of Indian culture in mind. Families or groups of children are chosen instead of individual figures. Side notes had the same background colour as the text but we have applied colored backgrounds to make them more visible, inviting visitors to explore the webpage.

HOME PAGE In the home page the main buttons are redesigned by applying color codes. For India which has low uncertainty avoidance, colors and graphical cues are really important. Even in the serious organizations, like governmental ones have a lot of color on their websites. Colors not only serve for creating more lively home page but also help people to navigate in the website easily. Instead of including a medium size photo right aligned, one large photo/video is centered. Since Indian culture has high power distance, we included an important figure displayed on the first video appeared. As it is mentioned in the criteria session, the goal of the company is more important than the individuals visiting the page. Instead of placing necessary information for the visitor, slogan of the company is placed on the most visible part.

Figure 9: The old (left) versus the new (right) Unilever homepage.

Figure 10: The old (left) versus the new (right) Unilever brands page.

Figure 11: The old (left) versus the new (right) Unilever’s general background pages with a lot of text, such as ‘Our Principles’.

ASSIGNMENT 3

Benchmark: China China, being a very large country, doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have the same development level in every region. All the numbers we have collected are generalized numbers for whole country. When designing for a Chinese region, we should specifically analyze regions separately in order to collect more accurate data.

Due to being one of the most populous nation and having a large number of factories, the country is struggling with air pollution, water pollution, desertification and erosion (WWF, n.d.). According to a survey conducted by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences(CASS), the main social problem of China is housing affordability followed by health care availability and prices (ChinaSmack, 2011).

The GPD of China is 5,445, higher than India but lower than the USA. According to the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), China can be classified as an upper-middle income country. Although, the current HDI rank of China is 101, which is considered to be medium, it has one of the highest percentages of adult literacy (94,3%). CGI ranking shows how competitive the countries are. Despite the slight decline in the ranking (26 to 29), China maintained its position in the list. India being 59, is not one of the close competitors for China. However, China can be considered as a competitor to all large countries, due to its cheap labor resource. Unlike India, China has a higher export percentage (31%) than import (27%) which results in economic growth. 93% of the export market consists of manufactured goods. Electrical machinery and equipment, and power generation equipment form the main export goods. China not only exports goods to neighbors but also to the international export market. India is in the top ten export destinations of China, while USA is the number one (The US-China Business Council, 2011). The main sectors in the country are industry and service sectors, having almost equal percentages when compared to each other and both higher than agriculture. As mentioned before, it is not easy to identify the development level of China as it consists of a lot of different regions with different characteristics. Some parts have R&D and advanced electronics manufacturing, which are seen in industrialized countries, while others have only basic manufacturing and assembly, which are seen in developing countries.

Figure 12: Chinaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s GDP divided over different industries.

Benchmark: USA The USA is one of the biggest economies in the world. Some statistics support this information such as a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita (US$) of 48,112, GDP per capita PPP which is also (US$) 48,112 and a GDP growth of 1,7%. With this score it can be said that the USA has a high income.

The US generally focuses on technologic developments. Nowadays, Silicon Valley seems to be the world’s technology capital. Their industry mainly focuses on capital and knowledge. The United States are one of the most well developed countries regarding technology and science. Also entrepreneurship is encouraged by the government. The venture capital originated in the United States of America. Because they are a developed country, they put a lot of emphasis on R&D. They will continue to follow this track in the future, investing more in capital than in labour.

In the Human Development Index (HDI), the United States are the third highest country in the world. According to the Growth Competitiveness Index of 20122013, their ranking retreated from 5th to 7th. World Economic Forum stated that this decline has started in recent years and it will continue to decline. US companies are complex, innovative and they are working with many successful universities. With these properties, flexible labor markets and scale opportunities, the United States are a very competitive country (2012).

The US has also some large well-known energy companies, many of them are based on existing sources. They also have a lot of big electronics and software companies like Apple, Google, Microsoft and IBM. Since this age is called the “Computer Age”, this industry seems to promise many opportunities in the future. It needs less labor than many industries. As mentioned before, the energy industry takes the first place in US economy. The second place is taken by ElectronicsTelecommunication, followed by Motor vehicles – Aerospace. The fourth biggest industry in the United States is retail.

They have significant amount of import and export. 18% of GDP is spent on import and 14% of GDP is coming from export. The trade balance of the USA is -0,04. In export merchandise, manufactured export takes the first place with 62%, after that high technology export comes with 18% and primary export in the last place with 10%. The United States export most products to Canada with 18.9 percent. Mexico, China, Japan and the United Kingdom follow Canada with 14%, 7.1% 4.5% and 3.5%, respectively. There is a huge variety of markets in the United States but their biggest focus is on service, which accounts for 79 percent of their GDP. The industry sector is quite low with 20% and agriculture almost has no effect on economy with 1%.

Figure 13: The USA’s GDP divided over different industries.

Socio ecological analysis of India India has, just like China, regions that highly differ in development and industry. There is a large difference between rich and poor and between urban and rural India. Some parts show characteristics of a newly industrializing country, whereas other (rural) areas are still developing. These are poor, inaccessible and undereducated and focus mainly on food processing and basic consumer products, while the urban areas are often better educated and have the resources for the assembly and manufacturing of more complex technical products. Urban India only holds a quarter of the entire Indian population but accounts for approximately 50% of the fast moving consumer goods market (Rajan, 2007). India’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is 1.509, which places them in the lower middle income category countries. With a Human Development Index of 136, and a CGI of 59 they are neither high nor low, but quite steady in the middle. If China’s CGI keeps declining (last year from 26 to 29) India might at some point catch up with China. India’s import level is higher than export (30% and 24%, respectively). Their main importers being the (1) USA, (2) United Arabic Emirates, (3), Singapore, (4) China and (5) Hong Kong (as depicted in figure 14; Guardian, 2013). Their most important export products are petroleum products. These come with sustainability considerations since they will have to shift to alternative non-oil based raw materials if they want to maintain a more sustainable (in the sense of environmental friendly but also long-lasting) type of trade. Figure 14: India’s main import and export products and countries (Guardian, 2013).

The service sector is an interesting sector for India since it is by far the largest (54%) and still increasing, whereas the agricultural sector has been decreasing and the industrial sector has stayed the same. Annual growth of the service sector was still 8.2% per year in 2011.

India has made progress in terms of primary education being made free and compulsory for children from 6-14, and child labour being banned. The government is trying to increase school attendance by providing incentives to education (such as the provision of free mid-day meals in schools) and providing disincentives for not doing so. Primary school attendance has increased up to 85% in 2011 (Unicef, 2013; Worldbank, 2013). However, the older generations remain to be undereducated and i-Shakti is a way that aids them to develop their knowledge.

The main problems in India are overpopulation, poverty, sanitation, undereducation and water shortage (Overdorf, 2012; Harris, 2013). Unilever has already made great efforts to improve the quality of life of the rural population by adapting the packaging and servings of its products to the small amounts of paid-by-day incomes. Detergents such as the Wheel brand have been developed to fit people’s need such as low pricing, quality and the ability to withstand environmental conditions such as the quality of the water. However, for the next assignment we have chosen to focus on education, since we think there is an opportunity for a connection between education and Unilever’s exisiting i-Shakti project. i-Shakti has been an information technology initiative that has provided villages access to information through ‘kiosks’. The initiative was designed to meet villagers’ information needs and provide access to information for those parts of the country that are not reached by TV, radio or newspapers. The information kiosks are mainly stationed at Shakti homes; the homes of the female entrepeneurs trained by Unilever to educate people about health, nutrition and hygiene while selling Unilever products.

Our objective is to assist Shakti in educating their customers while at the same time increasing their sales. We want to put more emphasis on the educator role of Shaktis and provide them the additional tools to do so. This eventually contributes to the increase of knowledge of the older generations who in their time did not yet have the privileges of compulsory and free education.

“i-Shakti kiosks provide villagers with free information on a wide range of topics, including health and hygiene, agriculture and horticulture, child and adult education, finance, employment, and entertainment.” (Unilever, 2005). It also includes an interactive service in which villagers can e-mail questions to a panel of experts and receive a response within 24 hours. The people can for instance ask for a diagnosis of certain disease symptoms from a doctor, or find a solution for pest problems with their crops. 90% of the Indian work force have not completed school education due to a lack of schools that can provide a proper education level (Overdorf, 2012).

Figure 15: India’s GDP divided over different industries.

Summary ECONOMIC PERFORMANCE By comparing and contrasting the GDP per capita, the gross domestic product divided by midyear population, and the GDP per capita PPP, GDP per capita based on purchasing power parity, we can determinate the countries ‘current economical situation. It is very easy to picture how USA is far a more economically developed country when compared to China and India. The former has an average of 44,112US$ per capita while the others of 5,445US$ and 1,509US$ consequently. When it comes to GDP per capita PPP the numbers remain practically unchanged.

SECTOR With this graphics we can compare and contrast how each country divides its production within the three economic sectors. These are: the primary sector which involves agriculture, fishing, and extraction such as mining, the secondary sector (approximately the same as manufacturing) and the tertiary sector, also known as the service sector. Although both India and USA have the value added in service, the former scores only 1% in primary sector while the latter has 18%. The primary sector is often the basis of the economy of most developing countries and even though it’s not the case for India it still shows that is still developing with a big percentage of rural population. Regarding China, the most powerful sector is the secondary followed by the tertiary. When compared to India we can easily picture that there is much more industry.

KNOWLEDGE ASSESSMENT The numbers follow the same pattern with respect to some variables (knowledge index, education and information infrastructure) of the World Bank’s knowledge assessment method. The United States standing in the first’s position followed by China and India. Looking at it in detail we can see that knowledge index always the highest for all three countries, followed by the education index and then the information structure.

COMPETITIVENESS The Global Competitiveness Report (GCR) is a yearly report published by the World Economic Forum. The report “assesses the ability of countries to provide high levels of prosperity to their citizens. This in turn depends on how productively a country uses available resources. Therefore, the Global Competitiveness Index measures the set of institutions, policies, and factors that set the sustainable current and medium-term levels of economic prosperity. Regarding this year´s report, United States stays in the top 10 (7th position) with other Northern and Western European countries. Even though is a good position, it has descended two positions when compared to last’s year report. Same happens with China which was in the 26th position last year and in the 29th the current one. On the other hand, India has been both years in the 59th position, much further down the ranking. This means than India is not yet as competitively developed as China, but still is a good position as the report takes 144 different economies into account.

HUMAN DEVELOPMENT The Human development index is a reference for both human social and economic development. It is measured by combining indicators of life expectancy, educational attainment and income. In the graph we can see that the USA is one of the countries with the highest HDI in the world, while India is ranked 186. China is the 101, which is about half as 186 countries are taken into account.

COMMUNICATION INFRASTRUCTURE AND R&D Regarding the communication infrastructure we encounter some unexpected data. Both India and China have the average number of cellular subscribers (around 70 people out of 100) but China has far more internet users and telephone main lines (almost non-existent in India). This is because of the Telecom Industry of India growth. It has increased from under 37 million subscribers in the year 2001 to over 846 million subscribers in the year 2011 and it has made India’s telecommunication network the second largest in the world. Telecommunication has supported the socioeconomic development of India and has played a significant role to narrow down the rural-urban digital divide to some extent. When it comes to the USA, the numbers are obviously higher, overcoming both China and India.

WATER SUPPLY Additionally, we have chosen to look at Indiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s data of water supply, since water is an important factor in the use of fast moving consumer goods (concerning cooking, washing and hygiene). The water scarcity is a global issue as the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s population is growing by roughly 80 million people each year. Freshwater withdrawals have tripled over the last 50 years. Demand for freshwater is increasing by 64 billion cubic meters a year (1 cubic meter = 1,000 litres). As can be seen from the table on the right, 99% of the USA population has access to water while for the Indian and Chinese population it is only 92% and 91%, respectively. The difference may seem quite small but the numbers do not take into account the ease of access. In the USA, most of the people only need to open the tap in their house to get water, whereas in India sometimes people need to walk several kilometres to reach the source. The third table (Unesco, 2002) strongly illustrates how much water there is available for the population. A regular US person had 15.187 cubic meters at his disposal in 2002, for cooking, showering, flushing down toilets, etc. An Indian person had to do with 1.880 cubic meters, meaning that they had to survive each day with 8 times less water. We think the situation has not changed much over the last ten years since the population has merely grown and therefore water has become more scarce. The numbers do not take into account the seasons and the differences between rural and urban areas, meaning that the rural areas have to come by with even less water, especially during the dry season.

Unilever

Conclusion

After an analysis of the situation and needs of India, we also need to assess the needs and characteristics of Unilever itself.

During this assignment we have assessed the needs of India and compared it to two benchmark countries; China and the USA. Even though India is a bit behind regarding human development and economic performance, its conditions are changing. Things such as education are getting better, partly due to the government that has started to pose a ban on child labour while at the same time providing free primary education. Even though governmental education is still of poor quality, we think that this will cause a knowledge gap between parents and their children, since many of the older generations have not received any education in their youth.

Unilever has high absorptive capacity, which is the ability of a firm to recognize the value of new, external information, assimilate it and apply it to a commercial end (Design for Sustainability, n.d.). The company could be classified into the firm category: R&D Rich enterprises. Regarding business, it has developed and achieved international markets, entering to a global supply chain. On the other hand, innovation is one of the keys to their progress. Unilever has a high awareness of things that have to change and also of how they have to change. Unilever is constantly innovating and enhancing its brands.

Communication infrastructures are still poor which does not suit Unilever since it needs to advertise and create product awareness through certain media channels. Unilever knows how to innovate and adapt to its market however, and has partly solved this problem by introducing Shakti and i-Shakti. To strengthen Unileverâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s position in the market, we have decided to design a product that can assist Shaktis in their work and reinforce their role as an educator.

The company invests around â&#x201A;Ź1 billion every year in research and development, and it has established laboratories around the world. Consumer research plays a vital role in this process. Their unrivalled global reach allows them to get closer to consumers in local markets, ensuring the understanding of their diverse needs and priorities.

Besides, they invest in mutually-beneficial relationships with some of their key suppliers in order to share capabilities and co-innovate for shared growth. The partners often do business with other companies that operate in the same competitive markets as they do.Unilever is a product company, which means that it develops its brands and partly its products. They have sites and factories in more than a hundred countries. All things considered, it would be suitable for the companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s innovative strategies to design a product/system that enhances a brand or set of brands while at the same time making a change into society. As Hindustan Lever has already the Shakti Entrepreneurial Programme, which provides them with a crucial new distribution channel for their products in the large and fast-growing global market of lowspending consumers, it could be convenient to join the design with the Shakti project and take advantage of those channels. 38

ASSIGNMENT 4

Critical evaluation of the BOP method Table 4: Product affordability for people with less than $1,- a day.

WHAT IS BOP? The “base of the pyramid” or “bottom of the pyramid” means the poorest economic group in society. The pyramid shape is used for defining the economic scale since the amount of people increases as the income decreases, according to the world population and the distribution of income. In history, industry focused mainly on the middle or top of the pyramid in terms of marketing. However, organizations are starting to realize that there is a chance to increase sales and therefore increase profit in the BoP market (Prahalad, 2005). Moreover, companies might be able to eradicate poverty at the same time. Still, there are some researchers who argue that the BoP is not as profitable as some people claim it to be (Warnholz, 2007). According to the World Bank, the base of the pyramid consists of people who have an income of below $1.25 a day, whereas BoP focused companies mainly approach people with an income between $5 and $8. Karnani (2006) claims that if we consider people who have an income below $1 to be our entire market, it makes a $0.3 trillion market which is a very low amount for making fortune. He also mentions that Coco-Cola makes ‘more affordable’ small cans (200 ml instead of 350 ml) for reaching BoP but a price of $0.57 is still not affordable for this target group. Warnholz (2007) supports this by stating that many typical fast moving consumer goods such as Unilever’s are unaffordable for the BoP population. He illustrates this with a table where he displays prices as a percentage of disposable monthly income both for people below $1/day and between $5-8/day (table 4 and 5). He concludes that products such as Nestle milk powder, shampoo and washing detergent take up half or all of the monthly disposable income, and are therefore unaffordable. He argues that single serve sachets only make the BoP population pay more, calling this a ‘poverty penalty’, but disregarding the fact that Hindustan Lever sometimes applies ‘BoP friendly pricing’ strategy; a strategy that makes products cheaper (also relatively) when consumed in single sachets. Although there are some different arguments about BoP, it is clear that there are some opportunities here, provided that strategies are applied in smart and efficient ways.

Table 5: Product affordability for people with $5,- to $8,- a day.

WHY HAVE MULTINATIONAL COMPANIES OVERLOOKED BOP?

WHAT MAKES THE BOP APPROACH DIFFERENT?

The reason why multinational companies do not invest in BoP is because they misinterpret the concept of poverty (The BoP strategy, 2012). First, they think people are so poor that they cannot buy their products. However, this is not true. The collective buying power of these markets creates a huge potential. Second, they think that even though they might sell some goods, the price has to be so low that they cannot make a profit, considering the example of single serve sachets of daily necessities like shampoo, soap etc. In India (Anderson and Billou, 2007), some companies make profit by charging the population relatively more for the amounts they are giving, even though purchase price per sachet is lower and therefore more affordable. This results in the ‘poverty penalty’ as mentioned before. Third, they think people cannot buy luxury products. Although the definition of ‘luxury’ is not always clear in these areas; are luxury products mobile phones and televisions or electronic appliances and cars? Last, companies have the prejudice that poor people cannot use technology. When looking at the Shakti project of Hindustan Lever, it shows that people are actually willing and capable of use technology (Hindustan Lever, 2013). As many of these perceptions are wrong of or have the potential of being transformed into opportunities, it is time to change these points of view and see the huge potential of these markets.

In the past large companies investing in the base of the pyramid were looking down on its population, thinking that people living there are vulnerable and in need of help. Nowadays these large companies have understood the potential of BoP and have changed their point of view. They realized that they could collaborate with the BoP population and that the one could help the other. As a result their expectations had changed. Instead of focusing on immediate results and profits, they started investing in innovation and the concept of patient capital emerged. Patient capital focuses on economic and/or societal returns in the long term (London, 2007). Considering all these changes in approaching BoP, we think things are getting better. People are trying to understand these markets before thinking about making profits. New approaches suggest that instead of focusing on what is wrong and trying to fix it, companies should find what is right and try to improve it (London, 2007). In our design solution we tried to do the same. However, focusing on the opportunities does not mean ruling out the things going wrong. We developed our concept starting from a positive point of view and looking at what is already going right, but at the end the concept offers some solutions to certain shortcomings of the BoP population as well. Whitney et al (2004) suggest that in order to improve daily life in India, the personal homes should be improved first. Even though this approach does not fit with the BoP approach as it focuses on “what is wrong”, we used this knowledge as an inspiration to our project. We have tried to change people’s homes into a learning environment.

Size of the BOP target groups As in every country, income is not distributed equally over the entire population. Generally, income distribution can be illustrated as a pyramid since there are more poor people than rich people in society. The information given below has been taken from two different studies. Statistics about India and China are from Prahalad and Lieberthal (1998). Beeghley (2004) has provided information about income distribution in the United States. Population values are taken from statistics of the years closest to the studies. India Population 1,028,737,436 (2001) BoP 78% Tier 3 14% Tier 2 7% Tier 1 0,7%

(less than 5,000 $) (5,000 – 10,000 $) (10,000 – 20, 000 $) (Greater than 20,000 $)

China Population 1,265,830,000 (2000) BoP 67% Tier 3 28% Tier 2 4% Tier 1 0,1%

(less than 5,000 $) (5,000 – 10,000 $) (10,000 – 20, 000 $) (Greater than 20,000 $)

United States Population 281,421,906 (2000) Poor 12% Working Class 40% Middle Class 46% Rich 5% Super Rich 0.9%

(18,000 $) (26,000 – 40,000 $) (40,000 – 57,000 $) (350,000 – 1,000,000 $) (greater than 1,000,000 $)

These data show that the Indian and Chinese population mostly have a low income. However, there are some small differences. China has smaller income difference between the top of the pyramid and the base of the pyramid than India. The ratio of the richest population is almost the same in both countries, but with 28%, China has a mid-class percentage twice as high as India, who has 14%. India has 11 % more people in the BoP than China with 78%. In the United States these statistics are quite different. Middle class has the majority. If we count working class and middle class together, they account for 86% of the United States’ population. In summary, a huge part of the population is living in India’s base of pyramid and it makes India one of the significant countries for BoP projects.

HLL Learn & Play

Storyboard

While developing a solution, we have thought about strategies that Unilever was already successfully applying in India. We have been inspired greatly by Unilever’s Shakti project and have decided to develop something that would support the Shaktis with selling products. According to assignment three, we formulated the objective as follows:

A storyboard of HLL Learn & Play is displayed in figure 16 on the next page. 1. Shakti goes around the villages and announces to her customers that there is a new Hindustan Lever promotion: HLL Learn & Play 2. When buying products, the customers receive an HLL Learn & Play card for every 20 Indian Rupee that they spend (equal to 0.33 US dollar). 3. The cards can be used to play with at home by the children and the parents. 4. The children and parents will learn about basic health topics while playing. 5. One category (such as ‘pregnancy’ or ‘sanitation’) consists of five cards. When one category is complete, the customers can show the cards to their Shakti to get a sharp discount for Unilever products that might usually be harder to afford. 6. Once the cards are shown to Shakti, she can give additional education about the cards, but she now combines practical information with their relevant products. The customers can get a discount on products that belong with the topic of the cards. 7. Once the cards have been used, Shakti will punch a hole in the bottom left corner to mark that the cards cannot be used again. She will then give the cards back to the customers for them to keep and to play at home with. 8. The punched holes enable the cards to be held together with a string, as a fan of information about healthy living. 9. The cards are made of laminated cardboard. Therefore they are weather resistant and can be preserved for a long time. 10. This is a long term promotion that enables the consumers to save cards and complete categories over a longer period of time. Every now and then new sets will apear with new topics.

“We want to assist Shakti in educating their customers while at the same time increasing their sales. We want to put more emphasis on the educator role of Shaktis and provide them the additional tools to do so. This eventually contributes to the increase of knowledge of the older generations who in their time did not yet have the privileges of compulsory and free education.” Our solution is a large set of educational cards that come as a gift with the products that Shaktis sell. These cards can be traded and used at home to play with by parents and their children, they stimulate consumers to obtain additional information from Shaktis and i-Shakti stations, and the cards can be handed in to Shaktis to get a discount on products.

Figure 16: Storyboard of the HLL playing cards

PREGNANCY

DO NOT SMOKE

TAKE REST

FREQUENCY

Do nâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t work too hard until late in your pregnancy.

Eat more than one meal a day

Expec tant mothers who work up to their due da te a re likely to have babies with a l ower bi rth weight, creating risks for the future as higher mortality, poor health and sl ow development.

NUTRITION

NO ALCOHOL

LACTATION

Eating small meals throughout the day can lower cholesterol, promote weight loss, improve energy levels, boost metabolism, and preserve lean muscle mass. Your first meal should be with in Â˝ hour of waking up.

Figure 17: Two sets of HLL playing cards: Pregnancy and nutrition.

Do not smoke during your pregnancy Toxicants will get into your bloodstream and pollute your only source of oxigen and nutrients. It may cause stillbirth, premature delivery or a low birth weight.

Do not drink alcohol during your pregnancy .

Breastfeed your baby until the sixth month

Expec tant mothers who work up to their due da te a re likely to have babies with a l ower bi rth weight, creating risks for the future as higher mortality, poor health and sl ow development.

Breastfeed provides development and learning opportunities to the infant, stimulating all the five senses of the child. It fosters emotional security and affection, with a livelong impact on psychosocial development.

SANITATION

TOILET

FEVER

Wash your hands and feet after the toilet.

Take rest and drink plenty of clean water .

Poor hygiene can cause diarrhea which contributes to 1.5 million child deaths each year. Diarrhea hinders the absorption of essential nutrients that are critical for the development of mind, body and immune system.

ILLNESS

MENSES

FOOD

HEADACHE

Pay extra attention to cleanliness during menses.

Wash your hands before you cook with soap and keep your cooking utilities clean.

Drink plenty of clean water.

Risk of infection is higher during the menstruation period. Make sure you use clean rags or sanitary pads and do not use them for too long since this is supports the growth of unwanted bacteria.

Headache can be caused by multiple things but the main cause is dehydration. Make sure you drink plenty of water throughout the day. If the headache is severe, take a 30 minute rest out of the sunlight. A cool and damp cloth or massage might relieve the pain.

Cooking and consuming food in a hygienic way is important in preventing infectious diseases; such as diarrhea, worm infection, and tuberculosis. Cover leftovers after you finish.

Fever is characterized by an elevated body temperature and switching between feeling hot and cold. Using a fan to cool down may increase comfort.

Figure 18: Two sets of HLL playing cards: Sanitation and illness.

Conclusion The course has helped us to learn how we, as industrial designers, should work in an international context regarding international aspects of product development and management. At first we learned about cultural differences, focusing on India as the selected country. We gained insights about its cultural context and economical, industrial and social development. To classify and qualify the data, a comparison between countries was made, choosing the USA and China as Indiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s biggest global competitors. At the same time we chose a company to work for, Unilever. We delved into its structures and strategies and compared it to some companies of its equal size. The goal was to propose a product development team that could easily adapt and work in India. Then, merging all the knowledge about the country and the company we were asked to design a suitable product/service for both of them. Regarding this task, our team believes that the proposal could be a great success and an easy way of improving the quality of life in rural India. It would surely be a better place to live in if people knew more about the correct ways of conducting simple daily activities, as the lack of accurate information is one of the main causes of health problems. All things considered, the course has been of great value in understanding international markets and production. It has provided us a small selection of tools (since we are sure this is only a small tip of the iceberg) that enables us to understand and overcome cultural differences and adapt to new multicultural / foreign teams or countries. This would definitely make us better designers, in a world where our profession is becoming more and more international due to the globalisation.

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