Girl Power Project
Jharkhand Mahila Social Entrepreneurship Market Connect
A platform to support women entrepreneurs Team girl power project
O
n the occasion of Diwali, one of India’s biggest festivals, Jharkhand Mahila Social Entrepreneurship Market Connect (JMSEMC) under Girl Power Project organized a two-day marketing event. The event aimed at providing a platform for women artisans/entrepreneurs in displaying a range of festival-specific products. This event played a major role in connecting buyers and women entrepreneurs who are involved in making a range of handmade products like diyas, candles, flowers, paper lanterns, dolls, incense sticks, bamboo products, lamps, lac bangles, sweets, and masks. For ensuring maximum footfall of customers, a few strategies were adopted by Girl Power Team which constituted components of the marketing mix. As per the Jerome McCarthy model,
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November 2021 | www.urbanupdate.in
the marketing mix consists of seven key elements that are involved in the marketing of the product or service. In line with this model, the JMSEMC adopted these elements for effectively marketing products of women artisans. The key elements for the seven Ps are Product, Price, Place, Promotion, People, Process and Physical Evidence. As the first step towards the event, the team went on to identify the local women artisans/entrepreneurs from Ranchi who were making items that have a huge demand during the Diwali. Visits were made and meetings were conducted with the entrepreneurs to understand their product range and marketing potential. The first P of the marketing mix is the Product relevant for the event. As per our market survey, we shortlisted the products, which could stand out in the market in terms of quality, variants, and unique features. The products that were displayed were
decorative flowers, diyas and candles. The Unique Selling Proposition (USP) of our products were – ‘handmade’ and ‘eco-friendly’ products ‘sourced from the local artisans’. Our USP went very well with the Government of India’s campaign “Vocal for Local”. The second P - Price, played an important role in the sale of the products. The women artisans were encouraged to price the products keeping in mind cost-benefit analysis and breakeven point. For the third P Place, the team approached Ranchi Municipal Corporation, who supported JMSEMC’s initiative. The authority granted permission to display the products in Morabadi ground, which is a central place, in order to attract customers. The team also displayed the products near our JMSEMC office in Lalpur. For Promotion, pre-buzz activities were carried out through social media posts and circulating the same by the team in their contacts. Fifth P of marketing mix - People, was taken care of by the Girl Power Team.The team actively participated in the event by being involved in promotional activities, customer handling, and support in packaging the products. The Process component was involved through research and development activities that were conducted before the event for assessment of demand, the team went on to explore the local markets to assess the price, products and demand of similar products. Physical Evidence, the last P of the marketing mix, involved activities like sales experience, and product packaging. A general verbal feedback was taken from the potential customers that reached our kiosk during the event. As the Girl Power team geared up for the two day Diwali event, our main focus was to give an exposure to
