Marketing strategy to sell organic cotton at the international market

About the organisation
Apart from being a foundation and a organic cotton producer, Chetna Organic Agriculture Producer Company Ltd is an effort to support small and marginal tribal farmers spread across Andhra Pradesh, India. Chetna Organic works with 9000 predominantly tribal farmers in the practices of sustainable agriculture and ethical trade. Chetna works towards promoting markets for organic and fair trade garments in the developed countries, develops supply chain partnerships to address such market demand and promotes organic and fair trade farm systems in India.


Business case

Chetna's business is not merely selling of commodities but essentially selling a concept to the international market. They have managed some success in collaboration with their partners in Europe and the UK and also built some new partners in the US. Although, considering the gap between the supply and the demand there is always a need for expanding markets to accommodate all farmers. Moreover Chetna lacks skills in effective communication to an international clientele, because of this they were looking for a consultant. SharePeople matched employees of Capgemini who are selected for the Capgemini Talent Programme. Marcel van der Burg , Roger de Ruiter and Rob Bijsterveld went to India for their expertise in Marketing and Sales, business development and business strategy.

Analysis

The initial assignment for Capgemini was defined as a strategic analysis of the Marketing & Sales strategy with the focus on product innovation and differentiation of the Non-Cotton market. During the analysis phase the Capgemini team focused on the short term implementation needs and issues. They have changed their scope to Marketing & Communication due to the fact that they believe that Chetna will currently benefit more from a tactical and operational plan then creating another strategic plan.

Outcome
The Capgemini team focused on:

• Creating operational excellence
• Revision of the Marketing & Communication plans
• Creating a short term implementation plan
• Establishing a solid short- and midterm tactical implementation plan (that will address the current needs immediately)
  
  Recommendations
  The most important recommendation is about starting with small outlets and grow toward bigger retails. Also, the plan to enter the market and the corresponding communication should be very good thought of and Chetna should always deliver operational excellence.

Personal and professional development
The Experts of Capgemini experienced this assignment as very challenging because they had to work with people from another culture with different working methods and business ethics. Marcel mentioned: "A good team learning situation arose because the team was working towards one goal, even though the Capgemini colleagues didn't knew each other that well" The business case owner Ashutosh Deshpande described working with the Dutch team as: "A lot of ideas, prompted us to think on lines we would not normally have taken and putting across our thoughts in a very structured fashion was very helpful."

Follow up
Unfortunately one of the major case members at Chetna left the organisation, operation of the communication plan had to start over. CEO Ashutosh describes the SharePeople Expert Programme as: "I think this is a good opportunity for a business to come in touch with people who bring an outside perspective, knowledge of tried and tested methodologies in business and knowledge of established business theories. Most importantly they brainstorm and discuss all these in the context of your business and jointly develop a wholesome plan/road map for the future."

This is a start of a two-year partnership between SharePeople and Chetna. Both organisations will keep in touch (a.o. via the SharePeople liaison, at least every 6 months), and with the expert as well. After this Programme, an official update on the status of the organisation takes place every 6 months. With this information, a new Programme is one of the possibilities to boost the organisation if needed.