How GCPL Aims to Tap into The Rural Market with its New Product Portfolio

How GCPL Aims to Tap into The Rural Market with its New Product Portfolio
In an attempt to revolutionize the use of insecticides in the country, Godrej Consumer Products Limited recently launched two homegrown innovations - the world's lowest-cost liquid mosquito repellent device and a no-gas instant mosquito-kill spray.

By Aritra ghosh , Features Writer

09 Feb 2023 | 9 min read

As part of the 125-year-old Godrej Group, Godrej Consumer Products is a leading emerging markets company growing at a fast pace with its thriving ambitious aspirations. 

Godrej Group today enjoys the patronage of 1.15 billion consumers globally, across different businesses, ranking high amongst the largest Household Insecticides and Hair Care players in emerging markets.

In an attempt to revolutionize the use of insecticides in India, Godrej Consumer Products Limited recently launched two homegrown innovations - the world’s lowest-cost liquid mosquito repellent device and a no-gas instant mosquito-kill spray. 

According to a market research study published by Custom Market Insights, the demand analysis of the Global Mosquito Repellent Market size and share revenue was valued at approximately $5.1 billion in 2021 and was expected to reach $5.7 billion in 2022. Additionally, it is predicted to touch $10.3 billion by 2030 at a CAGR of 7 percent between 2022 and 2030. 

GCPL, being one of the key players in the segment, debuted its new products in the presence of experts from the National Centre for Vector Borne Diseases Control, Malaria No More, and Fortis Hospital Noida in an attempt to democratize household insecticide formats with its latest launches. 

In an interaction with Indian Retailer, Sudhir Sitapati, MD and CEO, GCPL, spoke about how with the launch of its new products, the company aims to tap the low-income group and help the country in the battle against vector-borne diseases.

New Launches and Ideation

The Goodknight Mini Liquid and HIT No-Gas Spray were introduced to make safe and smoke-free mosquito protection accessible for lower-income consumers, many of whom today use unsafe and unregulated high smoke incense sticks, which according to leading doctors could cause bronchitis, asthma, reactive airway disease, and other conditions. 

Until recently, the regulated and safe non-smoke solutions were only available at higher prices and with features that did not suit a major part of the population. With its recent innovation, GCPL aims to tap the lower income households - the Goodknight Mini a single-mode machine that offers high all-night efficacy, priced at Rs 50, with its refill priced at Rs 35, and the HIT No-Gas that is priced at Rs 50. 

“Looking at universal penetration trend in the FMCG sector, it is always a low unit price pack that drives penetration. Even in our hair color business, introducing a Rs 30 sachet helped in penetration. Similarly, household insecticide is one of the categories that has not used low-unit packs. So, our strategy was about finding ways to democratize the categories. We have seen that every time you reach a price point in terms of accessibility, you get a large number of new consumers entering the category,” commented Sudhir Sitapati, MD and CEO, Godrej Consumer Products Limited.

Retail and Marketing Strategy

“As a company, we are fortunate to have a large soap business, which has further given us access to a large distribution reach. We are hoping for a dramatic improvement in the distribution of these products on the pipeline that has already been built,” stated Sitapati. 

With a one-track focus on the rural market for the recently launched products, the company has initiated its marketing strategies with wall paintings, village-to-village sampling programs , and deep rural distribution in certain states. 

Inflationary Pressure

“With the cost of commodities falling sharply in the last three-four months, they are still higher in comparison to a few years ago. However, in comparison to the peaks seen in March-April, there has been a significant deflation,” commented Sudhir Sitapti. 

GCPL thus does not foresee any further price hikes in the short to medium term, however, it believes that there might be price drops in categories such as soaps. In fact, the company has undertaken a round of price reduction in soaps recently.

Volumes are under pressure due to two reasons, namely the post-Covid effect on consumption and hyperinflation. Sitapati added that since now the hyper-inflationary scenario has cooled off, the company expected to see better volumes and even a revival in consumption momentum.

E-commerce and D2C

“E-commerce is doing really well, especially quick commerce. However, it is not growing as fast as it was during the Covid period, but is still growing significantly faster than average and the share of e-commerce is continuously going up. On the quick commerce front, we are witnessing high salience for household insecticides and air fresheners,” asserted Sudhir Sitapati. 

The company believes that D2C is an interesting space but is currently not the appropriate strategy for them. Being a mass-market company, GCPL’s key focus will be to continue working on deepening its rural coverage.

GCPL’s approach to channels is not to spend too much thinking about channels but being available wherever a consumer is available, and spend more time on brand and innovation.

Working Towards Sustainability

“On both these products the amount of plastic used is comparatively lesser than our previous products. Moreover, one of the ways in which we have been able to save money on our liquid vaporizer is by eliminating all unnecessary plastic,” commented the CEO.

He further added, “Interestingly, there is 25 percent less plastic per ml of active plastic used in the vaporizer. The spray however is a radical product, which offers an efficacy similar to a large packaging of aerosol available in the market in just 10 percent of its packaging.”

GCPL’s structure of business, economy and sustainability go hand in hand, and has been responsible for reducing plastic footprint drastically. 

Through its flagship brands, GCPL has over the years introduced many innovations across formats. In 2016, it launched its CSR effort - the Elimination of Vector Borne Endemic Diseases Project - which since then has been implemented in 9 districts of Madhya Pradesh, 4 districts in Uttar Pradesh, and 2 districts in Chattisgarh, reaching and impacting over 5 lakh households across 2,000+ villages.


 

As part of the 125-year-old Godrej Group, Godrej Consumer Products is a leading emerging markets company growing at a fast pace with its thriving ambitious aspirations. 

Godrej Group today enjoys the patronage of 1.15 billion consumers globally, across different businesses, ranking high amongst the largest Household Insecticides and Hair Care players in emerging markets.

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