Innovation

ANALYSING CREATIVITY

PRODUCT: SACHET OF CHIK SHAMPOO

Pre innovation: shampoo bottle for urban cities and educated people.

Price: around Rs.100 for 100 ml bottle

Product of MNC like HLL, P& G, avon, amway, etc

Innovation

Creativity: idea of selling product like shampoo in sachet at price of just 50 paisa and targeting rural market.

Here's a classic example which illustrates this perfectly: CavinKare's Chik shampoo in 50-paise sachets - a huge success which redefined shampoo usage and forced giants such as HLL and P&G to follow suit - saw the idea germinate from the grassroots., CavinKare found that many rural consumers were using bathing soap for washing their hair. The company field force found the reasons - the rural consumer had not heard of soaps damaging hair, and in any case, hair was being washed by soaps for generations by their predecessors. Interestingly, the rural consumer were aware that shampoos cleansed hair better, but was expensive at Rs 2 per sachet. That's when CavinKare began working on a shampoo for the rural consumer. The 50-paise Chik shampoo was conceptualised then, and has since been a runaway success in rural markets.

Strategy and impact

The main strategy of Cavin Kare is to strengthen the distribution and marketing. The company made its brand available to the customer through out the country. Continuous concentration upon Research and Development is an added advantage to the company which has dedicated staffs. Their main job is to understand the needs of the target audience and to bring more innovative products

Innovative marketing strategy used for Chik Shampoo:

"During 1999, the penetration level of Chik Shampoo was not aggressive. Hence the company went back to the consumer to understand their basic needs that would help Cavin Kare to drive the sales growth and gain good market share in the shampoo market. Cavin Kare also discovered that soap usage was the biggest barrier and people did not see the need for using Shampoo. As part of the consumer study, the company tried to convey the message to the consumer that soap usage was bad for the hair and when a product exists specifically for hair it should be used. The consumers responded by stating that their fathers and grandfathers have used only soap and their hair continued to maintain good health. So the argument that Soap was harmful did not bear merit to them. However they did agree that Shampoo usage gave soft and silky hair. However their perceived value on hair wash was very less and they did not want to spend more out of their pockets to buy Shampoo. The study also revealed that though the aspiration to use shampoo was there, the need to spend more did not appeal. To arrive at a solution