Product : Biscuits Location: Loni Bhapkar a small village in the interiors of Mararashtra The Rural Consumer: The Family:

: Radhabai lives with her 2 sons and 5 grandchildren in a small hut in the village of Loni Bahpkar. On asking her and her 2 family about their biscuit consumption patterns we got the following insights: Highest brand recall was for Parle-G. They do consume other brands like Tiger. Cream biscuits are not consumed as much as normal biscuits. Biscuits are bought mainly for the kids of the family and bought by the teenage kids of the family They are not stocked. They are bought and consumed on the same day The elders of the family sometimes consume these biscuits with tea
Figure 1: Radhabai with some members of the family

The Rural Retailer:

Retailer 1.
Name of Retailer: Daulatbi Location: Loni Bahpkar Background of the Retailer: Daulitbi has one married son and two grandchildren. The family earns its bread by selling meat and the small retailer store that she runs. Her son drives a tourist vehicle and travels to near villages and cities. Our interaction with Daulatbi and her daughter-in-law gave us the following details: POP Presense: Being a small shop all the products in the shop were visible. Some of the products that were very prominently visible were shampoo sachets, egg crates, bulbs, soaps, etc. Biscuits were also noticeable. The most prominent biscuits were: Parle G Marie Parle Nimkin and Parle Kreamz

Shelf Space: Shelf Space was common for all the biscuits available in the shop. And in that one shelf there was a lot of clutter.

Shopkeepers Reaction: Daulatbi was delighted and answered all our questions willingly. She was of the opinion that parle G and other cream biscuits were the most popular biscuits and were sold the most. In spite of cream biscuits being the same price as parle g, consumers preferred to buy Parle G.

Retailer 2:
Name of Retailer: Nanda Dattaray Deshmukh Name of Shop: Deshmane Kirana Store POP: the store display was cluttered. There was a string hanging from one end of the store to the other. On this string there were sachets of products like shampoos, masalas, Mehendi, tea, washing powder, etc. There was local products as well as other well known brands like Everest, red label, chic, etc.

Shelf Space for Biscuits: There one shelf dedicated to all the various kinds of biscuits available in the shop. The biscuits were a less cluttered and could be identified by looking at the shelf. Marie and ParleG had the maximum shelf space. This is again because of its high demand.\ Variety: This store being bigger in size had a wider variety of biscuits. Some products available were: Monaco Classic and Zabardast Zeera Tiger Coconut Energy Parle Kreamz: Pineapple, Orange and Elaichi Good- Day: Cashew and Butter Britannia 50:50

Additional Findings: Competition from Substitutes: In these retail outlets, Khari toast and Muska were also being sold. These local products are a lot cheaper than biscuit packets. Thus a large chunk of the adult population in the villages prefers this over biscuits. Also these packs have MRP printed but the retailer sells it at a price lower than the printed price. Credit facility: A one month credit facility is provided by the stores. A register is maintained by the retailer with details about the customer and his purchases. Local Competitors: there are no local players in the rural areas with regards to Biscuits. This is most likely because of parle g and tiger capturing the market completely.