Jharkhand Mahila Social Entrepreneurship Market Connect A platform to support women entrepreneurs

On 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, 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 the women artisans who have limited access to the marketing opportunities. Through this event, we involved individual artisans as well as the women of the Self Help Groups, who also felt motivated as they got market exposure through this initiative. The event began on October 31 morning in Morabadi and the response received from the locals on the initial day itself was very encouraging. The stall remained open for the public from 07:00 AM to 05:30 PM. One of the locals said, “The quality of the products is superior to the commercially produced decorative items in factories, which is why they opted to help the women of the Self Help Groups.”
All the decorative items displayed were prepared and packed at home by the women. A few of the buyers even enquired about similar products and wanted to indulge in bulk orders directly from the SHGs groups to start off their venture. The Diwali event also acted as an eye-opener for urban buyers who were unaware of local artisans’ talent. In today’s times, given people’s preference for ethnic wear, handmade items, and exclusive gifts, our stall gave proper exposure to the art of women of the self-help groups. A woman of Niti Self Help Group prepared handmade flowers from corn husk, stocking, and paper, which helped to attract people, especially housewives, in large numbers at the stall. The cost of one flower stick varied from 20 to80, depending on its size, material used, and labor cost. Similarly, colorful hand painted clay lamps – diyas – with intricate designs were, also the center of attraction as they could add to home decor creating a warm ambience during Diwali Puja and parties. The eye-pleasing colorful set of 12 diyas was also seen an ideal gifting item.
A majority of self-help groups had faced problem of low footfall during the pandemic, which also resulted in shutting down of their enterprises. Therefore, the event brought employment opportunities for the women who were otherwise struggling to sell their products in the marketplace during the festival time. With events like this, the Girl Power Project aims to identify similar opportunities which could leverage their art and skills and generate some income towards supporting their livelihoods. The future strategy of the project is to provide an online e-commerce platform for such SHGs which will provide a wider market, will directly benefit the women, and will be able to generate a stable source of income for their better future.