Let there be light

Digamber Modi, a farmer from Madhya Pradesh, could not believe the effect that solar power had on his chicken. And no, they did not start crowing at midnight. As Modi found, after installing solar lamps in his farm, the chicken started gaining weight faster.

As a contract farmer, Modi rears chicks for large companies and sells them when they are fully grown — the heavier the chicken, the better his remuneration. Earlier, there was a problem. As there was no electricity in his village, the chicken would stop eating after sunset, simply because they could not spot the vessel that carried the feed.

Modi is just one among the 3.5 million consumers across 40 countries who have invested in a Sun King solar lamp.

There are other examples like the fruit seller Ram Charan from interior Uttar Pradesh who could make extra money because he could do business at a lower cost after sunset. Earlier Charan used a kerosene lamp and used to spend close to ₹50 per week on kerosene. Now with an investment of ₹650 on a solar lamp, he gets twice the luminosity of a kerosene lamp. Because of the savings on kerosene, Sun King executives estimate that even the top-end product of Sun King that costs ₹2,300 and claims to be 15 times more powerful than a kerosene lamp gives buyers a payback in approximately nine months. To give consumers additional benefits from the solar lamp, the device doubles up as a mobile phone charging unit. The top end Sun King has two ports to simultaneously charge two mobile phones.

But it’s the kerosene lamp that companies like Sun King view as their enemy no. 1.

When Greenlight Planet, the company that makes Sun King launched a rural marketing initiative through a game of snakes and ladders, the snakes in the game were the kerosene lamps. Suvodeep Das, Marketing Director, Greenlight Planet, estimates that over 1.2 billion people worldwide are off the electricity grid and use dim, smoky kerosene lanterns for light. He adds that around 80 million households in India get less than six hours of electricity every day.

As most of the potential customers for Sun King lie in far-flung areas, Das points out that reaching out to consumers is a challenge. He says, “Since most consumers in off-grid areas don’t have access to electricity, the only way to communicate with our consumers is through mobile phones, on-ground activation and a little bit of radio.”

Another rural campaign was to launch a rural distribution model wherein micro-entrepreneurs called Sun King Saathis sell solar lamps to people in their villages.

This campaign had innovative evening product demos and is supported with successful methods such as Munadi (a traditional form of generating awareness used for centuries by communities in every village), wall stencils and branding on bicycles. Potential customers are encouraged to give missed calls on a toll-free number and a real-time lead tracking system using Android-based phones relays the potential leads to the Sun King Saathis. This helps them identify prospects and thereby increase sales. For the launch of The Sun King Home (a solar lighting system to light up a complete house, catering to the ‘affluent’ rural households) a mock Rural Home lit by the home system was created on wheels. This home depicts the rural indoor life and shows how every member of the family can benefit from the lighting system.

To be sure, competitors are planning to be one up on Sun King. Chemtrols Solar, which calls itself one of India’s leading solar companies, recently launched a range of portable LED-based solar lamps and phone chargers under the brand Solarway. As a value addition, Solarway also offers an FM radio in its solar lamp apart from twin phone charging ports.

Anish Rajgopal, Founder Director of Chemtrols Solar, says, “Over the next couple of years we aim to offer the Indian consumer a pipeline of products which will stand out for their design, features and durability.” Clearly, this business segment has all the makings of a sunrise sector.