The rural consumer is a much-researched entity worldwide. This month, academic Vijay Mahajan has put out some insights in his piece “How Unilever reaches rural consumers in emerging markets”. In India the company’s Shakti project stood out for engaging with women’s self-help groups. Over the years it has tweaked the strategy to extend it to Bangladesh, Vietnam, Sri Lanka and Egypt among other countries. Less known is how it used mobile technology to its advantage. An audio entertainment programme was created using the typical desi formula of ‘missed call’. To promote its Active Wheel detergent, it asked people to call a number that cut off after two rings and hence cost the consumer nothing. The person then received an automatic free callback that provided entertaining dialogues by Salman Khan and advertisement jingles for Wheel. In four months the company received 16 million calls and detergent sales tripled in the region, proving that innovation is the key.

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