Good Stove - Project Experience

2007-03-21T09:14:00.000-07:00

Here I am sharing the the Good Stove Project experience analysis http://e-adptstoves.blogspot.com by Cornelio Torrijos, A marketing practitioner as one of the case studies to explain the four P's of marketing by Kotler - Product, Price, Place
and Promotions. Also the three A's: Awareness, Acceptance and Accessibility. Ref: Stoves Digest, Vol 9, Issue 13, www.bioenergylists.org.

Message: 2
Date: Fri, 9 Mar:50:27 +0800
From: "cornelio torrijos" <cctorrijos@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Stoves] Billion Stoves Program
To: "Discussion of biomass cooking stoves" <stoves@listserv.repp.org>
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<f7179d910703090750w70e5e197s61e4ce941869f4ff@mail.gmail.com>
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Hello Dr. N. Sai Bhaskar Reddy,

As a marketing practitioner I thoroughly enjoyed the instructive and useful
information contained in your report. I am not an engineer and so my
comments are not about technical stove matters.

Allow me make comments on what I found most instructive:

"Intensive awareness on the need to adopt efficient stoves was created
through local folk plays, wall writings and paintings."

Awareness -- this is the primary objective of most advertising and marketing
communications, awareness of the problem and the possible solution/s. In a
way advertising or marketing educates and prepares the target consumer/user.
Advertising stimulates desire.

The target audience was made aware about the "need to adopt efficient
stoves" in very creative ways -- 'local folk plays', and "wall writings and
paintings." not expensive mass media but direct and effective use of what is
otherwise known as "graffiti. Someone else in this forum suggested comics
which is the printed form of "wall writings and paintings." A picture is
often worth a thousand words.Wall paintings are also ike billboards.

"Once community started understanding, on pilot basis seven households in
each village were selected and on demand basis the Good Stoves were
constructed, replacing the old stoves."

"On demand basis" -- Marketing philosophy is serving consumer needs and
wants. Continuing and repeat demand is what sustains the production of a
product and income for producers/marketers.

"In the process it was found that women who were ready for adopting the Good
stoves were literate and were young and middle aged."

Identifying the most likely adoptors is key for when the promotion or
extension process is intensified and extended to other areas. There are
primary and secondary target segments in a population. Some are more willing
than others to adopt changes.

"Other problems, which they were facing was shortage of fuelwood (especially
in Srirangapur Village)."

This takes advantage of a local situation where the need for greater fuel
efficiency was a motivating factor for change.

"Other attractive adoptability factors were, low cost of the stove as the
raw material required was locally available (bricks, clay and dung) and easy
to construct and maintain..."

A great way to make the price right -- production in the community, use of
locally available raw materials. Here the project motivation is not profit
for a city based industrial producer but community service which included
profit for the local producer.

"...if trained once, efficiency (25-30% fuel wood is conserved as compared
to old stoves for the same amount of cooking over older stoves), good heat
transfer, less hazardous as all the flames and embers are contained in the
stove and more importantly very less smoke is released as compared to their
older traditional stoves."

In the participatory process, the benefits of the improved stoves are made
better known to the user through training. Yes, there is smoke but the smoke
is less. Also, the technical subject of heat transfer was explained more
fully in their own language and not simply as an efficiency number. No
transportation constraints or costs with local production and sales. No city
businessman makes millions of dollars of profit either. Just plain local
production for local consumption -- a concept being promoted by the
International Labor Organization (ILO).

"Three months was the pilot field testing phase during this period
improvement in the design was made based on the continuous feed back from
the women."

It takes some humility for some scientists and experts from afar to desire
feedback from others less educated. But feedback was good because it led to
better design and greater fit or suitability of the product to the end
consumer/user. We are back to the marketing philosophy.
What a great pleasure for me to read the report for its marketing content.
The four P's of marketing by Kotler came alive here -- product, price, place
and promotions. Also the three A's: awareness, acceptance and accessibility.
In accessibility the key principle is "bring the product within arms' length
of desire."

More success to you and your team.

Cornel

On 3/9/07, Saibhaskar Nakka <saibhaskarnakka@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Dear All,
>
> The idea of Dr. Tom Reed's Billion Stoves Program is very challenging and
> an
> urgent task to mitigate Global Warming / Climate change or variability /
> sustainable agriculture / biomass conservation and apart from Women and
> Children health issues. It is observed that due to increasing fuel prices
> and shortage of electricity there is growing demand for biomass and
> charcoal
> from urban areas and industries, which we have seen happening presently in
> our villages.
>
> Regarding achieving the Billion Stoves Program, it is a huge task, if we
> want to achieve sustainability in adoptation of efficient stoves. Through
> grant or subsidy we could provide efficient stoves, but from earlier
> experiences such projects were a great failure and people resorted back to
> their own traditional stoves. Here in this blog (includes two posters), I
> am
> sharing our project experience with community where 70% families in two
> villages have adapted efficient stoves. PARTICIPATORY PROCESSES IN
> COMMUNITY
> ADAPTATION OF EFFICIENT STOVES
> <http://e-adptstoves.blogspot.com/> http://e-adptstoves.blogspot.com/
>http://e-goodstove.blogspot.com

> Hoping this experience will be useful for designing a practical plan for
> achieving Billion Stoves Program. It is estimated that India alone
> requires
> about 120 million stoves.
>
> With Regards,
>
>
> Dr. N. Sai Bhaskar Reddy

STOVES MARKETING

Good Stove - Project Experience