Godrej to fuel up its GTM mission with expanding its sales footprint
Godrej Consumer Goods (GCPL) is on a go-to-market (GTM) mission, to extend its total sales footprint to 1.5 million direct penetration channels from 1.2 million in 2-3 years, as well as to increase indirect coverage to 7 million from 6 million.
Sunil Kataria, the company’s CEO (India & Saarc), stated that the target is to expand consistently in solid double-digits over 3-4 years.
GCPL is using digital platforms and is using innovations as a crucial differentiator as part of its current GTM plan to keep ahead of the game as developments threatens the GTM environment, according to Kataria. Since the pandemic, developments in user behaviour have accelerated GCPL’s attempts to transform the GTM and to make it future-ready.
“We want to make sure, we have an omni-channel approach because today’s customer is playing with shopping across platforms. In both, urban and rural platforms, we’re reinventing the way we do business. Although we are expanding coverage and penetration in rural areas, we want to increase the quality of expansion in urban areas,” Kataria saidAlso, as eB2B has become more common, the most important shift is the advent of an omni-channel customer,” Kataria added.
In an e-commerce platform, a customer might learn about a product and read comprehensive feedback before buying it or going to a local store to purchase it. The customer can also order the same product from an app from a separate supermarket channel or purchase it in a modern trade store.
Although there will be overlaps now, Kataria believes that in 18-20 months, it will be possible to predict which omni-channel will be indexed against — general trade, modern trade, or e-commerce. GCPL is investing in developing an analytics backbone because data would become the main differentiator in an omni-channel world.
E-commerce is the main outlet for GCPL in India, and it functions as a separate business entity with its own P&L. The goal, according to Kataria, is to be flexible in a fast-changing channel. It is expected to increase to 5% this year. In the future, Kataria expects from e-commerce to account for 8-10% of our revenue.
GCPL is now expanding its network of chemists.Having named over 400 dealers and acquiring 50,000 chemist outlets, nowIt’s also establishing a technology base for the pharmaceutical industry.
“In the chemist channel, we were previously under-leveraged. We now have the portfolio to take advantage of the chemist channel,” Kataria said. GCPL also has a wide selection of grooming products to drive through the chemist channel, including handwash, health soap, disinfectant sprays, surface and skin wipes, all under the Godrej Protekt brand.
In the last year, the organisation added about 3,000 rural counter sub-stockists, and has increased its network by 30 percent. Village coverage has increased to about 70,000, with Kataria predicting that it will reach one lakh in a few years. GCPL is now transforming the delivery software by moving it to a cloud-based system, where everything is managed remotely and data is reassigned.
GCPL has begun monitoring tertiary revenues in rural areas, making it the first FMCG organisation to do so, according to Kataria. In addition, GCPL has placed about 90 salesmen in Mumbai on third-party rolls as part of a pilot project to obtain greater leverage over business execution. This is based on a crucial takeaway from the pandemic, when salespeople were unexpectedly in short supply. GCPL intends to expand the pilot project to other top metros based on what it learns from it.
Under the double-digit growth rate goal, Kataria expects the GTM transition to contribute a 2-3 percent delta.
