d.

light Design
• Solar lamps designed by Sam Goldman and
Ned Tozun of d.school, Stanford GSB.
 The need for solar lamps
The issues being addressed by d.light are:
• Significant size of population does not have access to
electricity grid
• Kerosene lamps are used for light. Kerosene refuelling
is expensive.
• Kerosene lamps are unsafe as they emit soot which is
harmful for health. There is also the risk of lamp
breaking can causing fire.
• Work constraints for adults and study constraints for
children
 d.light products
• Nova – Flagship product of d.light. It is a
powerful spotlight that gives out 6 hours of
bright light on full charge and can even charge
phones. Comes with a separate solar panel for
charging. Price is INR 1699.
• Mini Nova – Solar lamp with built in solar
panel that gives out light for 8 hours of full
charge. Price is INR 549.
 d.Light value proposition
• 6-8 hours of better, bright light on a single
charge
• Cost – A one time cost only. Highly cost
effective in the long run
• Customers were able to work longer hours at
night. Children could study 2-4 times longer.
• Safe – No risk of fire or soot
 Some info
• Most Indian lived in rural areas with population 5k or
less – demand will be fragmented
• Income is seasonal and not like salaried – so target
when they have money
• Naturally the population is mostly illiterate.Lit rate is
68% OA and 58% for women
• Kerosene and fuel&light expense for 1st and 2nd
quintile is almost same despite huge income
difference. This implies that around INR 150/month is
subsistence level expenses
 What dlight needs to do
Educate rural people about harm of k lamps and
benefits of dlight. Create demand (trial, creative
seminar to be thought of, ngo or brand
partnership)
Create trust and build brand (NGO or brand,
demos)
Bring affordability at given price point
Decide channel of dist
 Channel alignment constraints
• Poor transportation infra – roads etc. are terrible
• Education is not there – so cost of making them aware of
harm of kerosene and benefits of dlight. Also usage and
user manual and maintenance cant be done by them, they
need to be taught
• Lack of media devices and infra – i.e. cant mass advertise
and be done with it. (rural has 39% newspaper, 48% radio
and 63% TV)
• Low income – means some of the channels of prob like
central cant be adopted bcoz they don’t have the money to
travel
 Prob with bpcl
We still don’t know who the target segment of
bpcl is? Generic audience? All we know is that
these people have stoves.does that mean that
they are well off and have electricity grid access.
If yes, do they really need dlight.
Also, not all customers come to the centre. Some
have their gas delivered by delivery man. Also
those who come may not necessarily visit the
store.
 b
But we do need at least one branded or stable
center like maybe BPCL centres which can act for
service centres, query handling and other issues.
Channel alignment constraints leading to
demand side misalignments
 Rural Entrepreneurs channel
• Motivation and professionalism to sell in REs is not as high as professional
salespersons. So if demand is not there, or REs are not able to generate it
over long periods of time, then the channel may not be that effective.
• They did not respond to incentives as strongly as professional salespeople
• To reach REs, i.e. setting up distribution points from where they can collect
goods, required a network of distributors and logistics companies. While
channel effectiveness may go up, control and efficiency goes down.
• REs were not as practised at handling large sums of money. So receiving
payments could be a difficult and expensive process. For a startup with
limited funds looking to be profitable quickly, it doesn’t have the leeway to
lock up revenue as Accounts receivables. Also, the cost of procurement of
money itself is also an issue.
 Village Retailer channel
• High costs of transportation as it also uses hub and
spoke model. This may result in higer product price
• Retailers can sell regular FMCG products but may not
be able to sell consumer durables, which required
more of push selling
• 26% of TV sales happened from rural areas, but only
4% of users bought thought village retailers. This is
because they seek greater variety of in big towns and
cities. (This may not be a problem for dlight as it only
as 2 variants as far as variety is concerned)
 Centralized Shops channel
• Lack of personal selling – explanation or demos in such stores
• People who could travel to such shops may have more
purchasing power, and may not help in dlights mission of
doing good as economically weakest sections are left behind

• However, haats can be a perfect avenue. Because here people

are open to new products and dlight and explain and
demonstrate about their products.
• Hypermarts, which are located on major roads to villages,
may also work.
 What dlight needs to do
Educate rural people about harm of k lamps and
benefits of dlight. Create demand (trial, creative
seminar to be thought of, ngo or brand
partnership)
Create trust and build brand (NGO or brand,
demos)
Bring affordability at given price point
Decide channel of dist
 Channels dlight should adopt
• Nonprofits – SHGs, Coops etc. – trust, reach and
purchasing power
• Village retailers – one stable point of sale and
where there is financial and sales
professionalism. They need to incentivized
though. And here is where we can add our
financing options for purchase for BPL
customers.
• Haats – creative demos, awareness
 Financial projections for 1 year st

• Target Segment:
2nd and 3rd quintile population that doesn’t have
access to electricity gird = 20250000 households
• Assumption:
– 0.5% of target market captured (2nd and 3rd quintile)
– 0.01% of households captured from remaining
quintiles
– 90% of the sales are of Mini Nova and 10% of Nova
 Financial projections for 1 year st

Operating expenses - ₹ 1,90,19,000

Total profit Margin from sales = ₹ 1,54,62,090
Total Loss in 1st year = ₹ 35,56,910
We will be profitable from 2nd year onwards
 Why these channels weren’t chosen
• REs – because even if you train them, there motivation is
limited as they are not sales/business people. They also
don’t provide stable point of sales and professionalism.
Cost is also high
• Central shop – not proactive and out of reach of a lot of
poor people. No scope of awareness or demos. Shop
owner will sell high margin products. We’d rather use
retailers who also provide professionalism and stable point
of sale
• Corporate piggybacking – honestly, not enough info given
on this
 Financing
SHGs:
No financing because of pooled money purchasing
power
Village Retailers:
Mini Nova – INR 140/month for 4 months (optional)
Nova – Available on instalments (0 real interest rate)
Haats:
No financing. More of a promotional event