Marketing of tomorrow‘s Jute Product - Jute Geotextiles

Ansoff Matrix to analyse market opportunities for jute products   Product   Market Existing Product New Product Low Risk Present Market Market Penetration (Expand existing market with existing product) Hessian / Sacking / Other conventional products. Product Development (Develop new product for existing market) Home Textiles, Made Ups, Gifts & Life Style Products. High Risk New Market Market Development (Sell existing product in new market) Yarn / Food Grade Jute Products / Shopping & Hand bags / Floor Coverings / Speciality Hessian & Value-added Jute Fabrics. Diversification (Develop new product to sell in new market) Technical textile products like Jute Geotextiles (JGT) / Jute Agro-textiles (JAT) / Jute composites Low Risk High Risk

Change required in Product Mix Product Category Existing Mix Future Mix Sacking 67% 40 % Hessian 14 % 10 % Yarn 6 % Others (including JDPs) 11% 20 % Non-conventional value-added Items (like Jute Geotextiles (JGT) / Jute Agro-textiles (JAT) / Jute composites) 2 % The future product mix thus projects significant increase in the market of Non-conventional value-added Items like Technical Textiles of which Jute Geotextiles is the most significant product.

Market Potential Exploration Jute Geotextiles is definitely not the panacea of all soil related problems Some applications are clearly suited to jute, Other applications are more easily satisfied by the other types of geotextiles The strategy should therefore be to identify the potential areas for application of JGT and direct the promotional / marketing effort accordingly.

Market Potential Exploration The salient properties which determine the effectiveness of a geotextiles are: water holding capacity, Improved growing opportunities for vegetation the thickness and roughness of fibres and yarns, their orientation across the slope and installation procedures which do not disturb the site. Completely bio-degradable These properties are in favour of application of JGT for surface soil erosion control.

Market Potential Exploration JGT helps improve, as a change agent, the geotechnical properties of the soil on which these are applied. JGT, being permeable, allows the water retained within soil to permeate across its plane and also to disperse water along its plane. The porometry of JGT is also the determinant in retention of soil-particles on which it is laid. No need for post-application waste removal because of the bio-degradability These properties are in favour of application of JGT in strengthening of road sub-grades, railway track stabilization and consolidation of soft soil.

Suggested Strategy Plan for marketing of Jute Geotextiles 1 Government Thrust The Government in India and Bangladesh should promote the usage of JGT in domestic civil engineering projects given its environmentally friendly attributes and it is suggested to frame a congenial policy frame work to promote use of JGT in government projects where it deems fit.

Issues to be addressed in the Desired Policy Framework Usage policies do not cite use of JGT specifically and have left its use up to the discretion of contractors Incentive to lower road maintenance / river bank / hill slope protection cost Some application may not be significantly financially beneficial but have environmental benefits and hence can’t be left to the discretion of the users Inclusion in Schedule of Rates (SoR) in different states

National Rural Road Development Agency (NRRDA) has issued a guideline to the State Rural Road Development Agencies in India for use of Jute Geotextiles for R & D purpose for which use of 15 % of the total length of the projects has been made mandatory. WBSRRDA has identified 5 districts for this R & D initiative.

Status of inclusion of JGT in SoR PW (Roads) Directorate in West Bengal has included two items viz, 724 gsm woven JGT (developed under CFC/IJSG/21 project) for strengthening of road sub-grade and 500 gsm Open Weave JGT in its SoR. Irrigation & Waterways (I&W) Department, Govt. of West Bengal has included 1200 gsm woven bitumen treated JGT as an item of work in its Schedule of Rates for river bank erosion control work. Inclusion of 627 gsm woven JGT (developed under CFC/IJSG/21 project) treated with natural additive is under active consideration of the department to include in their SoR. Indian Railways has also incorporated 3 types of open weave JGT in their Unified SoR.

Suggested Strategy Plan 2 Production and Streamlining of JGT Supply Chain The production front of the industry supplying JGT has to be streamlined so as to provide timely supply of quality materials to the end users. Identification of few small scale units with necessary infrastructure capability of supplying different categories of geotextiles will provide the desired boost to the production base.

Newly designed JGT supplied by following Jute Mills in India Sl. No. DW Plain Weave Jute Geotextiles Open Weave Jute Geotextiles 1 Gloster Limited 2 Reliance Jute Mills (International) Ltd. 3 Ludlow Jute & Specialties Ltd. Naffar Chanda Jute Mills Ltd. 4 Birla Jute Mills Bristi Vinimay Pvt. Ltd 5 Hastings Jute Mills 6 Hukumchand Jute Mills 7 Cheviot Co. Ltd. 8 Shree Gouri Shankar Jute Mills Ltd. 9 Ambica Multifibres Ltd. 10 Naihati Jute Mills 11 Shri Krishna Jute Mills, Elluru 12 Tripura Jute Mills

AGENT FOR JGT SALES AND DISTRIBUTION TRADER / IMPORTER Jute Geotextiles: channels for information, decision-making and physical movement JGT MANUFACTURER SPECIALIST CONSULTING ENGINEER FOR PREPARATION OF DPR AGENT FOR JGT SALES AND DISTRIBUTION TRADER / IMPORTER CLIENT Public authority or private enterprise MAIN CONTRACTOR SUBCONTRACTOR Straight lines indicate channel of distribution for Domestic Market. Broken lines indicate channel of distribution for International Market.

Agent for JGT sales and distribution JGT market like SGT market is so fragmented that the process of Direct Marketing (i.e. sale without an intermediary) by Mill Companies may not be a feasible proposition and the process of clinching sale through an intermediary would be a better option. Therefore, with the advent of JGT marketing agent for JGT sales and distribution will soon emerge.

The main problems to be faced in JGT marketing Non availability of JGT products off the shelve Fluctuation in price of JGT Lead time of delivery (order to delivery time span) should not exceed 30 days

Suggested Strategy Plan 3 Technical Specifications & Standardisation Although the customer requirement would vary since the applications are site specific, some sort of standardisation and specification of the material is the basic requirement for the healthy growth of the product. Application wise specifications may be drawn out broadly to provide guidance to the manufacturers as also to the users.

JGT Standardization Status in India 3 Standards drafted by NJB & IJIRA on guidelines for use of JGT for i) rain water erosion control in slope of railway and road embankments & hill slope ii) for rural road construction & iii) river bank erosion control have been published by BIS “Rural Roads Manual” (IRC: SP – 20 : 2002) published by Indian Roads Congress (page 77 – 78). “Guidelines for Earthwork in Railway Projects” (Guideline No. GE: G-1), 2003 published by R.D.S.O., Ministry of Railway, Govt. of India. CEN 189 authority in Belgium would not consider any proposal for international standards without standardisation of the product in the proponent countries.

Suggested Strategy Plan 4 Promotion & Events Unfamiliarity with JGT and insufficient clarity on technical specifications are presently the important bottlenecks for large scale application of JGT. Some misconceptions about the bio-degradability of Jute and lack of awareness are also impeding the growth of the use of Jute geo-textiles.

To work out a successful strategy for building awareness and acceptability for JGT, we need to learn from the success story of synthetic geotextiles and asses their appropriateness for Jute Geotextiles. The most important factor would be the extent of success in convincing the Principal Commissioning Authority / Engineering Communities on the advantages of JGT through research / application findings on the efficacy of the new product.

Target audience Road construction administrations at national, regional and local levels; 2) Local Government Bodies concerned with landscaping and minor refurbishment works, coastal protection and other public works; 3) Railway administrations; 4) Waterways authorities; 5) Central and State Government Departments dealing with energy, environment, transport, etc. The organisations targeted are National Rural Road Development Agency & State Rural Road Development Agencies Ministry of Environment & Forest Ministry of Road Transport & Highways Ministry of Water Resources

During the project period PEA has so far organized 69 Promotion Programmes / Awareness Workshops at different parts of India and overseas. The focus of the Awareness Workshops would, henceforth, be on middle level engineers of Panchayet and Rural Development, PWD, Irrigation Departments as well as practicing civil engineers and jute technologists. PEA in association with DJFT, CU (IJT) has decided to organise quarterly awareness course on Jute Geotextiles for endusing organisations in India. The course will start from the month of April 2014.

The end-users product knowledge sequence for JGT NEEDS BENEFITS ADVANTAGES FEATURES

The selling sequence for Jute Geotextiles OBJECTIONS BENEFITS ADVANTAGES FEATURES Let user object Lead to benefit Explain advantage Show feature

Type of objections commonly raised by JGT users Need Objection Product/ Technology Objection Price Objection Supply Objection Time Objection Source Objection

Selling process of JGT Locating and qualifying prospective user Pre-approach Approach Handling objection User’s need analysis Presentation and interaction Follow up

It is proven that finding out a new customer is five times more costlier than tying up an existing customer. The customer retention would therefore be an important aspect in JDP promotion. Since customers seldom volunteer to inform their reasons for dissatisfaction, it becomes duty of the supplier to capture the voice of customers and to redress just-in-time their grievances, if any, before they silently drift out.

Four different mental make-ups of prospective JGT users No Need No Want No Money No Hurry

Venturesome (2½%) – Newness is obsession /off-beat Early adopters (13½%) – Opinion leaders. Market begin to accept Early Majority (34%) – acceptance becomes widespread Late Majority (34%) – Purchase only on economic reasons Laggards (16%) – Reluctant adopters or traditionalists. By this time the product is beginning to be superseded by something else Non adopters - never buy / use the product

Last but not the least Our marketing endeavor in promoting Jute Geotextiles should be all out, consistent and not sporadic.

JGT marketing is nobody’s business JGT marketing is nobody’s business. This is everybody’s business (all stakeholders in jute sector).

Good Luck