nutri'zaza - Squarespace

NUTRI’ZAZA Nutridev.org Door-to-door sales of ready-to-eat fortified porridge in Antananarivo slums, complemented by retail

KEY MARKETING, SALES AND COMPLIANCE INNOVATIONS

• Below-the-line (proximity) marketing has built a very strong brand for Koba Aina. Daily presence of sales ladies selling Koba Aina inside the baby restaurants and door-to-door, combined with free weekly weigh-in organized at the baby restaurants and more traditional promotional tools (packaging with slogan and mascot, branded clothes for salesforce…) have built a very strong brand awareness. In the neighborhoods visited by sales ladies, less marketing efforts are required because children are asking for Koba Aina. • Baby restaurants and sales agents have rooted Koba Aina in their neighborhoods and initial success now allows sales to grow via retail. The word has been spread from baby restaurant neighborhoods, and now retail accounts for 63% of Koba Aina sales.

PROJECT DESCRIPTION History of organization Nutridev program was founded in 1994 by Gret and IRD (Institut de Recherche pour le Développement), in partnership with local institutions. The goal of Nutridev is to define, launch pilot programs, then validate and scale up sustainable strategies to prevent malnutrition among underprivileged population and particularly children between 6 and 24 months. Nutridev launched its Malagasy project “Nutrimad” in 1994 with 2 components: rural and urban. After a three-year diagnosis phase, educational campaigns on nutrition were organized through health workers in rural areas. In urban areas, in addition to awareness campaigns, a new concept of baby restaurants (Hotelin-Jazakely) was tested in Antananarivo (2002), then duplicated in other urban areas. Nutrimad urban component has been turned into a social business named Nutri’zaza in September 2012. In addition to Gret, investors include TAF (the local producer of Koba Aina), SIDI and I&P (two French impact investment funds), and APEM (an association promoting entrepreneurship in Madagascar). Product/service offering and value proposition Nutri’Zaza sells Koba Aina, a local industrially produced infant flour made of corn, soy, rice, sugar, peanuts and fortified with vitamins and minerals. Koba Aina offers a complete meal matching local habits (in terms of preparation, food form…) and that especially answers mothers’ concern on the fact that product composition should match the future food that a Malagasy child will eat (rice from Madagascar). Children and mothers like the taste of “Koba Aina”. Koba Aina is provided into two forms: • Porridges sold door-to-door or at the baby restaurants by sales ladies (150 Ar, $0.07). Porridge sales account for 30% of total consumer sales volume. 80% of these sales are made through door-to-door, 20% at the baby restaurants. • 35g sachets of pre-cooked flour (for one meal) requiring 5 minutes of cooking, sold at baby restaurants (150 Ar) or in grocery stores (200 Ar, $0.09). Sachet sales account for 70% of total consumer sales volume. 90% of these sales are made by grocery stores, 10% at the baby restaurants.

77

CASE STUDIES

• Baby restaurants (named “Hotelin-Jazakely”) offer convenient solution for mothers in the form of ready-to-eat porridge sold via door-to-door or at the baby restaurant. The product “Koba Aina”, a ready-to-cook fortified flour (used in the preparation of the ready-to eat porridge), is quite similar to the traditional meal (“Vary sosoa”) and is very popular among children. In addition, mothers trust that added minerals and vitamins are good for their children. Consequently they are ready to pay 2.5 times the price of the regular unfortified rice flour to feed their children with Koba Aina. Koba Aina remains at least 3 times less expensive than other industrial products available on the market.

CASE STUDIES Promotion and compliance strategy • Product: A Mascot has been created to easily communicate about the brand and its values (quality, nutrition, local identity). The mascot is a bag of rice from Madagascar with a smiling face. The name Koba Aina (“Flour of life”), the slogan (“I love my child, I give him Koba Aina”) and other communication axes have also been chosen in adequacy with mothers’ perceptions and expectations regarding infant food. • Communication: Sales ladies are the main communication vector. Nutri’Zaza gives them Koba Aina branded hats and t-shirts ensuring easy identification in the streets. And most importantly, their daily arrival is announced by children shouting “Koba Aina” in the streets, and keeps the product and brand in the top of consumers’ mind. Awareness rate reaches extremely high level of 90% in and around baby restaurants areas. Baby restaurants are located in busy streets and are painted in conspicuous colors, with cartoons and health messages displayed on walls. Baby restaurants are places where sales ladies can organize free weigh-ins or animations. Initially, Nutri’Zaza used below-the-line promotion (through animations on main markets and door-to-door promotion) to create brand awareness and communicate its product’s benefits. Then, TV and radio advertising, coupled with nutrition education messages, enabled to generate additional sales by informing consumers of product availability in new neighborhoods. • Compliance: Baby restaurants (animations, free weigh-in) and sales ladies fieldwork have deeply rooted Koba Aina in the routine of their neighborhoods. The convenience offered by the daily door-to-door delivery system is a strong way to improve long-term adoption. Sales and distribution Sales ladies earn on average 100k Ar (~$45/month) selling through two channels. • Baby restaurant network (25 % of sales volume): in the 40 restaurants that are located in very poor neighborhoods, 1 or 2 sales ladies (60 in total) prepare and sell ready-to-eat porridge. Most of porridge sales actually take place in the daily early morning round when they carry an 8 kg thermos of warm porridge through three-hour walk in the slums. On average a sales lady sells porridge to 70 infants per day, mostly from D category (people living with ~ $0.4/day). The commission on their direct sales ranges (depending on their results) from 17% to 20%. • Grocery stores (41% of sales volume): grocery stores buy the product 150 Ar ($0.07) from sales ladies and sell it 200 Ar ($0.09), mostly targeting C category (people living with ~$1.2/day). The margin grocery stores make is significantly higher than for competing products, however sales volumes are still much lower. Sales ladies get a 17% commission on their sales to retailers (who make an average 25% margin). Nutri’Zaza also sells to social institutions (34% of sales volume) unbranded Koba Aina for 150 Ar. It allows reaching E category (people living with less than $0.19/day) through free or subsidized channels. Results • Scale: From February to September 2013 Nutri’Zaza sold around 1.4m meals to around 34,000 active consumers and another 800k to social institutions. • Social impact: 17% of infants in baby restaurants neighborhoods are regular consumers (more than 25 meals/months as per a study conducted by Gret). • Financial sustainability: Nutri’Zaza received investments of $509,000 (GRET: 34%, SIDI: 22%, I&P: 22%, TAF: 20%, APEM: 2%). Nutri’Zaza also received a $1.2m grant from AFD. Nutri’Zaza’s forecasted annual turnover for 2013 is $217,000 for a budget of $367 000. A business plan has been developed on 5 years and the break-even will be achievable with a network of around 100 baby restaurants.

78 MARKETING NUTRITION FOR THE BASE OF THE PYRAMID

NUTRI’ZAZA Future plans • By 2018 Nutri’Zaza wants to set up 60 new baby restaurants, hire 200 sales ladies, reach 150,000 children per year and reach break-even. • Nutri’Zaza is working on the launch of a new product targeting wealthier population (A & B categories) to compete with Farilac, one of the market leader on this segment. Nutri’Zaza aims to “cross subsidize” classic Koba Aina thanks to this premium product, improving the overall sustainability of the company.

Exchange rate for this case study: 1 USD = 2200 Ar Nutritional information (provided by the manufacturer): Koba Aina Valine

114.0

mg

Corn flour, soy flour, groundnut, rice flour, caster sugar, iodized salt, tricalcium phosphate, Nutridev1 vitamin and mineral complexes

Ascorbic acid

6.0

mg

Vitamin A

114.0

μg eq.retinol

Energy: 359,92 kcal / 100 g Average composition for 100 kcal:

Vitamin C

30.6

mg

Vitamin D

25.0

UI

Thiamine

80.0

μg

Riboflavin

80.0

μg

Vitamin B6

100.0

μg

Nicotinamide

1380.0

μg

Vitamin B12

0.12

μg

Folic Acid

19.0

μg

Pantothenic acid

160.0

μg

Vitamin E

4.3

UI

Vitamin K1

3.3

μg

Biotin

0.65

μg

CASE STUDIES

Ingredients:

Crude proteins

5.5

g

Digestible proteins

2.75

g

Lipids

2.33

g

Sodium

74.0

mg

Potassium

109.0

mg

Calcium

60.0

mg

Chlorine

81.0

mg

Phosphor

45.0

mg

Iron

6.25

mg

Magnesium

25.0

mg

Copper

120.0

μg

Iodine

51.0

μg

Zinc

2270.0

μg

Sources:

Manganese

340.0

μg

Selenium

5.7

μg

Field visits in Antananarivo, 26-29 August, 2013. Interview with Nutri’Zaza team

Linolenic acid

60.0

mg

Linoleic acid

400.0

mg

Histidine

34.0

mg

Isoleucine

86.0

mg

Leucine

197.0

mg

Lysine

126.0

mg

Methionine+cystine

71.0

mg

Phenyalanine+Tyrosine

152.0

mg

Threonine

106.0

mg

Tryptophan

21.0

mg

Contact person for the project: Mieja Vola Rakotonarivo, CEO: [email protected]

79