Solar Energy Marketing Project

GO SOLAR

Index

Marketing Environment...............................................1 Solar power......................................................................................................................................2 Product Feature................................................................................................................................3 Pakistan environment for solar energy converters...........................................................................4 Punjab......................................................................................................................................4 Sindh........................................................................................................................................5 NORTH WEST FRONTIER PROVINCE...............................................................................6 BALOUCHISTAN...................................................................................................................7 Total Pakistan showing target market......................................................................................8 CATEGORY WISE CONSUMER................................................................9

Consumers market and buying behavior.........................................................10 The Consumer Market...................................................................................................................10 Consumer Decision making...........................................................................................................11 SOCIAL INFLUENCES................................................................................................................12 Psychological Factors....................................................................................................................14

The process of market Segmentation..............................................15 Consumer market...........................................................................................................................16 Business markets...........................................................................................................................16 Target market.................................................................................................................................16 Positioning.....................................................................................................................................17

MARKET RESEARCH..........................................................................................19 OBJECTIVES OF MARKETING RESEARCH...........................................................................19 SOURCES OF RESEARCH INFORMATION.............................................................................20 MARKETING RESEARCH PROJECT........................................................................................20

Marketing Environment Macro influence is of two types • •

External macro environment Internal macro environment

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GO SOLAR External Macro Environment: • Demographics • Economic conditions • Competition • Social and cultural forces • Political and legal forces • Technology These external forces are dynamic forces-that is they are subject to changed and at an increasing rate. These forces are largely uncontrollable by the management but they are not totally uncontrollable. Let me explain these external macro environmental factors one by one.

Demographics

Demographics refer to the characteristics of populations, including such factors as size, distributions, and growth. As for as our product is concerned, we classify the demographics of our population on the basis of climate of Pakistani territory and availability of electricity.

Solar power Solar power is the technology of obtaining usable energy from the light of the sun. Solar energy has been used in many traditional technologies for centuries and has come into widespread use where other power supplies are absent. For example in remote locations, and in space.Pakistan being unlucky country with regards to fuel reserves has to switch over to solar energy ultimately for its ever growing needs. According to energy experts, with the current rate of supplies, the total reserves of oil and gas in Pakistan will last 12 years, coal will take 200 years to exhaust which can face tough resistance from environmentalists while hydro power can meet one-fifth of the

Present needs. With this situation, for the requirements of 14 million people living in cities and villages of Pakistan should adopt renewable energy.

Among renewable energy, solar energy is the most abundant and widely spread in Pakistan.

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GO SOLAR At present, Pakistan faces serious energy problems: significant part of its electricity generation comes from hydropower, which becomes less productive during the driest, hottest months of the year and cannot keep pace with the sharp rise in energy demand. If the current growth trend in the energy supply and demand continues then it is estimated that Pakistan would be facing a shortage of 31 percent of energy by the year 2020, which will seriously affect the balance of payment position of the country and would make it difficult for the economy to continue moving on the present growth trajectory. On the other hand, Pakistan covers 796,095 square kilometers of land between

latitudes 24° and 36° north and longitudes 61° and 76° east. That means solar

energy has excellent potential in central parts of Pakistan that receive high levels of solar radiation throughout the year. Every day, for example, the country receives an average of about 19 mega joules per square meter of solar energy. The total amount of solar energy incepted by the earth every minute is greater than the amount of energy the world uses in fossils and fuels each year. Solar power is pollution free during use. Production end wastes and emissions are manageable using existing pollution controls. Solar electric generation is economically competitive where grid connection or fuel transport is difficult, costly or impossible. Examples include satellites, island communities, remote locations and ocean vessels.

Product Feature High efficiency modules and laminates with laser grooved buried-grid monocrystalline silicon cells for maximum energy density.

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GO SOLAR • • • • • •

Designed for maximum reliability and minimum maintenance. Produced using in-house technology in cell manufacturing and encapsulation. Highly resistant to water, abrasion, hail impact another environmental factors. Lightweight anodized aluminum frame or laminate only version available. All proven products. Only materials with extensive field experience used. Designed and manufactured to comply with European and International standards. European specification IEC/1215. • 20 year product warranty

Pakistan environment for solar energy converters The PAKISTAN consists of four major provinces

• Punjab • Sindh • North west frontier province • Balouchistan Let me explain the statistics of these provinces regarding temperature one by one.

Punjab

Station /MEAN

OF

MAXIMUM Year

Faisalabad

Lahore

Multan

Bahawalpur 4

GO SOLAR 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005

30.9 29.8 31.1 30.3 28.1 29.8 30.1 30.5 31.0 29.9 Name Distribution Company

30.4 28.6 30.8 31.1 30.9 30.7 31.1 30.0 30.8 29.9

32.5 30.9 32.7 33.2 33.3 32.8 33.5 32.7 33.1 31.7

32.8 31.6 33.4 33.6 33.7 33.7 34.5 33.5 34.3 32.7

of Area of Jurisdiction

LESCO

Sheikhupura , Kasur , Lahore , Okara .

GEPCO

Gujranwala, Sialkot, Mandi Bahauddin , Hafizabad , Narowal , Gujrat .

FESCO

Faisalabad , Sargodha , Khushab , Jhang , Toba Tek Singh , Bhalwal , Mianwali , Bhakkar Districts of Punjab Province .

IESCO

Islamabad , Rawalpindi , Attock , Jhelum , Chakwal .

MEPCO

Rahim Yar Khan , Multan , Khanewal , Sahiwal, Pakpattan , Vehari , Muzaffargarh , Dera Ghazi Khan , Leiah , Rajan Pur , Bahawalpur , Lodhran , Bahawalnagar .

Sindh

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GO SOLAR

Year 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 HESCO

Jacobabad 34.0 32.5 32.7 34.6 35.2 35.2 35.2 34.2 35.0 33.4

Nawabshah 35.5 34.4 35.9 36.0 35.9 36.5 37.4 35.9 37.2 35.6

Hyderabad 33.8 32.8 34.2 34.1 34.4 33.7 35.0 34.0 35.1 33.8

Karachi 32.0 30.8 33.0 32.8 32.3 32.7 32.2 32.8 33.5 32.2

Whole Province of Sindh except Karachi where KESC is responsible for distribution of power .

NORTH WEST FRONTIER PROVINCE

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GO SOLAR

PESCO

Whole Province of NWFP .

BALOUCHISTAN

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GO SOLAR Year 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005

QESCO

Quetta 24.7 24.0 29.3 26.8 23.6 21.1 28.3 26.3 27.6 23.9

Zhob 28.2 26.7 27.4 30.1 27.9 28.9 27.9 26.8 28.2 29.4

Khuzdar 29.0 27.7 30.1 28.8 28.8 30.7 29.6 29.1 30.5 30.8

Whole Province of Balochistan .

Total Pakistan showing target market

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GO SOLAR

LENGTH OF HT/LT LINES As On : 31/10/2006

COMPANIES

HT (KM)

LT (KM)

LESCO

22789

14020

GEPCO

17922

15376

FESCO

30611

18957

IESCO

18690

21441

MEPCO

53174

32080

PESCO

28743

39498

HESCO

41278

20161

QESCO

15913

8491

TESCO

7150

6370

CATEGORY WISE CONSUMER Agriculture 42654 Tube Well

27135

26173

6086

51614

24306

23081

18827

8273

228149

Bulk Supply

475

109

178

743

372

795

732

184

53

3641

Bulk Supply (K)

0

10

0

76

0

23

0

0

0

109

Co13 Generation

0

0

0

3

0

0

0

0

16

Commercial 425555

230158

261559

256025

342921

236673

233587

80860

28275

2095613

Domestic

1805987

2010813

1430060

2719196

1882938

1102486

326367

249151

13688475

2161477

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GO SOLAR Industrial

56863

40820

33939

10376

34239

22071

20691

2767

3977

225743

Public Lighting

1392

329

1088

1181

967

755

788

173

0

6673

Railway Traction

4

0

0

0

4

0

0

0

0

8

Resident Coly.

170

13

83

40

94

45

97

3

0

545

TOTAL

26,88,60 3

21,04,56 1

23,33,83 3

17,04,58 7

31,49,41 0

21,67,60 6

13,81,46 2

4,29,181 2,89,729 1,62,48,972

Inflation: Yearly Inflation Rates of Pakistan ( 1990-91 = 100) Inflation Rates based on Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI), Consumer Price Index (CPI) and Wholesale Price Index (WPI)

Period

SPI

CPI

WPI

1995-1996

10.71

10.79

11.10

1996-1997

12.45

11.80

13.01

1997-1998

7.35

7.81

6.58

1998-1999

6.44

5.74

6.35

1999-2000

1.83

3.58

1.77

2000-2001

4.84

4.41

6.21

2001-2002

3.37

3.54

2.08

2002-2003

3.58

3.10

5.57

2003-2004

6.83

4.57

7.91

2004-2005

11.55

9.28

6.75

2005-2006

7.02

7.92

10.10

Consumers market and buying behavior The Consumer Market Consumers buy things for their own personal and household use. In Pakistan their are more than 145.5 million ( www.pap.org.pk ) consumers now.

Geographic Distribution:

There are about 19211738 ( www.statpak.gov.pk ) house holds in Pakistan and there are 6.80 individuals in each home on the average and the persons per room are 3.13. and the growth rate of Pakistan is 2.1( www.pap.org.pk ). This is a very high rate of growth of

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GO SOLAR population. We can expect that as a big market of solar energy converters. We can distinguish the population in levels 1. Rural population, 2. The urban population

Rural Population: The 67.5 % population of Pakistan is living in rural areas. Their major earning factors are agricultural activities, jobs in cities, jobs in army, small shops in rural areas and etc. Also in many rural areas of Pakistan the electricity is not available. If it is available in some areas then it is going be to expensive to be afford by rural area’s people. We can focus on these rural areas. We can motivate them to buy our products because after buying the solar energy products they will not have to pay heavy electricity bills. Moreover in many rural areas people have to go to nearly towns to pay electricity bills if they are given electricity. This is a big problem for rural areas people. To motivate them our mobile team can go to almost very village and tell the people the importance of the solar energy converters they can tell the benefits of using solar energy converters and we should keep on communicating with them. Remember that people are interested deeply in that thing which they see working in front of them so we can show them some equipment working live. I can say here that rural areas of Pakistan are a big market of solar energy converters.

The Urban Population: About 32.5% of population of Pakistan is living in urban areas. We can see that in Pakistan there is a severe summer and winter season. People use Electric heaters in winter and airconditioners in summer season to escape from the violence of season. Major population of Pakistan belongs to middle and lower middle class and electricity is more expensive in Pakistan. People of the urban areas have to pay electricity, telephone, water bills. Some have to pay their monthly house rents. Some additional expenses such as High tuition fee of children, constantly increasing inflation rate, low increase in wages, dependent parents, brother & sisters and parents, health care expenses, etc. It is very difficult for a middle class person to bear all these expenses at time. Therefore we can focus on this middle class people to attract our products which can escape them from high electricity bills. This middle class population can easily be convinced for buying our products. We just have to tell them that this is the cheapest way of getting electricity.

Consumer Decision making To purchase any thing a consumer has to make some decisions. The consumer goes through a series of logical decisions. Since our product is about solar energy product so there should need recognition in the consumer's mind. Identification of alternatives consumer will know the alternatives of our products. Evaluation of alternatives If there will any alternative they will try to choose the best alternative. Decisions Now consumer will make a decision and will buy our product Post purchase behavior will consumer satisfy with our product after purchasing? Loyalty There will no loyalty with our products because it comes after past experience. Now I will discuss the points discussed above:

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GO SOLAR Recognition of Unsatisfied Need: In Pakistan there is a great need of solar energy

converters because in Pakistan there is a lot of sunlight. More over in some regions the electricity is not available and if available it is very expensive, so by declaring these arguments we have to create a need of solar energy converters among the people that it is a part of their life. Remember it is a totally new thing for them therefore they will hesitate but its benefits will force them to recognize it as a need. Identification of alternatives Once they will recognize the need of solar energy converters they will obviously find our other alternatives. Now in Pakistan our big competitive is WAPDA since it is providing electricity on regular basis so there first alternative is present before our existence in Pakistan. In the competency of same product they now will not find any product in Pakistan because we are going to be first introducing this product in front of public. Evaluation of alternatives: Now the basic thing is that will they choose our product or they will prefer to join WAPDA in the areas where electricity is available. The areas where the electricity is not available they will buy our products but the areas where the electricity is available will give us tough time. Consumers will compare the prices, benefits, future expectations and durability of our products with the services of WAPDA. We can challenge WAPDA if we will satisfy the consumer’s expectations. But one thing is in our favor that consumers will have to pay only one time cost but they will have not to pay the monthly bills like WAPDA. Decisions Now it is on consumers that they will buy our products or not. But we can force them to buy our products. We can offer them low prices initially, the facility of installments, Good service after sale, speedy transaction processes and free home delivery etc. Such type of offers will force them to buy our products. Post purchase behavior: Will consumer buy our products if they will have the need of solar energy products. To get the attention of consumers again and again we will have to offer the warranty or guaranty of the products, liberal return policies, high-quality post sale service diagram and reassuring communications after the purchase.

SOCIAL INFLUENCES The ways we think, believe, and act are determined to a great extent by social forces. And these social forces that surround us include: culture, sub culture, social class, reference groups, families and households.

CULTURE: Culture is a set of symbols and artifacts created by a society and handed down from generation to generation as determinants and regulators of human behavior. These symbols

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GO SOLAR may be as attitudes, beliefs, values and housing products etc. Cultural trend in Pakistan is based on family system. That’s why our product would be suitable in this country. Whenever a single person of family will buy this solar energy product other members of the family will also be influenced and they will also try to purchase it. Also in Pakistan there is a great tendency among people to show off their wealth. So, they will buy our product just for the display of their wealth. Some cultural trends affecting the buying behavior include the following:

More will to save money:

People in Pakistan have more will to save money. They prefer money instead of time. So solar energy products really suits to these people. As they want to save money that’s why they will buy it because it is cheapest than electricity.

Two income families are the norm:

When both adults in a household work outside the home, it affects not only the ability to buy but also the choice of products and the time in which to buy and consume them. As the income has increased therefore they have a better option to buy this product.

Youthfulness is admired:

As it is said that young people are inspired with new products immediately therefore they will play a better role for the advertisement of our product. They prefer to buy latest things. So our product will be dominant among young ones.

SOCIAL CLASS: Social class is a ranking within a society determined by the members of the society. Social class is not an indication of spending capability; rather it is an indication of preferences and life style. There are five classes, which are considered as social ones. These are:

USERS OF OUR PRODUCT Upper middle class: This class

involves successful business and professional people and owners of medium sized companies. They are well educated and have a strong desire for success therefore they will prefer to buy this product as they know the usefulness of this product. They have knowledge that this product has only one time cost and in future it will prove as the cheapest than electricity.

Lower middle class:

This class consists of office workers, teachers and small business owners etc. These are the people who strive for respectability and buy what is popular so this class will prefer our product, as it is a latest product.

Upper lower class:

It is the working class of production workers and service personnel. So we can focus on these persons because they are worry about their wages and expenses.

NON-USERS

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GO SOLAR

Upper class:

The people related to this class are rich ones. They buy expensive goods and services, but they do not conspicuously display their wealth. As they can buy expensive goods therefore may be they will not prefer this product.

Lower lower class:

This class is composed of unskilled workers, the chronically unemployed; unassimilated immigrants and people frequently on welfare. They are lowincome people so they cannot afford our product. And they will not buy this solar energy equipment, as they have no enough money to buy it.

Note:

Among social classes majority would be the users of our product and in comparison to it non-users are negligible. So we can surely say that this product will have great demand in the market.

FAMILIES AND HOUSHOLDS:

A family is a group of two or more people related by blood, marriage or adoption living together in a household. Total housing units in Pakistan are 19211738, persons per housing units are 6.80 and persons per room are 3.13.AS in Pakistan cultural trend shows family system so when a member of the family will buy our product other members of the family will also be influenced. Mostly the people who live in houses of more than 3 to 4 rooms will prefer our product because they have to bear heavy electricity bills. In Pakistan 3-4 rooms housing units % is 24.43.And 5 or more than housing units % is 6.92.They will also buy our product, as there is high cost of electricity. In Pakistan housing units having electricity are 70.46%.So here we can see there are some areas in Pakistan where there is no electricity and our product will highly used in those areas.

Psychological Factors There are some psychological factors which affects the consumer buying decisions. These factors may be motivation, perception, learning, personality and attitudes.

Motivation the starting point: Motivation comes after a need. To motivate people to buy our products first of all we have to establish a need of solar energy equipments. We can see that electricity has become a necessity of our life we cannot live easily without electricity. Our whole business and daily life is now based on this assumption that we are nothing without electricity. So there is a huge need of electricity in all worlds. All the people are motivated to get the facility of electricity. But the major challenge is to motivate those people who are using the electricity before. We can motivate them to buy the solar energy converters by saying them that by this product they will feel comfort, how because they will have not to pay the electricity bills and that their spending will be very little on electricity after purchasing this equipment. Also we can motivate them by offering specials concessions, easy payment on installments, free fitting of the equipment, First time service after sale. They should given an honor as our customer. We should try

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GO SOLAR to make this product as a social symbol because in Pakistan the people are attracted to that product easily which they feel that it will give them a social status.

Perception:

Perception is an important psychological factor. We should advertise our product in such a way that people may take it as a financial tension relief product in other words not as a things which is just used by special person but as a product used by all person. In our advertisement we can show that a person is worry about the electricity bills and another persons gives him suggests to buy a onetime cost products solar energy converters. This will give an image of a bill vanishing product. In the areas where the electricity is not available w can focus that you need not to wait the WAPDA you can solve your electricity problem by solar energy converters.

Learning: Learning is the change in behavior resulting from observation and experience.

Since these products will be new for Pakistani’s so they have no observation of these converters. After motivating and creating a good perception about our products we have to show the working of our products because people will observe and see the benefits of our products. To do it we have to choose at least one person in each community to whom we will give this product on easy affordable cost and ask him to tell the other people its benefits. Now people will influenced by its benefits and will learn about it.

Situational Influences:

There are some situational influences such as the time dimensions, the surroundings, term of the purchase and consumer moods and motives.

The Time Dimension In the winter season there is a high coldness therefore people

can use it as a heater and in summer there is a huge severe of hotness and there is a shortage of electricity in Pakistan so people will buy more solar energy products and the demand of solar energy converters will increase in both summer and winter. We have saw in the past that WAPDA always have performed load shedding in the summer season and there is a lake of dames in Pakistan but deficiency of sunshine and WAPDA continuously increasing the prices of the electricity therefore it will increase our product's demand. If the upper two conditions remain same (as they are always continuous) people will buy more our Products. Past few years have shown that in summer season the demand of Electric generators in Pakistan has increased but the petroleum is also very expensive in Pakistan so people will prefer to buy our products.

The Surroundings:

The surrounding of Pakistan is ideal for solar energy converters because there is a abundant of sunshine in Pakistan which is the necessary part of solar energy converters.

The process of market Segmentation During the segmentation of our market we divided it into • Consumer market • business market

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GO SOLAR

Consumer market For segmentation of our market we examined the market to determine the energy needs of the people satisfied by wapda, KANNUP, Sui northern and different dams of Pakistan and those as well where we can exploit the market i.e. those needs which are not yet satisfied by wapda and other power generation companies. During our market research we found that a large number of our population residing in rural and remote areas is completely devoid of electricity. those that are getting electricity are paying electricity bill monthly and are quite frustrated with the fact that wapda fails to provide them the assurance about electricity. People desire to have a more safe electricity provision. In storms, thunders and lightning and rains the voltage wires are short circuited and cause lot of damage to property as well as human life. Secondly they are oriented toward getting energy at lowest possible cost because the average income per capita is $2600,which is not sufficient to afford the energy bills and the diesel they have to buy to draw water. We can make the purchase of solar panels easy for them by providing them panels at lease. As the people in villages are not all very well off so they can’t afford to buy panels. From the above research we found that our project has a lot to offer to these groups of people because the average temperature of Pakistan is sufficient and useful in the implementation of solar energy at domestic as well as commercial level. As the large percentage of Pakistan is devoid of electricity so it can prove to be a potential target market. Being an agricultural country electricity or diesel is needed by Pakistani farmers for running turbines, threshers and harvester’s etc.The current rate of diesel oil is 53.7/ltr, this is not cost effective.

Business markets During our market research we found that there are a large number of investors eager to invest in solar panels. As the quality manufacturers of solar panels a large number of local as well as foreign distributors have shown interest in our business. As they prefer quality products and on time delivery we have taken a great care in the establishment of our location in the market. This has minimized the cost of transportation to the buyers. Even the cities of Pakistan can also be potentially targeted for solar energy implementation. Especially the hot areas of Pakistan such as Multan, sibbi, kohat, Karachi, jacobabad and mardan that receive sufficient energy per annum.

Target market We will adopt the multiple segment strategy to implement our project. Because we have a large number of potential markets to satisfy, i.e rural as well as in urban areas. We have targeted the rural areas as well as urban areas... We will focus on the common people who need energy for household. • We have targeted the commercial market of Pakistan as a potential consumer of energy. Commercially we have targeted schools .hotels, organizations and swimming

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GO SOLAR

•

pools, and shopping plazas etc. we have also considered Karachi as a strong market for our panels as it is a commercial city with a large number of consumer and business markets. Even Karachi is a big city still the problem of load shedding in the summer season, caused the shut down of markets early in the evening last year. And we have plans to attract those frustrated consumers of wapda and other power generation companies. Our main target will be the common household people who are devoid of electricity. We know that 67.5% of the population is rural. These are the areas where there no other sources of energy can be used to generate electricity. These are far away from the cities and no grid lines are available to their access. These areas have no access to electricity. They use firewood and other sources to light up their houses. These areas have not been provided electricity because of remote locations and weather unpredictability. They also do not consume too much electricity so the energy provided by solar panels will be quite sufficient to meet their needs.

We have further subdivided our target market in villages into two categories, ones who can afford to buy our solar panels and those who cant. For those who can’t, we have our strategies to provide them panels at lease. This will increase our gross sales. By providing panels at lease we can attract further customers. • Our next target is those farmers who waste so much money on buying diesel oil for running turbines and threshers, harvesters. The diesel prices have been soaring for a number of years without any stability which is further making the situations worse for those farmers who aren’t producing enough to generate profits. Diesel oil for farmers living in remote villages is not cost effective. The output generated by the crops is not at all compatible with the cost consumed by the crops. • Our next target is the people of the areas who live, where solar energy is abundant. Here our special target is the people living in the remote areas of Balochistan province where this energy is in access. Balochistan is also ranked the highest in the availability of this energy. Balochistan has the rural population of 42%. No other sources of energy can be used to generate electricity in these areas. Hydropower cannot be used as there is no availability of water over there, thermal energy also cannot be used and as well as nuclear is not applicable over there. The only best option is to use solar energy for this purpose. •

Positioning We will adopt the multiple segment strategy to implement our project. Because we have a large number of potential markets to satisfy, i.e. rural as well as urban We have targeted the rural areas as a whole. We will focus on the common people who need energy for household. Our main target will be the common household people who are devoid of electricity. We know that 67.5% of the population is rural. Badakshan the first village to be fully solar electrified in Afghanistan

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GO SOLAR These are the areas where there no other sources of energy can be used to generate electricity. These are far away from the cities and no grid lines are available to their access. These areas have no access to electricity. They use firewood and other sources to light up their houses. These areas have not been provided electricity because of remote locations and weather unpredictability. They also do not consume too much electricity so the energy provided by solar panels will be quite sufficient to meet their needs. •We have further subdivided our target market in villages into two categories, ones who can afford to buy our solar panels and those who can’t.For those who can’t, we have our strategies to provide them panels at lease. This will increase our gross sales. By providing panels at lease we can attract further customers. •Our next target is those farmers who waste so much money on buying diesel oil for running turbines and threshers, harvesters. The diesel prices have been soaring for a number of years without any stability which is further making the situations worse for those farmers who aren’t producing enough to generate profits. Diesel oil for farmers living in remote villages is not cost effective. The output generated by the crops is not at all compatible with the cost consumed by the crops.[this energy can be used in houses to drive many electrical devices] •Our next target is the people of the areas who live, where sunlight intensity is abundant i.e deserts. Here our special target is thepeople living in the remote sunny and hot areas of PAKISTAN. sunlightis in quite intense in these areas. Balochistan is also ranked the highest in the availability of this energy. Balochistan has the rural population of 42%. No other sources of energy can be used to generate electricity in these areas. Hydropower cannot be used as there is no availability of water over there, thermal energy also cannot be used and as well as nuclear is not applicable over there. The only best option is to use solar energy for this purpose. Solar power is the technology of obtaining usable energy from the light of the Sun. Solar energy has been used in many traditional technologies for centuries and has come into widespread use where other power supplies are absent, such as in remote locations and in space.Solar power is pollution free during use. Production end wastes and emissions are manageable using existing pollution controls. End-of-use recycling technologies are under development.{while other source of energy causes pollution i.e nuclear energy because in used up fuel, intensely radioactive substance remain.the radiations and the particles emitted out from of this nuclei wastes are injurious and harmful to living bodies.similarly energy from desils and petrole produces toxic gases like sulphur dioxide, lead oxides, oxides of nitrogen gas which are injurious to health and are carcinogenic.] Facilities can operate with little maintenance or intervention after initial setup.It is the cheapest source of energy. The set up which is used for generating solar energy keeps on operation continuously for number of years without any cost. Solar electric generation is economically competitive where grid connection or fuel transport is difficult, costly or impossible. Examples include

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GO SOLAR satellites, island communities, remote locations and ocean vessels Once the initial capital cost of building a solar power plant has been spent, operating costs are low when compared to existing power technologies.When grid connected, solar electric generation can displace the highest cost electricity during times of peak demand (in most climatic regions), can reduce grid loading, and can eliminate the need for local battery power for use in times of darkness and high local demand; such application is encouraged by net metering. Time-of-use net metering can be highly favorable to small photovoltaic systems.

MARKET RESEARCH OBJECTIVES OF MARKETING RESEARCH The objectives of marketing research were as follows: (1) to know the need (2) marketing mix (3) to know its competitors (4) customer’s satisfaction and expectations

(1) TO KNOW THE NEED: The electricity consumption in the country is increasing at an annual rate of 4 %. These will double the consumption by 2020. It is said by the sources and admitted by Wapda official that the country may face energy crisis by 2007. Many villages in our country use firewood and bagasse to generate energy. 68 thousand villages are yet to be electrified. Most of these are far away from the grid line and there is no hope that these will get electricity even in coming 20 years. Energy services are to be extended to the poorest of the poor living in the far flung areas to raise their standards of living to a respectable level. This goal can be achieved by utilizing renewable energy sources. Pakistan is ideally located in the Sun Belt to take advantage of solar energy technologies. So to meet the electricity deficit our product will prove beneficial as it will help to generate electricity from solar energy. This will be suitable for small power requirements and remote are applications.

(2) MARKETING MIX:

Our research was done to know in what form it will be produced, its price, where it will be used and promoted. Our product will be introduced in the remote areas of the country where there is no sign of electricity and no other source of energy is possible. Our first option will be the remote areas of Balochistan. In balochistan, 80%of the population lives in the rural areas. The population density is very thin and villages are separated by large

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GO SOLAR distances with absolutely no approach roads. Extensions of grid lines for such small power requirements would certainly be very economical.

(3) COMPETITORS: Our product will be competing with Wapda, as it is a produce of electricity. From reports we know that Wapda is providing 58%of the total energy being provided. There is currently load shedding of 700 MW a day because of shortage and poor transmission capabilities. This means that wapda is not being able to meet the requirements of electricity of people. So in this matter our product will be competitive with it and will surely provide electricity more economically. It might prove uneconomical in the short run but it will run out profitable in the long term. They also incur much less operation and maintenance costs and have a longer lifetime as compared with other sources of energy which Wapda provides.

(4)CUSTOMER’S EXPECTATIONS AND SATISFACTION:

The people in remote areas expect that some sort of energy source be provided which is economical and does not cause any problems for them. Our product will be able to satisfy the need of electricity of the people of remote areas.

SOURCES OF RESEARCH INFORMATION Information regarding our research on the product is available from the following sources. Our marketing managers access information through these sources. All sorts of information and data are available over there. (1)Marketing Information Systems (2)Marketing Research Project

MARKETING RESEARCH PROJECT A research project was prepared after a survey conducted by a research team regarding new products and problems faced by customers regarding the electricity. The research project gave the following information.

(1) OBJECTIVES:

The objective of our research was to know that whether people were having problems regarding electricity or not and to know that whether our product will be useful or not in over coming those problems. We came to the result that the problems faced by the customers were in terms of cost, its availability especially in remote areas and load shedding. It was also determined that our product to some extent will overcome this problem especially in remote areas.

(2) SITUATION ANALYSIS: 20

GO SOLAR After the objective was determined a situation analysis was conducted. The market for our product seems huge as our product will be used in producing electricity to villages and remote areas. Our competitors will be Wapda. Since Wapda is not meeting the requirements of the people of remote areas so our product will prove competitive with good market. There is no industry of our product as we are introducing it. We are the first one to introduce it in market and will have monopoly. We supposed the following hypothesis during this survey that: Our product will be beneficial to the people in remote areas.

(3) INFORMAL INVESTGATION: Then an informal investigation was conducted to check whether our hypothesis was right or wrong. During this, information was collected from various sources. It was reported that the demand of electricity id more than the supply. It is reported that the difference between the firm supply and peak demand is estimated at 5529 MW by the year 200910when firm electricity supply will stand at 15055 MW against peak demand of 20584 MW so for this purpose our product will prove more economical as compared to other sources. It will help to provide electricity to remote areas where the supply of electricity is impossible. It will cover the deficiency of electricity. Electricity will be easy to generate from it as we have abundant solar energy in our country. But still to prove our hypothesis we with the collaboration of the Government are using our product in generating electricity through solar energy.

(4)ANALYZE THE DATA AND REPORT RESULTS:

Marketing research is to find who needs our product, which has it and the strength of need. Our Solar Energy Converter is needed everywhere in Pakistan where there is no supply of electricity and where the areas where electricity is available and people are very frustrated due to the big electricity bills. Developed countries have used it in their homes. To find this out we will take help from IRI (a market research company) that will help us in doing this. But, because the research has not been successful in Pakistan so, we will also take help from the Marketing Information System that is developed by Business Link International and MarketSoft To get the data for Mk.I.S we are going to have surveys as a part of Marketing Research Project. The OBJECTIVE of the project is to determine if the new product idea is attractive to potential customers. By the SITUATION ANALYSIS we see that the Solar Energy Converter is highly demandable in the market. We contacted our employees belonging to rural areas and in urban areas. Then we will have FORMAL RESEARCH. We will launch website and put a sample CONCEPT TEST to get the PRIMARY DATA. For SECONDARY DATA we have already contacted with the IRI that will provide us the essential market information.

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GO SOLAR After this we are going to have a DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEM that will be a computer based set of procedures that will describe the market, customer, competitors, economic and social trends and the organizations performance. Data will be available from the primary sources and secondary sources. The MS Office 2003 will be used as the DSS. We will not need the REVERSE ENGINEERING because we do not have any competitor in the market and we do not have to get the competitors product and examine it.

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