Business Development and Marketing at

Orange Kitchen Gallery

Ruchit Shah
(PDGM No.: 12038)
Student, SDMIMD, Mysore
[email protected]

Prasad S N
Assistant Professor-HRM, SDMIMD, Mysore
[email protected]
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 Comments by the Faculty
In this Summer Internship Project, the intern Mr Ruchit Shah has worked with a start up Kitchen
Equipment manufacturer working with a shoestring budget but aiming to achieve a high level of
quality and aesthetics, both of which are key to the success of this business vertical.

It is seen from the outset that the intern has made use of several concepts and theories in
Marketing, Project Management and Organisational Behaviour. In doing so, he has effectively
adapted them to the current requirements of the organisation.

The SWOT analysis as described by the intern indicates several relevant aspects of the business
model and clearly states the strengths and shortcomings in achieving results. It may be seen
that the details of materials being used, method of manufacturing, advertising aspects including
the design of media brochure, marketing activities, cost cutting, usage of shop space and other
details relevant in conducting this business have been involved into and described by the
intern.

Planning and business strategy to increase the profitability of the organisation without a
substantial increase in capital or blind advertising expenditure may be seen as a merit of this
internship project. Involvement of the intern in every aspect of the business is explained
clearly and one may see that the internship does not suggest any major infusion of capital or
change of product and service portfolio. That is, the original product and service idea having
the potential and the plan being built around them being detailed as the internship project.

This internship project can become a broad model for similar start ups or small scale service
providers offering customised products.

Prasad S N

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 Business Development and Marketing
at Orange Kitchen Gallery
Introduction
Brief Introduction to Organisation
Orange Kitchen Gallery is an Ahmedabad based organisation which has been in this market
since 8 years and has served more than 800 families. The organisation differentiates itself
from the industry by providing Aluminium base kitchen. They aim to deliver to the customer the
very highest quality service and product at affordable price. This is the reason why they only
use standard accessories few brands like Hafele, Hettich etc. As the kitchens are completely
customised the team of OKG pays complete attention on every process so that the kitchen
delivered is completely according to the expectations of the consumer.

Modular Kitchen Market in India

The modular kitchen market in India is still at a nascent stage, but with tremendous growth
potential. The size of the kitchen market in India is estimated at Rs 1500 crore and is expected to
grow by 40% till 2020. [1] With the people’s lifestyles turning dynamic, preferences are shifting
from traditional kitchen setups to modular kitchens which are built understanding the needs of
the customer. Likewise, availability of systematic kitchens at affordable prices along with a
warranty has helped in the expansion of the market. The competition in this market is very stiff
as there are both domestic as well as international players.

Porter’s Five Forces

To understand the industry better Porter’s Five Forces model will give deep insights about
industry in Ahmedabad region.

Entry barriers for New Contender: Many new players regularly entering into Ahmedabad market
there very few who have survived in the market due to reasons such as volatile market conditions
and scarcity of skilled manpower.

Threat of Substitutes: Substitute of service of modular kitchen is a traditional kitchen service

made by the carpenters. The market share of this unorganised group is very high than organised
group.

Buyers Bargaining Power: Buyer’s bargaining power is because of high purchasing power of
individual and high switching cost as market is quite open to do any kind of work available.

Suppliers’ Command of Industry: There is large number of suppliers available in the market,
both organised and unorganised, as results they do not have much power over buyers but
neither do buyers have power over them. So it is a very balanced market.

Existing Competitors: Existing competitors have few advantages such as good & experience
workforce and raw material available at reasonable price and good reputation which help
them to survive during tough times.
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Project Activities
 To understand the working and business model of the organisation
 Design the brochure for the organisation
 Prepare a computerised quotation system for organisation
 Design and generate new ideas for direct mailers
 Preparing a database of architects and interiors for the organisation
 Meeting architects & interiors for business development

Orange Kitchen Gallery-Business Model

1. Customer Segment: The customer segment targeted by OKG was middle class and upper
middle class
2. Value Proposition: The Value Proposition of OKG to their customer segment was a nicely
designed Kitchen which is economical and durable.
3. Channels : The channel through which they use to reach their customers were their own
show room and 2 branches of their channel partner name “Furniture World”
4. Customer Relationship: Customer relationship that organisation wants to establish with
their customers deeply influence the overall customer experience. Keeping this in mind
OKG believes in giving personalised assistance to the customer.

1
The concept of Business Model Canvas is adopted from book Business Model Generation written by Alexander
Osterwalder & Yves Pigneur
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5. Revenue Stream: This block represents the way in which cash is generated in the company.
OKG generates their revenue by only selling kitchen
6. Key Resources: The Key resource of OKG on which they are highly dependent are people and
Showroom
7. Key Activities: The Key activities are the necessary activities without which they cannot
deliver their value proposition The Key activities for OKG are designing, Quotation, Shutter
Making, Kitchen Delivery, Kitchen Assembling, Marketing and Selling.
8. Key Partners: The Key partners are network of suppliers and partners that make a business
model work. For OKG these partners are the suppliers of their patented products.

SWOT Analysis
Strength Weakness
• Talented staff both in terms of design and • Small Workforce
production • Only 2 channels used to reach out to
• Maintains a very good relation with their customers
their clients
• Only one way of generating revenue i.e.
kitchen selling
• Aluminium base system of OKG makes the • Targeting only walk-in and referrals
kitchen more durable and hygienic customers
compared to competitors • Lack of visibility
• Process from planning to execution
followed by OKG is simple and customer
friendly

Opportunities Threats
• A very large intermediaries of architects • Unorganised sector providing
and interiors can be targeted services at a very low price
• Can generate revenue by selling parts • Lack of brand consciousness among
of kitchen such as shutters, cabinets etc. consumer in the Ahmedabad market .

• There are very few organised players in

market so there is a vast untapped market
• More people are shifting towards making
modular kitchen

Recommendations for Current Business Model

After understanding the business model and doing swot analysis of the company following are
the changes recommended to OKG:
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 Change value proposition to from “nicely designed Kitchen which is economical and durable”
to more focused proposition “Kitchen in just 4 hours”

Increase their channel partners such as architects and interiors

Increase their ways to earn revenue like by selling shutters and cabinets

Marketing
As the organisation was small in nature the way in which they use to communicate to the
customers was very much direct and traditional. Only few basic forms of marketing
communication mix namely Word-of-mouth marketing and Personal selling were by organisation.

In order to increase OKG’s brand visibility, one of the first activities assigned during the tenure
was to design a brochure which gives detail regarding the organisation.

Designing the Brochure:

The first step of designing started with competitor analysis; how they are positioning themselves,
what kind of language they use in their catalogues. The next step of the process was collection
of internal data such as Kitchen photographs and the whole process of making a kitchen.
Finally first draft designed in Microsoft publisher was a 12 page brochure. After getting price
quote from design and printing agency management decided to reduce brochure to 8 pages and
finally was given for printing.

Designing and Generating Ideas for Direct Mailer

In order to reach to different architects and interior one of ways decided to reach them was
through direct mailers. So the journey of preparing the direct mailer started with what kind of
direct mailer should we go forward? Many different concepts such as Flyers, Pop-ups, Envelops,
Pen case, Coffee mugs etc. were taken into consideration. After that 3 concepts were taken
forward namely flyers, Pop-ups and envelope mails keeping in mind the level of impact from
mailer and time & budget constraints. Proto-design of all 3 concepts were made by OKG’s Staff
in coordination with design and printing agency and finally 2 envelops mailers were approved
by organisation which are as follows:

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Business Development
As an intern the role assigned was finding ways to improve their sales and revenue of the
organisation.

Make Intermediaries as Your Channel Partner

1. One of the very prominent and untouched intermediaries was architects and interior which
large amount of market share. So to target them my role was to first create a database of
architects and interiors in Ahmedabad. The sources from which data was found were internet,
hardware magazines and different directories related to interior designing. After the data
was collected the authenticity of the data was checked and finally all data was consolidated.
2. The data was sorted according to the areas in Ahmedabad and proximity to the showroom.
3. The 3rd step was to do segmentation on the basis of their client base. To get this information
mostly internet was used and search was done on different social networking sites.
4. After all this was over finally direct mailers were posted to 110 architects and interiors in
the 4 areas which are located near the showroom location.

Meeting Architects and Interiors

Well as soon as the mails were delivered to the intermediaries we started taking appointment
to meet them as it was last week of SIP only 4 meeting with architect were made during the
SIP tenure, although the process would continue in the company.

Preparing the Quotation System

The way in which the organisation made their quotation was tedious and very time consuming.
Although they were using Microsoft Excel it was used in a very traditional or basic form. So
the next task assigned was to prepare a quotation which reduces their time and is less
tedious.

Preparing a Computerised Quotation System for Organisation

1) Before designing a quotation system first step was to understand their current quotation
system in detail.
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2) After understanding the process the key findings were as under

a) There were 13 different products used in the kitchen

b) Out of 13 items 6 were standardised items ,2 were semi-standardise and 4 items were
customised items

c) In these 13 items required to make a modular kitchen there again sub –varieties available
whose range differ from product to product

d) The process to make a quotation took around 2 to 3 hours depending on the size of
kitchen

3) During the preparation of the quotation system technique learned in first year turned out to
be very useful. The few excel functions used were VLOOKUP, Data validation, sum and sum
product. One of major challenge faced was the complexities of divisions in quotations. It
took almost 3 weeks to make an error free system which makes a quotation in flat 20
minutes.

The quotation system didn’t only make the process less time consuming but also helped them to
keep a proper database of their customers

Learning’s & Challenges

Marketing
During SIP few learning’s were managing personal communication and delivering value to
customers.

Managing Personal Communication

Managing personal communication can be further divided into 2 parts mainly as direct mailers
& brochure marketing and personal selling.

1. During the design phase of brochure and direct mail few learning was the importance of
typography, combination of colours & size of the fonts.

2. Specifically in terms of mailers one of the key learning was “one ad one message”

3. As far as personal selling is concerned OKG helped in understanding the behaviour of a

consumer by body language and level of participation in conversations.

Delivering Value to Customers

The organisation believed in the thought that good value or good experience in mind of
customers is created by combination of small things. This experience was enhanced through
providing them 3D designs, giving them refreshments such as tea, coffee and cold drinks,
helping them to find associations/agencies which are related to interior designing and not
directly related to them.
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Other Learning

 In small organisation like OKG budget is always a constraint so at times challenge is to find
ways in which you can deliver same message to the customers at less cost. At times you have
to trade-off between two activities.

Overall Learning

1) By appreciating people’s work they give you more good ways of doing the same thing more
effectively

2) The outside agencies does not understand the urgency of our time & deadlines and thus
work according their will and ultimately our work is being delayed

Recommendations
 Increase sales force: They have very less sales force so by hiring 1 to 2 sales executive will
help them to reach to a wider market.

 Increase Brand visibility: Increase brand visibility of the organisation by participating in

exhibition held in Ahmedabad and by doing other promotional activities like distributing
flyers in under construction sites

 Sell Shutters & cabinets: They should start selling P.U and High gloss shutters and cabinets
of international standard size

 Store atmosphere: Although kitchen made in their showroom are very trendy and attractive
the flooring and lighting of the showroom is not up to the level which can sync with their
kitchens and gave customers a “WOW feeling”

References
W. Mukherjee Dry Kitchen Now Becoming the New Mark of Luxury,” The Economic Times Bangalore;
Retrieved on, Oct 1, 2012;.

Marketing Management by Philip Kotler and Kevin Keller

Business Model Generation by Alexander Osterwalder & Yves Pignuer

http://www.whitneywoods.com/worldwide/

Key Management Models by Marcel Van Assen , Gerben van den Berg & Paul Pietersma

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