GODREJ CHOTAKOOL: A COOLING SOLUTION FOR MASS

MARKETS
INTRODUCTION TO GODREJ
The Godrej Group is an Indian conglomerate headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India,
managed and largely owned by the Godrej family. It was founded by Ardeshir
Godrej and Pirojsha Godrej in 1897, and operates in sectors as diverse as real estate,
consumer products, industrial engineering, appliances, furniture, security and agricultural
products.
Godrej is also known as Indian consumer goods Company which offers vast variety of consumer
product and was historically known for its refrigerators in the Indian market. But to tap the untapped

market company focused on bottom of pyramid that is rural market were maximum
population of India lies by bringing a disruptive innovation in refrigerator with a product
called Chotukool.

INDIAN REFRIGERATOR INDUSTRY

In India, refrigerators have the highest aspirational value of all consumer durables, with
the exception of televisions. This accounts for the high growth rate of the refrigerator
market and Indian market was valued at Rs40 billion in 2010.

Regardless of the fact that refrigerator utility was very high but then also the penetration
level of the product was very low. In urban areas it was below 18% and in rural areas it
was 2%.

Refrigerator gripped 16% of the consumer durables market in India and was growing
around 7%-8% annually (Exhibit 2). The urban market was also growing at annual rate of
7-10 percent and rural market was growing at 25%.

Refrigerator was considered as non-essential product in rural areas because price of the
product was very high and irregular availability of electricity.

QUESTION:Descriptive innovation and inclusive growth was the strategy behind for creating
ChotuKool by a company which was known for selling refrigerators in other market.
Highlight the importance and the strategy for creation of new product?
ANSWER:
Yes, Descriptive innovation and inclusive growth was the strategy behind for creating
ChotuKool a successful product in the market.
Disruptive innovation was a term coined by Clayton Christensen in a seminar in 2006 which
was for 2 days were 300 executives from different companies participated. In that bunch of
executives there were 30 participants from Godrej to attend the seminar. He describes
disruptive innovation as a process by which a product or service take a down turn route and
hit a bottom of the pyramid and then insistently moves up market, giving tough time to the
competitors and apprehending market eventually.
Companies often take existing products developed for mature markets and pull out features in
an effort to reduce costs and re-design the product for use by consumers in cost-sensitive
markets. One objective of disruptive innovation is to remove barriers to consumption.
Chotukool, a cooling product is one such low-cost solution for non-users of refrigerators
especially in the rural areas. This product was a success and there are various reasons for that,
they are:
1. It was designed for rural India. Refrigerators had immense utility but the rural folk didnt
buy refrigerators. They had various reasons but there was scope for innovation here as the
market penetration for refrigerators in the villages was only two percent in 2007. This
product was made keeping the rural folk and their needs in mind.
2. When it was launched it was the cheapest product. It offers cooling solutions at a very
cheap rate i.e. Rs. 3500. Such a price was very attractive as it was fifty percent lower than the
cheapest refrigerator.
3. Chotukool has an impressive product design. It was portable as it weighs 7.8 kgs and is 1.5
feet tall and 2 feet wide. It runs on 12 V battery power and can carry a weight of 30-40 litres.

4. The product also has a unique feature of staying cool even without power. As it can operate
on battery and it uses high-end insulation to stay cool for hours without power. This is a very

useful tool in rural areas where there is a shortage of power.

GODREJ CHOTUKOOL:

PRODUCT DESGIN

MANUFACTURING

DISTRIBUTION

PRODUCT DESIGN:
Chotukool was designed keeping in mind the people of rural market. One of the major reason
for refrigerator not that prevalent in rural market was irregular availability of electricity. In
the design of Chotukool the team ensured it could survive the power supply and thus the
design was such that it can run on battery or inverter. It had no compressor which helps to
reduce the noise and maintenance of product was easily done. They adopted techniques
known as thermoelectric and this was the first time when this technique was applied to a lowcost solution. Chotukool has an impressive product design. It was portable as it weighs 7.8
kgs and is 1.5 feet tall and 2 feet wide. It runs on 12 V battery power and can carry a weight
of 30-40 litres.

MANUFACTURING:
The manufacturing process was fairly simple in contrast to the manufacture of traditional
refrigerators. The thermoelectric module used in the Chotukool contained substance of
thermocouples connected electrically in series thermally in parallel. Chotukool had the

advantage of simplicity due to its technology as well as design structure. The entire assembly
of 20 odd key parts was carried out about 10 to 12 persons in a very small space.

DISTRIBUTION: COMMUNITY BASED MODEL

From the preliminary of Chotukool, Godrej and Boyce followed community-led distribution
model were they joined hands with non-governmental organizations, self-help group, and
micro-finance institutions. Therefore, after having words with different NGOs they finally
went with Swayam Siksham Prayog (SSP) which carry excellent record in the community
and developed trust with the people in rural area in February 2008. Further there were
meetings arranged with the villagers which help company to design the external features such
as colours preferred for Chotukool. To get the valuable inputs related to the product they
tested out some of the experiments in popular religious festivals such as Sakhimelas which
attracted thousands of participants.