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
1
 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.

2
 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.
3
 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 30.9 30.4 32.5 32.8
1997 29.8 28.6 30.9 31.6
1998 31.1 30.8 32.7 33.4
1999 30.3 31.1 33.2 33.6
2000 28.1 30.9 33.3 33.7
2001 29.8 30.7 32.8 33.7
2002 30.1 31.1 33.5 34.5
2003 30.5 30.0 32.7 33.5
2004 31.0 30.8 33.1 34.3
2005 29.9 29.9 31.7 32.7

Name of
Distribution Area of Jurisdiction
Company

LESCO Sheikhupura , Kasur , Lahore , Okara .

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

Faisalabad , Sargodha , Khushab , Jhang , Toba Tek Singh , Bhalwal , Mianwali ,

FESCO Bhakkar Districts of Punjab Province .

IESCO Islamabad , Rawalpindi , Attock , Jhelum , Chakwal .

Rahim Yar Khan , Multan , Khanewal , Sahiwal, Pakpattan , Vehari , Muzaffargarh ,

MEPCO Dera Ghazi Khan , Leiah , Rajan Pur , Bahawalpur , Lodhran , Bahawalnagar .

Sindh

5
 GO SOLAR

Year Jacobabad Nawabshah Hyderabad Karachi

1996 34.0 35.5 33.8 32.0
1997 32.5 34.4 32.8 30.8
1998 32.7 35.9 34.2 33.0
1999 34.6 36.0 34.1 32.8
2000 35.2 35.9 34.4 32.3
2001 35.2 36.5 33.7 32.7
2002 35.2 37.4 35.0 32.2
2003 34.2 35.9 34.0 32.8
2004 35.0 37.2 35.1 33.5
2005 33.4 35.6 33.8 32.2

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

NORTH WEST FRONTIER PROVINCE

6
 GO SOLAR

PESCO Whole Province of NWFP .

BALOUCHISTAN

7
 GO SOLAR

Year Quetta Zhob Khuzdar

1996 24.7 28.2 29.0
1997 24.0 26.7 27.7
1998 29.3 27.4 30.1
1999 26.8 30.1 28.8
2000 23.6 27.9 28.8
2001 21.1 28.9 30.7
2002 28.3 27.9 29.6
2003 26.3 26.8 29.1
2004 27.6 28.2 30.5
2005 23.9 29.4 30.8

QESCO Whole Province of Balochistan .

Total Pakistan showing target market

8
 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 27135 26173 6086 51614 24306 23081 18827 8273 228149
Tube Well
Bulk
475 109 178 743 372 795 732 184 53 3641
Supply
Bulk
0 10 0 76 0 23 0 0 0 109
Supply (K)
Co-
13 0 0 0 3 0 0 0 0 16
Generation

Commercial 425555 230158 261559 256025 342921 236673 233587 80860 28275 2095613

Domestic 2161477 1805987 2010813 1430060 2719196 1882938 1102486 326367 249151 13688475

9
 GO SOLAR
Industrial 56863 40820 33939 10376 34239 22071 20691 2767 3977 225743

Public
1392 329 1088 1181 967 755 788 173 0 6673
Lighting
Railway
4 0 0 0 4 0 0 0 0 8
Traction
Resident
170 13 83 40 94 45 97 3 0 545
Coly.
26,88,60 21,04,56 23,33,83 17,04,58 31,49,41 21,67,60 13,81,46
TOTAL 4,29,181 2,89,729 1,62,48,972
3 1 3 7 0 6 2

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

10
 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 air-
conditioners 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:
11
 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
12
 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

13
 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 low-
income 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

14
 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

15
 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

16
 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

17
 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
18
 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

19
 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 2009-
10when 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.

21
 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.

22