According to Colgate-Palmolive managing director Mr Derrick Samuel, "we have increased penetration by doubling our villages from 33,000 to 55,000. These were selected nationally by focussing on markets in the south, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar."

Operation Jagruti, which is a consumer awakening programme undertaken by the company to highlight the benefits of better oral care habits, is a three-pronged programme.

The company is reaching out to millions of households across the villages, to also generate product trials and seed products in village outlets. The company has exploited shandies/haats and unconventional rural media to maximise impact of this rural promotional drive.

According to Mr Samuel, "We have to constantly monitor the viability. We are now going to consolidate and look at which ones are viable and which ones are not."

The viablity will be checked through key performance indicators in terms of which village has a higher potential so as to continue to invest, and as to which village is not viable. The company is now consolidating to ensure higher throughput of those new expanded villages.

The company, which was also experimenting with non-compete companies so as to increase its penetration in one rural area, is taking this move forward to other areas as well, said Mr Samuel.The idea is to refrain the cost from going deeper as the actual distribution cost is shared between the companies.

This initiative is being conducted for the under-2000 population areas in rural India. The company was servicing this strata through van operations, haats and shandis. Out of 2.8 million outlets, Colgate is present in about 2.4 million outlets, which makes the brand one of the deeply penetrated ones.Meanwhile, the roll-out of "Project Intell", which was to connect the dealers, is taking place across the country through stockists. "It is working well. And stockists can use it for planning of their business. We are still rolling it through and will finish our first main task by the end of 2002," said Mr Samuel.