‘Why would I buy your inverter?’ There was no convincing answer. BPL would have been the nth competitor stuck in the similarity trap.
We asked them three questions: Who do you want to build a relationship with? What do they really care about? How can you make a sustainable difference to their lives?
We took the BPL team along with us to discover answers from people who suffer power cuts. The children’s stories were shocking. Darkness robbed them of their study time. They felt miserable studying under trying conditions: heat from lamps, low and flickering light, crowded family tables. In some parts of the country there was no power as long as they could stay awake.
We had answers to the first two questions: we wanted to build a relationship with children. All they really cared about was to study and do well in exams.
We could help make a difference. A light and portable study lamp with built in backup power of 6 hours. We needed a light source safe for children’s eyes. And it had to be designed so that children would love to keep on their table.
We started with the eyes. We went to India’s leading eye institute, Sankara Nethralaya. A team of four optometrists and ophthalmologists studied various conditions children eyes are subjected to and came up with the specifications.
We put the engineering and sourcing team to design the system with low drain LED lights which met the specifications and provided a 6 hour back up.
Abhijit Bansod of ABD studios (studioabd.in) was entrusted to co-create the design with children.
A year later, Studylite was launched. It’s the only product of its kind in the world. It also won the red dot award for design. More importantly Studylite opened a new market for BPL, inspired the development of Chirag which addresses the needs of rural children, and created a growing and profitable business for BPL.
Studylite makes a sustainable difference to thousands of children, helping them to study uninterrupted.
