Nokia : Strategy for connecting people in India

Nokia has sent two dozen vans staffed with sales representatives on continuous six-month treks through India's countryside. The IHT reports. From textually

"The sales reps don't take orders and they don't sell phones; instead, their task is to explain why anyone in a small farming community would want a mobile phone in the first place, and a Nokia in particular.

"The object is to establish the concept of phones, and the need for phones," said Suresh Sundaram, Nokia's national retail marketing manager in India, who was in Mundawar on Friday with the van.

The vehicle resembles the trucks that carry carnival games to country fairs, but with cellphones behind glass instead of balloons and darts. When it rolls into a small village, it creates a circus-like spectacle starting with a skit about why mobile phones are necessary. Then the van's canopies unfurl as Bollywood music blasts from the speakers."

Picture from related article in Business Week