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Refer to the project brief and the additional resources before you begin this project!
(Go through them at least 3 times or till the time you don’t have a mind map in your brain)

Let’s begin

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Elevator Pitch

(Think of this as an introduction to your product- make it remarkable!)​

Understand your Product

(Before you begin, you need to know what your product is, what are its features, what is the problem being solved by your product?)​

• CORE BENEFIT: Reduce electricity bills by using Solar panels.
• BASIC PRODUCT: Solar Panels, Inverter, and batteries will be integrated to power your house.
• EXPECTED PRODUCT: Safe and Reliable system lasting ~25 years.
• AUGMENTED PRODUCT: Seemless integration with the home, App to track energy generation and consumption in real time.
• POTENTIAL PRODUCT: Smart Analytics to notify the customer about any faults, suggest maintenance, and give insights to customers about their consumption behaviors, and energy footprint.

Understanding Core Value Proposition

(Build your core value proposition by exact what your product does and what problem are you solving)​

What are you really in the business of?

Building Solar panel-based systems for Home and commercial applications.

What problem is your product or service solving for the customer?

We are reducing electricity bills and dependency on the Grid.

What are the key features and key customer benefits?

A reliable integrated system includes an app, smart data logger, and good customer support.

Why did you choose us over our competition?

Reliable and well-known brand, with better penetration in all sorts of demographics.

Why do you keep doing business with us?

Product Quality, Service is good.

What words would you use to describe our company?

well-known, old-experienced brand, technically-committed

If you were referring a friend to our business, what would you tell them about us?

Understanding the Users

(Go and speak to different users of the product and the people in the chain: households buying the product, shopkeeper selling the product, churned users, users using competitors products. In case of B2B products identify the decision makers, the influencer, blocker and the end user)

User 4: Lives in city apartment, can't use solar panels due to space availability, knows about solar panels, has the capacity to invest in it, is planning to do the same once he moves to a individual house, also is interested in reducing carbon footprint, also knows that the electricity bills are rising and wants to reduce it. hasn't actively looked yet as the plan to own an individual house will take place after some years.

User 2: lives in village, has individual home, wants a solar system to reduce electricity bills, more important part is the grid fluctuations, also is concerned about environment, has enough money to invest in solar, is actively reaching out to companies to get a cost estimate, complexity estimate, knows about luminous, thinks luminous is a good, reliable, old and technically competent brand, will prefer luminous if the cost is not very high.

User 1: lives in city, has independent house, bought the system in 2020, 12 panels costed around 1.25 lakh. electricity bill was 3500 pm, reduced to zero. no failures till date, installation was good, only issue was getting government approval. recently inverter failed which was repaired for free. He used a local vendor for this, instead of any brand (due to trust). was not aware that luminous also has this solution but knows luminous as a brand. will definitely recommend luminous if cost is comparable and luminous takes care of all certification, approvals, etc.

User 5: Lives in tier 1 city, independent house, bought a solar system around 10 years back, already reached break even, is content with the system.

User 3: Lives in a town, Independent house, got solar panels in 2018, experience was not good, for 3 years the system didn't work, went for a local installation, the same company had installed for some of his friends, all gave good reviews, (SOLARFLEX) however, his system was bad, he had to spend extra money to get it sorted. The system is working fine now for last 2 years and he has not paid any electricity bill. Recommends to go with solar system but with a reputed company.

Understanding your ICP

(There are separate tables for both B2C and B2B products, put down your your ICP’s in a Table Format, use this as a reference.
This table makes it super clear for anyone to understand who your users are and what differentiates them)​

B2C Table

we have multiple users of a product and not all of them can be our ICP for whom we make our strategies, we need to prioritize.
(use this ICP prioritization table)

[1] In 2009, 58% of houses in urban areas and 82% in rural in India were independent, 91% of which were pucaa house. Total number of urban houses were 78484979 and rural were 166203921 in 2011. 70% are being used as residence. 95% of rural and 61% of urban were owned houses. 56% in rural and 65% in urban had 2 or more rooms. 73% of rural and 96% of urban had electricity. Assumption is that all rural pucca houses (independent) having 2 or more rooms and being used as residenche with electricity can afford Solar panels. Similarly all urban pucca houses (independent) having 2 or more rooms, being used as residence with electricity can afford solar panels. Out of this number, Assuming only 50% of the people will be able to afford solar systems.

Hence TAM for urban (2009-11) = 78484979 * 0.91 * 0.58 * 0.7 * 0.61 * 0.65 * 0.96 * 0.5 = 5518721 * 1,00,000

TAM for rural (2009-11) = 166203921 * 0.91 * 0.82 * 0.7 * 0.91 * 0.56 * 0.73 * 0.5 = 16147929 * 1,00,000

(This is the least number assuming 1 lakh per house)

TAM for User 1 = Urban * people between 45 to 55 years = 5518721 * 0.1 * 1,00,000 = 5500 Cr

TAM for User 2 = Rural * people between 30 to 35 = 16147929 * 0.07 * 1,00,000 = 11300 Cr

TAM for User 3 = Rural * people between 45 to 55 years = 16147929 * 0.1 * 1,00,000 = 16000 Cr

TAM for User 4 = Urban (non-independent) * people between 25 to 35 = 78484979 * 0.91 * 0.42 * 0.7 * 0.39 * 0.65 * 0.96 * 0.5 * 0.13 * 1,00,000 = 3300 Cr

• ICP 4 is unlikely to pay in the next 10-20 years.

Ideal ICP: ICP2

Influencer: Family

Promoter: Customer itself

Blocker: ?

Understand Market

(begin by doing a basic competitor analysis)

For services offered, I have considered only services in the specific solar energy domain. These companies do offer more services.

(then try to understand the market at a macro level and evaluate the trends and tailwinds/headwinds.)

Now it’s time for some math, calculate the size of your market.

TAM = Total no. of potential customers x Average Revenue Per Customer (ARPU) = ~ 2,00,000 Cr+
SAM = TAM x Target Market Segment (percentage of the total market) = 2,00,000 Cr * 50% = 1,00,000 CR+ (Luminous has around 3000+ touchpoints in India, this gives them access to at least 50% of the customers)
SOM = SAM x Market Penetration/Share = 1,00,000 Cr * 20% = 20,000 Cr (assuming 20% market share)

On top of this data, PM surya ghar yojna is giving a good boost to solar panel adaption. India's grid is also unstable which causes issues to the end user, this solution can also take care of some part of this problem. One of the resistance people face before using this solution is the lack of proper information and the operational complexity of getting this system installed. This can be taken care of by making a very good implementation plan.r

Designing Acquisition Channel

(keep in mind the stage of your company before choosing your channels for acquisition.)

CURRENT STAGE: Early Scaling

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Detailing your Acquisition Channel

Organic Channel

(Understand the existing organic channel strategy for your product and highlight the success and failure thereon.
Provide your suggestions and devise new strategies.)

Step 1 → Conduct keyword research on Google, Amazon, Youtube, Quora etc.
Step 2 → Collate all your insights from all your searches.

Luminous has a lower brand presence both online and offline specific to Solar energy systems. It appears fewer times on youtube and offline market. (though it does appear on first few entries in both google and amazon). When i talked to customers, very few of them knew that luminous offers solar systems, however, most of them did know about luminous as a brand. Another survey (9 responses) showed that 56% people were not aware about luminous offering solar systems, however, 60% people were aware about luminous as a brand.

I think that the brand needs more online and offline presence and it needs to make people aware that it offers solar energy solutions.

Also, most of the people were confused about which system to go for, what technicalities to follow, how to sort out the operations part of installation and maintenance. Luminous being a trustworthy brand can help people with these and come up with a solution that offers answers to all the questions.

Content Loop

(Keep it simple and get the basics right)​

Step 1 → Nail down your content creator, content distributor and your channel of distribution
Step 2 → Decide which type of loop you want to build out.
Step 3 → Create a simple flow diagram to represent the content loop.

Strategy 1: Creator: Luminous, Distributors: Luminous Dealers and Shopkeepers, Channel: Offline retail.

Create different ads (paper ads, images) and send them to shops, and dealers. Let dealers promote luminous solar energy systems via offline channels, and word of mouth. Try to get as many leads from dealers as possible.

Strategy 2: Creator: Instagram/Youtube creators, Distributors: Viewers, Channel: Instagram/Youtube (here we will try to keep the information more technical and review-based and less oriented towards sponsorship)

Create shorts, reels, videos on how to save electricity bills, build upon PM surya ghar yojna, promote luminous as one of the many brands offering this solution, let the users promote.

Strategy 3: Creator Luminous, Distributor: Customers, Channel: Whatsapp stickers, Gifs. (Make memes to show how cool is solar)

Create memes and gifs and promote them using whatsapp stickers, etc.

Paid Ads

(Understand what is already being done, what is working out well and what needs to be stopped)​

Step 1 →Define the CAC: LTV ratio. If your product has a healthy CAC:LTV ratio, proceed with paid ads.
Step 2 → What digital channels will you work with?
Step 3 → What will be your audience selection & creative strategy? (What you build in ideal customer profile should reflect here)
Step 4→ Design the Ad Campaign
Step 5 → Frame the Ad Budget

LTV can be assumed to be INR 1,00,000 (solar energy systems vary from INR 60,000 to 5,00,000+). A solar system at INR 1,00,000 will be the median number (apprx)

CAC per user has to be below ~33,000. Let's keep it at ~20,000 to maintain a healthy ratio. Also assuming the profit margin per product will be more than 30%.

We can work with TV Ads, Youtube Ads, Instagram Ads, Facebook Ads, and Google Ads.

Ideal audience will be between 35 to 60 years with independent house with a above average spending potential. Anyone who shops online frequently, spends on house appliances (above 10k?), has atleast one AC. The ICP can be based out of a city or a village. We will prioritize people living in states where electricity rate is high or grid is unstable or subsidies for electricity are not available.

1. Our Ad campaign will start with telling people about the electricity bills, how they are increasing, how electricity is becoming unstable, then we will show them the solution and tell about the solution.
2. Another way can be the sustainable way where we can show people living a green lifestyle using Luminous solar panels and can create a sense of responsibility in them.
3. Third way can be showing the app, technical superiority of our product over other solar products to impress tech enthusiasts.
4. Fourth way can be by showing how easy it is to get our system installed than any other system. Since the brand is already well known, we can show them that we are solving the problem of installation (operations).

We will go for TV Ads and Youtube Ads for 1 and 4. To get to customers who are more concerned about electricity bills and installation hassle (these will be our ICP)

We can use Instagram reels, facebook and youtube shorts for 2 and 3. To get to customers who are going to affect our ICPs (young people: Millennials and Gen Z)

Product Integration

(Understand, where does organic intent for your product begin?)​

Step 1 → Understand does your product fit in?
Step 2 →Draw a possible flow of how the product will look like inside the integration.
Step 3 → Create a plan of multiple integrations that you could do.

1. Since luminous already sells inverters, we can promote our solar solution to the customers buying inverters and batteries as a upsell. Though our focus will be on educating customers and not selling as the cost difference between an inverter battery solution and a solar solution is almost 5 times.
2. Tie up with bill payment apps: Cred, Amazon Pay, etc. Whenever a user clicks to fetch bill, show them a banner talking about solar solution from luminous.
3. ​

Referral Program/Partner Program

(For B2B companies, if referral does not make sense you'll take a crack at a partner program for your product)​

Step 1 → Flesh out the referral/partner program
Step 2 → Draw raw frames on a piece of paper to get the gist.​

(Don't spend a lot of time on design. This is for you to communicate how the referral hook will look)​

​Journey Map

The customer searches for a Solar-based system and comes across Luminous (both offline and online) -> They talk about the brand (reliability, experience etc.) -> Customer checks for cost, and alternatives -> Customer finalizes on Luminous brand and books a visit -> Luminous team visits and suggests a plan -> Customer agrees -> Luminous schedules installation -> System goes live

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Introduce a Referral program 2-3 months after the system goes live. We can start with getting feedback from the user on app, via phone, etc. If the feedback is good then start the referral flow. The customer can refer anyone else to get "1 year of free service" for both referral and referee once the other customer has installed the system.

"1 year of service": Since the system is expected to last 25 years, this might be problematic (the ceiling for referrals become 25).

We can think of another referral reward like offering luminous currency that can be used to redeem luminous products (inverters batteries etc.) these points can be used to upgrade the existing system.

We can also give better analytics (AI driven suggestions) for the user on how they use electricity, how can we optimize overall generation of electricity for max efficiency, how much energy demand is increasing, how stable/unstable is the grid, what is the current carbon footprint, how to reduce it, etc.

​we hope this helped you break the cold start problem!

Reminder: This is not the only format to follow, feel free to edit it as you wish!​