General Trade (GT) remains the dominant route to market for Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) companies in India, and outlet-level execution—availability, visibility, and retailer engagement—substantially determines whether brand equity converts into actual sales. This paper presents a field-based, descriptive-exploratory MBA research study conducted during an On-the-Job Training (OJT) engagement with ITC Limited’s Personal Care Products Division from 15 May 2026 to 30 July 2026, in the role of Sales & Marketing Intern in the General Trade channel. The research problem is the extent to which First Club (FC) outlet conversion, together with product visibility and retail execution, is associated with Personal Care sales performance in General Trade. Primary data was gathered through outlet visits, retailer interactions, and FC pitching across a beat-based field coverage of 796 outlets, supplemented by secondary company records and academic literature. Field activity generated 344 orders worth ₹3,12,130. Of 41 outlets formally pitched for FC conversion, 29 converted (≈70.7 percent of outlets pitched). The project record shows an average outlet sale of ₹1,071.50 before FC conversion and ₹2,145 after, an observed increase of ₹1,073.50 (≈100.2 percent); however, the underlying project documentation does not specify whether this reflects the same outlets over a defined, matched time window, and the comparison is therefore treated as an observational, uncontrolled association rather than evidence of a causal effect. The findings are consistent with retail-execution and relationship-marketing literature suggesting that visibility, availability, and sustained retailer engagement support outlet productivity, and the paper closes with field-grounded recommendations for outlet prioritisation, visibility management, and data-driven monitoring, together with an explicit account of the study’s methodological limitations.

 

Keywords

First Club, General Trade, Retail Execution, Product Visibility, Retailer Engagement, Sales Growth, FMCG, Channel Management