Changing Lives through Products in New Markets for Poor


What works for the Bottom (or Base) of the pyramid (BOP) marketing or markets for poor, as regards products, services or technologies being introduced, is reflective of creating a market where the poor operates to earn a living, and not await humanitarian donations. In this piece, ‘product’ will be applied interchangeably with services or technologies, for consistency, as the essence is the application of these in livelihood enhancement of the poor. Product designs for this new market should be created around customer need, often involving manufacturing from local materials, cheap and affordable to the poor. Nan lòt mo, within the BoP marketing concept, products must be useful to the poor and allow them to get out of the poverty trap. Products for BoP can evolve from the agriculture, lojman, consumer goods, and financial services sectors.




Microfinance and micro-mortgage operations (e.g. the Gremeen bank); consumer durable products (e.g. salt, soaps, milk based fortified dessert); refrigeration equipment; eye glasses (at affordable pricing for the poor); storage facility for tomato, vegetables; water purification powder; water filtration equipment; special storage tank for rain water;; treated bed nets; sustainable energy technology (off-grid power market); solar powered lantern; conversion of agricultural by-products (e.g. cassava peels, rice husks, palm produce); internet services.


Still on BoP products, please bear in mind that low cost, high-quality products make a critical entryway to BOP markets. Available products fit into this to be ‘BoP compliant’. Market creation approach to develop­ment requires that products should be made available to large numbers of poor people, through targeted effective mass marketing strategies. The key, as with conventional markets, is to provide a product that meets customer needs (e.g. clothing, healthcare, basic durables, food and beverages, elatriye) not only in price but in packaging, distribution methods, and payment schemes, while being innovative in how to arrive at what are often radically lower cost structures.

So much is going on presently in business schools, innovation laboratories, konpayi miltinasyonal (MNC), and small private sector concerns of other climes, in the area of BoP marketing. Peyi Zend, with its 600 million poor, comprises a major target. Other countries of south-east Asia, then China and even some in southern Africa are not left out. The question is, what about the largest market in Africa, Nijerya? My private investigations have shown that the BoP concept is news to most Nigerians.



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