Most enterprise developers have shifted their attention to high-income earners while taking little or no interest in poor people. People living below the poverty line make up three-fourth of the world’s population. This should be considered by enterprises when coming up with products for profit maximization. This paper helps understand the benefits of identifying with the bottom of the pyramid for developmental purposes and profit making. Manufacturing technologically advance and affordable products for the poor makes B.O.P’s marketing socially acceptable and responsible. This is because the action sustains development in the society.
Marketing to the bottom of the pyramid means identifying with the poor and vulnerable people in a society. Addressing issues of the poor entails identification of their needs. This calls for research to determine things required by this group of people to live comfortably (Polak and Warwick 50). People believe that purchasing expensive products equals to a better life. This ideology applies to people with additional income to purchase expensive products. Organizations can obtain a stunning profit by providing the society with better and affordable products than focusing on high-income earners only.
For example, in most developing countries, people in rural areas lack electricity. Companies can resort to making solar panels or lanterns that are rechargeable using energy from the sun to cater for the poor. Students gain extra time to read at night and prepare for better grades. When people buy the products, the firm makes more profit. The ideology becomes socially responsible because the lanterns are environmentally friendly and play a role in improving literacy levels within such societies.
Reaching out to the grassroots through marketing has made B.O.P to be socially responsible. It creates room for health advancement in the rural areas (Marketing to the Bottom of the Pyramid 2). According to World Health Organization, approximately 1.8 million people die of diarrhea annually. People with the habit of washing hands with soap are less likely to contact diarrhea. This concept encouraged the establishment of affordable anti-bacterial soaps such as lifebuoy. Reaching out to the people in the rural areas involved a door-to-door campaign. Companies that manufactured lifebuoy initiated production of sizable and affordable products that help the people fight diarrhea. This resulted in more profit, and at the same time helped the community improve its health issues.
Marketing of B.P.O promotes equitable distribution of resources within a nation. In most societies, governments rely on equality rather than equity. This has reduced the chances of poor regions to upgrade. In this case, reaching out to the grassroots help in distributing resources based on equity by providing the poor with opportunities for a better life. To make this idea practical, marketers need to focus on technological and infrastructural advancement (Polak and Warwick 60). Companies should provide affordable technologically advanced products that meet consumers’ needs.
For example, providing farmers with reasonably priced sprinklers in areas where water is a problem increases production in the region. Providing the farmers with cheaper Internet services and personal computers equips cultivators with first hand information on prices. In this case, companies can produce inexpensive and useful computers to farmers. Apart from making profit, the organization will be upgrading the infrastructural level of the society. This makes the concept socially acceptable.
It is advantageous to improve the economic, social, and political status of all regions within a country. Business developers can achieve this concept by encouraging sustainable development in all aspects of life. This calls for equitable distribution of affordable products and advancement of technology to all regions. In the end, companies that use this strategy make attractive profit and develop societies at the same time.
Works Cited
Marketing to the Bottom of the Pyramid n.d. Web.
Polak, Paul, and Mal Warwick. The Business Solution to Poverty: Designing Products and Services for Three Billion New Customers, San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2013. Print.