Marketing to the bottom of the pyramid : a Zimbabwean perspective

The purpose of the study is to investigate marketing to the Bottom of Pyramid (BOP) in Zimbabwe. This is a market which constitutes at least two-thirds of the world?s total population and is made up of consumers whose daily household income is less than US$2 per day. The thesis achieves its purpose by establishing how consumers make decisions to buy products, how firms which serve the BOP conduct business in this environment and the nature of the interaction which occurs between consumers and the firms. The thesis takes the view that both consumer and firm perspectives are directly intertwined and thus must be jointly investigated in order to get a better understanding of marketing to the BOP. Traditionally the focus of business marketing has been on identifying and serving markets that have consumers with a capacity to consume and pay a sustainable price for the product. However the mid-90s has seen the emergence of a counter-scholarly argument which puts across a new view centered on the fact that by focusing on that portion of the market, businesses are losing sight of a big layer of the market at the BOP which does not necessarily meet the conventional prerequisites of a viable market. By virtue of the number of current and potential consumers, this layer provides considerable opportunities for businesses. To date, comparison and application of theories developed in the ?west? has been largely confined to the ?Western? markets (developed markets, e.g. Europe, USA) and ?Eastern? markets (emerging markets, e.g. Asia) leaving out sub-Saharan Africa. This is a region which has a higher proportion of its population at the BOP compared to other countries like Brazil, China, and India, and which has a market potential of US$429 billion. Hence the motivation for this study to focus on Zimbabwe, a market made up of more than 85% BOP consumers. The thesis is based on insights drawn from studies conducted in Zimbabwe employing a mixed research methods approach to collect data. This approach comprised qualitative consumer interviews and focus groups which were augmented by ethnographic observations and case studies of firms. This approach afforded the researcher the opportunity to utilize multiple sources of information from multiple approaches in order to draw new insights into the social world at the BOP. By combining multiple methods, the researcher was able to draw important new insights into the causes and consequences of BOP consumer beliefs and behaviour. The study found that the BOP market in Zimbabwe is not homogenous but is made up of four groups of consumers; namely, diluted urban, urban based, rural-urban based and rural, each of whom has different characteristics that determine purchase behaviour. It was found that the BOP market contributed to an increasing percentage of the turnover of firms in the food and personal hygiene manufacturing sector in Zimbabwe. The study articulated the process that consumers go through when allocating and managing their limited income to meet their needs. The decision making level of BOP consumers when buying food and personal hygiene products was found to be a high-involvement decision instead of an habitual one. The study found that family roles in purchase decision are changing at the BOP. Specifically the research found that there was increasing joint spousal decision making and children were responsible for the upkeep of their parents and siblings and consequently assumed multiple roles. Motivation to buy products was found to be determined by a set of influencers of core drivers which are interlinked and a second tier of drivers which are peripheral. The research found that commitment by firms to serving the BOP should be embraced by all managers and employees and be reflected in the development and implementation of internal systems and allocation of resources to specifically serve this market. Both consumers and firms were exposed to diverse constraints which had been highlighted in previous studies. However this study identified new constraints faced by consumers and firms, and more importantly, it highlighted reasons why firms continue to do business in environments such as those found at the BOP. Social networks were found to be important in facilitating interaction between consumers and firms; distribution systems such as use of franchises were embedded in these social networks which emerged as key conduits for facilitating interaction. The study set out a detailed qualitative process which provided a greater understanding of the complexity of the BOP in terms of understanding consumer xiii behaviour and firms? strategies, outlining procedures which can be replicated in other markets to expand the scope for generalizability of the findings.