An Example of Marketing to the Base of the Pyramid (BOP, Version 2)
by Annemarie Lagger
Abstract
Bottom of the Pyramid (BoP) business strategies or so-called market-based approaches have been praised to tackle the problem of poverty by marketing to the BoP while generating new income opportunities for the private sector. Nevertheless, BoP business strategies and their successful implementation have been rather limited to date.
Therefore, this thesis examines factors critical to the implementation of a market-based approach at the BoP and investigates how a successful supply chain of irrigation technologies can be built up. To that end, the different theoretical inputs consolidated under the concept of BoP 2.0 are considered. Then, the theoretical concept is reduced to three critical factors: partnerships, micro-finance and product-mix. The framework of the 4As – affordability, awareness, availability and acceptability – guides this analysis.
Subsequently, the theoretical key components are critically contrasted with the example of International Development Enterprises (IDE) Ghana and complemented with empirical findings of this case study. Based on the theory and IDE Ghana’s experience, a future roadmap for IDE Ghana is developed, especially with regard to the affordability factor. In other words, new models are presented on the basis of the introduction of a future solar treadle pump in order to address the critical factors investigated in the thesis. In particular, these new models illustrate how to combine innovative financing models with new product and service developments to the end of making irrigation technologies affordable to smallholder farmers in northern Ghana while generating income opportunities for the private sector.