Description
Review the Marketing to the Bottom of the Pyramid case study. This case can be found in the “Case” section of your required textbook.
As a junior member of your company’s committee to explore new markets, you have received a memo from the chairperson telling you to be prepared at the next meeting to discuss key questions that need to be addressed if the company decides to look further into marketing to the BOP segment. Compile a PowerPoint presentation that you will deliver at the next meeting to underpin a set of general guidelines to use in developing a strategy for any one of the company’s products to be marketed to the “aspirational poor.” These guidelines do not need to be company or product specific, and can almost resemble a checklist of questions that the company could use as a starting point in evaluating the potential of a specific BOP marketing segment for one of its products. Be sure to incorporate concepts from the case study, as well as overall BOP issues revolving around the social responsibility of marketing efforts, such as the following:
Explain your position on whether it should be considered exploitation for a company to profit from selling soaps, shampoo, personal computers, ice cream, and similar items to people with little disposable income.
Appraise whether making loans to customers whose income is less than $100 monthly, at interest rates of 20%, to purchase TVs, cell phones, and other consumer durables is justified.
One authority argues that squeezing profits from people with little disposable income—and often not enough to eat—is not capitalist exploitation, but rather stimulates economic growth.