IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/mup/actaun/actaun_2011059020009.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Marketing to the Bottom of the Pyramid and subsistence markets - A research agenda

Author

Listed:
  • Avinash G. Mulky

    (B-205, Indian Institute of Management Bangalore, Bannerghatta Road, Bangalore 560076, India)

Abstract

The concepts of Bottom of the Pyramid (BOP) and subsistence markets have attracted substantial academic and managerial attention in recent years. The BOP thesis states that there are opportunities for multinational companies to achieve significant revenues and profitability by designing and implementing marketing programs aimed at people who occupy the lowest tier in the world's economic pyramid. The number of people in this segment has been estimated to be between 2.7 billion and 4 billion. This paper reviews the academic literature on BOP and subsistence markets and identifies important issues related to marketing to these consumers. The review is based on journal articles that have appeared in peer-reviewed journals and on case studies published by reputed academic institutions. The literature review first identifies a number of business issues like size of BOP market, motivations for undertaking BOP initiatives, ethics and linkages. Then specific marketing issues related to the BOP segment such as consumer analysis, company analysis, collaborators, competition and context, segmentation and positioning and issues relating to marketing program design and implementation are analyzed. Based on this analysis, the paper develops a research agenda for future research on BOP and subsistence markets.

Suggested Citation

  • Avinash G. Mulky, 2011. "Marketing to the Bottom of the Pyramid and subsistence markets - A research agenda," Acta Universitatis Agriculturae et Silviculturae Mendelianae Brunensis, Mendel University Press, vol. 59(2), pages 9-14.
    • Handle: RePEc:mup:actaun:actaun_2011059020009
    DOI: 10.11118/actaun201159020009
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://acta.mendelu.cz/doi/10.11118/actaun201159020009.html
    Download Restriction: free of charge
    File URL: http://acta.mendelu.cz/doi/10.11118/actaun201159020009.pdf
    Download Restriction: free of charge
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.11118/actaun201159020009?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Elaydi, Raed & Harrison, Charles, 2010. "Strategic motivations and choice in subsistence markets," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 63(6), pages 651-655, June.
    2. Viswanathan, Madhu & Sridharan, Srinivas & Ritchie, Robin, 2010. "Understanding consumption and entrepreneurship in subsistence marketplaces," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 63(6), pages 570-581, June.
    3. Viswanathan, Madhu & Rosa, José Antonio, 2010. "Understanding subsistence marketplaces: Toward sustainable consumption and commerce for a better world," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 63(6), pages 535-537, June.
    4. Weidner, Kelly L. & Rosa, José Antonio & Viswanathan, Madhu, 2010. "Marketing to subsistence consumers: Lessons from practice," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 63(6), pages 559-569, June.
    5. Luuk Van Kempen, 2004. "Are the poor willing to pay a premium for designer labels? a field experiment in Bolivia," Oxford Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(2), pages 205-224.
    6. Chikweche, Tendai & Fletcher, Richard, 2010. "Understanding factors that influence purchases in subsistence markets," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 63(6), pages 643-650, June.
    7. London, Ted & Anupindi, Ravi & Sheth, Sateen, 2010. "Creating mutual value: Lessons learned from ventures serving base of the pyramid producers," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 63(6), pages 582-594, June.
    8. Rüdiger Hahn, 2009. "The Ethical Rational of Business for the Poor – Integrating the Concepts Bottom of the Pyramid, Sustainable Development, and Corporate Citizenship," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 84(3), pages 313-324, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Lucie Sychrová, 2013. "Measuring the effectiveness of marketing activities use in relation to company size," Acta Universitatis Agriculturae et Silviculturae Mendelianae Brunensis, Mendel University Press, vol. 61(2), pages 493-500.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Simon Joncourt & Heiko Gebauer & Javier Reynoso & Karla Cabrera & Ana Valdes & Katharina Greve, 2019. "Extending the Base-of-the-Pyramid Concept," Service Science, INFORMS, vol. 11(3), pages 241-261, October.
    2. Praceus, Sarah & Herstatt, Cornelius, 2012. "Consumer innovation in the poor versus rich world: Some differences and similarities," Working Papers 71, Hamburg University of Technology (TUHH), Institute for Technology and Innovation Management.
    3. Raja Usman Khalid & Stefan Seuring, 2019. "Analyzing Base-of-the-Pyramid Research from a (Sustainable) Supply Chain Perspective," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 155(3), pages 663-686, March.
    4. Louis Mosake Njomo, 2019. "Consumer Behaviour in Subsistence Marketplaces in Cameroon, An Exploratory Study of the Village of Batoke in Limbe Sub-Division, South West Region," International Journal of Economics and Financial Research, Academic Research Publishing Group, vol. 5(8), pages 184-195, 08-2019.
    5. Kumar, Avinash & Kumra, Rajeev & Singh, Ramendra, 2022. "Base of the pyramid producers’ constraints: An integrated review and research agenda," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 140(C), pages 115-129.
    6. Ronika Chakrabarti, 2021. "Why art matters: Artistic consumer‐entrepreneurship in subsistence marketplaces," Journal of Consumer Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(1), pages 134-150, March.
    7. Carlos M. Jardon & Xavier Martinez-Cobas, 2022. "Leadership and Marketing Capabilities in Small Businesses of Subsistence Marketplaces," SAGE Open, , vol. 12(2), pages 21582440221, April.
    8. Addisu A. Lashitew & Somendra Narayan & Eugenia Rosca & Lydia Bals, 2022. "Creating Social Value for the ‘Base of the Pyramid’: An Integrative Review and Research Agenda," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 178(2), pages 445-466, June.
    9. Anton Shevchenko & Xiaodan Pan & Goran Calic, 2020. "Exploring the effect of environmental orientation on financial decisions of businesses at the bottom of the pyramid: Evidence from the microlending context," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(5), pages 1876-1886, July.
    10. Jayashankar, Priyanka & Raju, Sekar, 2020. "The effect of social cohesion and social networks on perceptions of food availability among low-income consumers," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 316-323.
    11. Hahn, Rüdiger & Gold, Stefan, 2014. "Resources and governance in “base of the pyramid”-partnerships: Assessing collaborations between businesses and non-business actors," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 67(7), pages 1321-1333.
    12. Joern H. Block & Marcus Wagner, 2014. "The Effect of Family Ownership on Different Dimensions of Corporate Social Responsibility: Evidence from Large US Firms," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 23(7), pages 475-492, November.
    13. Gobinda Roy & Rajarshi Debnath & Partha Sarathi Mitra & Avinash K. Shrivastava, 2021. "Analytical study of low-income consumers’ purchase behaviour for developing marketing strategy," International Journal of System Assurance Engineering and Management, Springer;The Society for Reliability, Engineering Quality and Operations Management (SREQOM),India, and Division of Operation and Maintenance, Lulea University of Technology, Sweden, vol. 12(5), pages 895-909, October.
    14. Fernandes, Josi & Mason, Katy & Chakrabarti, Ronika, 2019. "Managing to make market agencements: The temporally bound elements of stigma in favelas," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 128-142.
    15. Norbert Wilson, 2016. "When the Cupboards Are Bare: Nudging Food Pantry Clients to Healthier Foods," Journal of the Association for Consumer Research, University of Chicago Press, vol. 1(1), pages 125-133.
    16. Dev Narayan Sarkar & Kaushik Kundu & Himadri Roy Chaudhuri, 2016. "Developing a conceptual model of small independent retailers in developing economies: the roles of embeddedness and subsistence markets," AMS Review, Springer;Academy of Marketing Science, vol. 6(3), pages 176-193, December.
    17. Karanika, Katerina & Hogg, Margaret K., 2016. "Being kind to ourselves: Self-compassion, coping, and consumption," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(2), pages 760-769.
    18. Ingenbleek, Paul T.M. & Tessema, Workneh Kassa & van Trijp, Hans C.M., 2013. "Conducting field research in subsistence markets, with an application to market orientation in the context of Ethiopian pastoralists," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 30(1), pages 83-97.
    19. Anaka Aiyar & Srinivas Venugopal, 2020. "Addressing the Ethical Challenge of Market Inclusion in Base-of-the-Pyramid Markets: A Macromarketing Approach," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 164(2), pages 243-260, June.
    20. Varsha Khandker, 2023. "Two decades of the bottom of the pyramid research: identifying the influencers, structure, and the evolution of the concept," Management Review Quarterly, Springer, vol. 73(3), pages 1151-1178, September.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:mup:actaun:actaun_2011059020009. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Ivo Andrle (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://mendelu.cz/en/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.