Chapter 8

Bottom Of The Pyramid

Presented By:
Ishu Shrestha
Table of Contents
Concept of BOP
About Article
Abstract
Questions dealed in article
Introduction
Shopping behaviour and criteria
Challengs and opportunities
BOP Strategies
Challenges and Opportunities
Technology, innovation, and BOP
Challenges and Opportunities at BOP market
Conclusion
“When the poor at the BOP are treated as consumers, they can reap the
benefits of respect, choice, and self-esteem and have an opportunity to climb
out of the poverty trap.”

“When the poor are converted into consumers, they get more than access to
products and services. They acquire the dignity of attention and choices from
the private sector that were previously reserved for the middle-class and rich.”

― C.K. Prahalad,
The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid: Eradicating Poverty Through
Profits 3
CONCEPT
▪ Bottom of the pyramid (BOP), also called base of the
pyramid, term in economics that refers to the poorest
two-thirds of the economic human pyramid, a group of
more than four billion people living in abject poverty.

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Characteristics of BOP Market
▪ Customers: ▪ MNC generally ignore, treat
as non consumers due to low
Rural or sub urban
purchasing power
areas

▪ Under tapped market i.e. no

▪ Little or no formal
or less competition
education

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 About Article
Name: “A Qualitative Investigation of
Shopping Behavior of Customers at
Bottom of the Pyramid”
By: Bodh Raj Sharma & Nikita Gupta
Published On: Journal of Global
Marketing, 23 Mar 2021

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 Abstract
▪ This article aims to investigate the shopping behavior of BOP customers to
identify the drivers and hindrances in the buying decisions which follows a
qualitative approach by conducting in-depth personal interviews of 100 BOP
customers visiting Vishal Mega Marts (VMMs) in a northern Indian city.
▪ The results indicate that BOP customers aspire for a better shopping experience
like affluent customers, however, income constraint restricts them to buy superior
brands.
▪ BOP customers are persuaded by excessive discounts, gifts, coupons, peer
influence, and seasonal offers by VMMs.

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Questions dealed in article
▪ How BOP customers make their shopping decisions?
▪ What factors influence BOP customers’ buying
decision process?
▪ What strategies do retailers adopt to attract, satisfy, and
retain BOP customers?

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Introduction
▪ BOP market represents a large share of the world’s population,
however, this segment remained neglected by business organizations
due to extreme poverty and poor living standards of BOP customers.
▪ BOP has gained the attention of academicians, researchers, business
concerns, and policymakers in recent years, this upcoming and the
fastest-growing research field necessitates an exhaustive
understanding of the shopping behavior of BOP customers

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▪ The BOP sector is the most neglected one,
which can become the most profitable if the
companies deliver products and services as per
the requirements of BOP customers.

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Contd…
▪ The extant research studies identified the various reasons for companies not
serving BOP customers due to low disposable income limited resources,
affordability potential, great diversity, lack of infrastructural facilities like
transportation and communication facilities, illiteracy and distant geographical
location and cross-cultural differences.
▪ The focus of modern retailers is largely on serving profitable customers while
BOP customers yet remain ignored. However, a few retailers like VMMs have
been designing strategies for BOP customers for ensuring better quality products
at reasonable prices

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Shopping behaviour of BOP customers
▪ The decision-making process of BOP customers is quite complex,
progressive, and divergent, and also influenced by the variables such as
communal, utilitarian, psychological, conditional, and cognitive variables.
▪ BOP customers usually make decisions based only on a single piece of
available information. However, the decisions made by illiterate people
are often obstructed by unreachable products at certain places, overpriced
products, lack of consciousness, and aptness.

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Shopping behaviour of BOP customers
▪ The everyday and hence, the family becomes one of the major influencers of the
choices of BOP consumers regarding various products because the everyday
decision-making procedure at the BOP level is largely depends on key roles played
by different members of the family.
▪ BOP consumers do not possess enough proficiency and brashness to make efficient
decisions, and hence, they are not aware of their rights as consumers.
▪ The consumption experience of BOP is highly favored by the buying behavior, which
is again dependent upon the level of awareness among such consumers regarding
different products.

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Shopping criteria of BOP customers
▪ Planning: The majority of the BOP consumers make advanced
planning relating to what to buy? where to buy? in which the scale of
enthusiasm to purchase is the major determinant of the buying
process.

▪ Discounts and offers: Offer of a good variety of discounts and

varying prices have a direct influence on the decisions of BOP
consumers, where store name does not influence much.

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Contd..
▪ Lookalike: BOP buyers obtain worth from the buying of premeditated
lookalike brands depending on cost-benefit scrutiny, status symbol, and
the value they attach with money. BOP customers often make a
considerable comparison between product prices, brands, and alternatives
of various products’ actual purchases.
▪ Value: It is in this context; it can be inferred that the most noteworthy and
dominant criteria in the purchasing procedure of BOP customers are the
value they attach to a particular product.

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BOP Strategies Affordability

BOP’s
Availability
4A’S Awareness
Marketing
Strategy

Access

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Technology, innovation, and BOP
▪If the model is having international, multisectoral, and enthusiastic support for ICT projects, it
is implemented properly, which would increase the living standards of the BOP customers
▪ICT plays three major roles at the BOP level, automated, informative, and transformative.
▪ICT can be implemented only with the support of the people who adopt ICT and operate it.
▪The type of energy solution adopted by a company, investment in such an energy solution, and
the commitment level highly influence the profitability-affordability ratio at BOP.
▪BOP firms’ marketing capabilities play a contingent role in translating product innovativeness
into customer value in BOP markets.
▪Orchestrators play a significant role in bringing social business collaborations at the BOP level.

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Challenges and Opportunities at BOP market
Opportunities:
Challenges: Targeted marketing opportunity.
Product redesign.
▪ Consumer behaviors that
have to change. New channel creation.

▪ Distribution extension.
Company routines that have
to change. New product development.
Conquest of competitors’ market.
Greenfield-market expansion.
New business-model development.
New market creation.
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Conclusions
▪ The study is based on an interview with BOP customers who
shared their experiences, shopping patterns, stimulants, and
problems faced while shopping from modern retailers (VMMs).
▪ VMMs designs various strategies to lure BOP customers
particularly, gifts, discounts, and contests. BOP customers take
advantage of deals and do shopping from these stores on spe cial
occasions and offers.

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Contd…
▪ People at BOP are supported by family and friends while
shopping.
▪ BOP customers are more sensitive and require proper attention.
▪ Modern retailers can initiate CSR programs to win the hearts of
BOP customers. The study is yet an initial attempt and provides
directions for quantitative and cross-cultural research on BOP
customers’ behavior.

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Thank YOU!!!

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