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The purpose of this study is to examine which changes companies need to implement in their transactional marketing strategy to sell to the poor when launching a product innovation in low‐income countries.

The paper confronts the literature on the “bottom of the pyramid” with the diffusion of innovations theory in order to identify the country characteristics that call for marketing changes when entering low‐income markets. The authors investigate for one case (the Tata Nano) whether – and how – the company implements changes to respond to these conceptually identified challenges. The case study is systematically analysed and structured according to Kotler's four Ps.

The case shows that companies can create products with functionality and cost advantage for the poor without compromising on safety and comfort. Creating an innovative distribution system pushes costs and builds trust between the company and the customer.

The study examines one case from the automobile industry. Marketers would benefit from multiple case studies.

The study's originality springs from the confrontation between the bottom of the pyramid and the diffusion of innovations theories. The study is valuable to marketers targeting the bottom of the pyramid. The case study is interesting because the industry (automobile) surprisingly targets a poorer non‐traditional customer base (the upper bottom of the pyramid).

This study aims to explore the impact of store atmospherics on urban bottom-of-the-pyramid consumers’ behavioural intentions to purchase apparel in an emerging African market context. This study also considers purchase antecedents to attitude, perceived behavioural control and social norms as determinants of urban bottom-of-the-pyramid consumers’ apparel behavioural intentions.

Using non-probability sampling, specifically purposive and interlocking sampling, data collection was secured from 881 economically active Namibian urban bottom-of-the-pyramid respondents through interviewer-administered questionnaires. Covariance-based structural equation modelling assessed the significant relationships among all constructs in the conceptual model.

This study found that for favourable apparel behavioural intentions of urban bottom-of-the-pyramid consumers to occur, apparel retailers should emphasise trust, perceived awareness and self-identity through apparel assortment and groupings, easy-to-read visible signage, together with competent, friendly and respectful sales personnel in their store atmospherics.

The findings of this study may guide apparel retailers in other emerging African markets to develop regional integration, market-based solutions and inclusive economic growth focusing on “non-essential” products, such as apparel, among urban bottom-of-the-pyramid consumers.

This study expands the intellectual boundaries of urban bottom-of-the-pyramid consumers’ behavioural intentions towards “non-essential” products. The theoretical framework supports the integration of both the stimulus-organism-response model and the theory of planned behaviour into one single model for empirical investigation. Additionally, adopting a novel theoretical framework helped identify the impact of store atmospherics from a bottom-of-the-pyramid perspective in an emerging African market context, such as Namibia.

The market-based approach to catering for the poor mainly focusses on companies making profits while helping the poor enhance their lives. This concept presented the possibility of there being a ‘fortune’ to make at the Bottom of the Pyramid (BoP) market that was an opportunity for both businesses and consumers. The notion of the BoP market has been widely studied using urban and rural contexts as distinct classifications; yet many argue that the opportunity does not in fact exist in the rural BoP markets. In this chapter the authors examine the prospects in the rural BoP in Sri Lanka through a qualitative study using insights provided by industry practitioners who operate at the BoP level. Findings show that a large percentage of the income of multinational companies is derived from rural BoP markets. Compared to the urban sector, the rural BoP market indicates relatively higher disposable income and is viewed as an attractive market segment by industry practitioners. The findings also show that rural BoP people have more resources and skills than their urban counterparts, although the former commonly have lower levels of education. Moreover, the youth segment in both the urban and rural BoP markets was found to heavily consume social media. The authors conclude their discussion by providing several key proposals for organisations looking to seize opportunities in this market.

The authors look back and forward in terms of challenges and opportunities for marketing, viewed from the vantage point of the subsistence marketplaces stream. The authors discuss how marketing can evolve and expand to address the scale and scope of challenges that lie ahead. By way of challenges, the authors discuss the confluence of uncertainties, such as inherent in the Base of the Pyramid (BoP) contexts, in environmental issues, and in the arena of technological solutions, as well as the confluence of unfamiliarities among managers, students, and researchers. The authors discuss opportunities for marketing through a bottom-up approach and argue for evolving marketing with rapidly changing reality in BoP markets, a harbinger and an innovation laboratory for all contexts.

The predominance of certain adverse factors has historically de-motivated firms seeking to enter into the bottom-of-the-pyramid (BoP) markets due to the perception that BoP markets are impoverished and therefore unable to afford their products. However, Prahalad’s seminal study on BoP markets as potential sources of wealth may have influenced the mindset of marketers around the world to view the demographic at the BoP as prodigious product markets waiting to be mined. This chapter, therefore, explores how some multinational corporations (MNCs) may have successfully implemented BoP marketing in Nigeria against the backdrop of diffusion of innovation (DoI) theory. The DoI theory tries to explain how and why new ideas, product, structures, or phenomena (innovations), spread across users and social systems. It posits among other things that there are at least five conditions that define the rate of adoption of an innovation, including relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, trialability, and observability. The authors find in the context of case companies, MTN Communications, Promasidor (Cowbell), and Dufil Prima Foods (Indomie) Nigeria that these elements contribute to building a viable explanation for the wide adoption of their products in the Nigerian BoP markets. Regarding the economic viability of BoP markets, the authors find that MNCs may have to embrace a commitment to long-term profitability, focus on economies of scale as a basis for competitiveness, and realize that in BoP markets, defining a marketing model is a continuous process.

This paper aims to contend that four significant ideas must be comprehended, and their connection and interaction understood if successful marketing to the 4 to 5 billion undeserved bottom of the pyramid (BOP) people in the world, by multinational firms is to be realized. These ideas are: the bottom of the pyramid (BOP) market itself; share of the heart versus consumer animosity; the nature and influence of global “umbrella” brands and responsible marketing as a guiding principle for all firms including those focusing on the BOP. Each of these ideas, in and of itself, represents an important dimension in today's global business environment, but taken together they offer a clearer understanding of how companies, particularly multinational companies, can do well (profit) and do good (improve humanity).

The paper briefly overviews the BOP literature, highlighting those parts most relevant to this work; expands upon the notion of “share of heart” and its twin components consumer affinity and consumer animosity; delineates the nature and impact of global “umbrella” brands in BOP marketing; synopsizes the notion of “responsible marketing” in the BOP context, and proposes a conceptual scheme of how these ideas are connected, how they interact in today's business world, and how they can lead to ongoing business success.

Mutlinational firms (MNFs) wishing to successfully pursue BOP markets need to blend their understanding of BOP uniqueness, with a clear understanding of the other three concepts, namely share of heart, gobal umbrella brands and responsible marketing. Tapping the potential of the BOP requires not only radicallly lowered priced products but also consumers with higher income. Marketers must address both parts of the problem since acting on either in isolation will not be effective.

Global umbrella brands of the rich world (BrandAmerica, EuroBrand, BrandNippon, etc.) must also play a part in successful BOP marketing. The future of such global umbrella brands lies to a great degree with BOP markets as these markets are still growing, and thus represent and will continue to represent either enormous partners or enormous rivals. MNFs that truly understand the nature, scope and potential of BOP markets, and act in concert to market responsibly to consumers in such markets, will not only garner the needed share of heart related to long‐term success in such markets, but will see their own global umbrella brand continue to thrive and prosper in the ever evolving global market arena.

The purpose of this article is to examine the bottom of the pyramid (BOP) proposition, where private companies can both be profitable and help alleviate poverty by attending low‐income consumers.

The literature on BOP was reviewed and some key elements of the BOP approach were proposed and examined.

There is no agreement in the literature about the potential benefits of the BOP approach for both private companies and low‐income consumers. However, further research on characterizing the BOP segment and finding the appropriate business model for attending the BOP can provide some answers to this issue.

The article provides some guidelines to managers as to how they need to adapt their marketing strategies to sell to the BOP market, and what type of partnerships they need to build in order to succeed.

The article presents a thorough analysis of the key elements involved in the BOP initiative: companies' motivations, characterization of the BOP consumers, and the business model to attend the BOP.

The purpose of this chapter is twofold. First, to investigate how multi-domestic, multinational corporations (MNCs) can develop business models that are appropriate to “Bottom-of-the-Pyramid” (BOP) settings. Second, to address how they can apply elements of BOP business models across their operations. We use the case of the entry of the Norwegian mobile telecom MNC Telenor into India as the empirical context. Prior to India, Telenor had operated successfully in Asian emerging economies by adapting its business model to local conditions. However, it had only operated in the upper income tiers of these countries. In India, its late entry meant that for the first time in its history it had to move beyond these upper income tiers and develop a business model suited to BOP. We apply an economic model terminology as a means to gauging the degree of business model innovation Telenor undertook. Telenor succeeded in its development of a BOP business model by working in close partnership with local firms. Although Telenor in India was operating at BOP, a number of the resultant innovations were deemed by Telenor to be transferable to top-of-the-pyramid operations across Telenor. In order to succeed in developing BOP business models MNCs must go beyond local responsiveness and engage closely with local partners. However, transference of elements of BOP business models to other parts of the MNC is contingent on there being a centralized integrating capability.

This study aims to fill the gap on proenvironmental behavior studies among consumers in bottom of the pyramid (BOP) market by examining the relationship between values, beliefs and norms among Ghanaian consumers.

A sample of 324 Ghanaian consumers (responses rate of 64%) was used to estimate the model. The data was analyzed using maximum likelihood robust approach of Lavaan package for structural equation modeling in R.

The findings show that there is no significant relationship between values and the new ecological worldview, which also does not affect awareness of environmental consequences. However, awareness of consequences, likely based on personal experiences, significantly impacts perceived ability to reduce threats to the environment. Ghanaian consumers are mainly influenced by personal experiences with local environmental consequences that affect their perceived ability to reduce threats to their environment and their willingness to engage in proenvironmental behavior. The study supports the argument that proenvironmental behavior is the result of complex decision-making that might be influenced by a country’s economic situation, infrastructure, culture and institutions.

This study focuses on a single country in Africa. More studies are needed among other base of the pyramid countries, and in comparison to developed countries’ consumers.

The study adds to the limited knowledge regarding sustainable consumption in the neglected context of the bottom of the pyramid market.

This contribution discusses how multinational firms could serve poorer consumers in developed regions like Europe and through which business models, beyond the traditional corporate social responsibility (CSR) actions. MNEs have still limited capacity to address poverty in developed countries, notwithstanding some experience they have matured in developing markets and the striking figures of rising poverty in Europe and the United States. This research focuses on a specific issue: the role of MNEs in addressing poverty in developed markets, either leveraging on their previous expertise gained in developing countries or designing novel ad hoc solutions. The capacity of Western multinationals to tackle effectively the challenge of profitably doing business at the base of the pyramid (BoP) represents a controversial issue in literature and an intriguing topic for international business studies. The empirical research is based on three case studies. The companies have already gained experience in targeting BoP markets in developing countries. They are analyzed in order to understand better their approaches and their applicability in Europe.