Un article de l'Economic Times, un journal indien, sur les efforts déployés par les multinationales pour atteindre les consommateurs ruraux en utilisant les méthodes classiques de la théorie des BOP, et notamment le sachet marketing, mais aussi en concevant des produits spécialement conçus pour les besoins des pauvres.
GSK, Nestle, Coca-Cola & Dabur top up effort to tap rural consumers
11 Jan 2010, 0324 hrs IST, Ratna Bhushan, ET Bureau
NEW DELHI: Consumer product makers such as GlaxoSmithKline, Nestle, Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Hindustan Unilever, Marico, Godrej and Dabur are rushing to
the bottom-of-the-pyramid market with custom-made products six years after management guru CK Prahalad said consumers with incomes less than $2 a day can be a profitable segment for marketers.
Estimated at close to 350 million, the bottom-of-pyramid (BOP) consumer segment is the biggest and perhaps the fastest growing in the country with about 40 million families making the jump from poverty to the BOP club every year. Marketers are no longer only betting on smaller packs of existing products to tap the fortune at the bottom of the pyramid; they are also looking to roll out products specially made for the poor.
GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare (GSKCH), foods company Nestle and beverage maker Coca-Cola have already entered the market with products created for BOP consumers, while PepsiCo is set to follow suit. Others such as Hindustan Unilever, Marico, Godrej Consumer Products and Dabur too are learnt to be working on products for the BOP segment.
GlaxoSmithKline is rolling out Asha — a milk food drink from Horlicks for rural consumers — in Andhra Pradesh; Nestle is promoting Maggi noodles at Rs 4 and Maggi seasoning at Rs 2 for low-income group consumers beginning with Mumbai’s Dharavi slum; Coca-Cola has begun selling a powder-based beverage called Vitingo at Rs 2.50 per sachet across villages in Orissa; and PepsiCo’s global chairman & CEO Indra Nooyi has announced that the company is working on a beverage or snack priced between Re 1 and Rs 5 for people ailing from malnutrition and deficiencies.
GlaxoSmithKline’s Asha, which is 40% cheaper than the regular variant of Horlicks, is the first product from the UK-based MNC designed for rural consumers. “Alongside, we are building a robust go-to-market model to ensure the products reach the right consumers because it’s not enough just to have the right products,” Zubair Ahmed, managing director of GlaxoSmithKline, said.
The company will continue to identify and bridge need gaps for bottom-of-the-pyramid consumers, particularly in terms of nutrition products and their availability, he added. About three weeks ago, the Indian arm of Swiss foods company Nestle introduced low-priced fortified meals under its flagship Maggi instant noodles brand.
Shivani Hegde, general manager (foods) at Nestle India, said addressing micronutrient malnutrition was a challenge for the country. Ms Hegde said Nestle would provide nutrition education to the base of the pyramid and was launching its first such programme at Dharavi slums in Mumbai.
Coca-Cola’s Vitingo — a fortified beverage in 18-gm sachets at Rs 2.50 each — is again a first for the beverage maker. “Buoyed by the success of the pilot project for Vitingo in Sambalpur, Orissa last year, the project is now being scaled up to 30 districts of Orissa,” a Coca-Cola India spokesperson said. The company has tied up with NGO and micro finance institution BISWA in Orissa for the same.
Economists, meanwhile, say companies cannot afford to paint all bottom-of-the-pyramid consumers with the same brush. “The potential at the bottom of the pyramid is immense, but companies will need to understand consumer spending patterns carefully,” says Dr Rajesh Shukla, senior fellow at the National Council for Applied Economic Research (NCAER).
But for now, with the likes of HUL, Godrej Consumer Products, Marico and Dabur set to join the race, the poor in the country may soon have something to smile about.
GSK, Nestle, Coca-Cola & Dabur top up effort to tap rural consumers
11 Jan 2010, 0324 hrs IST, Ratna Bhushan, ET Bureau
NEW DELHI: Consumer product makers such as GlaxoSmithKline, Nestle, Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Hindustan Unilever, Marico, Godrej and Dabur are rushing to
the bottom-of-the-pyramid market with custom-made products six years after management guru CK Prahalad said consumers with incomes less than $2 a day can be a profitable segment for marketers.
Estimated at close to 350 million, the bottom-of-pyramid (BOP) consumer segment is the biggest and perhaps the fastest growing in the country with about 40 million families making the jump from poverty to the BOP club every year. Marketers are no longer only betting on smaller packs of existing products to tap the fortune at the bottom of the pyramid; they are also looking to roll out products specially made for the poor.
GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare (GSKCH), foods company Nestle and beverage maker Coca-Cola have already entered the market with products created for BOP consumers, while PepsiCo is set to follow suit. Others such as Hindustan Unilever, Marico, Godrej Consumer Products and Dabur too are learnt to be working on products for the BOP segment.
GlaxoSmithKline is rolling out Asha — a milk food drink from Horlicks for rural consumers — in Andhra Pradesh; Nestle is promoting Maggi noodles at Rs 4 and Maggi seasoning at Rs 2 for low-income group consumers beginning with Mumbai’s Dharavi slum; Coca-Cola has begun selling a powder-based beverage called Vitingo at Rs 2.50 per sachet across villages in Orissa; and PepsiCo’s global chairman & CEO Indra Nooyi has announced that the company is working on a beverage or snack priced between Re 1 and Rs 5 for people ailing from malnutrition and deficiencies.
GlaxoSmithKline’s Asha, which is 40% cheaper than the regular variant of Horlicks, is the first product from the UK-based MNC designed for rural consumers. “Alongside, we are building a robust go-to-market model to ensure the products reach the right consumers because it’s not enough just to have the right products,” Zubair Ahmed, managing director of GlaxoSmithKline, said.
The company will continue to identify and bridge need gaps for bottom-of-the-pyramid consumers, particularly in terms of nutrition products and their availability, he added. About three weeks ago, the Indian arm of Swiss foods company Nestle introduced low-priced fortified meals under its flagship Maggi instant noodles brand.
Shivani Hegde, general manager (foods) at Nestle India, said addressing micronutrient malnutrition was a challenge for the country. Ms Hegde said Nestle would provide nutrition education to the base of the pyramid and was launching its first such programme at Dharavi slums in Mumbai.
Coca-Cola’s Vitingo — a fortified beverage in 18-gm sachets at Rs 2.50 each — is again a first for the beverage maker. “Buoyed by the success of the pilot project for Vitingo in Sambalpur, Orissa last year, the project is now being scaled up to 30 districts of Orissa,” a Coca-Cola India spokesperson said. The company has tied up with NGO and micro finance institution BISWA in Orissa for the same.
Economists, meanwhile, say companies cannot afford to paint all bottom-of-the-pyramid consumers with the same brush. “The potential at the bottom of the pyramid is immense, but companies will need to understand consumer spending patterns carefully,” says Dr Rajesh Shukla, senior fellow at the National Council for Applied Economic Research (NCAER).
But for now, with the likes of HUL, Godrej Consumer Products, Marico and Dabur set to join the race, the poor in the country may soon have something to smile about.
