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provides clarity on the development of the organization’s brand, packaging, and
marketing materials. At the end of the session, the team develops conceptual directions for their packaging design.
6.4.5 BoP Distribution Modeling
Especially for business champions that have not yet been actively selling products
in retail, distribution can be a key bottleneck to success. Distribution at the BoP
level is a challenge for both local SMEs and cooperatives as well as for large
multinationals. The main reason is that distribution and retail are not well organized
at the BoP. BoP consumers are more difficult to reach and often remotely located
from conventional markets or retail outlets, not just in rural areas but also in urban
ones. This presents a serious challenge to reach the BoP consumer in an efficient
and cost- effective manner. The majority of BoP consumers still make most of their
purchases at open markets, local kiosks, or mom-and-pop stores – often owned by a
single business owner. The BoP distribution model suggests three different
approaches that business champions can explore within their specific market. These
are as follows:
• Using existing channels and infrastructure (piggybacking)
• Creating hybrid partner-ships with nonprofit partners
• Setting up micro-franchised distribution models
The extent to which (a combination of) any of these three options can apply to a
business champion strongly depends on two types of trade-offs (Fig. 6.3). One is the
investment the business champion is able and willing to make in relation to the
power or control the champion wants to have over the actual distribution activities.
The second trade-off relates to the speed at which the business champion wants
to set up their distribution activities versus the level of competitiveness that the distribution model can bring to the actual product distributed.
The different characteristics of these three approaches are described in more
detail under the following section on implementation strategies.
6.4.6 Implementation Strategies
Even though each pilot is unique and dependent on local market circumstances, we
can distinguish four main implementation strategies for a BoP marketing pilot.
Sometimes a pilot only consists of implementing one particular strategy; in other
cases, several strategies are implemented in one pilot.
6 Innovating at Marketing and Distributing Nutritious Foods at the Base…
provides clarity on the development of the organization’s brand, packaging, and
marketing materials. At the end of the session, the team develops conceptual directions for their packaging design.
6.4.5 BoP Distribution Modeling
Especially for business champions that have not yet been actively selling products
in retail, distribution can be a key bottleneck to success. Distribution at the BoP
level is a challenge for both local SMEs and cooperatives as well as for large
multinationals. The main reason is that distribution and retail are not well organized
at the BoP. BoP consumers are more difficult to reach and often remotely located
from conventional markets or retail outlets, not just in rural areas but also in urban
ones. This presents a serious challenge to reach the BoP consumer in an efficient
and cost- effective manner. The majority of BoP consumers still make most of their
purchases at open markets, local kiosks, or mom-and-pop stores – often owned by a
single business owner. The BoP distribution model suggests three different
approaches that business champions can explore within their specific market. These
are as follows:
• Using existing channels and infrastructure (piggybacking)
• Creating hybrid partner-ships with nonprofit partners
• Setting up micro-franchised distribution models
The extent to which (a combination of) any of these three options can apply to a
business champion strongly depends on two types of trade-offs (Fig. 6.3). One is the
investment the business champion is able and willing to make in relation to the
power or control the champion wants to have over the actual distribution activities.
The second trade-off relates to the speed at which the business champion wants
to set up their distribution activities versus the level of competitiveness that the distribution model can bring to the actual product distributed.
The different characteristics of these three approaches are described in more
detail under the following section on implementation strategies.
6.4.6 Implementation Strategies
Even though each pilot is unique and dependent on local market circumstances, we
can distinguish four main implementation strategies for a BoP marketing pilot.
Sometimes a pilot only consists of implementing one particular strategy; in other
cases, several strategies are implemented in one pilot.
6 Innovating at Marketing and Distributing Nutritious Foods at the Base…