171
In Ghana, via the soybean partnership, business champion Yedent Agro took
another approach by piggybacking off the existing networks of “koko sellers”
12
–
through which the company decided to distribute and sell its Maisoy Forte Tom
Brown mix. This was a good channel for Yedent Agro to expand its exposure toward
BoP consumers. However, this strategy limited the company’s influence over the
final sales price of the product, which was determined by the koko sellers themselves. This became a beneficial strategy for Yedent Agro. They first wanted to test
this new model on a smaller scale and with limited resources before considering
scaling up. However, the first test with the koko sellers was so successful that the
company decided to continue with the model and scale it up.
6.5 Lessons Learned
During the program, the 2SCALE team collected different lessons learned, as this
rather pioneering work with African food-producing SMEs and farmer organizations did not always run smoothly. The following are a few lessons learned that
could help strengthen the potential for success of any programmatic approach to
BoP marketing.
6.5.1 The Opportunity Is Real
In the beginning of the design and implementation of the 2SCALE program, it was
not foreseen that the BoP marketing pilots would become a key intervention in several of the partnerships. During the program, the value of the BoP marketing pilots
became apparent to the project partners and the business champions. Especially
when the first successful cases were established, other business champions were
motivated to follow a similar path. This development has shown us that the pilots
not only offer value for the program and champions involved but also that there is a
real market opportunity in terms of serving the BoP with nutritious quality foods.
BoP consumers have proven to be open to try, use, and repeatedly purchase the
products that were launched by the champions. So yes, the opportunity is real –
from yoghurt to porridge and soy drinks! For all pilots that were implemented, the
majority are still running and serving the BoP. This is the reason that for the second
phase of the 2SCALE program, the official target is to reach one million consumers,
necessitating that 2SCALE continues to support more business champions accessing local BoP markets and serving them with nutritious food products.
12 Koko is a common type of warm porridge that is produced on the spot by street vendors called
“koko sellers.” They run their preparation and sales out of simple stalls on the roadside across
Ghana.
6 Innovating at Marketing and Distributing Nutritious Foods at the Base…
In Ghana, via the soybean partnership, business champion Yedent Agro took
another approach by piggybacking off the existing networks of “koko sellers”
12
–
through which the company decided to distribute and sell its Maisoy Forte Tom
Brown mix. This was a good channel for Yedent Agro to expand its exposure toward
BoP consumers. However, this strategy limited the company’s influence over the
final sales price of the product, which was determined by the koko sellers themselves. This became a beneficial strategy for Yedent Agro. They first wanted to test
this new model on a smaller scale and with limited resources before considering
scaling up. However, the first test with the koko sellers was so successful that the
company decided to continue with the model and scale it up.
6.5 Lessons Learned
During the program, the 2SCALE team collected different lessons learned, as this
rather pioneering work with African food-producing SMEs and farmer organizations did not always run smoothly. The following are a few lessons learned that
could help strengthen the potential for success of any programmatic approach to
BoP marketing.
6.5.1 The Opportunity Is Real
In the beginning of the design and implementation of the 2SCALE program, it was
not foreseen that the BoP marketing pilots would become a key intervention in several of the partnerships. During the program, the value of the BoP marketing pilots
became apparent to the project partners and the business champions. Especially
when the first successful cases were established, other business champions were
motivated to follow a similar path. This development has shown us that the pilots
not only offer value for the program and champions involved but also that there is a
real market opportunity in terms of serving the BoP with nutritious quality foods.
BoP consumers have proven to be open to try, use, and repeatedly purchase the
products that were launched by the champions. So yes, the opportunity is real –
from yoghurt to porridge and soy drinks! For all pilots that were implemented, the
majority are still running and serving the BoP. This is the reason that for the second
phase of the 2SCALE program, the official target is to reach one million consumers,
necessitating that 2SCALE continues to support more business champions accessing local BoP markets and serving them with nutritious food products.
12 Koko is a common type of warm porridge that is produced on the spot by street vendors called
“koko sellers.” They run their preparation and sales out of simple stalls on the roadside across
Ghana.
6 Innovating at Marketing and Distributing Nutritious Foods at the Base…