Challenges in Marketing Socially Useful Goods to the Poor

Bernard Garrette () and Aneel Karnani
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Bernard Garrette: GREGH - Groupement de Recherche et d'Etudes en Gestion à HEC - HEC Paris - Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
Aneel Karnani: Stephen M. Ross School of Business - University of Michigan [Ann Arbor] - University of Michigan System

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Abstract: Market-based solutions to alleviate poverty have become increasingly popular in recent years. Unfortunately, there are very few examples of profitable businesses that market socially useful goods in low-income markets and operate at a large scale. This article examines three case studies of multinational firms that tried to market unquestionably useful products--clean water, eyeglasses, and nutritious yoghurt--to the poor but did not succeed commercially. The article also discusses two positive examples of profitable BOP ventures: mobile phones and detergents. Developing strategies for marketing socially useful goods to the poor, far from triggering a revolution in business thinking, requires firms to get back to the basic principles and rules of economics and business.

Keywords: Marketing Socially Useful Goods; Poor (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (15)

Published in California Management Review, 2010, 52 (4), pp.29-47. ⟨10.1525/cmr.2010.52.4.29⟩

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-00517194

DOI: 10.1525/cmr.2010.52.4.29

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