Common sense is not so common?
A lot of people creating products or services for consumers at the base of the pyramid (BoP) think they know what poor people need and automatically assume that there will be demand for this product or
service. For them, it is common sense – but as the saying goes – common sense is not so common. People below the poverty line, referred to as the BoP, have a limited amount of money to spend, but really have their own logical framework for what they want to spend their money on. And more often than not, it is not always what the product development or business development people in business organizations think it is. That is why it is very important for us to understand their demand patterns before we design a product or service for them. And when we market a new product, we have to sell it on what matters to them – the obvious benefit, such as good health, is not what drives sales.
One obvious assumption people make, is that anything FREE will be acceptable to poor people, because they will not have to spend their hard-earned money for the product or service. An interesting dimension has been observed from our work with the World Food Program in their School Feeding Project. The SFP provides free fortified biscuits to primary school children if they come to school. This has been a successful intervention, as it has increased the turn out in
schools, reduced drop-outs, reduced hunger and malnutrition and also improved the quality of their educational experience. But this has not created a demand for these biscuits, beyond the project, where parents are willing to buy such nutritious biscuits for their children to ensure their improved health.
On the other hand, biscuits which are high in demand in Bangladesh are glucose biscuits branded to be providing energy and taste, without having any micro-nutritional value-addition. We had understood that there is negative feedback about the WFP biscuits as being bland and tasteless. But our discussion with the management of WFP revealed that as soon as the taste and appearance of the biscuit are enhanced, they end up being smuggled out of the schools and being sold into the market. That is why they are intentionally kept bland, which is a shame for the children. So the strategy that ensures they deliver health benefits when free is the very strategy that prevents any emergence of commercial demand away from the sugar-rich varieties.
As we work with the biscuit manufacturers to help them come up with new versions of nutritious biscuits for the retail market, we obviously had the dilemma of understanding if there is actually any demand for such products. We have done market feasibility study for these biscuits and even though the report showed a favourable growth (about
12 to 15%) of the overall biscuit market, it did not show such bright prospects for fortified biscuits. One of the market leaders is leading the market with their glucose biscuit branded for provided energy, was not interested in participating in our project simply because they have no capacity spare after producing those biscuits to enter into a new market segment, which may be risky because of the lack of demand for such nutritious products.
We all realize that there is a need for food products which are fortified to reduce the negative impacts of severe malnutrition that are prevalent with consumers at the BoP, as well as in most low and middle income families. But the lack of awareness about such malnutrition and their harmful impact on health in the long run, which includes stunting and lower IQ – have deterred the creation of demand for such food items. The impacts of such malnutrition is slow, so not effective or compelling enough for the change of consumer behaviour. That is why the biscuit companies we are working with is asking us to support an increase in awareness that that will indirectly support their success rates with a new product.
We have observed that health drinks in India are using the strategy of aspiration, comparisons and also social stigma against stunted kids as a way of promoting their products. Their advertisements in the mass media like Television show how one child is taller than the other, how health drinks makes kids taller, stronger and sharper plus a new one
which is my favourite shows how a kid being teased at school for being short visits a doctor in the hope that he will prescribe something that will make him grow taller quickly. Even if the background information about these drinks
is that it contains additional nutrients, the marketing message is that your kid will be better than other kids. And obviously that is what gets them sold.
As we try and help the biscuit manufacturers to come up with such strategies – these lessons need to be kept in mind – as the obvious benefit is not what sells. It is the social aspect of the products that create awareness and leads to demand. Whether that same type of strategy will also work for biscuits is of course a matter to be found out after the launch and analysis of the market trends and consumer behaviour.