Tag Archives: customer

An Africa Expert on Beneficiaries maybe the wrong Expert on Customers and Consumers

By Niti Bhan | Published: January 23, 2017

As the African markets increase in opportunity and visibility, the corresponding increase in need for experienced personnel is also felt. Many consumer facing companies hire “old Africa hands”, often former employees of various nonprofits and their projects. The assumption is that knowledge and experience among “poor” Africans implies knowledge and experience of African consumers and […]

Posted in Africa, African Consumer Market, Business, Consumer Behaviour, Marchés africains, Marketing, Perspective, Research, Retail in Africa, Strategy, Sub Saharan Africa, User research, Value | Also tagged africa expert, African Consumer Market, assumption, beneficiary, employee, experience, HR, marketing, perception | Leave a comment

Collapsing the sustainable agricultural value chain of commodities with a single tweet

By Niti Bhan | Published: December 29, 2015

Tony Addison of UNU-Wider, in Helsinki, just tweeted this photograph, expressing his pleasure at seeing Rwandan coffee at his favourite coffee shop, Roastery. I retweeted it and within minutes, Josh Kariuki proudly tweeted that his neighbourhood Gachatha coffee, from Nyeri county in Kenya, was being sold far away in Helsinki, Finland, by name. The next […]

Posted in Africa, global, Kenya, Mobile platform, Perspective, rural | Also tagged coffee, farmer, finland, global village, kenya, Social Media, sustainable agricultural value chain development, vcd | Leave a comment

Social enterprises and the target audience for their value propositions

By Niti Bhan | Published: November 23, 2011

It struck me while browsing through some ‘design for social impact’ product websites recently that while their focus might be on the poor, their communication and messaging was geared towards the Western or top of the pyramid audience. I’d rather not link to nor name names, select your favourite cookstove/solar lantern/water purifier social enterprise and […]

Posted in Analysis, Base of the Pyramid, Design, Frugality, Marketing, Prepaid Economy & Informal Sector, rural, urban, User research | Also tagged basics, demographic, marketing, marketing communications, MBA, social enterprise, strategy, value proposition | Leave a comment

Insights from the South African low income market (BoP) opportunity

By Niti Bhan | Published: September 4, 2011

I came across this article from South Africa titled “Why companies should care about the low-income market” which has some excellent insights about this demographic and opportunity space. Also called the ‘BoP or Bottom of the Pyramid’, it is the mass majority segment in the emerging middle class in Sub Sahara today (per recent reports.) […]

Posted in Base of the Pyramid, Emerging Markets, Innovation Planning, Marketing, Prepaid Economy & Informal Sector, Strategy | Also tagged Africa, bop, customer centric, design, East Africa, emerging markets, emerging middle class, innovation, low income, marketing, strategy, user research | Leave a comment

Navigating the African market opportunity

By Niti Bhan | Published: May 28, 2011

We have not been able to ignore the constant stream of media articles this year on the ‘rise of the African lions’ echoing the tigers and dragons of Asia just a few short years ago. The first reports mentioned GDP growth rates and economic potential followed rapidly by statistics on consumption, market opportunities and now, […]

Posted in Analysis, Base of the Pyramid, Business, Design, Emerging Markets, Innovation Planning, Marketing, Prepaid Economy & Informal Sector, Strategy | Also tagged Africa, bop, emerging markets, informal markets, middle class, prepaid | Leave a comment