Tag Archives: market segmentation

Mobile Money’s next challenge: Enabling the development of a cashless ecosystem

By Niti Bhan | Published: March 1, 2016

The latest GSMA State of the Industry report on Mobile Money is out this month and the numbers look great in the developing world. The report frames the industry’s next challenge as the need to grow the platform beyond the basics of airtime purchase and person to person transfer. Here are my concerns, starting with […]

Posted in Africa, Airtime, Alternative currency, Analysis, Cashless transactions, Consumer Behaviour, Emerging Markets, global, Informal & Flexible, Mobile platform, Platforms, Prepaid Economy & Informal Sector, Report Review, Research, Sub Saharan Africa, Technology | Also tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The end of the global middle class: A more frugal world?

By Niti Bhan | Published: December 24, 2015

The past half decade‘s worth of financial crises and increasing scarcity of resources have led to an increasing equalization in the global water level. Instead of the high tide that would lift all boats, the leveling off of growth is leading to an entirely different equation of purchasing power parity. Tomorrow’s equilibrium seems to imply […]

Posted in Base of the Pyramid, Emerging Markets, Frugality, global, Perspective | Also tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Floating Upwards: The Bottom of the Pyramid Segment is No More

By Niti Bhan | Published: July 9, 2015

Pew Research Center’s latest results on global income distribution show some rather large shifts among the lowest income segments. The Bottom of the Pyramid or Base of the Pyramid (BoP) segment, defined as those who live on less than $2.50/day has just lost a significant percentage of the population. While one can quibble that $2.50 […]

Posted in African Consumer Market, Analysis, Base of the Pyramid, Consumer Behaviour, Economy, Emerging Markets, global, Income, Marketing, Perspective, Prepaid Economy & Informal Sector, Research | Also tagged , , , | 2 Responses

Segmenting the African Middle Class without dollar figures

By Niti Bhan | Published: August 29, 2014

Continuing the thinking from my previous post on the various attempts to size and value the potential of the emerging African middle classes based primarily in dollar figures, I thought to take a step back from income data to see if I could approach the challenge of segmentation in a different way. Below is the […]

Posted in Africa, Marketing, Perspective | Also tagged , , , | Comments closed

My 2 shillings worth on the size or value of the emerging African middle classes

By Niti Bhan | Published: August 27, 2014

There’s been a lot in the news of late about the size and worth of the emerging African middle class subsequent to the release of an as yet unseen report by an economist, Simon Freemantle, at Standard Bank, South Africa. The various headlines conflict each other, some say the middle class isn’t as large as […]

Posted in Africa, Business Models, Consumer Behaviour, Marketing, Perspective, User research | Also tagged , , | Comments closed

Market Segmentation in the Informal Economy

By Niti Bhan | Published: December 2, 2012

This table is from “How to profit from Africa’s different consumer groups” and the research is from NKC Independent Economists group. There is something lacking in understanding the patterns of purchasing power when segmentation methodology from the formal economy are applied ad hoc to markets which are primarily informal. As mentioned at the end of […]

Posted in African Consumer Market, Analysis, Assumption filter, Base of the Pyramid, Consumer Behaviour, Emerging Markets, Informal & Flexible, Innovation Planning, Marketing, Perspective, Prepaid Economy & Informal Sector, Process | Also tagged , , | Leave a comment

Sampling uncertainty

By Niti Bhan | Published: November 29, 2012

This drawing was made by Jeroen Meijer of JAM visual design, Amsterdam, earlier this week during the workshop we held on Monday, November 26th, 2012. Its a visualization of the chart I use to show how participants were sampled for the prepaid economy project. The axes represent the individual’s ability to accurately predict either timing […]

Posted in African Consumer Market, Analysis, Assumption filter, Base of the Pyramid, Consumer Behaviour, Frameworks, Informal & Flexible, Innovation Planning, Marketing, Perspective, Prepaid Economy & Informal Sector, Strategy, UCSD, User research | Also tagged , , , , | Leave a comment