Hub and spoke model for new product introductions
Nairobi’s Central Business District – Luthuli Avenue is the heart of the electronics and consumer appliance trade for Kenya. Chinese businessmen can be seen mingling with Somali traders and wholesalers come from all over the country to see “what’s new”. I saw recently introduced solar powered refrigerators (just 60W) on display, direct from China but […]
The continued curse of Cargo Cult marketing in emerging markets
The concept of Cargo Cult marketing is not unknown yet its impact and influence in the emerging markets in which I operate, can be and is, much worse. The so called “Bottom of the Pyramid” (AKA the BoP) markets have conditions that are even more likely to give rise to this blind adherence to conventional […]
Branded travel
Vehicle to reach deep into the interior of rural Rwanda. Did tend to overheat on the steep sections of the mountainous country’s roads. This post was written by niti bhan and rss originates from www.nitibhan.com
New Product Introductions in Informal Markets
“What’s new?” I asked Peter who runs this mari mari shop in a makeshift market just yards from Nairobi’s famous Kibera, and he proudly showed off the various features of this television set cum DVD player that can run on a small battery if need be. Yours for just $100. Don’t miss the bright pink […]
Marketing principles for the informal economies of the emerging world
This will be the working title of the book I plan to sit down and start writing the latest by January 2013. And I can’t start earlier than November this year because I need to see the results in the market start to come in first before I can pontificate on the topic, but naturally […]
Airtel’s advertising in Africa
Spotted this Airtel poster in Kilifi, on the Coast of Kenya. Knowing that all of their advertising is done in Mumbai, India’s Madison Avenue, I’m curious about the amount of photoshopping this image must have required for the East African market. This post was written by niti bhan and rss originates from www.nitibhan.com
Why South Africa should not be the entry point to reach Africa’s emerging consumer markets
This post is about something I’ve been musing upon for some months now, ever since my 2011 project which took me around rural and small town Kenya visiting with a variety of cyber cafes. Since then, many other well respected Kenyan professionals that I’ve spoken with, either in person or online, have confirmed my suspicions […]
Design for the next billion 2012: What’s missing?
An upcoming project’s requirements led to the realization that there is a huge gap in design for the next billion (and more). The subsequent domino effect has left a lack in tools, methods, frameworks and thus, disciplines themselves, from the perspective of addressing the challenge of serving the bottom of the pyramid (BoP) population segment. […]
Aspiring changes; inspiring futures
I’ve been in New Delhi this past week for some work and its been interesting to see the shift in thinking and aspirations. The first few visits in the early 2000s showed the dramatic surface changes of a noisy market opening up to the rest of the world. Today it struck me that many of […]
Fool’s gold and cornflakes
@syamant pointed me to an interesting article on HBR yesterday “Are you targeting a phantom market?” which was at once amusing and yet quite sad in the spectacle that Kellogg’s Cornflakes has made of itself in India. How is it possible that Kellogg could envision building a $3 billion business in India, invest $65 million […]
