Poor markets: perspectives from the base of the pyramid

Abstract

This brief perspective article presents and synthesizes few of the dominant themes emerging in the extant literature on BOP (bottom of the pyramid) marketing, in the backdrop of this special issue dedicated to ‘re-thinking marketing’ in a fresh light. The article draws on how the extant understanding of poor customers pales in comparison to how much we know about non-poor customers. In the end the article proposes a brief wish list of few of the interesting research domains that can be taken up by emerging and new BOP scholars in the area of ‘Poor Marketing’. Few interesting research questions include the following: (1) How poor consumers re-invent their new social image in the light of the constraints of the poor markets? (2) What role consumption plays to enhance the impact of pleasure on various aspects of the lives of the poor consumers? (3) How formation of communities helps the poor consumers to enhance the cooperation in resource-lean environments? (4) How social stratification (e.g., caste system in India) impacts social transformation of poor markets, and BOP market development? and (5) How BOP entrepreneurship impacts on social transformation at BOP?