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BoP Market and Social Marketing I n recent times, the Bottom of Pyrimed (BoP) market has gained prominence and has emerged as the latest buzzword for many social and non-social enterprises. This segment is considered as a niche area, which is full of potential for many ventures. Hence, this is reason enough that many organizations want a share of the BoP pie. It is also a reality that most of the BoP-focused markets exist in the developing economies.However, mere acceptance of BoP potential is not sufficient for anybody to tap into this market. The differences in the socioeconomic structure positions a BoP market very differently from a traditional non BoP market. As a result, this market segment offers different sets of challenges and benefits. The conventional marketing knowledge and practices may not prove to be worthy enough for successfully reaching out to a BoP segment based on its inherent difference with any other market segment. Hence, social marketing has emerged as one of the most important tools to reach out to the BoP segment of the society. Our experience with this segment till date shows that social marketing as a tool goes a long way in ensuring successful entry to these markets and also paves way for a successful future. The meaning of ‘Social
Marketing’ is not very complex to understand. In fact, in simple
language, it can be defined as aligning the marketing strategies with
social issues of relevance. Some of the common benefits which can be derived from social marketing are follows: Ice Breaker with the Community Entering a BoP market can be a challenging task, especially in the case when the target segment has low awareness levels or when the product is a new which they have not used so far. In such cases, social marketing acts as a good tool for cutting the initial ice with the community, wherein the starting point of interaction could be the social issues being faced by the target segment. Slowly, the discussion could be diverted as to how the product or service being promoted could help them address these issues. Gaining People’s Confidence The social marketing tool can act as the very instrument needed to gain the confidence of the target segment. The reason being that the entrepreneur would not be seen as just another organisation trying to sell his or her own product. Rather, he or she would be seen as somebody who is just not interested in just selling the product but also concerned about solving the issues which the people face. Hence, a social marketing tool can be used effectively to go that extra mile needed for creating a space for your product or service in the minds of the people. Flexible Approach Social marketing tool can be used as per one’s own convenience, depending on the vision and objectives of the programme. Depending upon the targeted outreach, volume of business and required operations, the approach and the tools can be easily modified. In the long run, it also proves to be cost effective and time saving. Particularly, in a scenario where the interaction is not with a homogeneous set of community or people, the flexibility inbuilt in social marketing can prove to be very handy for any organisation. Although the experience and learning emerging from social marketing may differ from one organisation to another, but the component is surely a very effective tool in keeping any organisation ahead of its rivals, if any exist, and in also ensuring a much greater recall value among the target set of customers. q Kalpit Mishra
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