Latin America’s Poor Provide Rich Pickings
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Peruvian housewife Genoveva Airaconda spends her days visiting neighbours around her shanty town on the outskirts of Lima.
It might not sound like a profitable pastime, but her visits provide a steady income for her family as well as adding to the bottom line of Swiss-based multinational Nestl?.
Airaconda is one of hundreds of door-to-door salespeople that the food giant has recently employed to sell their nutritional products in the Peruvian capital.
By using local, trusted vendors, Nestl? has seen its revenue from Peru’s lowest income sector increase from zero to a third of all profits. “The real opportunity for growth for our company is in the lowest social economic group,” Rafael Danieluc, marketing director of Nestl? Peru, confirms enthusiastically.
After decades targeting society’s richest sectors, companies across Latin America are beginning to cotton on to the hidden potential among the poor.
Source: The Guardian
