NextBillion - A WDI Publication

Hinterland overtakes cities in FCMG production

It?s a rural resurgence of sorts and has got companies revisiting their bottom of the pyramid strategies. Rural offtake across select categories such as shampoos, toothpastes and hair oils has grown faster than consumption in urban markets this year. ACNielsen data for the January-July 2008 period shows that growth has been higher in rural markets across each of the categories by value and volume. The growth is being attributed to factors like higher prices of farm produce and farm lo...

Source

Economic Times (link opens in a new window)

VisionSpring Enhances Management Team With New Hire and Promotion

VisionSpring is pleased to announce the appointment of Peter Eliassen as Vice President of Sales and Operations, a position responsible for the leadership and management of VisionSpring?s global operations team and the achievement of operational and sales objectives. Mr. Eliassen comes to VisionSpring with a mix of both public and private sector experience, most recently at Unilever, where he served as Associate Finance Manager in the Customer Development group. Prior to completing his MBA, Mr. ...

Source

Press Release (link opens in a new window)

Use Value-Based Pricing to Increase Market Share

New Delhi: Marketers often fail to realise that every brand is in a continuous state of launch, says veteran ad-man and marketer Alyque Padamsee, who is also chairman of the London Institute of Corporate Training, at the two-day CII Marketing Summit on the theme, Marketing to the bottom of the pyramid- How relevant and in what measure achievable in the Indian context. Padamsee, who now has his own creative shop A P Advertising,? says this was more so in a country like Indi...

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Brand Dossier (link opens in a new window)

Internet and Mobile Phones Spur Economic Development

The digital divide is beginning to close. The flow of digital information ? through mobile phones, text messaging, and the Internet ? is now reaching the world?s masses, even in the poorest countries, bringing with it a revolution in economics, politics, and society. Extreme poverty is almost synonymous with extreme isolation, especially rural isolation. But mobile phones and wireless Internet end isolation, and will therefore prove to be the most transformative technology of economic...

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Gulf Times (link opens in a new window)

Intel Chairman Urges Big Tech to Tackle Social Problems

Intel once again has both dominance and momentum in the chip world, so when it opened its biggest conference of the year on Tuesday the company didn?t need to resort to chest thumping. Instead, it aimed to inspire. Chairman Craig Barrett delivered the keynote address at the Intel (INTC) Developer Forum in San Francisco, an event that the company uses to rally the technology community behind its products and vision. But rather than take an us-versus-them view of the world, Barrett used...

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Fortune (link opens in a new window)

Industry Majors Say They Benefitted From Tapping Rural Markets

New Delhi, Aug 19 (IANS) Four of India?s largest companies Tuesday showcased here how they have benefited by tapping India?s huge rural market. The four - ICICI Bank, Hindustan Unilever Ltd, Hero Honda Motors and Infosys Technologies - are among the largest in their own areas of business. ?It?s a myth that profit margins get squeezed if you market to the bottom of the pyramid,? said K.V. Kamath, managing director and chief executive officer of ICICI Bank, India?s largest pr...

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Sindh Today (link opens in a new window)

BOP Shock for India Inc.

New Delhi: Indian companies seeking their pot of gold from the lower-end or bottom of the pyramid (BOP) consumers are in for a bit of shock: The market may be much smaller in reality. While earlier, this market was supposed to be formed of 400 million people, now market research firms Technopak Advisors and Evalueserve are saying that it is not more than 160 million. Arvind Singhal, chairman of Technopak Advisors says that around 35 million households or around 160 million people that...

Source

Livemint.com

Region

South Asia

Bring Break-Even to the Bottom of the Pyramid

How much does the global slowdown impact India? What should be the corporate structures and strategies to weather the current storm? Can India overcome the growth blip? Which sector is in need of urgent reform? We put these questions to management guru Prof CK Prahalad, who was in the city for a CII session on ?India@75: The emerging agenda?. ?There are dramatic changes in demand and cost structures and in some cases excess capacity?all of these require a rethink in the break-even vol...

Source

Financial Express (link opens in a new window)

Region

South Asia