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Understanding Consumer Satisfaction in Low-Income Markets: The Factors that Turn Customers into Brand Promoters – or Detractors
Many companies are addressing social needs by selling affordable food, hygiene and other products in developing countries. But as Rakib Hasan Rabbi and Patrick Guyer at Bopinc explain, in order to produce positive social and business impacts, these products must achieve a sufficient level of consumer satisfaction. They share results from consumer-level research in Ethiopia, Bangladesh, Ivory Coast, Mali, Niger and Nigeria, which reveal several key product attributes that can keep low-income consumers satisfied and motivate them to recommend products to others.
- Categories
- Impact Assessment
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How to Solve Clean Cooking for 4 Billion People: The Disruptive Potential of the ‘Impact Flywheel’
Roughly 4 billion people lack access to clean cooking technology. This leads to almost four million annual deaths, particularly among women and girls, and costs the global economy approximately $2.4 trillion each year. But though these challenges have persisted despite many high-profile efforts to address them, Ben Jeffreys of ATEC* International argues that clean cooking is uniquely solvable with the right technology and business models. He discusses how the flywheel model could unlock the disruptive potential of clean cooking technologies to create sustainable change.
- Categories
- Energy, Telecommunications
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Agency Banking and Off-Grid Energy: Banking the Unbanked Through Solar
In rural Africa, off-grid renewable energy products are gaining momentum - but their upfront cost can make them inaccessible to low-income customers. Commercial banks have struggled to penetrate these markets, but Thelma Obiakor at the Centre for the Study of the Economies of Africa explains that this is now changing. Thanks to agency banking, financial services and solar companies are providing a bridge to both energy access and greater financial inclusion.
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What Will Last Mile Distribution Look Like in 2025? Six Predictions for an Emerging Sector
From water purifiers to solar lights, the impact-oriented products can’t further development goals if they can't make it to last mile customers. Emma Colenbrader and Charlie Miller of the Global Distributors Collective explain how the organization's 140 member distributors have defied tough odds to get 13 million products and counting into the hands of last mile households. They share a first-of-its-kind report that aims to better understand the markets for these products, the customers being reached – and the business models that can reach them.
- Categories
- Energy, Telecommunications, Transportation
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Creating Jobs While Fighting Poverty: An Innovative Social Micro-Franchise Model Gains Traction in Haiti
All too many global development efforts fail to appreciate the value of a steady paycheck – or the role of small businesses as job creators in poor communities, says Marc Blumenthal at Social Ventures Foundation (SVF). This has stagnated poverty reduction campaigns, leaving vulnerable populations in need after government and NGO funds dry up. He shares SVF's efforts to reverse this dynamic, through social micro-franchise business models that address poverty-related issues, while also creating sustainable jobs in low-income communities.
- Categories
- Investing
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The Sales Mistakes That Are Holding Back Africa’s Solar Enterprises – And How to Fix Them
Selling solar energy products is challenging, so you'd expect solar enterprises to focus on making their sales departments as effective as possible. But in fact, as Whitten & Roy Partnership CEO Scott Roy points out, most solar companies are underemphasizing sales, harming not only their businesses but the broader industry's growth. He shares essential tips for how they can create truly effective sales teams.
- Categories
- Energy, Social Enterprise
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Viewpoint: Venture Financing For The Bottom 99.98% Of The Pyramid… And When You Don’t Know Where You Rank
This top-down view of the venture capitalist (VC) works for about 20/100,000 entrepreneurs. But even these 20 could keep control of the venture and of the wealth created by delaying VC – and by letting the VCs come to them, as Jan Koum of WhatsApp did.
- Categories
- Investing
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Designing for Social Good, Not ‘Feel Good’
Designing products for multinational corporations and their affluent target markets is very different from designing products for low-income, rural consumers. Jordan Westerberg, industrial designer with social venture development firm Factor[e], has worked in both of these worlds. He discusses a recent project that redesigned a solar conduction dryer for Indian farmers, and cautions against being drawn to simplistic, feel-good products when designing for social impact.
- Categories
- Agriculture, Social Enterprise, Technology
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