Emerging Markets

Emerging markets are they key to accelerating the global economy’s slow growth. Among these emerging markets are a vast population of poor populations, referred to as the bottom of the economic pyramid, or bottom of the pyramid. These populations live on less than two dollars per day, and make up over half the global population (around four billion people). With the recent financial crisis, multinational corporations are facing a growing issue, and the solution may be to focus on such bottom of the pyramid populations.

For the last fifty years, the biggest multinational corporations have focused their marketing efforts on the top global income earners, or the tip of the wealth iceberg. Even when these companies shifted some focus to emerging markets, they focused on the elite in these countries (such as Brazil, China, and Russia). However, incredible consumption power lies with the poor populations of developing countries. As more financial experts are pointing to the bottom of the pyramid, and with antiglobalization attitudes rising, offering products and services to the bottom of the pyramid is looking more financially attractive. Not only will corporations be able to reach these poor populations with their products, but wealthy consumers in the developed world are becoming more attracted to companies that participate in corporate social responsibility projects. These projects are aimed at making the world a better place through environmental or social improvements, which can include making products such as insect repellant widely available to communities having problems preventing malaria.

The issue arises, however, with how corporations should perceive and market to the bottom of the pyramid. Many corporations see their participation with the bottom of the pyramid as simply making their products available to these people. They fail to notice the differences in these populations from the western world, or they boil them down to fundamental