Many companies have been interested in the development in countries with a large number of middle-class people. These groups of people can be able to afford basic services and products. I think BOP market development does raise ethical issues. I am of the belief and opinion that it is not ethical for companies to deny services and products to persons of BOP. This is because the BOP people have slimmer profit margins as compared to middle class or top of the pyramid. That being said it was my belief that ethical issues can rise the BOP market depending on the marketing strategy being applied. BOP marketing includes the effort that aim at meeting the needs 0f the middle-class people (Prahalad 3).
A good example is the Hindustan lever principle in India. This Hindustan Lever changed all its goods and their methods of distribution so as to meet the demands of the targeted audience. To achieve this company decentralized the production, distribution, and marketing strategies. By so doing, the company had an upper hand on the readily available labor from Indians.
One of the solutions I can propose of for these companies that Hindustan Lever has provided is by repackaging the goods into smaller sizes hence reducing the prices drastically. Lower turnover margins are counterbalanced by higher volumes purchases (Prahalad 3). However, it is essential to note that distribution and development is not all. These companies have an obligation to make the people know about the benefit the maximum benefits from their products. When the market of these companies grow and expand, many people tend to move up to the next class, i.e., from a low class to the middle class and so on thus, promoting better profits. This kind of correlation is known as a symbiotic relationship. By so doing the company benefits and so does the consumer for this interrelation. The example above depicts an ethical strategy to marketing to the BOP.
Work cited
C.K. Prahalad. The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid. Pearson Prentice Hall. 2007 .Print.
