Prahalad has started a debate in the last decade regarding the opportunities of doing business towards the low-income consumers of emerging markets, which he called Bottom of the Pyramid (BOP) markets. The purpose of this study is to investigate how companies adapt their marketing mix strategies in order to target this type of market. The research is developed as case studies within the Brazilian telecom market in order to offer a new BOP setting as previous research has been focusing on Asia and Africa. Semi-structured face-to-face interviews are conducted with managers of the prepaid segment of three telecom companies. The study shows that price strategies are most important to adapt towards affordability in order to target BOP markets because of consumers’ limited budget. While adaptation in product and place are also seen, they are not as substantial as in price. The strategy that was not adapted was promotion as traditional channels are most common within the Brazilian BOP market. Moreover, companies with a strategy that traditionally have been upper-segment-centric do have to make larger and more innovative adaptations in order to market this segment.

The research project investigated the trade-off between profit and social welfare objectives and whether metrics existed to measure the social welfare objectives set and the impact made. The study was conducted with leading brands within their respective categories and that are currently active in the South African BoP consumer market. The BoP market is widely recognised as an opportunity for business in developing markets to gain penetration of their brands and grow profits. How much of this ambition is married with social welfare objectives that aim to give back rather than just take out of the communities that they operate in? The challenge has been on what social impact to target and how to measure this. The research project was done using a quantitative research method, sampling brands that are within the top three sellers of their respective categories for LSM 1-4 consumers as measured by AMPS. This was supported by a thorough literature review to highlight the gaps that exist in the current way of interacting with BoP markets. The main finding is that profit is still the primary objective for most brands operating within this space and goals and associated social welfare metrics are still a distant third to marketing and business metrics measured within a business. The study ends with some recommendations for brand and business leaders to consider as they continue their incursions into BoP markets. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2014. / lmgibs2015 / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / Unrestricted

This study is concerned with investigating whether corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives provide a means to build brand equity, specifically emotional connections known as share of heart, in bottom of the pyramid (BOP) markets. Research has found that brand experiences, positive product outcomes and nostalgia are antecedents to share of heart; however, this presupposes developed markets in which categories have already achieved primary demand.In underdeveloped BOP markets, market expansion is challenging and necessitates investments into social initiatives to increase the welfare of the community. The study proposes the use of CSR initiatives to encourage brand building as consumers were found to form an emotional attachment with brands, which brings about loyalty and intentions to purchase.A correlation study was carried out to determine whether a relationship existed between CSR and emotional attachment and whether this predicts greater intentions to purchase. The research confirmed that CSR is an antecedent to EA; however, the results revealed that certain conditions have to be met before consumers can connect with brands emotionally. The findings also indicated that CSR awareness fosters positive CSR beliefs, whereas consumers‟ emotional attachment towards the brand explains their intention to purchase the brand. Copyright / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

“Over the past ten years, ITCs have become an important element in sustaining economic growth and poverty reduction through increasing efficiencies, enabling the delivery of social services, or creating new sources of income and employment” (Fourati, 2009, p. 37) . m-banking is one such technological development that has a potential to increase economic participation by low-income consumers. This research examines the factors influencing the adoption of mobile banking by low-income consumers in South Africa, with a special focus on the banking needs of the poor. The research framework was adapted from Tan and Teo (2000) and assessed the impact of these nine variables on the intention to adopt m-banking: relative advantage, compatibility with values, compatibility with banking needs, compatibility with cell phone use experience, complexity, “trialibility”, risk, self-efficacy and support. Data for this study was collected through a physical hardcopy survey in Soweto, in Gauteng.The research found that low-income consumers will consider adopting m-banking as long as it is offers them an improved way over the current mechanisms of managing their money, it is compatible with their financial services needs and they consider themselves as having the necessary skills to use it. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

With the convergence of banking services and mobile technologies, users are able to conduct banking services at any place and at any time through mobile banking (Gu, Lee&Suh, 2009). This research examines the factors influencing the adoption of mobile banking by the Bottom of the Pyramid (BOP) in South Africa, with a special focus on trust, perceived cost and perceived risk including the facets of perceived risks: performance risk, security/privacy risk, time risk, social risk and financial risk. The research model includes the original variables of extended technology acceptance model (TAM2) (Venkatesh&Davis, 2000). Data from this study was collected through a physical hardcopy survey in townships around Gauteng. The research has found that customers in the BOP will consider adopting mobile banking as long as it is perceived to be useful and perceived to be easy to use. But the most critical factor for the customer is cost; the service should be affordable. Furthermore, the mobile banking service providers, both the banks and mobile network providers, should be trusted. Trust was found to be significantly negatively correlated to perceived risk. Thus, trust plays a role in risk mitigation and in enhancing customer loyalty. Copyright / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted