Product Availability, Buying Behavior, and Marketing Action: Insights From a Bottom of the Pyramid Marketplace
研究金字塔底层市场产品可得性与消费，发现多数产品非必需，消费受广告、名人代言、低价和分销驱动，营销行动虽增加消费但非必需品主导限制了社会价值创造。
ABSTRACT It is argued that improving access to products and services can increase the material well‐being of BoP consumers. However, little is known about the kind of products available or consumed at the BoP, particularly if they are essential or non‐essential, and the implications of their consumption for a consumer segment with limited resources. BoP ventures have also been criticized for creating economic value for the firm without truly creating social value for BoP consumers, but extant literature includes anecdotal or qualitative evidence, and there is a need for quantitative data on products available and consumed at the retail store level in a BoP marketplace. We address these questions in the present study. Using a mixed‐methods research design combining store‐level quantitative purchase data ( n = 170 individuals over 1 month) with qualitative interviews, we examine product availability and consumption in a BoP marketplace. We find that a majority of available and consumed products are non‐essential, with consumption driven by exposure to advertisements, celebrity appeals, lower entry prices and strong distribution. These findings suggest that while marketing actions increase access and consumption, the dominance of non‐essential goods limits their potential for meaningful social value creation. We further offer recommendations on how organizations can enhance value creation for the BoP through product, pricing, promotional and distribution strategies.