The Bumpy Road to the Bop: Addressing the Challenges of Distribution to the Base of the Pyramid

The BoP represents 4 billion individuals living on less than $2 a day. As growth in mature markets stagnate, business is now turning to fast-growing BoP markets as a source of untapped growth. Innovations now exist that can help meet the needs of the BoP while creating opportunities for employment and entrepreneurship. However, BoP customers are often located in remote areas with poor infrastructure, face low levels of affordability and lack access to finance. As a result, finding ways to distribute to these customers in a low-cost, efficient, scalable and sustainable fashion is a major challenge. ?The Bumpy Road to the BoP? seeks to address that challenge. Based on a review of BoP literature and an in-depth study of 5 BoP ventures in Ghana, this book identifies the key BoP distribution challenges and solutions and categorises these according to the 4As of BoP distribution ? Availability, Affordability, Awareness and Acceptability. The author proposes a BoP Distribution Framework, incorporating a set of principles and alternatives for addressing the challenge of distribution, in the hope of making the road to the BoP a little less bumpy.