We usually think we can only learn from the most developed markets and
not from any other market like undeveloped ones. But, Can we take advantage of what
we know from consumer behavior in emerging markets?
Let me expose 3 clues you (marketing professional or brand) can learn
from emerging markets:
1. Shortcuts in product lifecycle can be positive. Brands use to spend long time and efforts to exhaust their current
products, but sometimes they should go one step forward and launch what is
really new and needed (instead of doing the same again and again). Now working
for a mobile telephone company all around Africa, we’ve seen that mobile
service is their door to information, to relationships with others and to enjoy
life without the experience of previous devices.
Africans have moved
from using radio as a device "to connect with the world" to doing
from mobile phone. The developed markets moved from radio to television, and PC
/ laptops to tablets and mobile phones. Africans have taken a shortcut where
the mobile phone has become their window to the world. Listening to the radio, following
their religious doctrine, watching TV, connecting to social networks, reading
newspapers, etc. are done through the mobile phone. They have saved a long way.
Marketing in emerging countries often involves not following the same steps we
do in developed countries because the product life cycle can be radically
different.
2. The future is not 2 or 5 years away, the future is tomorrow. Some of the populations and emerging markets we are studying don’t
have a horizon far beyond tomorrow. They live for today and maybe for tomorrow
but they don’t know what is going to happen the day after tomorrow. Their main
worries are staying healthy and having something to eat today and next week,
not in 10 years’ time. So they don’t plan and they don’t think about products
that cannot have a daily consumption. For example, paying with a mobile phone.
In some emerging countries,
banks are only for a small segment of the population, not because of their income
but the uncertainty of what will happen the day after. As we said, they cannot
live beyond two days plan. For this reason they do not have bank accounts or
contracts with utilities companies (gas, electricity, telephone, television,
etc.). Their relationship with the mobile company is prepaid (average 90% of
users are prepaid), not contract.
That’s why they use mobile
payment services for everything and have no bank account. The remaining balance
they have is used to make their daily payments, or send money to family and
friends.
Having money in their
mobile phone instead of the bank gives them this feeling of accessibility and
closeness that they need.
3. Maslow’s pyramid of needs fits much better than in developed markets. They don’t care about the price as much as we (developed markets) do.
Because they need to live securely before they worry about what to buy.
One of the most basic
needs is security. Their security is not anything happening today or tomorrow.
It is security that your family will be fine; they will not be drown somewhere.
In relation to mobile phones, network coverage is a very important feature. In
developed markets, coverage is seen as a "given" attribute but in emerging
markets is one of the most popular and demanded features that cannot always
have. Because they need security at all times and everywhere, moreover we cannot
ignore that emerging markets are growing and coverage is always in demand.
With these 3 examples we only want to point out that nothing is what it
seems to be in terms of consumer insights in emerging markets. Nevertheless, it
changes the marketing strategy and tactics.
Jordi Aymerich
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