Making Your Products Accessible to Underserved Markets

When certain issues are brought into focus, other issues tend to be ignored. Case in point: the “bottom of the pyramid” theory created by Indian-American researcher and author CK Prahalad. Prahalad argued that the world’s poorest people make up the “bottom of the pyramid” (BoP), presenting huge opportunities for the world’s richest companies. He believes this is an untapped market opportunity and that by developing accessible products and services, companies can create sustainable and profitable businesses while improving the lives of the poor. insisted. This focuses on the problem of underfunding (i.e., products not reaching low-income groups because they are not designed for them), creating new market segments and making products more accessible. This contributed to improving ease of use. But doing so also diverted attention from other inclusion gaps. This has resulted in an “identity problem” in which certain other groups are marginalized on the grounds of gender, race, caste, religion, disability, sexual orientation, and ethnicity. Business leaders need a clearly defined Side of the Pyramid (SoP) strategy to optimize available opportunities and develop more comprehensive products and services.