Growing the pie in emerging markets: Marketing strategies for increasing the ratio of non-users to users
Department
Marketing and Professional Sales
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
5-25-2017
Abstract
Emerging markets are the growth engines of the world but they differ significantly from developed countries. Multinationals tend to flounder in these countries due to the challenges posed by five key emerging market characteristics: market heterogeneity, sociopolitical governance, unbranded competition, chronic shortage of resources and inadequate infrastructure. Reducing the negative impact of these emerging market characteristics can increase the ratio of first-time users to nonusers thereby resulting in large scale market expansion. To this end, we propose eight marketing strategies rooted in the 4 A's framework: Affordability through democratizing and upscaling the offer; Accessibility through managing and reinventing reach; Acceptability through cultural and functional fusion; and Awareness through building brand identity and engaging stakeholders. Achieving these customercentric outcomes can help companies overcome the challenges and realize the true potential of emerging markets.
Journal Title
Journal of Business Research
Journal ISSN
0148-2963
Volume
86
Issue
May 2018
First Page
217
Last Page
224
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
10.1016/j.jbusres.2017.05.007