Growing the Pie in Emerging Markets: Marketing Strategies for Increasing the Ratio of Non-Users to Users
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
January 2018
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 marketcharacteristics: market heterogeneity, sociopolitical governance, unbranded competition, chronic shortage ofresources and inadequate infrastructure. Reducing the negative impact of these emerging market characteristicscan increase the ratio of first-time users to nonusers thereby resulting in large scale market expansion. To thisend, we propose eight marketing strategies rooted in the 4 A's framework: Affordability through democratizingand upscaling the offer; Accessibility through managing and reinventing reach; Acceptability through culturaland functional fusion; and Awareness through building brand identity and engaging stakeholders. Achievingthese customer-centric outcomes can help companies overcome the challenges and realize the true potential ofemerging markets.
Journal Title
Journal of Business Research
Volume
86
First Page
217
Last Page
224