“P h o v o”

A Solar Chargeable mobile

Authors:

109G18 Kumar Vivek 109G27 Nitu Verma

109G20 Mansur Alam 109G28 Pallavi Gandhi
109G21 Mohit Kukreja 109G30 Paridhi Gupta
109G22 Mohit Singhal 109G31 Peeyush Yadav
109G24 Neha Chauhan 109G33 Prateek Agarwal
109G25 Niharika Sethi 109G34 Pratibha
109G26 Nitin Parswani 109G35 Pratik Patnaik

Abstract
The main objective of this study is to analyze that segment of the customers who are at
the Bottom (or Base) of the economic pyramid (BOP). The poor represent a “latent
market” for goods and services.

BOP provides a new growth opportunity for the private sector and a forum for
innovation. Due to local monopolies, inadequate access, poor distribution, and strong
traditional intermediaries, the poor pays 5 to 25 times what the rich pays in the same
economy. So there lies a huge potential of “unlocking the latent purchasing power”.

Keeping that in mind, we have decided to launch a mobile phone named “p h o v o”

which has solar charging cells that does not requires electricity for charging the mobile
rather uses sun light to charge its battery.

Following will be some of its features:

1. Will cost between 500/- to 600/- only. GSM Mobile
2. Fully Waterproof up to 30 meters in water.
3. No battery because it includes solar charging cells.
4. Indian company with 100% guaranteed IMEI No.
5. Free lifetime Airtel connection.
6. Only calling and receiving function. No other function is included otherwise cost
will increase.
7. 2 years warranty.
8. Available all over India.

Keywords: Bottom of Pyramid, Latent Market, monopolies, GSM Mobile,

Intermediaries, Latent purchasing power.

Review of Literature
Hart Stuart, S.C. Johnson chair of sustainable global enterprise, 2004, has discussed
about the sustainable value model. He talked about the clean technologies that help in
developing new competencies and pursuing disrupting innovation. The base of the
pyramid is to meet the unmet needs to raise the bottom of the pyramid. The BOP
strategies include accessing the underserved market, doing radical innovation and
breeding around the next generation by keeping in mind the global competitors. The
aspiring poor presents a prodigious opportunity for the world’s wealthiest companies but
it requires a radical new approach to the business strategies. People are looking at the
BOP at a very unidirectional way and there is a huge potential market remaining
untapped.

Karnani Aneel, The University of Michigan, 2007, has discussed Bottom of the
Pyramid (BOP) strategies. The poor often make choices that are not in their own self
interest. The poor are vulnerable: lack of education (often illiterate), ill informed, victims
of social and cultural deprivations. A person’s utility preferences are malleable and
shaped by his background and experience, especially so if he has been disadvantaged. We
need to look beyond the expressed preferences and focus on people’s capabilities to
choose the lives they have reason to value. We should recognize the poor as “resilient and
creative entrepreneurs and value-conscious consumers. The BOP approach relies on the
invisible hand of free markets to eradicate poverty. We should instead require the state to
extend a very visible hand to the poor to help them climb out of poverty.
Introduction

1. BOP

The bottom of the pyramid is the largest, but poorest socio-economic group. In global
terms, this is the 2.5 million people who live on less than $ 2.5 per day. The phrase
“bottom of the pyramid” is used in particular by people developing new models of doing
business that deliberately target that demographic, often using new technology. This field
is also often referred to as the "Base of the Pyramid" or just the "BOP".

“It’s not just about making consumer products cheaper, “We’ve got to come up with
products that actually meet the specific needs at the bottom of the pyramid. How do we
design products that people need? We have to actually go and find out, and so we send
out people to find out how people live and what range of products they are using.

2. The Market At the BOP

BOP provides a new growth opportunity for the private sector and a forum for
innovation. The BOP market is not critical for the long-term growth of MNCs. Rural
markets is inaccessible to audio and television signals, i.e. “Media Dark”. The rural poor
do not know what products/services are available and how to use them. The BOP market
is indeed brand-conscious and value conscious. They expect good quality at the prices
they can afford. BOP consumers accept advanced technology readily.

In the BOP market, the new product entry should be made according some basic
procedure or rules which is defined in the diagram below:
Creating the capacity to consume is based on 3 principles:

• Affordability (without sacrificing quality)

• Access
• Availability
• The Need for New Goods and Services
The involvement at the BOP can provide opportunities for developing new goods and
services.

When the poor are converted into consumers, they also acquire the dignity of attention
and choices previously reserved for the middle-class and rich. “Switching costs” for
single-serve goods are negligible for the BOP consumers; hence firms must continue to
upgrade their products to keep their customers.
Trust Is a Prerequisite i.e. firms must focus on building trust between themselves
and the consumers.

3. Products & Services For The BOP

a) Focus on price performance
The customers must feel of receiving the value for money. Manufacturers should provide
best quality products with minimum cost keeping in mind the budget of the customers in
Bottom of Pyramid section.

b) Innovation requires hybrid solutions – avoid watered-down version of traditional

technology solutions.

c) Solutions must be scalable and transportable across countries, cultures and languages.

d) Innovations should be eco-friendly: conserving resources as a principle in product

development.

e) Product development must start from a deep understanding of functionality as marginal

changes to products developed for the first world will not do.

f) Process innovations are just as critical as product innovations — the presence of a

reliable logistics infrastructure may not exist; hence one needs to redefine the process to
suit the infrastructure.

g) Work must be deskilled - Design of products must take into account the skill levels,
poor infrastructure, and difficulty of access for service in remote areas.

h) Education of customers on product usage is a key. Given the poor infrastructure for
customer access, innovation in the educational process is vital.

i) Products must work in hostile environments i.e. it should be compatible to work in

noise, dust, abuse of products, etc. and even in the low quality of infrastructure such as
electricity.
j) The design of the interfaces must be carefully thought through as most of the customers
are first time users and the learning curve can be long or arduous.
k) Designing methods for accessing the poor at low cost is critical – innovations in
distributions are as critical as product and process innovations.

l) As feature and function evolution in BOP markets can be very rapid, product
developers must focus on the “platform” so that new features can be easily incorporated.

The World of BOP

4. Objective of the Study
Population in millions
Purchasing Power Parity (PPP)

>$20,000 Tier 1 ~ 200 mil

Tier 2 & 3 ~ 800 mil

$2000 to $20,000

less than $ 1000 Tier 4

~ 5000 mil
Per year
Our main objective of this study is to analyze the Bottom of Pyramid section and by
understanding their needs, launching a product or a service that is best suited to their
requirements.

5. Findings

The primary research work was done by visiting those areas where we can find people
who are in the Bottom of pyramid section.

We asked about their views on the need of a mobile phone in there life and what features
they are seeking that mobile phone. We also asked about the price range of the cell
phones they are comfortable with and at what range they afford the same.
We preferred convenience sampling technique to choose the clusters that are to be
analyzed.

We have covered many areas like Noida, Lajpat Nagar, Saket, Pusp Vihar, and Lakshmi
Nagar from where we got varied responses from different customers.

These were some of the questions that we asked about their usage of mobile phones.

1. Do you think that mobile phone has become a necessity today?

From this question, we came to know about the problems that people are facing in
making a call and what are their views about the necessity of the mobile phones.
95% of the people of our sample thinks that mobile phone has become a necessity today
because even for making a single call, sometimes they have to travel 2-3 Kms and many
times urgency arises in which they need to make a instant call but they are hopeless.

2. What are the features you want in it?

This question was asked to analyze what features they want in their phone along with
making it affordable.
We got to know that almost 70% of the population of our sample wants only calling
function i.e. they just wants that they should be able to make or receive a call.

3. What is the price you are ready to pay for it?

From this question, we found out the price range that people are comfortable with and
seems to be affordable for them.
80% of the people were willing to have their phone in price range of Rs 400- 500.
4. Do you face electricity crisis in your locality?

This question was asked to know the reason why they are not using the mobile phones.
One of the greatest reasons was the electricity crises in their area. There were some
places where duration of electricity cut off was of 15-18 hours and in such case, the
phone with high battery backup can only be purchased.

5. Would you prefer a solar chargeable phone?

When we asked this question to the people, we very frequently got a shocking response.
They were asking us whether it is possible. Majority of them were coming out of series of
questions about that phone and showed a very curiosity to know about the features and
price of that mobile phone.
Majority of the people (almost 92%) were ready to purchase the solar chargeable phone.

Conclusion

From the above findings, we can conclude that

1. There is a need tap BOP market as huge population is still untouched and big
MNCs can thought of making huge profits from this segment of the market.
2. The product to be launch in the BOP market should include all the necessary
features like
a) Affordable
b) Fulfill the basic purpose
c) Should overcome the problems of the region in which it is to be operated.

Keeping all these points in mind, we have launched the solar chargeable mobile which
will be in the range of Rs 500-600, no external battery because it includes solar charging
cells, only calling and receiving function. No other function is included otherwise cost
will increase.
Apart from these features, there are some other features also which will be made
available free of cost like:

a) Free lifetime Airtel connection.

b) 2 years warranty.
c) Fully Waterproof up to 30 meters in water.
d) Indian company with 100% guaranteed IMEI No.
e) Available all over India.

Implications

1. BOP can be an important source of innovations for both the global BOP markets and
also for the developed worlds.

2. It needs patience, needs to start small, needs to innovate in cost structure to enable
profits to be earned at low price points, needs to be build new processes and capabilities,
etc).

3. Unique opportunities for creating products/services in BOP should take note that the
price/performance could be a very challenging task for the R&D team, the marketing
team, or both.

4. Developing disruptive technologies to create products/ services for the BOP markets
“on purpose” could be a challenging mission for universities/research institutes i.e. to
fulfill their new “entrepreneurial” role of spinning off new companies or transferring
technologies to SMEs).

5. As R&D to create such disruptive technologies is mostly beyond the reach of local
SMEs, a special national effort (including funds) could provide with a new competitive
advantage for innovation
 Annexure
QUESTIONNAIRE

1. Do you think that mobile phone has become a necessity today?

a) Yes
b) No
c) Don’t Know

2. What is your primary requirement in a mobile phone?

a) Calling
b) Calling +FM Radio
c) Calling +SMS
d) Good Battery Life

3. What is the maximum price you're willing to pay for a phone?

a) 400-500
b) 500-750
c) 750-1000
d) 1000-1500

4. Which company's mobile phone are you currently using?

a) Nokia
b) Samsung
c) LG
d) Any other

5. Do you face electricity crisis in your locality?

a) Most recently
b) Sometimes
c) Rarely
d) Never

6. What do you think about a mobile which is solar powered?

a) Good Idea
b) How will it work at night?
c) What will happen on rainy and overcast days?
d) Don’t care

7. Would you prefer a solar chargeable phone?

a) Definitely
b) May be (Not sure)
c) Depends
d) No
Reference

The Fortune at the Bottom of the Economic Pyramid, C K Prahlad – A Review by Prof C
C Hang Director, CMOST.

Base of Pyramid, Stuart Hart, S.C. Johnson chair of sustainable global enterprise,
Professor of management.

Disruptive Technologies, U. B. Desai, SPANN Lab. Dept. of EE IIT-Bombay.

Eradicating Poverty through Enterprise, ANEEL KARNANI, The University of

Michigan, November 2007.

Knowledge at the bottom of the pyramid, M.C. Nandeesha Centre for Aquaculture
Research and Development St. Xavier’s Bishramganj.

The Integrative Justice Model for Impoverished Markets, Nicholas Santos, SJ, February
24, 2010