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BELEZA NATURAL

EXPANDING FROM THE BASE OF THE PYRAMID

Hy Mariampolski
Maribel Carvalho Suarez
Leticia Moreira Casotti

INTRODUCTION
The relationship between marketing principles and economic development has been a recent topic of
animated discussion and debate. The question of how well a bottom-up, entrepreneur-centered model of
development can augment or even substitute for a top-down, government-driven model has driven rounds
of scholarship. In particular, numerous case studies have proliferated in the literature following Pralahad’s
(2004) audacious challenge:

“If we stop thinking of the poor as victims or as a burden and start thinking of them as resilient and creative
entrepreneurs and value-conscious consumers, a whole new world of opportunity will open up.”

The conclusions of many of these studies concur that citizens of modest means indeed represent a poorly
served but eager market for goods and services. Many also point to the advantages of engaging what has
come to be known as “bottom of the pyramid” or “base of the pyramid” (BOP) markets in co-creation and
co-marketing of products targeted to their segment. The importance of appropriately scaled financial,
production and distribution units has consistently been emphasized.

Most of these case studies have discussed how large multinational companies have advantaged their own
economic interests by gaining a foothold in BOP markets (Gunther, 2006) or have somehow missed the
opportunity (Simanis, 2009.) Fewer in number, but perhaps of greater critical significance, are studies that
have charted the path to success of entrepreneurs originating in the BOP who have risen economically by
understanding the needs and expectations of members of their own social class (Simanis and Hart, 2006.)

Fewer still are studies that explain the precarious course that might be encountered when entrepreneurs
originating in the BOP try to grow their businesses by transcending their class-of-origin and strike into
mass or even luxury markets. In this regard, the experience of Beleza Natural, a brand of hair care products
and chain of beauty salons targeted to the needs of Brazil’s Black and mixed-race communities is unique.
With eleven branches located in Rio de Janeiro, Espírito Santo and Bahia States, 16 year-old Beleza Natural
currently provides services for close to 70,000 clients every month.

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BRAND VALUE
Beleza Natural’s brand value encompasses a complex set of psychic rewards and material benefits that
offer meaning and advantages to its customers in exchange for the funds they pay to acquire the company’s
services and products. Nevertheless, the basis of this economic exchange is bound to change over the
course of time. New customers may be brought into the brand whose scale of values does not necessarily
favor all the rewards the brand is currently offering. Additionally, existing customers may find that their
motivations shift as they proceed through the life course.

Keeping customers over the long term and attracting new ones requires businesses to closely monitor how
well their own brand equity continues to meet the rewards anticipated by their targeted market. This may be
particularly difficult at the base of the pyramid simply because the degree of identification between the
brand and the target is laden with levels of meaning regarding class and other matters of customer self-
identification not always present in brands targeted to other societal segments.

There may indeed be a curious kind of vulnerability here as identification and admiration can turn to
rejection and resentment. Sometimes political leaders of minority communities can be condemned as
“sellouts” when their agendas no longer match that of their constituencies. Brands may be vulnerable to this
same risk.

Prahalad argues that marketing success with BOP consumers is based on ensuring that brands embody
such values as dignity, choice, attention, respect and trust. Beleza Natural certainly embodies these ideals in
its brand image, product array, consumer understanding, customer service model and personnel policies.
The brand sells personal empowerment and community development along with its production of beauty.

Determining whether the brand value can remain meaningful over time was the objective of a series of field
visits undertaken by authors in January 2009, as our team conducted site visits at the Beleza salons in
Ipanema and Caxias to explore the nature of brand value and customer loyalty at those two locations
(Methodology followed procedures outlined in Mariampolski et al, 1994 and Mariampolski, 2006) and
continued in April 2010, accompanied by students studying consumer behavior at the COPPEAD Graduate
School of Business at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. The second wave included visits to stores in
Tijuca, Madureira and revisits to Ipanema.

Participant observation is the traditional ethnographic technique for gaining consumer insights and relies
upon seeing the world from the perspective of the people naturally involved in the scene or experience.

A PERSONAL STORY
Beleza Natural delivers on its brand promise by personalizing its brand story. The rise of its
owners/founders embodies the strivings of its customer base, who live in Rio de Janiero’s slums and
working class neighborhoods and suburbs. Their business model, product line and service experience are
structured to be in perfect harmony with its customers. Finally, Beleza Natural presents an attainable
aspirational image that stimulates loyalty and repeat purchase. Customers sometimes need to wait up to six
hours to receive a “Super Relaxamento,” a curl relaxer treatment and the most expensive of the salon’s
services, and love every minute of the experience.

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The brand was founded in 1993 by Zica, who started her working life as a domestic, nanny and street
vendor (further historical detail is provided by Suarez et al, 2008).1) (Note: We adhere to the Brazilian
custom of using only the first name or nickname to show familiarity and admiration. For example, the
country’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is universally known simply as “Lula.”) Recognizing a need for
hair care products catering to the special needs of Afro-Brazilians, she experimented by using trial and
error and came up with a line of products.

Demography was on her side. Brazil’s population of just under 200 million is young – the median age is just
under 30 years. African genes predominate; the company estimates that 65% of Brazilian women have hair
ranging from wavy to kinky, which their products target.

Beyond conditioners and hair relaxers, Zica was determined to distribute her products through salons
offering a new kind of experience to her targeted customers. That strategy has proved to provide a winning
formula. In 2007, 60% of Beleza’s revenue’s came from hair care services and 40% was derived from
private label product sales.

“When a Black woman enters a traditional salon, she feels discriminated against,” says Leila, Zica’s business
school-educated sister-in-law who today heads Beleza Natural’s marketing and public relations efforts. “It’s
not just a social thing but also a hair care issue.” This is the basis of Beleza Natural’s brand equity –
delivering the most effective products in an environment perfectly suited to its customers’ unmet hair and
beauty needs.

MAKING THE BRAND STORY TANGIBLE

The founders’ own story is emblematic for how the brand can impact individuals and serves as what
anthropologists might call a kind of “creation myth” that channels customers’ own experiences. It is a story
of hard work, pluck and aggressive self-confidence. The tale is riddled with risk and near-failure as Zica,
determined to go into business with her husband Jair Conde, experiments on herself with unsuccessful hair
care treatments. Effort is rewarded with the discovery of a workable mixture that Zica manages to
commercialize.

There are even villains who appear at key moments – notably, the bank lenders who refuse to back a dark-
skinned entrepreneur and the neighbors in middle-class areas who are not always eager to invite the brand
into their midst. There are also the last-minute bailouts in the form of Leila and her husband Rogerio, Zica’s
brother, who take wedding gifts intended for home furnishings and, instead, use the funds to tide over the
company in a moment of need.

Leila had risen through the ranks at McDonald’s from server to manager, before undertaking an Executive
MBA at the COPPEAD Graduate Program of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. She was able to bring
her business savvy and management understanding to bear on the growing hair care operation.

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A PERSONAL RELATIONSHIP WITH THE BRAND

Customers inside the salons are encouraged to internalize the metaphor of a personal relationship with the
founders through various tangibles and, of course, nowadays Zica also has her own blog. Suggestion boxes
each emblazoned invitingly with the image of her smiling face encourage women with advice or complaints
to “Speak with Zica.” Taking the metaphor even further, placards prominently displayed in all of the stores
describe the brand’s core values. Interestingly, these ideals match Zica’s initials and work in English as well
as in Portuguese: “Zeal – Innovation – Competence – Atmosphere.”

These are values that customers almost never hear from other brands that target them and they speak to
more than just hair care. They are ideals that express social and material strivings – the desire to attach
themselves to the lowest rungs of an imagined economic ladder that will lead them upwards to success and
achievement.

Personal relationships across staff and customers are encouraged and tend to soften the standardized
procedures that the salons follow. About 70% of Beleza’s employees were customers before they became
hair care professionals so they, too, reflect the ethos of achievement that Beleza Natural encourages.

Customers become the stars of their own achievement stories when they visit Beleza Natural. A growing
folklore describes how visits before that critical interview led to a new job or a big role. Even Taís Araújo,
Brazil’s latest mega-star who is leading Afro-Brazilian beauty trends to new heights in her role as Helena in
the blockbuster telenovela (soap opera) Viver a Vida (Living Life) has associated her own and her
character’s hair style with Beleza Natural. In a recent interview for a Black beauty blog (Secuida.net), she
exclaims:

Não sou cliente do Beleza Natural mas várias amigas e parentes minhas são, por isso posso garantir a
qualidade do serviço. É só seguir o tratamento passo-a-passo e você terá cachinhos lindos 24 horas!

I’m not a client of Beleza Natural but several of my friends and family members are; therefore, I can
guarantee the quality of the service. Just follow the treatment step-by-step and you will have pretty curls in
24 hours.

A PROCESS CONSISTENT WITH EXPECTATIONS

To the outside observer, the atmosphere of Beleza Natural may seem a bit factory-like. Its brightly lit, white
tiled walls, embellished with wood, granite and marble appear more like a stylish medical clinic than a beauty
salon. Nevertheless, to its customers who focus on the fresh flowers, small amenities like free coffee and
gossip magazines, and posters of gorgeous women exhibiting the results of the treatment, the salon is a
very special place.

The staff – young, animated, all exquisitely coiffed – present themselves with confidence and sincere
friendliness. Their “uniform” consists of white denim slacks and white or red T-shirts with the brand logo.
Almost all staff have been trained internally and have risen through the ranks if they are in supervisory
posts.

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In contrast to the noisy bustling streets outside, the interior space communicates feelings of safety, security
and caring. The outside world of downtown Caxias, for example, is a bustling array of small shops featuring
stacks of clothes, school supplies, snacks and drinks, consumer electronics, hardware and repair shops and
other personal care establishments. The shop is located two blocks from a large “favela,” an informal
squatter settlement, rife with crime and gang warfare, and not far from Rio’s main garbage dump.

Many customers arrive with friends and family members. Many have children, including young infants, in
tow particularly because the stores allow mothers with infants or toddlers to jump the line. Since the salon
offers a special group rate some customers arrive with neighbors by bus from towns outside of Rio. For
these customers, getting a hair styling at Beleza Natural is a daylong excursion and a social event.

On the Saturday morning that members of our team visited the salon in Rio’s Tijuca neighborhood we
encounter women from two “Caravan” groups – one originating in Minas Gerais State and the other from
near São Paulo – who have traveled more than three hours to arrive at the location. Tatiana, aged 22,
reports having woken up at 2 a.m. to meet up with a bus that arrived at the salon by 6 a.m., two hours
before the store’s opening. She points out that there were already others ahead of them in line when they
arrived.

Queuing and waiting appear to be normal for the Beleza Natural experience. The customers display a kind of
stoicism and patience that obscures the length of time that they are devoting to the encounter with the
brand. Even the children appear well-behaved and calm, though few distractions are available. It is more
than simple endurance that drives these customers; being in line serves as a display of social status and an
opportunity to watch the action and make new friends – much like the hipsters who queue at the entryway
of a popular new boîte.

The hair treatment process is highly bureaucratized so that services can be delivered efficiently and at low
cost, while also being highly personalized at every step of the way. After being registered, the client goes to
a small booth for an intake interview where her hair type and condition is analyzed. The hairdresser then
recommends specific products and a hair treatment routine. Then, after a course of treatment is
determined, clients move through a series of specialized procedure areas, depending on their own needs.
Beleza Natural maintains a database of each client’s hair type, hair care history, and experience with the
brand.

The typical visit to the salon can take as little as an hour and twenty minutes – though waiting usually
extends the time required – during which customers are walked through specialized work areas for
separation of curls, product application, conditioning and hairdressing. At each location, they are passed
along to specialized personnel who interact constantly, offering hair care tips while chatting about things in
general. Validation and promoting self-worth are consistent features of the entire experience. Stylists are
encouraged to take a friendly and helpful approach, acting as advisors and consultants to women who
customarily don’t have access to professional hair care advice.

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ROLE MODELS
Beleza Natural acts as a kind of economic development program in the neighborhoods in which the
company operates. Local women are invited to join its training programs and become role models both for
the sense of style they project as well as for the economic advancement they can achieve.

The social class distribution of their customers in 2007 was described as largely following the inverted
pyramid:

Social grade Description Percent

C&D Unskilled and semi-skilled workers 62%

B2 Craftspeople, skilled trades 27%

B1 White collar 8%

A2 Managerial 2%

The stylists/advisors solicit feedback to make sure customers are satisfied with their salon experiences. The
customer dialog does not stop there. Zica, Leila and other members of the leadership team reach out to
current users and prospects by visiting them at the factories where they work and scheduling special
breakfasts and lunches to gather feedback and promote new offerings. They conduct monthly customer
satisfaction tracking studies. Additionally, as we have noted, in-store suggestion boxes labeled “Speak with
Zica” and access via the web guarantee that customers know that the brand listens to their concerns.

By making the salon’s interior design more elegant than what is normally affordable to its customers, the
brand represents a reach and a stretch from their customers’ conventional reality. Consequently, customers
often go to Beleza Natural on “special” occasions, such as weddings, birthdays, celebrations, going on a job
interview, starting a new job.

Pricing is also highly aspirational. A full-service treatment plus products that are necessary to maintain it
costs more than 100 Reais (about 60 dollars), which represents approximately 20% of the monthly salary of
the salon’s targeted customers. As a convenience to some customers, Beleza Natural allows them to pay
the fee over three installments. Brazil’s working class and poor are notorious for saving money for
indulgences; a famous song celebrates how people save for an entire year for their fabulous Carnaval
costumes. Similarly, a Beleza Natural treatment is considered a treat worth saving for. Many customers
show up with carefully hoarded rolls of coins and stacks of small bills for paying for their hair care services.

Brazilians are also remarkable for their indulgence and bonding with children. People’s own aspirations are
commonly expressed through projections and ambitions for young family members. Beleza Natural has tried
to cater to this extravagance by setting up a children’s salon. It features child-scaled chairs and stylists who
specialize in children’s hair care. A promotional poster focuses on Zicquinha (Little Zica), a juvenile cartoon
version of the chain’s founder. The poster calls attention to the section of the salon that serves children
from 3 to 13 years. The introduction of children’s hair care services and products have been very successful
and now account for about 15% of the chain’s business.
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Not surprisingly, not all of Beleza Natural’s experiments have turned out as well. It tried to provide an
extensive program of childcare so kids could enjoy the environment while their parents were receiving
treatments. However, this turned into an “insurance nightmare” and was abused by parents who just
dropped off their children without patronizing the salon. Similarly, an effort to engage men in the salon
ended in failure because, despite being offered a special section in the store, the brand was too strongly
identified with females.

Since the salon treatments are expensive for the C & D level customers, Beleza Natural encourages them to
bring home the brand between visits with a reasonably priced line of hair care products. The retail operation
takes up a growing share of the in-store environment and produces an increasing share of profit. Available
exclusively at the salons, the extensive product line helps customers preserve the styles they have gained at
the store while also keeping the brand alive in their homes on a daily basis. Most customers go to the store
after their hair styling is finished to purchase products recommended by their stylists. We observed
customers waiting on line to purchase branded products.

REDEFINING THE BLACK IMAGE

It is clear that the brand value goes well beyond hair care. Most of all, the brand provides an aspirational
image that transcends the in-store experience to guide a redefinition of being black in Brazilian culture.
Despite Brazilians’ long-standing admiration for its Afro-Brazilian soccer stars and African-tinged culture
with its associated foods, musical styles and traditions, the realities of interpersonal interaction between
whites and blacks have been governed by subtle though pronounced discrimination and disdain.

Middle and upper class Brazilians gush about their love for the Afro-Brazilian maids and nannies that raised
them, nourished them, and nursed their families through health crises. Nevertheless, they are known to
treat these same people with a kind of patronizing noblesse oblige. Brazilian advertising imagery speaks to a
Caucasian ideal and African-ness has traditionally not been valued in the consumer society. It is no surprise
then that thick, curly and kinky hair is called “cabelo ruim” or “bad hair.” By changing the society’s projection
of beauty, Beleza Natural is contributing profoundly to Afro-Brazil’s changing self-image, replacing shame
and hesitation with pride and assertiveness.

Beleza Natural’s customers come from working class neighborhoods in Rio de Janeiro such as Tijuca and
Madureira and suburbs such as Jacarepaguá and Campo Grande, neighboring cities such as Duque de
Caixas and Niteroi, and from two other cities distant from Rio de Janeiro: Vitória (Espíritu Santo State) and
Salvador (Bahia State.) Since these areas have shared in the recent growth of the Brazilian economy, the
indulgence in beauty matches Brazil’s recent material achievements.

CULTURAL CHANGE AND BUSINESS GROWTH

Businesses need to adapt and change over time as their customer base shifts and as they make strategic
modifications in order to grow. Things do not stay the same for very long. Indeed, a major source of this
requirement to be flexible and adaptive is that there will necessarily be shifts in the socio-cultural firmament
that supported the business during the years of its birth, childhood and adolescence. The rationale behind
various aspects of the business model begins to change and marketers start being challenged to
communicate with their customers in different ways, to modify or expand their product offerings and
otherwise to interact with their markets differently.
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Beleza Natural is at a critical juncture in its history right now as it is slowly learning how to approach new
opportunities amid both changing organizational dynamics and cultural changes that are shifting its raison
d’etre. The transformations impelling modifications in the business model include the following:

Professionalization: As the chain has grown to 11 shops with 70,000 customers per month across Brazil,
with more being planned to open in the near future, management demands have grown beyond of its
founders’ capabilities. Even though Leila has used her business school education and experience at
McDonald’s to manage growth until now, she has hired a new General Manager to charter the company’s
direction and expansion moving forward. Additionally, new members of the management team have been
hired to mobilize additional operational, financial and marketing skills and capabilities on behalf of the brand.
Recent hires have come from managers with experience from major retailers, manufacturers,
communications companies and even from the advertising agency Young & Rubicam. Inevitably, new
personnel must internalize the brand’s history and culture through learning rather than through direct
experience.

Social mobility: The social class dynamics of Beleza Natural’s customer base is subtly shifting upward.
Fewer members of Social Grade D are entering the customer mix and are being replaced by more C’s, B’s
and even A’s. It is difficult to determine whether this is a consequence of upward movement among
customers who stay with the brand, shifts in Brazil’s social structure or an increasing attractiveness for the
brand among the country’s middle and upper classes. It appears that all of these dynamics may be working
together. Regardless of the source, this may indicate some dilution of affiliation with the “base of the
pyramid” and the emergence of Beleza Natural as a normal competitive brand.

Cultural shifts: As new users are brought into the chain, the manner and motivations behind customer
acquisition are undergoing change. Until now, the brand could count on interpersonal influence and word-
of-mouth marketing to transmit the Beleza Natural “creation myth” and bringing customers into the stores
and the brand community with a shared vision of economic development, aspirations about beauty and
mutual disdain for the injuries of Afro-Brazilians.

Ironically, through its success at challenging conventional conceptions of prettiness and by advancing an
alternative model of African beauty, the brand plants seeds that can undermine its own justification for
existing. The act of crossing the threshold into the store becomes less of a revolutionary act affirming a new
self-concept when the alternative vision becomes accepted by the larger culture. Using the brand without
this ideological justification merely becomes just another way of acquiring a new fashionable hairstyle.

The Beleza Natural brand can certainly withstand this kind of a shift – in fact, it can play into a much
stronger brand image and brand essence. Nevertheless, if it takes this route, it will require an adaptation of
its traditional story and its identification with customers from the base of the pyramid.

Competitive shifts: The shifting sands of the competitive environment inevitably present challenges to
conventional business models. The success of any brand invites rivals who believe that they can offer a
better price, service, location or other mix of benefits. Beleza Natural has certainly attracted other brands
that are hungry for a share of its lunch. Management is currently involved in studying its operations to

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improve procedures so that competitors may not be able to capitalize on any operational deficiencies and to
prevent customer dissatisfaction with the overall hair care experience.

Even more significantly, as an original claimant of the base of the pyramid, Beleza Natural was emblematic
for this entire approach to marketing and economic development in Brazil. In the interim, the BOP has
become a popular targeted market, attractive to both major corporations and indigenous entrepreneurs. The
BOP is no longer Beleza Natural’s unique location and it must now share the limelight with many others.
Consequently, the store can no longer depend on its BOP story to be the only driver of brand value and
loyalty.

STRATEGIC SHIFTS
Over the last two to three years, Beleza Natural has made several strategic shifts that seem to undermine
its traditional devotion to the base of the pyramid. Some of these are very subtle, such as starting to use
light skinned models on its packaging but others suggest a profound revision of its original brand essence.

The VIP Room: In response to the needs of its time-pressed customers unwilling or unable to wait their turn
among in line, Beleza Natural has established VIP Rooms at most of its salons. For an additional 20 Reais
($10) the customer gets treated immediately in a salon area that is smaller in scale than the large chambers
where everyone else receives services. Although this somewhat undermines the brand’s egalitarian ethos,
some of its customers are conscious of time and do not have difficulty coming up with the extra cash. The
VIP service has proved to be very profitable for the company.

There are no other differentiating elements of the VIP service – the process is identical, the chairs are the
same size, etc., so it has been hard to sell this service as an upgrade of the conventional service. Indeed,
when customers arrive for a VIP appointment and see immediate availabilities in the larger service area,
they sometimes cancel their appointments and opt for the less expensive service.

Even though there are many options to enhance and differentiate the service, for example, by offering more
comfortable chairs or additional services, there is some concern about the loss of equal treatment within the
store. Whether or not customers will simply view this as an alternative space reflecting a higher class of
service for wealthier customers or as an undermining of the brand’s commitment to the BOP has yet to be
demonstrated.

Ipanema: In 2007, Beleza Natural made an audacious move to test its opportunities at higher points of the
pyramid. They decided to open one of their salons on Visconde de Pirajá, the principal shopping street of
Ipanema, one of the exclusive beachfront communities on Rio de Janeiro’s South Side (Zona Sul). Made
legendary by the classic tune by Antonio Carlos Jobim that extolled the beauty of its women, the Ipanema
community did not warmly welcome their prospective neighbors. Overcoming angry public statements and
street demonstrations, Beleza Natural eventually succeeded in opening one of its characteristic branded hair
salons.

Evidence about how well the brand has transferred is mixed. Business at the Ipanema salon is a bit slower
than at other stores in the working class areas. The thronging lines are absent and the noise and animation
that characterizes the brand everywhere else gives way to calm and quiet in Ipanema. Moreover, it appears
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that the store attracts lower and working class women who either work in the neighborhood, live in one of
the nearby public housing estates, or just come for the prestige and variety that Ipanema represents. The
beach just two blocks from the store is well known as a showplace for Rio’s fashion plates.

Interviews with management suggest that the Ipanema store has been successful beyond its limited
profitability because it serves many symbolic purposes that are advantageous to the brand. For example, it
acts as a kind of flagship for the chain as a whole and represents the success and achievement of its
founding vision. A black woman opening a store in the Ipanema neighborhood where she started life as a
maid is the kind of happy ending common in Brazil’s soap operas.

More pragmatically, the Ipanema store is attractive to prospective investors and bankers, drawn from
Brazil’s upper classes, who are reluctant to visit outlying neighborhoods and are better able to appreciate
the store’s concept and brand value in comfortable Ipanema.

A MOMENT IN TIME
It is clear that we have not heard the resolution of the Beleza Natural story. It is a work in progress at a
particular moment in its brand history and in Brazil’s current phase of dynamic economic development.
There are many aspects of Beleza Natural’s brand value that can continue to sustain growth internally
within Brazil. Since skilled styling of naturally curly hair in modern salons represents a strong unmet need
globally, it can even be considered an exportable brand to other places in Latin America, the Caribbean,
Africa and even North America. Most of all, it represents a challenging concept that originated and continues
to dominate at the base of the pyramid but that has been able to mobilize marketing savvy to start
transcending its base. The degree to which it will maintain brand strength and remain within or move
beyond its origins remains an open question.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The authors gratefully acknowledge the assistance of Marcus Hermais, Fernanda Borelli, Liana Porto Pereira, Maria
Cecilia Galli, Beatriz Aiex and Alberto Ribeiro

REFERENCES
Anderson, Jamie and Costas Markides, Strategic Innovation at the Base of the Pyramid. MIT Sloan Management
Review. Vol. 49 No. 1. Fall 2007. Pp. 84-88
Gunther, Marc, Chasing the “Base of the Pyramid.” Fortune Magazine. November 14, 2006. Available at:
http://money.cnn.com/2006/11/14/magazines.forune/guntherkenya/index.htm
Mariampolski, Hy, Ethnography for Marketers: A Guide to Consumer Immersion (Sage, 2006)
Mariampolski, Hy, Sharon Wolf, Debra Griffith, P. Rafael Hernandez, and Kathryn Kuo, Community-Based Methods for
Multicultural Research. Quirk’s Marketing Research Review, 1994.
Pralahad, C. K., The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid. Wharton, 2005.
Secuida.net, November 9, 2009. Available at http://secuida.net/tag/tais-araujo/
Simanis, Erik and Stuart Hart, Expanding Possibilities at the Base of the Pyramid. Innovations, Winter, 2006. Pp. 43-
51.
Simanis, Erik, At the Base of the Pyramid: When selling to poor consumers, companies need to begin by doing
something basic: They need to create the market. Wall Street Journal. October 25, 2009.

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Suarez, Maribel Carvalho, Letícia Moreira Casotti and Victor Manoel Cunha de Almeida, Beleza Natural: Crescendo na
Base da Pirâmide (Beleza Natural: Growing in the Bottom of the Pyramid) RAC, Curitiba, v. 12, n. 2, p. 555-574,
Abr./Jun. 2008

THE AUTHORS
Hy Mariampolski is Managing Director, QualiData Research Inc., United States.
Maribel Carvalho Suarez is a doctoral student in Business Administration, PUC-RJ (Brazil), and Researcher, L´Oréal
Chair of Consumer Behavior at COPPEAD Graduate School of Business (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro), Brazil.
Leticia Moreira Casotti is Professor, L´Oréal Chair of Consumer Behavior, COPPEAD Graduate School of Business,
Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

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