Design to alleviate poverty:
Product designs for the Bottom of the Pyramid (05-06-07)
By Jon Fernquest[Introduction|Vocabulary|Article]
[Reading Questions|Answers]
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The Indian scholar C.K. Prahalad came up with the revolutionary idea of targeting the market at the Bottom of the Pyramid, the largest but poorest group of people in the world.
Upscale premium markets for the rich have always held out possibilities of getting rich quick.
The rich have more discretionary income to spend on things that aren't considered necessities.
Most marketing efforts seem to be directed at the rich, or those who want to be rich.
There's still money to be made from the middle class and the poor though.
After the obsession with premium markets wears off, the focus eventually returns to these groups.
Recently the idea of Social Capitalism driven by Social Entrepreneurs has attracted a lot of attention, offering a heroic opportunity to be more than just a business person interested in one's own welfare:
"...social entrepreneurs act as the change agents for society, seizing opportunities others miss in order to improve systems, invent and disseminate new approaches and advance sustainable solutions that create social value.""Unlike traditional business entrepreneurs, social entrepreneurs primarily seek to generate "social value" rather than profits. And unlike the majority of non-profit organizations, their work is targeted not only towards immediate, small-scale effects, but sweeping, long-term change." (Source: PBS New Heroes)
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Today's article is about an exhibit at a museum of design in New York city that focuses on innovative products designed for people with very little money to spend.
Thailand, being more developed than its neighbors Laos and Burma, is well-placed to provide these countries with the appropriate technologies they need in the future.
To a certain extent this has already been happening without people really realising it for years. Thailand's motorcycles and trucks have long been exported throughout Southeast Asia. The central market at Vientienne, the capital of Laos, is full of Thai consumer goods. Stainless steel kitchenware with the Thai Seagull brand can be found throughout Southeast Asia. The phone book (yellow pages) in Burma was first produced by a Thai-Burmese joint venture. The list goes on and on.
In the future, as barriers to trade are lifted and ASEAN becomes even more integrated, even further opportunities will arise.
For further reading, check out the online exhibit Design for the Other 90% at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in New York City.
Read about social entrepreneurship at the PBS New Heroes website.
Read about the companies that received the 2007 Social Capitalism awards.
Listen to a 2001 online webcast debate on Social Capitalism from the Columbia School of journalism.
Reading Questions
Here are some questions to guide your reading (See answers at end):1. What kind of useful things would people with little money want to buy if they could afford them, according to the article? Why are these items useful? What price could they afford to pay? How much do you think they currently cost? (Express your opinion)
2. What kinds of products do industrial product designers spend most of their time designing? Why?
3. Do you think it makes sense for designers to spend more time designing products for poor or middle class people, rather than spend all their time designing products for the rich? (Express your opinion)
4. What market segment are the products in the museum exhibit targeted to?
5. What kind of reaction does viewing well-designed products for poor people usually produce in people who see them for the first time, according to the article?
6. How does the Q-Drum make life easier for poor people?
7. Are the designers at the exhibit interested in charity or for-profit business? Why? Do you agree with them? (Express your opinion)
8. What is the number one need that poor people have, according to the article?
9. How does the Kickstart organisation help people escape poverty?
10. Does Kickstart give its pumps away for free? Why or why not? (Express your opinion)
11. What do most of the world's poor do for a living? What time constraints do they face because of this?
Bangkok Post Article June 5, 2007
INVENTIONS SAVING THE POOR
Design that solves problems for the world's poor"A billion customers in the world," Paul Polak told a crowd of inventors recently, "are waiting for a $2 [66 baht] pair of eyeglasses, a $10 [330 baht] solar lantern and a $100 [3,300 baht] house."
The world's cleverest designers, said Polak, a former psychiatrist who now runs an organisation helping poor farmers become entrepreneurs, cater to the globe's richest 10 per cent, creating items like wine labels, couture and Maseratis.
"We need a revolution to reverse that silly ratio," he said.
To that end, the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, which is housed in Andrew Carnegie's 64-room mansion on Fifth Avenue and offers a $250 (8,200 baht) red chrome piggy bank in its gift shop, is honouring inventors dedicated to "the other 90 per cent", particularly the billions of people living on less than $2 (66 baht) a day.
Their creations, on display in the museum garden until September 23, have a sort of forehead-thumping "Why didn't someone think of that before?" quality.
For example, one of the simplest and yet most elegant designs tackles a job that millions of women and girls spend many hours doing each year - fetching water. Balancing heavy jerry cans on the head may lead to elegant posture, but it is backbreaking work and sometimes causes crippling injuries. The Q-Drum, a circular jerry can, holds 91 litres, and it rolls smoothly enough for a child to tow it on a rope.
Interestingly, most of the designers who spoke at the opening of the exhibition spurned the idea of charity.
"The No. 1 need that poor people have is a way to make more cash," said Martin Fisher, an engineer who founded KickStart, an organisation that says it has helped 230,000 people escape poverty. It sells human-powered pumps costing $35 (1,100 baht) to $95 (3,000 baht).
Pumping water can help a farmer grow grain in the dry season, when it fetches triple the normal price. Fisher described customers who had skipped meals for weeks to buy a pump and then earned $1,000 (33,000 baht) the next year selling vegetables.
"Most of the world's poor are subsistence farmers, so they need a business model that lets them make money in three to six months, which is one growing season," he said. KickStart accepts grants to support its advertising and find networks of sellers supplied with spare parts, for example. His prospective customers, Fisher explained, "don't do market research".
"Many of them have never left their villages," he said. SCIENCE TIMES
Vocabulary (in discussion above)
alleviate - reduce the level of something bad or unpleasant (for example, alleviate suffering or poverty)
upscale - expensive high-quality products that people from higher social classes or that wealthier people like
premium markets - markets with good priced above the normal price (for extra features and quality)
discretionary - decided upon case by case, not by a general rule
discretionary income - money spent as the group decides (use is not controlled by rules from above)
necessities - the goods necessary for life that every person must buy such as food, clothing, and shelter
social capitalism - capitalism combined with social goals like alleviating poverty (See Wikipedia)
social entrepreneur - a person who combines social goals into their business plan (See NPR on social entrepreneurship
designers - industrial designers, industrial design is an applied art which improves the aesthetics and usability of products for marketability and production, professional industrial designers are trained as engineers (See Wikipedia on industrial designer, designers and design)
psychiatrist - a medical doctor specialising in mental illness (See Wikipedia on Psychiatry)
couture - the creation of expensive clothes (See Wikipedia on Haute Couture)
Maseratis - a very expensive Italian sportscar (See Wikipedia)
reverse that silly ratio - change it so that designers are designing more things for the poor than the rich
Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum - (See website and exhibit)
Andrew Carnegie - a wealthy American business man who died in 1919, famous for his steel company, gave a lot of his money away to good causes (philanthropist), Carnegie Mellon University and Carnegie Hall were named after him (See Wikipedia)
a mansion - a very large house built for the wealthy (See Wikipedia)
Fifth Avenue - one of the most important streets in downtown New York City in the US (See Wikipedia)
chrome - shiny silver colored metal (See Wikipedia)
piggy bank - small hollow clay pig used to store money
forehead - top part of face, above eyes
thumping - hitting
forehead-thumping - hitting your forehead with your hand, meaning "why didn't I think of that"
tackles a job - finds a solution for a job
jerry cans - a container with a special design that is very good for storing fuel and water (See picture in Wikipedia)
elegant - graceful, dignified, high-class, not cheap looking
posture - the way you stand or sit (for example, "good posture" with back up straight, or "bad posture" leaning over with back bent forwards
backbreaking work - difficult tiring work
cripple - seriously harm or damage (destroy ability to move or function properly)
crippling injuries - injuries preventing movement or functioning
spurned - rejected, not accepted
KickStart: The tools to end poverty - "KickStart is a non-profit organization that develops and markets new technologies in Africa. These low-cost technologies are bought by local entrepreneurs and used to establish highly profitable new small businesses. They create new jobs and wealth, enabling the poor to climb out of their poverty forever." (See website)
subsistence farmers - farmers with a small plot of land that produce enough to feed their family but not enough to trade at a market (See Wikipedia on subsistence agriculture)
spare parts - parts used to repair a machine when it breaks down
market research - finding out more about customers to do a better job selling products to them (See Wikipedia)
Answer Key:
1. What kind of useful things would people with little money want to buy if they could afford them, according to the article? Why are these items useful? What price could they afford to pay? How much do you think they currently cost? (Express your opinion)
a. Eyeglasses (could afford at 66 baht)
b. A solar lantern (could afford at 330 baht)
c. A house (could afford at 3,300 baht)
2. What kinds of products do industrial product designers spend most of their time designing? Why?
Industrial product designers spend most of their time designing expensive "designer" products for the rich people. For example, wine labels, fashion clothes, and sports cars.
Why? Because companies are willing to spend on design for these expensive products to differentiate them from the competition which is heavier in premium markets.
3. Do you think it makes sense for designers to spend more time designing products for poor or middle class people, rather than spend all their time designing products for the rich? (Express your opinion)
4. What market segment are the products in the museum exhibit targeted to?
The billions of people who earn less than 66 baht per day.
5. What kind of reaction does viewing well-designed products for poor people usually produce in people who see them for the first time, according to the article?
People are surprised by the ideas because they are so obvious.
They ask themselves why they didn't think of that because the ideas are so obvious.
("Their creations, on display in the museum garden until September 23, have a sort of forehead-thumping 'Why didn't someone think of that before?' quality.")
6. How does the Q-Drum make life easier for poor people?
The Q-Drum helps people get water from the well and transport it to their home.
The Q-Drum replaces heavy jerry cans carried on the head that cause stress to the back and injury when people use them to carry water from the well.
The Q-Drum is rolled along on the ground, not carried on the head.
7. Are the designers at the exhibit interested in charity or for-profit business? Why? Do you agree with them? (Express your opinion)
The designers are interested in for-profit business.
They focus on for-profit business can result in more useful products. That people are willing to spend money to buy a product is a good test of its usefullness. If a charity provides a product for free, there is a limit on many items can be produced and provided, whereas a company strives to meet all demand because it is motivated by profit. People will also sometimes take free things and sell them for their scrap value, thereby wasting them, because they cost nothing.
8. What is the number one need that poor people have, according to the article?
"A way to make more cash," this is the number one need that poor people have, according to the article.
9. How does the Kickstart organisation help people escape poverty?
Kickstart sells human powered pumps priced from 1,100 to 3,000 baht. These pumps allow farmers to grow during the dry season when their crops are more valuable.
10. Does Kickstart give its pumps away for free? Why or why not? (Express your opinion)
No, Kickstart sells the pumps they produce. Poor people have to save money to be able to purchase them. Parts of its business are funded with grants though.
("Fisher described customers who had skipped meals for weeks to buy a pump and then earned $1,000 (33,000 baht) the next year selling vegetables.")
11. What do most of the world's poor do for a living? What time constraints do they face because of this?
Most of the poor people in the world are subsistence farmers. They need to make money during one growing season that lasts from 3 to 6 months.
