2018 Volume 38 Issue 1 Pages 7-20
BOP businesses have been increasing in Japan. However, many Japanese companies that are too accustomed to conducting conventional marketing with wealthy clusters of consumers seem to be struggling to understand BOP market needs. According to Hart and London (2011), the classic definition of BOP is 4 billion people in the world with an annual income of less than $3,000. However, this definition is too crude from the viewpoint of practical marketing, in which actual living situations, including regional, cultural, and economical factors for each consumer, are more important. In this study, we redefine BOP, which has been focused on by Prahalad for 20 years, and we explore the realities of a BOP consumer cluster based on consumer surveys in Greater Jakarta, Indonesia. We also propose a new framework of design thinking, including a new method of participatory observational research for consumers. This is referred to as DIVE (Diversity Inclusive Visionary Enhancement), and has been developed based on a series of consumer surveys in a new product development project for BOPs.
