THE MARKET

The world population recently surpassed the 7 billion mark.  Fewer than 1 billion people comprise the “top of the income pyramid” (ToP)—the historical focus for most business strategies (see figure below).  Over the past 20 years, a rapidly growing middle class has attracted business attention in the “emerging” economies of the world (e.g. China, India, Brazil, Russia) at the “middle of the pyramid” (MoP).  More than four and a half billion people, the majority of the world’s population, constitute the “base” of the income pyramid (BoP), with per capita incomes less than $1,500 per year, adjusted for purchasing power parity.  Until recently, little commercial attention has been paid to this large and rapidly growing segment of humanity. TWI provides its product solutions to all economic levels and does not exclude BoP.

Underserved Market

The key challenge facing any point-of-drinking solution company is customer and community uptake as well as subsequent use and maintenance. Many “made in USA” technological solutions have been introduced to low income markets, but have failed to gain traction because they do not address the communities’ perceived unmet needs and are thought of as foreign. Other solutions have been dumped in lower income markets through multinational subsidies and/or through charitable donations because related businesses could not generate a market on their own merit.

To address these issues, TWI applies the TWI BoP Protocol, as noted in the last paragraph. As noted above, the key concept underlying the BoP Protocol is co-creation—the integration of the capabilities of the local community and the sponsoring company (in this case TWI) to develop a business that neither could develop alone and that addresses the community’s expressed needs. By building the business in conjunction with the members of its targeted communities, TWI ensures that the product and service offerings - and the business itself - are desired, accepted and trusted.