The Semacraft Blog

In a previous post, we looked at the role of social proof in moving innovations from early adopters to the majority at the base of the pyramid. This is a follow-up to that post.

In the West, as in the East, word of mouth can make or break a business. In markets where traditional media is absent or penetration and access to data on products or services is minimal (or absent), word of mouth is the ONLY way for a brand to be known. How can brands use word of mouth to help their innovations cross the chasm?

Experience.

That’s it. Experience. The kind that people remark about.

Extremely remarkable experiences of a good kind.

In the few short years leading up to 2007, Kenyans had lost over $400 million in 166 pyramid schemes. These pyramid schemes never put out flashy advertisements in traditional media or run public activations for their high-returns investment products. We may never know just how many Kenyans lost money in the schemes. One thing is certain though, most of them invested because they heard remarkable tales of high-return, low-risk investment schemes that promised to deliver their dreams in weeks.

My observations therefore led me to draw certain conclusions;

1. Early adopters go where the majority have not gone before. The majority rely on their ‘curation’ in order to make a decision on whether to purchase/try or not. This means if the early adopters have poor or average
   

   Victims of Polio in the DRC

   experiences, the innovation will languish in the early adopter territory and probably die there. The remarks the adopters make need not be accurate, they just have to be minimally believable. Businesses need to ensure that their products and messaging are culturally sensitive and relevant BEFORE they go live. That’s a good start. Thereafter, keeping your ear to the ground would help the business react proactively to reduce misinformation or spread stories of great experiences. I can see how social networks/media and mobile messaging can help do this. (image by Woody Collins)

2. The performance, price and convenience of the innovation may not matter to the majority if the word of mouth surrounding it is highly conflicting or negative. The experiences of others trump technical specifications and official communication. In fact, innovations with compelling uses are easily defeated by word of mouth. Take for example negative word of mouth that surrounded the polio vaccine campaign in East and West Africa. So many years later, rumors of vaccines laced with HIV or contraceptives still abound. When confronted with the possibility of polio turning their children into paraplegics (a near certainty) and a vaccine that might or might not be laced with undesirable impurities (a complete improbability), they chose to believe and act on the latter.
3. Product performance and price are critical innovation areas in emerging markets. Packaging and brand design, in the way they work in the global segment, are not as important. Take for instance the emergence of polythene pouch milk in Kenya. The packaging allowed dairies to cut overheads and reduce price but still provide the same
   

   A pouch of Ilara milk

   basic performance as the Tetra Pak packaging Kenyans were used to. Despite the pouches not looking as classy as the classic Tetra Pak packaging, they quickly gained a lead market share in under a year. The latest  report from the USAID funded Kenya Dairy Sector Competitiveness Program indicates (my interpretation) that consumers relate ‘improved quality‘ to packaging, not necessarily the actual milk. Consequently, they are unwilling to pay for ‘improved quality‘ indicating that polythene pouches maybe perceived as lower quality packaging but a low priority feature for this essential commodity. See the report here.

It makes sense therefore for brands in emerging markets to understand that customers in the BoP have high sensitivity for spin and a big need for proof of high performance and high value at an affordable price. The most powerful way for businesses to communicate this performance/value proposition is to create remarkable experiences for early customers and continuously monitor these ‘remarks’ over the products life.

How do you think businesses in emerging markets can monitor these conversations about their brands affordably? I would love to hear your point of view.

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