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PreprintCited by 139Innovation and Socioeconomic DevelopmentBusiness Strategies and InnovationMicrofinance and Financial Inclusion

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 18 of the 21 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

Challenges in Marketing Socially Useful Goods to the Poor

Open access
Garrette, Bernard, Karnani, Aneel G.·2009·California Management Review
DOI 10.2139/ssrn.1507757
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Abstract

Market based solutions to alleviate poverty have become increasingly popular in recent years. Unfortunately, there are very few examples of profitable businesses that market socially useful goods in low-income markets and operate at a large scale. This article examines in-depth three case studies of multinational firms that tried to market unquestionably useful products -- clean water, eyeglasses, and nutritious yoghurt -- to the poor, and did not succeed commercially. The overarching lesson we draw from the case studies is that developing strategies for marketing socially useful goods to the poor, far from triggering a revolution in business thinking, requires firms to get back to the basic principles and rules of economics and business.

Overview

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Crossref · 10.2139/ssrn.1507757

Cites

18 of 18 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

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Citations

Cites

Show all 21 references

Research works printed but not linked: 14

  1. P S Ahmad, 2004, Hindustan Lever Limited and Project Sting
  2. V Akula, 2008, Business Basics at the Base of the Pyramid, Harvard Business Review, 86, 53
  3. ? Cdc, 2008, Household water treatment options in developing countries: household chlorination
  4. ? Danone Communities, 2009, Grameen Danone Foods Ltd, a Social Business in Bangladesh
  5. ? Gangopadhyay, 2004, Changing pattern of household consumption expenditure
  6. B ? Garrette, 2008, Essilor's "Base of the Pyramid" Strategy in India', case study
  7. M Hanson, 2007, Pure Water', Management Today
  8. M Hanson, 2009, Procter & Gamble PuR Purifier of Water (A) and (B)', European Case Clearing House
  9. ? Jain, 2009, Top of the pyramid, Business Standard
  10. ? Lehr, 2008, Dialing for development, Stanford Social Innovation Review, 6, 44
  11. 2009, Emerging Markets, Emerging Models
  12. L Moses, 2009, Vision correction in the developing world
  13. ? Nokia, 2009, Knocking down the affordability barrier
  14. ? Who/Unicef, 2005, Water for life: Making it happen

Cited by

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Metadata

Authors
Garrette, B., & Karnani, A. G.
Affiliations
  • HEC Paris (FR)
  • University of Michigan (US)
ORCID
Karnani, Aneel G.
Venue
California Management Review
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2009
Volume
52
Issue
4
Pages
29-47
ISSN
0008-1256 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.2139/ssrn.1507757
OpenAlex
W3121951120
Cited by
139
References
21
Citations by year
2026: 2 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 6 · 2021: 12 · 2020: 8 · 2019: 7 · 2018: 9 · 2017: 8 · 2016: 11 · 2015: 17 · 2014: 9 · 2013: 12 · 2012: 14
FWCI
23.67
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • California Management Review (publishedVersion)
  • SSRN Electronic Journal (submittedVersion)
  • HAL (submittedVersion)
Funders
UNICEF
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Business and International Management › Innovation and Socioeconomic Development
  • Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Strategy and Management › Business Strategies and Innovation
  • Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Economics and Econometrics › Microfinance and Financial Inclusion
Keywords
low-income markets, poverty reduction, market-based solutions, multinational corporations, clean water, spectacle, commercial viability, business strategy, developing countries

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CoChat. (2026). Citation check: Challenges in Marketing Socially Useful Goods to the Poor. https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.2139/ssrn.1507757
The paper
Garrette, B., & Karnani, A. G. (2009). Challenges in Marketing Socially Useful Goods to the Poor. California Management Review. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1507757

Data sources

Bibliographic data: Semantic Scholar, OpenAlex, Crossref.

Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).

Semantic Scholar’s data is described in: Kinney, R., et al. (2023). The Semantic Scholar Open Data Platform. arXiv:2301.10140.