How to reach emerging market consumers with new ... - Roland Berger

Roland Berger Strategy Consultants
for epidemics. Indeed, one child dies every 15 seconds as a result
of consuming water polluted with human excreta. Diarrheal
diseases cause up to 50% of all deaths in emergency, refugee and
IDP camp situations – more than 80% of them children under two
years of age.
Potential solutions
These health and environmental challenges stimulate innovation.
For example, Swedish architect Anders Wilhelmson designed
"Peepoo", a personal, single-use, self-sanitizing, fully bio degradable
toilet that prevents feces from contaminating the
immediate surrounding area and ecosystem. After use, Peepoo
turns into valuable fertilizer that can improve livelihoods and
food security.
In India, 40% to 60% of the urban population live in poorly developed,
unhygienic conditions. In an effort to improve standards, an
in ventive Indian real estate company introduced a program to
offer small land parcels with decent infrastructure and with a
price tag of just USD 6,500 each. The examples of successful
innovation don't stop there, either. Three years ago, Tata Motors
launched the world's cheapest car, priced at just EUR 1,500. The
company has now designed the Nano house, a 20 m 2 coconut
and jute fiber unit that can be erected in just a week and is built to
last only a few years. Tata's plan is to offer affordable shelter to
poor people around the world. It believes that governmentsponsored
mass residential developments for slum dwellers and
the homeless will be one of its biggest markets. In developing
the Nano house, Tata consulted local decision-makers, ensuring
that the product met local requirements. The company is now
analyzing user feedback from a pilot project in rural India. It plans
to price the new home at about USD 700 – roughly what
industrialized world consumers might pay for a new iPad.
The design of low-cost housing also needs to take climate change
into account. A German initiative, ASH (Africa Sustainable House),
has developed the world's first low-cost, climate-friendly home
for Africa and Asia. Delivered in containers, the units are constructed
on site in a single day. They are fitted with a solar module
for lighting and radio reception, and even include air conditioning.
Novel building materials can also make housing affordable.
Taiwanese architect Arthur Huang developed a method of creating
construction materials out of plastic waste. The EcoArk, built from
1.5 million plastic bricks, was shown in November 2010 at Taipei's
International Garden Festival. Even plastic bottles can be used
to build houses. Assisted by experts in London, a Nigerian building
project initiated by the non-governmental organization DARE
(Development Association for Renewable Energies) is creating
homes out of plastic bottles that can withstand earthquakes,
fire and even bullets. By using unconventional building materials,
DARE seeks to address two problems simultaneously: plastic
bottles that pollute roads, sewers and gutters are recycled into
buildings, and at the same time help alleviate housing shortages
in Africa's most populous country.
Demand for prime location luxury buildings in emerging markets
is growing almost as fast as local incomes. The international
property consulting firm Knight Frank regularly surveys top real
estate advisors to ask which nationalities will become the most
important prime property buyers over the next five years. Chinese,
Russian, Middle Eastern, Latin American and other high-growth
economies consistently lead recent predictions. For example,
emerging market cities such as Nairobi have seen prime property
prices soar more than 25% above 2011 prices, while Bali and
Jakarta have seen prices increase about 15% – more than
in London or Vancouver.
The more people congregate in cities, the more critical it becomes
to find ways to control streams of goods and waste. One promising
method suggested by research into contemporary urban data
management is "smart" city designs – that apply innovative IT
applications in building design, city planning and infrastructure.
These aren't just drawing board recommendations, either.
Singapore has become a model of urban IT prowess. The city
collates and interlinks data on water and power supplies, traffic
volumes for shipping, aircraft, cars and taxis, temperature and
telephony, all in real time. The scope of the IT system is such
that a subway train driver knows capacity loads, why trains are
slowing down and whether it's advisable to wait longer at a
particular station.
The modern city dweller will increasingly require a smartphone
to navigate the modern urban data jungle. A "virtuous commercial
circle" will evolve as more data stimulates greater demand
for multifunctional smart technologies. The potential for highly
individualized distribution and marketing is almost unlimited:
some vending machines in Asia even scan a person's face
to customize advertising.