One of the key economic questions facing industrialized nations such as Canada is: Can we ever sell enough to the low-income consumers of the developing world to make up for the manufacturing base that we’ve lost to them?
A recent article on Procter & Gamble (or P&G as it’s now known) at Fortune.com offers some reassuring news on this front. The Cincinnati-based consumer-products giant has launched a campaign targeting the $2-a-day consumer, and its researchers are touring the globe to find out how people in developing countries use personal-care products.
In China, for instance, three P&G executives and scientists trekked to a tiny village to watch a young potato farmer wash her long black hair – using no more than three cups of water. From the jungles of Brazil to the slums of India, the $80-billion company is now searching for new-product ideas that will help it serve 800 million new consumers by 2015.
Probably the biggest lesson the researchers have learned is that it doesn’t matter how much money they have: even the poorest consumers want to look better and feel younger. Fortune quotes Cindy Graulty, a scientist heading up P&G’s $2-a-day initiative, who maintains, “It’s a myth to say poor people only want function. They care about beauty. Just like us.”
P&G’s crusade speaks to the potential of globalization: the creation of custom consumer goods to meet the new needs of poorer people slowly clambering up the development ladder. While few Canadian companies may wish to compete in the soap, toothpaste and shampoo markets, P&G’s initiative demonstrates the numerous opportunities available from marketing to what used to be called the “third world.” Canada’s expertise in construction, design, home-building, telecom, and food production could all find new markets in these developing countries – if Canadian entrepreneurs head up similar initiatives and shoulder the same type of commitment as the makers of Head & Shoulders.
For a brave new view of the future of the global economy, read the original Fortune article at http://tinyurl.com/23q5cfx.
