18th September 2014, GMT/UTC + 05:30, Dehli, India
The BoP project
The Bottom of the pyramid (BoP) project is the result of a collaboration between the Antenna Foundation and the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts. The project was conducted over the spring semester 2014 by us, a small group of five Design Management International students. The main goal of the project was to find solutions that support and enforce the dissemination of two health products, Spirulina and Aqua+, to the large and very poor market in the Indian rural areas – the bottom of the pyramid (BoP).
One of the biggest challenges of the project was that none of us had any first hand experience with this particular market, which resulted in an open-ended solution that could be adapted according to various scenarios and research findings. With the use of a systemic design thinking approach and a human centred design process, the final delivery incorporated four levels of elements, which can be developed depending on what results and insights are gathered in the field. The four elements are:
an ethnographic testing and implementation toolkit that methodologically supports the learning and understanding of the customer’s needs, wants, dreams and behaviours
variations of last-mile distribution opportunities for Aqua+
product and service opportunities for Aqua+
and additional branding proposals for the final design of Aqua+.
Preparing for the next step
As a further continuation of the BoP- project in the fall semester 14/15 the Antenna Foundation offered a trip to India to one of our groups, in order to further develop the Aqua+ bottle design and marketing strategy. The main idea of this trip was to reach a minimum level of first hand experience around rural areas and Aqua+ users and also to meet Antenna’s long-term business and operation partner Tara environment. Tara environment is a wide reaching organization that focuses on creating sustainable and long lasting solutions for the BoP- sector. Next to the Aqua+ product, Tara is working on other social and technological solutions for rural areas, for example Smokeless firebricks, agriculture water pumps, or water filter systems for schools in rural areas.
The BoP project goes to India
With the help and support of Tara environment and especially Siddharth, the project manager of Aqua+, I had the chance to go on a three-day field visit to Faizabad. Faizabad and its region, which lies in the state of Uttar Pradesh (UP), is the most recent area where Aqua+ is being implemented. This trip gave me the opportunity to talk to actual Aqua+ consumers, as well as to local RMPs (registered medical practitioners) who are the direct sale and promotion channel within villages. However, as we not only wanted to focus on the consumer level, we also met the local business and operation partner of Tara environment - Pahel as a representative for the facilitation level. Pahel is a local organization that sets up, controls and supports the last-mile distribution of social and health products to the customers, and represents therefore the middleman between the RMPs and Tara environment.
Knowing your customers is half way to success
Every day I realize more and more how extremely important it is to know who you are actually designing and working for. Without starting a project by examining and understanding the customer’s needs, wants, dreams or behaviours, as the HCD process proposes, a product becomes more likely to end up being a random object that merely serves as entertainment in the consumer’s daily life, instead of improving and supporting consumer’s chances to grow. Many products end up being just another gadget on a shelf, waiting to be picked up or to even just be noticed. Undoubtedly this represents the wrong approach for a product like Aqua+, which is designed for the development aid and intended to support the growth of rural areas. Tara environment avoids situations like this, by working with many local partners and organizations together that stand close to villager’s life and reality. Additionally Tara organizes regular field trips and visits to the various locations in order to keep the direct link to their customers.
A few more days left in India
With the generosity and help of Siddharth, who is introducing me to the Indian culture and its diversity, and Tara environment I will stay one more week in Delhi and continue to grasp as many impressions as possible. It is a wonderful, interesting and totally different to the world we are used to. Hopefully this first hand experience will help me to continue the Aqua+ project successfully. A project with the vision: Safe water is the driver for GROWTH and DIVERSITY is the key.
- Posted all the way from India by Laura Sgier, 3rd year DMI student
