Niti Bhan does strategic design planning and concept development in emerging markets like India and some African countries. She begins her article Developing a user centered methodology for emerging markets and the bottom of the pyramid by discussing what happens when companies in the developed world try to introduce products in lower-income markets:

So the value propositions of the products, services, and programs introduced for lower income markets—particularly in the developing world—are still based on elements of the value system prevalent in global consumer culture. There is a gap here, and it’s most obvious in the marketing messages, advertising and communications which tend to emphasize product benefits or value that may not be relevant—much less contextually appropriate—to the BoP [Bottom of the Pyramid] customer’s life. When the value proposition of the seller has little or no resonance with the value system of the target market, it will most likely be ignored.

Even more interesting, she questions the value of using a standard user-centered design (UCD) methodology in these markets. Her point is that it’s not just products that need to be tailored specifically for these markets, the methodology we use to identify user needs should be different as well:

UCD has emerged from the same operating environment as that of the majority of the producers and most certainly has been part of, if not partially the creator of, the global mainstream consumer culture in which we’re all immersed. Therein lies the rub. The process is not divorced from its context and thus, we found, it needed to be far more flexible as it evolved and was adapted to the challenge of conducting exploratory user research in slums and villages and townships across the developing world. For the human centered designer, more likely to have been trained in the heart of the most sophisticated consumer markets in the world, there were additional challenges when considering the new and emerging consumer markets at the BoP.

I see this in our work at Flow as well. We constantly have to adjust how we do usability testing or contextual interviews to make sure participants are comfortable enough for us to uncover their real needs/issues. Niti’s work looks fascinating, so I definitely recommend reading her post and checking out some of her other writing as well.