Is customer relationship management a useful approach to tapping the market at the BOP?

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is a relatively new concept that has as its focus a customer centric business culture. More recently its focus has been on the need for the firm to tap into social community networks as a means of developing and managing relationships with customers. Whilst the CRM approach has been applied in Western developed country markets, to date there is no evidence in the literature to establish its application and relevance in emerging markets especially those at the Bottom of the Pyramid (BOP) segment where two thirds of the world?s population are to be found. This paper illustrates that CRM has the potential to assist firms to tap the BOP segment efficiently and effectively because social networks at the BOP are a means of coping with the problems of existence, such as economic and politically induced shocks, infrastructure inadequacies, absence of the rule of law, endemic corruption and intermittent availability of goods. Firms need to manage relationships with these social networks as a conduit to the customers at the BOP. Case studies were conducted on four manufacturers of food and personal hygiene products to establish the importance of CRM when tapping the BOP segment in Zimbabwe. The results of the study also show that at the BOP relationships and networks are also critical in B2C interactions.