We are doing well by doing good.... We make more money by thinking differently, through community based tourism
—Steve Fitzgerald of Conservation Corporation Africa (Africa Rising, p. 196)
I come to this book from the perspective of working in contexts of low literacy and poverty in the United States and in India, through research from a bottom-up orientation about buyer, seller, and subsistence marketplace behavior, related social initiatives, and teaching. My research has focused on low-literate, low-income consumers in the United States (Viswanathan, Rosa, and Harris 2005) and subsistence consumers and entrepreneurs in India (Viswanathan et al. 2009). My social initiatives focus on creating a socially embedded form of marketplace literacy educational program that complements efforts to provide microfinancing and market access (Viswanathan, Gajendiran, and Venkatesan 2008). In addition, I teach courses at the University of Illinois at the intersection of subsistence and sustainability (Viswanathan, Yassine, and Clarke 2009). Our study of subsistence marketplaces reflects the need to view these contexts not just as markets to sell to but also as individuals, communities, consumers, entrepreneurs, and markets to learn from. How subsistence marketplaces can move toward economically, ecologically, and socially sustainable marketplaces is as critical a challenge as any in the twenty-first century. It is from this vantage point that I read and formed impressions about Africa Rising and the questions it raises for marketing and management.
If Mahajan’s book, Africa Rising, is to be described in one word, that word is “eye-opening.” He takes the reader on an exciting journey through Africa, with many stops along the way that shed preconceptions and misconceptions about the state of consumption and enterprise in Africa. The topics cover the spectrum of different levels of society in Africa, from the wealthiest to the poorest of consumers. The author speaks directly to the reader in an engaging writing style. The book captures the immersive experience that he has embarked on as richly as the medium will allow. Example after example pour across, making the reader a cotraveller. Mahajan speaks of a consumer safari and that is what he takes the reader on. His observations combine extensive interactions at the ground level with broader perspectives from companies, governments, and social enterprises. His consistently optimistic tone conveys the central message of the book as much as anything else.
The author sets out by relating the dismal headlines about Zimbabwe contrasted with the business activity there, documenting how Africa may be richer than many believe. He describes the large variation in gross national income across countries in Africa, questioning the notion of a single Africa, with some countries doing better on this metric than the much-publicized emerging economic giants, India and China. He intersperses this discussion with examples of key sectors, such as banking and communications, painting a picture of a diverse Africa with aspiring consumers and entrepreneurs. The journey continues with a discussion of distinct segments based on income in different countries in Africa as Mahajan relates his observations of products, companies, consumers, and managers. The journey then traverses topics such as opportunities to organize markets, to build infrastructure that serve social needs, to serve the youth markets in media and entertainment, and for the African Diaspora.
Among the most interesting of the many examples in the book are the innovative ways products are customized or designed by African entrepreneurs while sustaining the local culture and economy. The accidental but very profitable Nigerian film industry, which makes low-budget movies on local themes, is one of many examples of such customization. The discussion of public–private partnerships is another notable aspect, reflecting the experiments and hybrid organizations emerging to meet the enormous challenges in Africa. The quotation that opens this review captures the spirit of the largest African safari and ecotourism company, which combines satisfying the needs of wealthy consumers with caring for local communities and the environment. In its operations, the company avoids land disputes and rewards local communities for use of their resources, and its foundation addresses pressing social problems. Such partnerships are addressing issues ranging from HIV/AIDS awareness to safe drinking water and environmental conservation and creating markets through social entrepreneurship. There is much that the rest of the world can learn from innovative solutions, partnerships, and hybrid organizations designed to meet daunting challenges.
Books such as Africa Rising are critically important in undoing preconceptions and misperceptions about Africa and issuing a call to reexamine the notion of referring to and describing Africa with that one word. The book paves the way for the next level of analysis, which should focus on deeper understanding of cultural differences within Africa, and raises several questions. How can economic development be accelerated in Africa to better the lives of those living in poverty? What role could marketing play in such economic development (more about this subsequently)? As Mahajan notes on several occasions, it is important to understand the widespread poverty that remains rather than generalize from examples to entire populations. Such generalizations are as inaccurate as preconceptions about the lack of entrepreneurial activity in Africa. In this regard, Mahajan documents some of the realities of the marketplace and the large problems that remain and points to possibilities.
If the exciting innovations in Africa are cause for great optimism, the question of how such development can be achieved in ecologically and socially sustainable ways is cause for great concern. Many perspectives and emerging scientific consensus point to one conclusion—that development by mimicking production and consumption in advanced economies promises a multiplication of disastrous ecological consequences (Hart 2007). Africa Rising covers this aspect through some examples related to the use of clean, renewable energy and several examples of offerings customized to fit the local culture that provide opportunities for both local entrepreneurs and consumers. Mahajan also takes care to balance the interplay of ideas from the outside with localized and customized ideas. Nevertheless, the detailed picture of development based on consumption patterns reminiscent of advanced economies painted in the book reinforces the critical need for ecological sustainability to play a much more central role to even begin to address the challenges that lie ahead.1
Given the topic of this book, which focuses on developing contexts with a history of thriving marketplaces, it should be emphasized that there are as many opportunities to learn from such contexts as there are to develop solutions for and apply prior knowledge to such contexts. At the broadest level, there is much to learn from resourceful consumers and entrepreneurs who do so much, often with so little. As a more specific example, there is a need to envision widely varying product usage situations rather than to focus on optimizing product design for a predetermined set of usage conditions. In turn, this can lead to improved products, such as detergents that work with $20 washing machines made out of old barrels. Similarly, there is much to learn from the rich social networks that characterize and facilitate marketplace activity and perhaps even potential to engender such networks in advanced economies. If there is potential to design and organize markets similar to advanced economies, there is also potential to learn from the informal markets and apply the learning to more familiar contexts. Is the notion of organizing markets familiar in advanced economies the approach to adopt in the unique and different conditions across Africa? Alternatively, do the unique challenges and customized solutions emerging in Africa provide important lessons for the rest of the world? Preconceptions that firms from the outside possess the solutions to “apply” to Africa and that development means imitation of advanced economies are particularly counterproductive in this regard. Even with the best of intentions, such preconceptions can blur into implicit assumptions and prevent full understanding of the cultural richness and unique circumstances in different parts of Africa and full consideration of appropriate solutions emerging from mutual learning. Mahajan’s safari is likely to be particularly useful for those who can travel on an immersion experience while suspending preconceptions about possessing solutions and answers for contexts they are not familiar with and leaving open the possibility of learning new approaches that transfer back to their home settings.
For the marketing discipline, this book points to important contrasts in consumption, overconsumption, and underconsumption—that is, the central role of consumption in both the problems and the solutions for the twenty-first century. What is the role of marketing in sustainable development? How should the marketing discipline adjust to looming opportunities and challenges related to accelerated development, poverty alleviation, and ecological disaster? Marketing has led to many advances in developing sophisticated techniques to understand consumer preferences and create valuable offerings to serve customer needs. However, can it address the deeper aspirations of vast populations living at or near subsistence (Chakravarti 2006; Prahalad 2005)? How can this be done in ecologically and socially sustainable ways? The marketing discipline and function is ideally suited to play a central role in addressing these challenges, with its focus on consumption and exchanges and in its role in interfacing with the marketplace and understanding broader environmental trends.
However, to make this possibility a reality, marketing will need to adopt a long-term perspective based on a deep understanding of different cultures, of radically different contexts of poverty, of ecological challenges, and of the nature of sustainable development, as well as a deep realization of the shortcomings of a predominant focus on consumption in advanced economies with seemingly endless resources. Ultimately, realization of the potential of marketing in addressing the challenges that lie ahead may rest with understanding how to create sustainable value in the broadest sense of the word, by adopting a sustainable market orientation that enables sustainable consumer behavior through sustainable product design. Although notions such as the societal marketing concept have been in the literature for decades, the time is now to explicitly infuse values such as ecological and social sustainability into the core of the marketing concept and to create marketing solutions that are relevant for the unique challenges that the world faces. It is no longer sufficient to act as if marketing is about satisfying customer wants and little else or to make passing reference to core values such as ecological and social sustainability. This book, a must-read for managers and researchers in a wide range of business functions and disciplines, provides much food for thought for marketing research and practice required to meet the challenges and opportunities of twenty-first-century Africa and beyond.
—Madhu Viswanathan, College of Business, University of Illinois
NOTE
1. Despite dripping with hypocrisy as I write this review in my large house with a two-car garage in one of the richest countries in the world and ponder development among the most vulnerable, the fundamental challenge of truly sustainable development looms ever larger with each passing day and needs to be reiterated at every turn.
REFERENCES
Chakravarti, Dipankar (2006), “Voices Unheard: The Psychology of Consumption in Poverty and Development,” Journal of Consumer Psychology, 16 (4), 363–76.
Hart, Stuart L. (2007), Capitalism at the Crossroads: Aligning Business, Earth, and Humanity. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education.
Prahalad, C.K. (2005), The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid: Eradicating Poverty Through Profits. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Wharton School Publishing.
———S. Gajendiran, and R. Venkatesan (2008), Enabling Consumer and Entrepreneurial Literacy in Subsistence Marketplaces. Dordrecht, the Netherlands: Springer.
———, Jose Antonio Rosa, and James Harris (2005), “Decision-Making and Coping by Functionally Illiterate Consumers and Some Implications for Marketing Management,” Journal of Marketing, 69 (January), 15–31.
———, Srinivas Sridharan, Roland Gau, and Robin Ritchie (2009), “Designing Marketplace Literacy Education in Resource-Constrained Contexts: Implications for Public Policy and Marketing,” Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, 28 (Fall), forthcoming.
———, Ali Yassine, and John Clarke (2009), “Sustainable Product and Market Development for Subsistence Marketplaces: Creating Educational Initiatives in Radically Challenging Contexts,” Journal of Product Innovation Management, forthcoming.