Can You See It Now?- Designing for the Other 90%

In my last Customer Insights class, we discussed incorporating a design philosophy into our marketing practices. One current design philosophy that particularly struck a chord with me was “design for the majority.”

The vast majority of designers and marketers only serve the top 10% of the global population- a.k.a. well-off Americans and Europeans. Think about it: how many people can really afford a iPod? We need to start designing for the other 90%, the base of the pyramid that makes up a majority of the world and potentially, the majority of the market. Hand in hand with that is another recent design philosophy: “design to empower.” Design in a way that allows those people who are at the base of the pyramid to better their own lives. Help them access clean drinking water; give them shoes that will prevent them from contracting many deadly diseases. “Design the system” to consider all stakeholders and understand the context for which the product exists. Why would you give laptops to children who don’t have access to electricity? Consider all of the logistics and create a system that works best for your consumer. Do all this in a way that makes money and you have a great business model.

These three philosophies remind me of something I read awhile back that still resonates with me as a perfect convergence of business and social benefit. Although it does not explicitly deal with design, the emergence of cell phones as tools for banking in Africa has inspired me to look for unique solutions anywhere and everywhere.

Africa is one of the world’s top growth markets for cell phone usage. They have largely been ignored in the past and written off as too poor to be worth the initial investment of cell phone towers. Now, according to The Christian Science Monitor, more Africans have access to a cell phone than to a clean toilet, but that’s another issue altogether.

The interesting part though, is people in Africa are doing much more than calling or texting their friends and families- they are mobile banking. They can use their cell phones to do something as meaningful as sending money to loved ones who live far away or as mundane as buying the groceries. These are people who wouldn’t normally have convenient access to local, traditional banks, credit cards, or ATM machines. Some of these people can’t even afford conventional banking. But now, thanks to the mobile banking system, they are able to save money more securely than physically keeping cash in a cardboard box under their bed. But not only is this method safer, it is also faster, cheaper, easier to use and more convenient than previous, traditional forms of banking.

I truly believe mobile banking is the future for developing nations. They are able to bypass the advances we made in the 20th century, like landlines for examples, and go straight into the 21st century. I just think this new system is so beneficial to Africa’s economy and it makes me so happy that someone realized that and turned it into a profitable business. It really is a designed system that empowers the other 90% of the world.

P.S.- Props to USA Today and NPR for providing me with the content and props to Professor Walls for making me write this blog. ;)