Marketing to the third world

I read an article in the archives of core77.com about designing for what they call the BoP (bottom of the pyramid). They also refer to this targeted audience as the “next billion consumers”. They are speaking of many of the developing countries that are untouched by some of the marketing ploys that are targeted to the rest of the world.
I found an interesting article because it goes into the fact that people in other countries make decisions based on other sets of values. Thus, global marketing is scaled down to specific regions and their influences. The part that I found most interesting was the fact that designers have to look at practical products for a country like Africa. The people may only have a small amount of expendable money so the items that they buy outside of their basic needs will have to be ones that will last or be functional for them on a daily basis.
They gave an example outlining how Nokia is a large provider in such countries. One item that they offer is a cell phone that is a “shared phone”.
This also made me think of an article that I read a few months ago about a water pump in Africa called the “Elephant pump”.

http://www.core77.com/blog/featured_items/design_for_the_next_billion_customers_by_niti_bhan_and_dave_tait_9368.asp