Boston Consulting Group Takes on Next Billion

Julia Tran — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 06:25:44 -0500

Boston Consulting Group has been conducting extensive primary research into the spending habits and lifestyle of a segment of the population it identifies as the "next billion." The "next billion" are economically better off than the poorest of the poor, but earn just less than the current customer base of the formal economy.

BCG discusses business strategies to tap the next billion market segment and provides some data on the segment's population size, income, spending, and lifestyle in two papers released last week, New Rules for the Next Billion, and The Next Billion Consumers: A Road Map for Accelerating Telecommunications Growth in Brazil. The former is a shorter and broader summary piece that contains much of the information presented in the latter report, a more in-depth treatment of the next billion telecom market in Brazil. Both focus on the next billion's untapped potential as a market for telecom companies but also present some tantalizing data that hint at BCG's depth of market research. These reports come 4 months after two other short "next billion" pieces BCG released earlier this summer, The Next Billion and The Next Billion Banking Consumers.

In Brazil, BCG surveyed over 1,300 next billion consumers and visited dozens of households. This primary research seems to have been combined with a BCG analysis of one of Brazil's 2005 national surveys to paint the following picture of Brazil's next billion:

Earns a monthly income between $100 and $700
Monthly savings between $30 and $300
45% do not live close to a slum
65% are married
60% do not work in formal jobs
82% receive their salary in cash
67% of households pool individual incomes

Household spending by the next billion breaks down as follows:

39% of spending goes toward food
23% of spending goes toward housing
72% of spending is on essential items, leaving
28% for discretionary spending

Both reports present the following strategies as key to reaching the next billion:

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Boston Consulting Group Takes on Next Billion