贫困溢价 / Poverty Premium

「释义」

“贫困溢价”这一概念最早由普拉哈拉德（C.K.Prahalad）及艾伦· 哈蒙德（Allen Hammond）于2002年在《哈佛商业评论》上撰文提出。他们指出，跨国公司可以通过服务于新兴市场中的贫困消费者获利。

拥有规模经济和高效供应链的大公司，可以通过低价提供高质量的产品来抢占市场。分销效率低、缺乏竞争及标价过高这三大原因造成了贫困溢价。

「应用场景」

事实上，在穷人可以从低价中获益的地区，他们其实付出了其他代价。例如，非正规的经营活动无法确保安全的工作环境及合理的工资，产品质量和国家税收也难以得到保证。这些外部因素带来的损害都由作为工人、消费者和政府基金受益人的穷人在承受。在这些地区，“贫困溢价”或许依然存在，跨国公司能够帮助人们消除它，但这种溢价并不以高价的形式出现。

In places where poor consumers benefit from lower prices, they often incur other costs. For example, the informal economy fails to ensure safe working conditions and reasonable wages, product quality controls, or taxes for the state. The brunt of these externalities is borne by the poor, as workers, consumers, and beneficiaries of government funds. Such places may have a “poverty premium” that multinationals could help eliminate, but that premium does not take the form of higher prices.

向穷人提供他们买得起的产品，听上去十分崇高，然而，跨国公司应当意识到以低价作为卖点的难度——现有价格可能比他们想象的低得多；当地一些难以被外界察觉的情况可能会影响产品接受度。因此，企业需要准确、切实地了解穷人做出购买决策时可能会考虑的所有因素。否则，他们很可能得到惨痛的教训：服务于如今的金字塔底部市场，远比理论所言复杂。

Bringing affordable products to poor consumers can be a noble calling. Multinationals need to be aware, however, of how hard it can be to compete on the basis of price. Existing prices may be much lower than they think, and local practices that aren’t obvious to outsiders may influence product adoption. Companies need to develop a nuanced, on-the-ground understanding of all the factors poor consumers consider when making purchasing decisions. Otherwise they’re apt to learn the painful lesson that serving a bottom-of-the-pyramid market today is trickier than the theory suggests.

《“贫困溢价”失灵？》

伊桑·凯，伍迪·莱温斯坦

2013年4月刊

“The Problem with the “Poverty Premium”

by Ethan Kay and Woody Lewenstein

编辑：马冰仑