Brand Loyalty, Base of the Pyramid, BoP, Prahalad, 4As

This purpose of this paper is to examine how Prahalad’s 4As market framework influences brand loyalty in the Base of the Pyramid (BoP) market of the Philippines.  Specifically, Prahalad’s proposed market framework composed of four constructs – awareness, affordability, access, and availability.  Prahalad proposed that the 4As strategic framework was a more appropriate alternative to the traditional marketing framework of the 4Ps – product, price, place and promotion.  To date, limited market research has focused on brands and brand loyalty in BoP markets.  The present study was conducted first to examine Prahalad’s 4As as a comprehensive set of constructs, and second to measure the impact of the 4As on brand loyalty in the BoP market of the Philippines.

Using an online survey, data was collected from 606 Philippine college students.  Structural equation modeling was utilized to examine the relationship between Prahalad’s constructs and their combined impact on brand loyalty.  Two constructs, access and availability, were combined into the construct presence, reflecting the consumers’ perspective that the product is present in the consumers’ marketplace, both in a store and on the shelf.  Examining the impact on brand loyalty, both awareness of the branded product and the affordability of the branded product were found to be positively related to brand loyalty; these findings support previous research studies.  While presence was not found to be related to brand loyalty, presence was found to be positively related to both awareness and affordability.

The paper concludes with a discussion of how the findings link to previous research, the theoretical implications, recommendations for marketing practitioners, the limitations of this research, and suggestions for future research.