[Stoves] Marketing good quality stoves

Mon Nov 21 01:54:16 CST 2011

Cecil,
 I could not agree more. We face the same options in the extension of briquetting technologies. There are about 25 generically different types of presses available on the market today from the $5 dollar Oloo hinge press to really sophisticated hydraulic auto retracing presses and every form of screw, ratchet, lever, jack, crank, mechanism in between. In almost every case, the potential producer consumer  population will choose on a price driven basis.

Price, not quality, is the overriding factor in this market, and it applies to such as solar and all kinds of other technologies as well

In the case of solar power, one could also provide it in more or less the same fashion that electric  power or water services are provided: The buyer would not be buying the panels, batteries, hardware etc,  but rather, they buy the service and support for it plus some sort of connection fee. 

Another way around the hurdle might be to provide the technology on a lay-away basis. Nothing new here,
but it can work –perhaps uniquely– on a non cash basis in the sale of briquette training and press equipment by itself and or in conjunction with stoves. 

If the seller is also a briquette producer or supplier, they can arrange for the  - trainee- to produce Bqs  as a form of layaway for the press and stove. The bqs are then sold by the trainer and equipment supplier but it is all of course contingent upon having an established local  commercial market for the briquettes--and some degree of trust between the two parties.

In any of these options it is possible to strive for better quality where the hard cash hurdle is "softened".

Just as a non segway...I'd love to see what would happen if we shipped a plane load of used car salesmen to the developing nations to sell stoves: "Now ladies and gentlemen what would it take to get you behind our new TLUDPEKOPEROCKETVESTO model…?"

Richard Stanley
freezing cold in Dar es Salaam, Tz
(just kidding…)

On Nov 19, 2011, at 9:25 AM, Cecil Cook wrote:

> Dear Crispin and Jan,
> 
> Here are three partial unpublished reports and one aggregate table that I put together for GTZ as a valiant effort by an anthropologist to to turn a small sample of face to face interviews into a meaningfully differentiated model of the charcoal stove economy of Lusaka.  
> 
> Maybe it will illuminate some of the proverbial and continuing difficulties encountered by 'expensive' improved stoves to gain and hold on to a significant share of a local stove market that is dominated by crappy but very low cost stoves made by artisans.  
> 
> The TV and cell phone examples given by Crispin do not 'ring' completely true for the bottom 2/3rds of the Lusaka charcoal stove market because there poor people buy the best lowest cost phones and TV's that are on the market.   So the principle is the same: poor people purchase the lowest cost stove technology on the market. Yes, it is possible for them by heroic feats of self denial to save enough money to purchase a $25 to $50 cell phone or even a more expensive TV, but if there was a cell phone or a TV on the market that cost less and still functioned adequately they would surely buy the lowest cost technology that gets the job done.  
> 
> What I discovered and tried to establish in this study was that low income people who live and die according to how well they manage their daily cash flows can as a rule only manage to save about 20% of their daily cash flow over a 7 day period so the amount of money a household can save in a week pretty determines the upper limit of how much they are willing/able to spend to buy the least expensive functional charcoal stove on the market.  
> 
> In search,
> 
> Cecil Cook
> TechnoShare (SA)  
> 
> On Fri, Nov 18, 2011 at 11:55 PM, Crispin Pemberton-Pigott <crispinpigott at gmail.com> wrote:
> Dear Jan
> 
> 
> 
> I am picking up on the past comment you made: "For people living on $2 a day
> or less, what for example would be considered a low cost stove?  Middling?
> High?"
> 
> 
> 
> I am copying this to Cecil Cook who is a social anthropologist specializing
> in stoves and their use. You can contact him directly if he does not respond
> to this group (to which he is not subscribed).
> 
> 
> 
> The $2 per day person is usually not someone living on a total income of $2
> per day as a salary from which they must pay for everything. Yes there are
> such people, however that is not really representative of total income or
> one could say, value of all income including in-kind receipts.  For example
> fuel collected free from the environment without expense has a value and
> from a marketing point of view, an opportunity cost.
> 
> 
> 
> With that in mind, one can more easily understand how people with "$2 per
> day" income have cell phones and TV's. There are a number of ways you could
> slice it: disposable income, extended family total income including
> environmental contributions and so on.
> 
> 
> 
> Cecil has found that the maximum amount a stove can cost, i.e. to be bought
> at all by anyone in the target group, is dependent on cultural
> considerations. A way to think about it is like this: how much money will
> accumulate in the pocket of a person 'saving for a stove' (or other major
> purchase) before it 'grows holes' and leaks out? I will give his example of
> Lusaka where the amount is 10 day's income. No one in the main target
> population saves more than 10 day's income before something else starts
> eating it. It may be a relative's school fees, needed clothing and so on.
> Anything. That is the upper limit of a practical stove's cost.
> 
> 
> 
> The upper limit for a voluntary purchase near the 'usual cost' is also
> important. Asking people not how much they are willing to pay for 'anything'
> max, but how much they are willing to pay for a stove will generate a
> different answer. If it saves fuel and cooks as well and has less smoke and
> (especially) lights quickly and cleanly, people will usually say they will
> pay more than the standard product. In the case of Lusaka, the standard
> stove goes for about $1.50. An improved stove that will save fuel can sell
> for $2.50 to $3.00. Stoves that cost more than that will sell poorly because
> it is above the tolerance range for 'stoves' even though it is well under
> the maximum they could save.
> 
> 
> 
> If a stove has wonderful features so attractive that people will pay
> 'anything to get one', it will bump into the upper limit of what most people
> can save before it starts leaking out of the pocket.
> 
> 
> 
> For many years stoves costing $10 to $15 have failed to thrive in Lusaka.
> That is below the 10 limit but far above the $2.50 limit. In a different
> culture, with a different fuel price (fuel in Lusaka is pretty cheap) with a
> different pay method/cycle there will be different numbers involved but the
> same principles.
> 
> 
> 
> You may find his discoveries helpful when analyzing your cost-benefit
> scenarios.
> 
> 
> 
> Regards
> 
> Crispin
> 
> 
> 
> 

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