Simba Chips: Understanding the BoP

The salty snacks market in Southern African is largely dominated by Simba, an established player in the market since 1956.  A subsidiary of PepsiCo, Simba produces and markets a variety of products and flavours under nine main brands: Simba Potato, Lay’s, Doritos, Niknaks, Ghost Pops, Chipniks, Fritos, Simba Peanuts, Sunbites and Baked Simba.

Although Simba remains the undisputed market leader, a variety of competitors have appeared in recent years, especially in the market segments at the base of the pyramid (BoP). These emerging competitors are putting on the market products of an inferior quality, having a debatable health impact on the lower income segments.

Appointed by the R&D Africa Middle East of the PepsiCo group, the study seeked to provide specific insights into the BoP market to unlock the opportunities for the snack brand:

- Internal knowledge of BoP Market Strategies - Desk research
- Value Proposition Analysis of BoP Markets - field research

Based on communities discussions in Soweto, with all type of stakeholders at all level of the value chain, Reciprocity provided Simba with a range of opportunities to both develop new routes to the BoP Market and improve their social and economic impact.