Over the years, SC Johnson has entered into various experiments working to help families at the base of the economic pyramid gain access to our products and to opportunities for a better quality of life. 

Helping Py Farmers, Helping Our Business

As the world’s leading maker of insect control products, SC Johnson needs a solid supply of py, which is used in the production of various products such as our Raid® and Baygon® brand insecticides sold around the world.

While py can be produced synthetically, we’d rather support the thousands of farmers for whom it’s a subsistence crop. By helping to improve the consistency of supply, we support BoP economic growth at the same time that we sustainably source this important ingredient for our insect control products.

We began exploring opportunities with Rwandan py farmers in 2007, building on our 40-year history of purchasing py from East Africa and our work to stabilize the supply there. Our partnership with USAID and the Borlaug Institute kicked off in 2009.

The goal is to increase incomes and standards of living for Rwandan farmers who grow pyrethrum (py). We are doing so by giving farmers tools and knowledge to increase crop outputs and improve the quality of the py flowers. We hope the result will be an improved supply of Rwandan pyrethrum for SC Johnson and other purchasers.

And it’s working: Now several years into the partnership, four years of declines in crop yields have been reversed and growth has exceeded project objectives. In the last season alone, dry flower production was 71% above goal and pyrethrin yielded from crops exceeded expectations by more than 5%.

Among other benefits, the partnership is helping farmers better manage their involvement in farm cooperatives. During the past year alone, cooperative members received training in financial management, leadership and good governance — which equips them to be more effective in their future business dealings.

Efforts with the Base of the Pyramid Protocol™

We’ve been exploring how to create successful BoP enterprises since 2003. That year, SC Johnson supported Cornell University and others in the development of the Base of the Pyramid Protocol™, a process for creating mutually beneficial businesses in BoP communities.

In 2005, we helped field test the Protocol by funding a 6-person team that spent 11 weeks in Kibera, Nairobi co-creating new business with BoP partners. Click here to find out more about that implementation.

We then brought the Protocol to life through a Community Cleaning Services (CCS) enterprise in Nairobi. The goal was to grow a business through small-scale enterprises that would be broadened to new communities. Click here to find out more.

Having been an integral partner in the development and initial operation of the CCS business, SCJ ends its financial support of the effort at the end of the 2011/12 fiscal year. However, we hope to continue to help the enterprise where possible, empowering the team to find the right future direction that will help it continue to grow.

While CCS transitioned in 2011 to a non-profit organization, it aims to retain its business ethos, which will help drive CCS’s high standards of effectiveness, quality and rigor - in addition to continuing positive relationships with its franchisees.

Reaching BoP Consumers

Growing with the Base of the Pyramid is also about reaching BoP consumers. After all, the BoP’s combined purchasing power is estimated at about $5 trillion. In addition to being a great business opportunity, it represents a huge group of people who could benefit from SC Johnson products, particularly those that provide protection from insect-borne diseases.

So in recent years, we’ve launched initiatives to get our products into more traditional and lower-income outlets in BoP markets. For example in Nigeria, we have a motorcycle sales program that’s is proving profitable for SC Johnson and beneficial for the riders who deliver our products. It now encompasses more than 130 motorcycles and has become a key go-to-market strategy.

The riders focus on kiosks, roadside sellers and others not served effectively by other distributors. They’ve significantly improved our distribution in key areas. That’s not only building business, it’s bringing Raid® aerosols and coils to areas with endemic malaria.

In the long run we hope to help proven riders develop into mobile wholesalers, owning and operating several motorcycles and creating a ripple effect of sustainable incomes.