I. Overview
- This module explains how the program has evolved and the 5-day marketplace literacy program.
- Activities and topics
- Readings before starting the module
- Lecture: 35 mins
- Review: 5 min
- How Marketplace Literacy Evolved: 10 mins
- 5 day Face-to-Face Marketplace Literacy Education Program: 20 mins
- Activity
II. Reading
Complete the readings before you start the lecture.
III. Lecture
1. Review: What Is Marketplace Literacy?
Watch the video below (running time: 0:41).
[ Key takeaways ]
- Marketplace literacy is not about basic literacy like reading or writing.
- It focuses on understanding the marketplace.
- It enables individuals to negotiate the marketplace.
2. How Marketplace Literacy Evolved?
Watch the video below (running time: 1:21).
[ Key takeaways ]
- It began with research since 1997 on low-literate and low-income consumers in the US and the problems they face in the marketplace.
- Low literacy is an important aspect of low-income.
- The research expanded to India to study subsistence marketplaces.
- Madhu and two research team members who were community workers interviewed various consumers and entrepreneurs in urban and rural areas.
- The Marketplace Literacy program was created using a bottom-up approach - listening and learning from low-income customers and entrepreneurs with a team consisting of people who grew up in subsistence marketplaces and a professor with background in business education and research.
3. 5-Day Marketplace Literacy Education Program
Watch the video below (running time: 5:45).
III. Activity
[ Key takeaways ]
- Day 1: Understanding of the marketplace (Generic marketplace literacy)
- What does exchange mean?
- How do exchanges add up to value chain?
- Different types of needs
- How do goods and services meet needs?
- How are consumers different (notion of segments)?
- Day 2: Consumer literacy (Customer literacy)
- Identify strengths and vulnerabilities of people
- Concept of value, what are you giving up and what are you getting
- Day 3-5: Entrepreneur literacy
- How to create value as an entrepreneur?
- Philosophy of doing a business through mutually beneficial exchangeHow to select a business
- What you are good at what others are good at
- What there is demands for
- How to gather information (talking and observing people)
- How to understand customers
- How customers make decisions
- How to design products and the value proposition
- How the price should be set (pricing)
- How do you deliver the value (distribution)
- How do you communicate the value (promotion)
- Management issues such as accounting
- Societal issues (environmental issues or ethics)
- Exercises in the program
- Prioritizing elements of business
- In small groups, place pictures on a chart with concentric circles such that the most important element to run a business is in the center and the next in the next outer circle and so on.
- Present to class
- Discuss
- Purpose: To show that a business exists because it serves customer needs
- Evolution of technologies, products, and transactions
- In small groups, order the pictures in their sequence of development and explain why the changes occurred
- Present to the class
- Purpose: To understand that specific forms of products evolved not just because of technology and money but because they serve customer needs in better ways
- Prioritizing elements of business
IV. Activity
- [ Direction ] [ Topics for the discussion ]
- Choose at least two topics from the below.
- Click the "Online Discussion" button above. Post your thoughts.
- 200-300 words recommended for each topic
- Look at other postings and reply to at least two of others.
- How have the specific details enhanced your understanding of the program?
- List one aspect of the program you find most interesting
- List an aspect of the program that complements some other program you are familiar with
- Consider a specific geography and people you are familiar with?
- What aspects of the program can be applied as is?
- What aspects of the program would need to be modified?
- Critique the paper in terms of strengths and weaknesses of the marketplace literacy approach described.
[ Direction ]- Click here to obtain the paper (same paper in the reading section)
- Length: 1-2 pages and double-spaced
- Click the "Paper Critique" button above
- Upload your document as an attachment
- Save the homework frequently not to lose it
- If you do not have any writing program, you can also use Google Docs
Modification Plan Assignment
- Explain how you would modify the slide deck for a context you are familiar with.
Be specific and create different slides where needed as an example.
[ Direction ]- Click here to obtain the slide deck (same file in the reading section)
- Click the "Modification Plan" button above
- You can upload your plan and slides as an attachment
- Save the homework frequently not to lose it
- This assignment requires use of Microsoft PowerPoint,
if you don't have that software you may also use Google Slides