The Rural Market Insights (RMI) group is a re­search and advisory group at CDF that seeks to improve the efficacy of impact investing and social enterprise. To this end, we deliver in-depth, actionable insights into rural market behaviour amongst the BoP consumer seg­ments in India. RMI is a supporting member of the UN Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves.

We believe that financially sustainable, effec­tive, and scalable social enterprise must be built on a strong understanding of local con­text and consumer preference. Our team seeks to promote social enterprise that respects the Base of the Pyramid (BoP) as both clients and consumers by developing and implementing rigorous research methods to help entrepre­neurs, impact investors, and policy-makers better understand demand dynamics among BoP consumer segments.

The RMI team recognises that the need for criti­cal infrastructure and services does not nec­essarily translate into consumer demand in the open marketplace. Our team draws upon behavioural economics, social psychology, qualitative research methodologies, tradi­tional market research tools, and participa­tory rural appraisal techniques to:

• Develop concrete methods to efficiently uncover consumer preferences in BoP market segments
• Create tools to help companies and investors more accurately assess demand for critical in­frastructure, products, and services in rural BoP markets

Keywords: Environment, Climate change, Pollution, Air, Energy, India, NGO, Agriculture, Base of pyramid, Base of Pyramid (BoP), Biogas, BOP, Chennai, Clean Energy, Community, consumerism, Cooking practices, Cookstove, Design principles, Design research