B2B Connect Research Symposium: Advancing B2B Research Together
Group 1: Route to Market (RTM) Strategy �and Inclusive Growth
May 27, 2025
Thought-Leader: Sandy Jap (Emory University)
Panelists: Ali Shamsollahi (ESSEC Business School), Katja Schroeder (Columbia University), Manish Kacker (McMaster University), Manisha Shukla (University of Arkansas), Ranjit Voola (University of Sydney), Shekhar Misra (University of Galway), Stefan Hurtak (Leeds University Business School)
Agenda
Group Activity: The ThreadLine Apparel Case
Situation
ThreadLine Apparel, a mid-sized apparel company in Atlanta (U.S) with operations in Mexico, Brazil, the Philippines, Germany, and Ghana, targets Gen Z and millennial consumers with casualwear and athleisure fashion. ThreadLine’s new CMO Jada Rivera is tasked with transforming the company’s go-to-market approach to be more inclusive—not just in messaging, but in how the brand reaches and serves its global customers and engages intermediaries in its value chain. Currentlly the company:
Introduction
The working group was formed to identify how marketing can build social value, not just economic value for the organization. The solution is not charity (although a noble extant effort), but the use of market mechanisms (i.e., revenue generation and financial incentives), to motivate the provision of necessary services and access.
Goal
Identify channel strategy designs that are inclusive of social needs and identify the moderating conditions for market applications.
Defining Inclusive Routes to Market (RTM)
What it is
What it isn’t
Industry Examples
Organization | Org Type | Public, Private, Nonprofit Actors | Underserved Intermediaries and End Users | Market Mechanisms | Coordina- tion Incentives | Multi-Channel Distribution | Community Engagement | Local Production Practices |
Danone Communities | Social impact investment fund | Private: Danone (multinational food company); Nonprofit: Grameen Group (including Grameen Bank); Public: Collaboration with local government bodies for health and nutrition support. | End users: malnourished children in rural Bangladesh. Intermediaries: local women ("Shokti+ Ladies") and smallholder farmers. | Runs as a social business; reinvests yogurt sales and keeps prices affordable. | Offers training and income to women sales agents and farmers; aligns social goals with local economic participation to ensure engagement and continuity. | Combines door-to-door delivery by female agents with sales through local shops and events to reach both urban and remote communities. | Empowers women as micro-entrepreneurs; promotes child nutrition through education. | Sources milk locally and produces yogurt in-country; packaging and nutritional content tailored to local needs and consumption patterns. |
Nestlé Dominicana, Banco Adopem, and the Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF) | Multi- parties | Private: Nestlé Dominicana; Nonprofit: Banco Adopem (part of the BBVA Microfinance Foundation); Public: Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF) of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). | End users: 420,000+ low-income individuals. Intermediaries: more than 3,600 micro-entrepreneurs, 84% of whom were women heads of households. | Affordable pricing to help low-income women profitably distribute Nestlé products. | Offered training and financial tools via Banco Adopem to support entrepreneurs. | Distributed products through women micro-entrepreneurs operating in their local communities, enhancing reach to underserved areas. | Empowers women as entrepreneurs; promotes economic empowerment and nutrition awareness. 4o | Leveraged local networks and resources to support micro-entrepreneurs; adapted business practices to fit the cultural and economic context of the communities served. |
Industry Examples
Organization | Org Type | Public, Private, Nonprofit Actors | Underserved Intermediaries and End Users | Market Mechanisms | Coordination Incentives | Multi-Channel Distribution | Community Engagement | Local Production Practices |
Zipline | Private | Public: Ministries of Health in Rwanda, Ghana, Nigeria, Côte d’Ivoire; Private: Zipline (drone logistics provider); Nonprofit: International donors and NGOs. | End users: patients and health workers in rural or remote clinics. | Operates via government contracts, using drones to deliver medical supplies sustainably. | Integrated with health systems; real-time data reduces stockouts and aids planning. | Combines central hubs and local delivery points to ensure wide, timely coverage. | Works with local health staff to coordinate deliveries and ensure last-mile access. | Sets up local drone hubs; trains staff to manage logistics and integration. |
Dimagi | Private | Public: Ministries of Health in various countries (e.g., Madagascar, Mozambique); Private: Dimagi (social enterprise); Nonprofit: Partners such as USAID, UNICEF, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. | End users: patients in low-resource and rural settings across more than 80 countries. | Delivers mobile health tools via contracts; sustains operations through service revenue. | Links with health data systems like DHIS2; enables real-time tracking and reporting. | Uses mobile/web tools with offline and SMS access to ensure broad usability. | Co-develops tools with health programs; ensures relevance through training and support. | Builds local capacity by training regional implementers and developers to adapt, deploy, and manage CommCare platforms for health and development projects. |
Industry Examples
Organization | Org Type | Public, Private, Nonprofit Actors | Underserved Intermediaries and End Users | Market Mechanisms | Coordination Incentives | Multi-Channel Distribution | Community Engagement | Local Production Practices |
UN World Food Programme (WFP) | Public | Public: UN World Food Programme (WFP), UNHCR (public/UN agencies); Private: local retailers (private sector partners). | End users: Refugees in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Jordan, and Syria—underserved populations with limited access to traditional markets. | Cash transfers stored on blockchain; beneficiaries buy locally with tracked digital accounts. | Biometric ID (iris scan) enables secure, fraud-resistant coordination across stakeholders. | Food purchased from multiple local shops rather than centralized distribution centers, ensuring flexibility and reach. | Refugees are actively included in the purchasing process, reinforcing dignity, autonomy, and local integration. | Indirectly supports local supply chains by directing demand to nearby stores, strengthening local economic resilience. |
Definition of Inclusive RTM
An inclusive route to market strategy includes a mix of traditional and non-traditional channels to reach end users in both developed and emerging markets. It can include public, private, and nonprofit organizations and underserved intermediaries/suppliers to make goods and services accessible to underserved end users via the use of market mechanisms and coordination incentives and through some or all aspects of multi-channel distribution, community engagement, and local production practices.
Key Elements of Inclusive RTM
Key Elements of Inclusive Route to Market Strategy could include some or all aspects:
Different Elements/Levels of Inclusiveness
SUPPLIER | DISTRIBUTION CHANNEL | END-USER |
Providing a professional distribution and branding set-up to take inputs/products from micro-suppliers to market | Providing financial resources (microfinance) and non-financial resources and capabilities (e.g.,microfranchising - training and operations manual etc) | Providing goods and services to distinct needs of underserved end user segments Financial resources (microfinance) and non-financial resources and capabilities |
Framework - Scope of Inclusive RTM
Inclusion Region | SUPPLIER | DISTRIBUTION CHANNEL | END-USER |
DEVELOPING |
|
|
|
DEVELOPED | |
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Mechanisms to Identify & Develop New Inclusive RTM
Emerging Technologies
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Adapt Product & Service Delivery
Community-�Led & Capacity Building Models
Implications for Theory and Channel Practice
Group Activity: The ThreadLine Apparel Case
Situation
ThreadLine Apparel, a mid-sized apparel company in Atlanta (U.S) with operations in Mexico, Brazil, the Philippines, Germany, and Ghana, targets Gen Z and millennial consumers with casualwear and athleisure fashion. ThreadLine’s new CMO Jada Rivera is tasked with transforming the company’s go-to-market approach to be more inclusive—not just in messaging, but in how the brand reaches and serves its global customers and engages intermediaries in its value chain. Currentlly the company:
Group Activity: ThreadLine Apparel Case
The Task
Inclusion / Region | SUPPLIER | DISTRI-�BUTION CHANNEL | END-�USER |
DEVELOPING | |
| �� |
DEVELOPED |
|
|
|
elp ThreadLine Apparel set up an inclusive RTM strategy.
Discussion
References
CNN. (2024, October 23). Ghanaian startup leverages AI for faster health diagnoses [Video]. https://www.cnn.com/2024/11/04/world/video/darlington-akogo-minohealth-ai-labs-startup-intl-spc (2:01 min)
Feliba, D. (2024, February 29). Mercado Libre hits 50 million fintech users in Latin America. Fintech Nexus. https://www.fintechnexus.com/mercado-libre-50-million-fintech-users-iatin-america
Fernandes, D. L., & Shailashree, V. (2022). Rural marketing and product promotion: An analysis of the project Shakthi by Hindustan Unilever Limited. International Journal of Case Studies in Business, IT, and Education (IJCSBE), ISSN, 6(2), 2581-6942. https://ssrn.com/abstract=4487882
IndustryWeek (2022, August 25). A Cisco employee’s mission brings talent to company while supporting communities. https://www.industryweek.com/talent/article/21249452/a-cisco-employees-mission-brings-talent-to-company-while-supporting-communities
Mhlanga, D. (2023). Blockchain technology for digital financial inclusion in the Industry 4.0, towards sustainable development? Frontiers in Blockchain, 6, 1035405. https://doi.org/10.3389/fbloc.2023.1035405
Onukwue, A. (2021, August 26). A $2 billion fintech startup has become Africa’s fastest unicorn. World Economic Forum. https://www.weforum.org/stories/2021/08/opay-fintech-startup-africa-fastest-unicorn/
Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship, EY, & Microsoft (2024, April). AI for impact: The role of artificial intelligence in social innovation, p. 11. https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_AI_for_Impact_Social_Innovation_2024.pdf
Tracey, P., & Jarvis, O. (2007). Toward a theory of social venture franchising. Entrepreneurship theory and practice, 31(5), 667-685.
Back-up slide Framework - Scope of Inclusive RTM
Locus of Inclusion Region | SUPPLIER | DISTRIBUTION CHANNEL | END-USER |
DEVELOPING |
INCLUSION HERE IS PROVIDING A PROFESSIONAL DISTRIBUTION SETUP TO TAKE SMALL BIZ FINISHED PRODUCTS TO MARKET |
INCLUSION HERE IS PROVIDING FINANCIAL RESOURCES (Microfinance) AND NON_FINANCIAL RESOURCES AND CAPABILITIES (e.g.,Microfranchising - training and operations manual etc) |
INCLUSION HERE IS PROVIDING GOODS and SERVICES TO DISTINCT NEEDS OF UNDERSERVED END USER SEGMENTS FINANCIAL RESOURCES (Microfinance) AND NON_FINANCIAL RESOURCES AND CAPABILITIES |
DEVELOPED | | |
|