Contraceptive social marketing (CSM) assessment

With increased interest in the involvement of the private sector in FP initiatives, attention has focused on CSM, which puts primary emphasis on the role of the commercial sector in the sale of contraceptives. The report is based primarily on in-depth reviews of programs in Nigeria, Ghana, Indonesia, Pakistan, the Dominican Republic, and Mexico, but also includes a review of CSM efforts worldwide. The major conclusion is that CSM programs are providing increasingly available, quality FP methods at affordable prices by melding commercial expertise with strong government support. Secondly, the wide variety of management configurations, marketing techniques, products employed, and procurement/distribution modes used by the various programs has advanced considerably the level of understanding of what works and does not work in CSM programming. The major weakness of CSM projects has been their inability to recover their costs. As most have used subsidized products, the issue of reconciling social goals with marketing objectives remains. Lessons learned and recommendations are provided in eight areas: management; marketing (promotion and advertising); products; pricing; brand names; distribution; financing; and research and evaluation.