Social marketing of contraceptives project

Field visits were made to over 100 retail centers in Karachi, Rawalpindi, Lahore, Thatta, and Peshawar. The Project has made excellent progress toward achieving its objective of making condoms available to low-income acceptors at affordable prices. With only two years of project activities completed, sales goals have been exceeded, and the Sathi condom has achieved a high level of distribution and has become a highly visible, everyday consumer product. The marketing strategy including packaging, distribution, promotion, and advertising has proved to be extremely effective. The existing sales reporting format was deemed less than adequate to generate necessary sales data. Research has focused on distribution issues rather than on consumer identification and attitudes. Lessons learned: (1) the marketing and distribution skills of the contractor, the extensive experience of the supporting organizations, and the high level of commitment from the government have all played an essential role in the project"s success; (2) effective communication among all parties will be essential to the long-term viability of the project; (3) through trade seminars and display week contests, the contractor has kept distributors and retailers actively involved in the Sathi project; and (4) the extensive use of attractive, well-designed retail materials has helped Sathi become accepted as an everyday household item. Major recommendations include the following: (1) Condom distribution should be expanded through a greater number of retail outlets in a greater number of towns. (2) Consumer demand in the rural areas should be investigated and developed. (3) An oral contraceptive component should be added as soon as possible. (4) A research plan should be developed and more extensive research undertaken regarding consumer attitudes, product use, and effectiveness of advertising. (5) The TA contractor should play a greater role in planning and executing market-oriented research. (6) An Operating Group comprised of the distribution firm, the GOP and USAID technical advisor contractors should be formed to maintain regular and frequent commmunication on project implementation activities. (7) A large-count consumer package should be developed and tested; however, no price increase should be considered until sales volume reaches 100 million condoms per annum.