Case Summary of PSI: Social Marketing Project in Bangladesh

1) Who is right: Ciszewski or Schellstede? Why? I think both of them are right and have good strategy in trying to improve sales of Maya. Ciszewski is right in the idea of rebranding Maya to improve the poor image as it stands right now, i.e. change name and increase the price to raise the image of the brand. We have a room for price increasing as it is shown that other OC brands with price 5-10 times higher can have better sales than Maya. For this repositioning OC pills, we should target to the urban market. For rural market, I also agree with Schellstede to use RMPs as the linkage (influencer) to the rural area target group because RMPs have great influence in providing knowledge of OC pills and ultimately change consumers behavioral intent. 2) Why is this difficult market from a marketing standpoint? I would explain the difficulties of marketing the birth control products in Bangladesh. First, it is due to the simple ignorance of majority of people who have low literacy rate. Second, the family economics and lack of social security policy push elderly parents to rely on their sons incomes for living. Third, culture, parents could not rely on financial support from daughters after they are married and they would have to pay a dowry to the bridegroom s parents. Fourth, it is high chance in Bangladesh to lose their offspring in natural disaster. Fifth, Bangladesh geography makes it difficult to reach majority of people (91% lives in villages. -Page4). 3) How do you understand the relative performances? Why is Raja succeeding, while Maya is not? Relative Performance of Raja and Maya From general performance measures in 1983, Raja is outperforming Maya in terms of % sales growth from 1982 to 1983 (41% vs. 5%), the market share of the same product type (59% vs. 8%), the # of Couple Years Protection (504 vs 48 thousands CYP), and the total revenue (4.9 vs. 0.3 million Takka). Detailed calculation is shown in Table 1 Appendix A . The turnover ratio of Raja is higher than Maya (7 vs. 3.5), therefore, the average days to sale Raja is only 52 days compared to Maya of 102 days. The

return per inventory of Raja is also as high as 1.22 while Maya is only 0.85. Detailed calculation is shown in Table 2 Appendix A Why is Raja succeeding, Maya is not? First, the current marketing relied heavily on mass media is better fit with condom (perceived as overthe-counter consumer product) rather than oral contraceptive pills (OCs are perceived as powerful drug), because consumers would need more knowledge and con sultation for the perceived powerful drug with side effects. Second is the low image of Maya. The name Maya is in local language and does not sounds like medical product, plus Maya is selling at cheap price. Consumers ha ve negative means end chain of Maya to the choice of birth control . For Raja, the name associates with

masculinity, the mass media, and the available point of sales are all appropriate for the target male group. Third is the point of sales, i.e. Pan stores do not fit with Maya. The Pan stores are regarded as mini place for men to hang out. Maya should instead be recommended from knowledgeable person . 4) What is your plan for improving Maya sales? Devise a specific communications strategy. Rebranding Maya to be in higher positioning for urban users (change name to chemical sound, increase price, new marketing strategies. Use mass media with focus on providing knowledge about OC and its temporal side effects that are not harmful and promote couples to ask for more information from professional practitioners or drugstore sellers. Stop the point of sales that are against with the brand image, i.e. pan stores as it reduces the credibility of the drug. Arrange product workshop to provide knowledge about OC pills especially to overcome the bias of side effects of OC pills for professional practitioners, i.e. physicians, RMPs, field w orkers, drugstore sellers. Engage with physicians, RMPs, field workers to become main distribution channels for people in rural areas. They prefer more personal contact with professionals in decision making using OC pills.

Appendix A

Table 1: Performance Measure Performance Measure Raja Maya Note

Market share Growth from 1982 to 1983 Couple Years Protection (CYP) # of sales unit in 1983 (piece or cycle) SMP selling price (Takka/piece or cycle)
Note: Raja pack price is divided by 3 pieces

59% 41% 504,000 50,400,000

Data from Page 7 = Maya or Raja sales per total sales of the same product type in 8% the market Data from Exhibit 1 = (Sales 83 - Sales 82)/ 5% Sales 82 47,800 Data from Exhibit 8 622,000 Data from Exhibit 1

0.10 4,872,000

0.45 Data from page 8 279,900 = # of unit sales * SMP selling price

SMP Revenue (Takka)

Table 2: Turnover analysis Turnover analysis Sell price/pack = Cost (from semi wholeseller) = Margin/pack = Avg. retail turnover=Sales/Avg Inventory in 1 year = Days to sale product=365/Turnover= Avg. Inventory=Sales/Turnover = Return on inventory=Margin/Avg inventory Raja 0.4 0.33 0.07 7 52 0.06 1.225 Maya 0.7 0.53 0.17 3.5 104 0.2 0.85