Population Service International: the social marketing project in Bangladesh

CASE SUBMISSION FOR STRATEGIC MARKETING (SEC C) GROUP 10 ANUPREM PATRO (012) SOURADIP ADAK (052) REUBEN PHILIP ABRAHAM (234) VEERANDER NAIK K (252) ALLEGRA CIARLETTI (IE 14)

Introduction
y In 1976, PSI had agreement with Bangladesh to carry out an

social marketing project (SMP) y Its a program involving the marketing of birth control products through retail stores
 

Products Raja brand Condoms & Maya brand oral contraceptives Reached consumer through intensive mass media campaign & retail store network

y Raja brand sales increased steadily while Maya brand sales had

declined y In 1973, PSI had contracts with Srilanka and Mexico along with Bangladesh in 1976


The Srilankan program is considered a tremendous success

Problem statement
y Maya was not accepted in the market as Raja and sales of Maya

was declining y They dont have support of retailers for Maya as retailers didn't had margins on Maya product compared to competitors products y Pricing, retail motivation, and image of products are been ignored

Social factors
y GNP is expected to grow at 3% to 4% and no improvement in

expected in standard of living for its people y Annual population growth rate is 2.4% with 85% of population being conservative muslims Culture and attitude y Only 9% lived in cities, lager majority people lived in villages y Simple ignorance by large families, social security, state pensions, family economics were considered reasons for not adopting family planning practices y Difference in perceptions on family planning by men and women Buying and selling process y Retail trade in Bangladesh is owned by small-scale entrepreneurs y Strict cash terms and no credits available

Pharmacies y Generally located in urban areas y Most of time consumers dont follow prescriptions by doctors General stores y Majority of general stores were family-owned businesses and operated independently, not part of nay chain Pan stores y Most of pan stores were located in rural areas Medical care systems y Good doctors are located in urban areas and rural medical practitioners (RMPs) are located in villages who are not trained in western medicine

Family Planning Activity in Bangladesh

Through Government y Using hospitals, clinics, and dispensaries y Through a network of 20000 field workers y Incentives to doctors and filed workers Volunteer organizations y Sponsored education and communication programs on family planning and birth control Privately held firms y Sold products through pharmacies y Advises from doctors to use these products PSIs SMP y Promoting Raja condoms and Maya oral contraceptive pills

Marketing strategy for Raja and Maya

y Name Raja in Bengali means King or emperor and for wide y y y y

recognition Card game had high recognition among men High level of illiteracy made it necessary to go pictorially with king on package Maya in Bengali means magic but people interpreted it with beauty The basic idea was to create a positive feeling and sense of optimism about the product

y PSIs approach was to skip all intermediates like doctors and reach

consumers directly creating an atmosphere of fun and happiness y Communications through radio, press, billboards and posters y Carried street-to-street canvassing, boats carried ads on their sails and T-shirts were distributed

Distribution and Alternatives

Distribution y Both Raja and Maya were packed in various packaging formats y The products were moved to 7 subwarehouses for distribution to 22 wholesalers y Wholesalers sold it to pharmacies, large general stores and about 5000 semi wholesalers or stockiest y Semi wholesalers breaks the bulk packages and sell small quantities to pan stores and small general stores Alternatives y Condoms y Tahiti brand condoms were widely distributed by Bangladesh government from USAID y A private trader had popular sultan brand condoms in the market y Pills y Ovastat, Lyndiol, Ovaral and Nodette were other famous brand pills available in market y Bangladesh governments pills (from USAID) had no brand name

Pricing of products
y PSIs priced the products to convey a sense of value to the y y y y

customers Provided adequate margins to channel members which got 8000 retail distributers Raja had dominant share though they charged high for product Maya market share was declining though charge for product was low compared to other products like Ovastat Conclusion- retailers were not getting benefitted by margins of Maya product

Recommendations
y Campaigns to be conducted for educating on the benefits of

social marketing products like pills y Appoint medical sales officers to promote SMP products to physicians and rural medical practitioners y Conduct training sessions by gynecologists and pharmacists, to improve skills of sales officers in promoting to physicians and rural practitioners y Should identify opportunities for linkages between SMP and other related projects and organizations


Example other USAID-supported programs, such as population Communication Services (PCS)

y Increase in price by introducing new different variant in Maya

might work for improving its sales