Population Services International: The

Social Marketing Project in Bangladesh

1. What are the reasons for Raja’s success?

Public Service International finalized an agreement with the government of Bangladesh in

1976 to carry out a program of family planning through social marketing. PSI introduced two
products for the market one named Raja and Maya where they received huge success for
Raja but failure for Maya. People associate condoms with sex, as an over-the-counter
consumer product, while pills as a powerful drug for birth control.

Reasons For the Success of Raja

Positive and relaxed attitude: From the experience of Sri Lanka, they have learned people
generally don’t respond well to message if it shows the negative consequences of large
families. One of the reasons for that was Bangladesh didn’t have any system of state pension
or social security for the elderly, so they were depended on the sons for their future security
and due to the epidemic, Bangladesh lost 100,000 lives each year, so they believed it is
necessary to have more than one son. “Raja” in Bengali meant King which shows bravery,
masculinity, and power.

Widely Recognized Name: Raja as a name was widely recognized and people were easily
able to associate with it as playing card games was one of the entertainment pastimes for
the men in the country.

Illiteracy Rate: The literacy rate was about 27% among males and 12% among females and
the major population used to live in the only 9% used to lives in the cities. As card game was
widely recognized and terms like a king, queen and jack were known to people so it helped
them choose a brand that could be understood pictorially.

No Competition: Other than Raja only Tahiti was the condom that was widely distributed in
the country by USAID. Sultan was the third one but it didn’t have much market share.

Condoms Millions of pieces

Raja 50.0
Tahiti 25.0
Sultan 5.0
Durex 3.0
Others 2.0
Total 85.0

Packed Attractively: Raja was packed attractively to get attention from the consumers and
to add colour appearance to the retail store. Raja had three packaging formats:
1- 3 pieces to a pack
2- 12 pieces to a pack
3- 100 pieces to a pack which was generally bought by the Pan stores and sold to single
customers.
Distribution: After the packaging, the products were sent to 7 sub warehouses for
distribution.
Wholesalers – After picking up the products from the sub warehouse wholesaler
later sold the products to pharmacies, large general stores, and about 5,000 semi
wholesalers or stockists.
Semi wholesalers- They distribute the bulk products into smaller groups and later on
distribute them to the pan stores and small general stores.
Agents & SMP’s sales representatives- Agents were responsible for sales to
wholesalers and SMP’s were for semi wholesalers and some sales reps also sold it to
large general stores from wholesaler’s stocks.

Pricing: Products were sold at the one-tenth part of its cost including marketing cost and
USAID and other international donors were ready to provide it for free. It was necessary to
put a price on the product for gaining the market share and conveying value to the
customer. If the product was provided for free SMP’s would not be able to capture the
market as with proper pricing they were able to provide margin to the retails distributors
and got 80,000 retailers to distribute the products.
Raja
(Pack of 3 pieces)

SMP’s selling price Tk. 0.29

Wholesaler’s selling price Tk. 0.31

Semi wholesaler’s selling price Tk. 0.33

Suggested retail price Tk. 0.40

(1 Takka = 8 cents)

Intensive Marketing Strategy: PSIs decided to directly sell the product to the consumer and
put their product to as many places as possible to provide their customer with location
convenience. They did their promotions through radio, press, billboards, and posters. Sales
promotions through megaphones carried out from street to street, boats, and T-shirts of
Raja were distributed. They spend $400,000 per year on advertisements o Raja and Maya
and became the second largest of all advertisements in Bangladesh

Raja and Maya Street Canvassing

 Raja- print ad

2. What are the reasons for Maya’s failure?

Reasons for Maya’s failure are: -

 Misunderstood Buying behavior

80% of products for female are bought by men in Bangladesh. Maya being product
for female consumption could not communicate well to men. Proper communication
needs to be established among men to convince them to buy it for their women.

 No Support from retailers for sale of Maya

Other competitors give sixteen times as much margin as Maya to retailer.

Thus, Retailer’s motivation is lacking when it comes to sale of Maya. Thus, Retailers
should be motivated for keeping more stocks and this can be achieved by giving
competitive margin to retailers.

 Doctors and Medical Practitioners are not convinced

Misconception among Professional Doctors

Professional Doctors considered Maya to be poor drug, but it is Stronger than other
alternatives available. Thus, Lack of awareness about Maya among Professional
Doctors is stopping them from widespread prescribing.

RMPs think Maya as Inferior Drug

This is bigger problem compared to misconception among professional doctors

because they are very limited in numbers. While RMPs are widespread and popular
in villages, and they are being ill informed or unaware of Maya creates the real
problem. They are not recommending Maya and over that many of them are
advising to discontinue Maya that multiplies the problem of less sale of Maya.

 Lack Of Medical Channels to reach RMPs

Due to lack of funding, there exists no proper medical channels to reach RMPs and
make them aware about Maya, its effectiveness and side effects in initial days which
is expected.

 Improper choice of Advertisement Channel

 Newspaper advertisement consists of 25% of total advertisement which doesn’t
appeal to women directly because Illiteracy rate is very high in Bangladesh. This fund
can divert to be used for establishing proper medical channels to establish proper
product image.

Thus, Lack of Retailer Motivation and Maya’s image among RMPs are the major problem for
Maya’s Failure.

3. Analyse the market in terms of Product, Price, Promotion and Place.

Product:
1. Raja brand condoms:
 The name raja meant king in Bengali and from the previous experience in Sri
Lanka PSI wanted a name which can create a positive and relaxed attitude for
family planning as the country is not well educated and family planning might
come as of a ‘Taboo’ and against their religion, and also people didn’t like to
listen to disadvantages of a large family.
 So, they went with king which is associated with Masculinity and bravery and
power.

 Also playing cards was a popular recreational activity, they will know the term
king and also because of their illiteracy it’ll be easy to identify the picture and
understand pictorially

 Available in three formats i.e., three pieces a pack, twelve pieces a pack and
hundred pieces a pack
2. Maya brand oral contraceptives:
 Maya in Bengali meant magic, but it was a slang associating with the word
beautiful, this name was chosen with the same intent as that of Raja that is
positive feeling and sense of optimism.
 Available in a pack with twenty-eight pills which had twenty-one birth control
pills and seven iron tablets.

Price:
 The retail prices of raja, maya were Tk 0.40 and Tk 0.70 respectively, these
prices had no relation with the cost structures, because for a pack of raja and
maya the purchase cost was 1.25 Tk and 3.5 Tk respectively that to without the
addition of marketing costs, at the end these products were sold at 1/10 th of the
total cost.
 USAID had no problem providing these for free but PSI didn’t agree because it
wanted people to perceive these products with value.
  They priced it w.r.t the thought of reaching majority population, their reference
price points were the prices of tea, cigarette and a box of matches.
 By charging people PSI also accomplished providing margins to both retailers
and wholesalers, which resulted in the number of retailers being 80,000. Which
wouldn’t be possible if it was free.

Promotion:
 Promotions were in line with the pricing and placement, the important aspect
of the promotional strategy was intensive communication.
 In this they didn’t promote through doctors but rather directly to consumers
(this backfired for maya) the approach was focused on creating a fun and happy
atmosphere through themes of “happy family” and “confident choice of
prudent family”
 These themes were communicated through radio, press, billboards and posters
in addition to these streets to street canvasing was done by sales promoters,
advertisements on sail boats were done and also t-shirts were distributed.
 The overall budget was $400,000 per year, raja and maya received equal share
of this amount. (This didn’t end good for maya and also budget for radio should
be increased and newspapers should be decreased as its clear in sources of
messages table that radio was more effective than any others)

Place:
 Products were sent to seven sub warehouses, which were then distributed
among twenty-two wholesalers. For this the Area Sales Manager was
responsible
 Wholesalers sold to pharmacies, large general stores (usually in cities), five
thousand semi wholesalers or Stockists. For this Social Marketing Projects’ sales
representatives were responsible, some sales reps also sold to pharmacies and
large general stores from wholesaler’s stock.
 Semi wholesalers would sell to pan shops, small general stores.
 The wholesalers and semi wholesalers achieved ten to twelve inventory turns
per year on raja and five to six inventory turns for maya.
 The Retailers achieved six to eight inventory turns per year on raja and three to
four inventory turns for maya

4. What are your plans for improving Maya’s sales? What are the options
available? Which option would you and your team choose and why?

The main objective is to improve Maya sales with new marketing strategies which could
improve population control. The same Marketing strategy was used to market both the
products (Raja and Maya). Products being distinct in nature, marketing strategy worked well
with Raja, making it a success while it failed for Maya.

Plans for improving Maya’s sales:

Maya’s sales had declined from high 1.1 million cycles in 1980 to 0.62 million in 1983 (from
Exhibit1) even after it is cheaper than other similar products available in the market.

The plans for improving the Maya’s sales are:

1. Product:
a. Rebranding Maya’s image as superior drug
b. Repackaging in an attractive manner
2. Price:
a. Higher pricing to motivate the retailers
3. Place:
a. Involving Rural Medical Practitioners for selling the product by educating
them
b. Increasing the shelf visibility of the product at retailer stores.
4. Promotion:
a. Personal Selling
b. Assistance from Government
c. Create brand awareness
d. Word of mouth

Evaluating the options available:

1. Rebranding Maya’s image as a superior drug and repackaging

Maya’s image has to be rebranded entirely and should be introduced to the market with
a new name as a new product and eventually take Maya out of the market. The product
has to be repackaged in the manner that it should showcase it as a product that has
positive effects. The product should be advertised in a way that it associates with the
people of Bangladesh, the connectivity has to be felt. Also Exhibit 9 shows that Radio is
of wide reach in Bangladesh when compared to other mass media like television,
cinema, newspaper or poster signboards. Hence spending of advertising expenditure on
the radio should be maximised.

2. Higher price to motivate the retailers and increasing shelf visibility

The case states that the entire program of the PSI is built on two basic principles
a. Motivate Consumer
b. Motivate Trade
Maya as a brand failed in both of the company’s principles. It neither motivated
the trade nor the consumer. This clearly shows the importance of changing the pricing
strategy for Maya. Increasing the price will motivate the wholesalers, semi wholesalers
and retailers as they will gain a higher profit margin on the product. This, in turn, leads
to an increase of the shelf visibility of the product at the retail shop, as retailers would
gain higher profit from the product. Also, the competitor brands like Ovastat were
priced 10 times higher than Maya, and Lyndiol, Ovral and Nordette were also priced five
to seven times higher than Maya. Maya being a cheaper product made the general
public believe it to be low-quality product. Pricing Maya in this league of competitors
 will motivate the marketing channel to push the product aggressively for sale in the
market.

3. Involving Rural Medical Practitioners for selling the product by educating them

There are around 1,00,000 Rural Medical Practitioners (RMP) in Bangladesh. They used a
blend of the modern and traditional methods of treatment. There were 25,000 well
trained motivated field workers. The RMP’s and field workers had interactions with the
target group on a day-to-day basis. Educating and involving them to sell the product
would lead to promoting awareness about family planning and brand awareness too.
RMP’s were majorly in rural areas, involving them in the selling would lead the brand to
penetrate the rural markets as well.

4. Assistance from Government

The support from the Government by including the government medical practitioners,
field workers will be highly beneficial as they could help sell the free sample and also
remove the misconceptions about the pills. They can also help in building the loyal
customer base.

5. Personal Selling, Word of Mouth and Creating brand awareness

After rebranding Maya, it will be perceived as a new product. Personal Selling can be
done to create brand awareness and sales in the market. The company can set up small
stalls at supermarkets or at someplace in the village to educate the customers about the
features and benefits of the product. The product then can be marketed with a word-of-
mouth strategy hence creating brand awareness and increased sales.

Recommendation:

We would recommend rebranding Maya’s image as a superior drug. We also have room for
price increasing strategy along with the proper advertisements and creating brand
awareness. Also, the use of RMP’s would help to penetrate the product into rural areas.