Consultant Reports > Consultancy Trip Report

The British Council

The Oblast Prevention Demonstration Project for Youth
Condom Social Marketing Component, Crimea Region
UKRAINE

Consultancy Trip Report
No. 1

July 14 - 21, 2001

Richard Pollard, IHSD social marketing consultant
Victor Liakh, UFPA consultant

Contens

1. Introduction
2. Consultancy Objectives
3. Consultancy Accomplishment
4. Key Findings, Decisions Made and Recommendations
5. Report on the Workshop

1. Introduction

The British Council is managing The Oblast Prevention Demonstration Project for Youth in five Oblasts / Regions of Ukraine with the aim to assist local stakeholders to elaborate a youth HIV/AIDS prevention and awareness programme, and assist in its implementation. The project is aimed at developing a number of activities and pilot projects in order to develop a model of good practices that can be fed into the national HIV/AIDS agenda.

Each oblast will develop integrated programmes but will specialize in the development of specific components. These components include:

• Social Contracting
• Integrating HIV and reproductive health
• Action Research
• Materials development and social marketing of condoms
• Media

The Crimea Region has been set the task of developing, and implementing, the condom social marketing component. It is expected that this component will be tested in this Region and then rolled out into the other Oblasts and, nationally, as appropriate.

2. Consultancy Objectives

The TOR for the consultancy envisaged a briefing by the British Council and the Project Director in Kiev, three days working with the Planning Group and the Regional Coordinator in Crimea to produce an action plan for the social marketing component and to prepare for a one-day workshop with the Coordinators from the other Oblasts on day 4, finally to de-brief the Project Director and British Council in Kiev.

Richard Pollard, an international social marketing consultant supplied by IHSD in London undertook this assignment supported by Victor Liakh from UFPA, Ukraine from day three.

3. Consultancy Accomplishment

The consultancy assignment proceeded to schedule. Richard Pollard arrived in Kiev on the night of July 13 and attended the briefing at the British Council office on the afternoon of July 14. He then travelled on the overnight train to Simferopol in Crimea and worked with the Regional Coordinator, the FAITH/HOPE NGO, the Centre for Social Services for Youth and LATEXSOUTH the primary condom distributor in Crimea, and assisted them to produce a draft work plan for a needs assessment study for the condom social marketing test market, and plan for the workshop. This work was supported by Victor Liakh on July 18 and onwards. The workshop was undertaken on July 19 with the support of Lilya Skotorenko, British Council Kiev. The consultants returned to Kiev on the overnight train on July 19 and de-briefed the Project Director and British Council in Kiev on July 20.

4. Key Findings, Decisions Made and Recommendations

The condom market in Crimea

LATEXSOUTH reported that they are the primary condom distributor in the Region. They represent 8 manufacturers and sell about 80 brands of condoms ranging in price from about 0.06 US cents to 0.55 cents per condom retail. Sales in the last year total about 1.6 million condoms in a population of about 2 million. However over 80% of sales are low-cost brands targeted at the 'sex' market with very explicit 'sexual' images on packaging designs. They put this down to the large influx of holiday traffic to Crimea. Sales to the non-casual, non-holiday sex market are very low as a result of a very low demand. Because of this profit margins are low and very little expenditure is possible to create new demand. Efforts have been made outside of resort areas to expand sales to outlets other than pharmacies (petrol stations, bars, discos and general shops) but as demand is so low and the shop-owners feel reluctant to stock a product aimed so explicitly at the 'sex' trade, they have had little success.

The Centre for Social Services for Youth confirmed that, in their opinion, condoms are not that easy to obtain and that this is particularly true outside of the major urban areas.

Social Marketing Models

The team reviewed the two possible social marketing models. The key issues were to agree a model that would provide a widely available brand (or brands) at affordable prices. This could be accomplished through promoting existing brands through a contractual arrangement with the manufacturers, importers and distributors that sets prices (and agreed parameters for future price increases) in return for promotional and distribution support from the project. Alternatively the project could design and develop its own special brand that would be sold through the distributor at an agreed price. In the first model a donor would support the promotional and distribution development components only. In the second model the donor would supply funding for commodity procurement or supply the condoms, themselves, for re-branding and packaging as well.

It was noted that reports from the PSI managed social marketing project in Romania indicate that the 'own brand' model was being employed there with the condoms selling at about 20-24 cents retail.

LATEXSOUTH suggested that they could allocate brands from several manufacturers that would be sold well below the Romania price. These included brands from Rosetex (manufactured in Korea) and UNIMIL who manufacture in Poland. Both appear to be produced within WHO specifications, although this must be checked. Retail prices of these brands would be about 0.14 - 0.18 cents per condom at present prices. Rosetex sell eight brands and UNIMIL about 16 brands. The approach would be to allocate one, or two, brands only from these as social marketing brands. Every importer / manufacturer, however, wiling to allocate a brand as a social marketing brand and abide by the contractual agreements would be permitted to join the programme.

In order to test out the concept of the 'manufacturers' model LATEXSOUTH contacted UNIMIL and they agreed that, in principal they would be willing to allocate at least one brand to the social marketing programme at, possibly, a discounted price, and suggested the "004" brand. Rosetex had nine brands that appeared to be well packed particularly for the youth market with Russian and Ukrainian branding themes.

ÂWith this input, and with the understanding that to establish an 'own' brand model would require additional funding for developing a brand, researching a brand name for it, producing print materials for promotional uses and registering it, and that this would be time-consuming as well, it was agreed to proceed to further test out the viability of the 'manufacturers' model.

Demand Creation

The planning group agreed that demand creation was a key issue. The social marketing programme, alone, could not generate all of the complex social and behavioural changes that will be needed in the society (and the youth specifically) if condom use was to become the norm in all but the most stable and permanent relationships. A significant programme that harnessed all the resources of a major HIV/AIDS prevention programme, including condom use, would be needed to ensure this. The social marketing role would be to arrange that affordable, quality condoms were available to those that had developed a need for them, to ensure that they were widely distributed and available, and to promote their availability, affordability, quality and correct use. Cooperation and collaboration would be needed with all the other components of the programme to unsure that their launch dates were synchronized and that the total demand creation effort was adequate.

Other Quality Issues

It was agreed to request details, from LATEXSOUTH, of the manufacturers who were selling the very low priced brands and to ask the project's management to check whether these brands met WHO specifications for use as STD/HIV/AIDS prevention products (from UNFPA and WHO). If they did not this may lead to some requirements for suitable messaging within the final campaign.

The Action Plan and Time Frame

The planning group produced a draft Action Plan that took the form of a more detailed Needs Assessment study for the trial social marketing programme. This Action Plan covered six topics and is to be finalized within two weeks including a detailed budget. It is noted that LATEXSOUTH have agreed to provide significant inputs at no cost. The work outlined is scheduled for completion by end 2001 or early 2002, to be confirmed.

Management and Technical Resource Issues

It was appreciated that the present working group had no experience in the development and management of a social marketing programme. The research resources to accomplish the above Needs Assessment study where in place through the research experience of the Centre for Social Services for Youth. However they were more used to social forms of research than the more 'marketing' research requirements of the field study proposed. It was proposed that Victor Liakh be provided to support the Needs Assessment study according to need, and that this may be budgeted at a visit of at least one week as soon as possible and further trips of one week every 4 to 6 weeks as required. The programme would produce the protocols and questionnaires / question guides for the fieldwork with the assistance of Victor Liakh and LATEXSOUTH. However should Victor Liakh feel that any additional, professional market research inputs may be useful he will explore the availability of a short-term consultancy from a local (Crimea or Kiev) market research company to help finalize the protocols and questionnaires / question guides. It may be expected that this would involve only a few days of consultancy time, if required.

On completion of the Needs Assessment study it is recommended that Richard Pollard be contracted to provide a further 8-10 days of consultancy in country to help analyse the result and produce a detailed plan for implementation of the social marketing project. At that time consideration will need to be given to the provision of longer-term technical assistance for implementation. Assuming that the manufacturers model is found feasible it is suggested that the most likely source of such assistance will be The Futures Group as they are the most experienced international agency in the management of the 'manufacturers' model. The additional issue of funding sources for the final project may, also, be supported by bringing in the Futures Group to provide long-term technical assistance.

It is recommended that the Project Director and British Council contact the Futures Group Europe (through their office in Ukraine) to request, from them, any expression of interest in the provision of technical assistance to the trial social marketing project in the Crimea that is expected to commence during 2002, and any thoughts they may have in respect to possible donor funding for it. At this point the input is purely to assist in finalising the Needs Assessment study in respect to availability of both technical assistance and additional donor funding for the final project.

It is too early to assess the final funding requirements of the trial project. However, excluding management and technical assistance costs, the requirement is likely to be in the region of $200,000 per year. However this may be less if major demand generation activities are being implemented in addition to the social marketing inputs.

5. Report on the Workshop

Fifteen persons attended the Workshop from the five Oblasts / Regions that are working within the British Council project.

The Crimea social marketing consultants presented a brief overview of the history of social marketing and details of the scale, scope and usefulness of these programmes. It was noted that condom social marketing programmes are being implemented in over 60 countries worldwide - including in Russia and Romania and that over 1 billion social marketing condoms were distributed in 2000.

The Crimea Regional Coordinator then presented the Needs Assessment planning that had taken place for the social marketing component in Crimea.

Each of the other Oblasts then gave an overview of the status of the activities in their respective areas.

A discussion then ensued on the kinds of collaboration that would be needed and how the social marketing component would feed into the other Oblasts activities, and visa versa. In particular it was noted that all the activities would have to be integrated together when it came to implementation. However in the development phases, which were taking place now, there were important cross-fertilisation issues that could be addressed. It was noted that, for example, one Oblast was specialising in research while the Crimea was proceeding with its own, specific research project. Collaboration between the two Regional Coordinators could be put in place.

It was, however, appreciated that all Oblasts (and the Crimea Region) were at the earliest stages of developing their respective work plans and that it was premature to expect tangible collaborative activities to be developed at this stage.