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Campaign Strategies (4Ps), Implementation, and Evaluation 211

NetMark helped set up four major distribution programs that provided 885,000
ITNs and LLINs in very poor districts. These free ITNs provided immediate re-
lief from malaria while also serving as “free samples” to stimulate the market
and increase appreciation for the ITN product line.

Place Strategies and Implementation
The Nigerian distributors represented a range of distribution networks, includ-
ing agro-chemical shops, pharmaceutical outlets, textile stores, and food mar-
kets. NetMark continually pushed the distributors to expand these networks
and to find new ones. One distributor signed agreements with several states to
place a small kiosk on the grounds of their main health clinics to sell its ITNs.
When research showed that the majority of Nigerians purchased their current
nets in the open markets, NetMark studied the open-market system and identi-
fied five giant open markets that supplied most of the open markets throughout
the country. NetMark and its partners recruited retailers in these open markets
and tracked down the stitcher associations (one with 200 members) that sup-
plied these markets with nets. The stitchers produced more nets per year (5 to 6
million) than the formal manufacturers (1 to 1.5 million). Seeing this potential,
NetMark linked the largest stitcher associations to a supply of WHO-standard
netting, arranged for insecticide kits at a special introductory discount, and gave
them heat-sealing machines, so their nets and insecticide kits could be bundled
in plastic bags. In the first year of this effort, the stitcher associations sent more
than 648,000 ITNs into the open markets, where NetMark’s demand creation ef-
forts were causing shoppers to ask for ITNs. In 2008, they produced 2.1 million.

Promotion Strategies and Implementation
When NetMark’s baseline survey was conducted from September to November
2000, public awareness of ITNs among households with children under age 5
was only 6%. Many people knew of mosquito nets and malaria, but many also
thought that nets were an old way of mosquito control and that aerosols and
mosquito controls were the modern means. The NetMark demand creation ef-
fort ran on two tracks: (1) a NetMark-run “generic” communication campaign
that utilized integrated media channels (such as TV, radio, billboards, posters,
and point-of-purchase materials such as the store poster shown in Figure 9-1)
and interpersonal communication (such as road shows, clinic counseling, “town
storming” to recruit retailers, and “cash vans” selling directly to shops) to deliver
messages derived from NetMark’s extensive market research; and (2) brand pro-
motion carried out by each of the brand owners/distributors. The generic cam-
paign carried key messages such as the night-biting mosquito is the sole carrier