Page 239 - Social Marketing for Public Health Global Trends and Success Stories

57977_CH09_final.qxd:Cheng 11/5/09 4:42 PM Page 212

212 CHAPTER 9 ■ Creating a Commercial Market for Insecticide-Treated Mosquito Nets

of malaria and the importance of
ITNs for preventing malaria, es-
pecially for pregnant women and
children under 5. This campaign
was meant to generate demand
for the entire ITN product cate-
gory—not just for partner
brands—and increase the sales
of all ITNs. A link to the partner
brands was made by the use of
the NetMark logo (called a “seal
of quality”) on the packaging of
partner ITNs and on point-of-
sale materials developed by
NetMark for its partners. Brand
promotion strategies and mate-
rials were usually developed by
the brand owners (e.g., Bayer,
Vestergaard) and provided di-
rectly to their distributors.
Because brand marketing budg-
ets are generally derived from a
percentage of sales, NetMark
knew there would be limited
funds for brand marketing in the
early years when sales and rev-
FIGURE 9-1 Generic Point-of-Sale Poster
enue were low. To stimulate a
rapid roll-out of the brands,
NetMark created a “matching funds” process for the support of brand promo-
tion. Each year, NetMark helped the brand owner and national distributors fi-
nalize their annual country marketing plans. Based on their plans for expanding
distribution beyond its current network, NetMark agreed to reimburse specific
costs up to a ceiling of US$20,000 to US$50,000. The brand owners and distrib-
utors paid for such costs as additional sales staff to recruit and supply new out-
lets, radio spots, point-of-sale materials, and in-store promotions; they were
reimbursed by NetMark for half of the cost up to the ceiling amount.
NetMark worked closely with a regional advertising agency to develop a
core set of high-quality communications materials (e.g., two TV commercials,
four radio spots, newspaper ads, and numerous point-of-sale materials) to
launch ITN campaigns in all countries. Staff from the agency’s affiliates in