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

For demand creation, NetMark used competitive bidding to select the Africa
division of Foote, Cone, & Belding (FCB), a multinational advertising agency. FCB
had a broad network of African-owned affiliates in more than 20 sub-Saharan
countries and a history of helping those affiliates improve their skills and capabil-
ities through periodic training activities. Group Africa, a company specializing in
product promotion and market development through consumer education and
mobilization, was already a member of the AED team that won the NetMark con-
tract. It had its own offices in more than 25 countries, including a range of vehicles
and promotional staff skilled in carrying out road shows, educational programs in
schools and health facilities, and other product promotion activities. In Nigeria,
NetMark worked closely with Centrespead FCB, an advertising and public rela-
tions firm, and with Group Africa’s Nigeria office. Both worked together with
NetMark staff and commercial partners on the marketing plans.

Production
One of the major issues affecting the Nigeria program was the source of the
ITNs to be sold by the commercial sector. The MOH strongly pushed for the ex-
clusive use of locally produced nets because Nigeria had the only net-production
capacity in West Africa and a large textile industry under siege by Chinese im-
ports. NetMark favored using local nets, but found their quality was poor and
that local net manufacturers were very passive about developing the net market
and improving quality. When asked to show their nets to NetMark’s commercial
partners, only a few showed up—and one sample net had holes in it. The com-
mercial partners could not launch a new product under their brand name with
a poor-quality net and decided to start with high-quality imported nets to break
into the market.
There was also a sensitive issue of production capacity. The MOH presented a
three-page listing of “net manufacturers” that claimed a total annual production of
millions of nets. This capacity was not real. Most production projections were
based on a theoretical capacity and not a realistic assessment. The list of “manufac-
turers” also contained a number of companies that had no production capacity.
After a British aid employee reported that many of those companies were importers
and that actual net production was only about 1 million nets per year, the MOH fi-
nally admitted that there was an important role for imports. NetMark brought two
textile experts to Nigeria to visit the factories of the six largest manufacturers and to
provide them with confidential assessments on how they could improve net quality.
Some problems were fixed as the experts moved through the factory; other changes
were made after the report; but no manufacturer made an intensive effort to im-
prove quality by addressing all recommendations made in the assessment.