Local social marketing organization launches products to improve sustainability

T-MARC, Tanzania’s local social marketing organization, launched three products—Flowless sanitary pads, Smiley baby diapers and Harmony adult diapers. The Ilala district commissioner and representatives from USAID attended the Dar es Salaam event with public and private sector stakeholders.

SHOPS Plus is working to assist T-MARC in its transition from a donor-sponsored social marketing organization to a self-sustaining social marketing enterprise. As part of these efforts, SHOPS Plus analyzed the market to determine which products would be most viable in the Tanzania market and would result in increased revenue for the organization. In addition, SHOPS Plus conducted a global procurement analysis that identified roughly 15 potential suppliers. The assessment analyzed quality standards, pricing and payment terms, and included site visits with the manufacturers in India and China. The analysis informed T-MARC’s decision on which products to launch, what marketing and launch strategy to adopt, where to procure from to achieve maximum cost efficiency without compromising on quality.

The overall approach for transition to social enterprise model for sustainability includes:

1. Increasing the financial viability of priority health products, such as condoms and contraceptive pills that were traditionally socially marketed, through improved branding, a cost recovery strategy and cost-efficient procurement
2. Expanding the organization’s offering to increase revenue to ensure business growth
3. Assisting the diversification of T-MARC into additional business streams to increase scale and sustainability
4. Strengthening T-MARC’s organizational capacity with special emphasis on international commodity procurement, inventory management, market analytics for product and business diversification, new product development, and competencies to balance health impact and financial viability

The newly launched products of T-MARC were well accepted in the Tanzania market by retailers and consumers alike. Successful introduction of three new products paves way for T-MARC to roll out many more new products and business streams to achieve its sustainability goal. SHOPS Plus will continue to support T-MARC as it expands its product line to include wider choice of family planning, maternal and child health, and testing device products.