Selling condoms in the Congo
TEDGlobal 2011 · 4:16 · Filmed
Jul 2011
Subtitles available in 39 languages
View interactive transcript
Subtitles available in 39 languages
View interactive transcript
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0:11 I am a reformed marketer, and I now work in
international development. In October, I spent some time in the Democratic
Republic of Congo, which is the [second] largest country in Africa. In fact,
it's as large as Western Europe, but it only has 300 miles of paved roads. The
DRC is a dangerous place. In the past 10 years, five million people have died
due to a war in the east. But war isn't the only reason that life is difficult
in the DRC.
0:39 There are
many health issues as well. In fact, the HIV prevalence rate is 1.3 percent
among adults. This might not sound like a large number, but in a country with
76 million people, it means there are 930,000 that are infected. And due to the
poor infrastructure, only 25 percent of those are receiving the life-saving
drugs that they need. Which is why, in part, donor agencies provide condoms at
low or no cost.
1:08 And so
while I was in the DRC, I spent a lot of time talking to people about condoms,
including Damien. Damien runs a hotel outside of Kinshasa. It's a hotel that's
only open until midnight, so it's not a place that you stay. But it is a place
where sex workers and their clients come. Now Damien knows all about condoms,
but he doesn't sell them. He said there's just not in demand. It's not surprising,
because only three percent of people in the DRC use condoms.
1:37 Joseph and
Christine, who run a pharmacy where they sell a number of these condoms, said
despite the fact that donor agencies provide them at low or no cost, and they
have marketing campaigns that go along with them, their customers don't buy the
branded versions. They like the generics.
1:53 And as a
marketer, I found that curious. And so I started to look at what the marketing
looked like. And it turns out that there are three main messages used by the
donor agencies for these condoms: fear, financing and fidelity. They name the
condoms things like Vive, "to live" or Trust. They package it with
the red ribbon that reminds us of HIV, put it in boxes that remind you who paid
for them, show pictures of your wife or husband and tell you to protect them or
to act prudently.
2:31 Now these
are not the kinds of things that someone is thinking about just before they go
get a condom. (Laughter) What is it that you think about just before you get a
condom? Sex! And the private companies that sell condoms in these places, they
understand this. Their marketing is slightly different. The name might not be
much different, but the imagery sure is. Some brands are aspirational, and
certainly the packaging is incredibly provocative.
3:06 And this
made me think that perhaps the donor agencies had just missed out on a key
aspect of marketing: understanding who's the audience. And for donor agencies,
unfortunately, the audience tends to be people that aren't even in the country
they're working [in]. It's people back home, people that support their work,
people like these. But if what we're really trying to do is stop the spread of
HIV, we need to think about the customer, the people whose behavior needs to
change -- the couples, the young women, the young men -- whose lives depend on
it.
3:47 And so the
lesson is this: it doesn't really matter what you're selling; you just have to
think about who is your customer, and what are the messages that are going to
get them to change their behavior. It might just save their lives.
4:01 Thank you.
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