Tools for design, implementation and evaluation
Governments, donors and implementers need to understand markets for reproductive health products better. For instance, understanding consumer ability to pay and also willingness to pay, based on underlying attitudes, is a key success factor in any marketing programme. Greater understanding of market segmentation is needed not just by implementers, but also at a strategic level in order that programmes are appropriately designed and evaluated.
MDAs use commercial sector techniques to create public health impact
By design, market development approaches (MDAs) use commercial sector techniques to create public health impact. MDAs therefore have borrowed and adapted a number of tools from the commercial sector. Such tools can be used to:
- identify and understand markets
- assess how markets can be used to improve reproductive health
- determine needs and possible areas for market expansion
- define the potential target audience(s) for market development approaches
There are not enough easy to use, low-cost tools available to understand and measure markets. One of the challenges is that some market assessment tools can be expensive to use, and donors have have been reluctant to fund their use.
This section outlines the step by step process to conduct essential market research using some widely recognised tools and processes for MDA design, implementation and evaluation. These include:
- Market assessment
- Targeting
- Market segmentation
- Willingness to pay
- 4 Ps: product, price, place and promotion
- Tools to measure impact
Further details on these approaches can be found in section 7.1.1 of Market development approaches scoping report and Assessment manual: a handbook for conducting private sector country assessments.
