Thinking of implementing a sanitation marketing program? Your first step is market research. Market research dramatically improves your understanding of the motivations and behaviours of consumers, suppliers and regulators in the sanitation market.
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Here are 7 tips on how to design, implement and analyse low-cost market research in partnership with local partners. The tips are based on my experiences working with Environmental Health Officers in three districts in Malawi.
Check out the following links for some great information and details about market research:
Sanitation Marketing for Managers: Guidance and Tools for Program Development.
Human Centered Design Toolkit.
If market research is so important why not hire a professional market research firm to help me out? If you have enough cash and time I say go for it! But remember that engaging professional market researchers can be expensive and they often require long lead times prior to commencing the research. Also getting out there and learning about the market for yourself can offer you with important insights that can’t be presented in a consultant’s report and flashy Powerpoint. Many big companies now encourage their product managers to spend time interacting with their target customers.
So here are my top 7 tips for conducting low-cost, market research:
Tip 1: Literature review - Search, search and then search again for existing data
Prior to designing the research program all relevant literature and datasets must be gathered. This should include national demographic and health surveys plus government and NGO reports. If you have chosen a specific area make sure you visit the local NGOs and government departments. Avoiding replication in data collection can save you time and money, plus more importantly, it prevents the local villagers from getting survey fatigue.
Tip 2: Choosing a suitable partner – who is really working at the village level?
Your next step is identifying a suitable partner to work with you to conduct your research. You may want to identify a government or NGO partner. Or there may be a local community group that could offer support in the research process. A good idea is to go to the village level and ask what organisations are engaged in health- or sanitation-related projects. This will give you a sense of who is really making waves in the sanitation sector at the grassroots level.
Welcome to the Sanitation Marketing Community of Practice!
Are you a WASH practitioner currently working on sanitation marketing (SanMark) activities? Do you find yourself struggling to find others you can talk to about the practical issues you face – like how to work with a marketing agency, support a small business or design a new low-cost product? Are you thinking about starting a SanMark program, but don’t know where to start?
What is Sanitation Marketing?
While there is not yet broad consensus on SanMark, most practitioners agree that the approach aims to increase household demand for sanitation while simultaneously improving private sector capacity to supply sanitation products and services.
SanMark is different from other conventional approaches to sanitation because it treats households like consumers, not beneficiaries of charity and emphasizes the role that private business can play in delivering sanitation products and services that households want and can afford.
Why a Community of Practice?
Around the world, many of us have 'learned by doing' SanMark - and early experience is promising. Although interest in SanMark is growing, the approach is still relatively new. Programmatic guidance and tools are emerging, but much more can be done to open up the dialogue and link on-ground practitioners together to share and discuss the issues we face.
The SanMark Community of Practice (CoP) aims to be a platform for peer exchange and sharing of ideas and practical lessons in SanMark as they emerge. We hope to bring SanMark practitioners together to help one another improve the design, implementation and evaluation of SanMark activities.
How can you get involved?
- Join a monthly webinar
- Share your field stories and insights
- Post a question to our monthly resident expert
- Download SanMark resources and tools (coming soon)
- Attend a 3-day Practitioner Training
- Follow us for news on SanMark training and peer exchange opportunities
Latest Blog Post
Get your hands dirty - Ben Cole talks sanitation market research
Latest News
First day of SanMark training in Cambodia
On behalf of the Sanitation Marketing Community of Practice and our host organisation WaterSHED Cambodia, we are very excited to launch the first day of SanMark practitioner training in Kampong Cham Province, Cambodia! Keep watching our website for further updates as the training progresses. We are looking forward to 3 fantastic training days!..
Link to join webinar 4
The Sanitation Marketing Community of Practice is pleased to announce our fourth webinar. This webinar will explore the relationship and complexities between sanitation marketing and community-led total sanitation (CLTS). To join this webinar please click HERE. (https://sas.elluminate.com/m.jnlp?sid=2012135&password=M.ECFAF82C4D49F85BD2CDC3D7171190)..
SHARE - Sanitation markets use economics to improve service delivery
A new report by Sophie Trémolet of SHARE (Sanitation and Hygiene Applied Research for Equity) is now available online. The report entitled 'Sanitation Markets: using economics to improve the delivery of services along the sanitation value chain', provides a critical assessment of the role of sanitation economics in maximising the potential of SanMark activities. The report offers the following actions that link economics and sanitation: Make the case for invest..
New webinar dates for Feb and March
New webinar dates for February and March 2013 have been announced! Webinar 4 on Sanitation Marketing and Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) will now be held on Thursday the 7th of February 2013. This session will explore how these two approaches to demand-driven sanitation can be compatible and complimentary. We will examine the practical implications of integrating SanMark and CLTS. Webinar 5 on Reaching the Poorest will now be held on Wednesday the 13th of March 2013. This ses..
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