Use of Experiential Marketing Methods In a Family Planning Program for the Urban Poor: Findings From Efficacy Testing of a Pilot In Uttar Pradesh, India

Background:  Uttar Pradesh (UP), a state in India, has high maternal mortality ratios (440); infant mortality rates (67); and fertility rates (3.8). Although awareness of modern family planning (FP) methods is near-universal, only 2 in 5 urban poor women utilize modern methods .

Program background:  Urban Health Initiative (UHI) program is a concerted effort by various partners to contribute to the increase in the demand and supply of family planning services and supplies in UP and starting with 4 cities has demand generation as a core strategy. The challenge was to break through the clutter and connect with non-users by using users as positive deviants to motivate. "Experiential Marketing" refers to actual customer experiences with the product/service that in turn drive sales and increase brand awareness. It can combine the effects of mass media and inter-personal communication in a cost effective and experiential model using principles of “surround and engage” - surround community with key messages, engage target audience to create positive FP service experiences, identify and acknowledge positive deviants from community and facilitate behavior change.

Evaluation Methods and Results:  Pilot experiential marketing activities and events were implemented in 20 selected slums in Agra over the period of the last week of December 2010. Direct measurements, observations and interviews of community members, field workers, key stakeholders, participants and documents helped to study operations and results of the experiential marketing activity and community events in achieving the desired results.  The activity was classified into 12 steps occurring in 3 phases (a) pre-event (b) week-of-event (c) post-event enabling detailed assessment.  38 peer educators (PEs) and 10 outreach supervisors made home contact (first touch-point) for enrolment of 909 couples for a thematic “Happy Couples” contest. The locality was surrounded by 200 posters and 50 banners and mobile rickshaw-miking. Second touch-point were the registration camps at central community places visited by 457 couples, of which 90 couples were counseled on limiting and 101 couples referred for IUD. Many couples gave interviews on video which were broadcast on local cable. Third touch-point was an interactive event attended by 3000 people. Thus, face-to-face interaction with providers was combined with mass-media as video recordings of role-model couples were shown on cable TV.

Conclusions:  Experiential marketing combining community events with local mass-media can serve as an effective BCC tool for urban poor. A bridge between the demand generation team, target audience and service providers, it can help address specific needs of couples in tailored events.

Implications for research and/or practice:  There is a major difference between telling people about the features of a product/service and letting them experience the benefits for themselves. By allowing customers to engage and interact with products/services in sensory ways, experiential marketing creates unique personal experiences that help people connect to the health issue and make intelligent and informed use-decisions. Thus, experiential marketing goes much beyond mere information provision. Events can be a smart way of creating specific experiences, reinforce positioning of service and also provide a sense of relatedness to the consumers.