Care Female Condoms Human Centered Design Report

CARE FEMALE CONDOMS HUMAN CENTERED DESIGN REPORT by Kelvin Shema

Overview [pic 1][pic 2]

In an attempt to reposition Care, PSI Malawi’s Brands and Products department instituted an HCD approach involving different teams.  The design challenge was to improve sales for care and set to answer the question, “What are the conditions for success that will increase the sales of Care and reduce barriers to access and use of Care”. On the other hand, the assessment focused on gaining a deeper understanding of the challenges and barriers and opportunities influencing or that would influence the current position care holds in the condom market. Through the process, the target group, distribution and accessibility and packaging were all reviewed.

Approach

The team conducted in-depth interviews with over 18 participants in Lumbadzi, area 25 and Kawale. Most of these people were met on the streets, shops and salons. The interviews covered wide ranging topics from finance, relationship, values, social life, passions and what motivates them.

Findings [pic 3][pic 4]

After conducting interviews, the team shared all findings through storytelling and downloading exercises. The group clustered findings into themes, and then drew insights- for example; the participants find that the use of female condoms gives a sense of empowerment to women on sexual matters. Opportunities and barriers were identified as explained under below themes.

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1. Target group[pic 6]

Pretty is a woman aged between 20 and 28, sexually active, single but has a boyfriend who is older than her. She is constantly faced with fears of not achieving her goals of a stable income. She is doing a small business/ working in SMEs. She likes Music, watching TV, Listening to Radio and occasionally accesses facebook and whatsapp especially at night and early in the morning for cheaper airtime bundles. During her free time especially during weekends, she attends to friends’ and relatives weddings, engagements, bridal parties, Kitchen top ups and birthday parties. Her income is in the range between K30, 000 and K70, 000 monthly.

She understands that Care will protect her from unprepared pregnancies and HIV but she is not very conversant on how to appropriately use Care. She finds the product to be affordable.[pic 7]

Key insights

Pretty dreams of owning a big business and she sees un-prepared pregnancies and Hiv as barriers to the attainment of her goals. She envisages independency, stable life, income and relationship and the use of Care provides her an opportunity to express her willpower and feels empowered on sexual matters. Despite her will power, she still thinks she has a little say on sexual matters, she thinks that her boyfriend will have a final say on the use of female condoms.

1. Place (Distribution)[pic 8]

The approach revealed that despite Care being positioned and viewed as a national product, they are only 3 brand promoters whose main base are Blantyre, Mzuzu and Lilongwe. With only 3 people on the ground, Care’s coverage has been at a snail’s pace, and even many of the participants did not know where they would buy Care. In trying to address distribution challenges, people were asked their preference places where they would comfortably purchase Care. Places like clinics, bottle stores, local shops, pharmacies, bridal shower were mentioned.

Under such an arrangement, we may go flat out and use distribution channels used by Chishango. This distribution model presents us a gap which has been outlined on the research gap segment.

1. Promotion (Marketing)

There have been little activities for Care and this is attributed to its lower sales as well as little or no funding for its promotional activities. This was evident in the assessment where participants had little or no knowledge of Care. [pic 9]

In addition to this, the study found out that any future communication and marketing activities should aim at both the primary target and their partners (men). This is based on the understanding that one of the barriers to the use of female condoms are the partners of our target who have little or no knowledge or even have social misconceptions on the use of female condoms.