When the [him] moderator first saw this headline he thought that it might be referring to him since he has worked on both sides of the picket line border. But it turns out to be an advertising chameleon. This is a good summary article on social marketing efforts in Burma ...
A chameleon enlists in war on Aids
Amy Kamzin
Financial Times
20 February 2006
Touting an exotic array of imported Chinese vibrators, sex toys and potency medicines, Maung Maung, a wholesaler in Rangoon's traditional Thein Gyi Zay market, is a big player in the Burmese capital's apparently thriving trade for sexual aids. Yet from his small, packed stall, he also does a roaring business peddling a more basic imported product: condoms.
"We don't need to push to sell the condoms," says the wholesaler, who sells around 120,000 of them a month to retailers and consumers.
Condoms were rarely used in Burma just a decade ago. Today they are one of the country's fastest growing consumer items - with more than 40m purchased last year. The surging sales, up from just 2.6m in 1996, reflect increased public awareness of HIV/Aids.
The sales boom is also the result of efforts by Population Services International, the US-based non-governmental organisation that promotes Aphaw, Burma's top-selling condom brand.
Apart from the fact that PSI's condoms are subsidised by western aid money, the organisation operates like any other fast-moving consumer goods company. Over the last decade, clever, culturally sensitive marketing has helped it build its brand and generate public acceptance of a potentially lifesaving product.
This success is vindication of PSI's decision to set up shop in Burma a decade ago in spite of criticism from pro-democracy groups that its could help prop up the repressive military regime.
"We are demonstrating that a lot can be done without legitimising or materially supporting the government," says Guy Stallworthy, PSI's Burma country director. "We are especially proud of this huge growth in condom consumption - it is the main thing that has been done over 10 years to fight HIV/Aids in this country."
Burma - crippled by both long-term economic mismanagement and punitive western sanctions, including a US ban on Burmese imports - has one of south-east Asia's most serious HIV/Aids epidemics, with up to 2.2 per cent of adults infected. PSI supplies about 75 per cent of all the condoms used in Burma; heavy subsidies, which allow them to be sold at less than one-third of their production cost, make them more affordable to the cash-strapped population.
"Price is the number one issue here - you are not going to get a mass market with an expensive product," says Mr Stallworthy. "Consumers don't have much money but they are discerning and want to buy quality things . . . if you can somehow make quality affordable, you are bound to be a winner in this country, whether you are selling coffee or condoms."
Promoting condoms was initially a delicate proposition. The military considered condom possession evidence of prostitution and worried that marketing them would encourage promiscuity.
PSI identified a brand name and image acceptable in this conservative milieu. It chose "Aphaw" - "trusted companion" in Burmese - and designed a package with the silhouette of a couple at sunset under a palm tree. "It is easy to use soft porn (to sell condoms) but that would be against our policy and values," Mr Stallworthy says.
When the condoms - which are imported and repackaged in Burma - hit the market in 1996, the brand name was written in Burmese letters. But PSI found consumers associated Burmese-language packaging with shoddy products. In 1988, PSI changed to Aphaw in English, with instructions still in Burmese.
Marketing and distribution were the next hurdles. With most international donors unwilling to support aid work in Burma in the late 1990s, PSI had few resources for advertising, while shopkeepers were wary of openly selling potentially incriminating items. Burma's military was still to acknowledge HIV as a significant threat to its 52m people.
All that changed in 2001, when a top Burmese general publicly acknowledged that the country had a big Aids problem, and western donors began providing money to fight the epidemic. Buoyed by new funding, PSI started advertising on billboards and in privately owned magazines. As condoms became more visible in the media, shopkeepers grew relaxed about displaying them.
Instead of relying on commercial distributors, PSI built its own national network, which today has 28 full-time sales representatives and 50 wholesalers. The effort paid off: Aphaw condoms are available in every town and big village in the country, and nearly 20 per cent of sales take place at "non-traditional" outlets, including betel nut stalls, massage parlours, barber shops and guest houses.
Three years ago, PSI developed its own advertising mascot: a chameleon - or pothinnyo in Burmese - wearing a traditional man's sun hat. In Burma, chameleons are common, and young boys who see one often watch for the reptile to move its head, while chanting: "Pothinnyo, nod your head if you want a girl".
PSI coined the slogan: "Pothinnyo, nod your head if you want an Aphaw". The advertising campaign was a big success, striking a chord with consumers and furthering the acceptability of condoms. Today, 82 per cent of urban Burmese recognise PSI's pothinnyo and nearly all link it to HIV/Aids.
"Our product is a little stigmatised, and humour defuses the situation," Mr Stallworthy says. "We also didn't want to simply import MTV-style western advertising. We want to respect Myanmar culture, and capitalise on this. This is something that is uniquely Myanmar - it only works here."
PSI has produced two television serials and two feature films with general Aids awareness messages. In 2005, it was able to sponsor sports talk shows and the broadcasting of English Premier League matches on state television, allowing the pothinnyo to make its TV debut.
"Both the government and the culture have shifted enormously in nine years; what is possible has changed dramatically," says Mr Stallworthy. "People have had access to information about condoms and HIV/Aids from many directions. Our growth has been driven by our ability to use journals and mass TV to get the message out."
PSI has innovated on products to broaden their appeal. In 2001, it introduced flavoured condoms - including banana and strawberry - which now account for nearly 50 per cent of total sales. "Diversifying the product mix is one of the strategies for growing the market," Mr Stallworthy says.
For all the progress, PSI still faces logistical and bureaucratic challenges, particularly as the military regime seeks to exert greater control over imports in a bid to conserve scarce foreign currency. Gaining permission to import the duty-free condoms, which used to take two months, can now take up to four, with each shipment approved by the trade council, chaired by the regime's number two man.
"Before you get one permit, you apply for the next," Mr Stallworthy says. PSI maintains buffer stocks to ensure no market shortages.
Burma's condom market still has room to grow. Condom use is just 0.8 per capita per year, well below the 1.6 to 2.1 per person per year average in neighbouring Thailand and Cambodia, which have successfully controlled their Aids epidemics, largely through condom use.
Mr Stallworthy now aims to raise condom use to one per capita per year by 2008, a target that will continue to rely on marketing skills. "When you ask people why they don't use condoms, access and affordability are not issues."
