Step 6 Market Facilitation

Duration: 2-3 years

Once you have designed and tested the new products, business models and promotional activities, you are ready to bring them all together into a pilot market facilitation program. Remember, the first 5 steps of research, design and testing can take one year or more, but it is much better to spend the time to get these early steps right at the start.

Once implementation begins, market facilitation activities will evolve quickly as you learn about what is working and not working on the ground. Be responsive and flexible, especially at the start – you will probably need to change and adapt your activities as you go.

Some tips to consider as you get going:

Timing: Sales strategies and timing of promotions should consider seasonal factors. Sanitation demand creation and product promotional activities should be conducted during times when people are most likely to purchase, e.g. after harvests when cash income is highest. Plan for a full-scale launch when seasonal incomes are highest in your target area. And give your pilot program two to three harvest seasons to fully evaluate the impacts of your SanMark work. Creative financing mechanisms can help ease the burden of up-front purchase at other times of the year.
Targets: Set modest program sales targets initially, but plan for exponential growth. Market-based approaches do not follow conventional development project timeframes. The consumer decision to purchase typically requires a fair amount of forethought and planning. Households need time to learn about new products they have not seen, touched or used before. The process of introducing new ideas and products is often referred to as the ‘diffusion of innovation’ – it takes time, and usually involves stages in which path-breaking ‘innovators’ and then ‘early adopters’ take up the innovation first, followed by larger numbers as the innovation reaches a critical mass.
Skills: SanMark requires new skills for the WASH sector, related to business and market development, market research, product design, commercial marketing and sales, and others. Consider carefully what additional training, new staff, and/or short-term technical assistance may be required for SanMark implementation.
Roles: Unlike CLTS’s community-wide focus, expanding the commercial market for affordable sanitation products and services essentially involves a private transaction between a business and a low-income consumer. The role of government agencies and other development partners in SanMark is about facilitating that consumer transaction by:
> Helping to generate new demand through behavior change, product education and promotions;
> Linking business to households that are ready to purchase;
Building business skills and providing market intelligence to businesses to respond to new consumer demand;
> Assuring competition and fair pricing in the market; and
> Monitoring product and service quality to protect consumers and public health.

Understanding who does what in the new sanitation market will take some time and experimentation. Use the example roles and functions in UNICEF Guidance Note 6 to start considering who is most suitable to take on different market facilitation roles.