Women Empowerment: A case of Prabartana

Submitted By: Ankur Mahajan 74/2010

Q1 : What lessons can we learn regarding Social Marketing efforts from this case? Ans. y Women as Epicenter of success: The weaving production is mostly done in villagers' homes, which follows the community's social norms. Many women are only involved in the preweaving stages and are not treated as equals especially in regards to pay and decision-making. Women came forward to be change agents' of the social system of production. UBINIG supported the women by giving cash capital so that they were in position to buy their own looms and help was given to access yarn. This initiative truly testifies the fact that If you educate a boy, you educate an individual but if you educate a girl, you educate the whole nation. Establish Centre at the Heart so as to maximize efficiencies: Prabartana chose to work in the in the district of Tangail because of the relationship between agricultural and rural industries, so that we could fully understand the livelihoods of our rural producers. Tangail is a key area of Bangladesh due to its handloom production. It is an agricultural surplus area and handloom weaving is a predominant income activity. Motivating and Sustaining the Enthusiasm: Through schemes like free lunch to employees, minimum wages, timely monetary help in the form of loans acts as a motivating force. With the help of such schemes employees and participants experience feeling of belongingness and their enthusiasm is sustained. This sort of sustenance and short success are very important to continue the drive.

A helping hand is all one needs: Prabartana's main work is supporting rural artisans and weavers in the development and production of their craft. Its work involves giving advice, support and training to weavers on design, costing, quality control and market access. Weavers are then able to sell their products to local markets and to Prabartana at a price that is fair to the weaver and that covers all their costs of production. Prabartana then in turn sells the product in one of its outlets in capital with information of the product to promote greater awareness of textile traditions of Bangladesh Continuous growth: Planned steps executed increase the probability of success. The diagram shows the timeline of progress of the campaign. Second stages success is dependent on first and thirds stage success is dependent on the last two.

Shashya Prabartana Narigrantha Prabartana 1989 Prabartana 1989 1990

Figure 1 y Divert Energy to Desired Area: Narigrantha Prabartana came into being at a stage when women's movement of Bangladesh has been demanding for their fundamental political, social and economic rights. And also in the realization that the women's issue be addressed from the broad national and international intellectual tradition. It required deepening the feminist analysis of the society in order to formulate appropriate strategies and this is what they need. This case let is an excellent example of channelizing of energy and intensifying the synergies.

Use psychology in your marketing: They simply took the innate human tendency to unite in groups against a common enemy and capitalized on it. In this case enemy was poverty and injustice. UNIBIG acted as a multi pronged tool touching all the areas like textiles, agriculture, education and women emancipation.

Cultural/environmental descriptors be considered in Mind: The whole campaign was designed and communicated and implemented in local language and using cultural descriptors. Environmental issues relevant to Bangladesh were raised. This is a must fo step for any successful Social Marketing Campaign.

Q2: How can concept of ADDA be considered a forum for relationship marketing and understanding consumer behavior? Ans: Forum for Relationship Marketing: y y y y Adda or chit-chat acts as a very important forum for relationship marketing. In fact, Social Marketing and relationship Marketing are closely interlinked. For the success of Social initiatives, engagement of the target audience is very important. Target adopter must be communicated about the benefits and long term repercussions of the social initiatives. This is what ADDA does. For the success of Social Marketing Initiatives, concrete results can be obtained only if a change in belief takes place. This is reflected in the attitude which further influences the behavior. ADDAs are the right place for relationship networking because: o It engages the local population. o New threads are circulated. o Information about the various schemes and opportunities spreads like a fire. Principle of Grapevine communication comes into action. o Elderly people indulge in simple games and discuss about various contemporary issues. o Change agents can use this collection of people to act against social taboos like gender discrimination, illiteracy, domestic violence, etc. The present scheme employed women engagement programs because in eastern provinces like West Bengal, Bangladesh (current area of action) women can be used as representatives and change agents. Musical shows and cultural events (performed at ADAAs) act as a catalyst in bringing out desired change. Understanding Consumer Behavior: y y y y Change in societal setup can be observed Target audience can be analyzed and marketing programs can be developed according to their tastes and likings. Issues integral to the adopters can be learned and brought into the lime light so as to win their confidence and develop trust. The content of the marketing programs gets greatly influenced by studying these ADDAs. For example use of female protagonist may work in W. Bengal for AIDS awareness but not so in the Northern part of India because of cultural and environmental issues.

Q3. How can Paribartana market Organic Agricultural produce in International Market? Ans:

Figure2 The following figure shows the growth stats for organic food in the world. Demand always outnumbers the supply, so there is lot of scope new players to join in. y First step would be obtaining a certification to enter the International Market. As per Shahid H Shamim, director of Prabartana Obtaining certification by the authorities for organic food is not yet mandatory in Bangladesh. So first and foremost this problem needs to be solved. The three different types of certification that can be obtained are: 1. USDA - United States Department of Agriculture: The USDA organic certification verifies that all United States Department of Agriculture regulations, requirement and specifications are adhered to 2. GMP Good Manufacturing Practices: It addresses hygiene in all aspects of the manufacturing process, including premises and equipment, primary production, packaging, warehousing, distribution, pest control and waste management, as well as routine personal hygiene of personnel. 3. HACCP Hazard Analysis & Critical Control Points: HACCP based Food Safety Management System registration and certification verifies that World Health Organization standards are met in the management of food safety and hygiene.

y Second step would be deciding the market: Bangladesh is still a small player and has a very small percentage of land under cultivation which is nothing in front of Top organic producers (like Australia, India, Argentina, Brazil, etc) So the strategy should be to capitalize on old foreign relationships. Obtain certification which is relevant in those targeted countries (which would be mentioned later on) Demand for organic products is concentrated mainly in North America (43%) and Europe (54%). According to Organic Monitor, these two regions comprise 97 percent of global revenues from sales of organic products.

Figure 3 y y Among the top ten potential markets for organic food as in figure 3, the recommendation goes in favor of European Union because of the following reasons: Bangladesh's relations with the European Union and its member states remained a priority area in the foreign policy context. A number of achievements were made in the economic field during that brief period. At present EU is the top export destination of Bangladesh's products (48% of the total product). International Jute Study Group is being established in Dhaka. Bangladesh successfully participated in World Apparel Fair, European Seafood Exposition, Bangladesh Trade Show in Moscow and Kiev. North America would not a good destination to target on because of lack of trade relations with USA and stringent USA measures which would require lot of capital investments.

Going international would require lot of efforts on part of Paribartana and Proshika (deptt. Responsible for agricultural food)

International relationship, certification and competition should be kept in mind before going International. y Step 3 Marketing efforts: y Organisations should refrain from large advertising campaigns to announce their operations. This is again because of financial reasons. y Use word of mouth sales and marketing, actively conducted lunchtime talks at companies and corporations to promote awareness. y It is also worthwhile to establish linkages with the mass media and many journalists are willing to publish about organic agriculture because it is a novelty or because it links well with health or environmental issues. A good article by a journalist can do more than a paid advertisement and comes at no cost. y Interpersonal contacts are important, also to get feedback on products. y Use interest of mass media to publish on new and trendy issues. y Base marketing strategy on knowledge of culture and habits of consumers. y Use (strong) logo for communicating the products and the company. y Focus on both local and export market (export market as money generator for local market development).