A serendipitous outgrowth of social marketing

When Phil Harvey started DKT International in 1989, he did not foresee surplus revenues from countries like Brasil and the Philippines one day being used to seed family planning programs in Ghana and Mozambique.

But that’s exactly what has happened.

In 2013, DKT do Brasil, one of DKT’s oldest projects, transferred $650,000 to DKT’s headquarters in Washington, DC, which was then forwarded to new project sites. As of 2016, DKT do Brasil had remitted $3.9 million in total against an initial investment of $6 million.

Just as important, DKT do Brasil achieved this surplus while keeping at least one brand of each product category affordable to most Brazilians and also while driving down prices in the market. For example, when DKT entered Brasil in 1990, a condom cost $.60/piece or more. Today, Prudence, DKT’s long-standing brand, sells for $.27/piece.

In Ethiopia, DKT is likely to require donor support for many years to come.

But that doesn’t mean the organization isn’t contributing already.

“Every time we reduce cost and increase our own viability, that potentially frees funds for other projects,” says Negussie GebreTsadik, DKT’s National Operations Director.

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This article is based on a 2016 article by Phil Harvey in Global Health: Science and Practice http://dx.doi.org/10.9745/GHSP-D-15-00182