Brand and Service Promotion Campaign for Smiling Sun

BCCP undertook the development and implementation of a brand and service promotion campaign under Smiling Sun Franchise Program in July, 2008. As communication strategy BCCP included capacity building of service providers through brand orientation to increase the marketing and service promotion skills of the service providers; campaigns to raise awareness of the clients about the brand, services and health issues by increasing use of the clinics through brand promotion and demand generation and by strengthening the linkage between quality of care standards and the brand at the service provision and, finally, community mobilization to create a more conducive environment among key local community stakeholders and gatekeepers to support optimal clinic and service use, especially among women and children.

These undertakings will result in the increased use of Smiling Sun services and products.
The promotion of the brand image of the Smiling Sun Clinics will be done through a comprehensive campaign effort which will include television and radio commercials, billboards, posters and leaflets and will be simultaneously accompanied by local level media activities. The campaign will bring about conspicuous changes both in the physical and administrative environment of the clinics. Providers on the other hand will be made to understand the importance of health marketing and the importance of enhanced skills in selling products. Moreover, doorstep promotional drives, interactive sessions using traditional media such as folk songs, street dramas, cable TV, puppet shows and courtyard meetings facilitated and further strengthened such promotion by utilizing local and cost effective resources.
In this regard, BCCP prepared an implementation plan that covers the preparatory activities, development and production of campaign support materials, the development of curriculum and the actual implementation of the campaign and relevant interventions. As part of the capacity building component, the branding and service promotion marketing training curriculum has been developed; and a draft course outline, final draft curriculum and plan for a test run training with the target audiences has been prepared. The tagline Smiling Sun for all has been selected for the Smiling Sun Branding Campaign and this will be promoted through all the materials to be produced. The other activities undertaken so far include finalization of the Smiling Sun brand manual, development of a creative brief for TV advertisement, and the development of templates of various promotional materials. For community mobilization, a campaign guidebook has been developed and a marketing toolkit concept has been drafted and shared with SSFP. Various job aids has also been reviewed and revised including AFP card, Tiahart posters, etc. As a result of these initiatives, it is expected that the Smiling Sun Clinics will emerge in the market with higher technical capacity and a wider range of services to better compete with others offering like services and the Smiling Sun name will be synonymous with quality services in health care throughout Bangladesh.