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PSI/India has just passed a milestone that only two other PSI programs have ever reached in PSI history — cumulative sales of one billion condoms. Both countries are also in South Asia — Bangladesh hit one billion in 1992 and Pakistan did so in 2002. It took almost 15 years for India to do this with a population of one billion in 2003 (although PSI launched its first condom brand in only one Indian state), compared to 16 years for Pakistan with 149 million and 17 years for Bangladesh with 147 million. How did India reach one billion? Country Representative Tim McLellan explains: "Credit for the growth and development of the India program starts way back with people like Gopi Gopalakrishnan and the late P.G. Ramachandran who conceived and developed our brands and the first major marketing activities. Over the years, many people have been involved in the expansion of PSI's sales activities across this vast subcontinent, with sales now in 22 states. We have (former country representatives) David Greeley, Bob Karam and Carol Squire to thank for leadership of the organization over the past decade. However, no history of sales at PSI/India would be complete without the mention of Mr. S.K. Bali, who ran sales operations at Pfizer until the official retirement age. He then joined PSI for an additional seven years and recruited and trained most of our current field force. Under the leadership of our general manager for marketing, Dipak Basu, young leaders from Mr. Bali's sales team such as Sanjeev Dham, Bhaskar Pandya and Srikant Mohanty are picking up where Mr. Bali left off to take us to our next billion." PSI started condom social marketing in India in May 1988 with the launch of Nirodh Dlx, the government's condom brand. Four months later, PSI launched its own social marketing brand, Masti, only in the state of Uttar Pradesh. In 2000, PSI/India also began distribution of Kama Sutra, a premium condom brand. Masti is now sold in the 22 states where PSI operates; Nirodh Dlx and Kamasutra are distributed only in select pockets. India is unusual in the PSI world in that social marketing is not the innovation it is in most countries. Social marketing — at least in the way that PSI implements it — was invented in India in the early 1960s. The Government of India became the largest social marketing entity in the world, rivaled only later by PSI's program in Bangladesh. There are still a lot of organizations doing social marketing — former country representative Carol Squire reckons there are 15 social marketing programs now in the country. Also, the Indian market is highly fragmented - there are over 200 brands sold and most of them are regional. ORG MARG, a retail audit firm which tracks only 74 brands, reports that the total condom offtake for the year 2002 was 643 million units, according to Dipak Basu, PSI/India general manager for marketing. The leading brand was Nirodh Dlx marketed by GOI, PSI/India and other social marketing operations, which accounted for 40% of the condom volume. "Among the social marketing brands, PSI is the largest contributor with Masti being the most popular brand," says Basu. "Our contribution to the condom volume seems to be significant for a market which is fragmented and in spite of lack of promotional activities for the past two years. A major part of this achievement can be attributed to our sales team for expanding the distribution base, particularly among the underserved." It is not expected to take another 15 years to reach the second billion. "With 10% growth in our sales per year it will take us seven years to become members of the Two Billion Club," says Basu. "To my mind, PSI soon would be expanding its base to other parts of the country with the support of external funding. In the event we get additional funding, with our creative marketing effort we should be able to achieve two billion in five years. — David Olson, PSI/Washington
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