IDENTIFYING TARGET AUDIENCES. While most of our discussion so far has been about intended users, there are many potential audiences for demand creation messaging, including: • Intended users / members of priority populations • Influencers who can impact intended users’ decision-making about HIVST (partners, friends and family, community members and leaders, peers, faith-based sector, media, including social media influencers, primary care providers, etc.) • Distributors (pharmacists, doctors, CBDs, etc.) • Policymakers, regulators and funders You will need to make a decision about how much time, effort and resources to allocate to each of these groups. Ideally, the insight you gained through your consumer and market research will help you evaluate their relative importance in terms of convincing more intended users to take advantage of HIVST and related services.
IDENTIFYING TARGET AUDIENCES. The focus of every grain fortification campaign is to add vitamins and minerals to grains to improve the population’s nutrition, and identifying the people who are instrumental in this process is the first step in a social marketing campaign. The next step is to set objectives for each target audience. Grain fortification campaigns typically target the following five audiences: Policy makers – primarily responsible for creating mandatory legislation and later for monitoring and evaluating fortified grain or flour to ensure the correct amount of vitamins and minerals are added. Key players are ministries of health, agriculture, economy, business, trade, and finance. Millers – primarily responsible for fortifying the grain and monitoring the process to ensure correct amounts of vitamins and minerals are added. Millers will also need to change their packaging to indicate that fortification is occurring, but that is a one-time change. Consumers – primarily responsible for accepting, purchasing, and consuming fortified products. While their acceptance may seem inconsequential when fortification is mandated, consumers can disrupt fortification if they are unhappy, for example, with increased bread prices or with anything being added to their food. Health Providers – primarily responsible for distributing information about fortification to patients. Health providers are often trusted in their community to provide accurate information on health topics and can help educate patients about fortification and associated health issues. Bakers – primarily responsible for baking goods with fortified flour. Some countries or areas even have an association of bakers that can organize to support the campaign. Bakers can also assist in educating consumers about fortification with materials in their shops or special packaging. On the other hand, bakers can organize against fortified flour, so it is important to engage them and bring them on board if you suspect there is potential for resistance. (Note: this group is most likely not relevant if fortifying rice.) This is by no means an exhaustive list of target audiences. Other target audiences may include international non-governmental organizations such as UNICEF or Xxxxx Xxxxxx International, civic groups, consumer protection associations, etc. List other key decision makers who need to be included as target audiences in your country:
