Brought to you by the members of Maximizing Access & Quality Initiative

IUD Toolkit

Up-to-date evidence and best practices related to the Intrauterine Device

Brought to you by USAID's Maximizing Access & Quality Initiative

Marketing and Communication

To maximize effect, demand-side communication and marketing activities should be coordinated and integrated with supply-side activities that are focusing on IUD availability (e.g., clinical and counseling training; secure logistics and supplies).
Consumer-directed information about the IUD can increase demand for and use of the IUD by effectively addressing common barriers to greater IUD use-low awareness of the method, low knowledge of its benefits; prevalence of rumors and myths, all of which contribute to poor image.
Clients who have been informed prior to a clinic visit about the IUD and its benefits may be more likely to ask their provider about it, thereby creating a "pull" that helps ensure its inclusion among contraceptive options presented.
In settings where the target audience's awareness of IUDs is low, the primary needs are to raise awareness, provide correct information, and connect potential clients to qualified providers. Where awareness is high but negative information and myths are common, the objective is not only to provide correct knowledge but also to counter barriers by specifically addressing prevailing myths, rumors, and health concerns.
Formative research shows that benefits valued by IUD users include its being: "hassle-free" (no repeated clinic visits for re-supply; no need to remember a pill daily or return for injections); a longer-term method that can be discontinued when the client desires, with immediate return to previous level of fecundability; non-surgical; safe and highly reliable; without hormonal effects (for the Copper-T); inexpensive over time.
Communications should specifically advertise sites where IUD services are available, linking clients to providers who are trained in proper insertion and can provide accurate, unbiased, and more detailed information, including proper counseling on side effects. Channeling clients to skilled providers ensures clients will be given the method if they want it, and have a more positive experience, leading to positive word of mouth.
Marketing efforts need to target not only potential clients, but also influencer groups, including spouses, community leaders, journalists, and providers. Communications should include provision of general information for providers who do not offer IUDs to support referral systems to providers who do provide them.
If using shorter communication formats (e.g., radio or television spots, posters), formative research should be used to identify the benefits as well as the negative aspects of the IUD as perceived by a particular (target) group, in order to create focused messages. Attempts to address multiple issues simultaneously may result in dilution of individual messages and less overall impact.