Oral Contraceptives Social Marketing Social marketing improves access to methods such as OCs by making them widely available, well known, and affordable. The social marketing approach is to offer contraceptives for sale in the commercial sector at subsidized prices, while promoting them in the mass media and where they are sold. Social marketing offers the pill in places where users are already likely to be shopping, including markets, kiosks, and grocery stores, thus often eliminating the need for a special trip to obtain pills. Social marketing is widespread. Some social marketing programs now operate without subsidy, sustaining themselves wholly from the sales of contraceptives.
Some clients are willing and able to pay full price for family planning services.
Growing numbers of users prefer to pay for pills from the private sector, where they can obtain the quality, convenience, and continuity of service that private providers often offer. Promoting expansion of the commercial sector improves access to OCs because it offers users more places to obtain pills. Also, when family planning users switch from the public sector to the commercial sector, public funds can go further to improve access for those who cannot afford full price. Government action can stimulate commercial sector growth. For example, placing the pill on a country's list of essential drugs can reduce import barriers, making OCs less expensive.