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From Young Rural Intenders to Ready-To-Limit Pragmatists: Segmenting the Family Planning Market to Improve Behavior Change Interventions in the Philippines

Although contraceptive use in the Philippines has increased steadily over the past 35 years, results from the 2003 Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) showed that family planning (FP) use had reached a plateau. One way to address this plateau and revitalize contraceptive use is to promote behavior change communication (BCC) efforts that are tailored to specific subgroups, as opposed to generalized campaigns. Client-Centered Market Segmentation is a data analysis tool developed by the Private Sector Partnerships-One (PSP-One) project to help FP program managers tailor their interventions and messages to the needs of specific segments of the population. The tool draws on classic market segmentation approaches used by major commercial companies toincrease product sales and grow market share. Client-Centered Market Segmentation allows a much broader, multidimensional segmentation of the FP market by highlighting not only demographic and economic variations, but also group differences in values, beliefs, and attitudes, all of which are likely key drivers of FP demand and use. The present Client-Centered Market Segmentation study segments nonusers of FP in the Philippines into several subgroups, each with its own unique and multidimensional profile, and makes recommendations about how BCC strategies can best incorporate this information to effectively target and meet the needs of different nonuser groups.