Trying to craft an advertising strategy has been an interesting experience in Kenya. The marketing channels are far more limited than in the US. E-mail, direct mail, search engine marketing, magazine ads, and event sponsorship are all unavailable. Television ads are both prohibitively expensive and not terribly useful to reach a large population that doesn’t own a television (or certainly doesn’t watch it as much as Americans). After spending a lot of time observing what works in Kenya, it seems one of our best options is plastering the area with signs.
We’ll likely use a combination of large road side signs placed on the main road, along with hundreds of small signs that we’ll provide to shops that sell our filters. Here are some mock ups of potential road side signs. If they seem very simplistic, it’s because they are. Advertising here is generally very basic and to the point. In fact, the most common way to produce a sign around Kiminini / Kitale is to have it painted by hand.
Road side sign 1
Of course, like all marketing, a single channel is not nearly as effective as an integrated multi-channel campaign, so these signs will reinforce the messages we’re promoting through live market demonstrations, community group presentations, educational fliers, and more.
Road side sign 2
Road side sign 3
Road side sign 4
Road side sign 5
Road side sign 6
Clean Water For All 
I would buy a water filter. I would also like to point out you are quite tall. Keep up the good work.
Oh yes, and I expect you to teach me awesome swahili phrases when you get back.
This is slightly off topic… but I am wondering — how do people treat diarrhea over there? I came across this interesting article about a simple home remedy that is apparently a life saver in Bangladesh. The formula is: “A pinch of salt. A fistful of sugar. A half liter of water.” I wonder if Kenyans have anything similar to this. Here’s the article I found:
http://www.komonews.com/news/health/92585344.html
Oran rehydration solution (ORS) is commonly known amongst medical professionals here and is very helpful in minimizing the harm of diarrhea, especially in children. Interestingly. all the educational material plus the doctors that are working here on the water filter project believe the ratio should be reversed: 8 teaspoons of salt, 1 teaspoon of sugar, and a liter of water.
I really don’t know if the locals are very aware of ORS. I may try to ask a few people before I leave just out of curiosity. Thanks for bringing up the subject.
I like the marketing campaign; sometimes, simplicity is the key to efficacy. I wonder if you have any ads in Swahili (for non-English speaking locals). And I also like your header image, in the context of marketing for this project, because it symbolically shows the benefit of the product. I have a feeling that visual representation of end users (happy end users) may work well too (of course, local research may indicate otherwise)
I originally expected that we would have signs in both English and Kiswahili. As it turns out, virtually all signs here are in English only. We may have one or two in Kiswahili, but for the most part we’ll likely just follow what the other local businesses are doing.
I also agree about having a picture of “happy end users”. I’m not sure if that will be on all the signs, but certainly having a picture of a happy family drinking water next to a filter is a good idea.