PROJECT PROPOSAL
CAREBAG December, 2018
Eria Kozu Juliana Pereira Iana Prakheeva
TABLE OF CONTENTS ABOUT CAREBAG...............................................................................................................................................................1 MEET THE TEAM.................................................................................................................................................................3 OUR STORY...........................................................................................................................................................................5 INDUSTRY OVERVIEW.....................................................................................................................................................12 ENVIRONMENT MAP........................................................................................................................................................14 COMPETITORS....................................................................................................................................................................16 DEVELOPMENT..................................................................................................................................................................20 MVPS.......................................................................................................................................................................................31 WHAT IS NEXT....................................................................................................................................................................37 CONTACTS............................................................................................................................................................................43 APPENDIX 1..........................................................................................................................................................................44 APPENDIX 2.........................................................................................................................................................................45 APPENDIX 3.........................................................................................................................................................................50
ABOUT CAREBAG > BRAND
> ACCESSIBILITY > COMMUNITY
We are a Startup company in Lagos, Nigeria. Our product is a CareBag kit.
PAGE 1.
Our goal is to create a society where all women around the world feel healthy and safe. With the support of local communities and local brands, we hope to create opportunities and connections in an environment of constant growth. By providing access to information and comfort, we believe women will be more successful in overcoming economic and social challenges. This is the first step to create a chance for society to recognize that women's bodies and nature should not be one more challenge to them.
PAGE 2.
MEET OUR TEAM Coming from different continents, we have been exposed to similar social problems with health and sex education. Being in the USA made us realize that not every female in the world has a privilege to have access to female hygiene products and reliable comprehensive sex education. We are determined to help to improve the lives of women in developing countries. PAGE 3.
Eria Kozu
Juliana Pereira
Iana Prakheeva
Japan
Brazil
Russia
Co-founder
Co-founder
Co-founder
PAGE 4.
THIS IS OUR STORY CareBag did not start as a single idea. It was a problem that needed a solution: how to make sex education more accessible in developing countries? How can we provide young people with the skills they need for healthy decision-making?
PAGE 5.
WHY IS SEX EDUCATION IMPORTANT? Tool to tackle overpopulation Awareness and decline of STIs Reduction of gender-based violence Gender Equality Reproductive rights The decrease of unexpected pregnancies among teenagers
PAGE 6.
Focusing on sex education, we started to develop our ideas.
IDEA 1
To create an informational deck of cards about sex ed targeted at school programs to offer reliable information in a fun way
PAGE 7.
IDEA 2 To create a comprehensive sex ed teaching program that is relevant to different cultures and becomes a safe environment for our customers
PAGE 8.
IDEA 3 To create an app and website with reliable content about sex ed, creating a dialogue and including different cultural perspectives PAGE 9.
Moving forward we chose to combine the deck of cards and website ideas
BMC 1
PAGE 10.
ENVIRONMENTAL HYPOTHESES & FINDINGS
1. Little competition & high demand for sex ed.
2. Support from local community. We thought of five assumptions to be tested from our initial idea and to test it, we did an environment scan, industry overview, and
3. Availability of NPO grants and funds.
competitor analysis. For detailed information about our findings, look APPENDIX 1, 2 and 3. 4. Cultural Acceptance.
5. No restricting federal laws.
PAGE 11.
INDUSTRY OVERVIEW For detailed information look APPENDIX 1. PAGE 12.
Ways to teach Sex Education: 1. Informal (conversation with a parent, friend, religious leader, or through the media, sex selfhelp authors, magazine advice columnists, sex columnists, or sex education web sites) 2. Formal (schools or health care providers, the curriculum in junior high school or high school) Other times it is only one unit within a more broad biology, health, home economics, or physical education class. Many places worldwide still do not teach sex education, since it remains a controversial issue in several countries. Sex education consists of two main elements of knowledge and value. Since both aspects are fundamental to a good sex education. In our startup, we want to address both. ---------> We chose to focus on several countries with the highest level of problems related to sex education (such as high teenage pregnancy and a high percentage of HIV/AIDS). We looked at 2 countries (South Africa and Nigeria). However, Nigeria became our main area of focus.
PAGE 13.
ENVIRONMENT SCAN For detailed information look APPENDIX 1. PAGE 14.
KEY TRENDS:
MARKET FORCES:
Digitization
Teenagers & Young Adult
Cloud Adoption
Place to consult and ask questions
Physical-Digital Interaction
Switching Costs
Millenials are projected to outnumber Baby
Comprehensive services will bind our
Boomers next year
customers.
INDUSTRY FORCES:
MACRO-ECONOMIC FORCES:
Competitors (AMAZE Org, INTERNATIONAL ORGS &
Nigeria is upper-middle income country and 30th
WEBSITES)
largest economy in the world
Substitute Products and Services (MY QUESTION
Unemployment in Nigeria: 14.2%
AND ANSWER SERVICE)
Challenges for businesses: government
Suppliers and other Value Chain Actors
bureaucracy, restrictive labour regulations,
(ABSTINENCE PROGRAMS, EDUCATIONAL
shortage of skilled workers, political instability and
CURRICULUM)
corruption
Stakeholders (GOVERNMENT, LOCAL
Nigeria: UN sponsored National Millennium goals to
ORGANIZATIONS)
target social issues
PAGE 15.
COMPETITORS For detailed information look APPENDIX 3. PAGE 16.
My Question (My Q) is a free service that allows young
MYperiodKIT
people to access accurate non-
To increase access of girls in rural
judgmental and confidential
communities where water and
information anonymously no
soap for proper hand washing
matter their location and at their
after each menstrual change are
convenience. It encourages
not readily available.
young people to seek and
MYperiodKIT also aims to
acquire accurate information
encourage them to start their
about their sexual reproductive
own business of distribution (of
health and HIV and AIDS in a
the product) or use the re-seller
creatively and entertaining
option as an added stream of
manner. You can get questions
income.
answered online, by sns and
Solace For She And Child Care Initiative Promoting and undertaking social and economic welfare programs in the areas of Health, Education, Counseling and Poverty alleviation. Their continuous sanitary boost campaign provides sanitary products to schools and health centers targeting poor girls 10-15 years, pregnant women and nursing mothers.
calls. Popular and technology oriented. PAGE 17.
WHERE WE STARTED Partner with local sex education platforms, hygiene distributors and brands and healthcare providers. Present sexual education as a solution to societal problems by uniting forces. Create strategic alliances with religious leaders, school officials, local social entrepreneurs, and local influencers.
PAGE 18.
These are some industry assumptions that have been proven correct though our environment research.
01
There will be little competition and high demand for
02
We will have support from local
03
NPO grants and funds will be
04
Sex Education is culturally accepted
05
There will be no restricting federal
communities
available
laws
There is direct
There is support
There is NPOs
Sex Education is
There are no
competiton.
from local
funding available
treated as a taboo,
restricting laws.
However, the
communities,
but it requires
but it is required by
There are
demand is high
specially when it
more research
law in Nigerian
incentives
comes to
and targeted
schools
education
attention
Sex Education
.
Moving further, we started to talk to potential customers in Nigeria and some experts in the field of education and social entrepreneurship to develop the startup. PAGE 19.
DEVELOPMENT
PAGE 20.
BMC 2
PAGE 21.
Regarding our customer segment, we had several assumptions that we focused on during the development:
LOOKING FOR THE CUSTOMER MARKET FIT
1. Young teenagers don’t have enough information about comprehensive sexual education due to a fear-based approach to education. 2. Young females have access to technology that they use as their main source of information.
PAGE 22.
Customer persona.
Melie, 15 years old Living in Lagos, Nigeria Goes to boarding school and takes part in assemblies and groups. Has limited access to the internet while in school (nine months a year). Helps out her mother when she is home. She gets information from her family, school, neighbors, community, and the internet. She wants to fit in and to be right. Pain: The suppressed natural curiosity of sex Public Exposure General Mutilation Abuse of LGBTQ+ Community Boko Haram female abduction
To dive deeper into the understanding of sex education worldwide and specifically in Nigeria, we conducted a series of interviews and did research surrounding this topic.
2 9
out of
People responded to our message, and we asked...
Where, when and how did you learn about sex ed? What approach people in general use when talking about SexEd? (example: fear-based approach? sexuality approach? abstinence-based) What are the barriers to learning about sex ed? What is your relationship with technology? PAGE 24.
Interviews.
1 234
The Earlier the Better
Girls do NOT Learn
about Contraceptives
It is common for children to
Sex Ed is not only explored
start learning about Sex Ed
in class but also in school
when they are around 8-10
assemblies with teachers,
years old. Younger than our
and in school groups (HIV
original target audience
awareness) with peers. Themes like sexual
harassment, self protection, pregnancy and abstinence
are common but girls don’t learn about contraceptives.
Boarding School
Parents Care
People have access to
The family exercises
internet but cellphones are
influence in the teens
more popular and
health/sex ed (Mothers
accessible than computers.
teach about
Even so, there is poor
contraceptives, dad takes
internet connection.
care of medical needs, has the initiative to look for
Our target audience goes
answers)
to boarding school (very
common) and has little to
no access to internet while there
other findings
Premarital sex is not accepted in the country, so there is little info regarding safe sex.
LGBTQ+ have little info about safe sex because believe they will never have a partner and society is not there for them
People don’t see SexEd as something essential. There is a lack of other essential care, so this is left aside. PAGE 25.
BMC 3
PAGE 26.
1. Have easy access to the internet and uses it frequently. 2. Affected negatively by a fear-based approach to learning about sex ed. 3. Want and need better comprehensive sex education.
FURTHER ASSUMPTIONS ABOUT OUR POTENTIAL CONSUMERS
4. Don’t communicate with family members about sex education.
PAGE 27.
Customer persona V2.
Ifunania, 33 years old Living in Lagos, Nigeria Mother of 2 Lower-middle class income Strong religious beliefs Values family bond and believes that daughters should learn primarily from the family, not friends. Exchange information with their coworkers and friends. Pain: Does not know how to approach sex ed to their child or denies this kind of topic. Cannot control where children get their knowledge from. PAGE 28.
PIVOTING VP Pivoting away from the website and cards was an important step in the development. After the research and in-person interviews, we realized that technology might not be a solution and we found out that there is much more important problem which is lack of accessibility to female hygiene products that needs to be addressed as well. So we decided to combine sex education and female hygiene products in one kit.
PAGE 29.
BMC 4
PAGE 30.
MINIMAL VIABLE PRODUCT To validate what we have learned about the industry and the customers, we have already build 2 MVPs.
PAGE 31.
MVP 1
We sent personalized e-mails with our website to 7 potential partners and donors. With our first MVP we wanted to know if. a) Local organizations and brands will want to partner and develop our product. b) Organizations will donate to support our mission. We were hoping that our potential partners and donors will show interest by replying to the email and visiting the website.
https://iprakhee.wixsite.com/carebag
Our expectations: 1. 25% of our potential partners show interest 2. If potential partners would put us in contact with other organizations.
As a result, we have received one positive response. Moving further, we are expanding the list of potential customers and getting in touch with them. PAGE 32.
POTENTIAL PARTNERS 1. Education as Vaccine (EAV) 2. Association for Reproductive & Family Health (ARFH) 3. Society For Family Health Nigeria (SFH) 4. Action Health Incorporated 5. Mother's Delivery Kit 6. Girls Health and Education Foundation 7. Planned Parenthood 8. Center for Reproductive Rights 9. P&G 10. Rainbow Fame Industrial (RFI) 11. LunaPads 12. pz Cussons
PAGE 33.
MVP 2
We asked 21 Nigerians at the age of 17-25 to watch the video about our brand and product, following up with a short survey. We wanted to find out how would they react to the CareBag. With the second MVP, we wanted to know if Young adults will share the information about the brand with friends and family (even though it includes the sex education booklet) We were hoping that 1. 60% of our participants state in the survey that they would share information
97.5%
of participants stated that they would share information about the product with their friends/siblings/mothers.
2. We would receive more answers on the survey than the number of participants we sent it to We have received 20 answers and qualitative feedback; however, only 13 Nigerians followed up with our survey. We have proved that young adults believe that sex education and hygiene products accessibility should be improved in Nigeria. PAGE 34.
BMC 5
PAGE 35.
01
We partner with local brands, health care
02
a leaflet containing
entrepreneurs in Lagos,
families by providing them with accessible and
accurate and culturally
Nigeria, for innovative
accurate comprehensive sex education and
appropriated women's
and basic
hygiene necessities through the CareBag.
health tips and
hygiene products.
03
information.
04 Care Bags will be sold online and distributed in the in need areas.
4 care products, including pads, and
providers and
Empowering young Nigerian women and their
Each Care Bag contains
All profits and donations are directed to production and distribution of more Care Bags for women who cannot afford it.
PAGE 36
WHAT IS NEXT To move forward with our startup, we need one last push.
PAGE 37.
BUSINESS MODEL We believe that the change for better we are seeking is possible only by empowering local communities and improving local economies. CAREBAG wants to provide support to local brands and entrepreneurs to improve the everyday life of every woman. Even though our first market is Nigeria, we want the business model and the idea of CAREBAG to succeed in different cultural contexts across the globe.
PAGE 38.
ASSUMPTIONS LEFT TO TEST
1.
FIELD RESEARCH AT LAGOS
Local artists are willing to partner for the design. Radio and home/community visits are the best way to reach our main target customers.
$6000
2.
SHIPPING THE PRODUCT
One-for-one model will be popular among higher, upper-middle class Nigerians.
$15000
3.
WORK WITH CONSERVATIVE COMMUNITIES IN THE USA
Our business model is applicable in different cultural settings.
$1000
.
WE BELIEVE That it is feasible to continue the startup. The research, interviews and the results of both MVP 1 & 2 provided us with meaningful insights into the customer segment and culture of Nigeria.
PAGE 41.
THANK YOU
CONTACTS
INTERVIEWED Melie Ekunno (19 yr-old female from Abuja, Nigeria) Ayomide Falae (19 yr-old male from Lagos, Nigeria) Lomusa Kunene (21 yr-old female from Swaziland) Holly Greaves Brown (22 yr-old female from Swaziland)
NIGERIAN ORGANIZATIONS/PARTNERS
Ina Koekemoer (23 yr-old female from South Africa)
1. Fadekemi Akinfaderin-Agarau (Founder of Education as Vaccine) 2. Grace Delano (Founder of Association for Reproductive & Family Health)
POTENTIAL INTERVIEWS
3. Sir Bright Ekweremadu (Co-director of Society For Family Health Nigeria)
Ifunanya Madueke (18 yr-old female)
4. Adepeju Jaiyeoba (Founder of Mother’s delivery kit, Brown Button Foundation)
Hosea Ogeleka (20 yr-old male from Lagos)
5. Benedicta Uweru (CEO & Founder at Girls Health and Education Foundation)
Ayomikun Ayodeji (19 yr-old male from Lagos)
6. Sarah Makka-Ugbabe (Nigerian Director of ONE WORLD Foundation)
Quadri Abiru (19 yr-old male from Lagos)
7. Action Health Incorporated
Jisinmisola Olawuyi (20 yr-old from Abuja) Charles Chiemeka Ekeogu (18 yr-old male) FURTHER CONTACTS Deji Emiabata
Hephzibah Okorie
Hamra Nduka
Farid Sani
Uade Imoukhuede
Onyeka Okafor
Folarin Bandele
Simi Oluyinka
Ola Oyenuga
Simi Segun
Honour Olatunji
Sumbo Owoyele
Amirah Sani
Tiwalade Diaro
Chenemi Maji
Febe Chukwuma PAGE 43.
APPENDIX 1: INDUSTRY OVERVIEW
PAGE 44.
APPENDIX 2: ENVIRONMENT MAP
PAGE 45.
PAGE 46.
PAGE 47.
PAGE 48.
PAGE 49.
APPENDIX 3: COMPETITOR ANALYSIS
PAGE 50.