In her past lives Alice Clements has been a PR Practitioner, Author, University Lecturer and Researcher. She is now the PR and Marketing Manager for Marie Stopes International Australia. Marie Stopes International provides sexual and reproductive healthcare services to 4.8 million people in 38 countries.

You moved to Marie Stopes Australia as the PR and Marketing Manager towards the end of 2007 - how is working for a not-for-profit different to working at a for-profit company?

Well, my most recent role was as a lecturer at a university which I would hesitate to call a commercial environment! Prior to that though, I have worked as a PR consultant and also in government roles - so I have seen and worked in pretty much all angles of the communication sector.

The interesting thing for me working in a not-for-profit environment now is actually the similarities between the not-for-profit and commercial sectors… Marie Stopes International Australia (MSIA) calls itself (and operates as) a social business and if anything I find that we provide more accountability to our donors and supporters than you might in a commercial role. We have an annual reporting process, we communicate constantly with our supporters and procurement etc is all the same as a for-profit company (except we are obviously very price-sensitive).

The main difference, of course, is in the resourcing. We can have as many great ideas about communicating the work we do and the need that exists in the areas of sexual and reproductive health in low-income countries, but if we don’t have the budget or staff numbers to turn the ideas into reality then we’re not going anywhere. From a communications perspective, it might be something as small (but frustrating!) as not being able to choose your preferred supplier because the cost of their (quality) product or service is simply out of your range. On the upside, every staff member who is at MSIA is here by choice (it’s actually quite difficult to get a job in the international development sector so many people have worked really hard to get here) and is working in this sector because they’re passionate about the work we do - which is more than can be said for most workplaces!

You mentioned to me once that Marie Stopes doesn’t use any photos of neglected and unhappy children in its marketing - could you explain that? How else do business and organisational values affect marketing and PR on a practical level?

Marie Stopes International Australia is a signatory to the ACFID (Australian Council for International Development) Code of Conduct. As part of this code, we have undertaken to abide by the following:

“In all of its activities and particularly its communications to the public, the Organisation will accord due respect to the dignity, values, history, religion, and culture of the people with whom it works consistent with principles of basic human rights.”

We take this pretty seriously at MSIA and do our best to avoid including images of people in situations that are demeaning, dehumanising or where the person is clearly in distress. This is quite a different approach to that taken by some other aid agencies, which have found that these type of images result in higher levels of donations from the public. This may well be the case but it is not something we do and perhaps we pay a price in our fundraising because of it. What we do know is that the people we work with are generally willing and happy to be photographed and this is perhaps a reflection of the way in which we photograph them and use their images respectfully.

Beyond this one aspect, our values are integrated into all other areas of our work. All purchasing decisions include considerations of the environment and manufacturing practices; our annual report is printed on recycled paper in Australia, our packaging for our condom products is all recyclable and our Indigenous health program revolves around the concept of community-control. All of our country programs in Cambodia, China, East Timor (Timor Leste), Mongolia, Myanmar, the Pacific, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines and Vietnam are staffed, where possible, by local staff and managed ‘in country’. Last, but by no means least, the services that we provide around Asia and the Pacific include the full range of family planning options (within what is permitted by law in each country). The main idea driving our work is that everyone has the right to have ‘children by choice, not by chance’ and this means that we address the issues surrounding family planning, sexual and reproductive health head on. This is a stance that sometimes draws the attention of conservative religious groups ~ and the possibility of protests or action by these groups is something we are always conscious of, when ensuring the safety and wellbeing of the people we work with.

Vixen Condoms is the main brand that you are promoting right now, where did it come from and how it is different to everything else on the market?

Vixen Condoms is a new condom social marketing product that has been designed by and for women in Australia. We did a lot of research with women and found that, while many of them are the primary purchasers of condoms, ALL of the branding and marketing of existing condom brands in Australia was targeted towards men, with overtly sexual or male-oriented packaging - the next time you’re in the supermarket, pay attention to where the condoms are located… I can guarantee they’ll be near the shaving products!

So, basically, we spent a huge amount of time with women in our target market (18-35 years approximately), listening to their needs and learning about what they wanted out of a condom product. The first thing we learnt was that they didn’t want something that looked like condoms or which screamed ‘SEX!’, so Vixen condoms come in an attractive and discrete tin that can be carried in your bag or purse. The condoms themselves also look quite different to the average condom, with a fingernail-proof container that is easy to get into (when time really is of the essence!). Women who use Vixen rave about it - feedback has been incredibly positive and we are hearing that women who use Vixen are more comfortable buying and carrying condoms with them at all times… which, from our perspective is fantastic.

The other important difference is that $1 from every pack of Vixen condoms goes towards our work in the low-income countries I mentioned earlier. So, to quote one of our advertising taglines, ‘women can feel good all over’ when buying Vixen! As you can see from this and our other activities, we are not your average ‘bleeding heart charity’ - Vixen is a great example of our efforts to apply innovative solutions to pressing problems - solutions that involve and benefit everyone.

Email marketing and e-cards are used to spread the word about new things that are happening on the Vixen Condoms website, how do you use them and how effective are they?

We are very lucky to have the pro bono support of an amazing advertising agency, CumminsNitro, who have unleashed their creative team on our behalf, creating a great website, complete with ‘cock puppet’ shows (they have to be seen to be believed!).

We have also been working on some viral campaigns which drive viewers to our sites (www.comebeautifullyprepared.com, www.vixencondoms.com & www.cockpuppets.com.au) and, in turn, hopefully drive sales. We have just done one for xmas and another one will be released for Valentines Day. At this point in time, we are still testing the waters with our viral work - it is cost-effective and our site analytics always indicate significant spikes but our member database will need to be stronger (we’re working on this now!) for it to have a better reach and we often have difficulties with spam filters and software compatibility issues that stop it from having as broad a reach as we’d like. Consider it a work in progress!

Previous to Vixen Marie Stopes Australia was promoting Snake Condoms to promote safe sex in the Indigenous community of Mildura, in Australia - there are lots of details about the results of campaign on the website. How do you measure the results of a PR campaign to find out if it is having an impact?

Snake Condoms are our Indigenous condom brand which is now in the process of being rolled out nationally (please excuse the outdated description on the website - the entire MSIA website is being overhauled as I write :-s). It is another testament to the effectiveness of partnerships and community control and we are really proud of it, as it was designed by and for Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island communities with our partner, the Victorian Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation (VACCHO).

As with any organisation, we have KPIs etc etc, but ours differ from most insofar as that one of our main measures is called a CYP (Couple Year of Protection ~ the number of contraceptives that have been sold to protect one couple for a year from unintended pregnancy). So, in measuring the effectiveness of a social marketing campaign like Snake, we look at how many condoms have been distributed, how community attitudes towards safer sex and condom use have shifted, how behaviour has changed and how community knowledge has grown (we’re assessing ‘knowledge, attitudes and behaviour’, to use the industry language).

Measurement and evaluation is central to any education or behaviour-change communication so it is another thing we take quite seriously. As for the results of our communication about MSIA as an organisation, these are generally measured through the strength of our relationships and partnerships, as well as how the community perceives our work. Old-fashioned evaluation of outputs through a media monitoring service is also ongoing, where budget permits.

Having had lots of experience in PR, what are your top 5 tips for entrepreneurs who are just getting started?

That’s a tricky one! Errr…I think I’ll go for some general ‘life advice’ which I have found more conducive to developing and maintaining good relationships overall. Relationships, after all, are pretty key to what any communicator (entrepreneur or otherwise) does:

1. The best time to establish a professional relationship is when you don’t need anything from the other party e.g. learning about the job market when you don’t need a job or establishing a relationship with a journalist when you’re not desperate for coverage. It allows you to communicate in a much more equal way and it starts the relationship off on the right footing (about a year before graduating I spent a few weeks ‘interviewing’ the heads of all the main PR organizations in NZ over coffee
   1. a) to learn more about the industry and
   2. b) to establish a connection that would give me a head start when I was job hunting ~ it worked a treat
2. Under promise and over deliver (a cliché but one that has saved my backside on many an occasion ~ and one which makes you look great!)
3. Treat ALL others as you would wish to be treated ~ some of my best professional successes have come from the support of receptionists or PAs who I have treated with respect, empathy and courtesy.
4. It won’t get you rich quick but staying true to your personal values (you have to figure out what they are first of course!) will ensure a longer, happier, working life … it’s harder to burn out when you’re passionate about what you’re doing and don’t feel compromised by doing it.
5. Don’t assume everyone is like you or thinks like you - look at the world from as many angles as possible and you’ve got more chance of success in the long run.
6. (You’ll have to indulge me with a 6th even though I was only allocated 5!): Listen, reflect and communicate (in that order) - being a good communicator will, in my biased opinion, be one of your best assets in business. It should be the last thing you neglect when the going gets rough.

Thanks Alice! You can find out more about what is happening at Marie Stopes International Australia.

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Posted on January 24th, 2008 by Ross