During the period October 2019 to January 2020, SMC conducted an ‘Availability Study’ to assess the availability and acceptability of its own products as opposed to that of the competitors’ brands all over the country, particularly at SMC’s Blue Star (BS) and Green Star (GS) outlets. The survey covered availability of the product categories like Oral Contraceptive Pill (OCP), Condom, Injectable contraceptives, Emergency Contraceptive Pill (ECP), Oral Rehydration Salt (ORS), Micronutrient Powder (MoniMix), SMC Zinc, Safe Delivery Kit, and Sanitary Napkins and at the same time assessing satisfaction of the sellers in respect to uninterrupted supply of the SMC brands.

Key findings of the study potrayed that at least one SMC contraceptive brand of any contraceptive categories (OCP, injectables and condom) was found in almost 98.5% BS and 98% GS outlets (on an average); ORSaline-N was found to be the most available ORS brand (98.8% in BS and 99.4% in GS outlets); MoniMix was found in both outlets (98.9% in BS and 98.4% in GS outlets) as the widely available micronutrient powder ‘Norix 1’ was found as the most available ECP brand in both the outlets (76.2% in BS and 78.2% in GS outlets) and at least one SMC Zinc brand was available in 93.1% BS and 88.5% GS outlets. 

The survey also revealed that around 93% of the sellers (both BS and GS outlets) are satisfied by selling SMC products where only a few outlets faced stock-out situation. Major ways of product replenishment found through ‘after call delivery’ by sales Officers (47.2%), ‘wait for company SO’ (27.7%) and ‘buy from market’ (18.6%);   

The facts findings of the study also manifests that SMC’s BS and GS networks are playing instrumental role to enhance the demand of SMC products and services and also contributing significantly to sell SMC’s pharmaceutical products.

Currently, SMC has 8,013 BS and 4,500 GS who are community level non-graduate medical service providers, obtained training on family planning, reproductive health, child health & nutrition and so on offering quality services to the community people including public health priority areas.

The survey finally reveals that more than 90% of SMC products are available in the outlets which eventually reflect its gaining popularity and on the other hand opening up the window of opportunities to explore and introduce more public health products to serve the community.