Alternative growth opportunities for contraceptive social marketing programs

As social marketing programs mature and exhaust their initial "natural" markets, they must seek growth from alternative sources. The author explores both conceptually and empirically four approaches to growth that vary in the degree to which they concentrate on current products/services and/or current customers. The growth experiences of three contraceptive social marketing programs are reported and lessons from those experiences are derived. The author concludes by discussing the broader issue of what circumstances should justify growth of a social marketing program beyond its initial mandate.