Serving all urban consumers : a marketing approach to water services in low and middle-income countries. Book 5. Sample strategic marketing plan for water services in Kampala city, Uganda

This sample Strategic Marketing Plan (SMP) for Kampala, Uganda, is part of a series of six publications investigating how water utilities and other key stakeholders can meet the needs and demands of urban water consumers. It serves as a case study to demonstrate strategic marketing approaches for the urban water sector, through the development of an understanding of the needs and demands of all consumer groups, as set out in the three guidance books (Book 1, 2 and 3) in the same series.

The National Water and Sewerage Corporation (NWSC) is a public owned water utility. It currently operates piped water and sewerage services in twelve major towns of the country. A national sector reform study have been carried out recently, to determine the most optimal private sector participation mode in urban water services. Service coverage in Kampala is hampered by inadequate reticulation networks. The places most hit by this problem are the low-income settlements, which have been neglected by service providers, partly due to poor physical planning, partly because of a lack of interest caused by an average of 50 % unaccounted for water.

The specific marketing research objectives were to consider : 1) how to adapt marketing techniques to meet the very particular needs of low income consumers in low income countries, and 2) how to introduce strategic marketing management to conventional water utility providers, to enable them to segment their customer base and provide differentiated services and prices, resulting in financially viable utilities.