Demand Catalyst

The Demand Catalyst focuses on understanding consumers and driving demand through consumer-level interventions. This component will support consumer-facing awareness raising and behavior change campaigns, collaboration with partners to integrate clean cooking messages into complementary initiatives, and the provision of marketing assistance to companies. While these activities will seek to increase demand for the entire product category, they will be informed by, and aligned with, the target markets and product and service offerings of the Venture Catalyst portfolio companies.

Making the transition to a new cookstove and/or fuel presents a complex behavioral challenge. For many, preparing meals over open fires and traditional cookstoves is a deeply ingrained practice that has been passed down for generations. But evidence-based communication that is rooted in a deep understanding of the target audience and uses a combination of approaches can facilitate behavior change.

The goal of the Alliance’s Behavior Change Communication (BCC) program is to ensure that appropriate, evidence-based communications aimed at driving demand and adoption of clean cooking achieve scale and effectiveness to complement supply-side interventions. To achieve this, we support category building (brand agnostic) interventions, provide grants and capacity building to enterprises, conduct knowledge sharing to disseminate best practices and provide technical assistance.

• Direct Support for BCC Interventions – The Alliance oversees the design, implementation, and evaluation of multiple cooking-focused BCC interventions in our focus countries. These interventions deliver impactful, evidence-based communications aimed at influencing consumer purchasing decisions and encouraging consistent use of cleaner cooking options.
• Building the Evidence Base - A research team led by Berkeley Air Monitoring Group and the George Washington University are conducting a rigorous evaluation of Alliance supported interventions in Bangladesh, Kenya, and Nigeria, with final results expected in late 2018.
  FumbAlive - Uganda

  My Neighborhood's Smoke - Guatemala

  Obaatan Boafo - Ghana

  Upishi Digi - Kenya

  Shamba Chef - Kenya

  Upgrade to Gas - Nigeria

  Modern Cookstoves - Nepal

  Smoke is Disappearing, Progress is Appearing - India
• Enterprise Marketing Fund (EMF) - EMF grants and capacity building support help enterprises build their brands and reach more consumers with marketing and communication efforts. To date the Alliance has made awards to 10 enterprises in Guatemala, Kenya, and Bangladesh. 
• Knowledge Sharing – The Alliance facilitates the sharing of knowledge and learnings from past and ongoing cooking-focused BCC interventions by hosting and contributing to webinars and events and developing tools and resources. Check out our BCC Resource Hub to find materials from marketing and communications campaigns undertaken in the clean cooking sector, including television commercials, radio spots, print materials, and reports and evaluations.
• Technical Assistance - The Alliance provides technical assistance to partners and governments interested in designing, implementing and evaluating cooking focused BCC interventions.