[Stoves] Billion Stoves Program (Karin Troncoso)

[Kevin Chisholm]

Dear Paul

psanders at ilstu.edu wrote:
> Dear Kevin and all,
> 
> Quoting Kevin Chisholm <kchisholm at ca.inter.net>:
> 
> Snip>>
>>
>> We on this List are a world apart from the people we wish to help. Our 
>> opinions of what would be a good program name are not nearly as 
>> important as the opinion of the Mother in Kanchan's photo.
> 
> To the contrary.  The woman in the photo is interested in ONE stove, the 
> one
> that should be HER stove.  She is not interested in any world-wide 
> program or
> in whatever name that program has.

To sell a billion stoves, you need a billion buyers, each one wanting 
her own clean stove. Given that she wants a clean stove, then why not 
call a spade a spade? I would suggest that if the concept is pitched to 
Funding Agencies as a "Billion Stove Program", somewhere along the line, 
its title will have to be changed to arouse the interest of the 
Customer. I would suggest that such a fragmented approach would not work 
as well as a consistent marketing approach.
> 
> The name "Billion Stoves" program is for the people who are affluent and 
> who
> need to get excited about doing something to help the billion households 
> that
> need better stoves.  Everyone in the Affluent World does realize that the
> people do have some sort of "cooking arrangement".  But to the people in 
> Europe
> and North America, a "three-stove-fire" is not really a "stove", it is 
> more of a
> campfire.

Simply show these affluent people Kanchan's picture, and they should 
rush in to support the "Billion Clean Stove" program!! :-)
> 
> Our message (the marketing of the idea) about needing a "billion stoves" is
> really for the affluent, not for the target population that needs 
> stoves.  The
> stove recipients will want "clean safe, etc. stoves", but only one or 
> two for
> the home, or maybe 50 for the village.
>
I would suggest that no funding Agency is going to put a bag of money 
into any program unless they know what it is to accomplish.

Anybody can build a stove. Wouldn't the Funding Sources be wiser to put 
their money into "Clean Stoves?" If you were responsible for releasing 
such funding, would you be more favourably inclined to support a 
"Billion Clean Stoves", or a "Billion Stoves?"

Best wishes,

Kevin