If Botswana lovers ever think of condoms, they imagine the unpleasant smelling latex that stand between them and pleasure ? a recent survey has revealed.
The condom, however, may soon shed its image as a ?passion killer? and a pack of fruit flavored Lovers Plus condoms could be the first thing cool and sexy lovers go in search of.
Local distributors of the Lovers Plus condom, Population Service International (PSI) Botswana, known as ?The Condom Company?, last week launched fruit flavored and colored condoms which ?offer pleasure enhancement during love-making.?
The coloured and fruit flavored Lovers Plus condoms are unique condoms that are designed to spice up sex. They come in an assorted pack of three different flavours namely banana, strawberry and mint. This new product is not just condoms but a real sex enhancer that protects comprehensively without killing the passion.
Speaking at the launch, which was held at the Gaborone International Conference Centre (GICC), Country Representative, Soumitro Ghosh, explained that the product stemmed from research studies carried out by PSI?s research division. The research results highlighted users? dissatisfaction with the unpleasant smell of latex condoms and the very need to keep pace with changing market expectations and dynamics.
?Lifestyle changes, so do condoms,? said Ghosh. He described this new product as a unique product which does not only protect but also adds fun to the act of lovemaking. ?This is indeed a godsend for those users who have been dissatisfied with the unpleasant smell of latex condoms,? he said.
Ghosh stated that PSI?s stellar work is a key catalyst that brings condoms out of the closet making them acceptable in the day to day life of average Batswana, who have helped the condom market to grow in this country by several folds.
The product comes in an attractive pack of 3 different flavours and is priced at P5. The packs are available at various gift shops and modern trade outlets apart from the chemist outlets across the country.
Launched in Botswana in 1993, Lovers Plus plain condoms have also been re-launched in a new, internationally popular, WHO-recommended square compact pack with no change in price. With condoms not attracting VAT anymore, Ghosh explained that all new Lovers Plus plain condoms now cost less ? P2 for a pack of three.
This company uses its unique social marketing strategies to make its products available to the target beneficiaries at the right time and the right price.
Furthermore, Ghosh said that PSI?s distinctive and innovative social marketing strategies and techniques have made significant contributions in increasing reported condom use.
?The increase was shown among 15 ? 24 year-olds from less than one per cent in 1988 to 72.9 percent in 2004.?
PSI?s Condom Social Marketing program sells and distributes over 4 million Lovers Plus condoms annually. The company has cumulatively sold over 30 million condoms over the past 14 years in Botswana.
PSI?s future plan is to introduce other kinds of condoms and more flavours so that people can have different varieties designed for everyone?s fantasy. ?We want these condoms not only to be seen as contraceptives but also to make sexual life more exciting. PSI is not only selling condoms, we are selling pleasure,? concluded Ghosh.