Developing a Product-Service-System for the MTego mosquito trap

Abstract

This report describes the results of a thesis for PreMal BV, a start-up company that develops mosquito traps. It is the companies mission to capture anopheles mosquitoes before they can bite and contribute to reducing malaria transmission in Africa and other malaria zones around the world. To be able to achieve their goal, PreMal aims to implement high numbers of traps in the field. This project has been initiated to assist PreMal in their journey towards implementing their mosquito traps as an add-on product to the Solar Home System (SHS) market. Next to PreMal, SolarWorks! (SW) is the second party connected to this project. This is a SHS distributor that was established in The Netherlands but operates in Mozambique and Malawi, both Sub-Saharan African countries. PreMal partnered-up with SW for the promotion, sales, distribution, and support of their products. This way PreMal gained access to a wide, growing, target group of people that could benefit from their product. The challenging part of this project was to design a Product-Service-System that was able to connect the two main stakeholders in their wishes and needs while at the same time staying customer centered. To be able to design this system, desk and field research was conducted and literature was supported with field work findings to build a stable framework to build upon. During the desk research phase information was gathered about SHS, SW, the BoP customer, PAYG-payment models, and PSS. Main findings include that a PSS with a PAYG payment model would suit both the distributing company and the customer. While during field research in Malawi the key findings that arose were related to practical manners such as when people would be able to pay for a product, how they would prefer to pick-up sachets and how the promotion and sales process of the product could look like. The decisions that had to be made in the design phase were backed by arguments from the desk and field research phases. The PSS that was developed could be divided in six elements that cover the journey of the MTego mosquito trap from development through distribution and use, towards end-of-life. Key decisions were that the product will be sold mainly in a package with a SHS, that odour sachets must be picked up in the stores of SW, that PAYG services will be used to offer contract periods of up to 18 months, and that people that already own a SHS have the ability to buy the product separately with a short, 6-month PAYG-contract. This report concludes with recommendations for further research that include reducing the price of the product to reach a bigger target audience, developing a smaller and cheaper edition of the MTego for inside use, and research into the best way to create mosquito-free zones in rural communities.