Q1)

You are a Product Manager of a leading pharmaceutical company where you have an Opportunity to launch a brand in the market which has a growth of 30% every year & there is only one competitor which does not have the brand focused for promotion. Chalk out a marketing plan for the same? (15)

Ans. Assumption made; Let us consider that I am the Product manager of a Leading Pharmaceutical company named A and launching the product X ; Whereas the competitor is named B marketing his line of product Y . The Marketing Plan is a highly detailed, heavily researched and, hopefully, well written report that many inside and possibly outside the organization will evaluate. The Marketing Plan is generally undertaken for one of the following reasons:
 Needed as part of the yearly planning process within the marketing functional area.  Needed for a specialized strategy to introduce something new, such as new product planning, entering new markets, or trying a new strategy to fix an existing problem.  Is a component within an overall business plan, such as a new business proposal to the financial community.  Introduction :

This part also includes organizational background information, which may be particularly important if the audience for the plan is not familiar with the company, such as potential financial backers. To position the company as a leading pharmaceutical company. This part of the plan contains two key components: 1. Marketing Plan 2. Mission Statement

Marketing Plan: Increase repeat customers by 30% annually. Mission Statement: A mission is to provide the customer with the best prices and service for prescription medication. Exist to attract and maintain customers. When this is achieved to highest level then, everything else will fall into place.
 Situation Analysis :

A believes that the market demand for their services will be great and are convinced that a cohesive marketing strategy is required. Since A already offers a wide range of prescription medicine for pick up at their store front or it can be distributed by mail order. A prices are far better than most pharmacies so their services will be attractive for people that just need to buy their medicine at good prices and do not need their hands held during the process. 1

 Market Analysis: Since A is the leading pharmaceutical company it does possesses good information regarding their market and the target segments that they wish to serve. A will leverage this information to better understand who is served, their specific needs, and how it can better serve them.

Market Survey & Demographic segmentation: This consists of dividing the market into groups based on variables such as age, gender family size, income, occupation, education, religion, race and nationality. Demographic segmentation variables are amongst the most popular bases for segmenting customer groups. This is partly because customer wants are closely linked to variables such as income and age. Also, for practical reasons, there is often much more data available to help with the demographic segmentation process. The profile for A customer consists of the following geographic, demographic and behaviour factors:
     

Male or female or both. Age Economically conscious of good deals. More than one medication at any one time. Cycle time of prescription. Knowing the need of customers and deliver extra services.

Market Requirement/Needs:
 Purpose of the Marketing Plan: The A Pharmacy is providing the market with a source of discounted drugs. This market need is important as many Indians are faced with the dilemma of using their limited income on food or meds. The A Pharmacy seeks to fulfill the following benefits that are important to their customers.  Selection: The A offers a wide range of medication, both originals as well as generic alternatives.  Accessibility:

X Product is distributed through our conveniently-located stores, or can be shipped within the country.
 Customer service:

The A recognizes the value of having outstanding customer service. By exceeding all of the customer's expectations, they are ensuring repeat customers and many referrals.
 Pricing:

A Pharmacy's prices will be noticeably better for X than local pharmacy company ( B ) for Y .

 Current Target Market: The A Pharmacy will have different strategies for the two different groups.

 Walk-in-Customer: The walk-in customers will be targeted through advertisements in the local paper. This advertisements will raise visibility for A Pharmacy and their discounted prices for X . As the price of medication continues to rise, A Pharmacy will assure to local people as a way to try to contain these rising costs.  Shipping: The mail order customers will be targeted through an advertising campaign in magazines and newsletters that have an older (over 55) crowd that regularly needs medication and knows in advance what their needs are. For this A will help in shipping the product within 1 day.  Positioning : A needs to position as the premier, customer-service-orientated. A Pharmacy will offer a good selection, great service, and better prices than traditional pharmacies.

The A needs to leverage their competitive edge to achieve this positioning & its competitive edge is superior pricing. As it is not a sustainable practice to compete on price. The A is able to decrease operating costs by not offering all of the typical services traditionally offered by pharmacies. The first cost measure is only employing a single pharmacist and using pharmaceutical technicians whenever possible. As long as a pharmacist is on-site during the hours of operation, The Pharmacy can use the pharmaceutical techs in all other capacities that most pharmacies use pharmacists for. The A is able to maintain industry margins through the use of other operating efficiencies. By only having a small store front and doing the bulk of business through mail order, operating costs are significantly reduced. Apart from this, A will provide each patient with a print out of all the information they need for the consumption of the drugs.

 Competition Competition takes many different forms in the pharmacy industry.

Chain pharmacies: These are state or national chains. The advantage to these chains is better prices through economies of scale as well as personalized service. The personalized service takes the form of the chain having a record of your medication purchases as well as any allergies that you have disclosed to them. Local pharmacies: These are the pharmacies where you typically know the pharmacists and they know your medical history. This option is high in personalized service and convenience, and high in price.

Mail order and Internet pharmacies: These are the orders made through Internet or through Mails. These can be overseas or inland also.
 Marketing Mix The marketing mix should be comprised of the following approaches to pricing, distribution, advertising and promotion, and customer service.

Pricing: The X prices should be better than Y . Distribution: The products will be distributed throughout the country & overseas. Advertising and Promotion: The most successful advertising campaigns will be targeted advertisements. Customer Service: Obsessive customer service is the norm. All employees have been trained to ensure that all customers expectations are exceeded. This will occur at any short term expense, realizing that this is needed to build a successful business.
 Controls The purpose of the marketing plan is to serve as a guide to the organization. The following areas should be monitored to gauge performance:    

Revenue: monthly and annual. Expenses: monthly and annual. Repeat business. Customer satisfaction.

 Analysis: Summary

In an effort to provide an easy to visualize summary of the product(s) consider using one or more of the following commonly used product/market analysis tools. (Length: 1 page)

 Planning With the Product Life Cycle  Boston Consulting Group Growth/Share Matrix  General Electric Market Attractiveness Matrix
Finally, summarize all information in the Situational Analysis


SWOT Analysis:

The following SWOT analysis captures the key strength and weaknesses within the company, and describes the opportunities and threats facing A


Strengths

 Great prices.  A unique, current business-environment-appropriate business model.  Excellent staff who are highly trained and very customer attentive.

 The ability to scale rapidly for the mail order side of the business. 

Weaknesses
 The lack of visibility and brand equity of a start-up business.  Government intervention/regulation into medicine is possible.

Opportunities
 Outside pressure on consumers to purchase meds mail order.  The constant growth of the number of people taking medication.  Newly formed alliances of insurance companies and mail order pharmacies.

Threats
 Regulatory legislation that curtails the mail order medicine industry.  Some event that cripples interstate commerce in regards to shipping.

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Q2) As marketing manager take a case study of Amul Products & place them in BCG (Boston Consultancy Group Model) & suggest us on what action plan you will take for the brands lying in the Dog & Question mark section Ans. The Boston Consulting Group s Growth Share Matrix (BCG Matrix) : This is the most popular growth share matrix model. It involves Strategic Business Units being positioned in a matrix on the basis of mark et growth rate and their market share, relative to that of their competitor.
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STARS
Modest + Or Cash Flow
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? Question Mark
Large Negative cash Flow

Market Growth Rate

CASH COWS
Large Positive Cash Flow

DOGS
Modest+ Or Cash Flow

0 10 1 The BCG Growth-Share Matrix is a portfolio planning model developed by0.1 Bruce Henderson of the Boston Consulting Group inShareearly 1970's. It is based on the the Relative Market observation that a company's business units can be classified into four categories based on combinations of market growth and market share relative to the largest competitor, hence the name "growth-share". Market growth serves as a proxy for industry attractiveness, and relative market share serves as a proxy for competitive advantage. The growth-share matrix thus maps the business unit positions within these two important determinants of profitability.

The four categories are:

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Dogs - Dogs have low market share and a low growth rate and thus neither generate nor consume a large amount of cash. However, dogs are cash traps because of the money tied up in a business that has lit tle potential. Such businesses are candidates for divestiture. Question marks - Question marks are growing rapidly and thus consume large amounts of cash, but because they have low market shares they do not generate much cash. The result is a large net cash consumption.

A question mark (also known as a "problem child") has the po tential to gain market share and become a star, and eventually a cash cow when the market growth slows. If the question mark does not succeed in becoming the market leader, then after perhaps years of cash consumption it will degenerate into a dog when the market growth declines. Question marks must be analyzed carefully in order to determine whether they are worth the investment required to grow market share.
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Stars - Stars generate large amounts of cash because of their strong relative market share, but also consume large amounts of cash because of their high growth rate; therefore the cash in each direction approximately nets out. If a star can maintain its large market share, it will become a cash cow when the market growth rate declines. The portfolio of a diversified company always should have stars that will become the next cash cows and ensure future cash generation.

Cash cows - As leaders in a mature market, cash cows exhibit a return on assets that is greater than the market growth rate, and thus generate more cash than they consume. Such business units should be "milked", extracting the profits and investing as little cash as possible. Cash cows provide the cash required to turn question marks into market leaders, to cover the administrative costs of the company, to fund research and development, to service the corporate debt, and to pay dividends to shareholders. Because the cash cow generates a relatively stable cash flow, its value can be determined with reasonable accuracy by calculating the present value of its cash stream using a discounted cash flow analysis.

The following is the product line of AMUL:



Bread Spreads:

 Amul Butter  Amul Lite  Delicious Table Margarine 

Milk Drinks        

Amul Kool Milk Shaake Amul Kool Amul Kool Cafe Kool Koko Amul Kool Chocolate Milk Amul Kool Flavoured Bottled Milk Amul Kool Flavoured Tetra Pack Amul Masti Spiced Buttermilk
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 Amul Lassee  Amul Kool Thandai  Powder Milk       Fresh Milk        

Amul Spray Infant Milk Food Amul Instant Full Cream Milk Powder Sagar Skimmed Milk Powder Sagar Tea Coffee Whitener Amulya Dairy Whitener

Amul Fresh Milk Amul Gold Milk Amul Taaza Double Toned Milk Amul Lite Slim and Trim Milk Amul Fresh Cream Amul Shakti Toned Milk Amul Calci+ Amul Buttermilk

 Cheese     
Amul Pasteurised Processed Cheese Amul Cheese Spreads Amul Emmental Cheese Pizza Mozzarella Cheese Gouda Cheese

 Cooking       Desserts      
Amul Ice Creams Amul Shrikhand Amul Mithaee Gulab Jamuns Amul Chocolates Amul Basundi Amul Flaavyo Yoghurt Amul / Sagar Pure Ghee Amul Malai Paneer Mithai Mate Masti Dahi Pro-biotic Dahi

 Health Drink  Nutramul

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AMUL BCG Matrix:

Star:


Question Mark:
Amul Kool products Amul Cheese Spreads Amul Ice Creams Amul Shrikhand Amul / Sagar Pure Ghee

   

     

Nutramul Amul Flaavyo Yoghurt Amul Kool Thandai Pro-biotic Dahi Amul Malai Paneer Amul TCW products

Cash Cows:
     
Amul Butter Amul Lite Amul Masti Spiced Buttermilk Amul Fresh Milk Amul Gold Milk Amul Taaza Double Toned Milk

DOGS:
    
Pizza Mozzarella Cheese Gouda Cheese Amul Basundi Amul Flaavyo Yoghurt Amul Chocolates

The above matrix represents the AMUL BCG matrix and the bifurcation of its product line as per the category. In the above example of AMUL ;the products like Pro -biotic Dahi, Amul Malai Paneer, Amul TCW products ,Nutramul etc. belong to Question mark .Because of emergence of different health drinks or products and sweets in the global market, the market share of these products are being threatened. Although these products ar e already established in marketplace, the company still needs to have an effective marketing approach to increase the sale of these brands. According to the question mark category these products have low share of possible high growth market and may become a STAR product because of positive response of the customers. So a massive launch of advertising campaigns must be deployed and attractive offers should be levied on the products so that the product will reach the expected mark of sale and growth. Also, the R&D expenditure on these products must be reduced or eliminated to save on cash flow on such expenditures. The products which lie in the DOG category are Pizza Mozzarella Cheese, Gouda Cheese, Amul Flaavyo Yoghurt, Amul Chocolates . Since there are many foreign players in these product lines the customers generally to move towards the foreign brands. This is the effect of thorough marketing done by these players in this line by proper media standards and
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promotional offers. Since these products like Chocolate which is ruled by players like CADBURY and other foreign brands AMUL chocolate stand a little chance of winning over them. So it is recommended that dogs are cash traps because of the money tied up in a business that has little potential. Such businesses are candidates for divestiture. So; it is recommended that Amul can sell or liquidate the business because resources can be better used elsewhere such as cooking or Icecream products.

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