So this week will be a more in-depth look at what we have
been doing in PharmSim as a group. It has been a real whirl wind. We had to our individual situation analysis due
Friday the 16th and then our group marketing plan and strategy due
on the 24th. The individual situation analysis was killer. Not going
to lie I had a bit of break down with it, but I got over it. Life is too short.
I learned a lot about our company in the situation analysis. I learned that we
were the market share leader and had great perception, but our numbers for
sales, income and just about everything was slowly falling. Talk about some red
flags. However, we have to remember though that in market that started with
just 10 products now has recently gone up to 11 products. Granted not each
product primarily serves the same illness, but they all draw on the same
available market. So out company had a few issues, not huge issues when you put
in the correct context but still so issues we needed to figure out.
So thus
we started our marketing plan and strategy which was not as intensive as the
individual situation analysis, but was still rather intensive. Plus it was
during a week when we all had a lot going on. Work this week had multiple
events a day that involved turnovers and called for extra hours. Others in the
group had orientation activities, and were moving. So we all had major stuff
going on, on top of this huge project. So we dove in as much as we could, and
we did a good job. Each night, those that could meet did via skype. It took a
while to figure out a medium where we could meet, but skype ended up being the
go to medium. We meet for hours upon hours trying to make sure we covered
everything. We talked about just about everything that we could.
Key
issues were discussed and decided upon by pulling from our individual situation
analysis’s and comparing which ones that popped up in all our reports, had a
strong case, and from SWOT analysis. Our key issues for our company ended up
being low promotion involvement and inefficient advertising, inefficient sales
force allocation, declining market share (need to reposition to maintain market
leader status), and option to reformulate/add line extension in upcoming
periods. We figured these were good key issues that were a little bit more
board as so we could address other key minor key issues.
So our
marketing plan and strategy basically centered on these key issues, and mostly
on plans to increase market share and expand in upcoming periods. Jennie read
the case again and noticed that there will be an option to introduce an allergy
medication that is non-drowsy and had previously been a prescription only
medication. Therefore no competitor in the market would have a product like
this. We all decided that this would be a great opportunity for our company and
brand. Especially since allergy takers make the most purchases (around 5 a
year), and the markets although small are also not very penetrated as they are
about 50% penetrated for all segments. We did discuss talking about reformation
but decided that our product is getting great reviews the way it is and has
certain competitive advantages such as high doses of almost all ingredients
that can be in a multi-cold symptom. Since we don’t want to formulate we tried
to figure out how to increase market share with what we got. We came to the conclusion
we needed to increase recommendations which means reformatting our sales force.
Well that was an issue we wanted to address. So we talked about what areas to
increase, others decrease, and a plan with a cap and idea on how to increase
our sales force so as to avoid where we are with an incorrect allocation of
sales force.
In
increase market share we also discussed our MARKETING! Shocker right? First
off, we realized we were really over spending especially with a comparison to
competitors. Market share leaders do have spend a ridiculous amount to stay on
top, but we all agreed our spending was a little out of line and incorrectly distributed.
We wanted to increase our co-op participation. So since there has been such a
low parcipation we will spend no more than $1 million each for co-op
advertising, and increase attractive promotional allowances to retailers. We
really tried to nail out the nitty gritty information and figure out a way to
make the little things add up so that we can address our key issues and improve
them before they become major problems. We really talked as much as we could
out. It was great working with the group. Jennie and Briana did a lot of work.
Mike and I did two parts each, and I did the final proof read. It was a good
group, and I thought I had learned a lot about our company in my individual
anaylsis, but I feel like I have learned even more. The annoying part is that
is probably still way more to learn. I am nervous moving forward with the
marketing plan and strategy as there are certain curveballs that even though you
try to plan for them, sometimes they come from out or nowhere. Hopefully we
have accounted for almost anything, and with percentages as bases we can
respond easier than having set numbers. Time will tell, here’s keeping our
fingers crossed.
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