Promotional strategy
“Promotion includes all the activities of company undertake to communicate and
promote its product to the target market.”
Types of strategy:
Pushing strategy: Relies on personal seling to market an item to wholesalers,retailers in a company’s distribution channel.
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Company promotes a product to members of marketing channel not to end users.
Puling strategy: promote a product by generating consumer demand for it primarily through advertising and sales promotion appeals.
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Potential buyers will request that their suppliers,retailers or local distributors–
carry the products there by puling it through distribution channels.
Most marketing situations require combination of pushing and puling strategies and it
includes:
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Sales promotion
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Personal selling
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Direct mail
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Advertising
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Publicity
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Public relations
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Sponsorship
Marketing strategy process:
1.Sales promotion:
Sales promotion is an umbrella term and encompasses a variety of promotional
activities other than advertising,personal selling,publicity and public relations.
However,it supports advertising and detailing and coordinates them to make each more effective. Sales promotion is widely used in Pharmaceutical marketing and
intended to stimulate demand. It may be targeted to the prescribers, retailers and to
ultimate consumers in case of OTC drugs and it has the potential to catch customers’ attention effectively.
Forms of sales promotion:
It has various forms,some are targeting to customers(prescribers)while other to the
ultimate consumer. The various forms of sales promotion are as:
Free sampling:Sampling is a presentation of free drug products to the prescribers for clinical experience by using in selected patients. Sampling motivates the prescribers favorably to prescribe the given products to the patient .Samples are provided as
reduced packs containing less drug quantity and clearly bear the notation‘physician
samples and ‘not for sale’and samples may be delivered by detail man.
Giveaways:The giveaways are the visual aids to be left in the prescriber’s office to serve as continuous product reminders .The giveaways range from books to
elaborated desks sets mentioning the drug names. These giveaways act as publicity
devices that attract the attention of the physicians. These devices may be employed to
help drug administration to patients,monitoring of some patient’s condition etc.
Novelties:Novelties are like the giveaways but are of common and personal use such as key rings,ball pens,sunscreen used for cars etc .Novelties have printed or
embossed names of products or companies and thus,are continuous and effective reminders.
Patient aids: These are specially designed items carrying information helpful for patients. e.g book lets,brochures,leaflets,and charts .The patient aids have been
designed for information of patients with chronic diseases .Physicians effectively use
patient aids for explaining facts regarding drugs to their patients so saving the
prescriber’s time.
Medical exhibition: These are medicals how exposed before a group of medical professionals.These are special and effective sales promotional tool since these
provide an opportunity to meet and talk with larger number of physicians in a short
period of time. At a medical exhibit,a physician can also discuss drug attributes with
the detailer.
Medical films and closed circuit TV: Special films can be designed to show certain
TV can be placed in a prescriber’s office and relevant medical information as films can
be telecasted. At the time of medical conference,convention,meeting,this procedure
can be performed for participants. The medical films can be presented on
video cassette or compact disk(CD).
Point-of-purchase displays: These are fixtures or displays that provide information to the consumers,add to store atmosphere,and serve a substantial promotional role.
These may be floor stands,posters,or product holders .POP motivates the consumer
and generates extra sales of OTC products and other non prescription items by
impulse buying.
2.Personal seling:
“Representative of firm inter act with physicians convince them to prescribe their
brand.”Their aim is generation of maximum number of prescription. Businesses use
people(sales force)to sell the product after meeting face to face with customers.
Personal selling may be at retail level or at field level(prescribers)or it may be a Telecommunication process(use email,cal the buyers for their innovative products and
their uses).
There are seven steps of personal selling process:
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Prospecting/qualifying:Identifying potential customers(physicians)and qualifying whether the physicians can give business or not.
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Pre-approach:Before actual meeting medical rep prepared him self for meeting. Rep. think about to whom he has to pay a visit,select the benefits for each
physician. For ease medical rep prepare Dr.brand matrix in which he mention
name of physician,time,date,and place of meeting. Most important thing is
effective utilization of time and at the end of Pre-approach rep. make a ‘detailing Kit.‘Success of personal selling depends on first two steps.
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Approach:This step linked with orientation of presenter or retailer.Each organization provides certain introductory lines to presenter like name of
retailer,name of firm,and what type of product he/she dealt with.After that
immediately personal selling process begins.
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Presentation and documentation: It is a detailed presentation about product (brand)and contains three +steps:
Ø Emphasis on benefits of products.
Ø Comparison of brand with other brands.
Ø Analysis
Major fraction of selling process is this step(4thstep).
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Handling of objection:Questions arise by physician taken as objection during presentation and is handled by representative by answering these questions.
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Closing:while handling the objections presenter close the presentation.He must convert question in to the reason of brand selection. Closing is very
difficult because at the closing you have to request the physicians to prescribe their brand.
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Feedback:Rep make frequent visits for the feedback after the detailed presentation visit .When physicians don’t prescribe the brand he takes the
reason from the physician. Rep. Visit for feedback and reminder to the
physician. Reminder will potentiate the presentation.
3.Directmail:
The direct mail is a printed advertisement directed to a specific individual by mail rather than a group of individuals .Usually,the targets of direct
mail may be prescribers or retailers. Direct mail is a customer-focused promotional
form that is effectively used for the advertisement particularly of prescription drugs.
It may be in the form of one page letter,a leaflet,postal card,catalog,booklet,
brochure,or house organ(company’s publication).A mailing list carries the
addresses of medical practitioners capable of influencing Sal of a product.
4.Advertisement:
It is a non-personal communication of information usually paid for and mostly
persuasive in nature about products,services,ideas by an identified sponsor through
various media.
In pharmaceutical field mostly specialized media is used e.g,professional journals,
pharma guide,brochures and leaflets etc.
Purpose:
a.Perceptible difference: To create difference visible with naked eye e.g,color, shape,size etc.
b.Imperceptible difference: To create difference in efficacy of drugs,it depends on testing.
c.Induced difference: In this type purpose is to create a difference when there is actually no difference to promote your product.
Advertisement Strategies:
There are two strategies:
a.Message generation: Message generation involves creation advertisement, make contents .Sales promotional department is responsible for making
advertisement.Pharmacist provides technical information and art director then
adds graphical contents.
b.Execution of Advertisement: The advertisement generated is then executed through various channels such as print media,electronic media etc.
Channels of advertisement:
a.Printmedia:
In print media advertisement is carried out through Journals,Magazines,
news papers.
Professional Journals:
They provide detailed information on professional research,new findings in the
form of articles. But the professional information can only be read by professionals.
For example: Pakistan Journal Of Pharmaceutical Sciences
Journal of Material Sciences
Professional Magazines:
Magazines provide information on professional research as well as business
information regarding that topic,such as new hospitals,clinics etc.But the
information is rather squeezed than journals.
For example:Doctors,Chemists plus Druggists,Doctor mag etc.
Newspapers:
They have wider scope. They publish professional information,business
information and other related information in the form of headings and paragraphs.
b.Electronic media:
In electronic media advertisement is placed on television,internet,radio etc for
promotion.
Placement of Advertisement:
a.Ideal position:
The advertisement is placed either on cover page or back page on print
media.
b.Stacked position:
The advertisement is placed either before or after the editorial contents.
The advertisement is placed anywhere between the editorial contents.
5.PUBLICITY:
Publicity is non-paid placing of information in news media,including mass,
professional or a specialized media to call attention at special events,activities or any news making situations surrounding a promotion.
The mass media includes television and news papers while professional media, media
includes medical journals,periodicals and the media used for the promotion of
prescription products is the firm’s news letters,house organs etc.
FORMS OF PUBLICITY:
Publicity may acquire following forms:
News Release:
Publicity can acquire a form of news release from the firm’s office. Any information
can be released as news that is viewed by the media and public as news worthy,
interesting or useful. News release,as the publicity may be any form of news items
mentionedbelow:
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Launch of a new product.
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Establishment of a new section in a firm.
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International Standard Organization’s(ISO)Certification.
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Recognition of an employee.
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Any success of the firm.
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New market venture.
News look-like advertisement:
They are passed for publicity release.Although,it can clearly mark as advertising,it
resembles a publicity release. They frequently appear in the publications and feature
the products and services offered by the firm.
Public communication with Group:
The public communication with group of people may be speeches or news conference.
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Speeches:Most organizations reprint major addresses in brochure format and mail them to their special community or to the media .These speeches can be
circulated internally in an organization because some of the employees are
also at the public relation’s front line.
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News conference: The news conference is an individual-to-group-
communication where the firm’s head speaks with a group of individual
journalists.It is used to expose some news worthy items to the public or to
clarify some facts related to the firm’s business.
Meet the press:
It is an individual-to-group communication and resembles the press conference. But in
meet the press program,the firm’s head or a representative is invited and inter viewed
by a group of news men.The representative will speak on some events or activity of his
firm in a positive way.
Face the Nation:
It is a program where representative of managing director appears in front of public
from different sectors for question usually at television and speaks in a positive
manner about his firm.
6.PUBLIC RELATIONS:
public relations refer to the keeping and staying in touch with organization’s public by
groups of activities .The public of pharmaceutical firms are usually, prescribers and
rarely its ultimate consumers.
The public relations are group of activities much involved with‘image creation’.
Plant tour is one of the public relation activities where industry has opportunity to
‘showoff’ its laboratories,plant,execution of quality control and sophisticate
operations. The firms how ever,rely on its sales force to arrange such tours and other
public relation activities.
7.SPONSORSHIP:
It is a promotional strategy in marketing in which a company pays to be associated
with a certain event,cause or other orgnization.In exchange for sponsoring these
events,companies get brand exposure and publicity.
For example:different exhibitions are conducted that are sponsored by multinational
or national organizations.
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