Starter Packs Case Summary

Allstar Brands’ brand management team will make decisions based on the assumptions gained from corporate standings and market research. Allround cold medication will capitalize on its high brand awareness and solid market share to increase revenue through promotional allowances, product diversification and bigger direct to consumer promotions. Our primary focus is direct channel distribution to mass merchandisers, large grocery stores and chain drugstores. New product reformulation for children’s medicine and adult capsule are expected to increase market share and long-term profitability. We predict a reduction in advertising costs due to strong brand awareness.

Pharmaceutical companies are provided with temporary monopoly rights on the production of new drugs which result in a higher cost on consumers. If competing companies were allowed to produce generic forms of those drugs, consumers will be able to afford those medications even in cases where those consumers have no insurance coverage. The company responsible for developing and inventing the original medication could be offered incentives to invent in the future by either obtaining tax breaks or NIH funding for future research. They could even be offered a percentage of the sales of the generic drugs. Economist Gary S. Becker advocates dropping many FDA requirements that, in his opinion, provide no additional safety measures but rather delay the development of new drugs.[12] Betamethasone, for example, has been part of the standard prenatal care in Europe since the late 1970’s while it got adopted in the U.S. after 1997. On many occasions, the FDA ignores all scientific evidence concerning certain drugs because the manufacturer did not follow their mandated bureaucratic standards.

The pharmaceutical industry uses more intensive, widespread advertisements than any other industry in the United States (Federal Trade Commission 11). According to James Greenan, former presiding officer of the Federal Trade Commission, the industry's ads "usually function to present a problem-solution equation and register that equation in the memory of the potential consumer along with the brand name of the product involved" (Greenan 95). The brand name is presented as a possible solution to a problem. It is hoped that, in the potential consumer's mind, the brand name is associated with relief from an uncomfortable situation. For example, the two ad slogans,

One primary goal of Pfizer is to deliver sustained, excellent product by outperforming Pfizer’s competitors and must differentiate itself adequately from its competitors. Competitive advantage is central to strategic management in that it will produce and sustain superior performance. To be competitive in a business environment, often it requires the company to have a product or service different and better than other organizations competing in the same marketplace. According to Wadman (2007) “Pfizer and the rest of the pharmaceutical industry need to develop more sophisticated drugs, targeted at a smaller number of people more quickly, efficiently and at a lower cost” (p. 1). Once Pfizer’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats are assessed and analyzed, managers must decide a set of strategies to reduce or eliminate its weaknesses and capitalize on its strengths and maximize opportunities. An example is Porter’s three generic strategy approaches of differentiation, cost leadership, and focus strategy by using differentiation strategies to differentiate Pfizer from its competitors. Strategies are essential; however, it is useless unless they are effectively implemented levels of the company. Business-level strategies are typically developed and implemented by heads of business units and are first approved by top management. The functional level strategy is the last level that focuses on developing strategies for managing the various departments to

Soren Chemical is new to developing a consumer brand (it partners with formulators to use private-label branding for its Kailan MW line). Therefore, they are relatively inexperienced with marketing consumer-oriented brands whereby they have to handle directly with wholesalers and also market to retailers, pool service professionals and consumers. This inexperience might have caused miscommunication between channels as seen when pool service professionals and specialty retailers had made inquires about Coracle but only 30% recalled receiving the Coracle material. Also 70% of them stated that Coracle

Moreover, patients often have less knowledge than the prescriber does about the appropriateness of the drug, where it can be very misinforming for the consumer. Lastly, drug efficacy is a problem in all contexts. Since stakeholders are likely, less informed than manufacturers it causes both the consumer and prescriber to depend on the manufacturer for information of the effectiveness of the drug (Bennett, Quick, Velasquez, 2016).

According to Miller, Benjamin, and North, “FDA bureaucrats decide whether or not new medicines (prescription drugs) should be allowed to go on sale in the United States” (Miller, Benjamin, and North, page 3). Prior to the 1962 Kefauver-Harris Amendments being made to the 1938 Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, the FDA was given a limited time frame of 180 days to approve or deny a new drug application. These amendments added a new “proof of efficacy” requirement and removed the 180-day time constraint, allowing the FDA to demand whatever

1.The original motivation behind Bayer’s decision to launch the Makrolon ingredient branding concept was, to give Bayer and it’s partner’s the ability to achieve a differentiation of themselves from the competition and competing products by means of a branding strategy. It was important to Bayer to highlight the advantages of Makrolon and transfer this positive image to the end product with the help of a brand name. With this differentiation it gives the ingredient a unique selling proposition, or USP and encourages the end customer to give preference to products with the Makrolon logo or even keep a look out for this particular product when looking to make a purchase.

I. (Attention Getter) Opening with a question. How many of you believe brand name drugs are better than generic drugs?

The problematic issue for Bristol-Myers was to position its new aspirin drug to the potential customers and decide a good price which can not only make it acceptable by the customers, but also give a fair profit to the company. In other words, the company had to formulate an effective marketing and promotional strategy for its new drug, Datril. The company was not merely willing to establish its new brand in the analgesic market; the main issue was to establish this new brand in the presence of a strong competitor, Tylenol.

Consumers do not always evaluate prices objectively. Often a referenced price is a known and available price, like that of a competitor. Pricing Datril at par with Tylenol and advertising it as a new substitute with same features may have been a fraught tactic in a short-run test environment. Market penetration and share take time and is unknown. Additionally, a price war could have ensued with Tylenol due to cost differences especially in advertising.

Another issue is too much power is given to scientists in decision-making of candidate drugs. Also there were inadequacies and lack of communication between marketing and research. Merck’s marketing and research needed to realize that the making of the drug is not only the most important part in increasing sales, but it also included a strong advertising campaign that will satisfy the needs of the customers.

In the United States, a drug can only be advertised legally after being approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Once attaining at least one FDA-approved use, physicians can prescribe a drug for other unapproved uses, based on their clinical judgment; this is referred to as “off-label use” (McCambridge, 2008). In general, marketing drugs for off-label uses is illegal; however, pharmaceutical companies have gone to various lengths within their legal rights to accomplish exactly that.

With its notably successful launch, Viagra’s brand name immediately became the common noun for the symptom it said it would treat. Its recognition far transcended the circles of ED patients and the medical industry. It quickly mushroomed into a cultural phenomenon, becoming the subject of dinner-table conversations and late-night television comedy. Viagra had a huge impact on

One factor that must be considered is that the drug had not yet been approved by the FDA, but was in phase III trials. Historical data shows that 65% of drugs in this phase eventually get approved for sale to the market. It was felt that approval of the drug would occur late in 1998.