Marketing and Viagra free essay sample

1) What are the most relevant dimensions along which to segment the patient market for ED treatment? Of the segments identified, which would you target initially with Cialis? The relevant dimensions are: age, occupation, marital/partner status, level of education, level of income and ED medication use habits (i. e. Viagra dropout). Within these segments, the populations to target are: †¢ Age: Men ages 50+ (slight market with men ages 40-49) †¢ Occupation: Retired or employed full time †¢ Marital Status: Married or living together with a partner / have a sexual partner †¢ Education: U. S. – high level of education; Other countries – secondary to primary level of education †¢ Income: U. S. – mid to high level of income; Other countries – low to mid level of income †¢ ED medication use: Viagra dropouts 2) What is Viagras positioning in the marketplace in 2002? How would you characterize the Viagra brand? In 2002, Viagra is: †¢ Well-established market leader (5 years of success on market; 9 million men have used drug) †¢ Monopoly †¢ Aggressive in marketing and sales force (NASCAR ads, 30,000 direct sales representatives, many of whom are former military) †¢ Markets to men but targets their female partners †¢ Has 3 million users (and approx. We will write a custom essay sample on Marketing and Viagra or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page 7 million dropouts) 3) What would be the most effective way to position Cialis in the marketplace? Cialis marketers should pursue a primary strategy to ‘beat’ Viagra by differentiating itself as ‘better’ and gaining more market share than Viagra. To do so, it should promote the following attributes of Cialis: †¢ Longer duration and shorter onset time: Cialis has a half life of 17 hours and can last up to 36 hours (as opposed to 3 to 5 hours for Viagra). In addition, Cialis has an onset time of 30 min (Viagra is 30min – 1 hr and onset can be slowed by high fat foods). †¢ Fewer side effects / safety factor: Cialis does not cause blue-tinted vision like Viagra, nor is its onset time inhibited by fatty foods (as 2) What is Viagra’s positioning in the marketplace in 2002? How would you characterize the Viagra brand? Viagra was positioned at number one in the marketplace as most recognizable and most effective drug in the world. Profitably generating over 1 billion in sales annually In 2002 they maintained their customer loyalty after their 1999 campaign in regards to the 130 deaths in 1991. They remained aggressive in their marketing strategy. I would characterize them as innovative, strong, and competitive. Largest sales force in industry and practically were a monopoly 3. What would be the most effective way to position Cialis in the marketplace? It has a longer half life Less side-effects Market it to physicians, patients and partners To show the drugs efficacy New face for the ED market 5. What competitive response do you anticipate from Pfizer? From Bayer-GlaxoSmithKline? Pfizer Keep using aggressive marketing strategies Hire popular celebrities for use in their commercials Bayer Emphasize results for diabetic users Who Would Pick? Cialis case study * What r the most relevant dimensions along which to segment the patient market for ED market? * Demographic dimensions Age (60+ and 50-59 groups), Employment (full time and Retired), Marital status (married or living together), have sexual partner, yearly income (low for Europe and medium high for US), education (post graduate in US and primary secondary in europe) * Viagra dropouts – people who discontinued to using Viagra. By end of 2001, 6 to 7 million Viagra dropouts compared to 3 million Viagra current users, which indicates a fertile market for cialis as a substitution to Viagra. Also Table B shows high willingness to try it across countries. * Compared to Viagra it provides more values like faster onset time, longer duration of effect, no side effects like in case of Viagra and lack of interaction with high-fat meals. (exhibit 10) * Comorbidities associated with ED * To whom it should be targeted for marketing: * Doctor As cialis is a prescription drug. Also Urologists and family doctors (exhibit 7a) * Patient As it is a â€Å"quality-of-life† drug, doctor alone will not ensure success. Also, patient awareness about ED is also important. (exhibit 7b) * Partner of ED patient – as partner’s impact is high in perception (perceive the ED problem) and evaluation (intend to refill prescription) phases of HCTM. (exhibit 7b) * Print media (exhibit 7b) * Drugstore (exhibits 9b) * Of the segments identified, which would u target initially with cialis? * Viagra dropout * Demographic segments Age group of 50-59 and 60+ having sexual partner, either full time employed or retired, married or living together, in US mid and high income group and in Europe low income group * Urologist and family doctor * Devise marketing plan to launch cialis and anticipating competitive reaction. * Threat of new entrant – high entry â€Å"It is not like physicians won’t be willing to prescribe Levitra and Cialis. And for end users, the switching costs are very low, particularly with sampling. Customers have had experience with Viagra, so there may be some reluctance to switch, but the switching costs are very low and could be almost zero. † This meant that Viagra’s leadership position was easily eroded. There are also costs to being first that need to be considered. The first mover spends time educating and building the market, while competitors can then swoop in and ride on the pioneer’s coattails. New entrants try to make it easier for customers to switch. For example, all the drug companies distribute free samples to physicians that they can pass on to patients. This makes it very simple and cheap for users to try the new drugs without paying for a full prescription. http://executiveeducation. wharton. upenn. edu/ebuzz/0504/thoughtleaders. html All this naturally attracted the attention of rivals as well. Bayer/Glaxo SmithKline launched its own ED drug, Levitra, and Eli Lilly launched Cialis in 2003. Would these new drugs expand the market for everyone, given that only an estimated 13 percent of men thought to have ED were seeking treatment? While Pfizer publicly said competition was good for everyone, it still filed lawsuits to unsuccessfully block its rivals. The advertising war among the three drugs escalated steadily since the last quarter of 2003.