Promotion detail explanation marketing.pptx
- 1. PROMOTION DR. ALI AKHTAR MS (CLINICAL PHARMACY) PHD (CLINICAL PHARMACY)
- 2. PROMOTION Promotion is the fourth ingredient in the total market mix. The promotion is every form of communication used to inform, persuade and remind the target customers about the products or the organization. It is a group of activities consisting of advertising, detailing, sales promotion, publicity and public relations. Promotional activities are vital as the firms directly communicate to their customers and consumers.
- 3. OBJECTIVES OF PROMOTION The fundamental functions of promotion are informing, persuasion and reminding the customers about an organization, its products or services. Information The information is communication to the prospective customers or to let the customers know about a product or a firm. Information is vital for a success of a pharmaceutical product.
- 4. Persuasion Persuasion is another function of promotion. It is convincing the ccustomers to select a particular brand from available choices. The demand for a product will depend upon the ability of a producer to convince the customers. A strong persuasive promotion is required when there is an intense competition or availability of a large variety of similar brands.
- 5. Reminding Reminding is repeating communication to the prospect customers in an attempt to retain a place in their minds. The customers are bombarded massively with lot of messages every day by the competitors to attract new customers and to establish markets for new products. To cope with it, the firms try to keep their product in front of the market by continuously reminding about the availability and attributes of the product.
- 6. PROMOTION MIX Promotion mix is special combinations of promotional activities used by an organization to achieve its marketing objectives. The ingredients that can be blended in varying proportions in a promotional mix re advertising, detailing, direct mail, sales promotion and publicity & public relations.
- 7. Advertising Advertising is the paid form of impersonal mass communication in which the advertiser' name is clearly identified. Advertisements are used for the promotion of products or a firm itself. It employs some vehicle to reach the prospective customers, the most common of which are broadcast and print media. The broadcast form of advertisement uses television and radio whereas the print form employs newspapers and magazines. Detailing Detailing, also known as personal selling is the presentation of a product to prospective customers by a representative of a firm. 'This is more expensive form of promotion but widely used in pharmaceutical industry due to its high efficiency.
- 8. Direct mail Direct mail is a method of promotion whereby a printed advertisement, message or information is delivered to the prospective customers by mailing. This media is quite expensive and can effectively be used for the advertisement of ethical products Sales promotion The sales promotion encompasses a variety of promotional activities and events other than advertising and personal selling. However, it supports these both and coordinates them to make each more effective. Displays, medical exhibits, sampling and giveaways are examples of sales promotion. The sales promotion is quite common in pharmaceutical marketing for the promotion of drugs.
- 9. Publicity and public relations Publicity, like advertising is a mass communication that consists of a favorable news presentation, press conference, or a photograph. This can be accomplished with an aim for image-building for firm or product demand stimulation indirectly. In contrast to advertisement, it is non-paid. The public relation is more targeted than publicity and is involved with 'image creation'. It is a planned effort to influence the opinion of a special interest group.
- 10. DESIGNING PROMOTIONAL MIX Effective promotion requires determination of an appropriate promotional mix strategy whereby more than one or all ingredients are integrated on annual basis. Formulation of an appropriate blend of the activities of promotional mix is significant for broader coverage. Designing a promotional mix is based on market nature, product nature, stage of the product life cycle and funds available.
- 11. Market nature The variables related to the market nature that affect the design of promotion mix is the geographical distribution of market, type of customer, and the concentration of market. Geographical distribution of market Pharmaceutical firms put greater emphasis on advertising for reaching a geographically scattered market. The personal selling would not be cost effective in this case. However, for a limited market however, simply the personal selling may be adequate.
- 12. Types of Customers Promotional strategy depends in parts on the type of customers. The customers in pharmaceutical market are general practitioners and various specialists. For each group, the firms tailor different combinations in promotional mix. Concentration of the market Concentration of market refers to the total number of customers in a market. Fewer customers in the market demand a blend of detailing, direct mailing and sales promotion so is detailing is more dominated. For example, a drug used in renal transplant specialty can effectively be promoted by combining detailing with direct mailing and some ways of sales promotion such as medical exhibits, etc.
- 13. PRODUCT NATURE Various features of a product influence promotional mix. The more important include unit price, degree of customization, demand nature, and differentiated products. Unit price A product with high unit price is suggestive of detailing. In contrast, advertising is the appropriate promotional tool for low-priced products since mass selling is needed for survival of a firm and can be accomplished by advertisement.
- 14. Degree of customization A product meeting a specific specialty essentially requires personal selling and to supplement it, direct mailing Product with favorable primary demand When a favorable primary demand exists, as for cotrimoxazole, advertising is an appropriate promotional method. Differentiated product For a well-differentiated product, a firm has something to say about the product. In this case, advertisement can be dominated in promotional mix.
- 15. Stages in product life-cycle The promotional strategies are affected by the life-cycle stage of a product. A product in an introductory stage demands more information and thus, advertising is dominated in an advertisement-detailing blend. If a product is a novelty, there exists excellent opportunities for publicity as well. Fund available The amount of money available for promotion is the ultimate determinant for designing promotional mix. A firm with ample budget allocation for promotion can mobilize all promotional ways and can easily accomplish its market objectives. Firms with less promotional budget may use less promotional activities.
- 16. PROMOTIONAL CAMPAIGN A campaign is the coordinated series of promotional efforts built around a single theme and designed to reach a predetermined goal. Theme is the promotional appeals dressed up in a distinctive, attention-getting form that takes usually a form of slogan. A total promotional campaign is subdivided into sub-campaigns and applied to advertising, detailing, and sales promotion. A campaign can be targeted at the levels of wholesaler, retailer, customer, and consumer with same or different themes.
- 17. PROMOTION AT RETAIL LEVEL The pharmaceutical industry is involved in promotion of drugs at various levels including the prescribers, retailers and in some cases consumers. The retail is an outlet for selling of products not for business purpose and usually in individual units. A retailer can motivate the consumers to purchase a specific over-the-counter (OTC) drug and may unethically, substitute the prescribed product with other generic. Promotion at retail level thus, is a very important aspect for an increased market share of a firm by increasing the sale of OTC drugs. At retail level, it also tries to sustain the market share of n firm as it is also used to counter unethical substitution. The various promotional techniques used by companies at retail level may include one or the combinations of the following:
- 18. Advertising The purpose of advertising at retail level is to promote the sale of products or development of good image for a company. However, at retail level a message is advertised only when It is for the large population of retailers. Advertisements at retail level usually, are confined to inform availability of a product or price change. The media specifically targeting to the retailer is the professional media and is commonly used. The Chemist and Druggist is a periodical suitable for such advertisement.
- 19. Direct mail The direct mail is a communication to specific individuals or individuals in specific regions to give some positive information regarding a product, highlighting additional benefits of the product or communicate the incentive schemes to the retailers. The direct mail is an expensive medium and usually the companies inform on this media about the new product or the new features of a product. A list of the chemists and retailers is maintained and updated by the field force of a firm.
- 20. Sales promotion Sales promotion includes the activities that supplement, both the personnel selling and advertising to make each more effective. Sales promotion is usually, achieved by the salesman or detailer's presentations at retailer outlet. Effective sale promotion requires specially designed selling aids (giveaway, gifts, etc) for retailers. Medical representatives besides detailing to the doctors also visit the medical stores and promote the assigned product or furnish any information to retailers.
- 21. INCENTIVE SCHEMES Use of the incentives schemes at retail level is another promotional activity whereby firms offer tangible or intangible benefits to the retailers on purchase of predefined quantity of drug. This way of promotion facilitates flow of stocks from company's warehouse to retailers and supposed to reach to the consumers rapidly. The incentive schemes for retailers are as:
- 22. Bonus scheme Bonus means giving some additional unit of product on the purchase of a specific number of product units. For example, a free product unit on the purchase of 12 units is called 12+1 bonus scheme. Cash discounts The provision of cash discounts in some percentage after an investment of particular amount for any product is another incentive. Provision of a 2% discount on the purchase of any product of cost Rs. 5,000 is an example of this scheme. These cash discounts vary from time to time and from company to company.
- 23. Combined Bonus-cash discount scheme This combines the bonus and cash discount for a specific product. Example is providing of a 3% discount and one unit free on the purchase 12 units of a product. Credit Under this scheme, a credit for some specified duration is given to the retailer on purchase of specified number of product units. The duration for credit may range from 1 week to month or sometimes more. Combined bonus-cash discount-credit Sometimes the promotion combines bonus-cash discount-credit schemes in one scheme depending on their marketing campaign, product demand and competitor’s activities.
- 24. PACKAGE AS A PROMOTIONAL TOOL The companies creatively use a package as a marketing tool, rather than just a protective device during transportation and storage. Product packages builds image in consumers, mind and is an important part of consumer acceptance. It helps establishing consumer preferences and is vital to marketing success. Many firms feature their products, particularly OTC products in their packages. The following logics can be cited to support that packages can be used as effective promotional tools:
- 25. Vehicle for identification The packages serve as vehicle for identification by carrying the manufacturers names, trademark, and brand names. Awareness of a product is basis of its trial and repeated use. It also provides information about the ingredients and instructions for product preparation (if any), its use and storage.
- 26. Competing for space on retailer's shelf Another marketing dimension of packaging is the powerful competition for space on the retailer's shelf. If a product is designed to give the retailer an advantage in stocking the item, the retailer is more inclined to make a decision favorable to the manufacturer. Medium for advertising Sometimes the package bears a campaign theme and thus can be used as vehicle for conveying information to the consumer.
- 27. REGULATION OF PROMOTION Promotion is used to attract customers, so it is prone to have some abuses such as misleading messages, false claims or false comparisons with competitor's products. Pushing the prescribers for irrational drug use is another potential misuse of the promotion. Thus, the promotion undertaken by pharmaceutical industry must be regulated. Many individual pharmaceutical firms have established voluntary guidelines for their promotional activities and thus, are self-regulated. The Federal Government of Pakistan has also established regulations dealing with promotion of drugs and related items.