MODERN MARKETING CONCEPT

- Statements that provide direction for the practice to meet the mission of the pharmacy
- Determine the success or failure of the marketing plan
 Common Marketing Goals
 Improve product
 Differentiate
 Customer Lifetime value
 Customer acquisition
 Optimizing pricing scheme
 Raise revenue
 Increase Brand reputation
 Lead generation
 Brand management
 Increase profit margin
 Customer satisfaction

MARKETING MIX

TERMS:
 Exchange – core concept of marketing; a process of obtaining desired product from someone
by offering something in return

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  Transaction – a trade of values in between two or more parties
items of value can be just about anything as long as they hold value for one of the parties
e.g. Services, idea, experiences, event, places, material, organization, effort and information
 Items if value in transcation
 Transfer – one party gives value to another party while receiving nothing tangible in return

PRODUCT
- An organization’s offering
- In pharmacy, physical goods are usually combined with a service
PRODUCT CATEGORIES BASED ON LEVEL:
A. Core product
- Answers the question: What is the buyer really buying?
- Marketers must uncover the needs hiding under every product and sell benefits not features
B. Tangible Product
- Characteristic like features, styling, brand name, packaging and quality level
C. Additional services and benefits
- Make up an augmented product by looking at the buyer’s total consumption system
- Augmenting the product offer and making it more competitive can be achieved in the form of
packaging, after-sales services, advertising and sales promotions, customer’s advice,
financing schemes, delivery arrangement, warehousing and other amenities that people
value

Product categories based on how much service component is part of it (Kotler & Keller, 2012):
A. Pure Tangible Good
- The offering consists primarily of tangible goods, such as toothpaste, toilet paper, napkins
B. Tangible Good with Accompanying services
- The offering consists of a tangible good accompanied by one or more services, as the
sophistication for use of the good increases, the more dependent its sales on its services
C. Hybrid
- The offering consists of equal parts of goods and services, such as purchase of a meal at a
restaurant (consists of food and service)
D. Major service with accompanying minor goods and services
- The offering consists of a major service accompanied by other services and supporting goods
such as the purchase of airplane transportation
E. Pure service
- The offering consists primarily of a service such as attending an orchestra performance or
psychotherapy

Product Categories based on patient care provided by pharmacists (Christensen et al. 1993)
A. Dispensing Services
- These services associated with dispensing prescription that are obligatory under board of
pharmacy regulation
- These services include accurately filling a prescription order, clarifying orders, not dispensing
an order that contains obvious errors that would be identified by a “reasonable and prudent”
pharmacist and communicating drug-use instructions as required by laws and regulations
B. Dispensing-related value-added pharmaceutical services
- These are services that extend beyond routine dispensing activities required by law
-

C. Non-dispensing related value added pharmaceutical services

- These are services that are not associated with dispensing of prescription and are not
required by law nor inherent in the fee charged for a prescription
-
Basic Differences to Distinguish Services from physical goods:
1. Customer do not obtain ownership of services
2. Service products are intangible performances
3. There is greater involvement of customers in the production process
4. People may form part of the product including other patrons

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 5. There is greater variability in operational inputs ad outputs, making it more difficult to standardize
and control
6. Many services are difficult for customers to evaluate
7. There is typically absence of inventories
8. The time factor is relatively more important
9. Deliver systems may involve both electronic and physical channels

PRODUCT FORMATS
- Products are available in traditional and non-traditional markets
- Manufactured either by local or multinational drug companies
A. Brand – a name, term, symbol, design or combination of these, intended to identify the goods or
services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of competitors
B. Brand Name – part of the brand that is vocalized
C. Brand Mark – part of the brand which can be recognized but is not “utterable” such as symbol,
design or distinctive coloring or lettering
D. Trademark – a brand or part of a bran that is given legal protection; protects seller’s exclusive
rights to use the BN or brand mark
E. Copyright – the exclusive legal right to reproduce, publish and sell the matter and form of
literary, musical, or artistic work
F. Branding – important role in adding value to the product
G. Blanket Family Name – used for the introduction of new or modified products, less cost and
advertisement is needed
H. Brand extension Decision – usually, the dosage form is indicated after the product’s name
I. Multi-branding Decision – seller develops two or more brand in same drug product category or
same equivalents

Selecting a Brand name for a Product

- Desirable qualities for a brand name:
1. It should closely suggest something about the product’s benefits and qualities that the
intended markets could associate with easily.
2. It should be easy to pronounce, recognize and remember
3. It should be distinctive to readily arrest attention

Packaging Decisions
A. Packaging – very important marketing drug products that is monitored by the Product Management
Group or Marketing Board of Manufacturers
B. Labelling – a part of product packaging containing printed information about the product
C. Shipping Package – used to store, identify and ship the product to target markets

Product Line Decision – a group of products that are closely related wither because:
1. Function in a similar manner
2. Are marketed through the same types of outlets
3. Are sold to the same customer group
4. Fall within given price ranges

Product Mix Decision – the set of all product lines and items that a particular seller offers for sale to buyers

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