In pharmaceutical field when it comes to prescription drug,
The manufacture cannot directly sell the drug to the consumer; this can be sold to consumer only on the prescription of a registered medical practitioner.
Hence in pharmaceutical marketing the primary channel of distribution is manufacturer through physician to consumer.
A physician is not a member of distribution channel, but he is considered as an influencer or in exact words a decision maker.
So how many pharmaceutical companies are there in India 10000?? 50000?? 100000???
These indicates how fiercely competitive the industry is and so many choices physicians have for there patients.
Why should doctor write your brand out of hundred other choices containing same salt?
What makes you different from others who have tried the same?
Well the simple answer to this is market-based communication.
So before we start thinking what is market-based communication and why it is important to have right one.
Let see the success story of a right communication strategy of one of the well marketed antibiotic ciprofloxacin.
Cost of a tablet 9 Rs per 500 mg, quite expensive some companies predicted a failure.
However many multinational companies such as Cipla, Cadila, Ranbaxy launched product all over the India.
Who’s going to win the race???
Perhaps if you compare this companies there would little to choose between them in term of the number and caliber of there representatives, marketing team, stockiest network, distribution channel etc.
Ranbaxy became the market leader and captured about 27% of market share for its brand, Cifran.
So it was clear that Ranbaxy has won the race against its competitor’s Cipla & Cadila both of them have a great history of success, which slipped up on this time.
So what made Ranbaxy capture the market?????
It was a unique communication strategy of Ranbaxy that did it.
Ranbaxy justified its price and its efficacy and positioned Cifran (a quinolone) against cephalosporin, a expensive class of antibiotics.
Cifrans success feels that this is juxtaposition was so strong that some doctors started thinking of ciprofloxacin as a fourth generation cephalosporin. Its was factually incorrect that appeared right perceptually.
The communication strategy had worked it was a bang and the sales of the product reflected 75.3 cores annually (ORG 2009.)
To make a successful strategy it means what is to be said to the consumer and how it is going to influence the consumer and mentally convince him to buy your product.
Lets explore on creative strategies for market based communication
in next article…
