Review on Different Marketing Strategies of Pharmacy Companies on Customers for Ahmednagar District

Different researchers have given the definitions and observations for the term ‗product positioning‘. [1] included the brandings aspects also in the definition of product positioning in their paper titled ―Product Positioning by Behavioral Life-styles‖ published in the Journal of Marketing and defined the product positioning as ―The differentiation of brands by studying the ways in which their consumer differs as well as how consumer perceptions of various brands differ is termed as product positioning‖ [2]. also includes the branding aspects in the product positioning in their book ―Fundamentals of the Marketing‖ and defined as ―Product positioning refers to the consumer‘s perception of a product‘s attributes, use, quality and advantages and disadvantages in relation to competing brands‖ [3] also included the branding aspects along with the product and customer‘s perception and observed as ―Product positioning refers to the customer‘s perceptions of the place a product or brand occupies in a given market‖ [4] also included the branding concepts along with the product concepts in the definition of the product positioning in the article titled ‗Profitable product positioning‘. He observed that ―a definition of a product‘s positioning would be the perceived image consumers have towards one product, in relation to their perceived image of a) Similar products marketed by competing firms, and b) Kindred brands which might be offered by the innovating firm‖ [5]. Hence it can be argued that the term ‗product positioning‘ is not restricted to only about the product concepts, but also, involves the concepts of the brands. The researchers have given definition and observation about the term positioning. The concept of positioning was first coined by marketing and advertisement professional, [6] in his paper titled ―positioning is the game people play in today‘s me-too market place‖. ―positioning is not what you do to your product; it is what you do to the mind of the prospect. That is, your position (place) in the minds of prospect‖ [7]. Further, observed in the book ―Strategic Marketing: Cases and Applications‖ that ―We shall use the term positioning to indicate how our marketing programme is perceived by the buyer relative to the programmes of our key competitors‖[8]. Further observed in the book titled ―New product management‖, that ―Once a target market has been selected, the new product marketer must differentiate their item from products already offered to that target group. This differentiating is called positioning the product and is now in widespread use. Cundiff, Edward W, Richard R Still, Norman A P Govoni in their book titled ―Fundamentals of Modern Marketing‖ observed that ―Positioning is significant to a consumer in that it provides a basis for comparing alternative choices in the marketplace. The marketer can guide the consumers by furnishing the clues to help position the product in relationship to others‖ [9]. Beaven F Ennis observes

the creation of a unique perception of the product that satisfies an unfulfilled consumer need and that serves to distinguish the product from competing alternatives. Kenneth G Hardly observed that ―Very simply, positioning is defining the package of benefits relative to competition that will be offered to particular target segments [10]. Whereas, Tony Harrison included the service aspects along with the product aspects in the positioning and observes in the book titled ―A Hand Book of Advertising Techniques‖ that, ―The ‗position‘ a product or service is said to occupy is the extremely simplified persona that the product represents in the mind of typical consumer. It is the sum of those attributes normally ascribes to it by consumer. David J Rabistein observes in the book titled ―Marketing: Concepts, Strategies and Decisions‖ that ―Positioning is the activity of trying to get customers to perceive a company‘s product differently from the way they perceive what competitors are offering. The customer‘s viewpoint is the crucial aspect of product positionin. John O‘Shaughnessy focused on to differentiate the terms ‗position‘ and ‗positioning‘ and observed in the book titled ―Competitive marketing: A Strategic approach‖ that ― The words ‗Position‘ and ―positioning‖ can often be confusing. They are used in many different ways. We define positioning as fitting the product to the segment where product performance and appeal most correspond‖ [11]. Green, Paul E and Donald S Tull (1986) focused on branding and service aspects in positioning and observed that ―Brand positioning and market segmentation appear to be the hallmarks of today‘s marketing research. Brand (or service) positioning deals with measuring the perception that buyers hold about alternative marketplace offerings. Philip Kotler observed that market positioning is ―arranging for a product to occupy a clear, distinctive and desirable place in the market and in the minds of target consumers. Whereas, Charles A Mittelstadt focused on including the competitors and target audience and observes that ― Positioning refers to how you want your brand ‗thought about‘ in connection with competitors in its product category. Positioning needs to be specific to your brand aimed at a specific target audience‖ [12]. Michael Rothschild focused on how the concept changing over the time and observes that ―Positioning refers to the place a brand occupies in the mind in relation to a given product class. This place was originally a product related concept, concerning market structure. The concept now refers to the place that the brand holds in the consumer‘s mind relative to perception and preferences‖ (Rothschild 1987). Yoram J Wind definition includes organizational buyers along with consumer buyers and observes that ―The product (brand) positioning should be assessed by measuring consumers‘ or organizational buyers‘ perceptions and performance for the product in relation to its competitors (both branded and generic) [13]. conducted on overall approaches of the pharmaceutical product positioning by Stan Bernar (2014), Partha Anbil, Shiraz Hasan and Sanjay Bajpa (2014), Yaron Landow (2012), Sanjay K. Rao (2009), Rechard B Vandaveer and Noah M. Pines (2007) and Richard B. Vanderveer (2005) throw light on the different aspects of the pharmaceutical product positioning. Partha Anbil, Shiraz Hasan & Sanjay Bajpa (2014) focused on pull-through strategies for the pharmaceutical product positioning and advocated for a five-step approach for positioning by pull-through strategy. The first step of setting pull through objectives centred around patients acquisition and prescriber followed by creating common definition and aligning it with key stakeholders. The third step of a comprehensive understanding of capability, philosophy, process and people and fourth step of creating engagement model around the process and lastly cross checking whether company looking through the wrong lens (Anbil, ShirazHasan and Bajpa 2014: 34-37). Stan Bernar (2014) discussed the benefits of using i-Bites (Information Bites) in the pharmaceutical product positioning. He suggested that the positioning message must be short instead of a lengthy positioning statement. He advocated for using maximum four words in the message and supports with the decreased attention span of the consumer over the time period. (Bernar 2014: 30-33) The message must make use of i-Bites for sooner, simpler, better and clearer message formulation. Yaron Landow (2012) discussed the strategies for product positioning of pharmaceutical companies by using different indicators with the supportive visual. He also suggested for conducting a workshop on brand awareness and positioning, for the stakeholders and not to hesitate to ask for the help (Landow 2012). Sanjay K. Rao (2009) presented the new paradigm of product positioning in the pharmaceutical sector. He advocated for including differentiation on the dimensions that matters and serving the needs of a large number of patients. He also suggested that the companies have to communicate the value of the product to the consumer and focus on creating high impact on consumer behaviour. Further, advocated for Marketing Decision Support System (MDSS), to develop positioning strategy to address appropriately the needs of overarching life cycle management. The MDSS is an intelligent repository of raw primary and secondary research data, market assumptions and predictive models of patient, physician, payer and market behaviors, all duly integrated so as to provide a realistic, encapsulated view of product performance in the context of its market. The MDSS devised for crafting and managing positioning strategy, which primarily focused on providing insight, prediction and guidance on corrective action that maximizes the impact of one or more positioning strategies as they are implemented in the marketplace (Rao 2009: 29-

was different from the traditional method of pharmaceutical product positioning strategy. The paper suggested the bottom-up approach for positioning, which includes, different building blocks on which positioning strategy must be focused. (Vandarveer and Pines 2007: 71-76). Richard B. Vanderveer (2005) presented adopting a different strategy in each stage of product development through a climbing story. He advocated that the clinical development being the first stage, the strategy should be focused on key opinion leaders and pre-launch stage, being the second stage, the strategy must be on physician as a stakeholder, Further, in the third, new indicator stage and the fourth, competitive launch stage, the strategy must be focused on prescribers and at the last stage, which is patent expiry stage, the focus must be on patients. (Vanderveer 2005). The product differentiation is done before developing the positioning message and it is applicable to the pharmaceutical products too. The success of the product positioning depends on attributes which company use to differentiate its products with competitors‘ products. Rajesh Dubey and Jayashree Dubey (2009) and Peter Dumovic and Daniel T. Knowles (2008) highlighted the product differentiation strategies for the pharmaceutical companies. Rajesh Dubey and Jayashree Dubey (2009) explained the importance of product differentiation in the pharmaceutical market to increase the length of product life cycle. They suggested that the product differentiation helps to face the competition posed by the generic products effectively and it is a solution for decreased number of new molecules which is due to high invention cost. They advocated for three tools for the pharmaceutical product differentiation, namely, new dosage forms, fixed drug combination and new indication. In the area of new dosage forms, the company can use timed released formulations, site specific drug delivery; deport formulation and inhalation drug delivery as major differentiation. However, the successful ideation for the product differentiation will be influenced by the novelty of the idea, capability of translating an idea into the product, market size and barriers to genericization. (Dubey and Dubey 2009: 104-118). Peter Dumovic and Daniel T. Knowles (2008) suggested six questions tool set for product differentiation, which includes, who is the appropriate beneficiary? What are the real and perceived benefits of the product? Along with, when does therapy work most effectively? Where does the product work best in the body? Also, how is the product in a specific category delivered to the end user? And why does the product work in the way it does? Finding the answers for these questions will lead better product differentiation and standout in a competitive category. They also suggested two success factors for the product differentiation, which

During the literature survey, it was not find any evidence of research being conducted considering the three stakeholders of the industry, namely, the doctors, the pharmacists and the patients, even though they are the part of pharmaceutical products buying process. Most of the studies are conducted in a western marketing environment, especially related to the USA, and research in the context of Indian pharmaceutical marketing environment has not been focused. The literature review brought out the insight about the pharmaceutical marketing and relevance of product positioning. The product positioning includes the branding concepts along with the product related concepts in the pharmaceutical sector. Looking at the arena of the pharmaceutical industry in India, there is a need for the prescription drugs to be positioned in the physician‘s minds so that he/she can recall and prescribe when indicated. It was noted that studies considering the three stakeholders of the pharmaceutical industry, that is, the doctors, pharmacists and patients need to be probed further. The literature review gave the insight of the pharmaceutical product positioning and brand management concepts in the present scenario.

The researcher has selected this topic for the research because he has already worked in Pharma industry for more than nine years in the marketing and sales teams of three reputed

prescription-based medicines as well as changes in the promotional tools used by Pharma companies, in the last decade. Therefore, he found it‘s worthwhile to analyze and document these changes and come-out with some valuable suggestions helpful to the Pharma industry for designing their future marketing strategies. Rapid diagnostic tests are potentially useful tools for the diagnosis of hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) globally, particularly in low-resource areas. Expansion for global use depends on their performance characteristics clinically in the field, ultimately with the aim being to reach low-resource settings and offer cost–efficient screening as an alternative to laboratory tests.

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Research Scholar, Kalinga University, Raipur