INTRODUCTION

MARKETING
Marketing is about identifying and meeting human and social needs. It is "the
activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and
exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at
large." Marketing is used to identify the customer, satisfy the customer, and keep the
customer. With the customer as the focus of its activities.
It is easier to change the products and services of the individual manufacturer to
fit the needs of the market than it is to convince the entire market to use the products and
services as the individual manufacturer prefers them.

MARKETING STRATEGY
Marketing strategies serve as the fundamental underpinning of marketing plans
designed to fill market needs and reach marketing objectives. Plans and objectives are
generally tested for measurable results. Commonly, marketing strategies are developed as
multi-year plans, with a tactical plan detailing specific actions to be accomplished in the
current year. Marketing strategies are dynamic and interactive. They are partially planned
and partially unplanned. Marketing strategy involves careful scanning of the internal and
external environments. Internal environmental factors include the marketing mix, plus
performance analysis and strategic constraints. External environmental factors include
customer analysis, competitor analysis, target market analysis, as well as evaluation of
any elements of the technological, economic, cultural or political/legal environment
likely to impact success.

PHARMACEUTICAL MARKETING
The pharmaceutical industry develops, produces, and markets drugs licensed for
use as medications. Pharmaceutical companies are allowed to deal in generic and/or
brand medications and medical devices. They are subject to a variety of laws and

regulations regarding the patenting, testing and ensuring safety and efficacy and
marketing of drugs.
Pharmaceutical marketing, sometimes called medico-marketing, is the business of
advertising or otherwise promoting the sale of pharmaceuticals or drugs. There is some
evidence that marketing practices can negatively affect both patients and the health care
profession. Many countries have measures in place to limit advertising by pharmaceutical
companies.
Pharmaceutical company spending on marketing far exceeds that spent on
research. Marketing to health care providers takes four main forms: gifting, detailing,
drug samples, and sponsoring continuing medical education (CME).

MEANING
MARKETING
Marketing is "an organizational function and a set of processes for creating,
communicating, and delivering value to customers and for managing customer
relationships in ways that benefit the organization and its stakeholders."
-AMA
Marketing as "the management process responsible for identifying, anticipating
and satisfying customer requirements profitably.
- Chartered Institute of Marketing
It is an integrated process through which companies build strong customer
relationships and create value for their customers and for themselves.

MARKETING STRATEGY
Marketing strategy is a process that can allow an organization to concentrate its
limited resources on the greatest opportunities to increase sales and achieve a sustainable
competitive advantage.
Marketing strategies are nothing but how you are going to handle the marketing
mix (price, product, place, promotion, positioning, people, physical evidence) in order to
market your product successfully.

SALES
A sale is the act of selling a product or service in return for money or other
compensation. It is an act of completion of a commercial activity.

PHARMACEUTICAL MARKETING
It is the business of advertising or otherwise promoting the sale of pharmaceutical
or drugs.

OBJECTIVE
To know the prescribing tendency of the physician and increase the prescription.
To provide information to doctors about the new drug molecules and continuing
medical education(CME)
To provide satisfaction to doctors as well patients.
To make the good impact of brand on doctors and peoples mind.
To achieve the target and increase the profit.

LITERATURE REVIEW
3

Pharmaceutical marketing
Pharmaceutical companies commonly spend a large amount on advertising,
marketing and lobbying. In the US, drug companies spend $19 billion a year on
promotions. Advertising is common in healthcare journals as well as through more
mainstream media routes

History
The marketing of medication has a long history. The sale of miracle cures, many
with little real potency, has always been common. Marketing of legitimate nonprescription medications, such as pain relievers or allergy medicine, has also long been
practiced, although, until recently, mass marketing of prescription medications has been
rare. It was long believed that since doctors made the selection of drugs, mass marketing
was a waste of resources; specific ads targeting the medical profession were thought to be
cheaper and just as effective. This would involve ads in professional journals and visits
by sales staff to doctors offices and hospitals. An important part of these efforts was
marketing to medical students.
To health care providers
Marketing to health care providers takes four main forms: gifting, detailing, drug
samples, and sponsoring continuing medical education (CME). Of the 237,000 medical
sites representing 680,000 physicians surveyed in SK&A's 2010 Physician Access survey,
half said they prefer or require an appointment to see a rep (up from 38.5% preferring or
requiring an appointment in 2008), while 23% won't see reps at all, according to the
survey data. Practices owned by hospitals or health systems are tougher to get into than
private practices, since appointments have to go through headquarters, the survey found.
13.3% of offices with just one or two doctors won't see reps, compared with a no-see rate
of 42% at offices with 10 or more docs. The most accessible physicians for promotional
purposes are allergists/immunologists only 4.2% won't see reps at all followed by
orthopedic specialists (5.1%) and diabetes specialists (7.6%). Diagnostic radiologists are

the most rigid about allowing details 92.1% won't see reps followed by pathologists
and neuroradiologists, at 92.1% and 91.8%, respectively.
Edetailing is widely used to reach "no see physicians"; approximately 23% of
primary care physicians and 28% of specialists prefer computer-based edetailing,
according to survey findings reported in the April 25, 2011, edition of American Medical
News (AMNews), published by the American Medical Association (AMA).
New Pharma Code & Guidelines
The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) released
updates to its voluntary Code on Interactions with Healthcare Professionals on July 10.
The new guidelines take effect January 2009."
"In addition to prohibiting small gifts and reminder items such as pens, notepads,
staplers, clipboards, pill boxes, etc., the revised Code:
I. Prohibits company sales representatives from providing restaurant meals to
healthcare professionals, but allows them to provide occasional meals in
healthcare professionals offices in conjunction with informational
presentations."
II. Includes new provisions requiring companies to ensure their representatives
are sufficiently trained about applicable laws, regulations, and industry
codes of practice and ethics.
III. Provides that each company will state its intentions to abide by the Code and
that company CEOs and compliance officers will certify each year that they
have processes in place to comply.
IV. Includes more detailed standards regarding the independence of continuing
medical education.
V. Provides additional guidance and restrictions for speaking and consulting
arrangements with healthcare professionals.

Free samples
Free samples have been shown to affect physician prescribing behaviour.
Physicians with access to free samples are more likely to prescribe brand name
medication over equivalent OTC medications. Other studies found that free samples
decreased the likelihood that physicians would follow standard of care practices.
Receiving pharmaceutical samples does not reduce prescription costs. Even after
receiving samples, sample recipients remain disproportionately burdened by prescription
costs. It is argued that a benefit to free samples is the try it before you buy it approach.
Free Samples give immediate access to the medication and the patient can begin
treatment right away. Also, it saves time from going to a pharmacy to get it filled before
treatment begins.
Continuing medical education
Hours spent by physicians in industry-supported CME are greater than that from
either medical schools or professional societies.
Pharmaceutical representatives
Currently, there are approximately 81,000 pharmaceutical sales representatives in
the United States pursuing some 830,000 pharmaceutical prescribers. A pharmaceutical
representative will often try to see a given physician every few weeks. Representatives
often have a call list of about 200-300 physicians with 120-180 targets that should be
visited in 1-2 or 3 week cycle.
Because of the large size of the pharmaceutical sales force, the organization,
management, and measurement of effectiveness of the sales force are significant business
challenges. Management tasks are usually broken down into the areas of physician
targeting, sales force size and structure, sales force optimization, call planning, and sales
forces effectiveness. A few pharmaceutical companies have realized that training sales
representatives on high science alone is not enough, especially when most products are

similar in quality. Thus, training sales representatives on relationship selling techniques in

addition to medical science and product knowledge, can make a difference in sales force
effectiveness.
Marketers attempt to identify the set of physicians most likely to prescribe a given
drug. Historically, this was done by measuring the number of total prescriptions (TRx)
and new prescriptions (NRx) per week that each physician writes. This information is
collected by commercial vendors. The physicians are then "deciled" into ten groups based
on their writing patterns. Higher deciles are more aggressively targeted. Some
pharmaceutical companies use additional information such as:
profitability of a prescription (script),
accessibility of the physician,
tendency of the physician to use the pharmaceutical company's drugs,
effect of managed care formularies on the ability of the physician to prescribe
a drug,
the adoption sequence of the physician (that is, how readily the physician
adopts new drugs in place of older treatments), and
the tendency of the physician to use a wide palette of drugs
Influence that physicians have on their colleagues.
A medium-sized pharmaceutical company might have a sales force of 1000
representatives. The largest companies have tens of thousands of representatives around
the world. Sales representatives called upon physicians regularly, providing clinical
information, approved journal articles, and free drug samples. This is still the approach
today; however, economic pressures on the industry are causing pharmaceutical
companies to rethink the traditional sales process to physicians.
Peer influence (Key opinion leaders)
Key opinion leaders (KOL), or "thought leaders", are respected individuals, such
as prominent medical school faculty, who influence physicians through their professional

status. Pharmaceutical companies generally engage key opinion leaders early in the drug
development process to provide advocacy and key marketing feedback. Some
pharmaceutical companies identify key opinion leaders through direct inquiry of
physicians (primary research). Recently, pharmaceutical companies have begun to use
social network analysis to uncover thought leaders; because it does not introduce
respondent bias, which is commonly found in primary research; it can identify and map
out the entire scientific community for a disease state; and it has greater compliance with
state and federal regulations; because physician prescribing patterns are not used to create
the social network.
Colleagues
Physicians acquire information through informal contacts with their colleagues,
including social events, professional affiliations, common hospital affiliations, and
common medical school affiliations. Some pharmaceutical companies identify influential
colleagues through commercially available prescription writing and patient level data.
Doctor dinner meetings are an effective way for physicians to acquire educational
information from respected peers. These meetings are sponsored by some pharmaceutical
companies.
Journal articles
Recent legal cases and US congressional hearings have provided access to
pharmaceutical industry documents revealing new marketing strategies for drugs.
Activities once considered independent of promotional intent, including continuing
medical education and medical research, are used, including paying to publish articles
about promoted drugs for the medical literature, and alleged suppression of unfavorable
study results.
To insurance and public health bodies
Private insurance or public health bodies (e.g. the NHS in the UK) decide which
drugs to pay for, and restrict the drugs that can be prescribed through the use of

formularies. Public and private insurers restrict the brands, types and number of drugs
that they will cover. Not only can the insurer affect drug sales by including or excluding a
particular drug from a formulary, they can affect sales by tiering or placing bureaucratic
hurdles to prescribing certain drugs as well. In January 2006, the U.S. instituted a new
public prescription drug plan through its Medicare program known as Medicare Part D.
This program engages private insurers to negotiate with pharmaceutical companies for
the placement of drugs on tiered formularies.
To retail pharmacies and stores
Commercial stores and pharmacies are a major target of non-prescription sales
and marketing for pharmaceutical companies.
Direct to consumer advertising
Since the 1980s new methods of marketing for prescription drugs to consumers
have become important. Direct-to-consumer media advertising was legalised in the FDA
Guidance for Industry on Consumer-Directed Broadcast Advertisements.
Internationally, many pharmaceutical companies market directly to the consumer rather
than going through a conventional retail sales channel. For example, Japan-based Kenrico
markets largely though its company website.

Economics of Pharmaceutical Company

Pharmaceutical company spending on marketing exceeds that spent on research.
In 2004 in Canada $1.7 billion a year was spent marketing drugs to physicians and in the
United States $21 billion were spent in 2002. In 2005 money spent on pharmaceutical
marketing in the US was estimated at $29.9 billion with one estimate as high as $57
billion. When the US numbers are broken down 56% was free samples, 25% was
detailing of physicians, 12.5% was direct to users advertising, 4% on hospital detailing,
and 2% on journal ads. In the United States approximately $20 billion could be saved if
generics were used instead of equivalent brand name products.

Although pharmaceutical companies have made large investments in marketing their

products, overall promotional spending has been decreasing over the last few years, and
declined by 10 percent from 2009 to 2010. Pharmaceutical companies are cutting back
mostly in detailing and sampling, while spending in mailings and print advertising grew
since last year.

Example:-

Market leaders in terms of revenue

The following is a list of the 20 largest pharmaceutical and biotech companies
ranked by healthcare revenue. The phrase Big Pharma is often used to refer to companies
with revenue in excess of $3 billion, and/or R&D expenditure in excess of $500 million.

Revenu
e Rank Company

Country

2008[32]

8
9
10

2006 (loss)

2006 Employee

(USD million (USD million (USD million s 2006

122,200

53,324
d
Merck & Co. USA
45,987
Bayer
Germany 44,200
GlaxoSmithKli United
42,813
ne
Kingdom
Johnson
and
USA
37,020
Johnson
Sanofi
France
35,645
HoffmannLa Switzer33,547
Roche
land
United
AstraZeneca
26,475
Kingdom
Abbott
USA
22,476
Laboratories

7,125

11,053

138,000

4,783
1,791

4,434
6,450

74,372
106,200

6,373

10,135

106,000

5,349

7,202

102,695

5,565

5,033

100,735

5,258

7,318

100,289

3,902

6,063

50,000+

2,255

1,717

66,800

Novartis

R&D

income/

s)
19,337

Revenues

Net

s)
7,599

Pfizer

Healthcare

s)
67,809

3
4

Total

USA
Switzerlan

Revenu
e Rank Company

Country

2008[32]

Total

Healthcare

Revenues

R&D

Net

income/

2006 (loss)

2006 Employee

(USD million (USD million (USD million s 2006

s)

s)

s)

USA

17,914

3,067

1,585

60,000

USA

15,691

3,129

2,663

50,060

USA

14,268

3,366

2,950

48,000

Germany 13,284

1,977

2,163

43,000

USA

10,594

2,188

1,057

41,500

USA

10,378

614

1,397

38,428

17

Pharmaceutical Japan

10,284

1,620

2,870

15,000

18

Co.
Genentech
Procter

USA

9,284

1,773

2,113

33,500

USA

8,964

n/a

10,340

29,258

497,519
24876

70,843
3542

110,077
5504

1,342,700
67135

11
12
13
14
15
16

19

Bristol-Myers
Squibb
Eli Lilly and
Company
Amgen
Boehringer
Ingelheim
ScheringPlough
Baxter
International
Takeda

Gamble
SUM
AVERAGE

&

Market leaders in terms of sales

The top 15 pharmaceutical companies by 2008 sales are:[8][33]
Rank
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

Company
Pfizer
GlaxoSmithKline
Novartis
Sanofi-Aventis
AstraZeneca
HoffmannLa Roche
Johnson & Johnson
Merck & Co.

Sales ($M) Based/Headquartered in

43,363
United States
36,506
United Kingdom
36,506
Switzerland
35,642
France
32,516
United Kingdom
30,336
Switzerland
29,425
United States
26,191
United States

Rank
9
10
11
12
13
14
15

Company
Sales ($M) Based/Headquartered in
Abbott
19,466
United States
Eli Lilly and Company 19,140
United States
Amgen
15,794
United States
Wyeth
15,682
United States
Teva
15,274
Israel
Bayer
15,660
Germany
Takeda
13,819
Japan

MARKETING
Evolution of marketing
An orientation, in the marketing context, related to a perception or attitude a firm
holds towards its product or service, essentially concerning consumers and end-users.
I. Earlier approaches
The marketing orientation evolved from earlier orientations, namely, the
production orientation, the product orientation and the selling orientation.

Orientation

Profit
driver

Western
European Description

timeframe
Production Production until the A firm focusing on a production orientation specializes
methods

1950s

in producing as much as possible of a given product or

service. Thus, this

signifies

a firm

exploiting

economies of scale until the minimum efficient scale is

reached. A production orientation may be deployed
when a high demand for a product or service exists,
coupled with a good certainty that consumer tastes will
not rapidly alter (similar to the sales orientation).
A firm employing a product orientation is chiefly
Quality of
Product

the
product

until

the

1960s

concerned with the quality of its own product. A firm

would also assume that as long as its product was of a
high standard, people would buy and consume the
product.
A firm using a sales orientation focuses primarily on
the selling/promotion of a particular product, and not
determining

new

consumer

desires

as

such.

Consequently, this entails simply selling an already

Selling

Selling

1950s and

methods

1960s

existing product, and using promotion techniques to

attain the highest sales possible.
Such an orientation may suit scenarios in which a firm
holds dead stock, or otherwise sells a product that is in
high demand, with little likelihood of changes in
consumer tastes that would diminish demand.
The 'marketing orientation' is perhaps the most
common orientation used in contemporary marketing.
It involves a firm essentially basing its marketing plans

Needs and 1970

Marketing wants

to around the marketing concept, and thus supplying

of present

customers day

products to suit new consumer tastes. As an example, a

firm would employ market research to gauge consumer
desires, use R&D to develop a product attuned to the
revealed information, and then utilize promotion
techniques to ensure persons know the product exists.

II. Contemporary approaches

Recent approaches in marketing include relationship marketing with focus on the

customer, business marketing or industrial marketing with focus on an organization or
institution and social marketing with focus on benefits to society. New forms of
marketing also use the internet and are therefore called internet marketing or more
generally e-marketing, online marketing, search engine marketing, desktop advertising or
affiliate marketing. It attempts to perfect the segmentation strategy used in traditional
marketing. It targets its audience more precisely, and is sometimes called personalized
marketing or one-to-one marketing. Internet marketing is sometimes considered to be
broad in scope, because it not only refers to marketing on the Internet, but also includes
marketing done via e-mail and wireless media.

Western
Orientation

Profit driver European Description

timeframe

Relationship Building and

marketing

keeping good

Relationship customer

marketing

keeping

Emphasis is placed on the whole relationship

between suppliers and customers. The aim is to
provide the best possible customer service and
build customer loyalty.
In this context, marketing takes place between
businesses or organizations. The product focus lies

1980s

to on industrial goods or capital goods rather than

relationships present

consumer products or end products. Different

between

forms of marketing activities, such as promotion,

day

organizations

Social

Benefit

marketing

society

Branding

present

Building and

Business
Industrial

to

day

management relations

marketing

1960s

to

advertising and communication to the customer

1990s
present
day

Brand value 1980s

present

to

are used.
Similar characteristics as marketing orientation
but with the added proviso that there will be a
curtailment of any harmful activities to society, in

either product, production, or selling methods.

to In this context, "branding" is the main company
philosophy and marketing is considered an

day

instrument of branding philosophy.

Marketing research
Marketing research involves conducting research to support marketing activities,
and the statistical interpretation of data into information. This information is then used by
managers to plan marketing activities, gauge the nature of a firm's marketing
environment and attain information from suppliers. Marketing researchers use statistical
methods such as quantitative research, qualitative research, hypothesis tests, Chi-squared
tests, linear regression, correlations, frequency distributions, poisson distributions,
binomial distributions, etc. to interpret their findings and convert data into information.
The marketing research process spans a number of stages, including the definition of a
problem, development of a research plan, collection and interpretation of data and
disseminating information formally in the form of a report. The task of marketing
research is to provide management with relevant, accurate, reliable, valid, and current
information.
A distinction should be made between marketing research and market research.
Market research pertains to research in a given market. As an example, a firm may
conduct research in a target market, after selecting a suitable market segment. In contrast,
marketing research relates to all research conducted within marketing. Thus, market
research is a subset of marketing research.

Market segmentation
Market segmentation pertains to the division of a market of consumers into
persons with similar needs and wants. For instance, Kellogg's cereals, Frosties are
marketed to children. Crunchy Nut Cornflakes are marketed to adults. Both goods denote
two products which are marketed to two distinct groups of persons, both with similar
needs, traits, and wants.
Market segmentation allows for a better allocation of a firm's finite resources. A
firm only possesses a certain amount of resources. Accordingly, it must make choices

(and incur the related costs) in servicing specific groups of consumers. In this way, the
diversified tastes of contemporary Western consumers can be served better. With growing
diversity in the tastes of modern consumers, firms are taking note of the benefit of
servicing a multiplicity of new markets.

Market

segmentation can be defined in terms of the STP acronym, meaning Segment, Target and
Position.

Types of Market Research

Market research, as a sub-set aspect of marketing activities, can be divided into
the following parts:

Primary research (also known as field research), which involves the conduction
and compilation of research for a specific purpose.

Secondary research (also referred to as desk research), initially conducted for

one purpose, but often used to support another purpose or end goal.
By these definitions, an example of primary research would be market research

conducted into health foods, which is used solely to ascertain the needs/wants of the
target market for health foods. Secondary research in this case would be research
pertaining to health foods, but used by a firm wishing to develop an unrelated product.
There also exist additional modes of marketing research, which are:

Exploratory research, pertaining to research that investigates an assumption.

Descriptive research, which, as the term suggests, describes "what is".

Predictive research, meaning research conducted to predict a future occurrence.

Conclusive research, for the purpose of deriving a conclusion via a research

process.

Marketing strategy
The field of marketing strategy encompasses the strategy involved in the
management of a given product.
A strategic plan can be constructed to identify business alternatives, establish
challenging goals, determine the optimal marketing mix to attain these goals, and detail
implementation. A final step in developing a marketing strategy is to create a plan to
monitor progress and a set of contingencies if problems arise in the implementation of the
plan.

Types of strategies
Marketing strategies may differ depending on the unique situation of the
individual business. However there are a number of ways of categorizing some generic
strategies. A brief description of the most common categorizing schemes is presented
below:
Strategies based on market dominance - In this scheme, firms are classified
based on their market share or dominance of an industry. Typically there are four
types of market dominance strategies:
Leader

 Challenger
Follower
Nicher
Porter generic strategies - strategy on the dimensions of strategic scope and
strategic strength. Strategic scope refers to the market penetration while strategic
strength refers to the firms sustainable competitive advantage. The generic
strategy framework (porter 1984) comprises two alternatives each with two
alternative scopes. These are Differentiation and low-cost leadership each with a
dimension of Focus-broad or narrow.
Product differentiation (broad)
Cost leadership (broad)
Market segmentation (narrow)
Innovation strategies - this deals with the firm's rate of the new product
development and business model innovation. It asks whether the company is on
the cutting edge of technology and business innovation. There are three types:
Pioneers
Close followers
Late followers
Growth strategies- In this scheme we ask the question, How should the firm
grow? There are a number of different ways of answering that question, but the
most common gives four answers:
Horizontal integration
Vertical integration
Diversification
Intensification

A more detailed scheme uses the categories

Prospector
Analyzer
Defender
Reactor
Marketing warfare strategies - This scheme draws parallels between marketing
strategies and military strategies.

SALES
Sales techniques
A sale can take place through.

Direct sales, involving person to person contact

Pro forma sales

Agency-based

Sales agents (for example in real estate or in manufacturing)

Sales outsourcing through direct branded representation

Transaction sales

Consultative sales

Complex sales

Consignment

Telemarketing or telesales

Retail or consumer

Traveling salesman

Door-to-door methods

hawking

Request for proposal An invitation for suppliers, through a bidding process, to

submit a proposal on a specific product or service. An RFP usually represents part of
a complex sales process, also known as "enterprise sales".

Business-to-business Business-to-business sales are much more relationship-based

owing to the lack of emotional attachment to the products in question. An
industrial/professional sale involves selling from one business to another.

Electronic

Web Business-to-business and business-to-consumer

Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) A set of standard for structuring

information to be electronically exchanged between and within businesses.

Indirect, human-mediated but with indirect contact

Mail-order

vending machine

Sales methods:

Selling technique

Consultative selling

Sales enablement

Solution selling

Conceptual Selling

Strategic Selling

Transactional Selling

Sales Negotiation

Reverse Selling

Paint-the-Picture

The take away

Sales Habits

Relationship Selling

RESEARCH
Meaning of research
Research in common parlance refers to a search for knowledge. Once can also
define research as a scientific and systematic search for pertinent information on a
specific topic. In fact, research is an art of scientific investigation.
Research is an academic activity and as such the term should be used in a technical
sense.
According to Clifford Woody research comprises defining and redefining
problems, formulating hypothesis or suggested solutions; collecting, organising and
evaluating data; making deductions and reaching conclusions; and at last carefully testing
the conclusions to determine whether they fit the formulating hypothesis.
Redman and Mory define research as a systematized effort to gain new
knowledge.

In short, the search for knowledge through objective and systematic method of
finding solution to a problem is research. The systematic approach concerning
generalisation and the formulation of a theory is also research. As such the term
research refers to the systematic method consisting of enunciating the problem,
formulating a hypothesis, collecting the facts or data, analysing the facts and reaching
certain conclusions either in the form of solutions(s) towards the concerned problem or in
certain generalizations for some theoretical formulation.

Objective of research
The purpose of research is to discover answers to questions through the
application of scientific procedures. The main aim of research is to find out the truth
which is hidden. Research objectives as falling into a number of following broad
groupings:
I.
II.

To gain familiarity with a phenomenon or to achieve new insights into it.

To portray accurately the characteristics of a particular individual, situation or a
group.

III.

To determine the frequency with which something occurs or with which it is

associated with something else.

IV.

To test a hypothesis of a causal relationship between variables.

Research methodology
Flow chart of Research methodology

The following order concerning various steps provides a useful procedural

guideline regarding the research process:
I.

Formulating the research problem

II.

Extensive literature survey

III.

Developing the hypothesis

IV.

Preparing the research design

V.
VI.
VII.
VIII.
IX.
X.
XI.

Determining sample design

Collecting the data
Execution of the project
Analysis of data
Hypothesis testing
Generalizations and interpretation
Preparation of the report or presentation of the results, i.e., formal write-up
of conclusions reached

A brief description of the above stated steps will be helpful:

1. Formulating the research problem: Initially the problem may be stated in a broad
general way and then the ambiguities, if any, relating to the problem be resolved. Then,
the feasibility of a particular solution has to be considered before a working formulation
of the problem can be set up. The formulation of a general topic into a specific research
problem, thus, constitutes the first step in a scientific enquiry. Essentially two steps are
involved in formulating the research problem, viz., understanding the problem
thoroughly, and rephrasing the same into meaningful terms from an analytical point of
view.
2. Extensive literature survey: Once the problem is formulated, a brief summary of it
should be written down. At this juncture the researcher should undertake extensive
literature survey connected with the problem. The earlier studies, if any, which are similar
to the study in hand, should be carefully studied.
3. Development of working hypotheses: After extensive literature survey, researcher
should state in clear terms the working hypothesis or hypotheses. Working hypothesis is
tentative assumption made in order to draw out and test its logical or empirical
consequences. They also affect the manner in which tests must be conducted in the
analysis of data and indirectly the quality of data which is required for the analysis.
Hypothesis should be very specific and limited to the piece of research in hand because it
has to be tested. It also indicates the type of data required and the type of methods of data
analysis to be used.
4. Preparing the research design: The research problem having been formulated in
clear cut terms, the researcher will be required to prepare a research design, i.e., he will
have to state the conceptual structure within which research would be conducted. The
function of research design is to provide for the collection of relevant evidence with
minimal expenditure of effort, time and money.

5. Determining sample design: All the items under consideration in any field of inquiry
constitute a universe or population. A complete enumeration of all the items in the
population is known as a census inquiry. It can be presumed that in such an inquiry
when all the items are covered no element of chance is left and highest accuracy is
obtained. Quite often we select only a few items from the universe for our study
purposes. The items so selected constitute what is technically called a sample. The
researcher must decide the way of selecting a sample or what is popularly known as the
sample design. In other words, a sample design is a definite plan determined before any
data are actually collected for obtaining a sample from a given population.
6. Collecting the data: In dealing with any real life problem it is often found that data at
hand are inadequate, and hence, it becomes necessary to collect data that are appropriate.
There are several ways of collecting the appropriate data which differ considerably in
context of money costs, time and other resources at the disposal of the researcher.
Primary data can be collected either through experiment or through survey. If
the researcher conducts an experiment, he observes some quantitative measurements, or
the data, with the help of which he examines the truth contained in his hypothesis. But in
the case of a survey, data can be collected by any one or more of the following ways:
a) By observation: This method implies the collection of information by way of
investigators own observation, without interviewing the respondents.
b) Through personal interview: The investigator follows a rigid procedure and
seeks answers to a set of pre-conceived questions through personal interviews.
c) Through telephone interviews: This method of collecting information
involves contacting the respondents on telephone itself.
d) By mailing of questionnaires: The researcher and the respondents do come in
contact with each other if this method of survey is adopted. Questionnaires are
mailed to the respondents with a request to return after completing the same.

e) Through schedules: Under this method the enumerators are appointed and
given training. They are provided with schedules containing relevant
questions. These enumerators go to respondents with these schedules. Data are
collected by filling up the schedules by enumerators on the basis of replies
given by respondents.
7. Execution of the project: Execution of the project is a very important step in the
research process. If the execution of the project proceeds on correct lines, the data to be
collected would be adequate and dependable. The researcher should see that the project is
executed in a systematic manner and in time. If the survey is to be conducted by means of
structured questionnaires, data can be readily machine-processed. In such a situation,
questions as well as the possible answers may be coded. If the data are to be collected
through interviewers, arrangements should be made for proper selection and training of
the interviewers. The steps should be taken to ensure that the survey is under statistical
control so that the collected information is in accordance with the pre-defined standard of
accuracy.
8. Analysis of data: After the data have been collected, the researcher turns to the task of
analyzing them. The analysis of data requires a number of closely related operations such
as establishment of categories, the application of these categories to raw data through
coding, tabulation and then drawing statistical inferences. Analysis work after tabulation
is generally based on the computation of various percentages, coefficients, etc., by
applying various well defined statistical formulae. In the process of analysis,
relationships or differences supporting or conflicting with original or new hypotheses
should be subjected to tests of significance to determine with what validity data can be
said to indicate any conclusion(s).
9. Hypothesis-testing: After analyzing the data as stated above, the researcher is in a
position to test the hypotheses, if any, he had formulated earlier. Various tests, such as
Chi square test, t-test, F-test, have been developed by statisticians for the purpose. The

hypotheses may be tested through the use of one or more of such tests, depending upon
the nature and object of research inquiry. Hypothesis-testing will result in either
accepting the hypothesis or in rejecting it.
10. Generalisations and interpretation: If a hypothesis is tested and upheld several
times, it may be possible for the researcher to arrive at generalisation, i.e., to build a
theory. As a matter of fact, the real value of research lies in its ability to arrive at certain
generalisations. If the researcher had no hypothesis to start with, he might seek to explain
his findings on the basis of some theory. It is known as interpretation.
11. Preparation of the report or the thesis: Finally, the researcher has to prepare the
report of what has been done by him. At the end of the report, appendices should be
enlisted in respect of all technical data. Bibliography,
i.e., list of books, journals, reports, etc., consulted, should also be given in the end. Index
should also be given specially in a published research report.

Types of research
The basic types of research are as follows:
I.

Descriptive vs. Analytical:- Descriptive research includes surveys and factfinding enquiries of different kinds. The major purpose of descriptive research is
description of the state of affairs as it exists at present. In analytical research, on
the other hand, the researcher has to use facts or information already available,
and analyse these to make a critical evaluation of the material.

II.

Applied vs. Fundamental:- Research can either be applied (or action) research or
fundamental (to basic or pure) research. Applied research aims at finding a
solution for an immediate problem facing a society or an industrial/business
organisation, whereas fundamental research is mainly concerned with
generalisations and with the formulation of a theory.

III.

Quantitative vs. Qualitative:- Quantitative research is based on the measurement

of quantity or amount. It is applicable to phenomena that can be expressed in

terms of quantity. Qualitative research, on the other hand, is concerned with

qualitative phenomenon, i.e., phenomena relating to or involving quality or kind.
IV.

Conceptual vs. Empirical:- Conceptual research is that related to some abstract

idea(s) or theory. It is generally used by philosophers and thinkers to develop new
concepts or to reinterpret existing ones. On the other hand, empirical research
relies on experience or observation alone, often without due regard for system and
theory. It is data-based research, coming up with conclusions which are capable of
being verified by observation or experiment.

HYPOTHESIS
Null hypothesis (H0):Sale of pharmaceutical products is affected by various marketing activities.

Alternative hypothesis (H1):Sale of pharmaceutical products is not affected by various marketing

activities.

DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION

Ques.1- Does sales of pharmaceutical products are affected by various marketing
activities of pharmaceutical company?
effect of marketing strategies on sales
Yes
No

No. of observation
94
6

Interpretation: - various pharmaceutical marketing activities affect the sales of

pharmaceutical products.

Z Test:-

Yes
No
Total

Z - test

No. of observation

dx=(x-XX)

dx2

47
3
50

22
-22
00

484
484
968

X - s.e. of XX

Where, X =

x/n

= 502

= 25

s.e. of XX = standard error of XX i.e. =

Where,

dx2 n

968 2

484

= 22
Putting value of , in s.e. of X =

n=population size i.e. 100 (assumed)

So,

s.e. of X = 22/

100

= 22 / 10
= 2.2
Putting the value of s.e. of X in the equation of z test, where
X= sample mean i.e. 25
=population mean i.e. 27 (assumed)
Z - Test
So,

= X - s.e. of XX
=25 27 / 2.2
= 2/ 2.2
= 0.91

Now at 5% level of significance = 1.96

Since, the calculated value of our study is less than the tabulated value i.e. 0.91<1.96
We can conclude that our H0 (null hypothesis) accepted.
Ques.2- Do u think physicians prefer to prescribe the products of branded company?
effect of marketing strategies on sales
Yes
No

No. of observation
74
26

Interpretation: - most of the physicians are preferred to prescribe the products of

branded company.

Ques.3- Do u think conducting various campaining programs improves the image of

company and increases the sales of products?
effect of marketing strategies on sales
Yes
No

No. of observation
72
28

Interpretation: - the image of company and the sales of products are improved by
conducting various campaigning programs.

Ques.4- Do you think there is any significant effect of free sample on sales of medicines?
effect of marketing strategies on sales
Yes
No

No. of observation
78
22

Interpretation: - distribution of free sample plays an important role on sales of

medicines.

Ques.5- Do u think distribution of gift and providing other benefits to physician affects
the sales of medicine
effect of marketing strategies on sales
Yes
No

No. of observation
72
28

Interpretation: - distribution of gift and providing other benefits to physician plays an

important role on sales of medicines.

Ques.6 - Do you agree if I say that retail pharmacies and stores play an important role in
sales of medicines?
effect of marketing strategies on sales
Yes
No

No. of observation
82
18

Interpretation: - retail pharmacies and stores are greatly affecting the sales of medicine.

Ques.7- Do u thinks direct advertising to customer; affect the sales of pharmaceutical

products?
effect of marketing strategies on sales
Yes
No

No. of observation
22
56

Interpretation: - direct advertising to customer is not more benicial for sales of

medicines.

Ques.8 - Is there any effect of educational program for customers, on sales of medicines?
effect of marketing strategies on sales
Yes
No

No. of observation
48
52

Interpretation: - educational program for customers has lesser impact on sales of

medicines than other activities.

Ques.9 - Does continuing medical education (CME) affect the prescription of

medicines?
effect of marketing strategies on sales
Yes
No

No. of observation
82
18

Interpretation: - continuing medical education (CME) affects the physician prescription.

Ques.10- Do u thinks that service of medical representative (MR) greatly affects the sales
of medicines?
effect of marketing strategies on sales
Yes
No

No. of observation
90
10

Interpretation: - medical representative (MR) plays an important and crucial role on

sales of pharmaceutical products.

FINDINGS
Medical representatives are most important factors on affecting the sales of
pharmaceutical products.

 Physicians are neither want to change their prescribing tendency and nor switch to
easily prescribe other brand, so that they mostly prescribe the products of branded
company.
Compaining programme and CME plays a very important factor in choosing a
brand by physicians and improving image of company.
Customer education and direct advertising is not much beneficiary for
pharmaceutical company, mostly customers are purchase medicines which is
prescribed or suggested by physicians.
Free sample, gift and providing other benefits to physician act as brand reminder
and make good impact of brand on his mind.

LIMITATION
The research is time consuming.
It is expensive to conduct the project.

 Some of the respondents were non willing to give responses.

Research measure the past not the future.
A report finding does not make decisions. Research provides information upon
which decisions are made.
Time period of survey was short thats why the sample size is small.

RECOMMENDATIONS

The pharmaceutical company should provide time to time training and

development programme to medical representative.

The pharmaceutical company should conduct CME and compaining progamme as

per requirements of physicians.

The pharmaceutical company should make healthy relation with retail pharmacist.

The pharmaceutical company should not involve in any unethical practices

because such a things decrease the goodwill and brand image of company.

CONCLUSION
From the above data it is concluded that, the sales of pharmaceutical products are
affected by various marketing activities of pharmaceutical company and medical
representative are showing more impact on sales of medicines rather than other marketing

activities. It is also find that customer education and direct advertising are not much
beneficial for pharmaceutical company.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
BOOKS
Kothari, CR Research Methodology, 2nd revised edition 2004, New Age International
Publishers, Pg No. 23-221.

INTERNET
www.google.co.in
www.wikipedia.org
www.ebooks.com
www.indianpharma.com

QUESTIONNAIRE
Dear sir/madam,

I am a student of GD Rungta College of Engineering and Technology, Bhilai,

Durg, (CG) and I am conducting a survey entitled A study on impact of marketing
strategies towards the sales of pharmaceutical products which is a part of my academic
curriculum. I need your help in this study. Kindly provide me your valuable opinion by
filling this questionnaire. The information obtained by this questionnaire will be kept
strictly confidential and will be used for academic purpose.

Personal Information:Name:Address:Age: -

a) 18-25 b) 25-40 c) 40-50 d) 50-60 e) 60 & above

Occupation: - a) Doctor b) Medical representative c) any other

Questions:Ques.1- Does sales of pharmaceutical products are affected by various marketing

activities of pharmaceutical company?
a) Yes

b) No

Ques.2- Do u think physicians prefer to prescribe the products of branded company?

a) Yes

b) No

Ques.3- Do u think conducting various campaigning programs improves the image of

company and increases the sales of products?
a) Yes

b) No

Ques.4- Do you think there is any significant effect of free sample on sales of medicines?
a) Yes

b) No

Ques.5- Do u think distribution of gift and providing other benefits to physician affects
the sales of medicine?
a) Yes

b) No

Ques.6 - Do you agree if I say that retail pharmacies and stores play an important role in
sales of medicines?
a) Yes

b) No

Ques.7- Do u thinks direct advertising to customer; affect the sales of pharmaceutical

products?
a) Yes

b) No

Ques.8 - Is there any effect of educational program for customers, on sales of medicines?
a) Yes

b) No

Ques.9 - Does continuing medical education (CME) affect the prescription of

medicines?
a) Yes

b) No

Ques.10- Do u thinks that service of medical representative (MR) greatly affects the sales
of medicines?
a) Yes

b) No