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Metabical Positioning and Communication PDF
Metabical Positioning and Communication PDF
0 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Cambridge Science Pharmaceuticals (CSP) is an international health care company with
a focus on developing, manufacturing, and marketing products that treat metabolic
disorders, gastrointestinal diseases, immune deficiencies, as well as other chronic and
acute medical conditions. The company captured over $25 billion in sales for the year
2007. Barbara Printup is the senior director of marketing of CSP who is responsible for
one of the most successful products by CSP, Zimistat. CSP has assigned Printup to be in-
charged of the upcoming U.S product launch of CSP’s newest prescription drug,
Metabical.
Metabical was the first prescription drug approved by the FDA that targeted specifically
for overweight individuals produced by Cambridge Science Pharmaceuticals (CSP). The
majority of Metabical trial’s participants reached their weight-loss goals by week 12.
Although pricing had not been finalised, CSP estimated the retail price would be
approximately $3 to $5 per day, with the average course of treatment lasting for 12
weeks.
2.0 INTRODUCTION
Excess weight is considered a public health crisis in the U.S, with approximately 65% of
the entire adult population categorised as overweight, obese or severely obese. Being
overweight often related to a number of serious health problems. According to the
American Obesity Association in 2005, it is one of the top leading causes of death in
U.S. In addition to health risks, overweight individuals always feel like social outcasts.
They endure a significant social stigma as well as discrimination. Laziness and self-
indulgence are common stereotypes associated with this group. Their professional life
could also be negatively affected, as excess weight has been found to adversely influence
hiring decisions, wages and promotions.
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Researchers and health care professionals measure excess weight using the Body Mass
Index (BMI) scale. The BMI scale is appropriate for both men and women. It calculates
the relationship between weight and height associated with body fat and health risk.
There are three BMI categories of excess weight for adults: overweight (25 to 30); obese
(30 to 40); and severely, or morbid obese (over 40).
Other OTC solutions such as green tea extract, conjugated linoleic acid, bitter orange,
etc. were categorised as herbal or dietary supplement which did not require stringent
FDA approvals. Thus complications from these would only be discovered until
individual consumed it. One serious case, ephedra was linked to several cases of sudden
cardiac death and other serious health problems. This hurt the industry credibility as a
whole. CSP believed that Metabical could be the only superior product in the market at
that time.
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To decide the best positioning strategy and marketing communication plan, Printup
needed to plan the optimal segmentation, targeting and positioning of the drug. She could
then move on to assessing her current marketing communication strategy and develop a
timeline for the key activities.
Marketing Survey
Figure 1: 65% non-active; 35% actively trying to lose weight, 15% ready to take drug
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Categorising between genders, 75% of women and 65% of men were dissatisfied with their
current weight and appearance. 50% of women and 30% of men visited a health care provider for
annual physical test, whereas 55% of women and 40% of men wanted to change their behaviour
to live a healthy lifestyle. While 60% of women and 30% of men surveyed had tried and failed to
lose weight in the past five years, the survey revealed about 65% and 35% of respondents were
dissatisfied with the current weight-loss options in the market for women and men respectively.
Based on the report, 75% hold a college degree and 45% hold a high school diploma were aware
of the health risks associated with being moderately overweight. About 65% of 18 to 35 years old
wanted to lose weight to look better, while 60% age 35+ said they wanted to lose weight improve
their overall health. Furthermore, 5% of respondent with income less than $40,000, 11% from
respondents with income between $40,000 to $80,000, and with 20% of respondents with income
more than $80,000 were willing to pay “out of pocket” for a prescription weight-loss drug
(Figure 2).
25%
20%
20%
0%
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The table above shows the type of different segments that we will focus to market
Metabical. From the table above depicts two main target markets which are End User
and Health Care Provider. The end user will focus on overweight female who has BMI of
25 to 30; age between 25 to 40 years old; with college education and income level
between $50,000 to $80,000. The health care provider will focus on physician and
medical care practitioners. These practitioners will act as CSP agents who would
prescribe Metabical for the patients.
SWOT ANALYSIS
Strength Weaknesses
Metabical gain the FDA approval The effects of Gastrointestinal
Less negative effects compared with when consume high levels of fat or
others competitor products calories
Less consume pills Not suitable for individual with
Reducing stress on heart or liver BMI more than 30
Train people with healthier eating
habits
Opportunities Threats
Potential Market Trauma from the dietary drugs
High demands Competitions with OTC products
Overweight people feel like social and herbal supplements.
outcast
Swot analysis above show the internal strength and weaknesses of the products. Then the
second row of Swot table depicts the external opportunities and threat by comparing with
the other competitors and the industry itself. From the analysis above shows Metabical has
low threats to them compare with many opportunities of the products. Other than that, the
weaknesses of the products also low if compare with the strength of the products itself.
From analysis above give some hints that this product will help CSP to gain more profits
and benefits in the future.
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5.2 Competitor Analysis
Category Alli Xenical Metabical
From the competitor analysis will show that Metabical have less side effects compared
with ALLI and Xenical drugs that cause negative impact to customer health. Other than
that, Metabical have clinically proven and previous user who took this product maintained
for three years, with weight loss levels of 10% from what clinical trial participants had
experienced.
Health Risk
Clinically Proven
Other OTC Others herbals and
weight loss dietary
supplements
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The perceptual mapping above shows the placement of every weight loss products. It
depicts that Metabical placed as a leader from the other competitors. It show that
Metabical at the best point which is clinically proven with the low risk. The conclusion
is, Metabical can monopoly big market share in the weight loss industry and with the
exclusivity for 10 years will help CSP to gain better profits for future.
6.1 Advertising
Direct to consumer (DTC) advertising is the way how to influence people to buy the
products. In drug industry, it was quite uncommon and DTC was the new phenomena for
the industry. Printup strategy included a DTC television, online, radio and print media
blitz at the time of the drug lunch for the first year to establish the Metabical names. The
primary target was patients knowledge and the awareness of Metabical products that can
help to solve all their weight problems. Example of initial concepts for the DTC ads:
“Losing weight is though”. You don’t have to do it alone. Let Metabical and your
health care provider start you on the road to a healthy weight and better life.
“Look your best”. Shed excess pounds with Metabical and discover a happier, more
attractive you. Metabical- all you need to succeed.
“Those extra 20 pounds could be killing you”. Being overweight leads to heart
disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, and gallbladder disease. It’s time to get
healthy- Metabical can help.
Promotions Strategies
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Medical education events and series of Social networking sites
podcast aimed at physicians
The table above shows the focus of marketing strategy to the primary and secondary
targets. During the first year launch will cost CSP approximately $4.3 mill to cover all of
the campaigns and marketing activities. These campaigns will help the company to raise
awareness among the people about Metabical benefits that can solve the overweight
problem.
For established drugs, CSP sales reps will visited targeted medical offices four time a
year to discuss the drug and provide samples. CSP sales rep also sponsored promotional
Lunch & Learn seminars for health care providers. This events objective is to distribute
the information about the featured drug.
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0 -2 Years Year 2 – Year Year 5 – Year
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Second event would be a medical research symposium that was open to members of
the media and to medical professional. This event would occur the same week as the
drug’s lunch. The participants that will involve in the programs are come from
medical researcher in cardiology, diabetes, gastroenterology, depression therapy, and
oncology that will serve as keynote speakers, and a series of breakout session
focusing on health issues for overweight patients.
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Advertising will be also use to target the professional medical community. This part
of the campaign would include print ads in leading medical publications (E.g.,
Journal of the American Medical association) and interactive ads adjacent to online
physician resource information (E.g., PDR.net) to raise awareness about the drug and
its benefits. CSP will launch the three different advertising concepts aimed at health
care providers:
Give your overweight patients a safe alternative to fad diets and dangerous
OTC drugs. Introducing Metabical – Clinically proven weight-loss drug.
Atherosclerosis, coronary artery disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, and
gallbladder disease. Your overweight patients are dying for help. Introducing
Metabical – FDA approved weight-loss drug.
Empower your patients to lose excess weight, change their unhealthy eating
habits, and achieve long-term success. Introducing Metabical – short-term
drug therapy and comprehensive support program for overweight patients. It
gets results.
For the advertising strategy, direct to consumer (DTC) advertising is the way how to
influence people to buy the products. In drug industry, it was quite uncommon and
DTC was the new phenomena for the industry. Printup strategy included a DTC
television, online, radio and print media blitz at the time of the drug lunch for the first
year to establish the Metabical names. The primary target was patients’ knowledge
and the awareness of Metabical products that can help to solve all their weight
problems. Example of initial concepts for the DTC ads:
“Losing weight is though”. You don’t have to do it alone. Let Metabical and
your health care provider start you on the road to a healthy weight and better
life.
“Look your best”. Shed excess pounds with Metabical and discover a
happier, more attractive you. Metabical- all you need to succeed.
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“Those extra 20 pounds could be killing you”. Being overweight leads to
heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, and gallbladder disease. It’s time
to get healthy- Metabical can help.
For the customer, the viral marketing strategy will be applied to attract customer to buy
the drugs. This viral marketing should be in online contest “The Metabical Challenge” to
challenge the people who can achieve their aim weight by using this drug. Other than
that, the viral marketing will be implementing through social networking sites such as
Facebooks, Twitter, Instagram and Blog to create buzz about Metabical.
During this time, the both targeted group will be know the existing of Metabical in the
weight loss industry. They will gain enough information about the Metabical and slowly
will be influence to try the products.
Testimony Results
During this phase, we will only focusing on primary target which is people with BMI 30
and below. On the year 2, obviously CSP will gain the permanent customer who already
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bought and tried the Metabical drugs. Through the previous user will help the CSP to
gain enough information and experiences from them. This experience will be known as
testimony user to attract the new customer to buy the Metabical Products. By using the
testimony results, CSP will put it in their pamphlets and distributed to the overweight
group that will influence them to buy the Metabical drugs.
Road Show
CSP sales team will start to promote the drug to other places within the U.S country to
promote the Metabical weight loss drugs. During this road show, customer will be
attending the talk session to get the more information about the drugs that can fight and
block the fats. The Metabical also will be sold on this road show with discounted price
and the customer will get the free e-books that will teach them a healthy life style. CSP
teams will gain the prominent information especially customer email and home address
so that it will be easily to send them any promotion events.
Promotions Campaign
For every year, CSP will have to do a promotion campaign that will focus on urban area
such as the big cities at United States. As we know, under this region the group of people
that have the weight problems are huge and this is the good place to tackle the problems
through the selling of Metabical drugs. Therefore, CSP will have the collaboration with
health care provider to help them make this campaign success.
Support Programs
All customers who are buying the Metabical products will be registered under the
support programs. This support program will include reference material such as online
weight control tools. Under this weight control tools will have a weight loss tracker, food
diary, nutritional and calories calculator. Other than that, this support program will have
the personal support, meals plans, and exercise plan that will help the user to chive their
weight goals. Every user can access this program for two years starting from their
purchasing products.
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8.0 CONCLUSION
The table above depicts that only 34% from the overall 230 million of people is
overweight; from which, only 27.3 million people are actively trying to lose weight.
However there are only 4.106 million of people ready to use prescription weight-loss
drugs. Below is the projected profit that CSP will gain from the customer in the first
year:
Items Info
Per Pill Price $5.00
Course of Treatments 12 weeks (84 days)
Daily Usage One pill each day
Total Price Spending by Customer (A) RM420.00
Possibility of potential customer (B) 4.106 million people
Total possibility of profits (A x B) 1.724 billion people
Total of overall cost (R&D, Marketing Budget and $ 423,146,000
FDA)
The total net profit after the overall cost $ 1. 301 billion
From the table above shows that with projected sales, CSP will enjoy a big profit margin
by gaining approximately $ 1.724 billion. Therefore, it can already pay back the overall
total cost for Metabical in terms of R&D, FDA trials and marketing cost; with a total net
profit of $ 1.301 billion. According to the ABC news, the annual revenue of U.S weight-
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loss industry contributed to approximately $20 billion. This means that Metabical can
gain more profit from the total of net profit based on the table above.
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References
ABC News (May 2012). 100 Million Dieters, $20 Billion: The Weight-Loss Industry by the
Numbers. Retrieved November 20, 2014 from: http://abcnews.go.com/Health/100-million-
dieters-20-billion-weight-loss-industry/story?id=16297197
AllI weight loss products. Retrieved November 20, 2014 from http://www.myalli.com/
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