Chapter 7 PROMOTIONS MIX Decisions and Strategies HAPTER OBJECTIVES Creating product awareness and patronage, frequent usage and inviting, Imore users, increasing customer traffic, and developing loyalty to a product or service is a function of promotions. It is a necessary ingredient in the total marketing mix, towards garnering a bigger share of the market vis-a-vis competition. After studying this Chapter, you should be able to: 1. Explain the role of promotions and its impact on ethical and OTC/ proprietary drug products. 2. Discuss the various promotions mix employed by drug companies and drug outlets. 3. Describe the sales promotions tools for ethicaland OTC/proprietary drug products. 4. Implement an effective merchandising and display program for drugstores. 163Pharmaceutical marketinginthe Pslippines has eer eee Die sophisticated, and innovative that it has gone Sa and pene quai drug products, acceptable pricing structures, ns nod maretng ee a Feadily available to target markets. Today, pharm: pea i ymmunications pr into a truly creative and responsive marketing co Program wig, | all the component elements of asound marketing Fe fagaainton the desig) incremental productivity called for by theneeds of e Sanne ays, wi, double-digit inflation and the deteriorating purchasing Pe nds ' PESO, the riflerather than the shotgun approach stands out prominently in the marketing battlefield. This means that for every peso invested or spent for promotions whatever marketing activity undertaken to promptly reach the intended tay, market, should by all means deliver expectations a hundred or a thousand folds in terms of desired revenues and profits. Drug companies feverishly communicate with terminal decision-maker, inboth the traditional and non-traditional markets, the various publics, and the final consumers of drug products by such mix of promotion tools as: advertisin sales promotion, personal selling, public relations, publicities, sampling, ang other related tools within the categories to include the following: point. purchase displays, merchandising, scientific medical fora and the like, poster sessions, trade show, and demonstrations. Of course, the whole gamut of the marketing mix should be effectively orchestrated for the greatestcommunications impact relative to competition. THE PROMOTIONS MIX FOR ETHICAL DRUG PRODUCTS Drug companies in promoting ethical drug products to physicians, dentists and allied professionals use a variety of tools in their total promotion mix arsenal such as the following: sampling, detailing, specialty advertising in journals and newsletters, scientific symposia, fora medica, poster sessions highlighting medical breakthroughs on killer diseases and related ailments Conventions and workshops, study grants, novelty items, brochures /literatures! leaflets teasers, coupons, contests, posters, banners, streamers, gift certificate, merchandise, social FAX telegrams, rebates/pin money /subsidies /stipends/ allowances and many others, are being capitalized as priority program activities gearedtowards gaining a strong foothold in the ethical otegs market Drug companies also make use of professional service representatives (PSRs) medical representative deployed in various places of the country conducting regular visits and optimizing whatever promotional activities in accordance 164ny guidelines for certain products and for certain specialty groups of «one Sad dentists practicing their trade. The PSR’s are the company’s nusittes, ambassadors of goodwill, extensions of the company providing {oss igns and allied services to target prescribers and endorsers of ethical consul jucts for long-term gains in terms of continued product patronage, dais Prescriptions and endorsements for present and newly-launched ug products. scald the drug companies, therefore, that are proactive in their promotion + ethical drug products to target clientele coupled with a calculated eurial, marketing efforts vis-a-vis competitionand quickly responding othe dynamism Ina highly changing environment in the drug industry will itt Sy survive in the fierce pharmaceutical jungle. Those companies that cefi ocontinue to perform the usual routine based on past successes will float 10 of forgotten dreams and eventually becomes obsoletein the process. fot insist inthe imb The primary target markets of promo tools in the aforementioned are te physicians and dentists who prescribe the ethical drug products to their pues either in hospitals, health centers, industrial clinics, or in thei private wrtice. Drug companies practically “fight to the death” for a bigger share of Jeprescriptions market from within and outside the doctor’sclinics, employing, qeative and consultative salesmanship, public relations, immediate-impact Communications, highly personalized services, and substantial ammunitions in tems of budgets, to support the various promo tools geared to achieve market growth, market share and leadership in the industry well ahead of competition. ‘hemore than 30,000 physicians and dentists nationwide tend to supportcertain érug companies whose ethical drug products exemplify the highest quality of and efficacy beyond reasonable doubts and are adequately available and reasonable priced within range of the greater majority of the 65 million Filipino population. They (valued prescribers of ethical drug products) also value extra ices rendered by companies in the area of continuing education through svailability of highly qualified resource speakers and timely topics in search of nce in their field of expertise or specialization. The conduct of company slant tours also are widely accepted in gaining greater confidence of prescribers ‘ethical drug products. Likewise, the continuing dialogue with key officials of : company on issues of mutual interest and benefit, through round-table- iscussions (RTD) or focus group discussions (FGD). oha The secondary target markets for ethical drug products are the meni who dispense and endorse the prescription drug products to end- c Sac irugstores and hospital pharmacies. With the advent of the revitalized tics Law, the pharmacists in drugstores can make or unmake a prescription 165