The following is a certain pharmaceutical company’s overall planning plan for XX skin OTC products for your reference
1. Current status of pharmaceutical companies for skin OTC products
my country OTC products can be divided into fourteen categories according to their types, including: skin drugs, digestive system drugs, ophthalmic drugs, general external drugs, etc. Due to the wide variety of commonly used dermatological OTC products, consumers have a lot of room for independent choice. Brand popularity often becomes the standard for consumers to purchase such drugs. Often a few well-known leading brands occupy most of the market, and some unknown small and medium-sized enterprises Brands can only rely on their personalization advantages and characteristics to fill market gaps, or rely on channel advantages to occupy regional markets.
In addition, in September 2001, the State Food and Drug Administration stipulated that the deadline for GMP certification of pharmaceutical companies is June 30, 2004, and the deadline for GSP certification of pharmaceutical businesses is December 31, 2004. This means At that time, a number of pharmaceutical companies that do not meet the requirements of GMP and GSP will be shut down in accordance with the law. What will follow will be a number of new or second-innovated OTC product companies and product brands appearing on the market, and the market pattern will be significantly changed. changes.
In the face of competition, all enterprises must put survival and development first. On the one hand, enterprises must quickly adjust and transform business ideas, marketing strategies and marketing organizational structures, and conduct extensive alliances; On the other hand, we must vigorously improve existing products, cultivate, promote and maintain brands, explore new markets, and achieve business goals.
2. Product and Brand Promotion Strategies
Since it is difficult for ordinary consumers to identify the quality of drugs, brand has become an important basis for consumer purchasing decisions. A successful skin OTC product brand can bring long-term and huge profits to the company, but it also requires constant maintenance and promotion. The key is that advertising investment needs to be backed by strong funds. Therefore, there are three capabilities that determine the survival and development of a skin OTC product company: capital strength, scientific research and innovation capabilities, and marketing capabilities. Marketing capabilities are concentrated in the operation of brands and channels.
As a special commodity, skin OTC products contain three levels of content: the first is the core product, which refers to the efficacy and quality of the skin OTC products; the second is the formal product, which refers to the skin OTC products. dosage forms, trademarks, brands and packaging; the third is extended products, which refer to the added value and services that skin OTC products provide to patients. Due to the technical particularity of skin OTC products, more homogeneous and similar products will appear. This also means that our work can only focus on the second and third levels. Under undifferentiated market conditions, any selling point, marketing model, or technique can be cloned. Only brands have eternal vitality. For an enterprise with average capital and technological strength, and with products, markets, and brands that basically exist but are hardly improving, on the existing basis, through a series of marketing operations, it can achieve dual promotion of products and brands and open up the market. It is particularly urgent, realistic and important.
How to select the right products, enhance the brand, and achieve sales? We summarize it as follows: Two determinations, Guangdong and Guangxi, and innovation and differentiation.
1. Two determinations for Guangdong and Guangxi
Two determinations: one is corporate positioning, and the other is product market positioning.
Clarify development ideas and business strategies through corporate positioning, identify the market through product positioning, and effectively enter the market.
Guangdong and Guangxi: one is advertising and the other is building channels.
Promote products and brands through advertising, promote sales through channel operations, and consolidate the market and consumer groups.
2. Innovation and differentiation
In skin OTC product companies, innovation is the most valuable driving force for market development, and it is also important to achieve sustainable improvement and development of corporate products and brands. ensure. The innovation process should be an organic combination of product innovation and enterprise innovation. The key is to fully understand the market information, establish a product system and marketing system with competitive advantages, and enhance the company's competitive advantage.
2.1 Three forms of innovation
Offensive. By developing or introducing new products, enterprises go all out to pursue the advancement of product technology, seize the market first, and strive to maintain a strong leading position in technology and market in the competition.
It is characterized by high risk, large investment, high returns, and the ability to obtain large-scale monopoly profits. It is more suitable for large-scale skin OTC product companies or new technology companies.
Defensive. Enterprises do not rush to research and develop new products. Instead, when a successful new product appears on the market, they immediately conduct follow-up research and development and quickly invest to occupy the market. That is, "Look at the market at a glance, look at the big manufacturers at a glance." This strategy of waiting for work requires enterprises to have efficient intelligence systems and the ability to absorb innovation. Its advantage is that it avoids early investment risks and defects in the initial form of new products, and enables enterprises to Coming from behind, it is suitable for medium-sized enterprises with strong scientific research capabilities.
Introduced type. Enterprises use the scientific research power of others to develop new products instead of themselves. The results are quick, the cost is low, and the risks are small. However, the returns are also small and they are easily restricted. Suitable for small and medium-sized enterprises.
2.2 Only by paying attention to R&D can innovation be successful
R&D is the foundation of innovation. The world's major pharmaceutical companies are basically research-oriented, and their R&D investment must account for at least 10-15% of total annual sales profits. However, the R&D investment of Chinese pharmaceutical companies generally does not exceed 3%. Take Glaxo-Williams as an example. Its sales have exceeded US$10 billion in recent years, and it spends more than US$1 billion on new research and development projects every year. Every year, the company develops several new medicinal chemical structures and dosage forms. , sufficient reserves of new products enable the company to always maintain its technological advantages.
2.3 Differences for survival, characteristics for development
Consumer needs are always different, especially in today's era of personalization. For the skin OTC product market, gaps and opportunities also exist. The key lies in whether companies can discover, explore, meet needs, and seize opportunities. The purpose of innovation is to seek differences, realize differences, establish characteristics, and finally convert them into purchases by target consumers. This is not only the essence of the entire marketing activity, but also the essence of the survival and development of a product and an enterprise.
3. Market research on skin OTC products
Whether it is new product development, establishment of selling points, market entry of skin OTC products, secondary development of old products, brand promotion, everything All must be based on market research. Only through comprehensive analysis, understanding and grasp of the market can we know ourselves and the enemy and be targeted. In addition to grasping the macro environment, industry trends, scientific research directions, supply and demand information, etc., as an enterprise that continues to improve products and brands, it is also necessary to conduct preliminary market research.
1. Market research
A number of advanced foreign-funded or joint ventures such as Xi'an Janssen call research a must-do home work, which is very different from the common domestic "such and such pharmaceutical factory" Different from reports such as "Exceeding the Plan", the gap between the strategic goals and actual results of foreign companies such as Janssen and SmithKline generally does not exceed 10%. The key lies in accurate grasp of the market.
Market research is generally divided into three categories: product research and development research, new product launch testing research, and marketing strategy research. The main contents include consumer research, market demand research, product research, competitive strategy research, advertising research, price research, market sales research, promotion mix research, etc. Each research must be as detailed as possible to ensure the accuracy of the research results. Scientific, accurate and close to the market. At the same time, pay attention to the sequential steps of the research.
The key to companies doing market research lies in two aspects. One is to establish a scientific awareness of market research, and the other is to establish a systematic and scientific marketing information decision-making system, including internal reporting systems, marketing The intelligence system, market research system, and marketing decision-making system provide organizational guarantees and strengthen close cooperation with relevant professional institutions.
2. Characteristics of consumption of skin OTC products
Skin OTC products are a special product category. It has the characteristics of consumer goods, where consumers make independent decisions and purchases, and of pharmaceuticals, where consumers make highly rational decisions, are highly involved and feel insecure. In addition, the consumption of skin OTC products also has the following characteristics.
2.1 Skin OTC products and drugs are directly facing consumers and are consumer-centered
The biggest difference between skin OTC products and prescription drugs is that the former is consumer-centered, and the latter is consumer-centered. Doctor-centered.
Dermatology OTC products are pharmaceutical products that must be promoted through marketing methods, so consumer opinions play a vital role.
2.2 Dermatology OTC products are mostly stock medicines with many brands
Dermatology OTC products are mostly stock medicines for treating general diseases. These medicines are generally relatively mature in production technology. There is no competitive advantage in patented technology. Because of this, the barriers to technology entry are low, and there are many manufacturers of such drugs. There are often multiple brands of the same skin OTC product on the market, and the market competition is extremely fierce.
2.3 Professionals still have the ability to influence the skin OTC product market
Although skin OTC products can be purchased without a doctor’s prescription, some skin OTC products are used to treat diseases and save lives after all. , and drug knowledge is highly professional and not yet universal knowledge, so consumers will pay great attention to the opinions of professionals such as doctors, pharmacists, etc. when purchasing and using skin OTC products.
3. Three consumption behavior patterns of skin OTC products
Consumers have more and more autonomy in choosing medicines, and marketing activities targeting consumers become more important. By segmenting consumer behavior, we can find out the target consumer groups of our products, analyze their consumer psychology types, and adopt more targeted positioning and publicity strategies for different consumption types, which will make the entire marketing promotion more effective. It will also significantly reduce costs.
There are three consumption behavior patterns in the consumption of skin OTC products and drugs, namely: habitual type, logical type and demand type.
1. Habitual consumers. It means that when consumers purchase such drugs, they only look for one brand they commonly use, and do not care about or pay attention to other brands. Judging from the brand consumption characteristics of habitual consumers, it is very difficult to change the habits of these consumers. It requires a lot of market work and market investment to change these consumers' thoughts and habits. One data shows that consumers use a certain brand to become a habit. 66% of consumers are influenced by doctors, and 29% of consumers form consumption habits because their family/friends have been using it. Only 5% of consumers’ habit formation is due to other factors.
2. Logical consumers. It refers to consumers who pay attention to collecting information during the purchasing process and use their own value indicators to measure it to guide their purchases. When logical consumers purchase drugs, the main factors they pay attention to are efficacy, price, brand, etc. Since consumers pay attention to the efficacy when purchasing, and the efficacy largely comes from the recognition of the brand, therefore establishing a high-quality brand image has a significant effect on influencing the purchases of these consumers.
3. Demand-oriented consumers. It refers to consumers who have related symptoms but are not aware that they need medication. They will make judgments based on the information they are exposed to, collect more relevant information, and finally decide to purchase. Demand-oriented consumers decide whether their needs are strong or not based on the prominence and severity of symptoms. For needy consumers, educating, cultivating and stimulating their consumption needs is the key.
According to statistical analysis, habitual consumption dominates the consumption of general skin OTC products, and logical consumers have become the main consumer groups of skin OTC products. However, the specific proportion is affected by different drugs and regions. There are corresponding changes. In addition, some new drugs targeting new needs and some areas with poor health care awareness tend to be dominated by demand-oriented consumers. Logical consumers are easier to change and require smaller expenses, but their capacity is not large. Habitual consumers have a large market capacity, but the marketing expenses required will be higher and the effect will take a long time. Enterprises should base their own strength on Choose your target consumer group and formulate strategies.
IV. Market positioning and operation positioning
1. Enterprise operation positioning
Enterprises have different purposes and motivations for participating in the skin OTC product market, and the methods of market development are different. It's different. Products with long-term investment generally drive the development of enterprises by establishing brand advantages. In the case of short-term investment, enterprises artificially shorten the product life cycle in exchange for maximum profits or operating experience in the skin OTC product market.
As a skin OTC product company, when positioning its business, it must pay attention to two points. One is to accurately grasp the development status of the industry market, and the other is to be aware of its own resources and strength, and at the same time We must fully realize the urgency of the current situation and make decisive decisions. Before launching every product or advertisement, you must know who you are, what you want to do, what you are doing, how you want to do it, and what purpose you want to achieve. Otherwise, being blind will only drive you to a dead end.