Product and Pricing Management
Marketing 3349
PharmaSim Marketing Plan
Developing a marketing plan for periods 3-6 is a key part of success in the PharmaSim environment and
will serve as your firm’s “roadmap” throughout the remainder of the simulation. Your plan should
reflect your understanding of the Marketing Framework (the 5 Cs, STP, and the 4 Ps) and how it applies
to the PharmaSim environment.
Please respond to the following questions to create an overall definition of your strategy. Please
respond to these questions in a maximum of three double-spaced type-written pages (one for each topic).
1.
The 5 Cs:
a.
Company: What are our goals, and what measures will be used to determine if
we are on track? What strengths and weaknesses do we see in our brand and
organization?
b.
Customers: What underlying needs are we trying to satisfy? What benefits do
customers seek? Are there any trends/changes in these needs that we especially
need to consider?
c.
Competitors: Who do we see as our primary competitor(s)? What do we expect
them to do and how do we defend against those moves?
d.
Collaborators: Who helps us generate and deliver value? How do we motivate
them to help us achieve our goals?
e.
Context: What environmental factors provide opportunities or limit our options?
2.
STP:
a.
Segmentation – What segmentation alternatives exist in PharmaSim?
b.
Targeting – Which segment(s) will you choose to target and why?
c.
Positioning – What will be your value proposition (see below) to your target
markets? How will your pricing, advertising, and channel decisions support your
positioning objective?
3.
4Ps – Application: Please expand your analysis of the following two topics related to
the 4Ps in PharmaSim.
a.
Channels/Pricing. Take the retail price into what you consider your most
important channel and break that into a chain of margins (retail margin, wholesale
margin (if applicable), manufacturer margin (your margin) and your cost of goods
sold.
i.
What assumptions did you need to make (if any)?
ii.
How does your margin structure differ from your primary
competitor and does that leave you vulnerable or at an advantage?
iii.
What would be the impact of a $1.00 increase in MSRP on this
chain?
b.
Cannibalization. One of your first decisions going forward will be which of the
three line extensions will you launch. Please provide the following:
i.
Your choice of line extension (Allround +). Which of the line
extensions do you believe will have the least degree of
cannibalization and why?
ii.
The degree to which you believe the sales of your choice of line
extension will come from your current core product (Allround).
iii.
What options do you have to minimize the degree of
cannibalization of the line extension?
Product and Pricing Management
Marketing 3349
PharmaSim Marketing Plan
4.
Value Proposition: Once a basis for differentiation has been established this basis needs
to be put down on paper. Together with the statement of the customer and competitor
targets, this component of the core strategy is called the value proposition. The
following is suggested format:
For (target segment n), the (product/brand name) is a (product category) that unlike
(competitor targets), (statement of primary differentiation.
Example:
Panera Bread
For suburban women, Panera Bread is a quick-service restaurant that
unlike Au Bon Pain, offers a higher level of freshness, ambience, and
service as well as food quality, cleanliness, and order accuracy.
Sirius Satellite Radio
For both upper income and highly educated men and women between 18
and 60 years old, Sirius is a satellite radio service that unlike XM, offers
unique content for the highest-profile and most popular personalities such
as Howard Stern and Martha Stewart.