1. MISSION STATEMENT: To provide our customers with the best medicines to help alleviate common cold and allergy symptoms in order to help you get through your day. 2. MARKETING OBJECTIVES: · To emphasis grocery store sales and dominate this space · Increase stock price $10.00 a share every year · Increase the sales for to at least 300 people over the next five years · To increase net income to $100 million in the next eight years · To increase brand awareness to 85% for Allround. · Spend no more than $22 million on Allround brand advertising. · Increase promotional allowances to 20% for Grocery Stores over the next three years · To keep cost of goods sold under 40% 3. SWOT ANALYSIS: STRENGTHS: · Brand awareness peaked at 85.8% for Allround, the highest of any competitors · Allround is the most often purchased brand · 18% of the market intended to buy Allround, 18.5% actually bought it · Point of Purchase promotion strategy is working · Allround dominates sales with 18.3% of the market · On average, Allround have 1.7 square feet of shelf space. In many cases, this is three times that of competitors. All Allround products consistently control shelf space. · Stock price has nearly tripled in 4 years and continues to show a path of growth · Allround+ is the most recommended product of its kind · Allright is the most recommended allergy medicine · Allstar’s products lead the market in satisfaction across the board · Allround dominates the retired market with the closest competitor holding half the share of Allround, WEAKNESSES: · MSRP fluctuation. At times the price failed to keep pace with inflation. At other times, the price was considered too high. The products’ price was not consistent during the first years (periods). · The gross margin dropped so much in the first few years that is has just now recovered to its original percentage. · Allstar’s sale force is large relative to competitors. Likely to be unnecessary due to the market dominance of Allstar’s products. · The cost of goods sold is significantly higher than Allstar’s closest competitor, B & B. · Allstar’s net income is significantly lower than B & B’s · Allround+ trails Besthelp+ in every channel. · Allround’s sales have dropped consistently over time to the point of matching Besthelp. OPPORTUNITIES: · Convenience stores’ growth is currently at 25.9%. Allstar’s focus on grocery stores may need to alter in order to capitalize on the growing convenient store market. · Retail sales unceasingly increase by ~6%. A focus on retail and away from mass merchants could be beneficial. · The trend among competitors is limited or no alcohol in products. An alcohol-free brand reformulation may be due. · There are no 12-hour multi-liquid products on the market. A reformulation or brand extension into this market should be evaluated. · Allright continues to be the only non-drowsy 4-hour capsule on the market. An expansion into a 12-hour non-drowsy capsule should be researched. · Price is t ...

1. 1. MISSION STATEMENT:
To provide our customers with the best medicines to help
alleviate common cold and allergy symptoms in order to help
you get through your day.
2. MARKETING OBJECTIVES:
· To emphasis grocery store sales and dominate this space
· Increase stock price $10.00 a share every year
· Increase the sales for to at least 300 people over the next five
years
· To increase net income to $100 million in the next eight years
· To increase brand awareness to 85% for Allround.
· Spend no more than $22 million on Allround brand
advertising.
· Increase promotional allowances to 20% for Grocery Stores
over the next three years
· To keep cost of goods sold under 40%
3. SWOT ANALYSIS:
STRENGTHS:
· Brand awareness peaked at 85.8% for Allround, the highest of
any competitors
· Allround is the most often purchased brand
· 18% of the market intended to buy Allround, 18.5% actually
bought it
· Point of Purchase promotion strategy is working
· Allround dominates sales with 18.3% of the market
· On average, Allround have 1.7 square feet of shelf space. In
many cases, this is three times that of competitors. All Allround
products consistently control shelf space.
· Stock price has nearly tripled in 4 years and continues to show
a path of growth
· Allround+ is the most recommended product of its kind
· Allright is the most recommended allergy medicine

2. · Allstar’s products lead the market in satisfaction across the
board
· Allround dominates the retired market with the closest
competitor holding half the share of Allround,
WEAKNESSES:
· MSRP fluctuation. At times the price failed to keep pace with
inflation. At other times, the price was considered too high. The
products’ price was not consistent during the first years
(periods).
· The gross margin dropped so much in the first few years that
is has just now recovered to its original percentage.
· Allstar’s sale force is large relative to competitors. Likely to
be unnecessary due to the market dominance of Allstar’s
products.
· The cost of goods sold is significantly higher than Allstar’s
closest competitor, B & B.
· Allstar’s net income is significantly lower than B & B’s
· Allround+ trails Besthelp+ in every channel.
· Allround’s sales have dropped consistently over time to the
point of matching Besthelp.
OPPORTUNITIES:
· Convenience stores’ growth is currently at 25.9%. Allstar’s
focus on grocery stores may need to alter in order to capitalize
on the growing convenient store market.
· Retail sales unceasingly increase by ~6%. A focus on retail
and away from mass merchants could be beneficial.
· The trend among competitors is limited or no alcohol in
products. An alcohol-free brand reformulation may be due.
· There are no 12-hour multi-liquid products on the market. A
reformulation or brand extension into this market should be
evaluated.
· Allright continues to be the only non-drowsy 4-hour capsule
on the market. An expansion into a 12-hour non-drowsy capsule
should be researched.
· Price is the number one decision criteria. A bargain product
could be beneficial, but should be highly studied as to not

3. cannibalize Allstar’s other products.
THREATS:
· Besthelp continues to be a close competitor. A close eye
should keep on Besthelp’s actions.
· End dominates the cough market. Allstar should look at what
End is doing and their brand formulation. There may be a
substantial market share to be gained.
· Besthelp+’s brand formulation is close to Allround+’s.
Besthelp+ already leads in sales against Allround+. Besthelp+
should be watched closely.
· End+ leads both Allround+ and Besthelp+ in brands
purchased. Their brand formulation should be studied and an ad
campaign comparing Allround+ to End+ may help close the gap.
· Cost of goods sold continues to grow exponentially. Efforts
should be made to maintain or even lower it.
MARKETING ACTIVITIES:
To increase the profitability of Allstar Company there are
several marketing strategies that need to be considered to ensure
that the products and the services of the company still remain
popular to the public eyes while still maintaining a certain level
of efficiency within the organization.
This marketing objective is aimed at winning the
investment of prospective shareholders and also popularizing
the brand before the public eyes. Once the public discovers that
the stock of Allstar is continuously increasing they will start to
have confidence in its leadership and its future. This will also
give them the confidence to use our drugs.
The first way to ensure an increasing in stock price is to
become innovative and come up with new drugs which will help
people to deal with allergies and even infections. The more
innovative a company is the greater the public interest in the
company and thus the more the desire the public will have to
own the company and thus the stock prices will end up
increasing.
Maintenance of quality of the products that are currently in
the market is also one of the effective means of increasing the

4. stock price every two years. Quality usually shows though
indirectly the leadership and the determination of any company
to serve the public. When a company decides to sell low quality
products it soon loses its shareholders and its stock price is
reduced to nearly nothing.
Employees are the most valuable asset that a company can
have. Most companies depend on the marketing and sales team
to propagate its ideas and even to convince the public to
purchase its products. This is why Allstar desires to have a
direct sales team of more than 140 at all times. This means that
they have to find a way to motivate and retain their employees.
The company has to apply two of the theories of motivation to
make the employees to have job satisfaction and to stick to their
job for a long time. The first way to motivate employees is to
offer incentives. Job security can be one of the incentives.
Allstar can guarantee a permanent job for any employee who
has worked for two years while achieving all his targets. The
other incentive can be bonuses and commissions based on the
sales. The second way to motivate is to use the goal oriented
approach whereby the employees are given goals to meet at the
end of every month. On meeting they are recognized and
appreciated by the management and their peers.
For a company to increase its net income it has to use its
employees to reach to its market. The first way is creating a
firm relationship with its customers through customer service
and timely service delivery. In the case of Allstar service
delivery means that if the drugs are supposed to alleviate the
effects of an allergy they should do exactly that and they should
actually not aggravate the situation. When customers discover
that Allstar drugs deliver according to their specifications they
will trust in Allstar and this is how a mutual relationship
between a company and its customers is formed.
The second way to increase the sales is through marketing and
advertising. One of the fastest ways to advertise is through the
use of the internet and the social media. The company should
thus create an online forum or even a website where interaction

5. can exist between the company and its clients. The internet is
not biased because it is global and unlike traditional forms of
advertising it delivers its message to everyone regardless of the
brand of the advertiser.
The other quite convincing way of increasing income is to do
promotions and selling the drugs at a lower price to attract
audience. Promotions and discounts tend to influence the market
forces of supply and demand because when the supply is large
and the company decides to lower the price more people will
buy the drugs and thus in the long run the revenue of the
company will increase.
The other way to increase the company’s revenue is to use the
targeting strategy. This involves dividing the market into
segments and creating products for each of the segment. This
means there will be drugs for expectant mothers, the elderly,
men and even infants. This kind of diversity will ultimately
yield a lot of profit because the company will be creating drugs
which can be used by the entire market regardless of their
situation.
The ultimate goal of Allstar is to have a brand awareness of
85% of the entire market. This means that 85% of the market
should at least know about Allstar even if they are not our
customers. The first way to increase brand awareness is
advertising. This can be done using the internet or through
traditional means of advertising. Placing television or radio
adverts especially during peak hours is the fastest way to drive
the point home. The other way is placing billboards or even
colorful notices in strategic point where the public can view
them. Using the internet and the social media will also prove
helpful. When the company decides to invest in the internet its
brand awareness may even increase by more than 5% due to the
fact that the internet is a global media thus the audience of the
brand awareness campaign is simply the entire world.
The last but significant way of increasing brand awareness is to
host or sponsor local events. Once events like music concerts or
even book launches or any other events that may attract the

6. public is hosted by Allstar the company will ensure that its
posters and leaflets containing information about it are present
in the concert thus increasing the brand awareness.
Allstar wants to maintain a minimum budget of $26 million for
Allround, $10 million for Allround+ and $8 million for Allright.
This is because the company has discovered the importance of
advertising and the influence it has not only towards the factor
of brand awareness but also towards the increase of net income
of the company. The company desires that there should be a
minimum of funds that should be used for advertising. This
means that the advertising costs can be more than the minimum
but the advertising should produce results that should justify the
expenditure.
Before the company can come up with a new product it has to
have a very competitive research and development department.
In Allstar the R&D department will need to observe the market
and determine if a gap exists that a new product could cover.
The idea of product can even in most cases come from the
public. This is because the public will be the ultimate user of
the product and thus the public can present brilliant ideas
according to their personal needs. Apart from the public the
employees can also be a source of ideas due to their constant
contact with the market. The idea of a new product can also be
found by looking at the market trends and the technological
situation of the time and which product can fit into the market
trend.
After getting an idea, the company will investigate the
competitors’ products and ideas. This will help the company to
create unique products which will not be duplicating the ideas
and product specifications of its competitors. After creating
prototypes of the drugs Allstar should conduct trials to ensure
that the products are fit for public usage.
With the company desiring to increase its brand awareness and
ultimately it’s net income it has to ensure that it gives a good
percentage of the product price as a promotional allowance to
stores which sell its drugs. A promotional allowance symbolizes

7. a partnership between the company and the store whereby the
store will advertise and promote the products of the company
internally thus convincing customers to buy the product. With a
promotional allowance of about 14% the products of Allstar will
be promoted and will with time gain a significant audience.
Customer satisfaction is imperative in ensuring a mutual
relationship between the customers and the company. This is
because dissatisfied customers rarely come back to be served
again or to buy other products from the company. The first way
to ensure customer satisfaction is to ensure that the products
that the company produces are of a high quality and are up to
the customers’ expectations. This will encourage them to come
back because they know that the products will meet their needs
fully.
The second way to increase customer satisfaction revolves
around the customer service that the company offers. Firstly the
company should listen to the customers’ complaints or even
suggestions and act on them. This is because customer
satisfaction generally increases when customers perceive that
they are being listened to and that their suggestions and input is
being valued.
The third way to increase customer satisfaction is to offer
bonuses or post transactional services. This may include giving
customers for free another complementing product like another
drug which can work better with the purchased drug.
6. LESSONS LEARNED
Year 1-2
Period 0
Period 1
Period 2

8. Cost of Goods Sold
34.50%
36.10%
36.50%
Net Income (Millions)
$67.20
$86.30
$81.10
MSRP
$ 5.29
$ 5.30
$ 5.49
Starting in year zero we wanted to get a baseline of how our
decisions would affect our cost of goods sold and stock price.
Starting off at a MSRP of $5.29 we raised our price by one cent
to $5.30 in order to get a feel for what a small change in price
would do to the company. During this period we also increased
our sales force in convenience stores, wholesaler support, and
merchandisers as their original numbers were small. At the time
these areas looked promising and we were hoping the increased
sales personal would help increase sales and raise stock the
stock price. During this period we also cut the allowances
across the board from 17% to 15% and increased co-op
adverting from $1.4 million to $2.0 million. We also included
convenience stores in the point of purchase trade decision
hoping to grow that market at the same time as grocery stores.
At this point we were leaning toward dominating the Grocery
store market but have not yet begun implementing decisions in
that direction. One lesson we learned was this should have been
our first course of action.
During our period one decision we also increased our
advertising budget from $20.5 to 21.1 million. Our hopes were
this slight increase in budget would allow us to gain more
market share. One big lesson the team learned was to be careful
on what your target symptoms would be, demographic targets,

9. and what benefits to promote. We first chose to target all
demographics; we later learned this to be a mistake as we
should have focused on one group. The group also learned its
imperative for the marketing team to understand what each
ingredient does in the cold medicine as we originally marketed
this product helps with cold and cough. We did not have a
cough suppressant in this product originally and we received
negative reviews based on this. It’s very important your product
does as advertised. This same message was communicated out in
the promotion benefits as well. Our result after period one was
entered was an increase of the stock price by almost $10.00.
Our cost of goods sold rose slightly to 36.10% and net income
soared to $86 million. The team was excited that some small
changes resulted in such a dramatic increase.
Stock Price
Period 0
$ 38.35
Period 1
$ 48.33
Period 2
$ 43.13
Moving into period two the team wanted to keep the same
momentum as in period one hoping for some more large gains in
both stock price and net income. At this price we increased the
sales force in the grocery stores to 52, wholesaler supplies to
42, independent drugstores to 11, and increased the detailers to
15. During this period we also reduced the amount of sales folks
in chain drugstores. One lesson learned from this was we should
have done the opposite with chain drugstores. This like grocery
stores appears to be a lucrative opportunity that we later on
capitalized on.
In terms of pricing during period two the team increased the
price to $5.49 in response to inflation. At this time we kept the
target symptoms the same as period one except now we were
dedicating 1/3 of or ad messages to benefits. Since we do not

10. suppress coughing and were promoting this actively as a benefit
the end result was negative feedback. We also reduced our
advertising budget and narrowed our demographic targets to
young singles and young families.
At this point those are all the changes we made for our second
decision. Our results after this effort was our cost of goods sold
rose slightly to 36.50%, our net income fell from $86 to $81
million, and our stock price by over five dollars. This was quite
disappointing to the team but what we learned after this was the
benefits we were advertising were not true. We still did not
have a cough suppressant in the formula yet we continued to
promote cough suppression as a benefit. The team learned this
later on but we feel if this was realized from the beginning we
would not have taken such a loss after the second period.
Year 3-4
During Periods 3 and 4, our focus on the grocery store market
was apparent as we kept the majority or our sales force there.
We lacked the foresight to allocate the proper percentage of
sales force to chain drug stores. We failed to research the
markets and use the sales percentage as a baseline for assigning
sales force. Chain drug stores accounted for 25.9% of sales but
the sales force allotted to chain drug stores was only 18%. This
was an obvious oversight, but it could also be interpreted as
continuing our focus on grocery stores as our main market. It
wasn’t, but it could be interpreted that way. Fortunately, we
learned our lesson, but we were not quite there at this point.
Moving from Period 3 to Period 4, we did not use market
research extensively. In fact, we only purchased two reports
during Period 3, Shopping Habits and Recommendations. If we
had researched channel sales, we could have seen that chain

11. drug stores sales were much higher than we thought and we
could have adjusted appropriately.
Period 3
Period 4
Cost of Goods Sold
39.30%
43.60%
Net Income (Millions)
$55.7
$20.3
MSRP Allround
$5.49
$5.20
MSRP Allround+
N/A
$3.00
Period 3 and 4 saw our cost of goods sold continuing to
increase exponentially. This increase could be due to our new
product introduced in Period 4, Allround+. We decided on the
strategy of a low price to introduce the product to the market.
We sold Allround+ for $3.00. Besthelp+ also hit the market, but
with a price of $5.09. We drastically underestimated the MSRP
and undoubtedly lost tens of millions of dollars because of it.
The low MSRP resulted in even lower revenue due to volume
discounts. We also decrease the MSRP for Allround, which also
contributed to the increase costs of goods sold. We failed to
even keep pace with inflation, a poor decision in retrospect.
That said, we had a strategy to have low prices in order to
maintain our market dominance and we were attempting to keep
maintain our strategy with the expectation it would pay
dividends in the end. It did not.
Stock Price
Period 3
$ 32.24

12. Period 4
$ 25.58
Allstar’s stock price continued to fall through Periods 3
and 4. The fall can easily be attributed to our naivety of the
market. We had a strategy to keep our prices low and we stuck
to it; however, the strategy was a flawed. As mentioned above,
we were not conducting the market research needed to adjust
our sales force, advertising, and promotions properly. Our cost
of goods sold rose as our margins and net income decreased. It
should come as no surprise that stock price decreased.
Fortunately, we learned that market research is essential to
making business decisions and adjusted our strategy for future
Periods.
5
Chart1 Indep Drugstores Indep Drugstores Chain
Drugstores Chain Drugstores Grocery Stores Grocery
Stores Convenience Stores Convenience Stores Mass
Merch Mass Merch Wholesaler Support Wholesaler
Support Merchandisers Merchandisers Detailers DetailersTot
alTotal
Period 3
Period 4
Sales Force
11
20
27
60
52
90
17
9
25

13. 30
47
30
18
20
15
25
212
284
Sales ForcePeriod3period4 Indep Drugstores11 Indep
Drugstores20 Chain Drugstores27 Chain
Drugstores60 Grocery Stores52 Grocery
Stores90 Convenience Stores17 Convenience Stores9 Mass
Merch25 Mass Merch30 Wholesaler Support47 Wholesaler
Support30 Merchandisers18 Merchandisers20 Detailers15 Det
ailers25Total212Total Sales Force284
Sales Force000000000000000000
Period 3
Period 4
Sales Force
Income Statementperiod0period1period3Manufacturer
Sales355.3Manufacturer Sales416.1100.00%Manufacturer
Sales402.7100.00%Promotional Allowance60.4Promotional
Allowance70.717.00%Promotional Allowance60.415.00%Cost
of Goods Sold122.6Cost of Goods Sold150.136.10%Cost of
Goods Sold146.836.50% Gross Margin172.3 Gross
Margin195.346.90% Gross Margin195.548.50%Consumer &
Trade Promotion7Consumer & Trade
Promotion71.70%Consumer & Trade
Promotion82.00%Advertising20Advertising20.54.90%Advertisi
ng21.15.20%Sales Force6Sales Force6.51.60%Sales
Force8.62.10%Administrative9.8Administrative11.52.80%Admi
nistrative11.72.90% Total Marketing42.8 Total
Marketing45.510.90% Total Marketing49.512.30% Contribution
after Marketing129.5 Contribution after
Marketing149.836.00% Contribution after

14. Marketing14636.30% Fixed Costs62.4 Fixed
Costs63.515.30% Fixed Costs64.916.10% Net Income67.2 Net
Income86.320.70% Net Income81.120.10% Next Period
Budget39.3 Next Period Budget47.211.30% Next Period
Budget49.912.40%Period 3Period 4Cost of Goods
Sold39.30%43.60% Net Income (Millions)$55.70$20.30MSRP
Allround$ 5.49$ 5.20MSRP Allround+n/a$ 3.00
StockStock PricePeriod 3$ 32.24Period 4$ 25.58
Chart1 Indep Drugstores Indep Drugstores Indep
Drugstores Chain Drugstores Chain Drugstores Chain
Drugstores Grocery Stores Grocery Stores Grocery
Stores Convenience Stores Convenience Stores Convenience
Stores Mass Merch Mass Merch Mass Merch Wholesaler
Support Wholesaler Support Wholesaler
Support Merchandisers Merchandisers Merchandisers Detaile
rs Detailers DetailersTotalTotalTotal
Period 0
Period 1
Period 2
Sales Force
6
6
11
28
28
22
47
47
52
3
17
17
20
20
20
15

15. 27
42
8
18
18
10
10
15
137
173
197
Sheet1Period0period1period2 Indep Drugstores6 Indep
Drugstores6 Indep Drugstores11 Chain Drugstores28 Chain
Drugstores28 Chain Drugstores22 Grocery Stores47 Grocery
Stores47 Grocery Stores52 Convenience Stores3 Convenience
Stores17 Convenience Stores17 Mass Merch20 Mass
Merch20 Mass Merch20 Wholesaler Support15 Wholesaler
Support27 Wholesaler
Support42 Merchandisers8 Merchandisers18 Merchandisers18
Detailers10 Detailers10 Detailers15Total137Total Sales
Force173Total Sales Force197
Sheet1000000000000000000000000000
Period 0
Period 1
Period 2
Sales Force
Sheet2
Sheet3