This document discusses key concepts related to product decisions in the pharmaceutical industry. It begins by defining the concept of a product and characteristics of products. It then discusses levels of a product, classification of pharmaceutical products, and the product life cycle. It also covers product mix, branding, packaging, and labeling. Specifically, it notes that pharmaceutical products go through introduction, growth, maturity, and decline phases in their life cycle. It also outlines roles and responsibilities of product managers in the pharmaceutical industry in making product-related decisions and strategies.

1. Chapter 3: Product
Decision
By Ankita Burande
Assistant Professor, Nagpur College of pharmacy.

2. Concept of product
 The product is item that developed and redefined for sale in the market. It aims to
meet the costumers need and wants.
 The concept of product can be categories into two: Narrow concept and wide
concept.
 In Narrow concept, a product is combination of physical and chemical
characteristics which has some utilities. It is not just non living object or a physical
substance.
 In wider concept, a product having a variety of colours, design, packaging and brand
is said to be different product.
 For e.g. if a shampoo is made available in three different variants and smells, then
these are three product, as they fulfilling needs of costumers of varied choice.
Hence product is defined as complete package of benefits received by costumers.
 As per W. Alderson, “A product is bundle of utilities consisting of various features
and accompanying services”.
 According to Philip Kotler, “ A product is bundle of physical services and symbolic
particulars expected to yield satisfactions or benefits to the buyer”.

3. Characteristics of Products:
 The key characteristics of products are as follows
 1. Tangibility: A product can be perceived by sense of touch. It also has features like
to be seen, felt etc. e.g. Car, Computers, t-shirt etc.
 2. Intangibility: Intangible product lacks physical substance. They cannot be touched.
It is in the form of services. e.g. repairing services, insurance services, etc.
 For example: if a person provides free servicing for a refrigerator, refrigerator is a
tangible product, whereas after sales services is an intangible attributes. This means
that product offered is both tangible as well as intangible in nature.
 3. Associated attributes: the associated features of product consist of packaging,
warranty, brand etc. e.g. Hindustan Lever’s “Vanspati ghee” is best known by
costumers with its brand name DALDA and its packaging.
 4. Exchange value: A product either tangible and intangible in nature must have
exchange value. It must be exchangeable between the seller and buyer at a common
acceptable price.
 5. Customer Satisfaction: A product should be capable of satisfying the costumers.
The type of satisfaction experienced by customer can be real and psychological.

4. Level of Product
 Every product has five levels. A marketers must consider these level to achieve better customer
value.
 The five levels of products are
 1. Core benefits: it is first level at which customer get benefits or service of product.
 E.g. Women's at Spa buy comfort and luxury.
 2. Basic product: It is next level, it is job of marketer to transfer the core benefit into basic
products. E.g. hotel room is core benefit but bed, cupboard, desk, chair, towel etc are the basic
product.
 3. Expected Product: it comprises all those attributes which customers expected from while buying
the product. E.g. visitor at restaurants expects clean dine table, good quality of food, quick service
and vibrant ambience.
 4. Augmented product: it is fourth level of product which is beyond their expectation. This type of
products have additional attributes and benefits which enable the customers to differentiated
between available product and other products offered by competitors. E.g. hotel includes fine dine
and 24*7 service, quick check in, fresh flowers, remote control TV set, which all extended services
provided by hotel to build up a augmented product.
 5. Potential product: last types of product covers all the prospective alterations and extensions that
the product may go under in future. At this level companies try their effort to find new ways to
gratify their customer and offer unique product to them.

5. Classification of products
 Pharmaceutical product is classified into two type
 1. Prescribed product: Product that sold on the basis of prescription given by medical
practitioners. E.g. Antipsychotic drugs, Antibiotics etc
 2. OTC products: This are the products that are sold directly to the customers without
prescriptions. E.g. pain killers, antipyretic drugs etc.
 Product management in Pharmaceutical industry:
 In pharmaceutical industry, product management plays crucial role as it relates to both
company's products marketing strategy and its implementation.
 Product management is defined as the vertical that manages all the marketing exercise i.e.
the product ‘s pre-launch stage to the launch campaign of product to post launch
marketing.
 Every Pharmaceutical Product goes through four phases, Introduction, Growth, Saturation
and decline, of product life cycle.

6. Roles and responsibility of product manager
in pharmaceutical industry
 Following are the roles and responsibility of product manager in pharmaceutical industry
 1. Responsible for facilitating product knowledge, product training, and giving direction to
salespersons to make sure that they have adequate scientific and communication skills.
 2. They involved in cross function team such as R&D team, medical affairs, learning and
development team.
 3. Responsible for making product related plans or strategies including market research, market
penetration strategy and competitor analysis.
 4. Conducting product line SWOT analysis and monitoring the sales team to utilised the various
opportunities and increased the sales of products.
 5. Organising the various meeting, scientific symposia, conferences and making sure proper
brand visibility for different target customer segments of Pharmaceutical industry that includes
mainly the mainly the healthcare professionals and hospitals.
 6. Conducting the training camp, award ceremony and recognition program for motivation of
sales team.
 7. They are also responsible for product forecast, developing new product pipeline, pre-launch
and launch strategy and post launch of product.

7. Product Decision
 Decisions taken to deal with organizational products are called product decisions. Product
decisions may vary from minor changes made in the packaging (like altering the tag or colour
of the pack) to significant business diversifications (attained through merger/acquisition or
R&D).
 The various kinds of product decisions are enumerated below:
 Product line decision:
 Product line denotes the group of closely link product which the organization offers.
 The number of products that are used to cure same type of disease or are promoted to the
same medical professional segment is defined as product line in pharmaceutical marketing.
 E.g. large variety of antihypertensive drugs is carried by Merck sharp and Dhome (MSD) with
some changes in the profile, prices, and action. These are promoted under the brand of
Renitec, Hyzaar, and Cozaar and all of these have the identical action that lower the blood
pressure by different mode and have different price.
Product
line
decision
Product
mix
Branding Packaging
Labelli
ng

8. Product line decision
 Different form of product line decisions
1. Product line length decision:
 By including more items in product line, if the profit is increases, the product line is
said to be short.
 On the other hand, by eliminating few items from the product line, if the profit still
increases, the product line is said to be too long.
 The length of any product line of an organization is determined by its objectives.
One objective may be to enhance the sales.
 Product line can be expanded by two methods namely; line stretching and line filling:
 A. Product line stretching: if the business entity expand its product line over and
above the present array, it is term as line stretching.
 Product line stretching is of three types
 a. Downward stretch
 b.Upward stretch
 c.Two way stretch

9. Product line decision
a.Downward Stretch:
 Several organization starts with offering most expensive product in the market and gradually
try to extend at lower level.
 E.g. TATA motors deals with midsize and high end utility car segment. It has extended its
product line downwards by venturing into small vehicles segment through launching TATA
nano.
b.Upward Stretch:
 Organizations serving low end market may intended to move into the high end market. High
level profit margins, elevated growth rate or an opportunity to feature as a full line producer
may be few reasons which may tempt organization to enter the high end market.
 E.g. , Initially Maruti was known to produce low end car, but it moved into the high end
market with the launch of Maruti Esteem and Maruti I000.
 The decision of upward stretch also risky. The well-established high end competitors may
respond by plunging into the lower end market. It is not easy for sales executives as well as
for suppliers/vendors to effectively perform in the high end market without proper skills and
training.
 c. Two-way Stretch: The organisations belonging to the mid-level of the market can extend
their product line in any one way out of the two options available, i.e., either upwards or
downwards.

10. Product line decision
2. Product Line Filling Decisions:
 Product line extension is also possible by including new products in the current product
line.
 To achieve gradual increase in profit levels, to persuade the agents with regards to the
criticism faced due to decrease in sales because of the products not being present in the
current product line, to make use of the surplus capacity available, to become market
leader in the full-line segment, to block the loopholes to control the competitors, are
the few reasons behind product line filling.
 Excessive product line filling may confuse the consumers and consequently reduce the
sales of other products.
3. Product Line Modernization Decisions:
 Here the product, a part of the product line, is revised and re-launched to meet the
contemporary styling requirement and preferences.
 Product lines should be updated as per the latest trends in the market.
 This process of modernization can be in term of technology used for production of
product or style of product. Many company has adopted modernization approched.

11. Product Decision
4. Product line Featuring Decision:
 This all about deciding which product to features in organization product line.
The manager deciding the product line strategies pick up one or more
products from the product line to increase the demand.
 This kind of decision is taken in case of presence of several non-profitable
items in product line. This line featuring is helpful in elevating the sales
volume of the organization.
5. Product line Pruning Decision:
 This strategy finds out the products which are poor performance in term of
profit earning potential in product line and removes them from product line.
 This process decrease the length of product line.

12. Product Mix
 Group of all product lines and commodities supplied by a seller to its customers
is called “Product mix”.
 A product mix is offered by company which has many product line under its tag.
 Thus product mix is a mixture or combination of all the products made available
by firm to its customers. It can also be termed as "a compilation of the various
products produced or marketed by a company". For example, a company's
product mix consists of shampoos, detergents, soaps, etc., produced by it.
 According to American Marketing Association, "Product Mix is the composite of
products offered for sale by a firm or a business unit".
 The product mix of a company can be strengthened to satisfy the fresh
requirements of customers or group of customers so as to help the organisation
develop and progress.
 The total number of product line and items offered by the company is defined
as the product mix. There may be a number of antibiotics, painkillers, cough
syrups, and some other types of medicines in the various categories. When all
these Products are combined, it will be termed as product mix.

13. Product Mix Decisions
 The dimensions of product-mix possessed by any pharmaceutical company are follows:
1. Product Mix Width: Different product line possessed by company may define as the
product-mix width of that company.
 E.g. For example, a product mix comprising painkillers, skin treatment,antibiotics,
multivitamins and antiulcerants is offered by SmithKline and Beecham
2. Product Mix Length: The number of items comprised in product line of the company is
defined as product mix length.
 E.g. For example, Augmentin, Ampicillin, Fortum and Ampilox are the different
product items offered by SKB in its antibiotics category.
3. Product Mix Depth: The number of versions offered by each product is known as
product mix depth.
 For example, an antibiotic brand Fortum of SKB comes in lgram, 500mg and 250mg
and similarly other brands are also available in various versions.

14. Product Mix Strategies
 The major product mix strategies required to be managed are explained below
 1. Product Line Expansion/Contraction: A collection of many product lines is termed as concentration
of product mix. There may be additions or deletions or even both in the current product lines by an
organisation .
 An extended and lengthy product line is cut back to remove the products which are not cost effective.
Extending the current product line is termed as diversification. Widening the depth and width of the
product mix can help the organisation in availing the prevalent opportunities in the market. E.g.
Companies dealing in audio equipment manufacturing can expand its activities by manufacturing
television sets.
 2. Product Modification: This product mix strategy talks about modifying or altering the basic features
of a product namely; shape, size, style, cost, colour, etc. A company usually considers modification
method when it is striving to revive or strengthen the demand of a particular product. At times, simply
an external alteration is necessary in a product or in the current product line.
 E.g. product pan masala brand Pan parag, launch small packets offering different quantities and at
variable cost to gain asses to different market segments.
 3. Product Elimination: it is not possible to always redefined or modify the product sometimes
removing these products from market can prove beneficial option. The activity of removal of
product from market is called product elimination.
 Product with non profitable scale of production and poor cost inventory analysis are generally
eliminated from market.

15. Product life cycle
 Pharmaceutical products follow the same course as consumer products, that
is, a rise, plateau, and eventually a fall of sales, in a phenomenon which has
been described as the product life cycle or PLC. There are multiple reasons
behind a product's life cycle changes Different customers buy the product at
different stages (diffusion of innovation)
A. Introduction phase:
 During the introductory phase, a pharmaceutical product's sales revenues are
small and exhibit a slow growth. The manufacturer is trying to gain product
acceptance from the prescribers or patients.
 During this phase the industry marketers' main information need is market
data that helps them define the product's optimal targeting, positioning, and
profiling order to increase consumer awareness and willingness to buy.
 When a new product is introduced in a current therapeutic area, the company
is said to be active in product development, as opposed to entering a new
therapeutic segment with an existing product strategy called new market
extension.

16. Product life cycle
 B. Growth phase:
 Growing and its profitability is increasing, while more competitors are entering the stage.
The marketer's main objectives are to expand the distribution breadth and product line by
offering new product benefits and forms.
 Furthermore, the increasing competitive intensity is driving product prices down.
 The sales force is expanding, reaching more and more customers, often shifting its priority
from the few medical specialists at the beginning to the large number of family physicians or
general practitioners throughout the national markets.
 C. Maturity Phase:
 At some point in a product's life cycle every product reaches maturity, that is, a phase
characterized by a stabilized sales performance, with low costs and high profits.
 At this stage, marketers are occupied with maintaining the product's advantages, often
fighting competitive new product launches with new features and benefits.
 A full product line is now available, offering a wide spectrum of product dosages,
administration route possibilities, and formulations. Both price and distribution are now
stable.

17. Product life cycle
 D. Decline phase:
 Eventually, the product enters its decline
phase, with decreasing sales, rising fixed
costs, and an eroding profitability.
 Now, pharmaceutical marketers are
faced with the dilemma of further
―harvesting the product that is,
prolonging its sales as long as possible or
terminating the product and introducing
a replacement.
 The product's advertising becomes a
reminder and sales force time and effort
are reduced.

18. Product branding, packaging and labelling
 A. Branding:
 A logo contains any name, term, design, style, names, symbols or any other element that
distinguishes the goods and services of one seller from one another.
 The brand also distinguishes one product from another in the eyes of the customer.
 All of its elements (i.e., logo, color, shape, characters, images) serve as a psychological
stimulus or motivator that creates a connection to all the other ideas we have about the
product. Tune, celebrities, and catchy sentences are also often considered products.
 An effective brand can create and maintain a strong, positive, and lasting impression in
the consumer's mind.
 Products provide external characteristics of taste, design, functionality, quality, value and
reputation when developed and properly managed
 Brands convey positive or negative messages about a product, as well as show the
company or service to the consumer, which is a direct result of previous advertising,
promotions, and product reputation.

19. Branding
 A brand is defined as any name, term, sign, symbol, or design, or a
combination, intended to identify goods or services of one seller and to
differentiate them from those of the competition
 A brand is characterized by a unique name, visual mark, trademark,
and copyright that are combined to confer a distinguished appearance
and personality to a product.
 branding is key to the consumer goods' positioning. But is it equally
applicable to pharmaceutical products?
 pharmaceutical branding policy can have direct benefits to the
prescriber, patient, payer, and manufacturer of the product. It should
be pursued after carefully weighing the advantages and disadvantages
if market characteristics and manufacturer's resources allow.

20. Branding Strategies
 Pharmaceutical industries are as follow the general branding strategies us
 1. Individual Brand Strategy: The organisation should come up with a catchy name for each of its
products and launch several brands under a common product category.
 E.g. For example, Lederle has got number of brands such as VI-magna, Autrin, Folviron, Incremin,
Prenata, Gevral and Stress Caps are the group of multivitamins and minerals.
 2. Family Brand Strategy: A common name is used to brand all relate products is known as family
brand strategy.
 E.g. family brands are popular in the pharmacy industry and a range of medications must be used
in various dosage formulations for different conditions and age ranges, such as in paediatrics and
geriatrics.
 3. Multiple Brand Strategy: Virtual market of same product with two or more brand is known as
multiple brand strategy.
 5. Generic Brand Strategy: Some company use generic name such as B-complex, diazepam
injection etc. are used in country like India where larger qty of medicine are being are purchased
by the government to supply to poor patient through primary health center network and hospitals
 6. Private Brand Strategy : The brand owner does not manufacture the product is known as the
private brand strategy. This is mainly own by distributor, marketer or middleman.

21. Branding:
 A brand can convey up to six levels of meaning:
 Attributes: The Mercedes-Benz brand, for example, suggests expensive,
well-built, well-engineered, durable, high-prestige automobiles.
 Benefits: attributes must be translated into functional and emotional
benefits.
 Values: Mercedes stands for high performance, safety, and prestige.
 Culture: Mercedes represents German culture, organized, efficient, high
quality.
 Personality: the brand projects a certain personality.
 User: the brand suggests the kind of consumer who buys and uses the
product.

22. Advantages of Branding:
 To Consumers
 Easy to Recognize: The existence of the brand name allows consumers to identify the
brand in the market clutter. This is because brand has a distinctive packaging, colour,
design, etc
 Avaibility of Quality Products: A brand is an assurance of quality. Even the producers
have to make constant efforts to invest in R&D etc so that they offer quality product and
fulfil the brand promise. Consumers therefore get an assurance of quality when they buy
a brand.
 Minimum Fluctuations in Price: It has been seen that price fluctuations do not occur in
brands. Consumers therefore get assured prices.
 Improved Packing: The packaging of the brands is given lot of importance. The name of
the brand and other details are included in the brand packaging. The packaging itself has
to undergo a constant innovation in terms of look and feel so that the quality perception
of the brand is maintained.
 Mental Satisfaction: The use of brands by consumers also gives lot of satisfaction to the
consumers as it gives them a feeling that they are using a superior product. For many
consumers it can often be the feeling of pride like owners of Mercedes and Harley
Davidson.

23. Advantages of Branding:
 To Producers
 Easy to Advertise: Having a proper brand helps the organization to develop advertising
strategies as the brands vision, target markets and value propositions are clearly defined.
The name of the brand can be used by the organization in its advertising campaigns
 Easy to Identify the Products: The brand name helps consumers to identify the products.
This helps in advertising the products easily.
 Creation of Separate Market: The brand helps the company to develop a value
proposition for a particular market. This also helps it to develop separate market for its
products.
 To Get More Price: Branding attracts and retains customers. The become loyal to the
brand and are ready to pay any price for the brand.
 Easy to expand the product mix: existing of successful brand helps the company in
expanding the product mix as company can add new product and getting consumers is not
a problem as the new product can rely on positive image of existing brand.
 Personal contact with costumers: brand also helps the company to established the
relation With Its customers and to eliminate the activities of all middlemen who have
vested interests. This reduces the cost of distribution immensely.

24. Product Packaging Decisions
 At end costumer always receives the product inside a cover, container and
wrapper. It is term as packaging.
 It is an essential element of the product presentation. It retain with Product
until a customer does not buy it from a retail outlet.
 Packaging or packing should not be used interchangeably. packaging is the
material use to cover and safeguard the product and Whereas, the method of
enfolding or covering products into packages is called as packing.
 With the help of suitable packing, a product gets an outer protective
enclosure useful during the transportation of the products to the importer.
 According to William J. Stanton, "Packaging may be defined as the general
group of activities in product planning which involves designing and producing
the container or wrapper for a product".
 Medicine plays critical role medical field. And packaging plays important role
when it comes to medicine.

25. Product Packaging Decisions: Levels of Pharmaceutical Packaging
 In pharmaceutical industry, packaging varies from drug to drug. Generally, packaging is
done on three levels as follows:
 1. Primary Packaging: Primary packing is directly come in contact with product
There is no surety whether the Pharmaceutical product will be able to maintain
its original quality or not if the Primary packing is not done accurately.
 Inert material should be used during the primary packing and no interaction should be
carried out with the pharmaceutical product in its whole life. It will be life-threatening for
the patients who may consume the product after being prescribed by the doctors or
physicians if the primary packaging fails to do its work.
 E.g. Bottles, blisters etc.
 2. Secondary Packaging: The pharmaceutical product is ready for secondary packaging once
the airtight primary packaging is done. Generally, it nothing but the other packaging layer
which includes cartons or boxes, i.e. the printed material.
 3. Tertiary Packaging: Tertiary packaging is the last one that is basically use for the
purpose of shipping or transportation. Typically this type o packaging is not observed by the
customers as before showcasing the products for the sales in the clinic, retailers remove
this type of packaging material.
 E.g. Cardboards, plane boxes, and shrink wraps are commonly used as tertiary packaging.

26. Types of Packaging
 Following are the common types of packaging used in pharmaceutical industries:
 1. Ampoules Packaging: In order to package the smaller quantities of liquid drug ,
ampoule packs are used.
 2. Vials Packaging: Glass and Plastics are used in the case of vial containers. These are
larger in size than ampules. They are used to store powder, liquid or so.
 3. Blister Packs: thermoform plastic cavity is built, the drug is held in cavity in
shape of tablets or pills and cavity is sealed with plastic or aluminum foil. PVC, Alu-
Alu blister packing is used for tablets and capsules.
 4. Bottles: Two types of glass and plastic bottles are used in pharmaceutical packaging.
Most commonly available colors are orange and light brown as these are colours that
protect drugs from UV lights.
 5. Sachet Packaging: Sachet packaging is usually available in rectangle and square in
small pouches. A certain type of plastic is commonly used for these pouches and it
facilitates the appearance such as paper pouch and it is easily turned with hand. These
are cost-effective and are used only once and once torn, it is not possible to use it
again.
 6. Strip Package: It is a package is a type of unit dose packaging widely use for tablet
and capsule packaging. Two webs of a heat sealable flexible are fed through a heated
crimping roller to form a strip pack. E.g. paper, PVC, Aluminium used for strip packing

27. Benefits of Pharmaceutical Packaging
1. Packaging improves the medication adherence
2. Packaging is designed to unfold the highest medical standards
3. Packaging reinforce the brand preference
4. Pharmaceutical packaging with time temperature indicators.
5. Pharmaceutical packaging with NFC tags.

28. Labelling Decision
 The section of product which convey the details of product and the seller is
called labelling.
 It specify the information of product like its brand name, components,
brand logo, instructions to be followed while using the product and
promotional massages.
 Label can be a portion of packaging or small sheets may be fixed with
product itself.
 According to William J. Stanton:
 "The label is that part of the product which carry the verbal information
about the product or the sellers (manufacturers or middlemen). A label may
be part of the package or it may be a tag attached directly to product.
 Some examples of pharmaceutical products which require labelling could be
anticavity or medicinal toothpaste, hand sanitizers, skin ointments, creams,
etc. It is therefore important to keep in mind the composition of a product
so that one is compliant with various regulatory requirements.

29. Labelling Requirements
 FDA requires that all drugs rules contain a "Drug Facts" table to clarify the drug information.
This is very similar to the nutrition table that can be found in food articles. It includes
following information:
 1.Active Ingredients: The composition of the drug and the usage norms.
 2.Uses: The ailments for which the drug can be used.
 3. Warnings:
 The "Do not use" Statement involves those types of drugs that are not be used unless
prescribed by a medical practitioner. It also covers those medicines that are only for
particular ailments.
 Ask the doctor or pharmacist statements
 When using this product statements
 Keep out of reach of children's
 Stop using if or stop and ask the doctor if
 4. Direction
 5. Other information's
 6. Inactive ingredients

30. Guidelines for Labelling Pharmaceutical and Healthcare
Products
 The FDA (Food and Drug Administration) plays a big role in regulating the labelling standards for
pharmaceutical, medical, dietary and nutrition-based products. These regulations are applied on
both prescription-based drugs and medical devices.
 The following is a complete list of instructions for pharmaceutical and healthcare labelling
 1. Labelling Responsibilities: The manufacturer should ensure that the label maintains its
identity throughout the life of the product. The manufacturer is also responsible for compliance
with content and format requirements.
 2. Displaying Product Information: A product label requires different types of information and
it is governed by various rules and regulations. Every drug has its own set of requirements that
must be put on the label.
 The registered name of the product.
 Both the active and inactive constituents of the medicines.
 The Drug Facts table.
 Use and purpose of the drug.
 Warnings related to the medicines.
 Product usage instruction. Possible side-effects like allergies.

31. Guidelines for Labelling Pharmaceutical and
Healthcare Products
 3. Formatting Labels for FDA Approval: FDA rules also specify different formats for the
classification of several products like over the counter medicines, contraceptives,
combination drugs, etc.
 The size and type of the font being used.
 The language should be appropriate in terms of grammar, leading statements, short forms,
etc.
 Different_ sections should be arranged properly such as, drug uses, facts and warning.
 4. Choosing the approved materials: materials used in labels is not as strictly regulated as
packaging. The manufacturer is free to use a variety of materials like std. white paper
stock, holographic films, shrink sleeve labels.
 5. Controlling label quality: It is important to constantly check the quality of labelling. It is
very important to have a quality control process in places as safety and liability reasons are
involved. The following precautions should be ensured
 a.Printing multiple pharmaceutical labels
 b.Proper control of storage

32. PRODUCT PORTFOLIO ANALYSIS
 Portfolio analysis is also called corporate portfolio analysis, business
portfolio analysis or product portfolio analysis.
 It is a technique or tool which allows the company to analyze and select the
products and businesses and make the necessary strategic decisions
regarding them.
 However, in the healthcare sector, portfolio analysis is very different. In the
pharmaceutical industry, business managers want to get the analysis for new
products in the pipeline as the costs and investments on these products have
already been incurred.
 In the case of OTC and cosmetic markets, business managers do a portfolio
analysis of marketing expenses whenever they want to launch a new product
or extend an existing product into a new segment.
 this type of analysis gives rise to a lot of transparency and understanding
between the various stakeholders. It also helps in launching of new product.

33. Portfolio Analysis Techniques:
 There are number of techniques that could be considered as corporate portfolio
analysis techniques. Some of the commonly used techniques are:
 BCG Product-Portfolio Matrix
 GE 9 Cell Model
 Corporate Parenting Analysis
1. BCG Matrix :
 The BCG matrix is a model used for analyzing the portfolio of companies.
 This model was developed during the early 1970s by Bruce Henderson of the Boston
Consulting Group. According to this model the business units of an organization can
be classified into four different categories based on the market grow and market
share as compared to the leader in that sector. Therefore, this method is also called
as "growth-share matrix".
 As per BCG matrix, the business units can be classified as high or low on the basis of
Relative market share and the Market growth rate.

34. 1. Relative Market Share: According to this model, the more is the
relative market share of a firm, more is the return. It says that the
firm that produces more, enjoys higher economies of scale due to
which the experience curve is higher for them, hence these firms
exploit the benefits of higher market share.
2. Market Growth Rate: If market growth rate is high, then there are
opportunities for higher returns. However, it also takes more capital to
be invested for future growth. Thus, it can be said that those business
firms that operate in industries that have a higher growth rate, invest
their capital when there are opportunities to grow further.
 Four Cells of BCG Matrix
 On the basis of the above classification, the firms m an industry can
be classified into four types:
 1. Stars: High market share and growth rate e.g. fast foods,
petrochemicals
 2. Cash cow: generate the lot of cash but the growth rate is less
e.g. toothpaste and scooter for bajaj auto.
 3. Questions marks: has low market share even the growth rate is
high e.g. holiday resorts
 4. Dogs: has low growth rate and low market share.

35. GE 9 Cell Model
 The GE9 cell model is also portfolio analysis technique,
which was developed by General electric company (GEC)
along with McKinsey & Co. of USA in order to overcome the
loopholes of BCG matrix.
 The two basic factors considered in analyzing the business
units are:
 1. Business Strength: Various factors that are jointly
analyzed under the basic factors are profit margin of the
products, market share of the business unit, management
skills, technology deployed, etc. the quantification of
these factors can be done based on the estimation of the
strength and importance of other factors for achieving
success.
 2. Industry Attractiveness: Many factors are needed
to be studied for analysing the industry attractiveness,
such as, industry growth rate, profit margin of the industry,
seasonal and cyclical trends of the industry, economies of
scale, entry and exit barriers, technological development,
legal and social factors, etc.

36. Advantages of Portfolio Analysis
Advantages Disadvantages
Identifies Performance of Assets Frequent Changes
Provides a Review of Past
Performance
Complex and Time-Consuming
Allows Comparing the Portfolio Does not Always Provides Appropriate
Analysis
Identifies Exposure Does not Considers Synergies
Simplifies Complex Situation Difficult to Define and Categories
Products
Helps in Risk Identification Ignores Interaction between Products
Identify the Industry Trends Alternative Investments

37. Product Positioning
 When introducing a new pharmaceutical product to the world, marketers
have to present the product to customers across the whole healthcare
spectrum, in market segments where they believe this product holds the
highest competitive advantage or is able to best satisfy customer needs.
 As per Philip Kotler, the positioning refers to the process of adjusting and
presenting a product in a way so that it is the most attractive option for
the customer; making a product stand out for competition in the mind of
the consumer.

38. Task involved in product Positioning:
1. Conduct the interview of practitioner in product therapeutics value to gain relevant insight:
 Initial discussions with medical practitioners about the product can be done telephonically.
 In this, the various features of the product are presented to the respondent and he is asked to
choose the property which is most appropriate.
 The next step is to ask questions which help in framing the positioning strategy. What is the
treatment protocol for a disease? What helps the practitioner to prescribe a particular
medicine? What are the requirements which are not being satisfied currently? One should
keep in mind that doctors or physicians constantly make comparisons because it is an
important part of their job.
2. Assess the competition: The next step is determining how competitor's products are positioned
in the market? What is the method of promotion of competing brands? How are competing brands
dealing with the requirements of doctors?
3. Develop a through scientific understanding of product’s clinical attributes and features:
 It is also necessary to understand the treatment protocol. What constitutes product success?
 It is necessary for marketer to works in close consultation with the medical practitioner to
understand the various treatment requirements. This will help in creating a unique product
positioning.

39. Task involved in product Positioning:
4. Conduct the internal positioning workshops with team
 Create the position statements: : Good positioning themes are often based on emotional
content though the communication is very subtle.
 For example, if the company says that Drug Y makes people with a certain ailment feel
better as it is impactful, safe and bearable, then such a claim may not be very successful with
customers as it is not sufficiently different from what other competitors would claiming.
Such a positioning is very general and thus fails to connect emotionally with the customer.
5. Conduct Qualitative Positioning Testing to Provide a Diverse Range of Subjective
Viewpoints about Product
6. Uncover Emotional Connections to Brand
7. Conduct the Quantitative Market Research to Refine Insights about Positioning Options
8. Craft the Final Statement and Ensure Buy-in from all internal Stakeholders:
 Simplicity is the essence of positioning communication. The details can be added at a later
date. Once the final positioning theme has been decided upon, the finer details can be
added. A nice format which can be used for creating positioning statements is:
 Brand X" is the (add descriptor here, e.g., "only" or "first") treatment for (indication goes
here) that provides (benefit goes here) because of (state the reasons why).
9. Write the Creative Brief.

40. Positioning Strategies
 The creation of brand differentiation considering the value frame of customers is the
key role of positioning strategy. For this. positioning of product can be done by using
different strategies such as:
 Attribute Positioning: This strategy involves multiple product attribute uses that the
brand can offer to its customers, other than the competitors.
 Price/Quality Positioning: This approach stresses the product' place on the price/quality
continuum by positioning it in the minds of consumers.
 Use or Application Positioning: In this strategy a product is positioned the basis of its
usage or applicability.
 Product User Positioning: This type of product is associated with specific category of
user.
 Usage and Use Time Positioning: This type of positioning is done on the basis of the
product usage or its usage time.
 Product class positioning: : Product class positioning involves association with a
particular group of products, which are different from the conventional products.

41. Positioning Strategies
 Category positioning: In this type of strategy, the product is positioned other than its
original category to which it belongs. This is advisable when the existing product category
is overcrowded and brand differentiation becomes difficult.
 Benefit Positioning: Usually, consumers' purchase products for acquiring the benefits
related to the product. With the help of this strategy, marketers may select an exclusive
benefit to position the brand.
 Competitive Positioning: Here, the positioning of a product is done in reference to the
prevailing competition in the market. This product is set as a favorable substitute against
the established brand.
 Corporate Identity Positioning; A brand attempts to make a direct connection with the
corporate identity and tries to play on its key credentials. A corporate brand is used by
products to label their offerings in the market.

42. Importance of Positioning
 The importance of positioning is explained below:
 Placing the Product in Customers' Mind
 Connects Product Offerings with Target Market
 Product cannot be 'Everything to Everyone‘
 Providing Competitive Advantage
 Better Serving and Covering the Market

43. Product profiling
 Profiling is the selection of positive promotional statements (features and benefits), as
well as negative statements (adverse events, over dosage, contraindications, and drug
interactions) that are used in support of the chosen targeting and positioning strategies.
 Only the required product attributes and benefits are presented to the consumer. A word of
caution: Profiling is not over boosting a product's attributes or lying. To the contrary, it is
the selection of the regulatory approved product characteristics that will be preferentially
and repeatedly communicated to the consumers (prescribers and patients).

44. NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT DECISIONS
 The goods and services that vary considerably in terms of their attributes or
intended usage in contrast with the goods manufactured previously by the
same firm are termed as ‘New products’.
 It is a difficult task to define a new product. It involves novel ideas and
offerings which are entirely different and new for the customers.
 According to Kotler, "New product mean original products, improved products,
modified products and new brands which are developed by the firm through its
own research and development efforts and includes those products which the
consumers see as new.
 In comparison to other industries, the new product development procedure is
very much difficult in pharmaceutical industry.
 The R&D capability, development cost, registration with health ministry, raw
material sourcing all makes development of new product a challenging task for
any marketing team

45. New Product Development Process
 following are the steps involved in the process of new product development
Molecule
Identification
Molecule
Screening
Sourcing
of Raw
Material
Pilot
Batch
Manufactu
ring
Marketing
Strategy
Development
Test
Marketing/
Clinical
Trial/User
Trial
Commercia
lization