Management summary
The XYZ pharmaceutical and medical supplies Ltd is a secondary provider in the healthcare environment involved in supplying drugs and other medical supplies to major hospitals and chemists. This marketing plan incorporates three major strategies to be used in marketing. One of the marketing strategies is advertising of medical supplies and pharmaceutical products. Once products are received from manufacturers, the marketing department will advertise them to make the new products known by customers.
The marketing department will also be doing sales promotion to customers. This will be done by sales people working for the company. As part of marketing also, continuous medical education seminars will be conducted to ensure that physicians are updated on improvements in the medical and pharmaceutical products.
Excellent results will be expected after implementing the marketing plan. It is expected that the company will establish itself as one of the leading companies in medical and pharmaceutical supplies globally during the first three years of operation. It is also expected that the company will attract many medical and pharmaceutical manufacturers so that it can supply their products.
Economic projections
Economic factors can adversely affect marketing and consumption of goods (Luan & Sudhir, 2010). This marketing plan is cognisant of the fact that some of the economic factors may not be controllable by the company. For example, high inflation will adversely affect the marketing of products. It is expected that high cases of unemployment might lead to lower customer purchasing power.
The market- qualitative
The success of any business is dependent on the number of customers to whom it sells its products and/or services. It has been shown that the number of customers, in most instances, is directly related to annual turnover by a business (Luan & Sudhir, 2010). XYZ pharmaceutical and medical supply Ltd targets to sell pharmaceutical and medical supplies to major public and private hospitals in America, Africa, Europe and Asia. Major chemists and pharmaceutical sellers are also targeted. The analysis of the targeted customers shows that they can help the company become a major player in supplying of medical and pharmaceutical products.
The market- quantitative
In the three continents that the company targets there are a total of 2500 health facilities and pharmaceutical shops that are potential customers. A good number of these customers, 1450, are healthcare facilities, privately or publicly owned. The company has targeted 1000 customers in America, 900 in Asia and 600 in Africa. It is projected that the potential customers will give the company an annual turnover of 100 million USD.
Trend analysis
Pharmaceutical products and medical supplies have been in constant increase in demand over the last decades. Diseases and medical conditions have been on increase, thus the high demand for drugs and medical supplies. For instance, global figures indicate that the cost for drugs prescribed in 2011 was 954 billion USD. It is predicted that the pharmaceutical industry will reach 1.1 trillion USD in 2014 (Munos, 2009).
Competition
Stiff competition is expected from established multinational companies. These are Pfizer, Novartis, Bayer and GSK which were estimated to have made net income of 19,337, 11,057, 6,434 and 10,135 million USD in the year 2006. Competition is expected from these companies because all of them manufacture pharmaceutical products and hire medical representatives to market and promote their products (Munos, 2009).
On the other hand, XYZ company will market and distribute drugs and medical equipment manufactured by different companies. It will be an up-hill task to convince customers to purchase products of companies that are not well known in the market. The other factor that has made these competitors succeed in their business is the fact that they deal with original drugs. There is a common believe among healthcare consumers that original drugs have better therapeutic value than generic drugs.
Problems and opportunities
In order for a business to realize growth, it must deal with the challenges it is facing both internally and externally (Luan & Sudhir, 2010). XYZ Company is facing a problem of recruiting the right people who will work towards meeting the expectations of the company. These employees will work in the target continents and is expected that they will work to achieve the goals and objectives of XYZ Company. The opportunities of XYZ are in potential markets in Africa, South Korea, Russia and Mexico. If the company can work on capturing these markets, then it will have good turnover in the next three years.
Objectives and goals
XYZ Company has to achieve its objectives and goals to become a leading distributor in the healthcare industry. The first objective is to capture a third of the targeted customers by the end of next year. The second goal is to become a leading and respected pharmaceutical and medical supplies company worldwide in the next five years.
Action programs
XYZ Company will do thorough product campaigns, advertising, sales promotion and continuous medical education. It will also embark on recruiting the right people to help achieve the goals and objectives of the company.
References
Luan, Y. J., & Sudhir, K. (2010). Forecasting marketing-mix responsiveness for new products. Journal of Marketing Research, 47(3), 444-457.
Munos, B. (2009). Lessons from 60 years of pharmaceutical innovation. Nature Reviews Drug Discovery, 8(12), 959-968.