Discussion
To ensure that the rapid diagnostic product achieves success in the market, an effective marketing plan that differentiates the company in the market place should be set up elaborately. This is intended to offer the company an excellent opportunity for early success. The marketing plan incorporates key elements that would help commercialize the rapid diagnostic products effectively.
These key elements include: promotional literature and advertising material; promotional newsletter; customer training workshops; medical/scientific trade exhibitions such as, the media; domestic promotion that includes mailings and telephone contacts; specific target product mailings conducted monthly; key journal advertising; internet home page; presentation and publication of scientific papers; international distribution meetings; multimedia presentations on notebooks and desktop computers; distribution of multimedia presentation on CD; and press releases.
Promotion Literature
Advertising will be the major promotional element the company will use to penetrate the market. It will be used both to establish the rapid diagnostic product in the market and increase its sales.
Through advertising in medical and scientific journals, the market will be informed of the very existence of the product and, specifically, its pharmacological, chemical, and physical properties. Clients will be persuaded to use for the cure, prevention, or treatment of disease (Stephens, 2005).
The advertising will adhere to six specific principles; the central sales idea, uniformity of presentation, protested promotion, split second timing, overwhelming of clinicians, and advertising behind advertising.
A central idea will be developed by emphasizing the physical, the chemical or pharmacological properties of the product. It will also include its mode of administration, side effects, and contraindications. The aim will be to differentiate the product from existing competitive products, thereby offering the product uniqueness in its class (Kurtz, 2009).
Uniformity of presentation will include the proper coordination of all promotional activities, including detailing, direct mail and advertising (Kotler, 2000). The advertising material will be protested on selected practicing medical practitioners in selected localities.
This will be aimed at evaluating the product purpose and effectiveness, so that necessary alterations could be made in the final product. Split second timing of promotion will involve simultaneous distribution of the product, detailing, direct mail, and journal advertising.
The Internet Homepage
The internet would provide the most powerful medium for promoting the rapid diagnostic products to the market (Can’t, 2009). The internet has a multimedia nature combined with its capacity to deliver huge amounts of product information to users. This means that it is an effective medium for advertising and promoting products.
Through the internet, the company would not only publicise the products on the net, but also advertise the products to a global public at a fraction of the cost of traditional advertising (Paley, 2000). It is easy to update and expand through the internet. The internet would provide no real limit on how information on the product can be made available to clients.
Furthermore, the company can focus on the product, offering video clips, detailed graphics, photographs and animations, in addition to text. This will enable it to provide more detail not possible with other advertising media (Can’t, 2009).
Promotional Newsletter
The company can utilize the email facility of most web browsers in conjunction with lists of addresses to dispatch out e-mail with advertising slants. Although hardcore advertising is generally frowned upon in the e-mail in the e-mail world, the company can create an e-newsletter that provides value added information that would be important to a select group of prospects.
The company will utilize its website to promote the e-newsletter; encouraging visitors to subscribe to the newsletter with the promise that they will be getting necessary information related to the company products. This assists the viewer to initiate contact with the e-newsletter rather than being forced on them.
The company will benefit from the advertising as it will be associated with the newsletter as long as it is a good newsletter. The newsletter will also enable the company to unobtrusively advertise its products and services (Loudon, 2004).
Customer Trainings Workshops
The company will strive to offer medical training to both its sales force and clients through training and workshops. Training and workshops will concentrate on supporting clients, and promoting professional and online information for customers.
Customer training and workshops will offer clients medical education on the products through strategy, content development, and online broadcast conferences and events. The workshops will bring the medical experts and allow leaders in the medical industry to interact with sales professional through various medical simulations (Paley, 2000).
Medical Science trade Exhibitions
The company will take advantage of trade exhibitions to promote the product. Stalls for exhibitions will professionally be designed. The company will engage an advertising agency to provide the design. Promotional materials will be printed and distributed.
Gifts such as wall calendars will be provided for those who visit the stall. These arrangements will be made well in advance and carried to the exhibition site. The company will also provide enough manpower to put up the stall during the exhibition (Kotler, 2000).
Domestic promotions
The company will make use of direct mailings for its domestic promotions. This will be a mechanism for disseminating unsolicited and solicited information abut the product. Unsolicited information will be that which is received without having been requested or subscribed for.
Among the materials that will be available by this mechanism shall be direct mailings about the medical products and advertisements from product distributors. Unsolicited materials through the mail will be an important source of medical information for both lay people and medical professionals. The company will use the mails to send literature in response to direct requests or to people on the mailing lists (Loudon, 2004).
Specific Target Program Mailings
The company will carefully consider what type of clients to target and the product to promote. The company will establish specific objectives that will be measurable. These objectives will be related to improved medical service to clients, enhance client education on certain topics on the product and enhance target goals for utilization of the products.
The objectives will be program based to assist in deciding on target market (Physicians and patients). The objective will also develop communication methods for offering the product to the target market (Kotler, 2000).
Key Journal Advertising
Professional journal advertising that shall be engaged by the company will adhere to the medical associations of most countries. Before publishing, the company will ensure that it passes through censorship to comply.
Such requirements expected to be met will include: the advertisement clearly identifying the advertiser and the product; ensuring that the advertisement is not deceptive and misleading; ensuring that the layout, art work and format are such as to avoid confusion with editorial content of publication (Westwood, 2001).
The company will not engage in unfair comparisons and unwarranted disparagement of competitors products. In sum, the advertisement will conform to the principles of clinical ethics.
Multi media Presentation
The use of multimedia will be aimed at making communications more efficient and effective, thus assisting the company to accurately discern the need for change and to formulate and implement an appropriate response.
Multimedia communication will enhance the company’s ability to enrich the customer, cooperate to enhance competiveness, organize to master change and uncertainty, and leverage the impact of people and information. Multimedia will contribute to the strategic thrust that facilitates agility and long term success for the company (Paley, 2000).
Multimedia will effectively be utilized in promoting products to customers. The company will utilize the web as a popular medium of delivery of multimedia promotions. The company will utilize web pages using a rich combination of media in promotions.
The web pages will be endowed with pictures to show products, text that describe the product, graphs and charts that further highlight desirable performance characteristics of products and more. Videos could also be included to the clients to see the product in action.
This will deliver a customer testimonial that actually indicates a satisfied customer using the product. The effective use of multimedia on web pages will be a powerful tool for persuasion (Luther, 2001).
Distribution of Multimedia Presentation on CD
The multimedia will be employed effectively to provide clients with added value for sale. It will be used to offer assembly and operating instructions, to deliver information on other products that might, based on customers profile be of importance to customers. The will strive to offer customers the product with a video tape as a substitute to a traditional paper assembly and operating instructions manual for the use of the products.
The video will provide instructions on how to use the product. Multimedia presentation on CD-ROM is another medium that will be used effectively by the company for the delivery of multimedia after-sale customer support.
The important advantages targeted will be the capacity to support greater customer interaction and a delivery of a combination of media. CD-Rom based multimedia manuals will allow users to have more choice about the nature of assistance they receive. CD-ROM based multimedia manuals will designed to offer clients options from which to select a form of assistance appropriate for them (Kotler, 2000).
International Distributor Meetings
International sales distribution will cover the sales and logistic processes. These sales processes will involve the acquisition of orders. Product sales will start with location of the final demand for the products and services. This is the stage closest to the client, so it interprets requirement patterns and preferences and transmits external client orders.
These external orders are expected to come directly from ultimate clients or from intermediary institutions directly. The orders will then be translated into specific supply chain activities, such as; processing of orders, operations of distribution centres, and holding and control of stocks (Westwood, 2001).
The sales processes will be aimed at creating client loyalty and the performance of the chain. Logistic processes which includes the design of the physical distribution process, order processing and delivery will be carefully designed. International distributors meetings will assist monitor the dynamics in the market environment that might influence product distribution.
In addition, the company will provide graphics such as; logos and photos to country operations. The company’s overseas distributors will take advantage of annual international distributor meetings to discuss promotional practices with their head office counterparts (Can’t, 2009).
The company will have alternative strategies to spell out how the company’s resources shall be combined and adapted to market needs. The company’s international marketers will form communication programs for application in targeted markets. These programs will include; advertising, personal selling, publicity, and sponsorship (Can’t, 2009).
Promotion through Press releases
The company will engage in full gear public relations. This will ensure non-personal stimulation of demand for the product by paid placement of important news regarding the product in a print or broadcast medium. This will be aimed at creating the products credibility for advertising to follow. The company will generate publicity by creating special events, holding press conferences, and preparing news releases and media kits.
Through press releases, the company will operate cost effectively and will get an easy way to get free publicity and generate interest and sales for the product. The press releases will also assist the company in generating tons of enquiries from a single press release send to a list of journals that serve the market (Loudon, 2004).
Conclusion
In sum, proper coordination of all activities will be ensured to achieve promotional strategies (Westwood, 2001). By overwhelming the medical practitioner, the company will try to keep clients informed about its products through the promotional cycle (Stapleton, 1998).
This will include informing them of the name of the product, explaining the story of the product, what the product is used for, convincing them on its clinical effectiveness, informing of progress of the company, and dispatching samples of the product, for the purpose of maintaining the name of the company to remain fresh in their minds (Loudon, 2004).
Reference List
Can’t, M. (2009). Marketing Management. New York: Routledge.
Kotler, P. (2000). Marketing Management. London: Blackwell Publishers.
Kurtz, D., Mackenzie, F., & Snow, K. (2009). Contemporary Marketing. New York: Springer.
London, D., & Robert, S. (2004). Marketing Management. New York: Routledge.
Luther, W. (2001). The Marketing Plan. London: Springer Publishers.
Paley, N. (2000). The Marketing Strategy Desktop Guide. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Stapleton, J., & Thomas, M. (1998). How to Prepare a Marketing Plan. London: Blackwell Publishers.
Stephens, J., & Thomas, M. (2005). Marketing Planning Guide. New Jersey: Princeton University Press
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