Marketing Strategy

Business definition

Target market: Allstar Brand’s Allround product will be marketed toward the demographics of young adults with children and the mature, mainly because these two demographics tend to have a higher demand of our product. Children tend to catch colds from being around other children, who then spread it at home, and to other family members. As people mature in age, the immune system weakens and becomes more vulnerable to catching colds or developing allergies along the way. Allstar believes that by focusing on young families, having consistent delivery of quality products, and by continually focusing on the customer needs, we would help build the loyalty of a lifelong customer and capture future generations. Allround products will be known as the trusted product from the “cradle to the grave”, by offering quality products at a great price. Allstar can be conveniently located at a local grocer or wholesale store within the community.

Value and Satisfaction: Allstar Brand will use customer surveys, market data, and trial size offerings to the targeted market to help us understand their ever changing needs and to ensure satisfaction on our current products. For instance, market surveys have revealed that some consumers showed preference of capsule over liquid form for convenience, while some young families show preference of non-alcoholic formula for their children's medication. Reformulation would be a high risk, since Allround is already well known “as is” in the current market, but by doing so, that would show our commitment and willingness to customize our product to meet our customers need.

Competitive Advantage

Our major competitor is Ethik Incorporated with $395 million worth of sales, followed by Allstar Brands, B &B Health Care, Driscol Corporation and Curral. Ethik has a very strong management team, which works closely together in making decisions for the company. We gain the competitive advantage because our product is available at grocery stores and wholesale locations, which makes it easy to target young families and the mature community; particularly the retired. We also offer both the day and nighttime formula. The night formula contains alcohol, which we believe some customers may prefer to use as a sleep aid. We decided to offer our product at these various locations to offer convenience to the shopper. Busy parents and the mature shop, perhaps, once a week at locations that offers a variety of products at reasonable prices. We have targeted young families because it provides us an opportunity to breed brand loyalty within the children: “my parents gave this to me when I was sick, and it always worked”. We also targeted the mature because they are the largest consumer of cold medicine and shop at wholesale or super shopping centers. We will increase our competitive advantage by offering excellent customer service from suggestions we receive via surveys and feedback. Free trial sizes will be offered to our niche market to drive sales.

Performance Objectives

PharmaSim has several factors that affect the bottom line such as market environments, inflation rates, market trends, demographical changes and consumer habits and trends. The program requires analytical and decision-making skills in order to maximize profit and market share. Our team will play through six decision periods that will represent six years of the

product life cycle. As the simulation plays out, we will develop a better understanding of the interrelationships of many variables in marketing strategy.

The manufacturers suggested retail price (MSRP) and discounts are tools that our group will use to manipulate the price and the amount of the products we sell. This approach will give incentive to the retailers to purchase more of our product. Advertising is fundamental in establishing our brand awareness among the consumer base and in helping to shape consumers' perception of all of our products. We will gradually increase the expenditures for advertising for our one product, Allround. We will utilize analyzing surveys and reports, and understand the product life cycle model. Team A will continue with this strategy in order for Allstar's net cumulative income to exceed $1.4 billion and its stock price to exceed $155 in period six.

Key Success Factors

1. The utilization of reports and surveys - These provide tremendous insight into industry trends and customer preference, as well as being important requirements for success. These tools collect and/or provide various critical aspects of the firm, to include defining the size of the market, demand patterns, customer buying habits & motivation, and current trends for our product and the competition.

2. Effectively managing the brand budget - The effective allocation of funds will ensure concurrent growth in the market/industry, as well as prudently executing the budget each period (meaning not to spend the entire budget unless it can be explicitly justified). Budgets need to be developed and used in an efficient manner while giving serious consideration to maintaining customer awareness and desire for the product.

3. Creation of Allround line extensions - This will result in capturing a broader reach of customers. In short, line extension will add variety to our existing product for the sake of reaching a more diverse customer base and enticing existing customers with new options.

4. Understand the needs, wants and desires of our target market – Our team will be the voice of the customer for our firm. We must know the market and how our product satisfies the requirements of the people in the market. Otherwise, it will be difficult strategize and understand demand for the product. Many think they know the market based solely on what the sales team tells them about the customers. Many firms conduct a customer satisfaction survey and consider this as representative of the market. This is dangerous because customers are inherently biased; they have already chosen a product/firm therefore. Doing the research is the only way we will truly understand the market and where our product offering fits within the market.

5. Understand the real capabilities of our firm - Understanding the firm capabilities and willingness to produce for the customer. It is important to ensure that the marketing message is aligned with the real capabilities of the firm and the only way it can be assured is through complete understanding of the firm’s capabilities. Marketing needs to get into the trenches and see what’s shipping, what’s being manufactured on the floor, and, most importantly, how it’s being received, used and perceived by the customers.

6. Alignment between Marketing and Sales - The marketing team knowing what the sales team is doing on a daily basis and on a strategic basis cannot be overstated. The marketing team needs to know the daily activities of the sales team or their needs, wants, frustrations, likes or dislikes about marketing activities. Research has shown that alignment between sales and marketing will significantly outperform those firms that do not achieve alignment.

7. Be close with the R&D team - R&D need market knowledge and needs to hear the voice of the customer in order to develop the best possible product. In order for R&D to develop and deliver products or services that fill a need and differentiate in the marketplace, they need to have access to market information and hear the voice of the customer. Marketing needs to be very involved and provide guidance to the R&D team in order to be successful. The most important point is that it's up to the marketing team to keep a close relationship with the R&D team by establishing lines of communication and a mutual trust.

Strategic Assumptions

Offering the right product mix, and decreasing "dissatisfiers", we will gain loyalty and increase customer lifetime value. In doing so, we will increase retention ratio and decrease the conversion ratio towards other products and brands. By aligning our team with sales and R & D we will be enabled to consistently provide the right product at the right time. Taking care of our sales force and distributors will enable us to achieve our sales goal.

In conclusion, we began by discussing the utilization of reports and surveys, as well as what is the most effective way to allocate a budget. Additionally, we have implemented an Allround line extension to build our clientele, and established ways to better serve our clients/customers by understanding their needs, wants and desires. To better serve our clients, we are making sure that our firm has a solid understanding of its real capabilities, which is to know the product and inventory and how it is being received, used and perceived by our customers. The most effective way to do this is to have a strong link between Marketing and Sales while also maintaining a close relationship with the R&D team.

Reference

James, S.W., Kinnear, T.C. & Deighan, M. (2012). PharmaSim-The Marketing Management

Simulation. Interpretive Simulations. Charlottesville, VA.