To: Dr. Clover (Last Response Needed For Unit 4)

I think it follows the old saying, you have to learn to walk before you can run. Following the strategies in the order listed guides a company, new or old, and minimizes forgetting something such as an important step. An example of the directional strategy, if Ford chooses to introduce a new model of a car, it doesn’t send employees out to the assembly area with instructions to just build a new model car with the pieces available and see what they come up with (would be interesting though), there are years of concept ideas, design, prototype, re-tooling or tooling new dies, advertising, marketing, road tests and so on. It doesn’t happen overnight. The same is true in the pharmaceutical world. It takes years (generally 15-18) to bring a new drug to market. Wonder why medicines cost so much? It not only takes the years to bring it to market, it costs in the neighborhood of $500-800 million. Yes, that is with an “m.”

The second step, adaptive strategy, an auto manufacturer may test how customers respond to a new innovation. An example of testing this is how customers would respond to remote start of their vehicle. My son lives in the state of Washington. During the winter, he starts his Toyota truck from the house so it is warmed up by the time he leaves his house. Nice.

Market entry strategy. It is a no-brainer statement to say that everyone is different. While I like luxury cars (thought the practical side of me has me in a Honda Accord at the moment), my nearest brother just bought a ‘Vette. He calls it his midlife crisis. While in the healthcare setting, using a new robotic surgical device is marketed to the small group of doctors (surgeons) but the hospital also sees it as a betterment for patients as the robot is less invasive so recovery time is shorter.

With competitive and implementation strategy, the hospital then markets to the public that it has new robotic surgery devices and this in turn, encourages patients to inquire of such procedures when informed that they or a family member need surgery.