Barbara Printup and Metabical Drug - Case Study Example

The drug was the first prescription to receive approval to meet the needs of people who were struggling with moderate weight loss (Quelch & Beckham, 2010).

Question 1

Barbara Printup was the senior marketing director for CSP and oversaw the launch of Metabical in the US. Printup was experienced in coming up with marketing strategies for new drugs so marketing these new drugs was not a big deal to her. Her objective was to raise awareness about the new product as well as educate people about the use of the new drugs using various promotional campaigns. Some of the best methods of promotion used include the use of a sales force comprising of sales presentations to potential customers, the use of social networks to advertise, direct messages and emails to customers, buzz mailing, online advertising, and also promotion through radios and TVs. At the time of launch and the first year in the market, Printup recommended for the use of DTC Television, Radio, online messages, and print media and this emerged to be a success in the end (Quelch & Beckham, 2010).

She used to paraphrase good messages to drive people toward buying the product. For example, ‘Your overweight patients are dying for help, try Metabical…’ Printup focused much on creating strong public relations for the product and the company as well; in fact, she would spend about $ 4.3 million on public relations campaigns. She had a very vibrant sales force composed of hard-working salespeople who were involved in conducting door-to-door sales and used to develop strong sales scripts and presentations which provided accurate information about the Metabical drug. The sales force used to conduct regular visits to healthcare providers to give presentations on the same. (Quelch & Beckham, 2010).

The optimal target consumer will be men and women who are moderately overweight and want to reduce their weight to normal and help them live a healthy life. Anyone with a concern about their weight should consider seeing Mrs. Printup to get some subscriptions on the same drug and help reduce weight to normal. The drug has been approved by FDA as a safe drug and its ability to reduce weight has been suggested by clinical researchers (Quelch & Beckham, 2010).

Question 2
Pricing decisions on Metabical have an impact on the profitability of the drug as well as on the entire company. Depending on the type of target customers and the geographical location, setting prices for the drug will impact its profitability. As far as pricing is concerned, people are not worried about the price and prefer to take prescribed drugs rather than non-prescribed drugs irrespective of the price of the drug. Thus to set up a higher price for Metabical would not be a problem, instead, it will increase profitability since customer numbers will not be affected (Quelch & Beckham, 2010).

The Estimated Retail price will be $3 to $5 per pill, the dosage is 1 pill per day, and treatment will be 12 weeks.
The Return on investment (ROI) for the first five years for the pricing decisions is as follows: or year 1, the sales turnover is 347.4 giving an ROI of (19%), in year 2, the sales turnover is 383.88 giving an ROI of 77%, year 3, sales turnover is, 424.18, ROI is 183%, year 4, sales turnover is 468.72, ROI is 300% while year 5, sales turnover is 517.94, giving an ROI of 429 percent. From the figure, the ROI has been increasing year by year meaning the price strategies are one of the best (Quelch & Beckham, 2010).

Question 3

The positioning strategy chosen means that Metabical has already a good image thanks to the communication and marketing strategy applied and the fact that Metabical is a prescribed drug. The existing marketing communications strategy will continually create a strong demand for Metabical and promote its brand image, so at the moment, no change is required as far as the marketing budget and marketing communications mix are concerned. The most critical factors for Printup to consider are the optimal package size for the drug, pricing recommendations and models, demand forecasts, potential customers, Return on Investment, and profitability. (Quelch & Beckham, 2010). Read More