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Peek
No : 9
September 10, 2003 |
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Hello!
Our research
activities have started bringing remedies to unique marketing
problems. These remedies assist our clients lay effective road
maps for market planning. As our efforts are fast blossoming to
become strategies, we decided to do a report on our pharmaceutical
industry.
Before that,
let's take our weekly peek into our economy.
Chain
Store Sales Index
The chain
store sales index rose marginally in the last week of August.
This happens to be the second consecutive gain - though modest,
and the fourth gain in the last five weeks. The growth on a year-over-year
basis is again marginal - hovering at 4.0%.
Motor
Vehicle Sales Index
The motor
vehicle sales index of Aug has accelerated up to a 15.4 mn. unit
selling rate as against the 14.0 mn. unit selling rate seen in
July. The index covers the sales performance of domestic light
vehicles. The August sales stands as the strongest since August
2002, when it reached the 15.5 mn mark.
Consumer
sentiment
The August
index of consumer sentiment fell to 89.3. This stands below the
90.5 level - the level forecast by economists. The sentiment index
has also dropped from 90.9, witnessed in July. On the whole, the
consumer sentiment index is above the 12-month average and is
around 12 points above the nine year low registered in March.
Editorial Team
Marketspeek
Executive
Editor - Dr. Sharon Livingston
Editor - Vijay
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| Week's Peek |
Pharma
industry - America
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The top 10 branded products constitute almost 14% of the
total market. Among the top 10 branded products, as many
as five drugs fall under the “Inhibitor” category.
- The
retail segment leads the pack of consumer segments, forming
almost two-thirds of the total market.
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The growth rate of the retail segment is found to be more
than 9.4% while that of non-retail is approximately 16%.
Within the non-retail segment, “Mail Order”
offers more promising trends, growing in excess of 30%.
The next active growth segments amidst non-retail are
Clinics and Hospitals.
- The
top 10 pharmaceutical companies account for more than
50% of the total market’s value. The top 20 companies
possess more than 70% of the market share between them.
- The
market share of the top 20 companies is slowly dwindling,
giving way to other pharmaceutical companies, generics
and biotech companies.
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Vital Statistics - Pharmaceuticals
- Pfizer
Inc’s Lipitor tops the scores both in terms of dollar
sales and prescription volumes.
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Pfizer emerges as the leading marketing spender among
pharmaceutical companies, overtaking Glaxo.
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Three companies, namely Pfizer, Glaxo and Merck account
for more than 30% of the industry’s marketing spend.
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Journals are least preferred among the promotional vehicles.
Even among the top ten players, the dependence on journals
is at a minimal level.
- The
product categories of companies exert substantial influence
on the choice of media vehicles. For instance, Abbott’s
patronage to Direct To Consumers (DTC) is highly negligible
while its dependence on Detail is almost double the industry
average.
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Analysis
- Pharmaceuticals
- There
is a steady growth of Generics and Biotech companies. As more
brands shed their patent protection, the share of generics can
be expected to reach higher rates of growth.
- There is
a healthy shift towards lifestyle medicines like anti-depressants.
As ailments get more intricate, the need to communicate to prescribing
doctors would rise to greater levels. Hence, the industry would
venture into higher spending on Detailing.
- The industry
would witness more rationalization activities like mergers,
acquisitions, co-branding as drug discoveries bring overlaps
of competence.
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| Wish I were |
Sam Walton
`I don't know
if you're born with this kind of passion, or if you can learn
it. But I do know you need it.' That's Sam Walton speaking, about
the sheer passion that transported him from his life in a poor
farming community in rural Missouri during the Great Depression.
To his stunning stature as the founder of Wal-Mart, the world's
# 1 retailer. With over 4,150 stores and a net worth of $25 billion
when he died in 1992.
Walton got his first taste of retailing when he joined J.C. Penny
and later when he became a successful franchiser of Ben Franklin
five-and-dime stores. In 1962, he had the idea of opening bigger
stores, sticking to rural areas, keeping costs low and discounting
heavily. However, the management failed to see the grand possibilities
of his vision and he decided to strike out on his own, laying
the foundation of Wal-Mart.
By 1998,
the company celebrated its 36th anniversary exceeding $130 billion
in annual sales, ranking it as the fourth largest company in the
U.S. and the twelfth largest in the world. Wal-Mart has also the
distinction of being the largest private employer in the U.S.
with more than 780,000 associates, with an additional 130,000
associates in international markets.
Sam's
winning formula consists of 10 rules which are both simple and
idealistic. He advises entrepreneurs to share all their profits
with their associates, to motivate them, listen to them and praise
them whenever they make a significant contribution. He also stresses
that you must fun while you work, manage your finances efficiently
and stand by the two words that he wrote on his first Wal-Mart
sign: Satisfaction Guaranteed.
These
rules stood him in good stead, winning him numerous honours, even
after his death. The list includes the Presidential Medal of Freedom
from George Bush, the highest honor the country bestows on its
private citizens. Walton along with Helen and the entire family
also received the prestigious 1997 National Patriots Award for
"exemplifying the ideals that make this country strong."
The citation read thus: "From building America's economic
strength, to defending our country's freedoms, to generously helping
others in need, the Walton family has served the nation and its
citizens with humility and honor." In 1998, Time Magazine
and CBS News recognized Sam Walton as one of the 20 most influential
business geniuses of the 20th century.
And
all this because he followed his dream, even if it meant swimming
upstream - against all conventional wisdom.
For
further reading:
http://waltoncollege.uark.edu/samwalton/default.asp
http://www.powerhomebiz.com/vol76/walton.htm
http://www.starvingmind.net/detail/0553562835.html |
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| BrandFact |
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| This Week that Age |
September
10th 1935 - "Popeye" was heard for the first
time on NBC radio. The show was based on the Elzie Crisler Segar
comic strip, which featured Popeye, Olive Oyl, Brutas, Wimpy and
Sweepea. |
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| Insight |
| When
you reach for the stars, you may not quite get
them, but you won't come up with a handful of mud either.
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-Leo Burnett |
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Disclaimer
The information
presented in this Newsletter is not based on any primary research
undertaken exclusively for this purpose; it is based on secondary
sources of information, as current as the researchers were able
to collect from the sources. However, should any specific client
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