Basic Concept of Marketing

Dr. Imran Masood B.Pharm, MBA, CQRM, PhD, RPh

drimranmasood@iub.edu.pk
 Introduction
• Marketing is all around us
– In our home
– TV
– Radio
– Magazine
– Shopping …etc.
• Could be invisible:
– Visiting prime minister of a developing country market his
country to leaders of transnational group of countries
– Can a singer market her albums when sings a national
anthem at sporting event.
• Is marketing strictly for monetary profit?
• NO
– Armed forces are actively seeking some brave new
recruits

– Physicians are sending reminder cards to their

patients to remind them of a checkup.

– Religious organizations are involved in marketing in

order to strengthen their parish and increase the level
of donations.
• How can we define marketing?
– “Marketing is the process of planning and
executing the conception, pricing, promotion
and distribution of ideas, goods, and services
to create exchanges that satisfy individual and
organizational goals” (American Marketing
Association, 1985).

– Most experts agree that marketing is about

identifying customers’ needs and wants and
building products that satisfy them.
 Pharmaceutical VS Consumer
Markets
• The patient consuming your product is
neither the decision maker nor the buyer

• Ethical, regulatory, liability considerations

would be higher in the case of antibiotics than
electronic home appliances

• Brand loyalty and price sensitivity would be

less of a problem the fierce competition seen
in the computer or travel industries.
 Some of the aspects of
pharmaceutical marketing
• They are:
– More strict regulation as compare to consumers’
market

– The necessity of huge R&D investments.

– Sensitive issue of patients’ rights.

– Variety of other ethical issues, such as animal

welfare and environmental protection.
 The Marketing Mix
• The result of marketing activities is a mix of
product characteristics and benefits, commonly
called the marketing mix.
• The basic elements of marketing mix are:
– Product
– Price
– Place
– Promotion
• Which are commonly called the four Ps of
marketing
 Product
• The foremost element of the marketing mix is the
product.

• This term encompasses the combined offerings of

the seller to the customer, and may have tangible
and intangible nature.

– A product can be a physical good (leather bag, computer)

– A service (haircut, shoe polish)
– An idea (environmental protection, patient advocacy)
• A product can be defined as: “any thing that can be
offered to a market for attention, acquisition, use, or
consumption that might satisfy a want or need”
(Kotler, 1991)

• “ a good or service, or idea consisting of a collection

of tangible and intangible attributes that satisfies
consumers and is received in exchange for money
or some other unit of value” (Zikmund and D’Amico,
1996).

• A pharmaceutical product, or drug, is broadly

defined as any chemical agent that affects the
processes of living.
• Due to the changing nature of the
pharmaceutical products, each product
aimed at successfully competing in its
therapeutic category has to carry a set of
product and economic components that
are well defined and superior to the
offerings of competitors.
• Why do physicians prescribe a particular
pharmaceutical over a competitive
product? Why do patients seem to develop
a brand loyalty to one of the many
products taken by them during their life?

• It is important to realize that, as in the

case of a consumer buying a “hole”
instead of a “drill,” a patient buys a product
benefit instead of a product characteristic.
 Place
• The second element of marketing mix

• Are the customers exposed to the company’s product offerings

in the right place, at the right time, and in the right condition?

• Place therefore refers to the physical distribution, channel

management, and customer service.

• The process of physical distribution involves activities such as

transportation, warehousing, materials handling, packaging and
so on.

• A channel distribution: is a group of individuals, processes, and

systems that have been set in place to facilitate the transfer of a
product from the manufacturer to the hands of final consumer in
an efficient and effective manner.
 Price
• The third element of the marketing mix

• Refers to the pricing objectives and

strategies, price adjustments, and
payment terms.

• In general, price is the value attributed to a

product or service.
• Price-benefit relationship
– A high profit earning price for the seller may
be an unfairly high price for the buyer.

– Alternatively, a budget price sought by the

buyer may be not the optimal income-making
price for the seller.

– Therefore, it becomes essential for each

seller to thoroughly evaluate the customers’
price perceptions and expectations and
charge his products offerings accordingly.
 Price (cont.)
• In the eyes of the buyer, a product’s price
perception is a mix of its quality, functionality,
competitors’ product prices, and personal
benefits expected from its purchase.

• On the sellers’ side, price is revenue and profit

making; thus the profitability, financial stability,
and long-term survival of the organization may
depend on setting a proper price.
 Promotion
• Once marketers have created a product that is
appealing to customers, identified a fair price, and
made it physically available to the final consumers,
they must then present their products by marketing
them to consumers.

• This important task is achieved by promotion which

includes:
– Advertising
– Public relations
– Sales promotion
– Personal selling
 Classification of Poison
Drugs
• Group A poisons:
shall not be sold or supplied by wholesale or
retail except:
1. By a licensed wholesaler to a licensed
pharmacist or to another licensed
pharmacist, or

2. By a licensed wholesaler to be immediately

exported to a purchaser outside Malaysia.
• Group B Poison:
Shall not be sold or supplied by retail to any
person except:
1. Where the sale or supply of such poison, if it a group
A poison, would have been authorized under section
20.
2. By a registered medical practitioner, registered
dentist, Division I or veterinary officer selling or
supplying the same in accordance with section 19.
3. By a licensed pharmacist, as a dispensed medicine
on and accordance with a prescription prescribed by
a registered medical practitioner, registered dentist,
or veterinary officer in the form required by
subsection 2 and when supplied with accordance
with the act and of any regulations made thereunder
relating to such sale or supply on a prescription.
• Form of prescription of group B poison:
Every prescription of group B poison prescribed by a
registered medical practitioner, registered dentist, or
registered veterinary officer shall:
1. Be in writing signed and dated by the prescriber therefore;
2. State the address of the prescriber;
3. State the name and address of the patient or, in the case of
prescription by veterinary officer, the name and address of the
person to whom such medicine is to be delivered.
4. Indicate the total amount of medicine to be supplied and the
dose,
5. Specify the number of times (not exceeding three) the
medicine may be dispensed and if dispensed more than one,
at what intervals.
3. No person shall sell or supply by retail any group B
poison on a prescription which does not comply with all
the requirements of subsection 1 or which contravenes
subsection 5 or shall sell or supply such poison
otherwise than in accordance with the terms of such
prescription.
4. Every person selling or supplying any group B poison
on a prescription shall at the time of selling or
supplying the same, endorse upon the face of the
prescription, above the signature of the prescriber, his
name and address and the date on which such poison
or medicine was sold or supplied.
5. No prescription for any group B poison shall be written
wholly or partly in code or in such manner that is not readily
decipherable and capable of being dispensed by any
pharmacist.
6. Notwithstanding the provisions of the foregoing subsection
of this section, if it shall appear to the seller or supplier that
any medicine is required urgently and that it is impossible
without unreasonable delay to obtain a prescription
complying with requirements of section 1, it shall be lawful
for the seller or supplier, after making an entry to that effect
in his prescription book, upon the verbal or telephoned
instructions of a medical practitioner, personally known to
him, to sell or supply such poison without such prescription.
Provided that in every such case the seller or supplier shall
take all necessary steps to obtain, and the prescriber shall
deliver, a prescription in accordance with subsection 1 within
one day of the date of such sale or supply.
7. Any person, selling or supplying any group B
poison in contravention of this section, of failing
or neglecting to endorse such prescription as
required by subsection 4 or writing any
prescription in code or otherwise in
contravention of subsection 5 or failing to take
any necessary step to obtain or failing to deliver,
the prescription as required by subsection 6,
shall be guilty of an offence against this Act.
Group Poison C:
Shall not be sold or supplied by retail to any
person except:
1. Where the sale or supply of such poison, if it
had been a group B poison, would have
been authorized under or be virtue of, and is
effected in accordance with section 21; or
2. As a dispensed medicine or an ingredient in
a dispensed medicine.
• Group D Poison:
Shall not be sold or supplied by retail to any
person except:
1. Where the sale or supply of such poison, if it had
been a Group C poison, would have been
authorized under or by virtue to section 22; or
2. By a licensed pharmacist to a person known
personally to such pharmacist or introduced to the
pharmacist personally by a person known
personally to the pharmacist and when such poison
is sold or supplied in accordance with this section
and of any regulations made under this Act relating
to such sale or supply.
 Sell of Poisons by
Wholesale
1. No poison shall be sold by wholesale except by a licensed
wholesaler in accordance with the terms and conditions of this
license.
 Sale of Poisons by Retail
1. Subject to section 18 no poison shall be sold by retail
except by a person licensed to sell such poison by
retail and in accordance with the terms and conditions
of such license.
2. Every such sale should be effected on the promises
specified in such license.
3. Every such sale should be effected by or under the
immediate personal supervision of the person named
in such license.
4. Every such sale should be effected on accordance
with this Act and of any regulations made thereunder
relating to such poison.
5. Any person who sells any poison by retail in
contravention of this section shall be guilty of an
offence under this Act.
Control of Import Poisons