Planning the consumer"s way in the pharmaceutical industry by the example of Abbott - Дипломная работа

Introduction pharmaceutical business marketing The pharmaceutical industry is an important sector of the world economy and social welfare (Manchanda and Honka, 2005). According to the report of Quintiles IMS Institute, the total volume of medicines consumed globally will increase by approximately 6% annually through 2021, primarily driven by newer medicines in developed markets and increased volume in pharmaceutical markets in the countries with emerging economy. The so-called pharmerging markets volume of medicine usage grew by an average 10.3% in 2007-2011, slowing to 6.6% from 2012 to 2016, and is projected to slow further to 3-6% from 2017 to 2021. People in emerging countries will consume more than half of the medicines used globally, consistent with the more than half of the world’s population who live there. Russia is still considered a country with an emerging economy. The recent improvement in its economy has been the key driver of greater medicine use, contributing both to governments’ policies to expand health care provision as well as to personal incomes which drive so much of the drug purchases in the Russian market. This study attempts to contribute to the knowledge base by exploring the existing models of purchase funnel, such as AIDA model and other types of sales funnel. After that, it amplifies the theoretical base by considering both classical contemporary models of sales funnel including the conversion funnel and the sales funnel for mobile appications evaluation. Later on, the comparative analysis of customer journey model and the sales funnel is indroduced followed by a brief history of the consumer buying decision process model and its modifications applicable to the pharmaceutical business. It is quite evident that the structure of marketing investments of any pharmaceutical company operating worldwide may differ from country to country. The general business problem addressed in this study is that characteristics of the Russian market, such as social and demographic features of the population, governmental policy, state regulation and economic situation considerably alter the conventional customer journey model. Moreover, constant access to the Internet changes not only the behavior and habits of people, but also their way to purchase. According to the survey conducted by Google, 71% of Russian users turn to a specialist only in case of acute necessity and 20% believe that the pharmacists advice can replace the visit to the physician. These results show that nowadays, when the answer to any question can be found online, consumers are less likely to rely unconditionally on the opinions of doctors and take care of their health in their own hands. All these factors have to be taken in mind by phamaceuticel companies that want to to keep up with the times and change their marketing strategies in accrodance with market changes. The patient journey is the way a consumer goes through from the moment of problem origination and information search for a solution to the problem of choosing and buying a particular medicineб, which consists of many important points. The specific business problem is the difference between customer journey for the prescription drugs and OTC (over-the-counter) drugs based on these factors. Therefore, the key objective of the study is to identify this difference and demonstrate by example of Abbott brands how the patient journey might look in real business environment. The paper also examines global trends in the pharmaceutical industry and new technologies involved. It aims to define the problems that global brands may face when operating in the Russian market and the possible solutions to them. The major goal of my study is to investigate the environmental context in which consumers make purchase decisions on prescription and non-prescription drugs. I am going to conducting a qualitative research, which will help me to understand how the patient journey to Rx drugs differs from the journey to OTC drugs and identify the number of factors affecting the buying decision. My research will begin with the collection of qualitative data and its analysis, which will occur simultaneously. I will continuously describe the data obtained, code the notes, and unify them into logical categories to provide the explanations of the concept examined and, thus, a new theoretical framework. I will conduct my qualitative research basing on the method of the case study of Abbott. As a part of the study, I will interview nine Abbott employees, review the corporate documents and directly observe the management operations and processes in the company. The combination of three the above-mentioned data collection instruments, or a so-called triangulation method, will enable me to counterbalance the deficiency of a single data collection strategy, thereby increasing the ability to interpret the findings. The results of the following study may be of interest not only for business administration