Clarifying questions:

• What kind of products does the pharmaceutical company mostly deal in? Drugs for all ailments (You can assume any big brand like Sun Pharma)
• So we are a big pharma company with an established brand name/ industry reputation? Yes
• What kind of a sleeping pill are we launching? What is the USP of this particular product? (It’s a different / safer salt, and the USP of the product is that it is not addictive unlike most of its counterparts)
• Do we have other drugs in our brand that cater to the same problem? Yes a couple
• What stage of development is this pill in? (It’s been thoroughly researched and the product is ready to be manufactured.)
• Where are we planning to launch the product? (India)
• What is the price of the product? It is affordably priced at Rs 50/- per 10 tablets. (~$0.7)
• Lastly, do we have any budget constraints? No

About the product:

A new sleeping pill in the market has the USP of not being addictive and is safer than most of its counterparts.

Our goal with this launch is to ensure the adoption of the product in India.

Market Overview:

The first step in our launch process would be to ensure that the right amount of drugs are manufactured to cater to the public so that we are not wasting our resources on overproducing and so that we are not underproducing either.

TAM: Indian population with ailments/ sleep issues / chronic problems

Total population: 1.4 B

Assuming most people who are 50 + would be suffering from sleep issues (20%)

~ 280M out of this approx only 50% ~ 140M

SAM: people who are taking medicines to treat this issue or there is an intent of treating ~ appro 60% ~ 84M

SOM: % of the market that we can capture (assuming we are a big well-known brand) ~ approx 50% ~ 42M

Total revenue/day: $60M

We should be producing at least 60M units to launch the product. (keeping some for buffer)

Porter’s 5 Forces:

• Industry rivalry (Medium): We are a big brand, well known, and we have a strong USP
• Threat of New Entrants (Low): Not many players in the pharma industry. It’s tough to break into
• Threat of substitutes (High): People don’t like to medicate their sleep problems and rely on herbs/exercise / healthy lifestyle to tackle them.
• Bargaining power of buyers: (Medium): Our end consumers are usually taking these medicines with a doctor’s prescription. Switching from one brand to another is difficult especially if the salt is unique. Still in India, many things depend on the pharmacist & doctors that are supplying the product (they would mostly recommend your product if they get a good commission)
• Bargaining power of suppliers: (Low) Assuming it to be low, as we are only sourcing the salt / raw materials but the rest of the manufacturing is in-house. We need to patent our research on the product so our competitors cannot steal our formula.

GTM:

Pharmaceutical products cannot be promoted through traditional marketing.

So the first step of the launch would be to create an awareness of the product to our direct buyers (doctors/pharmacists)

External:

• Conduct informational sessions in collaboration with medical institutes (like AIIMS / Max / Medanta/ other medical R & D institutes) where we would invite doctors from across India and inform them about the product, its pros and cons and the general benefit of using our product.
• Share research / conduct research with top medical institutes in India. These research findings should be made public so as to ensure the general public in India that this product is safe and has been validated by the top minds of the country.
• Send SDR representatives to pharmacists (starting with Tier 1 towns) and then slowly penetrate into the rest of India to inform them about the new product and give a batch of sample products for them to sell at their shop.
• Put a substantial commission-based model in place with private doctors and pharmacists so as to ensure that your product is recommended over the competitor brands.

Internal:

• Roll in any existing products that deal with insomnia that might risk cannibalizing our new product.
• There should be a close monitoring of the patient results of taking the product at least up to 5 years after launch so as to ensure that no short-term/long-term side effects occur. Meanwhile, we can focus on our own R&D to further improve the product.
• Conduct Insomnia awareness workshops with the general public (we can start with hospitals/ senior citizen homes/ offices) to make them aware of insomnia as a medical condition, the pitfalls of it and how can people tackle it (we will not sell our product here). This can be done in collaboration with doctors.

Here is how I would approach this problem:

1. Ask clarifying questions: Where are we launching this product? How is it different from existing products? What is the goal of launching this product?

Here, I am assuming that we are launching this product in India. It is not different from existing products. The purpose of launching this product is just to increase brand awareness.

2. Pre-launch strategy: In this phase of the product, we need to first segment the market into suitable personas and then, position the product to target the right persona. For our product, the possible customer segments are:

• Elderly people (>50 years)
• Middle-aged working people (25-50 years)
• College students (18-25 years)
• Insomnia patients

We should not target college students because they are too young to be using pills to sleep. This will neither be ethical nor be accepted in society. We should not target insomnia patients since it will be a very niche segment. If we want to increase our brand awareness, we need to target a big segment. Elderly people are usually the ones retired from the jobs and also from household duties. They have a lot of free time, so, even if they can’t sleep at night, they don’t mind sleeping in the afternoon. Further, they may already be on some other medication, which will be helping them to sleep. Therefore, the only potential segment that we should target is middle-aged working people.

Once we have selected our target segment, let’s use the 4P framework to formulate our strategy:

• Product: As already discussed, our product is a sleeping pill.
• Price: The price can be decided based on three models: cost-based, value-based or competitor-based. Since this is a highly competitive market, I would recommend going for the competitor-based pricing model.
• Place: The sleeping pill will be mainly sold through pharmacies, however, we would also need to collaborate with doctors since they would be the ones prescribing the drug to the patients.
• Promotion: Since this segment is busy in their works, they would be spending very less time on social media. So, heavy investments should not be done on social media advertisements. Instead, Google advertisements should be used to increase efficiency through targetted marketing.

3. During-launch strategy: Following metrics should be regularly checked during this phase:

Offline mode (Through pharmacies):

• Number of pharmacies who collaborated
• Number of customers reached (Number of customers who bought sleeping pills not necessarily of our brand in those pharmacies)
• Number of customers converted

Online mode (Through Google pharmacies):

• Number of customers who were shown the advertisement
• Click-through rate of advertisements
• Number of online orders (Through all the apps like 1mg, Amazon etc.)

4. Post-launch strategy: After the launch, the following metrics should be taken into consideration to gauge the success of the launch:

• Brand awareness achieved in comparison to the brand awareness intended
• The efficiency of the online vs offline modes
• Online customer reviews about the product

Here is how I would approach this problem:

1. Ask clarifying questions: Where are we launching this product? How is it different from existing products? What is the goal of launching this product?

Here, I am assuming that we are launching this product in India. It is not different from existing products. The purpose of launching this product is just to increase brand awareness.

2. Pre-launch strategy: In this phase of the product, we need to first segment the market into suitable personas and then, position the product to target the right persona. For our product, the possible customer segments are:

• Elderly people (>50 years)
• Middle-aged working people (25-50 years)
• College students (18-25 years)
• Insomnia patients

We should not target college students because they are too young to be using pills to sleep. This will neither be ethical nor be accepted in society. We should not target insomnia patients since it will be a very niche segment. If we want to increase our brand awareness, we need to target a big segment. Elderly people are usually the ones retired from the jobs and also from household duties. They have a lot of free time, so, even if they can’t sleep at night, they don’t mind sleeping in the afternoon. Further, they may already be on some other medication, which will be helping them to sleep. Therefore, the only potential segment that we should target is middle-aged working people.

Once we have selected our target segment, let’s use the 4P framework to formulate our strategy:

• Product: As already discussed, our product is a sleeping pill.
• Price: The price can be decided based on three models: cost-based, value-based or competitor-based. Since this is a highly competitive market, I would recommend going for the competitor-based pricing model.
• Place: The sleeping pill will be mainly sold through pharmacies, however, we would also need to collaborate with doctors since they would be the ones prescribing the drug to the patients.
• Promotion: Since this segment is busy in their works, they would be spending very less time on social media. So, heavy investments should not be done on social media advertisements. Instead, Google advertisements should be used to increase efficiency through targetted marketing.

3. During-launch strategy: Following metrics should be regularly checked during this phase:

Offline mode (Through pharmacies):

• Number of pharmacies who collaborated
• Number of customers reached (Number of customers who bought sleeping pills not necessarily of our brand in those pharmacies)
• Number of customers converted

Online mode (Through Google pharmacies):

• Number of customers who were shown the advertisement
• Click-through rate of advertisements
• Number of online orders (Through all the apps like 1mg, Amazon etc.)

4. Post-launch strategy: After the launch, the following metrics should be taken into consideration to gauge the success of the launch:

• Brand awareness achieved in comparison to the brand awareness intended
• The efficiency of the online vs offline modes
• Online customer reviews about the product

First, I’d like to clarify the scope of the problem. We’re launching a new sleeping pill. Clarifying questions before providing my answer –

[Question] Is the product launching everywhere in the world or just US? [Assumption] launching just in the US.

[Question] Is this a new sleeping pill or an improved product. [Answer] a new sleeping pill.

[Question] Why are we launching a new sleeping pill? [Assumption] new brand of sleeping pills.

Second, I would move to the goal of the launch. [Assumption] I’m assuming the goal of launching the new product is to create awareness of a new brand and attract addressable customers to using the new sleeping pill. Since there’s many diffeent brands/products of sleeping pills creating awareness will be important.

Next, I would describe my strategy of the launch. Since there’s many different products out there, this new product would have a small market share of all sleeping pill products. I would like to understand what attracts customers to current brands. Is it the effectiveness (sleep quality), customer stories, FDA ratings, or price. I would select a target audience. For the sake of this question, I will select millenials. Millenials have a harder time sleeping due to the busy-ness of their work/personal schedules. They are often disracted when going to bed and cannot ‘turn off their brains’. The sleeping pill would work as a relaxant. One of the pain points of current sleeping pills is that their large in size and they take too long to be in full effect. Since we’re targetting millenials, we’ll use Social Media platforms and customer endorsements to help advertise the launch. [Assumption] We know that word of mouth is effective when trying to launch a product so we’ll track customers sharing their stories after using the sleeping pill. Lastly, for the strategy part. Offering a free-trial with a renewal option will be offered. [Assumption] the new sleeping pill will offered like a subscription.

Three phase implementation plan [Assumption] launching a social media campaign.

Pre-Launch identify which social media platforms to use for advertising the sleeping pill. Understanding the demographic of who uses which platforms would be helpful. Recruit customer advocates. Having customer advocates promoting the product will help a ton when advertising. For example, a celebrtity. Celebrities have a large following and will help pass along the product or someone who has a large social media presence. Pre-launch, we will measure the amount of money that it takes to recruit customer advocates (beta testers) and identify the total addressable market (TAM) that the beta testers have. This will be the baseline to measure customer converstion rates. If we’re using different platforms to advertise, we’ll keep track of which platform is the most effective for future campaigns. Have a baseline of how many customers will sign up for free trials.

During Launch We’ll be tracking the number of potential customers reached. For example if beta tester 1 has a following of 3 million users, we’ll compare ‘views’ of the product as a percentage of the followers. We’ll be tracking the number of shared posts, likes, and comments (calling those metrics Engagement metrics). [Assumption] there’s a call to action when beta testers are sharing the product. We’ll be tracking the number of users engaging with the post and compare that with free-trial sign ups. Also, during the launch we’ll track other channels of feedback. For example, if the campaign is launched on Instagram – are there posts about it on Twitter/Facebook/Quora etc..

Post Launch evaluate the effectiveness of the campaign. Were there any hiccups? Connect with beta-testers on their experience using the product, identify any lessons learnt and see if there are improvements to the product/marketing strategy. Compare the effectiveness of the campaign against KPIs set. Enage with free-trial customers  and have them share their experience.

Summary –  using a social media platform is the quickest way to get your product to millenials. Tracking different platforms is useful because often people use different forums to share news/write reviews. From personal experience, I usually buy products that people have either recommended or are highly rated.