...Do generic products really save you money? With the price of living getting higher and higher as very year passes, people are looking for alternative ways to save money. The main reason for buying generic products, saving money, is simple enough. But there's also the satisfaction of not giving in to the marketing hype and buying something just because a company promotes it everywhere. The generic labels may not be as fancy as the brand-name products, and the taste of generic items, such as soda, may not appeal to you depending on your taste buds, but it's worth trying generic brands to see if you like them. The savings can add up over a lifetime, as a savings calculator can quickly show you. And if the savings isn't enough, or the brand name is much better than the generic, you can always go back to the branded product. You can even buy popular brands from the past. But remember the power of brands. Since the same manufacturer of a brand-name product often makes the generic product with the same ingredients, what the company selling the branded item is selling is the perception of something better. Consumers don't buy generic products because they think it makes them look bad, said Jason Gurwin, CEO of Pushpins, a mobile coupon company. Over-the-counter medications.Since the Food and Drug Administration requires generic medications to have the same active ingredients as the patented medications they replace, over-the-counter medications are the best way to save money by...
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...INTRODUCTION Generic brands are a rapidly growing part of the market today. Increases in costs to suppliers and distributers have caused a decline in profit for national brands. In the interest of lowering costs and increasing profit, it is beneficial for North Star to consider the potential of generic brand sales. To ensure that North Star is equipped to make the best decisions regarding entering the generic brands market, sales manager Paul Gettisfield authorized this report on July 8, 2011. Purpose and Scope In this study, the problem addressed was the question of consumer acceptance of generic brands for the products that North Star produces. Soap, deodorant, ammonia, chili, canned ham, and frozen vegetables are currently produced by North Star as national brands. If generic brands are to be used, the market sales for generic products must be assessed along with consumer perception. Procedures To answer these questions, the following methods were used: 1. A mail survey of 1500 consumers in California, Texas, and Arizona with the following questions: a. Have you purchased a good generic product? b. Have you purchased a nonfood generic product? c. If you could save at least 30 percent by purchasing a generic brand rather than a national brand, would you purchase a generic brand? (Products listed in alphabetical order) 2. 20 randomly selected chain supermarkets located in California, Texas and Arizona were audited in August. 3...
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...Case One The Dilemma: Rose Partyware has been working towards creating its own brand of party ware supplies to give it a competitive edge in an industry of generic party supply manufacturers. Recently, Rose Partyware was presented with the opportunity to produce a private-label brand of party goods. This alternative would provide Rose with a stable revenue source as well as opportunities to create private-labels for other retailers. However, pursuing this option would drain Rose’s resources and prevent them from launching their own branded goods. Additionally private-labels would make Rose into a manufacturer-only role and limit its long-term prospects, but having its own brand is very costly to promote and comes with many short-term risks. Possible Solutions: 1. Proceed with Rose Partyware branded party supplies. * Retain loyalty of small independent retailers (35% of sales) * Brand advantage in party supplies versus other generic suppliers * Positive long-term returns * Control over pricing, branding, and distribution of goods * Short-term technological advantage 2. Pursue manufacturing private-label goods for retailers. * Retain largest Rose customer (20% of sales) * Supplier of choice in private-label manufacturing * Lowest short-term risk * Cheapest option in terms of change to company structure & spending The Decision: If I were in Tom Roses’ position I would choose to proceed with Rose Partyware branded party supplies...
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...the drug maker want to stymie generic competition? Explain. There is one major reason that any pharmaceutical company would attempt to stymie generic competition of any loss of their revenues’. Generic brands of drugs are normally provides the exact same level of benefits just at a much lower cost. The drug makers would defiantly lose millions of dollars by allowing a generic copy of their drug to be sold. The second reason would be the cost of making the drug along with advertising and marketing it as well would cost thousands of dollars. Along with the cost of researching, design, manufacturing, and compliances that goes with the federal regulations. This would mean more money out for the company. They would need to pay for any competition that would hinder any potential success of their product. With all this we also need to consider that the fact of a company’s success would to keep the investors willing to resource their projects, studies and the funding for all those developments. The company wants to make the investors happy so that they wouldn’t lose them, if they don’t maintain a certain level of profitability to keep them happy. Without the investors they would go belly up. What types of legal barriers to market entry exist? When a pharmaceutical has more marketing power they have the power to stop any smaller generic competitors a few different ways. If they have a exclusive contract with any pharmacy, any competing generic supplier wouldn’t have access...
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...A Rose by Any Other Name Case Study Case One The Dilemma: Rose Partyware has been working towards creating its own brand of party ware supplies to give it a competitive edge in an industry of generic party supply manufacturers. Recently, Rose Partyware was presented with the opportunity to produce a private-label brand of party goods. This alternative would provide Rose with a stable revenue source as well as opportunities to create private-labels for other retailers. However, pursuing this option would drain Rose’s resources and prevent them from launching their own branded goods. Additionally private-labels would make Rose into a manufacturer-only role and limit its long-term prospects, but having its own brand is very costly to promote and comes with many short-term risks. Possible Solutions: 1. Proceed with Rose Partyware branded party supplies. * Retain loyalty of small independent retailers (35% of sales) * Brand advantage in party supplies versus other generic suppliers * Positive long-term returns * Control over pricing, branding, and distribution of goods * Short-term technological advantage 2. Pursue manufacturing private-label goods for retailers. * Retain largest Rose customer (20% of sales) * Supplier of choice in private-label manufacturing * Lowest short-term risk * Cheapest option in terms of change to company structure & spending The Decision: If I were in Tom Roses’ position I would choose to proceed with Rose Partyware...
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...Case Analysis American Apparel: Unwrapping Ethics Whether American Apparel should change their advertising or stay with the highly sexualized nature they have been using for advertising Situation Analysis How American Apparel is going to take the brand from where they are at and move forward with it, either by changing their ways or staying the same. Internal Environment The resources American Apparel has available to them internally come from hiring young people for design and advertising to help them better reach their targeted market, and come up with the advertisements and style of clothing. The overall organizational goals are to offer a sustainable, high quality clothing product that appeals to young urbanite individuals who are likely to be loyal to their brand, and advertise it just by wearing it and making it popular. External environment Five Forces Influence the industry as a whole and determine the conduct of the firms within the industry and also determines profitability Competitive intensity-High Part of the reason American Apparel wants to change in order to build a lasting brand and to make a turnaround is due to the competitive intensity within the clothing industry. Competitive intensity reduces profitability because the more strongly firms are competing, the more likely they are to cut their prices. This intensity increases when there are numerous balanced competitors, slow growth, high fixed costs, lack of perceived difference between products...
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...February 2, 2016 Claritin vs. Wal-itin Allergies are a regular nuisance to millions of people around the world. The most common allergens are fragrances, dust mites, pollen, molds and pet dander. The ones who are affected generally have bouts of sneezing, sniffling, coughs, runny nose, itchy eyes, stuffy ears and sinus headaches which are most commonly known as hay fever. Thankfully, there are over the counter medicines known as antihistamines which are available to control and minimize these symptoms and available in name brand or generic versions such as Claritin and Wal-itin. Even though Claritin and Wal-itin have the same effectiveness treating the symptoms or allergic reactions, they differ in packaging and more importantly price. The Federal Drug Administration (FDA) recognizes loratadine as a successful active ingredient found in both Claritin and Wal-itin for controlling the various symptoms associated with everyday allergies. This active ingredient, loratadine, has different side effects such a dry mouth, drowsiness and headaches and should not be taken by persons with asthma, kidney disease or liver disease. Dispersion of this drug is generally oral and can be in liquid, gelatin capsules or pill form all with uniform dosage of the active ingredient. Claritin and Wal-itin both contain 10mg of loratadine per dose in all of the various oral forms available to over the counter consumers. Since the dosage of the active ingredient is the same in both products of...
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...protection • Usually a lag time of 1012 years by the time the patent was obtained and the launch date • Covered the method of processing or manufacturing the product • Very little protection because it was easy to slightly modify the process Global Issues in Pharma Sector • Prices in of the drugs varied in developed countries • US & Canada by factor 1.2 to 2.5. • Europe by factor 1.1 to 2.5. Parallel Trade: an outside company sells a patented product in a market not designated to sell the drug. o • Independent firm exploited parallel trade by using the differentials in price across various countries. • Generic Drugs: unbranded drugs of comparable efficacy available at fractional cost of branded product. o o o Posed as major challenge for pricing power of large pharma companies. No additional expense for drug R&D of new compounds. Generic companies made money by copying the products discovered & developed by other major pharmaceuticals...
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...drawbacks consumers have to face when two companies merge will be addressed as well. Introduction An investigation into a pharmaceutical company’s supposed intentions to curtail generic competition regarding an antidepressant drug, which is the company’s best brand name seller, has brought about a few questions as to why the company would do this to consumers. Prescription medication is expensive enough without pharmaceutical companies hindering the market entry of its generic counterparts. Generic medication gives consumers a choice to spend more or to spend less for their health care, and in the long-run gives them a choice for a more cost-effective livelihood. Without the options of choosing a cheaper form of medication, consumers are being taken advantage of. This leaves no room for choice and thwarts fair market competition. With a 22% increase of profits in comparison to the previous year, it is quite obvious that this brand- name manufacturer and generic companies have disobeyed federal antitrust laws. Therefore the Federal Trade Commission is performing an investigation to ascertain if brand name companies and generic drug makers have acquiesced the stymie of generic competition, which leads us to our first question. Why would the drug maker want to stymie generic competition? Antitrust Laws such as the Sherman Act, Federal Trade Commission Act, and the Clayton Act have been created in order to diminish...
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...Mass Marketing Vs Niche Marketing Notes Unit 38 Economies of scale - factors that cause costs per unit to fall when a firm operates at a higher level of production Generic brands: - brands so well-known customers say the brand name not the product Price elasticity: - the responsiveness of demand to a change in price Product differentiation: - the extent to which consumers perceive your brand as being different from others Niche Marketing: * Normally a higher priced product. * Often distribute through specialist retailers via internet. * Niche product must be better than the mass equivalent available. * Niche must be large enough to support a profitable business. * Can exploit low price sensitivity by raising price. * Lack economies of scale. * Can’t get too big or competitors will arrive. * Small segment of a large market. * Involves identifying the needs of the consumers that make up the niche. * Tend to sell in low volumes. Mass marketing: * Products/services with a universal appeal (aimed at whole market) * Aim to create a generic brand. * Mass marketing - high sales - mass production - lower costs and higher profits. Effective Marketing Notes Unit 37 Marketing aims to identify influence and then satisfy consumer wants profitably! Identifying Target Market: - Need clear idea of sex, age, personality and lifestyle. - Focus market research on the target market (quota sampling). - Focus advertising on target...
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...PAGE 1 * Target Group: TG1(Women 25-30(Working or both?)), TG2(Youth 18-22) * Rationale: Women vs Generic, Youth vs Generic Ratios [Three year projections sufficient] * Important Ideas: Mother-Child relationship, Customer life cycle revenue, leadtime (Start attracting at 22-25), Tier I v Tier II+Tier III data comparisons in both segments (difficult to obtain both. In case of youth, we can compare the number of colleges in tier-I vs tier II and tier III), Also mention skewed distribution of retail(South>West>North>East). Great opportunities in east. PAGE 2 * Report(KPMG) states that food, jewellery, tickets and perfumes as high growth categories. While it can be directly obtained from report, better to find independently. What would women want? youth want? * City Specific Private Labels – Providing platform for budding talent. Eg: https://www.facebook.com/neerajathebrand?hc_location=ufi Women dig such stuff. Think antiques, handicrafts done by small-time business * Another Assocham Report * I desperately want to include the classifieds idea because no one will be crazy enough to propose that. Online classified sites like Quickr, Sulekha.com etc do not have a proper, professional feel. Can a target specific classifieds be started by amazon? I have some data about the attractiveness of classifieds as such. What can a woman-specific classified contain (rooms and places on rent, advertisements on various services). Amazon uses a transaction-fee...
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...internal rivalry among companies. The major reasons for that are opportunistic financial operations and the creation of synergy. It is worth mentioning that some companies would prefer to merge than to experience hostile takeover. Product market level: The two-tier structure has to be taken into account: patented original brands vs. generics. Original compete mostly on non-price benefits, especially as long as they are patent protected, whereas generic drug are generally driven by price competition. The threats of entry. The threats of entry into the pharmaceutical industry are extremely high. Still, it is considered to be very attractive for the new comers. As an evidence for that, 21 pharmaceuticals are featured in the Fortune 500 companies in return on sales. The pharmaceutical industry has big barriers to prevent new comers from entering this industry. The potential barriers can be identified as ● patents - the main incentive to engage in long-term research ● research and development investments ● marketing investments ● company’s reputation. ● Economies of scale - manufacturing, R&D, marketing, sales ● distribution product differentiation - established products, brands and relationships ● capital requirements for entry and financial resources ● access to distribution channels: preferred...
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...Our Elders Pay the Price Shelly Brewster HLTH 481-905 April 2, 2014 Our Elders Pay the Price The current healthcare system is problematic in America, and the elderly population is suffering the most financially. Prescription costs are sky-rocketing and since insurance and social security do not cover all the costs, the elderly are paying out of pocket for their medications. Employees in the medical field should prescribe drugs that treat multiple symptoms, suggest substituting brand names for generic names, and navigate patients to cost effective programs. Healthcare administrators need to create a policy for medical staff that will require them to monitor and provide more financially suitable healthcare options for elderly consumers in addition to recommending lifestyle changes which will result in a decrease of medication costs. Healthcare providers need to educate consumers on the fact that prescription drugs can often times be substituted for lifestyle changes. Doctors almost always suggest a pharmaceutical solution, often times without even considering alternatives. If healthcare administrators implement the need for doctors to go beyond the “quick fix” of drugs and encourage them to prescribe lifestyle changes instead, medication costs would be nonexistent. For example, high cholesterol is an issue in our country and if left untreated it can develop into secondary problems such as diabetes, high blood pressure (or hypertension) and several other complications. More...
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...Date: September 26, 2012 To: The Board of Directors and Neil R. Austrian, Chairman and CEO From: Christopher Cho Subject: Guideline to increase revenues Within the last six years, a steady decline in revenue and rising levels of competition have put our company in an area of concern. As our competitors within the specialty retail industry fight to retain their market shares, other existing companies within other industries have begun carrying office supply products, effectively lowering our market share. This, in turn has left Office Depot struggling to offer competitive pricing, selection, and services to our customers. A recent trend shows that the rapid growth of the Internet has caused consumers to make a shift toward online purchases over in-store purchases. In this memo, I will explain how we will use this trend to our advantage. I will also explain how a reduction of brick-and-mortar retailers, concentration of our e-commerce operations, and the expansion of our private-label product line will drive down costs and increase our sales revenues and operating profits. Current Industry Status The specialty retail industry is dominated by three major players: Staples (39.2% market share), Office Depot (22.9% market share), and OfficeMax (13.5% market share). However, the dominance of these three companies has been waning within the recent years. The start of the recession triggered competitors from other retail industries including warehouse...
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...foreign niches) 2. Sales Orientation - companies sell abroad what they sell domestically with the same approach – assume consumers are similar 3. Customer Orientation - country or type of customer is held constant and the product/marketing method varies 4. Strategic Marketing Orientation - strategy that combines production ,sales and customer orientations 5. Social Marketing Orientation - environment Segmenting and Targeting Markets - by country, by global segment, by multiple criteria, mass markets vs. niche markets, Why Firms Alter Products Legal - labeling requirements, environmental protection regulations, indirect legal considerations, issues of standardization Cultural and Economic - infrastructure (economic) The Product Line: Extent and Mix - company may only offer only a portion of its product line, perhaps as an entry strategy Sales and Cost Considerations - consider costs of having large vs small family of products Product Life-Cycle Considerations - countries may differ in either the shape or length of a product’s life cycle Pricing Strategies Potential Obstacles * government intervention * government price controls may set min or max prices, prohibit certain competitive pricing practices * market diversity * consumers in some countries simply like...
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