Metabical (Writing sample)

2/12/13
Communications Planning
Case Analysis #2 Metabical

1.      Situation Analysis. Metabical is a new prescription drug that claims to be a safe and an

effective way of losing weight for moderately overweight individuals. This drug has the differentiation of FDA approval and a comprehensive support program for post purchase support. The problem is in deciding what positioning, target market, segment and marketing mix to use as initial rollout of the product, in a time when the consumers are skeptical of weight loss drugs due to of deceptive marketing stigmas. The mix should have a sufficient initial impact and long term viability on sales so as to recover CSP initial investment of $400 million in 10 years.

In 2005 the overweight U.S. population was about 209 million Americans. Competitors in the weight loss drugs included Alli, which was an over-the-counter drug with FDA approval, all other competitors were herbal or dietary supplements thus not regulated by any governing body. The legal and social climate at the time was not in favor of the drug industry. As a whole this industry was tagged with deceptive advertising because side effects where not known until after the product reached the market, thus this translated to low credibility from consumer’s and the professional medical community  perspective.  

Desirability, deliverability and differentiation need to be taken into consideration when positioning Metabical. For desirability, Metabical offers a safe and effective way of losing weight for moderately overweight individuals; this is the relevant value proposition to users.   

Deliverability, CSP has credibility because it’s an established company with 20 years of experience in prescription drugs including: Zimistat, $25B in sales and it an international health care company that focuses on developing, manufacturing, and marketing products that treat chronic and acute medical conditions. Differentiation, Metabical will be the first in the prescription drug for weight loss to be approved by the FDA, CPS will offer post-sales and lastly, the ingredients calosera and meditonan make Metabical unique.

2.      Alternatives. Men in general have a higher BMI prevalence compared to women

however, women are overwhelmingly more willing to embrace the treatment and the post-purchase support offered by Metabical because they show more concern with physically looks and want to live a healthy lifestyle. From the case Exhibit 2 in Selected Results from: 2007 Marketing Survey indicated, “75% of women were dissatisfied with weight and appearance. 55% of women surveyed said they wanted to change their behavior to live a healthy lifestyle.” Thus, looks and lifestyles are implication to the underlying motivations as to why women would be more inclined to purchase and adhere to the prescription.  Therefore, the optimal target market based on the research numbers would indicated that the largest coverage would be: women moderately overweight, ages 55-64, with less than high school education and making less than $25,000. However, the women that are more likely to use the drug may not be able to afford it, only about 11% indicated they would pay for it out of pocket in the mentioned segment. Therefore, a different segment is suggested in “Female Psychographic Segmentation Report Summary.” For example, under segments, "I want to wear my skinny jeans." Description, “Motivated and willing to alter current behavior.” Demographic profile: Age 25 to 40, college education, household income $50,000–$80,000. This segment is a younger more affluent demographic concerned with how they look and willing to change their current habits. Thus is the best fit for Metabical because they can afford it over a longer period of time, more educated thus more likely to visit a professional doctor about weight problems. The down side maybe that this demographic is likely the most skeptical and hardest to convince for initial trial because of the previous legal and social climate, they are more likely to be more critical in making a decision to buy an weight loss product because they are more educated than the previous demographic of women. Additionally, these educated women might not be early adopters as opposed to the less educated ones.  In large women should be the optimal consumer, with the medical community as secondary segment, but within the women section two persona profiles should be created to reach women effectively. 

Recommendation.  In order to reach both sets off women and the medical community the current mix of both pull and push strategies should be held, but in the longer run the budget would have to be adjusted to 75% Pull, 25% Push of the current $13 million advertising budget. Understandably the budget for Metabical is not that big considering CSP had sales of $25 billion and spent $400 million on R&D for this drug. I would recommend that the initial roll out mirror that of the golf world, advertising few months before the warm weather and sales emphasis during the warmer months, as physical activity increases for the target audience.

I noticed Printup wanted to use social media, because she understands it can have a big impact in to cost in an effective way but she also realize she does not have much experience in this medium. I would allocate a significant about of money to employ someone specifically to run and monitor social media for long term purposes. In addition, the celebrity initiative should be allocated modest amount of money because Printup’s main goal is to have high knowledge and awareness for the new product, the designated celebrity should be leveraged for brand association. The current sales representative to medical offices has a ratio of 1:100, the extra sales force can be increased in anticipation for the new influx of possible demand so as to not be in shortage of supply when the pull strategy kicks in. The support group should be present during the innovation phase but it should be highlighted later after the first time triers have become repeat customers, this in order to maintain good relationship with loyal customers.  

Citation:

BECKHAM, H. ( 2 0 1 0). Metabical: Positioning and communications. Boston: Harvard Business Publishing.