Drug companies' cross-border marketing: Breakthrough in category-related models

Cross-border marketing is a marketing practice and theory that has flourished in recent years. Based on the commonalities and connections among different industries, different types of products, and different preferences of consumers, some of the original elements that have no connection are merged, extended, and highlighted. Create a distinctive attitude towards life, aesthetic taste or value in order to win the favor of target consumers. With the increasing competition in the market and mutual penetration between the industry and the industry, it is difficult for you to clearly define the “attribute” of a company or a brand: In the integration of industry and industry, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals and health foods Major categories have long been "intermarriage."

In fact, the concept of great health seems to be similar to that of the pharmaceutical industry, but the actual product market operation is very different. Prescription drugs are very professional, and as long as major brands in each market segment continue to invest in research and development, they can all occupy a certain market share. Health foods face ordinary people who have diverse needs for health. The characteristics of the fast-moving consumer goods market require companies to accurately grasp the needs of general consumers. In addition, the patterns of sales of medicines and health foods are quite different. Prescription drugs only require medical representatives to carry out marketing campaigns for hospitals and doctors. The sales channels for health foods are pharmacies and supermarkets. The management costs of the latter are higher. Therefore, the profitability of the vast majority of health foods is hardly higher than drugs. So, how can pharmaceutical companies better achieve cross-border marketing?

Selecting similar industries to lock in related categories Pharmaceutical companies must choose pharmaceutical-related industries when introducing cross-border marketing models. Categories must also be related to the pharmaceutical industry. This can make cross-border marketing less difficult to start. , such as pharmaceutical companies to make healthy functional beverages, drug products, health foods, functional toothpaste, and so on. This can also be quickly promoted for cross-border marketing of pharmaceutical companies, saving time, effort, and cost. With the recognition of Chinese medicine in the world, as well as the extensive use of bio-cosmetics and hairdressing high technology, coupled with the constant pursuit of beauty and health of consumers, “natural, environmental, and healthy” beauty and hair care products will be increasingly sought after. The “cross-border R&D planning and design” of cosmetics, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals, health food industry or other industries will surely become more frequent.

The cross-border advertisements of thin body, anti-hair loss, speckle, breast enhancement and other special functions can be seen everywhere. It is difficult for ordinary people to distinguish between cosmetics and medical supplies. The degree of confusion is very high; this year's "Platinum Platinum" advertising. The festival is not a gift, and the idea of ​​receiving only brainstem platinum is the typical cross-border marketing communication of the health food and gift industry; while the slimming and body products are often favored by sports, medical, and health care industries.

Avoiding the "Individual Soldier" Combat to Play a Cooperative Battle The era of a single company, a brand, and a single product has long since ended. The era of cross-border marketing has come: With the cross-border development of product planning, R&D and design, and sales channels, daily chemicals are gradually gathering. The continuous integration of concepts, methods, ideas, and means of the three major industries of pharmaceuticals, health foods, and cosmetics, as well as many other industries, and the convergence of concepts, methods, ideas, and means of different products in different industries, breaking through the singularity and limitations of the original marketing, and innovating more. A better marketing communication model will find more and better development opportunities for enterprises or products, gain more profits, and at the same time achieve a "win-win" situation.

The essence of cross-border marketing is to realize the interpretation of the same user characteristics from different angles by multiple brands, and to use the synergy effects of different brands. The domestic beauty forum has been popular "Ma Yinglong Hemorrhoids cream dark circles very effective" post. This made the Ma Ying Lung Pharmaceutical Group aware of the huge drug and cosmetics market, and developed the "Eight Eye Cream" with its formula. The price of this eye cream is nearly 200 yuan, and Ma Yinglong's core medicine acne cream is only a few ten dollars.

Control the advantage of channels to lay a good "path combination punch"

Due to its peculiarities, drugs have to go through rigorous and long procedures such as statutory pharmacology, toxicological experiments, and clinical trials before they are put on the market, while daily chemicals and other related products are generally competitive products. Therefore, policy supervision is relatively broad for production and sales. . Therefore, the pharmaceutical companies must determine the types of products their companies are suitable for cross-border marketing, and from several aspects to lay a good marketing channel "combination." From the aspect of product comparison, drugs are mostly marketed as a single product category, and daily chemical products are the market for serial products; in terms of price formulation, daily chemical products and other related products are independently controlled by enterprises, and drugs must be submitted to relevant departments for approval and filing; In terms of channel performance, drugs are the clinics of hospitals, pharmacies and grass-roots terminals. Daily chemical products belong to the category of general daily necessities, and their channels are numerous and complex. On the promotion package, daily chemical products are much more flexible than drugs, such as daily chemical products. Common distribution promotions are not allowed by related regulations in drug promotion.

Regardless of product structure level, channel width, or promotion combination, the difference between drugs and daily chemicals is considerable. Cross-border marketing is aimed at the same or similar consumer groups. Therefore, when thinking about cross-border marketing activities, pharmaceutical companies need to conduct detailed and in-depth market research on target consumer groups, in-depth analysis of their consumption habits and brand usage habits, as marketing and dissemination. The basis of work.

Marketing Resource Sharing Stable Team Cooperation As the cross-border marketing of pharmaceutical companies differs from the sales channels of major pharmaceutical products, they derive related product sales departments; a large marketing department that integrates corporate image and brand promotion to achieve marketing resource sharing. It is inevitable that a cross-border product marketing department can be set up. Relative to the stability of the pharmaceutical company marketing team, daily marketing products such as cross-border marketing may be impetuous. The reason is that the marketing team of pharmaceutical companies mostly comes from production and technology, and grows along the same path as companies. It has a strong sense of corporate identity. Therefore, stabilizing the cross-border product marketing team is crucial for cross-border marketing of pharmaceutical companies. The stability and growth of product marketing teams such as Japan Chemicals does not depend on industry differences, nor does it depend on product differentiation, and it does not depend on the number of corporate advertisements. It depends on the mind distance between the grassroots store promoters and the corporate CEO.

In the past, the marketing strategy of pharmaceutical companies only needed to consider how to use the company's own resources. However, because of the alliance, companies need to consider how to achieve strategic synergies in the interactions with their partners through strategic amendments. Choosing to work hard on talent and collaborators is one of the keys to a stable marketing team.

Rational integration of factor rationality to maintain flagship brand When the brand becomes part of the target consumer's personality, this feature also needs to be coordinated with other characteristics of the target consumer to avoid conflict between the reinjected element and other consumer characteristics, resulting in a brand The confusion of impressions. Drugs and daily chemicals and other cross-border products have the same name. The advantage is that they can promote and share resources in a unified way. The disadvantage is that the brand's professionalism will inevitably be weakened, and the effect of launching a new brand of daily chemical products will be reversed. It will easily lead to pharmaceutical industry and cross-border The two skins of the product have poor correlation and cannot achieve the purpose of resource sharing.

Use the same brand name or another innovative brand? Tong Ren Tang, Yunnan Baiyao, and Pien Tze Huang chose to directly extend the brand to the daily chemical category, while Renhe Pharmaceutical started the Shining and Fu Yan Jie brand in the field of daily chemical, and Hong Hong Pharmaceutical started the Hong Hong Wang, Reeve, and Wino. Na brand. The two brand strategies, each with its own advantages and disadvantages, depend on what the main category of cross-border products is.

Persist in the field of competition to enhance value-added capabilities Pharmaceutical companies cross-border product marketing, often due to a single feature, affected by external factors are also more, especially when there is a similar brand of competition, the interference of such external factors is more obvious. Once a complementary brand is found, it can more accurately reflect a certain characteristic of the target consumer. Then, by interpreting the characteristics of the target group in multiple ways, an overall brand image can be formed and a brand with more tension can be created. Lenovo, thereby enhancing brand value. Need to prompt the following points:

1. For cross-border marketing drug companies, to be the makers of new standards, the creators of categories, and the invaders of differentiated channels, they must not engage in price wars with competing companies, and only do things that they can set rules for.

2. The authoritative description of the drug company brand or endorsement is very necessary. This will make consumers feel that the cross-border product is out of the regular pharmaceutical factory and has a sense of trust in its quality.

3, pharmaceutical companies cross-border marketing to find a good entry point, a mature category, a successful brand, and then take the next step, that is, "to make narrower narrower, wider lane to do more."

4, there is a choice to take possession of the unique resources of pharmaceutical companies, Yunnan Baiyin declared the state secret formula, Fu Yan Jie shared Renhe Group's advertising resources, Run Fu is directly from the Hong Pharmaceutical "Urea-dimensional E" technology transformation generated. This is an advantage that some competing companies are far behind.

At present, cross-border marketing is gradually becoming an effective means for many pharmaceutical companies to continuously increase the value of their products and brands. It is also a good choice for pharmaceutical companies to gradually break away from the shackles of traditional marketing.