Repurchase is one of the strong points for success of above brand from AIMIL, this Ayurvedic company has a very vibrant e-commerce website too: https://www.bgr-34.life/
Digital marketing is playing a major role in engineering repurchases!
Another very interesting concept product is SATVAM HERBAL DRINK, as such, it is a herbal water product. Their interesting website is here: http://hardikherbals.com/about/
Satvam Herbal Water too has a bounty of repurchase potential, adding to its success!!
The word REPURCHASE
OR REPEAT SALES is significant for enduring pharma marketing success. When there are repeat prescriptions, or when patients
embrace repeat purchase of products, or when there are autopurchases of
products (direct purchasing by patients or users), the significance of word
REPEAT, becomes apparent to marketers for experiencing ongoing marketing
success.
Ayurvedic
products, nutraceuticals and cosmetics thrive on repeat purchases by end
consumers. For example, BGR 34 as featured above. Another classic example of auto-purchased or repurchased product is: Becosules Z, which is a
significant auto-purchase item (entire Becosules range is Rs. 232.20 crores MAT value, April 2018, AIOCD AWACS report). After a
prescription is generated for BECOSULES Z, the patient becomes conscious of the
choice he can make for being with the brand long-term, as the importance of
vitamins and minerals for wellness is now a well-known matter. Hence, Becosules Z is an enduring pharma
success brand. This logic applies to
Ayurvedic medicines too. Known to
support disease management and wellness, autopurchase repeat buying of Ayurvedic
brands such as Liv 52 has enabled such brands to become big guns in branded
markets. ORSL (now with J and J), a
wellness healthcare product, too has had its tryst with success thanks to
auto-purchase by patients, from pharmacies.
REPURCHASE IS REQUIRED FOR BRAND BUILDING AND SUCCESS
The word repeat
is most vital for pharmaceutical successes.
Repeat doctor calls, repeat detailing of target brands by MRs, repeat
purchases by channel members (stockists, sub-stockists, dispensing doctors,
nursing home/hospital pharmacies and all other retailers), and repeat buying by
end consumers - these are required for sustained pharma success. Products and brands
aimed for repeat purchase, including management of lifestyle diseases and
chronic diseases (diabetes mellitus, thyroid disease, liver disease (fatty
liver & hepatitis etc), osteoporosis, osteoarthritis, cardiac diseases like
hypertension and other types of chronic skin diseases) - always enjoy higher
sales in the pharma firmament due to repeat purchases (some products are for life-long, as in case of antidiabetics).
Hence, two key classes
of products emerge for sustained pharma success:
a)
Repeat-purchase
prescription products due to chronic or longer term
prescriptions
b) Auto-purchase of
products by patients for self-management of health (these may be prescription-only
products, OTC products or OTX products…).
In the former repeat-purchase prescription products
class, prominent examples are antidiabetics, antihypertensives, derma products,
and antiosteoporosis medications.
In the latter auto-purchase class, we have Ayurvedic
products, toothpastes and oral care range products, nutritional items (brands
such as B Protin) or products called nutraceuticals, and simple allopathic
brands such as Crocin, and other pain killers, multi-vitamins etc.
Among these two
classes, the auto-purchase class
requires increased marketing communication
directed towards end-users, and relatively decreased messaging to doctors.
To generate
repeat prescriptions for antiepileptic brands, antihypertensives,
antidiabetics, various injectables including pen insulin preparations etc., in repeat-purchase prescription products
class, more marketing activities
towards doctors, rather than end consumers - is required.
This is the
FUNDAMENTAL STRATEGIC DIFFERENCE between the two classes of products - they
both rely on repurchase by patients for sustaining or boosting sales. In the prescription based products,
repeat-purchase ensures sustained sales for the company, and in the case of
products that do not depend much on prescriptions, the auto-purchase happens
due to purchaser or user’s decision to buy the product.
Thus, there are
two patterns of repurchase by end consumers
a) Repeat-purchase
of mainly prescription products: this refers to the repeated
purchase of products due to the advice of doctor (eg., antidiabetics).
b)
Auto-purchase
refers to the repeated purchase of products, which may not be due to advice of
doctor (it could be due to influence of advertisements or virally forwarded
messages or word-of-mouth advice from well-wishers or due to inferences from
the purchaser’s information gathering behavior).
From
the marketer’s toolbox:
-
How to use the right stratagem?
There are three
main marketing plays for pharmaceutical products/healthcare goods:
a)
Rx market
b)
OTC market
c)
OTX market
Marketing success
starts after understanding which marketing play matters most for the
product. If it is an injectable or
specialised drug delivery system (like a suppository) or an important disease
management product like antidiabetic or antiepileptic etc, the product is sure
to be a pure Rx play.
Simple
pain-killers, cough mixtures and other nutritionals can fall into the OTC
market.
The large and
interesting market is the OTX market, where marketing activities are directed
to influencers like doctors and also at the end-consumer. Nutritionals and nutraceuticals, Ayurvedic
products and non-complex formulations come in this fort. OTX is a combination of OTC
(over-the-counter) and X (from Rx or prescription only).
Some products
may start from Rx and move onto OTX marketing play.
Definition
of repeat purchase:
The
buying of a product by a consumer of the same brand name previously bought on
another occasion.
Repeat purchase
or repurchase is a measure of brand loyalty.
If a doctor prescribes a brand repeatedly, or a patient/user buys a product
repeatedly either on recommendation by a doctor or auto-purchase through other
influences, it is a repeat purchase behavior that boosts sales.
Today’s pharma
market requires many a strategy, including focusing on ensuring repurchases:
repeat-purchase or auto-purchase.
Spray and pray: is
a strategy to promote brands to many prospect doctors, and pray for conversion
to sales! This strategy in today’s
context, where time and resources are stretched to the last, just will not
work!
Hence, in certain
geographies and for certain product types, marketing communication and product
promotion activities should be more oriented towards stimulating and
reinforcing repeat-purchase of prescription
products or auto-purchase of products.
THE
BEST FORM OF SALES SUCCESS COMES WHEN THE PRODUCT OBTAINS sales that are from:
REPEAT! REPEAT!!
Limerick:
Repurchase
Sales success is
not easy
Dosen’t come if
you are only breezy
Strategists ought
to focus on repurchase
It is, to get a
confident face
‘Repeat-purchase’
and ‘auto-purchase’ saves the day – avoids being cheesy!
Quotable
quote:
Make
a customer, not a sale: Katherine Barchetti
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