  TRNG I HC M TP.HCM UNIVERSITÉ LIBRE DE BRUXELLES HO CHI MINH CITY OPEN UNIVERSITY SOLVAY BRUSSELS SCHOOL MBAVB4 PHAN THI THANH THUY MARKETING STRATEGY OF HEMOQ MOM IN THE HOSPITAL CHANNEL MASTER PROJECT MASTER IN BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION (PART-TIME) Tutor’s Name: Dr. HOANG THI PHUONG THAO Ho Chi Minh City (2011) ii  UNDERTAKING I undertake that the project “Marketing strategy of HemoQ mom in the hospital channel” is my own work and it has not been submitted anywhere for any degree or qualification. I also certify that, to the best of my knowledge, any help received in preparing this thesis, all used sources have been acknowledged. Ho Chi Minh, 27 th February, 2012 PHAN THI THANH THUY iii  ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I would like to express my deep gratitude to those who provided me with professional and personal support during my years of postgraduate study as well as work on this thesis. First and foremost, the deepest and most sincere gratitude goes to my tutor, Dr. Hoang Thi Phuong Thao, who spent her countless hours guiding me to do the research and sharing her knowledge and experience. Secondly, I would like to sincerely acknowledge to professors of Vietnam-Belgium master program who gave me not only valuable knowledge but also the professional method of studying. I owe my deepest gratitude to my Boss, Mr. Phan Thanh Binh, Vice general director of Merap, who gave me valuable support and usefull information for this thesis. I am also indebted to my colleagues in Merap who helped me to interview doctors and collect data for my research. I would like to express my thanks to all coordinators of this MBA program and all friends at MBAVB4 who cooperated and accompanied me in two year period of this program. Last but not least, it is also an honor for me to thank to my family members, especially my beloved husband, Mr. Nguyen Truong Khoi, for their boundless support, abundant love and encouragement throughout my journey of this MBA program. iv  TUTOR’S COMMENT I am writing to confirm that the project entitled: MARKETING STRATEGY OF HEMOQ MOM IN THE HOSPITAL CHANNEL Prepared by Ms. Phan Thi Thanh Thuy has satisfied the requirement for a Master’s project in Business Administration. The author of the project shows her very good ability to identify problem, select a appropriate research method, analyze the collected data and then recommend a justifiable marketing strategy. I, therefore, recommend that the project will be presented to the Examination Board. Tutor, Dr. Hoang Thi Phuong Thao v  ABSTRACT HemoQ mom is an iron drug for iron deficient anemia treatment of Daewoong Korean pharmaceutical manufacturer. It has been exclusively distributing in Vietnam by Merap since January of 2011 without any support from the marketing. In an extremely competitive environment with over two hundred of competitors, HemoQ mom did not achieve the sales target. Besides, long-term strategy of Merap is build brand for some good ethical brands and HemoQ mom is one option. Accordingly, the purpose of this project is to provide marketing strategy of HemoQ mom to Merap in order to solve sales issues and have a famous brand as well in this crowded market. The combination of exploratory and descriptive research is an appropriate methodology for this research. Three methods of collecting data are used in this study: secondary data, qualitative and survey method. The result of environment analysis shows that its competitive advantage is high bioavailability thanks to its new iron form- complex iron. After customer analysing and evaluating different market segments, HemoQ mom chooses two segments to target. Primary target market is doctors of obstetric, renal, hematology and gastroenterology departments of grade 1 and 2 hospitals and secondary target market is doctors of these departments of grade 3 hospitals. To satisfy the needs of these target markets, HemoQ mom should be positioned as the leader of iron drug in terms of extremely safety profile as well as high bioavailability thanks to its new iron form- complex iron. However, its core competency is extremely safety profile, the slogan of HemoQ mom, therefore, should focus on this competitive advantage: “Complex iron, nonionic iron, safe iron”. An appropriate marketing mix strategy is also proposed to influence the demand of HemoQ mom. Finally, evaluation and control is the ending of this project to measure the result of the marketing strategy and have a timely decision in case of occurred problems. vi  TABLE OF CONTENT UNDERTAKING ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT iii TUTOR’S COMMENT iv ABSTRACT v TABLE OF CONTENT vi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ix LIST OF FIGURES x LIST OF TABLES xii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1 1.1. PROBLEM STATEMENT 1 1.2. RESEARCH OBJECTIVE 2 1.3. RESEARCH QUESTIONS 2 1.4. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 2 1.4.1. Desk research (secondary research) 2 1.4.2. Qualitative research (primary research) 3 1.4.3. Quantitative research (primary research) 4 1.5. SCOPE OF THE STUDY 5 1.6. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY 5 1.7. STRUCTURE OF THE STUDY 6 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 7 2.1. MARKETING STRATEGY 7 2.1.1. Concept of marketing strategy 7 2.1.2. Market segmentation 8 2.1.3. Market targeting 9 2.1.4. Positioning 9 vii  2.1.5. Marketing mix 10 2.2. SITUATION ENVIRONMENT ANALYSIS 12 2.2.1. Internal environment analysis 13 2.2.2. Customer environment analysis 13 2.2.3. External environment analysis 15 2.3. SWOT ANALYSIS 17 2.4. CHAPTER SUMMARY 19 CHAPTER 3: INTERNAL & CUSTOMER ENVIRONMENT ANALYSIS 20 3.1. INTERNAL ENVIRONMENT ANALYSIS 20 3.1.1. Introduction to Merap 20 3.1.2. HemoQ mom business overview 22 3.1.3. Marketing mix 24 3.2. CUSTOMER ENVIRONMENT ANALYSIS 27 3.2.1. Customer identification 27 3.2.2. Customer satisfaction 30 3.2.3. Reasons for non-purchase 34 3.3. CHAPTER SUMMARY 35 CHAPTER 4: EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENT ANALYSIS 36 4.1. OVERVIEW OF IRON SUPPLEMENT DRUGS MARKET 36 4.1.1. Iron deficiency anemia treatment agents 36 4.1.2. Market size 37 4.1.3. Market share 38 4.1.4. Market trend 39 4.2. COMPETITORS ANALYSIS 40 4.2.1. Competitor identification 40 4.2.2. Key competitors assessment 43 viii  4.3. POLITICAL ENVIRONMENT 50 4.4. ECONOMIC ENVIRONMENT 51 4.5. SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT 53 4.6. TECHNICAL ENVIRONMENT 53 4.7. CHAPTER SUMMARY 53 CHAPTER 5: RECOMMENDED MARKETING STRATEGY & CONCLUSION 55 5.1. SWOT ANALYSIS AND DEVELOPING COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGES 55 5.1.1. SWOT analysis 55 5.1.2. Developing competitivie advantages 56 5.2. MARKETING OBJECTIVES 56 5.3. MARKET TARGETING 57 5.4. POSITIONING 58 5.5. MARKETING MIX 58 5.6. EVALUATION & CONTROL 63 5.7. CONCLUSION 64 5.7.1. Conclusion 64 5.7.2. Study limitation and recommendation for further study 65 REFERENCES 66 APPENDIX 68 1. Polysaccharide iron complex produces fewer adverse effects than ferrous sulfate 68 2. Polysaccharide iron complex reduces toxicity relative to other forms of iron 69 3. Questionnaire 70 4. Interviewees’ information of qualitative research 74 5. Interviewees’ information of quantitative research 75 ix  LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS DAV : Drug Administration of Vietnam ETC : Ethical GDP : Gross domestic product MOH : Ministry of health OTC : Over the counter PIC : Polysaccharide iron complex SPSS : Statistical Package for the Social Sciences USD : United States Dollar VND : Vietnam dong WHO : World health organization WTO : World Trade Organization x  LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1.1: Interviewee category 5 Figure 2.1: The interconnectedness of the internal, customer, and external environments 12 Figure 2.2: SWOT matrix 18 Figure 3.1: Merap’s organization structure 20 Figure 3.2: Merap’s organisation structure 21 Figure 3.3: Merap’s distribution system 22 Figure 3.4: HemoQ mom’s sales review by value in 2011 24 Figure 3.5: Agreement level of HemoQ mom’s proposed concepts 25 Figure 3.6: Reasonable price 26 Figure 3.7: Key decision factors of end-users’ in iron suplement selection 28 Figure 3.8: Vietnamese monthly income per capita by urban and rural areas 29 Figure 3.9: “Very important level” of factors in the selection of iron supplements 29 Figure 3.10: Interest level of purchase KPIs 31 Figure 3.11: The most common side effects of current iron drugs 32 Figure 3.12: Patient feedbacks about HemoQ mom 33 Figure 3.13: Reasons for new purchase / continue purchase 33 Figure 3.14: Reasons for not or rarely purchase 34 Figure 4.1: Vietnamese pharmaceutical market size 37 Figure 4.2: Therapy classes’ performance 37 Figure 4.3: Iron drugs market share in 2010 (by value) 38 Figure 4.4: Vietnamese pharmaceutical market growth 39 Figure 4.5: Pricing segmentation 41 Figure 4.6: Top 10 well-appreciated products 42 [...]... 5 proposes marketing strategy and conclusion of the project basing on the situation analysis and summarizes in the previous chapters 7 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 MARKETING STRATEGY 2.1.1 Concept of marketing strategy According to Kotler (2005), marketing strategy is the marketing logic by which a business unit hoped to achieve its marketing objectives It shows how strategies for the target market... competitors of HemoQ mom? Which are competitive advantages of HemoQ mom? What is marketing strategy for HemoQ mom? 1.4 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY This study is designed to discover customer’s perception about HemoQ mom and its key competitors; exploring doctors’ expectations on an iron supplement agent; discovering HemoQ mom s competitive advantages and developing finally marketing strategy for HemoQ mom Accordingly,... consumers are at the centre of the marketing strategy The company identifies the total market, divides it into smaller segments, selects the most promising segments and focuses on serving them It designs a marketing mix using mechanisms under its control: product, price, place and promotion The company engages in marketing analysis, planning, implementation and control to find the best marketing mix and... support for developing the following chapters They cover the internal environment analysis, customer environment analysis, external environment analysis as well as marketing strategy component of HemoQ mom, including SWOT analysis, STP3 model and marketing mix 3 STP is the formula of Segmentation, Targeting, Positioning which is the essence of strategic marketing 20 CHAPTER 3: INTERNAL & CUSTOMER... in charged of distributing to all small customers located at their provinces Figure 3.3: Merap’s distribution system (Source: Merap’s profile, 2011) Basing on structure of Merap, this distribution channel is divided into 2 channels They are OTC channel which is in charge of distributing for pharmacies and ETC channel which is in charge of distributing for hospitals and clinics Providing not only the. .. report, 2011) Total sales of HemoQ mom in 2011 is 21,290 boxes, equivalent to 175,624 USD, accounted for 61% of the target In terms of coverage, Merap has gone much faster than many others competitors when being listed of 68 hospitals nationwide after only one year penetrating in Vietnam market, including 21 ones of Ho Chi Minh city and the remain ones of other cities and provinces Another success that Merap... personal information such as the hospital, department 1.5 SCOPE OF THE STUDY Iron supplement drugs in general and HemoQ mom in particular are used in the whole country The study was conducted among Southern customers only where the approximately four of five sales of Merap comes from 1.6 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY The study brings a practical significance to Merap It will provide a marketing strategy. .. take action The company uses these activities to enable it to watch and adapt to the marketing environment In addition, according to O.C.Ferrell (2008), marketing strategy involves selecting and analyzing target market, creating, and maintaining an appropriate marketing program (product distribution, promotion, and price) to satisfy the needs of those target markets It is at this level where the firm... share of HemoQ mom, and especially help to build HemoQ mom as a big brand in hospital channel, maintain the top positions of Merap in Vietnamese pharmaceutical market 6 1.7 STRUCTURE OF THE STUDY The study is structured into five chapters as following: introduction, literature review, internal and customer environment analysis, external environment analysis and recommendations & conclusion Chapter 1 introduces... departments (including OTC4 sales department and ETC5 sales department) The indirect group is the group of other departments not directly involved in sales like Human Resource department, Finance department, Training department, Marketing department, Planning & Supplying department, Figure 3.2: Merap’s organisation structure President Vice general director HCM office Marketing dept Training department . influence the demand of HemoQ mom. Finally, evaluation and control is the ending of this project to measure the result of the marketing strategy and have a timely decision in case of occurred. of marketing strategy According to Kotler (2005), marketing strategy is the marketing logic by which a business unit hoped to achieve its marketing objectives. It shows how strategies for the. MINH CITY OPEN UNIVERSITY SOLVAY BRUSSELS SCHOOL MBAVB4 PHAN THI THANH THUY MARKETING STRATEGY OF HEMOQ MOM IN THE HOSPITAL CHANNEL MASTER PROJECT MASTER IN BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION