The Four P's of Marketing

A detailed Summary of The Four P's of Marketing

After reading Kay Napier's compelling story of her struggle with cancer and bone loss I decided that the best approach to this assignment would be to discuss how her personal struggle affected the four p's of marketing. Ms. Napier, being the vice president of Proctor and Gamble's North American pharmaceuticals, and overseeing 1,300 employees shows how her personal struggle was a huge influence on P &G's new marketing strategy towards the product Actonel. Actonel is drug that is designed to increase bone mass caused by cancer, as well as osteoporosis, a condition that causes bone loss in nearly half of women. This is a very serious condition that Ms. Napier took a unique approach to marketing. The product, price, promotion, and place were all intertwined in an approach that differed greatly from their main competitors at Merck and Co.'s. Fosamax, Merck's product is well established in the market for bone loss and is backed by many doctors. The aggressive approach that Napier took to promote the new product was innovative and successful.

The product, Actonel, is a product that P&G hoped to use to make its drug division a player in the industry by making Actonel a "blockbust

There was no mention of price of Actonel in the article, but I still feel that there are money issues dealing with Actonel that are a direct result of Ms. Napier's condition. The osteoporosis industry has 1.6 billion dollars in sales and P&G think that this can grow to be as large as $9 billion. This could reap potential profits in an industry that P&G currently has very little if any market share. Actonel being a second mover in the industry has to remain competitive with it's pricing to compete with Fosamax. Although, no price was mentioned Actonel has reaped $100 million dollars in sales within the first 15 months putting it on pace with other blockbuster drugs. Ms. Napier condition has little to do with price of Actonel, but that is typical due to production costs and other variable costs in producing pharmaceuticals.

Statistics showed Ms. Napier that women over 50 tend to shop three times a week. To talk to women directly then where better to go then to the number one retailer in the country Wal Mart. Ms. Napier set up information's table informing women about osteoporosis, as well as a bone screening option. The test cost $19, but is a good indicator of bone density. This searching for "real" women went along with Napier "call for action plan" of marketing for Actonel. Actonels main fault was that it didn't have the backing of many doctors. To fix this Napier assembled a team of 50 scientists

Some common words found in the essay are:
Ms Napier, Act Actonel, Ms Napier's, Parade Newsweek, Fosamax Merck's, Actonel Actonels, Actonel Napier's, Actonel Actonel, Kay Napier's, North American, ms napier, bone loss, ms napier's, napier's condition, ms napier's condition, personal struggle, product actonel, actonel drug, price actonel, dollars sales, talk women,

Approximate Word count = 959
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Novels