Case Study: A Tough Pill to Swallow (Emerging Markets)
The Problem
Pharmaceutical companies have long struggled to drive acceptance and adoption of their products into emerging markets. This is largely due to the high costs of the latest drugs relative to consumers’ income levels in many countries, as well as consumer attitudes toward spending priorities.
However, this issue had affected other industries (telecom, snack foods, and entertainment, to name a few) in the past, and many companies outside of pharma had successfully penetrated emerging markets with relatively high-cost products. The market access group within a major pharmaceutical company recognized this and knew that they could learn from those examples, but lacked sufficient connections to individuals who had been involved in such efforts. Without the right insights from those who had “been there and done that,” they risked moving forward with a misguided product strategy, resulting in continued missed opportunities.
Critical Issues
Emerging Markets Experience Cross-Industry Perspectives Go-To-Market Strategy
The Solution
Maven recommended conducting an Electronic Survey targeting dozens of market access experts and other industry professionals who had overcome the same challenge in other industries. Over the next few days, the market access group received over two dozen qualitative written responses from professionals around the world, providing perspectives on how to make an unknown, highly-priced product more accessible to consumers in emerging markets.
After reviewing the Survey responses, the team conducted deep dive Telephone Consultations with eight respondents who had shared particularly interesting experiences. These calls yielded several ideas for potential approaches to changing emerging market consumer purchasing decisions. The team is now implementing these newly-discovered techniques in their emerging market strategy.
“When we thought up this initiative we had no idea how to get in contact with these sort of cross-industry insights. Maven came around at just the right time. Perfect tool for a tough job.” – Director of Market Access
