Marketing pharmaceuticals in Japan
(pp.444)
A pharmaceutical(制药的) company 5 with an Australia-based marketing department engaged a market research provider to help it understand why its product was losing market share（市场占有率） to a competitor in Japan.A study of 200 physicians（医生） was commiioned to ae（估计，评定） the sales proposition（销售提案） and positioning（配置） of its leading medication versus（对） it closest competitor in the market.Key objectives(主要目的) of the project were to determine the effectivene（有效） of the current marketing of the medication, including meages, sales materials and selling techniques（经验技巧）, and to understand the concerns and needs of doctors and their patients.
The research project
A project outline was developed by the market research agency.Two-hundred physicians were invited to participate and the acceptance（认可） rate was 35 per cent.Of the 70 respondents, 40 participated via telephone interviews and the other 30 participated via in-person（亲自） interviews.An incentive of A$300 was offered for participation.The time frame（期限） was 8 weeks and all interviews were based on a pre-approved questionnaire.
The findings
In addition to（除··以外） information on the quality of the product, its packaging and the aociated marketing materials, the research found that marketing pharmaceuticals in Japan requires a fundamentally（根本的） different approach to marketing pharmaceuticals in Australia and New Zealand.By way of example, a sales representative（代表） in Australia and New Zealand might call on（拜访） a doctor perhaps once every few weeks or even every few months, whereas（但是） in Japan doctors prefer to see sales representatives far more regularly.The busine of pharmaceutical sales in Japan is heavily based on building relationships with potential （潜在的）customers.
The results
The research resulted in the following actions, which led to a gradual increase in market share over the next 12 to 18 months:
• redesign of marketing and sales materials
• review（回顾检查） and repositioning（重新配置） of the sales meage and proposition • more frequent（常见的） sales visits to physicians
• increased public relations activities with the new meaging.
