Cialis Case

Cialis I. Problem: In this case, the main issue at hand is to decide an effective marketing strategy for the introduction of new product, Cialis by the joint venture Eli Lilly and ICOS. This strategy will help to recognize a target market and also the future marketing endeavors necessary to have competitive positioning in the market amongst Cialis’s main competitors, Pfizer and Bayer. Cialis has to choose among the alternatives: beat, niche and compete. II. Alternatives: 1) Follow Beat Strategy by differentiating its product from competitors by emphasizing on its duration i. . 36 hours, targeting men suffering from Erectile Dysfunction (ED) + Existing customer base + Can convince existing, new users and dropouts that it is a superior product + Customers can wait for right moment + Better onset time and duration + Doesn’t have blue vision side effect that happens in case of Viagra + Can convince Primary Care Physicians (PCP) and urologists of its benefits – Higher sales force needed to compete with Viagra’s effective sales force team of 30000 – Not safe with nitrates Time on Market is 0 compared to Viagra’s 5 years so Viagra has better brand reputation 2) Follow Niche Strategy by targeting Viagra dropouts estimated to be around 6-7 million as compared to Viagra’s current users i. e. 3 million + Can demand high price + The number of Viagra dropouts can grow with the launch and success of Cialis + Easy to focus target market – Low market share in total Erectile Dysfunction (ED) market – Difficult to convince users who have lost faith in similar product i. e.Viagra – Not safe with nitrates 3) Follow Compete Strategy and go head-to-head with Viagra’s positioning + Existing customer base + Alternative means to attract customers such as by convincing partners and people who think it will go away + Better onset time and duration – Not safe with nitrates – Difficult to convince ex isting users of Viagra – Difficult to convince physicians to prescribe Cialis – Higher sales force needed to compete with Pfizer’s effective sales force team of 30000 III. Recommendation:I suggest that Cialis should adopt the â€Å"beat† marketing strategy focusing on its high duration i. e. 36 hours to make it a differentiated product in the market. On conducting the need and performance analysis of key buying factors, the aforementioned strategy best suits for the product introduction. While there are drawbacks to this decision such as Viagra’s already developed brand reputation and fact that Cialis is not safe with nitrates, I believe that Cialis can successfully overcome these issues through its competitive pricing which can be similar to that of Viagra’s i. . $10 so that target customers can get more benefits (such as choosing the right moment for sexual intercourse) at the same price. Cialis should spend significant amount on initial p romotion of its new product through TV advertisement featuring famous personality (actor, politician, sportsmen), radio, social media and word of mouth. It also needs a high sales force (to compete with Pfizer’s effective sales force team of 30000) who can pitch the product initially in US and Europe where there is strong target market base and later on extend its focus on other countries.