The human race is facing serious threats from killer diseases caused by mutated viruses. Killer epidemics are one of the major predicted reasons for the extinction of human race. Kibola the newly identified epidemic is a matter of high concern for medical practitioners as well as pharmaceutical companies. This epidemic spreads through air and water which makes preventive mechanisms very difficult. Since this disease is caused by a mutated form of Ebola virus, the symptoms are almost the same as Ebola. However the mortality rate is three times higher and the spreading rate is also enormously high. The symptoms are high fever, muscle pain, throat infections, severe headaches, body rashes, nausea etc.
Preventive measures have little effect over the virus and once infected the virus will cause multiple organ failure clubbed with internal and external bleeding. Fatality is above 85 percent. In the case of the earlier Ebola virus, the disease got transmitted only through direct contact with the body fluids of an infected person. In the case of Kibola, the virus gets transmitted even trough air. This makes Kibola multiple times infectious than Ebola. The most soaring fact is that Kibola has already claimed millions of lives around the world and is spreading at an alarming pace. Once the symptoms start, there are very few chances of survival. Scientists at the ABC Pharmaceuticals were on high alert and the researches have successfully culminated in developing a very effective vaccine for preventing Kibola.
Monopoly Positioning
The Vaccine invented by ABC Pharmaceuticals against Kibola is now a monopoly product. A product is believed to own monopoly characteristics if it has certain clear attributes like unavailability of any close substitutes, only a single seller sells the product, High demand and no supply from other manufacturers. In the case of the vaccine invented for Kibola, all these factors are seen thus giving the company complete market monopoly to sell the product without any competition.
Strategy 1 : Brand the disease to brand the vaccine
Even though the disease Kibola is killing millions of people in Africa and Asia, people in the Europe and America are still not much concerned about the outbreak of the epidemic in their place. A campaign to generate awareness about the deadly nature of the epidemic will help to create a situation of unrest and alert. On a social point of view, prevention is always better than cure. An epidemic which can be prevented by using an affordable vaccine should be prevented to stop further harm and outbreak of the epidemic.
Once, the awareness has been created about the deadly nature of the disease and its fatality chances, people will search for preventive options and vaccinations. Hence the branding of the disease itself will help the sales of the vaccine and the ultimate aim on a social point of view is the resultant healthy society. Pharmaceutical companies selling pneumonia vaccines are adopting the same strategy by which they bran pneumonia as a killer disease and the vaccine as an easy and safe remedial measure. They target the more vulnerable people like old age patients, children, people suffering from chronic heart, and respiratory disorders. Hence branding the disease and generating awareness can be good strategies to promote the newly developed vaccine.
Monopoly increases long term Profit
In a monopoly market, a high level of profit can be maintained. In all types of business profit gained becomes maximum when marginal revenue equates with marginal cost (MC=MR). To conclude about profitability, the profit volume increases based on the lesser degree of competition in the concerned market. In the graph shown below for maximum profit the MC=MR and ‘Q’ is the output and ‘P’ is the price. Extreme profits are made possible when the price factor represented by AR is positioned at’ Q’ high above ATC.
Restricting Customer Choice
Maximization of profit has a direct relation with restricting customer choices in the market. In the case of ABC Pharmaceuticals, the product is a vaccine for the killer disease Kibola. The invention of this vaccine comes under the intellectual property of that particular company. The product needs to be licensed and patented so that another organization cannot come up with a similar product or even a copy of the same. Restricting options will help the company to have absolute monopoly over the Kibola vaccine area.
Pricing Model
The company needs to adopt a strategy for the pricing of the vaccine. Higher pricing patterns can be used for marketing the product in sophisticated societies with high per capita income. Since the vaccine is a monopoly product the Pricing strategy can completely be controlled by the company. As per the views of the Austrian economic researcher Joseph Schumpeter, incompetent organizations, together with monopolies, would ultimately be replaced by further competent and efficient organizations through a progression called ‘creative destruction’. Hence efficiency and financial stability are important for their organizational success.
If the company has the conventional type of live vaccines as well as acellular vaccines for Kibola, then both these types can be priced separately. Acellular vaccines which does not have any immediate post vaccination issues might be highly preferred by the elite class. The same can be priced many times higher than the conventional type vaccines.
Targeting the developing Countries
The developing economies of the world are excellent market for the vaccines for Kibola. Discussions can be done with the concerned ministries in the corresponding countries. If the vaccination is being included in the National Immunization schedule Bulk orders might be placed by the corresponding ministries. This type of strategies could reduce marketing costs as well. Then national immunization schedule may mostly prefer the conventional vaccination for Kibola due to its lesser cost factor. However, in developing countries there is a huge upper middle class population who prefer to avail more expensive acellular vaccines for Kibola too. Hence another huge market lies in the developing countries for acellular vaccines too. It is strongly recommended that the vaccines need to be branded in two variants with different attributes and pricing structure.
UNICEF is an active player in helping the vaccines reach children. UNICEF offers vaccines for 38 percent of the child community in this world as part of its obligation to reduce child mortality. The distribution of vaccines and associated supplies is considered to be UNICEF's biggest support activity. During last year, UNICEF effectively administered 2.79 billion doses of critical illness vaccines over 100 nations. Vaccines for polio, tetanus, measles, BCG, typhoid, yellow fever etc., valued over $1.286 billion were administered on vulnerable children around the globe. Since Kibola is one of the deadliest killer diseases, a vaccination for the same will be considered as a key vaccine for children worldwide. The pricing structure of the vaccine being provided to UNICEF can be different and undisclosed. The promo advantage the company gets as a result of its association with UN and
UNICEF will help the organization a lot in the long run.
The opportunity awaiting the company is that there are high chances for them to get extreme high value orders that they cannot even think about in the present scenario. The big threat lies in the fact that if there is another company coming up with a similar product then there are extreme chances of tight completion. This threat also should be considered while developing the marketing plan. The company should focus on short term marketing strategies by promoting the deadly nature of Kibola as a Killer disease. The long term plans can be developed by associating themselves with health service NGOs and making a brand identity for themselves.
References:
- Slideshare.net, (2014). Monopoly Market Structure. [online] Available at: http://www.slideshare.net/rajesh1128/monopoly-market-structure [Accessed 21 Nov. 2014].
- Economics Online Ltd. (2014). Monopoly. Available: http://www.economicsonline.co.uk/Business_economics/Monopoly.html. Last accessed 21st Nov 2014.
- Peter Doshi. (2013). Influenza: marketing vaccine by marketing disease. Available: http://www.bmj.com/content/346/bmj.f3037. Last accessed 21st Nov 2014.
- Mark Pauly. (2013). Supplying Vaccine: An Economic analysis of critical issues. Available: http://books.google.co.in/books?id=P3PJpnT0qF4C&pg=PA9&lpg=PA9&dq=marketing+model+for+a+new+monopoly+vaccine&source=bl&ots=e6wgg1W8mH&sig=GCZaKIbrVcg4ZgsM3pm-hsVfzhs&hl=en&sa=X&ei=J89uVIyDO4i2uAT8sIHw. Last accessed 21st Nov 2014.
- Reinhard Angelmar. (2012). Vaccine Marketing. Available: http://www.insead.edu/facultyresearch/research/doc.cfm?did=49167. Last accessed 21st Nov 2014.
