Strategic marketing of pharmaceutical products manufactured in Kenya

Abstract

This study was conducted with the objective of finding out the state of strategic marketingpractices of Pharmaceutical manufacturers' in Kenya. The focus of the study was on all the firms engaged in the manufacturing of pharmaceutical products. ,As at August 2000, twenty-five such firms were identified after consulting'KenyaPharmaceuticalManufacturers Association.One of the identified firms no longer produce pharmaceuticals as they had changed to' the manufacturing and import of medical equipment. Therefore, there were only twenty-four firms producing pharmaceutical and related products. Economic reforms.introduced in Kenya and other African countries in mid 1980s brought a lot of changes in the business environment. The most significant outcome of lib~ralization for pharmaceutical sector was the tremendous increase in competition from imported drugs. Thestudy had two objectives: (a)To investigate the current strategic marketing practices of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers in Kenya. (b)To establish the strategic responses of firms to the changes affecting the PharmaceuticalIndustry. To achieve these objectives, a survey was conducted and primary data was collected, The data was collected through personally administered questionnaires. This had both structured and unstructured questions. The respondents were the directors or the marketing/sales managers of the firms. Although all the firms were contacted personally, only eighteen firms were successfullyinterviewed. The data was analyzed using simple descriptive statistics. The study found that with increased environmental turbulence, firms in this sector made some adjustments in their marketing mix components in order to remain competitive. viii Changes in complexities led pharmaceutical manufacturers to adopt more market driv~en strategy approaches. There was a vast difference amongst the firms in , this sector with respect to their size, resources and product mix. Many companies follow niche market and market segmentation approach. The' firms were also doing marketing planning. Although firms made changes in their marketing mix components, yet on promotion of their products they relied mainly on sales promotion and personal selling. Firms used less of other media and means of product promotion. In order to cope with environmental challenges, the firms in this sector paid attention to the activities of their competitors. The firms were quite aware of the changes taking place within the industry and their markets. It may not be possible to draw general conclusions due to the enormous variation in the size and product mix of these companies as well as due to some other limitation of the study. Nevertheless the study provided some insight into strategic marketing practices of the pharmaceutical manufacturers in Kenya