Case Example
OTC Landscaping and Benchmarking Study for a pharmaceutical multinational
Client Challenge
A pharmaceutical MNC plans to increase its presence in the OTC product market space by leveraging its current product portfolio of Rx and OTX products and introducing new brands. The client engaged UC Strategy for benchmarking and landscaping study. The primary objectives were the following:
● Validate the client’s initial hypothesis for OTC Market and product opportunities
● Define the Go-To-Market strategy
Our Approach
The following approach was utilized to address the primary objectives and gathered the required data:
● The engagement was conducted in two phases where 80% of the time was spent in Phase II
Phase I – Examining Internal capabilities and validating the client’s initial hypothesis
Phase II- Define Go-To-Market Strategy
● 7 Stakeholders across 5 therapy areas (Gastro, Pain and Analgesic, Derma, VMS and Cough/Cold/Allergy) were interviewed
● Internal Revenues and Promo Spends, Internal Strategy Documents and Market Research Documents were shared by the client to help assess client’s current potential and capabilities
● Databases like IMS Health (2015-17), Euromonitor Database, SMSRC Prescription Database, AIOCD Database and OTC Policy Framework-OPPI were used to aid the evaluation and define the addressable market opportunity for the brands proposed by the client.
● Primary research was conducted with 17 Distributors and 44 Retailers via in-person meets across the cities of Mumbai, Delhi, Lucknow, Bangalore, Chennai and Kolkata
● ~10 Expert calls were conducted
Our Impact
The research yielded the following results:
● The current Indian OTC market was studied and assessed in detail
● UC Strategy performed a category-wise brand by brand product filtration process to short list the potential brands
● Defined the OTC-ability criteria from sustenance/prevention to acute relief across the shortlisted therapy areas
● 12 Umbrella Brands and 18 SKUs were recommended for a potential entry in OTC market space
● Forecasted revenue estimates for the consideration set for 2018-2023
● Forecasted Profit and Loss Statement for the consideration set for 2018-2023
● Benchmarked the client against its peer set for OTC portfolio, distribution structure (profiles), retail reach, organization structure, sales force and marketing spend (ATL and BTL activities)
● Recommended distribution strategy and model over a period of 5 years (2018-2023)