Pharma Study 4: Generics Scheme - Customer Requirements Analysis

A pharmaceutical company wished to know what value their customers attached to various service elements when buying generic products. We designed a study that tested a number of service issues with independent pharmacists via qualitative telephone interviews. We identified a number of core service elements and tested these via quantitative telephone interviews. We used 'trade-off' analysis to find out if pharmacists had a preference for either one service element or another. Within the service element trade-offs we were able to test a price discount.

At the end of the study we were able to show the client the service elements that were valued more than the price discount and those service elements that were not (in rank order). We would not have been able to demonstrate this so convincingly had we used less sophisticated research techniques.
We were also able to show the client how price sensitivity differed between their customers' categories.

Conclusion: As core differences between their larger, medium and smaller accounts were established, the client was able to realign their pricing strategy to maximise profitability.