Is this the future of marketing? Experiences drawn from a world-class market leader
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eywords: personal interaction, partnership creation, meeting arenas, mutual value building, cooperative knowledge generation, X factor, Pharmacia
Is this the future of marketing? Experiences drawn from a world-class market leader Per Frankelius Received (in revised form): 25 June 2002
Abstract Pharmacia is a fascinating case. The story demonstrates how a creative marketing strategy transformed a small firm into a global giant. The secret behind the success had to do with developing stronger partnerships with opinion leaders in the market. Through these partnerships — which involve mutual exchange of knowledge — genuine added value was built up. Vital interaction took place at Pharmacia’s large symposia, which were also the basis for extensive communication at a distance. This strategy, here called ‘CRM 2.0’, resulted in loyalty that corresponded to a market share of 60 per cent and about US$500m in sales per year. The case study illustrates that the term ‘customer’ can be quite complicated. It also shows that there are many more factors than merely customers, suppliers and competitors which are important for the modern business enterprise. Since these other factors are not central in traditional models, the term ‘X factors’ is suggested. Furthermore, the world is not about permanent states but about changes over time. Instead of static structures one should think of the customer cluster, the company and the whole business environment as flows of events. Such a perspective makes it easier, among other things, to identify business opportunities.
Editor’s note The following case study is far from being a run-of-the-mill example of direct or interactive marketing; the product, its purchasers, its end users and its other stakeholders form a network of needs very different from the everyday experience of most marketers. It is being published nonetheless both for the considerable human interest of its story, and also because the author, just because he looks at marketing from an unusual angle, is able to ask some searching questions, and even perhaps to offer some answers to those able to transpose his prescriptions for their own circumstances. Per Frankelius ¨ rebro University O DM Centre ¨ rebro S-701 82 O Sweden Tel: +46 (0)1930 31 08 Fax: +46 (0)1933 25 46 E-mail: [email protected]
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Introduction Pharmacia is a fascinating case of forceful expansion. It demonstrates how a creative marketing strategy transformed the small Swedish pharmaceutical firm Kabi into today’s world-beating Pharmacia Corporation. This story includes the world’s first project where DNA
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Is this the future of marketing? technology was used to develop a pharmaceutical: growth hormone. The story also includes a brilliant marketing strategy launched after the core product was developed. The strategy was quite complicated, but it led to a market leadership worth billions of
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