BUSINESS PLAN FOR HCAC PHARMACEUTICAL BRANDING AND SERVICE COMPANY Aware of the markets need to make marketing activities in the pharmaceutical industry more professional and more innovative, HCAC was born based on 12 years of founder experience through pharmaceutical organizations at home and abroad, as well as a combination of bringing creative elements within the framework, desire to give pharmaceutical companies an image of the company the product in the perfect way, professional manner with the most optimal cost and time. 15% of marketing costs go to the pharmaceutical industry, and at least 30% of this marketing cost will be spent on completing and homogenizing the image of products and companies when it comes to medical personnel. As a result, the 270 million markets are a piece of cake in the pharmaceutical industry that any company has not properly and professionally exploited. This is the market that HCAC wants to exploit.
BUSINESS PLAN FOR HCACPHARMACEUTICAL BRANDING AND SERVICE COMPANY A Research Project Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for the Degree Master of Business Administration Submitted by: [Le Thi Thuy Hang] UBIS [May], [2022] EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Pharmaceuticals is an essential industry with a high growth rate in Vietnam Despite the volatility of all microeconomic and macroeconomic factors, pharmaceuticals have always had a sustained and noticeable development over time With a scale of more than US$6 billion by 2021 and double-digit growth rates even in times of crisis caused by the recent war and pandemic, the pharmaceutical industry in Vietnam has demonstrated why foreign investors have chosen this as a potential and promising land for a wise investment On the other hand, due to that macro factor and the rapid development, Vietnam's pharmaceutical industry also contains the body points that need to be improved to promote promising development in the next decade With a market capacity of $6 billion by 2021, an average of about 20% of the cost is invested in marketing activities to bring the drug to patients The peculiarities of marketing in the pharmaceutical industry are reflected in the fact that the object of the industry is medical personnel Unlike other professions that require a high level of creativity, marketing in the pharmaceutical industry requires a combination of elements that can be summarized in the word K.I.P: Professional knowledge in the pharmaceutical industry (K: Knowledge); Imagination (I: Images); and practicality (P: Practicality) Because of this combination, the marketer in the pharmaceutical industry must often be someone with an educational background in the medical-pharmaceutical industry and must have experience in the medical-pharmaceutical industry This requirement makes it difficult for an independent company to provide services to the pharmaceutical industry The lack of professional understanding of the legal corridor of the pharmaceutical industry is a seemingly insurmountable obstacle for marketing companies when approaching pharmaceutical companies Meanwhile, pharmaceutical companies must use their internal resources to train marketers in an often unprofessional and time-consuming way Aware of the market's need to make marketing activities in the pharmaceutical industry more professional and more innovative, HCAC was born based on 12 years of founder experience through pharmaceutical organizations at home and abroad, as well as a combination of bringing "creative elements within the framework", desire to give pharmaceutical companies an image of the company / the product in the perfect way, professional manner with the most optimal cost and time 15% of marketing costs go to the pharmaceutical industry, and at least 30% of this marketing cost will be spent on completing and homogenizing the image of products and companies when it comes to medical personnel As a result, the $270 million markets are a piece of cake in the pharmaceutical industry that any company has not properly and professionally exploited This is the market that HCAC wants to exploit ACKNOWLEDGE In order to be able to systematize the necessary main ideas and improve the strategic thinking for HCAC, I would first like to express my sincerest thanks to Dr Quang Vinh Pham and Dr Dien Trung Son He has spent much time listening, commenting, and sharing all the sincerest advice to help me complete this article I also thank my colleagues in the past, at major pharmaceutical companies local and international, for helping me on my career path so that I gained exciting experiences in this particular industry I would like to thank my colleagues and colleagues at HCAC, who have been with me from the early days of the company's founding to the present The four years went, and we keep moving forward our HCAC I would also like to thank UBIS University and my UBIS MBA intake 42 classmates in Vietnam for enabling me to learn from academic to practical knowledge to include in this article Thank you to my parents and the little angel, 7-year-old daughter Suri, for making my life impossible to be more perfect and exciting Sincerely, Le Thi Thuy Hang Introduction 1.1 Reasons for choosing a startup idea Pharmaceuticals is an essential industry with a high growth rate in Vietnam Despite the volatility of all microeconomic and macroeconomic factors, pharmaceuticals have always had a sustained and noticeable development over time With a scale of more than US$6 billion by 2021 and double-digit growth rates even in times of crisis caused by the recent war and pandemic, the pharmaceutical industry in Vietnam has demonstrated why foreign investors have chosen this as a potential and promising land for a wise investmen Unlike other professions that require a high level of creativity, marketing in the pharmaceutical industry requires a combination of elements that can be summarized in the word K.I.P: Professional knowledge in the pharmaceutical industry (K: Knowledge); Imagination (I: Images); and practicality (P: Practicality) Because of this combination, the marketer in the pharmaceutical industry must often be someone with an educational background in the medical-pharmaceutical industry and must have experience in the medicalpharmaceutical industry This requirement makes it difficult for an independent company to provide services to the pharmaceutical industry The lack of professional understanding of the legal corridor of the pharmaceutical industry is a seemingly insurmountable obstacle for marketing companies when approaching pharmaceutical companies Meanwhile, pharmaceutical companies must use their internal resources to train marketers in an often unprofessional and time-consuming way Aware of the market's need to make marketing activities in the pharmaceutical industry more professional and more innovative, HCAC was born based on 12 years of founder experience through pharmaceutical organizations at home and abroad, as well as a combination of bringing "creative elements within the framework", desire to give pharmaceutical companies an image of the company / the product in the perfect way, professional manner with the most optimal cost and time 1.2 About HCAC - Name of company: HCAC Limited Company - Abbreviation: HCAC Ltd Co - Address: Flooth 15th, R1508 Vincom Center, 72 Le Thanh Ton, Ben Nghe Ward, Distrist 1, Ho Chi Minh city, VietNam - Logo - Vision: “The First company for supply branding service in Pharmaceutical only in Vietnam” - Mission: “To make Vietnam pharmaceutical industry more Consistent, Professional, Effective with reasonable expense and the best optimize time” - Goal in next years: 2023-2025 Gain 10% marketing expenses from local pharmaceutical (27 million USD) 420-440-500k To be successful in connection at least 100 pharmaceutical products to clients’ HCAC company 1.2 Main Business Fields 1.2.1 Branding Services in pharmaceutical industry Currently, the problem of environmental pollution is increasingly severe; food hygiene is poor, population density is living in big cities, so diseases are increasing Therefore, paying attention to health is getting more and more attention, and users have more opportunities to choose the best healthcare products/services, so in recent years marketing has been increasingly popular among consumers Pharmaceutical companies pay more attention, the competition density between domestic and foreign pharmaceutical companies is increasing, and companies promote marketing strategies on products and brands to attract the attention and trust of pharmaceutical companies Doctors, Pharmacists, and patients with the company's products Pharmaceutical companies have never exploited brands intensely, only focused on creating products and promoting product features, but the life cycle of pharmaceutical products is concise (about 10-17 years The differentiating factors of Pharmaceutical products: Medicines are special goods Doctors, Pharmacists decide most of the purchase Under the strict management of the Health Sector (Pharmacy Law), advertising content must comply with the state's regulations on drug advertising There are many subjects with different characteristics, qualifications, and requirements Marketing in Pharmacy is a combination of essential marketing and specialized knowledge of Pharmacy Professional Pharmaceutical Marketers apply tools in Marketing to come up with appropriate marketing strategies and plans Moreover, of course, there will be separate regulations to maintain and develop in each industry Therefore, taking care of customers in the Pharmaceutical industry even more, requires personnel who have a thorough understanding of the medical-health field and at the same time have the high professional expertise to listen and advise customers on their problems their health issues In the Pharmaceutical industry, Marketing activities promote drugs and drug products to satisfy customer needs for health purposes Therefore, the pharmaceutical marketing principle is that the drug is sold to the right audience, type, price, and place Marketing in the pharmaceutical industry costs much more than the investment costs for R&D departments (research and launch of new products), so professional pharmaceutical marketers need to use different campaigns targeting medical staff & patients HCAC, with its founder having more than ten years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry, provides marketing solutions to build brands for pharmaceutical companies, including content: Build and optimize the pharmaceutical industry-standard website The importance of a standard SEO website is undeniable for all industries However, it must be invested more carefully in the pharmaceutical industry because this is an area that directly affects health and is subject to high competition HCAC will help businesses optimize websites with SEO standards in terms of content and standards in interface, colors, and features of the pharmaceutical industry Brand development in the digital environment HCAC plans to build a pharmaceutical communication strategy to promote the presence of pharmaceutical brands in the digital environment The company has the advantage of having a good relationship with many newspapers, television stations, media production units, and product distribution systems with the GPP pharmacy chain Ads Facebook, Google, Zalo, Tiktok The image and personality of the brand are developed by HCAC, from the Fanpage TikTok channel to the Zalo Official Account We execute advertising campaigns, optimize funding, and provide daily reporting data week for customers HCAC has a team of experts with at least five years of pharmaceutical marketing experience, specializing in advertising for the pharmaceutical and dietary supplement industry Digital marketing, omnichannel marketing In addition to building a brand on many popular social networking platforms that attract a large amount of traffic every day, HCAC also supports a range of services and content marketing on mass media such as PR press, wrote talk show scripts and cooperated with local TV stations such as VTV, HTV, and THVL to promote products Collaborate with experts, KOLs, and KOCs to win customers' trust 1.2.2 Support for HealthCare Association/ Organization in events Organizing events helps companies promote their image to the public and, at the same time, create an invisible bond with customers and partners Each event has its color, contributes to polishing the brand name and product, and is a part of the business's entire marketing and promotion strategy This is an important point to create opportunities to meet and exchange, promote two-way information and strengthen relationships The symposium/ Scientific conference which would be organized by healthcare Association included many activities and special tasks such as: to invite professionals for giving presentaion, disussion with professionals for final presentation based on pharma regulation, medical knowledge, and the target audience… These tasks can finish only if the organiser is an expert in pharma/ medical field We also get permission of SOH/ DAV to organise the event It takes time and would be difficult for a normal event company to get these licenses 1.3 Keys to success The company aims to provide specialized marketing services for businesses in the pharmaceutical field with a team of experts related to the pharmaceutical industry to help businesses optimize marketing costs At the same time, it improves the Marketing brand and increases the pharmaceutical brand's recognition with customers The company provides customers with professional service experiences, understands customer needs, and becomes a bridge between pharmaceutical enterprises and customers The company strives to help customers diversify the target market with many different types of customers, from doctors and medical staff to patients 1.4 Timeline to start The company is expected to be established on June 30, 2022 Business environment Analysis 2.1 Overview of the pharmaceutical industry in Vietnam + According to IQVIA, the value of Vietnam's pharmaceuticals market was VND 103,912 billion (+2% YoY), achieving a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6% in 2018 and 2020 + The growth rate of the pharmaceutical industry in 2020 slowed down due to the tightening of infection control measures in hospitals and the decrease in income of workers as business activities are affected because of the pandemic + The pharmaceutical production and business system are expanded with about 250 manufacturing plants, 200 import-export facilities, 4,300 wholesale agents, and more than 62,000 retail agents +ETC channel (The drug channel for treatment in a hospital) is the main growth driver of the industry in 2020, with an increase of 5% in 2020 to about VND 76 trillion, achieving a CAGR of 9% in the period 2018-2020 + Although the OTC(Over-the-counter) channel had an unusual growth before social isolation, focusing on pain relief, antipyretic products, antiseptics, hand sanitizers, and immune enhancement drugs However, the decline in aggregate demand reduced the value of OTC channels in 2020 by 9% to VND 28 trillion In 2020, the size of the ETC auction channel was estimated to reach $5.5 billion, while the OTC retail channel only reached $1.8 billion At the end of 2019, the Ministry of Health issued Circular 15/2019/TT-BYT regulating bidding for drugs to accelerate the transition from foreign to domestic drugs through changes that benefit manufacturing establishments export EU-GMP standards Many pharmaceutical enterprises have had to perform the reverse problem of accelerating the transition from the ETC to the OTC market to avoid policy changes in the health sector, including regulations on the selection of winning drugs in pharmaceutical products Hospitals (ETCs) prioritize low-priced drugs Realizing the potential of the non-prescription drug market, recently in Vietnam, there has been a strong development of drugstore chains with big players in the pharmaceutical 10