including everything from price to ingredients, caloric content, health factors, personal preferences, seasons, and the tastes of other family members. A taste test only gives an indication of how appealing a product may be to the taste buds of the consumer, but translating that into consumer behavior involves a number of steps in which other factors can intervene to change the outcome. This makes predicting consumer behavior difficult under any circumstances.
The four p's affecting marketing are product, price, place, and promotion. Each of these factors would be affected by every decision for the production of generic drugs.
As noted, this division operates on the basis of keeping costs down so that the generic drugs can be sold as cheaply as possible. Since every manufacturer could produce these drugs, given that the drugs are no longer under patent protection, keeping the price low is an essential competitive strategy. This division maintains its position by underpricing the competition, so any decision to produce or not produce a generic drug will be made on the basis of the costs involved in producing, distributing, and marketing it.
The product itself is determined by what products have fallen out of patent and so can be produced by the company. The decisions as to which product to produce will be made on the basis of price, potential market, and potential liability for drugs that might cause side effects or some other problem. The product generally has an identifiable target market--it is possible to know the number of people who require the drug at this time and to predict the number who will need it in the future. The product has already been developed by others and has been fully tested. It has been marketed and has been established in the marketplace as an effective tool for combating symptoms and effects of a health problem.
Price is a key issue for generic drugs and is affected by the selection of th...