Revisions and Creating a New Plan

As we move towards the final week of Marketing 640, our Pharmasim project is heading into its final 3 periods of simulation. After creating an initial plan and reflecting upon its successes and failures, a new plan had to be developed for periods 8-10.  As last week pointed out, the original plan was not adhered to completely and changes had to be made. Thus, the new plan for coming periods will certainly not be the same as the plan going into the previous periods.

The most prominent change is the elimination of one of our product offerings. This change has already occurred within our simulation but the original plan was to move forward with 3 products. This has since been altered and our new plan only accounts for Allround and Allround+. This was the appropriate move for our team to make as we were in a hole financially and likely would not be able to move forward with 3 products. We had a serious decline in our former star product of Allround and a miserable start with Allright, which had a negative product contribution in its inaugural period. With Allround struggling and needing more attention and Allround+ seeing growing success, it was an easy choice to eliminate Allright. There was no telling how long it would take for the product to get in the black and Allround was a previous industry leader that we felt confident could recover with proper backing. Personally, I will wonder what could have been with Allright. Our introductory period of Allround+ was not extremely profitable either, although it was not negative. This product certainly boomed thereafter and is now a profitable product for the brand. I do wonder if Allright could have done the same. Despite this wonderment, I certainly do not think our decision was a mistake as the situation called for appropriate action to move forward.

Another big change that our team is moving forward with is to get rid of the price skimming strategy. Previously, we were successful as selling a high quality product with a price reflective of its quality. As the periods progressed, the high price became more and more of an issue, especially when our prices began rising higher than the impossible to predict rate of inflation. Additionally, price was increasing in importance as a decision making criteria for consumer purchases. It made sense to move away from this high priced strategy and become more competitively priced as the periods progress. Personally, I was never quite sure as to why price was not being considered more highly from the beginning in consumer's minds. In the real world, I would never purchase a product that is priced as quality product if an equally effective product is available for a lower price. It seems more realistic to me that at least a portion of consumers are starting to weigh price more highly in their decision making in the simulation.

As we move into the final periods of the simulation, we must still remember to go with the flow and alter our plans as the situation calls for. I do feel that we are a little better prepared with this plan and have scaled our expectations back to more realistic results. With that being said, I'm sure there are more surprises left to encounter that will shake things up once again.