Vicks Health Care Division Project Scorpio
1. Design
a. Describe the design of the test market program.
Vicks health care products had designed a realistic test market to test its new multi-condition product “Vicks Versus3”. The key objectives of the test program were to check the achievable and realistic market shares/share levels, product positioning viability and the strength of the market plan to generate awareness, trial and repurchase.
To achieve the purpose, Health care division and the product director Tom Green had chosen 4 cities, including Paducah, Kentucky and Montgomery and Alabama (one pair) and Peoria, Illinois and Green Bay Wisconsin (second pair) with a 12 month long test plan. The first pair was for “Moderate level” share objectives and expenditures while the second pair had “High level” share objectives and expenditures.
The product director Green and the Health care division group realized that the packaging of the “Vicks Versus3” should have visual appeal, therefor the medicine was packed in foil in a flat box with a notable shelf facing. Three different sizes of the package were used in each test city.
· 20 tablets pack at $2.10 retail price; 40 tablets pack at $3.89 retail price; 60 tablets pack at $5.67 retail price
The group of the new product had used a forced distribution strategy instead of conventional trade distribution methods. The company hired a third party research company who paid to the participating stores to buy, store and sell the new products. The third party company delivered the new product directly to the targeted stores and had started sales auditing.
The company also designed an effective advertising plan for the new product in which they showed individuals and families discussing their conditions or symptoms of cold. One thing that they mainly conveyed in their advertisements was a confusion in the symptoms of