The purpose of this paper is to analyse the mergers and acquisitions that have taken place in the Indian pharmaceutical industry, and develop a framework, which would provide directions for a successful merger. In the context of a spurt in the number of Indian companies joining the bandwagon of mergers and acquisitions (M&As) this paper assumes significance as it would provide inputs for companies planning such an M&A. The framework has been developed on the basis of information gathered through in-depth interviews of top executives of pharmaceutical companies, which have undertaken M&A in the recent years. This information has been supplemented by data from the Pharmaceutical Retail Store Audit conducted by ORG-MARG.
The premise of this paper is that the use of a single qualitative research methodology - especially one which searches for understanding and insights away from the context in which behaviour is taking place - can result in misleading recommendations and is therefore professionally irresponsible. The paper will argue that the nature of the window through which human behaviour can be interpreted differs depending on which methodology is used.
A striking new advertising campaign was produced for Benson & Hedges in France. Seven advertisements were prepared, and research was needed to establish, first, whether this campaign projected the image desired for the brand, and if so whether it was indeed viewed as a coherent campaign; and second, which of the seven advertisements would be most appropriate for the campaign. A secondary, but very important, question was whether it would be possible to advertise both the mainstream and the low tar products within this particular campaign. Since the research questions covered both smoker motivation and visual effectiveness, it was decided to use a number of qualitative research techniques, in conjunction with semiotic analysis of the advertisements. The paper discusses details of the methodology, and the areas in which each research process was found most valuable.
A new qualitative technology is developing based upon improved skills, pressure from marketing management and advertising agencies for more useful research data, and the consequent reappraisal of qualitative research techniques. This movement is occurring chiefly in the UK and Europe but similar signs are now evident in the US and worldwide.
This comment suggests that good research, conducted by competent researchers, will achieve a considerable degree of agreement. It is not, after all, the intention (or the expectation) of the new qualitative researchers to come up with different answers to more conventional qualitative research but, rather, more detailed ones, and answers to different questions rather than different answers to the same questions.
The debate should, however, take place in the mind of the reader. Section 1, The New Qualitative Research: The Reasons Why? presents detailed explanations of the new qualitative research, including, in an edited form, three of the five classic papers from the Rome Congress. It finishes with an edited version of a review of qualitative research from the 1985 Wiesbaden Congress. Whereas Section 1 takes a theoretical stance sympathetic to the new qualitative research, Section 2, The New Qualitative Research: The How? presents case history material to support that position. In Section 3, An Alternative Viewpoint to the New Qualitative Research, the de Groot paper stands alone, presenting a powerful set of arguments in favour of that particular thinking.
A striking new advertising campaign was produced for Benson & Hedges in France. Seven advertisements were prepared, and research was needed to establish, first, whether this campaign projected the image desired for the brand, and if so whether it was indeed viewed as a coherent campaign; and second, which of the seven advertisements would be most appropriate for the campaign. A secondary, but very important, question was whether it would be possible to advertise both the mainstream and the low tar products within this particular campaign. Since the research questions covered both smoker motivation and visual effectiveness, it was decided to use a number of qualitative research techniques, in conjunction with semiotic analysis of the advertisements. The paper discusses details of the methodology, and the areas in which each research process was found most valuable.
This paper discusses the contribution of qualitative research methodology to producing advertising that is both effective and creative. The argument links three main areas: 1) Changes in the models of how advertising works: away from transportation models and mechanistic measurements towards more holistic models and more dynamic methodologies. These latter are better suited to describing the ways in which people experience advertising and are therefore more relevant and useful to marketing companies and their agencies in improving the quality of strategic and executional decisions. 2) The exploration by practitioners working with agencies, of a wider range of more explicitly described qualitative interpretive frameworks and methodologies: drawn from a wider range of sources - humanistic psychology, social anthropology, neuroanatomy, computer science. Finally, and perhaps most significantly and relevantly, a more sophisticated understanding of how organisations use research; in particular the establishment of the Account Planning organisational structure in advertising agencies which is translating these ideas and philosophies into practice.
Over the past ten to fifteen years, decision-makers have gradually turned to scenario-based approaches. In these, rather than try to foretell the future as an extension of the present, they seek more realistically to envisage possible states of the world and to frame strategies capable of adapting to these different eventualities. Naturally, these scenarios need to be based on suitable hypotheses of change. The market researcher can contribute to the formulation of plausible scenarios. In other words, although he does not claim to predict the future, he can investigate a number of hypotheses of change, help to narrow the field and to explore the different possibilities.