Innovating the pharma sales model at Boehringer Ingelheim Portugal

Abstract

Boehringer Ingelheim is one of the world’s top 20 pharmaceutical companies. Its main headquarters is in Germany. Its subsidiary in Portugal which will be focussed in this thesis, has been struggling for the last years to keep up sales figures, not only due to economic crisis but also due to strong regulations and changing preferences of physicians, their main target. Even though Boehringer Ingelheim Portugal is already recovering and on the fast lane concerning their market growth, it is still important to find new ways to continuously reach health care professionals (HCP). This degree dissertation consequently aims at giving a broader overview of the industry’s general background as well as of the pharmaceutical market in Portugal. Furthermore, the reader will get a deeper insight of the company’s background and its position on the market as well as its marketing and sales structure and its current strategies to address physicians. Current used marketing approaches will be presented and discussed. A market research study will provide insight on physicians changing preferences of communication channels as well as on competitors’ actual marketing strategies. This will allow understanding Boehringer Ingelheim Portugal’s position regarding a multichannel marketing approach in comparison with other players on the market. Furthermore the study will give insight on trends in the offline and online marketing area. Overall, this thesis strives to give a better understanding on physicians’ areas of interest and their communication preferences with pharmaceutical companies in order to find a new pharma sales promotion model that increases the effectiveness of marketing and sales approaches towards HCP.

Date of Award	21 Feb 2014
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Pedro Celeste (Supervisor)