Nate's Notes
Case Questions for: John A. Quelch and Heather Beckham (2010), “Metabical: Pricing, Packaging, and Demand Forecasting for a New Weight-Loss Drug,” Harvard Business Case #: 4183, Harvard Business Publishing. Instructions for answering the below questions: * Provide your answers in form of a memo addressed to me. * Use a bullet format (use approximately one to two sentence per bullet). * Use approximately five to eight bullets per question (when appropriate). * You must reference information from the above case for each question. * Use at least one additional source of information when answering each question (can be class material). * Fully reference your write-up and attach referenced material.
Q 1: How does Metabical compare to current weight-loss options? Create a table.
Q 2: What are the pros and cons of the forecasting methods presented by Printup? If you had to estimate demand for this product, how would you go about it. What would your demand (unit) forecast look like for the first five years?
Q 3: What considerations should be taken into account when making decisions about the package count? What package size would you recommend?
Q 4: What pricing strategy approaches would you suggest Printup explore? What are the advantages and disadvantages of each strategy? What price would you recommend?
Q 5: What impact does your pricing decision have on profitability? What is the ROI over the first five years for each of the pricing strategies identified? See next page for “Sample Year 1 Metabical Marketing Budget & Ongoing Marketing Cost Estimates”.
Sample Year 1 Metabical Marketing Budget & Ongoing Marketing Cost Estimates | Year 1 | Ongoing | Assumption: Ongoing as % of Year 1 | Advertising Push (Prescriber) Pull (DTC) Total Advertising Sales Promotion Development of support program Lunch & Learn seminars Production of support program Training / promotional
Q 1: How does Metabical compare to current weight-loss options? Create a table.
Q 2: What are the pros and cons of the forecasting methods presented by Printup? If you had to estimate demand for this product, how would you go about it. What would your demand (unit) forecast look like for the first five years?
Q 3: What considerations should be taken into account when making decisions about the package count? What package size would you recommend?
Q 4: What pricing strategy approaches would you suggest Printup explore? What are the advantages and disadvantages of each strategy? What price would you recommend?
Q 5: What impact does your pricing decision have on profitability? What is the ROI over the first five years for each of the pricing strategies identified? See next page for “Sample Year 1 Metabical Marketing Budget & Ongoing Marketing Cost Estimates”.
Sample Year 1 Metabical Marketing Budget & Ongoing Marketing Cost Estimates | Year 1 | Ongoing | Assumption: Ongoing as % of Year 1 | Advertising Push (Prescriber) Pull (DTC) Total Advertising Sales Promotion Development of support program Lunch & Learn seminars Production of support program Training / promotional