Cure Drug

Have you heard about the angry backlash over the new medicine called Daraprim? It's a medicine that helps patient's with compromised immune systems. Such patient's with HIV and other infectious diseases. Turing Pharmaceuticals in San Francisco has obtained the rights to sell this medicine and has increased the cost by 5000% overnight from $13.50 to $750 a pill. But the CEO says this increase is necessary for the company to make a profit. ok, yes a company needs to make a profit in order to stay in business and create jobs and so on. But at the same time there is an ethical responsibility to society. A profit is acceptable but a gouge of this magnitude should not. For the people who have been waiting and praying for some form of help, insurance or not, this cost increase is insane. Companies of this type, I thought are supposed to be held to some kind of ethical and moral standards. According to this, if it is allowed to pursue, I guess not. The owner of this company and it's board of directors are looking at this as a business marketing gain and the profits associated with obtaining the rights to sell this medicine. This is not marketing, this is gouging and a rip off to the world of patients who need some help now and in the future from the disease's they are consumed with that this medicine from this company holds control. Insurance companies probably will not agree to pay all the cost associated with this drug at this price, so the insured along with the non insured are in the same boat, out of pocket expense for a cure or some relief at the mercy of one company. Before you say so what, It does not affect me, you have no idea what might affect you or a member of your family in the future. You may find yourself in the same shoes as so many other's today. Maybe not this company for this drug, but another company with another drug to treat a different disease. If this is allowed to happen this time, it's opens the door for other companies in the future to do the same. Marketing and profits go hand in hand with today's business, but somewhere there needs to be some kind of guidelines and caps instead of controlling some companies and letting others do whatever they please.

New Business

If you are not from around here, we have a new Buffalo Wild Wings on the south end of town. I had the pleasure of getting to go to the new restaurant with a VIP invitation. With the VIP invitation, at least one person from every table had to order wings to sample them with everybody on the table. You had your choice of sauce or as I did, let the waitress pick out one for me. Also, all the profits from the alcohol went to the charity, Caring for Kids. I enjoyed the meal and of course being able to have a drink of my choice with that meal just made it even better. After getting away from the great atmosphere that was at the new business, I began to sort out why this new establishment would give away free food and donate its profits from the alcohol sales to a charity. With this management class in mind I began to think, what better way to get the word out for the new business in town than word of mouth. The way that they did the meal requirement, not one individual had to order something that they might not have liked. They got to sample the wings and everybody around the table discussing what they liked or disliked about each item and free of charge. Not to mention that free food seems to taste better. What better way for advertisement than positive vibe out in the community and at the work place. Not only will these VIP people come back, but they will in turn with word of mouth, get others to try it. This costs the business money up front, but from the advertisement standpoint, what better way than to pack the restaurant full of people, give them free food and send them on their way with something to talk about. This,in my opinion is a great way to advertise instead of other advertisement options and wait for somebody to walk in or hear from somebody else how good it is before they will try it.  Now we are down to the blue ribbon prize, first impression of the new business, giving back to the community with donating to a good charity. This just put the icing on the cake for the new business to get welcome arms of acceptance in town. Get a chance, try it. It was a pleasurable experience for myself and my family and I personally am enjoying more new businesses coming to town.  

Marketing Follow Up

I made a trip to Dallas, Texas a couple of weeks ago for pleasure and went to a truck show in downtown at the conference center. As I walked around taking in the different marketing technique's and I came across an item that I was personally interested in. The lady in the booth told me and demonstrated the product to me. She asked if I would be interested in somebody contacting me on this product, so I gave her my contact information. Now, I am in Dallas, Texas and live in Alabama, my thought was I will never hear from this company, which has been my norm in the past with this type of situation. This was on Friday and on Monday morning I got a call from a representative out of Ohio. Now this is follow up. This company is set up to advertise their product and then make the contact a priority with marketing this item. To my surprise they had a salesman in the area and could meet with me that afternoon. I have never had this kind of response on any product that I have asked for more information. The salesman showed up on time and had a good demonstration, we discussed prices and warranties and I bought the product. It would be nice if all companies would be this good at getting the product out there. Some companies just act like your not big enough for them to fool with. The company will be at my house to install the product this Wednesday. We will see if the delivery and installation of the product is as impressive as the marketing and sales. 

Discount Coupons

Ever go shopping and when you check out the receipt has a coupon on the bottom saying, "$10 off on your next purchase of $25 or more"? You really feel special as a customer and you start right that minute planing your next trip back to the store and what your going to buy in order to get that $10 off. You are probably going to buy something that you don't really need just so you know your purchase is more than $25. You go back to the store with your purchase plan in mind just to get that $10 out of the company. By the time you make it to the check out you find something else that you think you need. Total bill, $73.76. Marketing mission accomplished. The store got you back in the door with the thought that you are getting $10 for free but instead you spent three times the amount that you had intended to in order to get that $10. If the store really was giving you $10 off, they would give it to you on the present purchase. Marketing strategy to get you back in the store to spend more money worked as planned. Give that a little thought the next time you get that special coupon.