Answer to Question #290105 in Marketing for amos

Question

a. Examine the strategies that made it possible for G&D to gain control over its suppliers, distributors and rivals.

Answer 1

G&D Ltd is a leading pharmaceutical company in Ghana. The company acquired Ernest Chemist Ltd. for GHC5 million in 2017, adding a broad manufacturing and distribution network for expanding in the generic medications and medical devices market. Unsurprisingly, the company's stock price soared 15 percent in the first four weeks of 2018 while the overall stock market declined 3 percent. Following the outbreak of COVID-19 in Ghana the Government of Ghana has been exploring the possibility of securing a vaccine locally. Meanwhile, leading pharmaceutical manufacturer G&D recently formed a partnership with Merck Life Science to compete for the Food and Drugs Authority’s new COVID-19 vaccination project based on G&D clinical laboratory platform. G&D revenues for fiscal fourth quarter of 2019 increased 6.2 percent year-over-year, partly due to the company’s new Accessories division that was created after the acquisition of Tobinco Ltd. G&D is gaining some control over its suppliers, distributors and competitors. They are a process driven company, with the ability to work around the requirements of their customer’s production systems, while developing their own standardization to deliver excellent service. Their success in this area is recognized by their continual achievement of client awards. They also leverage technology to enable their people to perform more effectively and to provide a competitive advantage for their customers.

 

They use cost leadership which is a competitive advantage business often attempt to gain. Cost leadership as an advantage occurs when a business is able to offer the same quality product as its competitors, but at a lower price. To use this strategy, a company must find ways to produce goods at a lower cost through the perfection of production methods or by the utilization of resources in a more efficient manner than competitors. Also they have been using differentiation which is a strategy that businesses often use to set themselves apart from competitors. In a differentiation strategy, low cost is only one of many possible factors that may set aside a business from others. Business that differentiate themselves typically look for one or more marketable attributes that they have that can set them apart from their competitors. They then find the segment of the market that finds those attributes important and market to them. The process can also work in the other direction with businesses conducting research to determine which things consumers find most important and then developing a niche market for those products or characteristics.