Marketing and the Value Proposition of Zoetis

Introduction I work frequently with animal health experts, and so I thought I would write an article on a company that has a big impact in the animal health industry. Therefore, I wanted to talk about Zoetis, a company that became independent of Pfizer in 2013 via an initial public offering. They have an enormous global presence, and are also active in the country I live in, Scotland. Zoetis has a strong presence here due to the large rural animal populations for farming and Edinburgh being the home to the prestigious Roslin Institute (where Dolly the sheep was cloned; Roslin, n.d.), the Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Medicine and the joint Zoetis and Easter Bush Research Consortium’s Centre for Surveillance and Identification of Emerging Infectious Diseases in Europe. Here we will examine Zoetis from the perspective of the 4 P’s of marketing; Product, Price, Place and Promotion. Additionally, following the examination of marketing materials produced by Zoetis, a value proposition shall be constructed as I see it. A value proposition refers to a marketing statement that a business uses to summarize why consumers should purchase a given product (or service), and why this adds value/solves a problem better than competitors.

The 4 P’s of Marketing and Value Proposition

Regarding the Products of Zoetis, they offer drugs, vaccines, diagnostics, genetic tests, and biodevices for use with companion animals and livestock. A variety of services are also provided such as: technical consulting, education and business support including help with running animal-based businesses. Therefore, the products are marketed towards the largest possible groups within the animal health market; pet owners, animal health researchers, farmers and veterinarians.

The second P is Price, which marketers need to link to the value of the product, whilst taking into account supply costs, seasonal discounts and competitor pricing. Due to Zoetis having a direct selling model, where consumers can buy products directly from the company as opposed to in retailers only, they are able to price their products significantly under that of the competition (based on a comparative search of various products). For example, Inforce®3, the vaccine against Bovine Respiratory Syncytial Virus (BRSV), is priced at half as much as various competitor products such as the same product made by MSD Animal Health. This is despite Zoetis being the creator of the first BRSV vaccine, thus bearing higher costs due to the R&D behind it, rather than simply making a copy.

With respect to Place, the 3rd P of marketing, this refers to where a product is sold and how it is delivered to the market. As mentioned above, Zoetis offers its products both in stores and via a direct selling model. This allows the products Zoetis sells to be visible to the consumer in more places rather than if they only sold online or only in specialist stores.

Finally, the last P of marketing, Promotion, refers to how a product is marketed including advertising, public relations and overall promotional strategy. Zoetis has a very clear product page on their website, with their brand in a striking orange colour that is visually grabbing. For further promotion of their brand to maintain market awareness and competitiveness, they only last year launched TV-based ads, again making use of eye-catching visuals and pleasant-looking colour schemes.

Based on the above, it could be said that the value proposition of Zoetis could be summarized as ‘affordable, innovative and open animal healthcare for all’. This reflects that Zoetis sells very affordable products to all stakeholders in the animal health field in an easy to obtain way, whilst constantly innovating and bringing new products out and maintaining open communication with customers. In fact, the CEO of Zoetis, has stated ‘In the years ahead we will stay true to achieving our long-term value proposition. We will pursue our path of operational change and continue to invest in growth by bringing high quality, innovative new products to customers and by pursuing business development opportunities that strengthen our core business’.

Concluding Remarks

Zoetis has been able to corner the animal healthcare market to become the largest such company in this area since its IPO in 2013. This has been based on the significant value they are able to provide a variety of customers with. They continue to bring out new products and do so at highly competitive prices making them very attractive to users such as veterinarians, animal researchers, pet owners and farmers.