A study of a business plan : a case study of “Oral Moisturizing Products in Thailand for People with Xerostomia”

Abstract

Thailand is fully an ageing society in 2022. Elderlies are prone to develop a subjective dry mouth symptom called Xerostomia. Dry mouth people face daily difficulties such as swallowing food without drinking water, and remedy for Xerostomia is still hard to access in Thai market. This research aimed to explore the potential of oral moisturizing products for people with Xerostomia in the Thai market. This research explored both market entrant possibility and consumer preference of the products. For market competition, this research employed grounded theory by interviewing 25 modern pharmacies class-1 in the Bangkok region with 8 questions about their business operation and available oral moisturizing products, and the data were analyzed using the concept of saturation. For the consumer side, a survey was conducted with 400 Thai people who were older than 20 years old with a possible subjective dry mouth symptom. Respondents must answer 18 questions giving data about their general demographic and preferable 4Ps (product, price, place, and promotion) to support business marketing creation, which the data then analyzed using MS Excel calculation. The results showed that Thai pharmacies did not have artificial saliva related products for sales yet. There was room for this market to grow, but pharmacists suggested that it should highly differentiate from antibacterial-antivirus throat spray products. The results from customers revealed that people of 50+ years old were interested to buy when the price was between 110-159 Baht with traditional promotional channels such as television. Distributional channels should be through chain pharmacies with traditional preventive medicines. Implication of the thematic paper: For entrepreneurs in the dentistry or pharmacy field, this research has shown market opportunities and potential customer segments and preferences. This can help design a more suitable and marketable oral moisturizing formula. For business owners in the dentistry or pharmaceutical industry, there is strong legal protection on moisturizing recipe intellectual property that they need to consider in future business design.