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Revised 27 February 2003.

Abstract

This is the first in a trilogy of papers reporting a five-year research project into marketing strategy making in medical markets. This first paper reports an empirical assessment of marketing strategy quality in 18 companies in the pharmaceutical, medical device, diagnostic and equipment sectors. It concludes that the marketing strategy of many medical companies is weak and that their survival is therefore dependent upon their competitors having even weaker strategies. The second and third papers in this trilogy explore the reasons for this weakness and develop a model for the improvement and testing of marketing strategy.