Benchmarking as an innovative marketing technology on the pharmaceutical market

The study describes one of the marketing tools for competitive analysis of a pharmaceutical company that is benchmarking, which means a way to analyze the weaknesses of a firm by comparing its capacities with the ones of the main competitor and other market players. Although the pharmaceutical industry of the Russian Federation lags behind, nowadays, it is dramatically transformed. To make profits in this sector is becoming more difficult. Benchmarking is hardly used in the pharmaceutical industry, since most companies apply an outdated classic marketing system. The author believes that benchmarking is an essential element for improving profitability and the main success factor for business tasks fulfilment. The study reviews the peculiarities of benchmarking applied as a powerful tool to improve pharmaceutical company activities.