Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) - Pharmalodiagnosticon

Man with out stretched hand holding pills

Pharmalodiagnosticon, an up and coming pharmaceutical company, is marketing a product, Strong Relief, in the crowded OTC market for pain relievers. Brand loyalty runs high among brand name pain relievers; therefore Pharmalodiagnosticon hopes to obtain a large lifetime customer value. The average consumer uses 6 bottles per year of headache medicine.

Strong Relief retails for $10 per bottle, which includes a $3 mark up by the retailer and a $2 manufacturing and distribution cost for Pharmalodiagnosticon. Although the company only solicits 30,000 customers per year with free samples, a whopping 20% choose to continue using Strong Relief after the sample runs out.

Satisfaction after the first year is quite high, and only 24% of the customers stop using the product after the first year. Pharmalodiagnosticon rewards all first year customers that make a 2nd-year purchase with 2 additional samples over the course of the 2nd year.

Each sample costs Pharmalodiagnosticon $3 to manufacture and distribute.

What is the undiscounted expected customer value (over two years) of any of the 30,000 people receiving an initial free sample?

= -3 + .20 x (5 x $5.00) + (.20)(.76) x ((4 x $5.00) - (2 x $3.00))= $4.128