Ask the Expert: Considerations in branding strategy development

Rational thinking. Clinical facts. Performance indicators. Somewhere in any branding strategic platform, factual questions will need to be answered. How far. How fast. How safe. How accurate.

Whereas impressive facts may appear on the surface to be a rational way to approach branding strategies, such an approach can be limiting. If something is 95 percent effective, it is vulnerable to a new brand coming in at 98 percent. If a brand reaches therapeutic levels in three days, another one can come out in a year that does the same in two days.

As a result, an emotionally-charged, open-ended branding strategy potentially allows greater sustainability and flexibility.

The power of emotion

People make their most important decisions primarily through emotion. Yes, facts are important. But feelings trump facts. The expression “go with your gut” underscores the deep value of emotions in decision making.

Strategies that tie into an emotional core provide the benefits of competitive protection and message flexibility. Such strategies cannot be as easily challenged as fact-based approaches, which become greatly weakened the moment a brand’s performance indicator (efficacy, speed, safety, etc) is improved upon by a competitor. A concept like “empowerment,” for example, is much more difficult to undercut.

The emotional approach may provide greater flexibility in terms of promoting to multiple audiences. Imagine a “freedom” strategy for a once-daily brand. It could mean freedom from concern about compliance to one audience; freedom from experiencing side effects to another; and freedom from having to explain a more complicated regimen to yet another audience.

Furthermore, a more open-ended, emotional branding strategy is better suited to a changing market place. For example, confidence about efficacy today can be adapted to confidence about safety tomorrow. A rational efficacy position, however, would not have this strategic mobility.

Though there are no black-and-white rules, the emotional approach to branding strategies—particularly when supported by corresponding facts—is a powerful consideration. This does not mean key facts are not essential; they are. Considerable focus often should be given to them in certain media, such as sales literature and medical education. Here, the branding becomes the “packaging” for the information, building the value of the facts into the bigger picture brand vision, position, and strategy.

Branding as a conduit for branding strategies

Using the brand name and/or logo as a metaphoric part of branding sounds obvious, but in actuality these options are routinely underutilized. One reason is because brand strategy needs to be created very early in the brand’s lifecycle order to use a brand name or logo as a conduit of strategy, which doesn’t happen as often as we pretend.

An example of a brand name that is metaphoric is Allegra. Derived from the Spanish word for ‘happy,’ Allegra literally connects a state of mind consistent with the desired feeling of a allergy sufferer taking Allegra, ie, happy because their symptoms were relieved without experiencing the side effect of drowsiness, a problem characteristic of the category at the time of launch.

As a matter of fact, the name of our agency — BrandPharm — speaks directly to our mission of building pharmaceutical brands.

Conclusion

As media channels grow exponentially, competition becomes more intense, and audiences and their needs become more demanding, the development of effective branding strategies becomes increasing critical. Vital to any branding strategy are: maximizing the flexibility across time, media, and audiences; creating a position that is competitively advantageous for the short- and long-term; and most importantly, connecting to the prospect on a visceral, gut level, so that when they choose a brand, they choose it reflexively as a parent would select a trustworthy baby sitter.

Finally, remember to use all assets at a brand’s disposal, including brand name and logo, and to begin the process as early as humanly possible.

Kathy Magnuson
Contact Kathy on (212) 448 5280 or at kathy.magnuon@brandpharmusa.com