Ask the expert: establishing a brand to improve marketing effectiveness

In pharmaceutical marketing, there are two salient truths as we work to build brands: we rarely have the luxury of data that validates our belief that our brand is the best, and; we rarely have large global marketing budgets to build a brand the way consumer brands are often built.

Despite these drawbacks, our goals are very similar to those of the newest soft drink brand: engender a deep, emotional connection between our customers and our brands to ensure they stay committed – even when the competition tries to lure them away with the introduction of newer drugs.

We strive to build this connection with our customer early, when the benefits of the new brand provide a strong rationale for prescribing. If we can – somehow – communicate that our product will make the HCP’s lives easier, with fewer patient complaints and better results, there will be fewer reasons for them to switch to other products.

Take the time to establish that the brand is not a luxury; it’s a necessity. Too often pre-launch work starts close to the regulatory approval and, in the race to get to market, we tend to settle for positioning, messaging, strategy and branding that are sufficient rather than optimal. Unfortunately, this can result in a message flow built around brand attributes, which leads to a more functional connection with our customers. The downside of a functional connection is less product loyalty down the line.

The branding process should start when a product is still in clinical development so a personality and lexicon are established as well as awareness – often as early as Phase 2. The process involves a thorough understanding of the customers, the construct of the market, the competition and the clinical milieu in the context of our brand and its various scenarios as well as those of current and future competitive brands. Planning for this early on will ensure that we are ready to overcome – even avoid – any obstacle to the brand’s success.

Insightful understanding of our customers is crucial. While patients have, in recent years, taken on greater importance in the decision-making process, our customers are the healthcare providers who prescribe our products. But cutting through their typical responses to questions of “why do you prescribe Product X” to gain insights into what will engender brand loyalty is difficult at best.

At Brand Pharm, we use market research techniques that often make healthcare professionals uncomfortable in order to get to the true insights that will help to drive our clients’ brands. Gaining these insights allows us to build a story that will solidify the emotional connection we seek with customers.

Keeping loyalty alive

When a brand is first launched, there is much fanfare, with larger budgets and attention lavished on it. Excitement extends into our customer base via multi-channel distribution of key data. There also are lots of folks in the clinical trials included early on. But invariably the thrill dissipates along with budgets; the recently launched product becomes an in-line brand with little new data to maintain the excitement and share of voice.

If the brand’s original position was clearly conceived, developed and evolved over the course of its lifecycle, it should hold our customers’ interest and loyalty. In fact, as long as we continue to deliver on the brand benefit promises we made, and potentially improve upon them, our support should grow.

It is time to assess the ongoing value of the brand’s position – to determine where shifts might be needed to strengthen customer loyalty.

Market share, sales, market trends or conditions and customer attitudes can tell us where we have not been as successful as needed. Ongoing knowledge of these factors can detect early where there is a shift in market perception toward a brand or uncover an enthusiasm for a potential new competitor. In-depth analysis of the whys around a shift in enthusiasm allow us to reflect on whether we have continued to deliver the benefits promised and whether the emotional bond is a strong as it could be.

Post launch should be a time of reflection and analysis as well as a time for ideas and, most important, a time for action. We may need to strengthen our message, consider alternative approaches or look for additional vehicles to remind HCPs why they loved our brand early on. We have to reemphasize our benefits, reengineer our approach to our audience and draw HCPs back into the emotional connection we created earlier to ensure we retain market share and sales. While new brands try to shift the loyalty of our customers we need to ensure our brand is not taken for granted.

E-mail Kathy at kathy.magnuson@brandpharmusa.com