TRANSFORMING A CORPORATE BRAND

Putting Our Process to the Ultimate Test

Regardless of the strength of launch positioning or brand strategy, market forces change, and most brands reach a point in their lifecycle when considering a complete re-positioning (and possibly re-branding) is necessary. We recently faced that challenge with our own brand, as an advertising agency within the pharmaceutical space.

In response to this challenge, we put our money where our mouth is, by applying our own internal strategic process --the process we promise clients will help drive their business. After all, how better to demonstrate they work?

Based on the results of that process, we made the radical decision to re-launch the Agency, ultimately creating a new corporate brand – Brand Pharm -- that has been lauded by staff, clients, and competition alike.

From Key Customer Insight to Brand Position

The creation of a new brand requires input and vision. Early in the process, we must listen carefully to customers in order to ascertain the most salient issues, to determine the one key insight about our customer that will serve as the foundation of our positioning. That insight—juxtaposed with an assessment of such factors as capabilities, market trends, and the positions of competitors—provide the substance from which to create a new vision.

BrandStock™: Our proprietary process for branding and strategic development

In order to maximize the potential of our clients’ brands, BrandPharm applies a rigorous, proprietary process called BrandStock™ (see schematic below).

This multi-stage process begins with a comprehensive market analysis, designed to unearth the core customer insight that drives positioning and personality development.

BrandStock capitalizes on qualitative research as well as other, alternative psychological tools to gain insight into our customers. These include projective techniques such as category sculpting, personification, role play, and modified apperception tests.

For messaging, we utilize trade-off analyses to prioritize messages and determine the best way to portray the data, complementing standard quantitative research, such as ATUs and segmentation.

The benefit of this approach to our clients is that we establish a strongly held belief, perception, or behavior of our target core customer that will change their behaviors. This insight is the powerful foundation for the development of a successful brand positioning and personality from which the brand strategies and tactics are then driven.
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Closing the loop—the creative expression of the idea

The effectiveness and success of a brand position ultimately hinges on the creative concept that expresses it in the marketplace. In recognition of this, the BrandPharm process of developing and evaluating creative rigorously applies a set of parameters to ensure the concept is firmly rooted in the core customer insight, and provide objective criteria by which to measure the creative product.

The Proof of Our Process:

BrandPharm—The Agency that Stimulates Alternative Thinking
In the case of Brand Pharm, once our process identified the need to relaunch, we needed to determine the key customer insight that would help us be successful in the marketplace. That key customer insight was that “we need you to complement our thinking, not duplicate it.”

Based on this insight, we developed our new corporate brand positioning: “Stimulating Alternative Thinking.” This position refers both to our approach to business, as well as to our results. Our BrandStock™ process stimulates the kind of thinking that creates alternative ideas and solutions. The result of this process is alternative thinking that is stimulating.

Our brand position is customer-focused, not internally focused. And the new Agency name we chose reflects that—BrandPharm; ie, we are all about building pharmaceutical brands through our alternative thinking. Our core essence is to approach each client’s business in a way they can’t, while offering solutions that complement the work of their internal teams. The ultimate end result—a successful brand.

Core Benefits of Alternative Thinking

Stimulating alternative thinking provides far-reaching benefits to the work, the clients, the clients’ company, and to our own company. Alternative thinking creates work that can stand out, redefine problems, and even redefine standards. Such thinking also excites the clients’ internal constituents, positioning them as forward-thinking problem solvers.

For the client’s company itself, it provides a halo effect, with the purpose of maximizing leadership perception and optimizing corporate investment. Last but far from least, alternative thinking makes us as an Agency—and as individuals—more stimulated, and more appreciated internally and externally.

As a result of our efforts and new positioning, BrandPharm seeks to help redefine our industry, and reposition it as a place of vibrant and original ideas. And, if we get the right messages to the right people at the right time, we hope to increase the focus on healthcare today, and ultimately improve outcomes

The BrandPharm Brand Personality

A critical component of our BrandStock process is the development of a Brand Personality. Here, too, we put our process to the test on ourselves, and created the emotionally charged personality integral to our positioning. Our personality is that of a Firebrand. On one hand, it’s simply a torch, a stick of burning wood taken from a fire. On the other hand, it is the individual who takes the burning stick from the fire. The person who stirs things up. But also someone who blazes the trail.

Each of our departments are made up of such people, willing to stick their hands in the metaphorical fire of excitement, and eager to blaze a strategic or creative path into the unprecedented.

BrandPharm Core Values—Illuminating the Firebrand

The shared vision behind our position is to stimulate alternative solutions that complement—not duplicate—those conceived by our clients. That’s what clients crave. New ideas. Fresh thinking. Things other than what they can think up on their own. Saying it is one thing. Doing it is a whole other matter. So we identified core values that would ignite the Firebrand personality, and stimulate alternative thinking throughout our entire Agency.

Those core values of BrandPharm are:

Core Value #1: Maybe the World is Round

Whether it is developing strategies, tactics, or creative conceptual ideas, BrandPharm fearlessly pursues and promotes original ideas that have never been done before. This requires a thorough knowledge of what is out there, as well as the courage to do things differently. As a result, our clients benefit from competitively distinct point of view.

Core Value #2: Question Authority

It is not uncommon for agencies to simply follow direction from the client, with the service mentality that this is what will make the client happy. But such an approach does nothing to add to, or complement, the talent at the client’s corporation. At BrandPharm, instead of a knee-jerk “yes,” we probe client dictates to unearth their true goals, the offer alternative solutions. This gives clients options, thereby increasing the likelihood of unearthing the ideal approach.

Core Value #3: Speak Before Spoken To

We proactively offer insights, ideas, direction, and perspective—we don’t wait to be told what to do. This provides more ideas and options, and does so in a more timely matter which, in today’s increasingly competitive marketplace, can make the difference between success and failure.

Core Value #4: Viva La Difference

The only way an Agency can create different ideas is to have different kind of people working there. At BrandPharm, we celebrate diversity, employing people from myriad backgrounds whose collective life experiences bring fresh, fearless, unfettered thinking.

Core Value # 5: Follow the Golden Rule

Arguably the most crucial element in a successful relationship between client and Agency is the quality of their personal interactions. Recognizing that on a deep level, BrandPharm treats everyone—clients, colleagues, contacts—with the same respect, open-mindedness, and dignity that we expect from ourselves. As a result we get real dialog and a genuine exchange of ideas. Therefore, more and better ideas.

Core Value #6: You Get What’s Coming to You

It’s impossible for us to do the best possible work for our clients unless our people are highly motivated. That’s why BrandPharm objectively bases personnel decisions on merit. BrandPharm devotes considerable time and effort in training and reviewing personnel in order to maximize their efficiency and talent, and optimize their ability to grow. Such an approach leads to happy, productive, and excited talent.

Core Value #7: Laughter is the Best Medicine

Simply put—having fun is an integral way of doing good work.

The Proof that the Process works

Looking at things differently. That’s how we create ideas with our client partners that have their customers look at their brands differently. And distinctly. Thereby increasing their chance for success. As this article pointed out at the onset, we put our money where our mouth is. That’s why we invested in advertising our Agency brand (see corresponding images of ads), and created a campaign that meets our own rigorous criteria in an exceptional way.

The campaign also delivered results in the way of multiple new business leads, as well as a silver MM&M award.

BrandPharm—the agency of alternative thinking—gives today’s clients a different choice. And, as the new corporate tag line proclaims, such a prospect provides considerable “Food for thought, picked fresh daily.”