Standing out in the brand crowd
pharmafile | October 1, 2003 | Feature | Medical Communications | branding
Part of the product/brand managers responsibility is to define a products position in the marketplace and define the key messages that support that positioning. The place that a product occupies in a given market determines how potential prescribers, buyers or users perceive it, and is often relative to the position of competitors. In the pharma market this differentiation has become increasingly harder as the arena is full of me-too products and generic drugs, with certain therapeutic areas more lucrative and thus attractive to the industry than others.
Correct product positioning, therefore, becomes a crucial follow-up to big pharmas R&D investment, determining the success or failure of a product or brand.
All [key] messages should be simple and impactful and relate to the needs of customers/patients, says Pamela Cornish, Head of Communications at Abbott Laboratories Ltd, when asked about product positioning. While she admits that a decision on key message quantity is influenced by both the product and its environment, she says: From a media perspective, Abbott always works to the rule of no more than three key messages.
To ensure those key messages are both appropriate and delivered, she advises that the messages and core claims should be thoroughly tested amongst target audiences and that they should be delivered through numerous means, warning no one vehicle will be sufficient to adequately convey messages. Follow-up research such as message testing, she adds, is also a critical component.
Dominic England at Dragon Brand Consulting supports the Abbott approach to the number of key messages, also preferring to stay small. He explains: We would always say keep things simple. A brand should be conveying a single-minded message, with attendant performance characteristics as back up. A brand that says it is about six things will only manage to lodge one in a GPs mind. When you are creating more than two messages you cant determine which one is going to land and how it will be skewed by other messages. Single-mindedness is a key part of a brands relevance and saliency.
Information overload
For the Pharmaceutical Research Institute of Bristol-Myers Squibb, the biotech market it works within is filled to the brim with information and research all potentially relevant when it comes to positioning a product. Patents are being filed at an exponential speed and relevant research articles are stacking up at an alarming rate. When it couldnt keep up with the demands on time the sheer of amount of literature required, the company turned to Dialog a company that provides an interactive information service based on indexed databases to control the flow of information and provide news and material filtered by therapeutic area to help keep up to date with the latest developments. Its eventual aim is to have information synergy stretching across the entire project teams probably the recurring daydream of every biotech and pharma in existence.
Bonnie Snow, Head of Pharmaceutical Marketing at Dialog, says: Having very specific information on products helps you in positioning against your competitors, you need very detailed comparative data so you can anticipate things such as product substitution and so on. Information on forthcoming products is vital, and I think the quality of information as well as the timeliness is what counts.
But the industry isnt the only place where an ever-increasing amount of literature and choice is causing problems. For the customers of the pharma industry, the situation is much the same.
Dominic England explains: Doctors have a great deal of information being thrown at them this means new brands need to be able to change behavioural traits.
To do this, ask yourself about your brand offering: Is it important and efficacious? Is it liked, is it packaged well, and does it appeal to GPs? Is it trusted does it do what it says on the tin ? Does your company have a great track record? Does it inspire the doctor?
Mr England says you have to get the doctor to think My patient will have a positive change of life if I use this rather than a competitor and it could make my life easier.
Compare and contrast?
Differentation of a product is a vital component of product positioning not just in crowded market places, but, perhaps surprisingly, new therapy areas as well. Snow says: You are always competing, even with a new therapy. You still have to be sure about the key statements you can make that will help migrate people from doing what theyve done before even if that is nothing to using this new therapy.
Snow says good positioning must be based on a thorough understanding of the scientific literature. She cites examples of intellectual property issues and expert staff searches as just some of the ways in which effective information management can help when marketing a product.
Only by understanding and working with the information already out there the very information your potential customers are being bombarded with can you begin to develop your key messages to ensure that your product is positioned to be both noticed and, continually, chosen.
Other factors
But competitive edge is not the only concern when it comes to positioning a product. Pamela Cornish says: There are many factors which influence the positioning of a product primarily the needs and benefits of the customer/patient, the disease area, target audience, how the product will be prescribed/delivered, the cost, competitors. She believes a product neednt be positioned as radically different from the competition, they can be subtle, but important and will still have to convey a clear-cut benefit for customers/patients.
She adds: any positioning needs to reflect the benefits of the product for customers/patients each product faces this challenge whether it is first in class or launching into an established market.
The approach at Dragon clashes to some extent with that spoken of at Abbott. England believes brands should be presented in a way that makes them appear radically different, although admits that if you are not first to market you tend to acknowledge the market maker before going out on your own. But Dragons philosophy is that branding was invented to make decisions easier and that making your product positioning different to that of a competitor eliminates confusion.
He adds: The ability of a brand to differentiate itself from the competition is the area where rich territories of prescriber engagement lie.
The perspective instead should focus around understanding those that will receive the product message not just from a here and now focus but by trying to forecast future trends in that sector. Building this flexibility into a products positioning should then work to add longevity to a brand, England argues. He says Dragon employs this approach for its pharma clients (including GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer, Warner Lambert and Novartis) by involving a mix of healthcare practitioners at various levels, attempting to understand their motivations, the way they perceive brands, talk about them and what benefits they are looking for whether emotional or rational.
He explains that for Novartis and GSK, the company ran clinician workshops to uncover brand related language acceptance to understand the nuances that make a brand successful. Finally, England adds: a single minded positioning is key to any brands success whatever the sector. In a crowded mind such as a GPs, standout and clarity of message is even more important as is relevance.
Clinical data
Pamela Cornish says clinical trials data goes a long way to establishing positioning: Clinical data is crucial, as it underpins the claims which are made about the product and should substantiate the positioning.
But Dominic England at Dragon views clinical data in a slightly different way. He concurs that the additional reassurances that clinical data offers will be received well as the product builds trust. Returning once again to the concept of information overload, he says: Doctors who are pressed for time are more susceptible to a clinical data pitch they need to know how the trials went, how the drug has developed since first registration and whether there were any difficulties in getting accreditation.
But he adds: We would not usually recommend that this [clinical data] forms part of the positioning, as competitors can produce equally good results and undermine so-called competitive advantage. Competitive advantage and differentiation must be based in a unique brand advantage. We have used key clinical data in building a brand from scratch for Novartis, Schering Plough and BHI, which were built on solid trials results but they only form a part of a brands communication platform.
For Charlotte Ersboell, of new biotech communications agency Biosector 2, the use of such data comes with a caveat. She believes if new companies were better at defining the desired product positioning before they started clinical phase III work they would have much more useful data, and scientifically validated and endorsed key messages to support their broader communication towards healthcare professionals and patients.
Ersboell says product positioning should revolve around five basic considerations the nature of the market, the nature of the product, market conditions, corporate presence and audience mindset. She illustrates her point with the examples of Lilly introducing Prozac and having to first establish depression as a serious medical condition that could be treated, and of AstraZenenca launching its triptan Zomig to treat migraine, where the challenge was to identify patients that couldnt use existing treatment Imigran. Clinical data that re-enforces these kinds of marketing messages is obviously going to be most useful to industry.
Longevity and lifecycle
As a product moves from pre- to post- launch, Ersboell argues: A strong brand positioning endures and strengthens over time. The core brand values ideally stay intact, but the communication becomes more sophisticated as more audiences are targeted, such as consumers, and more layers are attached to the core positioning and message strategy as new evidence and changing market conditions evolve. And when should you stop developing a products positioning and message? Never, she says.
If you have done your homework right and your brand is positioned correctly, then the only tweaks needed are those that take into account market developments and changes.
Cornish says: A products positioning should evolve throughout its lifecycle as the environment changes over time. You should only stop refining the positioning and message once you want to stop selling the product.
Bonnie Snow believes that managing the flow of material also allows for product longevity and says: you need to be constantly aware of the local market environment, and continually watch for new products being introduced. She continues: Once youve launched the product of course, there are lots of market changes not only the introduction of other products, but also things like regulatory developing and licensing activities. You are constantly looking for that and opportunities to evergreen it for example with a line extension. Looking to the future she believes drug delivery technology and the differences those would make affect future product positioning.
Jokingly, Snow adds: I don't think people in marketing in pharmaceuticals ever rest they are always ahead of the game so they are insatiable information users.
For now, with the markets need for that information to be channelled, it looks as if the role of product manager is a safe one.
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