Think Global, Act Local – Country Adaptations for Market Success
pharmafile | June 22, 2012 | Feature | Sales and Marketing |
One key challenge pharma and device companies face is how to adapt marketing and communication tools to suit local needs. Whether tailoring presentations to country-specific stakeholders or aligning models to local cost and pricing structures, there is an ever increasing need to adapt tools to unique settings. Pharma and device firms may currently rely on global branding strategies which are beneficial as they provide consistency, are more easily measured, and often more time and cost efficient. But the truth remains that each market has its own set of competitors, cultural influences and regulations. De-centralized companies that adapt to these differences and empower local marketing teams to make brand decisions will ensure their core values are communicated successfully in the local market.
Local adaptation should become part of the central development strategy, but this is more easily said than done. Sunil Ramkali, Account Director at communication agency W, lists a set of recommendations for global pharma brand campaigns. He explains that to succeed it is imperative to set up a core team of brand advocates, including local marketing affiliates, and incorporate them in the branding and testing process. Local insight and knowledge is highly valuable when building branding campaigns and should not be underestimated. It is also important to build a culture of exchange between global and local marketing teams where both set the right terminology, agree upon brand campaign objectives and find the correct balance between standardization and adaptation.
IMS Health recently forecast a new outcome for the pharmaceutical industry, post-recession. As markets in Europe and the US shrink, new markets are opening up all over the globe. Labelled as the “pharmerging markets”, countries such as Brazil, China, India, Mexico, Russia and Turkey are areas IMS predict will experience large growth, somewhere between 13-16% collectively. Pharmaceutical companies will need to build more inclusive marketing strategies if they want to leverage this growth, especially as these emerging markets come with influences quite different to those found in traditional American and European markets.
To reflect changing marketing strategies, communication tools must follow suit. Local sales forces require tools built around the global value message but are also adaptable for their local market. Disease prevalence, treatment mix, economic and cultural factors differ between patient populations which, in turn, affects the outcomes of various health economic models.
BaseCase has kept all of this in mind while developing their web-based platform for payer communication. This platform allows global HQ to distribute a generic communication tool to affiliates, and then grant access rights to these affiliates so that they may adapt it to meet their local requirements. In order to more accurately measure return on investment, Global HQ still retains an overview of each tool and how it is being used in the field. User analytics provides tracking of various metrics; recording how many times the tool is accessed, how long a presentation is in use, which slides or tabs are used the most, and which sales reps are generating reports.
In an environment of increased competition, local adaptation is becoming a key factor for success. Inability to offer tools tailored for local sales forces will severely limit global commercial success, especially as new markets in the developing world continue to expand.
