Last time when you went for shopping, you picked up PearsTM bathing soap and MaggiTM tomato ketch up without much thought or research. Was it because of your perception on the respective brands or because of your relationships with Unilever and Nestle? Of course, this would not be exactly the same when it comes to pharmaceuticals and buying drugs. I agree. Still I think a thought on this from the Indian pharma scene is worth it.
In India we have been focusing (more than needed) only on physician all these years. A company launches a product, decides the promotional plan and promotes it to physician for generating prescriptions. Hardly any focus or thought is given on the patients’ side (this is another issue, which we will ponder later). Companies are busy building relationships with physicians rather than building brand! But one cannot complain on this, as the industry set up was not conducive for a brand building exercise. Asking me why? OK. Here it is… Take an example of an antibiotic drug. If a company is launching a latest cephalosporin (pre 1995 registered) in the market, the company is very sure that there will be at least 5 players in the market in the first month itself and more in the months to follow at different price points, trade offers, campaigns etc. In such a scenario what would bring the business? Is it the company’s relationship with the doctors or the brand image one would build on the product, which is exactly the same as all the other competitors’? The features, benefits, scientific data etc. of the product are all downloaded and talked by all the companies. The English might change but this might not build a brand very often. So in a branded generic market with lot of competitors fighting for the same mind share, relationship marketing is more important and sensible than brand building. I would say it is 90% relationship and 10% brand building.
But times are changing. Think about a company launching an antihypertensive drug (with market exclusivity as it is registered post 1995) in the market. Company is sure that there is no generic competition here and it is only one player in the market promoting the drug. Now the competition is other molecules targeted at the same condition and the differentiator is the key scientific data and benefits of the product over the competitor products. Now here is a scenario, where doctors will not prescribe just on relationships. They need to know the value of the product, the benefits the product will offer to his patients, how the product compares with other products for the same indication etc. In short company needs to build a brand, which pulls the physician to prescribe the product. The equation would change to 90% brand building and 10% relationship.
The MNC’s who have come to India with a new focus, in the current product patent era, are all focusing on building their brands in India rather than just goody relationships with the physicians. Even the Indian companies, who launch exclusive products through licensing, acquisitions etc. should also follow this path to build their excusive assets. As a pharmaceutical marketing professional, I see this market evolution with lot of interest and hope that brings in lot of challenges and value-based ethics to the profession and industry as a whole.
Cheers!!!
Showing posts with label pharmaceutical. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pharmaceutical. Show all posts
Monday, March 23, 2009
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Marketing Excellence – Some of the Key Factors to Focus…
Even though pharmaceutical companies like to boast about their R&D costs as the biggest spend in business, marketing and promotions takes out much bigger chunk of cash every year from pharmaceutical companies. A report from PLOS medicine “The Cost of Pushing Pills” estimates the total annual pharmaceutical promotional spend in the United States as $57.5 bn against the total R&D spend of $29.6 bn in 2004.
In any business scenario, it is common sense to ensure excellence in areas of higher spends and business impact. Like many industries, sales & marketing (which majorly constitute the promotional spending) is one of the most critical functions in building up top line and bottom line in a business. We have heard lot of noise about sales force excellence in terms of effectiveness and efficiency. Most of the companies have many programs to increase sales force excellence and the current technological and analytical tools help these in many ways.
But have we heard enough on Marketing Excellence??? Don’t we think there are gaps for improvements in performing brand/therapy building exercises? Do we really believe that we are seeing through all aspects in getting a better bang for the buck?
I am trying to bring up some of the key factors that can reduce efficiency bleeding and financial leakages while performing brand/therapy promotion in a pharmaceutical company.
1) Communication Strategy: Needless to point that deciding and designing the communication strategy is one of the key functions in marketing a brand. Even though companies focus a lot on creating the target indication, positioning in terms of usage of the brand, place of the brand in the treatment algorithm, comparative analysis, treatment regimens etc., the focus on monthly or quarterly roll-out of communication and the impact analysis of the such rolled out communication warrants more attention. The communication planned should always attract the target customer, be simple to deliver and comprehend, address the key concerns in the minds of customers and in-line with the overall brand strategy. This also has its effect on the sales representative’s effectiveness in delivering the planned message and influence scripts. The data on impact should be recorded, as these historic data will further strengthen the analysis of the impact of communication types in the future. Competitive intelligence and market feedback are very critical in designing and planning the communication roll-outs for a brand. The brand manager should critically analyze the quality and effectiveness of the communication in terms of the competitor communications, physician response from the market, scripts volume (nRx and Trx) etc.
Another important aspect is internal communication to allied functions like sales, manufacturing, R&D, supply chain, finance etc. A brand manager should make it mandatory in his monthly plan to communicate key information and plans to the relevant allied functions in a timely manner. The major source of business information in a company is marketing and sales departments. So timely information and communication to all the concerned stake holders not only brings everyone up to speed but also brings in easy and early buy-ins for new initiatives and plans.
2) Business Analysis: Every move in marketing costs dollars and hence business analysis and validation in every step is very important. This involves both internal and external data analysis. Today a brand manager or a pharmaceutical company do not have dearth for market data. The challenges are in identifying the relevant data and analyze the data in terms of the key performance indicators (KPIs) so that the analysis throws up the right diagnosis of the situation and direction for the action. The KPIs would differ for different brands and therapies. For eg. One of the KPIs for a mature brand would be market share whereas for a new brand would be nRx (new scripts). If the KPIs for every brand and portfolio can be identified, the business analysis would mean a lot different and thus the investments made of promotion would be far more effective and efficient.
3) Multi-channel Promotion: Historically pharmaceutical promotion has been majorly through sales representatives. Today the scenario is changing – a sales rep costs about $200,000 per annum in the US, about 70% of the physicians cancel the sales rep appointments, 60-70% of the physicians do not consider sales reps as a reliable source of information, the average time spent by a sales rep in a physician’s office is 90 seconds to 2 minutes! In such an environment, it’s high time to pursue alternate channels, which can be for more cost effective, customer friendly and innovative in nature. There are various channels that have come up recently like e-detailing, blogs, KOL communication portals, virtual CMEs, call centers, direct mailers etc. Identifying and experimenting new channels is a great way to bring in innovation and create interest both at internal and external customer levels.
4) Resource Allocation: Resources are always limited when it comes to any kinds of investments. I am sure all of us agree that “endless resources do not mean any business sense”. S o the crux is how well the available resources (dollars, people, time, good will etc.) can be utilized so that the bang for the buck is the maximum possible. We talked about multi-channel promotion above. If the brand manager does not know the performance dynamics of every channel, she would not know which channels need what kind of investments. Every channel will have an optimal investment range that gives the maximum returns. This depends on various dynamics like customer acceptance, impact of the interactions, repeatability, penetration, cost etc. Similarly the brand manager should also know the optimal resource requirements for every brand and market segments. Hence the brand manager needs to be on top of all these to decide the annual promotional budget and the optimal allocation to the budget to get the best possible returns for every dollar.
5) Economies of Scale: We most often feel economies of scale is only for manufacturing and supply chain folks. Not at all. Economies of scale can be utilized in marketing in areas like purchase of branding services and goods (gifts, give-aways). Let us think a bit about the brand management services. Brand managers deal with a lot of vendors for various branding services like advertising agencies, medical writers, event managers, public relations agencies, literature designers etc. This aspect is not very transparent today in most of the global pharmaceutical houses, as the brand managers seldom discuss or share the information about their branding vendors to their peers. There is hardly any process to know which are the vendors available or short-listed in the company for different kinds of services, how are they evaluated by peers, how do they figure in terms of cost, quality, time-lines etc. in their earlier assignments in the company so on and so forth. This lack of transparency prevents utilizing the economies of scale in negotiating good prices, service level agreements, and quality commitments etc. from vendors.
These are some of the key points on top of my mind when thinking about pharmaceutical marketing excellence. I am sure there are much more concerns and challenges to discuss under all of these topics. However, if you feel I have grossly missed out mentioning any key issue here or if you have a different opinion on any of my views, please put across your valuable comments.
Cheers!!!
In any business scenario, it is common sense to ensure excellence in areas of higher spends and business impact. Like many industries, sales & marketing (which majorly constitute the promotional spending) is one of the most critical functions in building up top line and bottom line in a business. We have heard lot of noise about sales force excellence in terms of effectiveness and efficiency. Most of the companies have many programs to increase sales force excellence and the current technological and analytical tools help these in many ways.
But have we heard enough on Marketing Excellence??? Don’t we think there are gaps for improvements in performing brand/therapy building exercises? Do we really believe that we are seeing through all aspects in getting a better bang for the buck?
I am trying to bring up some of the key factors that can reduce efficiency bleeding and financial leakages while performing brand/therapy promotion in a pharmaceutical company.
1) Communication Strategy: Needless to point that deciding and designing the communication strategy is one of the key functions in marketing a brand. Even though companies focus a lot on creating the target indication, positioning in terms of usage of the brand, place of the brand in the treatment algorithm, comparative analysis, treatment regimens etc., the focus on monthly or quarterly roll-out of communication and the impact analysis of the such rolled out communication warrants more attention. The communication planned should always attract the target customer, be simple to deliver and comprehend, address the key concerns in the minds of customers and in-line with the overall brand strategy. This also has its effect on the sales representative’s effectiveness in delivering the planned message and influence scripts. The data on impact should be recorded, as these historic data will further strengthen the analysis of the impact of communication types in the future. Competitive intelligence and market feedback are very critical in designing and planning the communication roll-outs for a brand. The brand manager should critically analyze the quality and effectiveness of the communication in terms of the competitor communications, physician response from the market, scripts volume (nRx and Trx) etc.
Another important aspect is internal communication to allied functions like sales, manufacturing, R&D, supply chain, finance etc. A brand manager should make it mandatory in his monthly plan to communicate key information and plans to the relevant allied functions in a timely manner. The major source of business information in a company is marketing and sales departments. So timely information and communication to all the concerned stake holders not only brings everyone up to speed but also brings in easy and early buy-ins for new initiatives and plans.
2) Business Analysis: Every move in marketing costs dollars and hence business analysis and validation in every step is very important. This involves both internal and external data analysis. Today a brand manager or a pharmaceutical company do not have dearth for market data. The challenges are in identifying the relevant data and analyze the data in terms of the key performance indicators (KPIs) so that the analysis throws up the right diagnosis of the situation and direction for the action. The KPIs would differ for different brands and therapies. For eg. One of the KPIs for a mature brand would be market share whereas for a new brand would be nRx (new scripts). If the KPIs for every brand and portfolio can be identified, the business analysis would mean a lot different and thus the investments made of promotion would be far more effective and efficient.
3) Multi-channel Promotion: Historically pharmaceutical promotion has been majorly through sales representatives. Today the scenario is changing – a sales rep costs about $200,000 per annum in the US, about 70% of the physicians cancel the sales rep appointments, 60-70% of the physicians do not consider sales reps as a reliable source of information, the average time spent by a sales rep in a physician’s office is 90 seconds to 2 minutes! In such an environment, it’s high time to pursue alternate channels, which can be for more cost effective, customer friendly and innovative in nature. There are various channels that have come up recently like e-detailing, blogs, KOL communication portals, virtual CMEs, call centers, direct mailers etc. Identifying and experimenting new channels is a great way to bring in innovation and create interest both at internal and external customer levels.
4) Resource Allocation: Resources are always limited when it comes to any kinds of investments. I am sure all of us agree that “endless resources do not mean any business sense”. S o the crux is how well the available resources (dollars, people, time, good will etc.) can be utilized so that the bang for the buck is the maximum possible. We talked about multi-channel promotion above. If the brand manager does not know the performance dynamics of every channel, she would not know which channels need what kind of investments. Every channel will have an optimal investment range that gives the maximum returns. This depends on various dynamics like customer acceptance, impact of the interactions, repeatability, penetration, cost etc. Similarly the brand manager should also know the optimal resource requirements for every brand and market segments. Hence the brand manager needs to be on top of all these to decide the annual promotional budget and the optimal allocation to the budget to get the best possible returns for every dollar.
5) Economies of Scale: We most often feel economies of scale is only for manufacturing and supply chain folks. Not at all. Economies of scale can be utilized in marketing in areas like purchase of branding services and goods (gifts, give-aways). Let us think a bit about the brand management services. Brand managers deal with a lot of vendors for various branding services like advertising agencies, medical writers, event managers, public relations agencies, literature designers etc. This aspect is not very transparent today in most of the global pharmaceutical houses, as the brand managers seldom discuss or share the information about their branding vendors to their peers. There is hardly any process to know which are the vendors available or short-listed in the company for different kinds of services, how are they evaluated by peers, how do they figure in terms of cost, quality, time-lines etc. in their earlier assignments in the company so on and so forth. This lack of transparency prevents utilizing the economies of scale in negotiating good prices, service level agreements, and quality commitments etc. from vendors.
These are some of the key points on top of my mind when thinking about pharmaceutical marketing excellence. I am sure there are much more concerns and challenges to discuss under all of these topics. However, if you feel I have grossly missed out mentioning any key issue here or if you have a different opinion on any of my views, please put across your valuable comments.
Cheers!!!
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
e-Detailing Portals: Do they really work?
e-Detailing has been a buzz in the pharmaceutical industry since early 2000's as an innovative way to promote / communicate the marketing messages to the physicians. I agree on the advantages if electronic media is utilized for detailing the products using a Tablet PC, laptop or a PDA (with fairly good screen size) by a sales representative. This will help the reps to use visual technology like animation to explain complex medical things more emphatically and interestingly, e-signatures to record physican's feedbacks and queries, collect market / customer information on real-time etc.. But if portals are used for e-Detailing, then I have my questions -
- What propels the physician to visit these sites? I have read about financial incentives for visiting the sites. Then how do the companies ensure that the physician reads/ goes through the messages in these sites?
- How ready and open are the physicians to enter the details and follow-up requests in these sites?
- How do pharma companies ensure that the e-Detailing portal is not just an "advertising portal" of the company towards the physicians?
- Is it realistic to imagine that every physician will remember about 5 (if not more) log-ins and passwords for every company's e-Detailing portal? How do companies manage this?
As I have written above, I totally agree with having e-Detailing built-in on the sales reps' laptop or Tablet PC, so that an effective transfer of information (targeted to the specific customer needs) can happen on a visit. But my above questions are about the band of e-Detailing portals that have come up recently.
It would be great, if I can recieve your thoughts on this.
Cheers.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
