WHAT

THE PHARMA CEO

WANTS FROM THE
BRAND MANAGER
Overcome The Tough Challenges In Pharma Branding

Vivek Hattangadi

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 All rights reserved. No parts of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,
or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or
otherwise, without the prior permission of the author.

© Vivek Hattangadi

Published by
The Enablers
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website: www.theenablers.org e-mail: [email protected]

Prof. Vivek Hattangadi

First edition: VijayaDashmi, 6th October 2011
Second Edition: Akshaya Tritiya, 2nd May 2014
Price: 595.00 / US $ 11.95

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 Dedication

T his book is dedicated to my Guru, Prof. Chitta Mitra, of C Marc. He gave a new
concept to the pharmaceutical industry in India - from push strategies to pull
strategies - from selling to prescription generation. His famous and oft repeated
statement, “The health of a pharmaceutical company in India depends on the
quantity of prescriptions being generated for that company”, has been one of the
motivators for my writing this book.

I am indebted to Mr. C.M. Hattangadi, formerly of Nicholas Piramal and Mr.

Gurudas Masurkar, ex-Duphar Interfran, who supported and encouraged me when I
wanted to join the Indian pharmaceutical industry. I also cannot forget the stalwarts
who have trained me, like Mr. P.M. Sapre, in my basic sales functions, Dr. Raja Smarta,
from whom I learnt the basics of brand management, and, Prof. Tarun Gupta, who
was my mentor in brand management.

I am also grateful to the industry leaders who have given me a tremendous boost
in my career in the pharmaceutical industry: Late P.J. Menezes (Carter-Wallace),
Mr. Sami Khatib (Medley Pharmaceuticals), Mr. Dilip Shanghavi (Sun Pharma),
Mr. Nimish & Mr. Binish Chudgar (Intas Pharmaceuticals), and, Mr. Sudhir Mehta
(Torrent Pharmaceuticals).

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 Foreword

T he healthcare market in India is rapidly changing. The process of change, from

selling to marketing, started several years ago; yet many have not fully grasped
the significance of this change. Free schemes and bonus offers continue to be used
liberally to boost sales. The importance of managing a brand and generating sales
through prescriptions is getting undermined, because brand building is a slow and
painful process.

In this milieu, the brand managers and the sales managers may not appreciate
and imbibe what exactly a CEO expects from the brand managers.

Readers should be aware that CEOs of progressive companies in the Indian

Pharmaceutical Industry have a long-term vision for a brand. What is it exactly that
the CEO wants?

Vivek Hattangadi addresses this issue in his book ‘WHAT THE PHARMA CEO
WANTS FROM THE BRAND MANAGER’.

This book beautifully describes the overall responsibilities of a brand manager,

how she can navigate the product right from launch to establishing it as a formidable
brand, how she can manage the portfolio, and much more. It tells us how a brand
manager can maximize brand value through best practices.

Increased discipline in the brand management process will be the best way to
identify and exploit potential competitive advantages to ultimately maximize the
commercial potential of the brand.

This book is not only a must-read for brand managers but also for sales managers
so that they appreciate the brand management functions and work as an awesome
team to outstrip competition.

P.M. Sapre
Ex-President – Lupin Laboratories Ltd.

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 Acknowledgements

W hile I was working on the curriculum for the M.B.A. program in Pharmaceutical
Management of Vidyasagar University, I was once having an informal chat
with Mr. P. Ray Chaudhuri, Training Director, Carreograph Institute of Management
Studies (CIPM). He said: “Mr. Hattangadi, there are no books on brand management
for specific guidance of brand managers of the Indian Pharmaceutical Market (IPM).
Why don’t you write one?” I took his statement very lightly then. At the beginning of
2011 I had an assignment with an overseas client of mine and they enquired whether
there are any books specifically written for pharmaceutical brand managers. This
ignited my mind and I recalled the chat with Mr. Ray Chaudhuri.

The results are here for you to read. However, this book would have never the
seen the light of the day had I not received tremendous cooperation from my friends
and well-wishers.

I first acknowledge my friend and colleague from Sun Pharma and ‘The Enablers’,
Mrs. Ameeta Jayakar who has edited this book for the technical aspects. She has
been very passionate about this book. She has taken absolute care and looked into
the minutest details to ensure that all the important technical details on brand
management are in place. She has lifted the quality of the contents to a higher level.

Priyanka Vyas formerly of Hindu Business Line, now in San Francisco has helped
me in proof reading.

Shri Ravindra Rao from Bangalore has a very special place in my heart for the
wonderful editing work. His mastery over the English language, right from the rules
of grammar and punctuations, to the nuances of meanings, the differences in British
and US English, has proved to be very useful.

MapleTree Worldwide, Mumbai, have given their creative best to design the
cover page.

My wife Veena, daughter Maanasi, son Vibhav, my foster-daughter Nasreen

Shakir of Seattle, and my close friend Harish Raut have given me great moral support
in the writing of this book.

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 What The Pharma CEO Wants From The Brand Manager

And finally without the blessings of my favorite deity Lord Ganesh, my desire
would have remained a pipe-dream. During difficult times, when I was gasping for
thoughts and ideas, He ran to help me out.

Vivek Hattangadi
1st September 2011
Ganesh Chaturthi

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 What the industry stalwarts
and experts say.

“B rands are Living Beings. They grow and they die. They laugh and they cry. Some
grow stronger and last longer, and some do not. It is all in the hands of a brand
manager. To me, a brand manager is not a job or a post or a function. It is much
beyond that. Like a mother is to her child, a brand manager is to her brand. Any
attempt to strengthen the hands of a brand manager, therefore, is most welcome.
And I find this book a very sincere attempt in this direction.

“This book has taken me to my good old days of brand management in the
eighties. Roles and responsibilities kept on changing, but the brand management
element remained always close to my heart; brand management is at the very core of
marketing management. This aspect comes out vividly in this book.

“Vivek has spent half his life in the Indian Pharmaceutical Industry in various
positions. However, his major investment has been in the field of brand management.
He knows the right mix of qualities and talents that an aspiring brand manager needs
to possess. He rightly points out the fact that it is the Comprehensive Data Analysis
that helps a brand manager think from all angles. His child-like attitude of curiosity
and his openness to new ideas, enable him to break many barriers, to get rid of myths
and pre-conceived notions, and ultimately to open the doors to creativity.”

O.P. Arya,
Managing Director, Zydus Hospira Oncology Pvt. Ltd.

“We must never forget that building brand equity is like building a close friendship.
It requires a consistent relationship over time, trust, and an emotional connection.
Who else could steer this in the context of our Pharma industry today? It could be
only BRAND MANAGEMENT and therefore, BRAND MANAGERS.

“Brand management is the voice and image that represents your business plan
to the outside world. What your company, products and services stand for should
all be captured in your branding strategy, and represented consistently throughout
all your brand assets and in your daily marketing activities. The brand image that
carries this emotional connection consists of the many manageable elements of
the branding system, including both visual image assets and   language assets. The
process of managing the brand to the business plan is important not only in big change

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 What The Pharma CEO Wants From The Brand Manager

situations´ where the brand redefinition is required, but also in the management of
routine marketing variables and tactics.

“Vivek Hattangadi’s book, ‘WHAT THE PHARMA CEO WANTS FROM THE BRAND
MANAGER’, can well be described as the Handbook for Pharma Brand Management
in India; it captures the whole gamut of the same, and helps the budding Brand
Managers to understand the nuances of their responsibility. It is equally helpful to
the experienced Brand Managers to reinforce their strengths and skills to be aligned
with today’s changing scenario.

“This is an excellent contribution from Vivek Hattangadi and is a MUST GO

THROUGH for REFERENCE by the Pharma Marketing team.”

K. Hari Ram
Managing Director (Retd.), Galderma India

“This handbook is a must-read for new entrants in brand management; even

those experienced professionals who wish to revisit the basics of pharma marketing
will find the handbook useful. The Chapters/Sections on self analysis, forecasting and
brand plan are good. These can make every brand manager introspect/revisit on his
current work.”

Satish Dandekar
Formerly Sr. Vice President, Ipca Laboratories Ltd.

“Vivek Hattangadi has discussed his book for pharma brand managers with me.
It is indeed a novel idea and the first-of-its-kind book for the pharmaceutical brand
managers in India. The title of the book gives us a clear idea about what to expect from
it: ‘WHAT THE PHARMA CEO WANTS FROM THE BRAND MANAGER’. The contents
of this book cover substantial aspects of brand management, and importantly also
focus on the crucial role of brand managers in field work. A must-read for every brand
manager, whether a novice or a veteran.”

Surendra Sharma
Executive Director, Medley Pharmaceuticals Ltd.

“When I began my career in Brand Management years ago there were few, if
any books that taught the art and science to newcomers. Most of what I learned
happened ‘on the job’ while working in different companies, each with different
brand management roles, responsibilities and processes. Had there been a book
available at the time, it would have given me a much better idea of what to expect
and how to be a more effective brand manager. ‘WHAT THE PHARMA CEO WANTS
FROM THE BRAND MANAGER’ solves the need for a resource for new and aspiring
brand managers. It covers the fundamentals of brand management with a great focus

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 What the industry stalwarts and experts say.

on building brands and companies the right way, never losing sight of reality. As a
result, the author’s guidance is tangible, is full of pertinent examples and insights
from the Indian Pharmaceutical Market, and is directly applicable to every brand
manager’s day-to-day work.

Arun Prasad M.S.

Senior Director, Global Generics, Dr. Reddy’s Labs.

“From promotional plan including literatures, – striking doctors’ minds to fulfil

one’s company’s objectives,, having forecasting accuracy in judgement, considering
expenditures throughout, fixation of prices to implementing the whole strategy to
make the product into a brand and maintain it for long with field image, etc., are all
activities of a Brand Manager and as such her accountability is important; her success
is linked with the company’s growth. This book represents a candid expression of
Vivek Hattangadi’s long experience in pharma marketing and brand management. It
is a storehouse of knowledge, especially for those who plan to take up careers in this
field.”

P. Ray Chaudhuri
Carreograph Institute of Management Studies, Kolkata
(Affiliated to Vidyasagar University)

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 About the author

V ivek Hattangadi has been associated with the Indian pharmaceutical industry for
four decades, having completed exactly forty years on 15th March 2014! He has
worked at every level: medical representative, product manager, training manager
and head of sales and marketing.

He has been a practising brand manager since 1986. Having worked both in sales
management and brand management, he is able to empathize with the field force
when preparing brand strategies. While building some great brands, he has been able
to influence the field force so that the strategies of the brand management team are
executed at very high levels in the field. His strategies have been pragmatic and down
to earth.

He realizes that today’s market is ruled by short-term or immediate financial gains,

creating barricades for the long-term process of brand building. And brand building in
the Indian pharmaceutical context is healthy prescription generation.

Apart from being closely associated with the industry, Vivek Hattangadi has also
turned towards academics. He has played a vital role in designing the curriculum
and the syllabus for the MBA course in Pharmaceutical Management of Vidyasagar
University, West Bengal. He is also a visiting faculty in many business schools.

He presents the expectations of the pharma CEO and what he/she expects from
the brand managers in very simple language.

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 Preface to Edition II

T he second edition of the book ‘WHAT THE PHARMA CEO WANTS FROM THE
BRAND MANAGER’ has been inspired by the recent report published by Mckinsey
& Company: ‘India Pharma 2020: Propelling access and acceptance, realizing true
potential’.

McKinsey’s earlier prediction has turned out to be correct. The new report says
that Indian pharmaceutical market will treble by 2020 and has the potential to
quadruple. One salient point in this report: “New products will cease to drive growth;
existing large brands would need to make up the gap.” Metro and Tier-1 markets,
which have been growing at 14-15 per cent in the last five years, will drive growth in
the industry. “The scale and complexity of the market is increasing as India is moving
towards the global top tier,” says Palash Mitra, Partner at McKinsey & Company

This McKinsey Report has inspired me to write the second edition.

Three new chapters which will specifically address some of the issues raised in this
report have been added.

One is ‘The Building Blocks of a Pharma Brand’. This will be useful to the young
and the veterans alike.

The second is ‘Blue Ocean Strategy for Pharma India’ – which will tell the brand
managers how to create an uncontested market space and monopolize it, at least for
some time. Brand building has no alternate in Pharma India!

The third is on ‘Patient-Centric Marketing’; the novel way to build a pharma brand.

Some of the text in the first edition has been made contemporary as change is
inevitable.

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 Preface to Edition I

T he word ‘brand’ comes from the Old Norse ‘brandr’ meaning ‘to burn’, and from
these origins, made its way into the Anglo-Saxon lexicon. It was, of course, by
burning that early man stamped ownership of his livestock and with the development
of trade, buyers would use brands as a means of distinguishing between the cattle
of one farmer and another. A farmer with a particularly good reputation for quality
animals would find his brand much sought after while the brands of farmers with a
lesser reputation were to be avoided and treated with caution. (1) In the modern world
of advertising, the meaning of the word ‘brand’ was first expanded in the late 1950s
when David Ogilvy of Ogilvy, Benson & Mather, created ’brand-image‘ advertising.

Today, the word ‘brand’ is bandied around and used to describe companies:
(Brand Unilever); investments: (Brand SENSEX); business leaders: (Brand Ratan Tata);
celebrities: (Brand Sachin Tendulkar)! Over the past 20 years, the use of the word
‘brand’ in news stories and magazines has risen tenfold. (2)

A Brand Manager in the India Pharmaceutical Market is undeniably one of the key
persons in a pharmaceutical organisation. She has many nomenclatures – ‘Product
Manager’, ‘Therapy Manager’, ‘Product Sales Manager’ – but her fundamental
responsibility remains the same, viz. building strong brands. She is accountable to the
most important activity, building a strong, memorable and sustainable brand. She needs
to enhance the value of her brand. In this process, her many activities will also include
market research, marketing planning, forecasting, preparing promotional material,
developing technical skills, calling on customers during field-work, and much more.

Being a brand manager in the IPM is a truly multi-faceted job which requires far
more skills and knowledge than is sometimes acknowledged. She has a high pressure
role. Stress levels are high, especially with looming deadlines. At times, as during the
launch of a new product, it is a 24X7 job.

This book is a primer, principally for newly appointed brand managers and
for those from sales management who wish to further their careers in brand
management. The objective is to give them an insight into the various aspects of
this rich and interesting job.

Finally, there is no gender discrimination in this book. However, to avoid the

awkward situation of mentioning he/she or him/her every time, the brand manager
has been referred to in the feminine gender. Field personnel have been referred to in
the masculine gender.

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 Preamble to the Prof. Chitta Mitra Oath

S ickening! Encashing on the misfortunes of the people! The unholy nexus between
some medical professionals and a few pharma companies has to end! It’s a disease
which has infected the globe. Corruption in the healthcare industry has become so
widespread that it has literally debased medical science. In some countries, medical
representatives are even taught tactics for manipulating doctors for the company’s
benefit, as a standard part of their training! Companies are illegally promoting their
drugs for off-label use, despite their knowledge that it is associated with an increased
risk of multiple side-effects. Mentally unstable people are selected as subjects for drug
trials – not for mental illness – but for premature ejaculatory disorders! Disgusting!

My Guru, the late Prof. Chitta Mitra was perpetually perturbed by such episodes.
He always advocated prescription generation using ethical brand building practices.
The growth of the pharma industry we see today can be greatly attributed to the
ethics which Prof. Mitra advocated. Since the 1980s, he took upon himself the
responsibility of bringing a paradigm shift in the mindsets of the marketers in the
Indian pharma industry – from sales orientation to prescription generation. He even
considered ‘push selling’ as unethical. His oft quoted and famous pearls of wisdom to
the pharma marketers still reverberate: “The health of a pharma company is related
to the prescriptions that the company is able to generate – not just volume sales.” His
emphasis was on prescription generation and he looked down on deals such as bonus
offers as unhealthy practices and efforts to ‘steal’ prescriptions of another company.

He helped the brand managers to take strategic decisions for strengthening their
marketing edge over the competitors using righteous means. He developed newer
analytical methods to strategize a plan for creating a marketing edge of this kind.

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 What The Pharma CEO Wants From The Brand Manager

The ‘CRM activities’ which are today euphemisms for corrupting the medical
professionals were termed by him as ‘customer gratification’ and have nothing to
do with the healthy growth of a pharma company or the industry. He believed in
the honest brand building activities which were prevalent till the middle of the last
decade. Things changed rapidly – for the worse.

I love and agree wholeheartedly with this quote: “Truthfulness. Integrity. Candor.
Frankness. Whatever you call it, honesty is not only the best policy, but it is a
fundamental requirement for successful organizations in the New Business Reality”. (1)

Prof. Chitta Mitra left for his heavenly abode on 3rd January 2012. In his memory
I have evolved the “Prof. Chitta Mitra’s Oath for Pharma Marketers”. This oath is
based on the Hippocratic Oath taken by the doctors when they graduate. Every
person starting his/her career in the pharma industry should take “Prof. Chitta Mitra’s
Oath”. Even the experienced and veterans should take this oath and cleanse this
sacred pharma industry of unhealthy and corrupt practices.

I give the oath below. I have sworn by this oath. I now request all readers to swear
and stand by it and cleanse the Indian pharmaceutical industry of unhealthy and
unethical marketing practices.

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 Preamble to the Prof. Chitta Mitra Oath

The Prof. Chitta Mitra Oath

(To cleanse the Indian Pharma Industry of corrupt and unhealthy marketing practice)

I SWEAR in the presence of God the Almighty, and before my family, my teachers and my
peers that, to the best of my ability and judgment, I will keep this Oath and Stipulation.

TO ACKNOWLEDGE the support of all who have taught me and inspired me to take up a
career in pharmaceutical marketing, I will, to the best of my ability, carry forward the great
marketing skills pursued by the esteemed marketers. I will continue with diligence to keep
abreast of advances in the science of pharmaceutical marketing. I will hone my skills to get
prescriptions only through ethical means. I will seek the counsel of particularly skilled and
honest pharmaceutical marketers, when in doubt, whether a certain marketing strategy is
ethical or not.

I WILL FOLLOW only those methods of pharmaceutical selling which will, in my opinion,
benefit the end-users, the patients; and abstain from whatever is harmful or mischievous.
I will neither indulge in, nor be a party to any activity which is lethal to the high standards of
ethical marketing.

WITH PURITY, HOLINESS AND BENEFICENCE I will pass my life and practice my art
of pharmaceutical marketing and selling. Except for the prudent correction of an imminent
danger, I will neither encourage nor suggest to the medical professionals to carry out any
research of my products on any human being who is unable to understand what he / she is
doing - like the mentally challenged or the schizophrenia patients. I affirm that I understand
that research on new and existing drugs must have as its purpose the furtherance of the
health of that individual and not the commercial benefits of my company. Into whatever
patient setting I enter, I will direct my efforts for the benefit of the sick and will abstain
from every voluntary act of mischief or corruption and desist from the seduction of any
patient for clinical trials.

WHATEVER BE THE COMPULSIONS, I shall not invite medical professionals for holidays or
cruises, lunches or dinners. Such invitations may be deemed as corrupt practices,
intended to unduly influence the medical professionals to prescribe my medicine. Nor
shall I give them gifts which are not relevant to their professions, and appear to be bribes or
corrupt practices.

I SHALL NOT market irrational fixed dose combinations of drugs, although I may stand to
benefit commercially.

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 What The Pharma CEO Wants From The Brand Manager

WHATEVER IN CONNECTION with my professional practice or not in connection with it I

may see or hear from my customers which ought not to be spoken about, I will not divulge,
reckoning that all such matters should be kept secret.

WHILE I CONTINUE to keep this Oath inviolate, may it be granted to me to enjoy life and
the practice of the art and science of pharmaceutical marketing with the blessing of God the
Almighty and respected by my peers and society; but should I trespass and violate this Oath,
may I be punished fittingly.

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 Contents

Chapter 1 – Brand Management Skills .................................................... 25

Chapter 2 – Marketing ............................................................................. 51

Chapter 3 – Marketing Mix ...................................................................... 58

Chapter 4 – Forecasting............................................................................ 62

Chapter 5 – Brand Plan ............................................................................ 71

Chapter 6 – Producing Effective Promotional Literature.......................... 83

Chapter 7 – Cycle Meetings and Promotional Cycle Notes ......................88

Chapter 8 – Technical Competence of the Product Manager...................94

Chapter 9 – New Product Launch............................................................. 98

Chapter 10 – Importance of a good brand name................................... 102

Chapter 11 – Brand Building in Indian Pharmaceutical Market ............106

Chapter 12 – The Building Blocks of a Pharma Brand ............................110

Chapter 13 – The Blue Ocean Strategy for Pharma India ......................117

Chapter 14 – Patient-Centric Marketing ................................................ 127

Chapter 15 – Field work by Brand Managers ......................................... 133

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 Chapter 1

Brand Management Skills

H ow does one describe the job of a Brand Manager? In the context of the IPM,
at times even an experienced brand manager may find it difficult to describe
her role. Being a brand manager in the IPM is a truly multi-faceted job. But a newly
appointed brand manager, or someone from sales management aspiring to be a
Brand Manager, would almost certainly want to know what the job involves.

Her assignments and tasks can broadly fall into four segments, viz.

I. Understanding the general issues to build a brand

II. The issues involved to build a brand
III. Planning and monitoring
IV. Making known or advertising

Task I – The General Issues

Let us closely examine the general issues in the brand building process. These include:

• Appreciation of the marketing concept

• Familiarity with local regulatory affairs
• Technical competence
• Knowledge of distribution channels and systems

Appreciation of the marketing concept

There are many definitions of marketing. The best definitions focus on customer
orientation and satisfaction of customer needs.

Marketing is the social process by which individuals and groups obtain what they need and
want through creating and exchanging products and value with others. – Philip Kotler
Marketing is the management process that identifies, anticipates and satisfies customer
requirements profitably. - The Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM)
The right product, in the right place, at the right time, at the right price. – Palmer.
Marketing is not only much broader than selling; it is not a specialized activity at all. It
encompasses the entire business. It is the whole business seen from the point of view of
the final result, that is, from the customer’s point of view. Concern and responsibility for
marketing must therefore permeate all areas of the enterprise. – Peter Drucker

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 What The Pharma CEO Wants From The Brand Manager

The achievement of corporate goals through meeting and exceeding customer needs by
being better than the competition. – David Jobber

A very important point made by David Jobber relates to competition: “… being

better than the competition leads to the creation of a competitive advantage.” (3)

‘Marketing Concept’ means a customer focused philosophy. A pharmaceutical

company needs to analyze the needs of the prescribers and then make decisions to
satisfy those needs. With 25000 pharmaceutical companies in India, of which around
300 are in the organized sector, these decisions, strategies, and strategy execution
should be far better than the competition. A brand manager should consider the
following key questions:

• What do the doctors want?

• Can we develop it when the market and the doctors still want it?
• Can we keep most of the doctors satisfied?
The marketing concept is an attitude, not a system of marketing. It evolved based
on the principle that profitable sales and satisfactory returns on investment can be
achieved only by identifying, anticipating and satisfying needs and desires of the
prescriber.

How can you keep the doctors satisfied?

Knowledgeable field staff: While a doctor is making the prescription decision,

they want knowledgeable assistance. Prescribers place a high value on accurate
information and want to be served by field-staff who know the product inside and
out.

Politeness: Prescribers not only want product-savvy field people, they want them
to be friendly and courteous. Your sales force should value each prescriber.

Value for the brand: This is where price factors in. But prescribers see price as only
one component of the bigger picture of ’value‘ that includes the frequency of visits,
product information and follow-up they also receive.

Convenience: The rule here is simple: make it easy for the patient to get the
product! Prescribers want products that are well organized, attractively packed and
easy to procure. That’s how prescribers define convenience. They do not want their
patients to run from pillar to post to get a prescription honored.

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 Brand Management Skills

Case Study – Success of Cifran and Ciplox

The eighties was a period dominated by tetracyclines, semi-synthetic penicillins and

co-trimaxozole. For the treatment of typhoid, chloramphenicol was still widely used
despite its long duration of treatment, frequent dosing (q.i.d. regimen) and the risk of
certain severe side-effects like blood dyscrasias. The medical profession was looking for
something new to replace chloramphenicol. In 1989, Cifran and Ciplox were launched
and this market was conquered. In those days the cost of a tablet of Cifran/Ciplox was
Rs.30.00 per tablet. Within a short time many lower priced brands of ciprofloxacin came
in, but could do nothing to dislodge Cifran and Ciplox. It was almost a two-horse race.
What are the lessons we learn?
• These brands were introduced at the right time and the right place, giving doctors
what they wanted.
• The failure of the fighter brands, i.e. the lower priced brand, shows that price is not
always a major deterrent for the prescribers. Low prices alone cannot impress the
prescribers as they fail to create desirability. (4)
• Cifran and Ciplox had the first mover advantage and were able to sustain that
advantage.

Now here is a classic example of how a pharmaceutical giant failed on a product

as they turned a deaf ear to what the patients and the doctors wanted. This product
goes down as the biggest flop in the history of the world pharmaceutical industry.

Case Study – Learning from Exubera failure

Source:

Needle-free insulin was supposed to be the next big thing in drugs.

Exubera was supposed to revolutionize diabetes care. It was the first inhalable insulin
product on the market, invented by biotech startup Nektar Therapeutics and shepherded
to market by drug giant Pfizer, which predicted it would eventually bring in $2 billion a
year in sales. Analysts expected Exubera to spawn copycats, turning inhaled insulin into
a $5 billion annual market. But on Oct. 18 Pfizer made a jolting turnabout, announcing it
was pulling the plug on Exubera, returning all rights to Nektar, and taking a staggering
$2.8 billion charge.

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 What The Pharma CEO Wants From The Brand Manager

What went wrong? In short, Pfizer made a massive miscalculation about how patients
with diabetes manage their disease. What initially attracted the company to Nektar’s
invention was the idea that inhaled insulin would offer an attractive alternative to patients
afraid to stick themselves with needles multiple times a day. But the needle sticks really
aren’t that much of a hassle, many patients report, and the needles themselves have
gotten so thin that they cause virtually no pain.
ANYTHING BUT POPULAR
Exubera, on the other hand, is considerably more cumbersome. When folded out, it’s
about the size of a can of tennis balls—not something that can be used discreetly at a
restaurant or party. Its dosage can’t be adjusted as easily as injected insulin can. And
it carries the risk of lung problems. “We faced the combination of breaking through the
barrier of conventional insulin therapy and the burden of the product on the medical
practices, and this innovation was not accepted,” says Pfizer spokeswoman Vanessa
Aristide in an e-mail to BusinessWeek. Even before Pfizer introduced the drug in mid-
2006, patients were blasting it (BusinessWeek.com, 7/17/06) on blogs and online
discussion groups for people with diabetes. Some patients who tried it were anything but
enamored. “It was never popular,” says Dr. Joel Zonszein, director of the clinical diabetes
center at Montefiore Medical Center in New York. The few patients who did try Exubera,
he says, had to endure lung-function tests, and they struggled to figure out Exubera’s
dosing system. Ultimately, Zonszein says, the patients “just gave up. They preferred
injected insulin.”
Not surprisingly, insurance companies also balked. Exubera was never shown to be more
effective than injected insulin, but it was at least 30% more expensive according to some
analysts. Because managed-care companies scrutinize every new drug through the lens
of cost vs. benefit, Exubera might have been doomed from the start (BusinessWeek.
com, 2/15/06). A quick check on Medicare’s Web site reveals that in the state of New
York, for example, 143 Part D drug plans offer Exubera, but the vast majority of them
place the drug in their most expensive “tier.” That means Exubera patients would have
to endure higher co-pays for the drug than they would have to pay for injected insulin.
Since private insurers often follow Medicare’s lead, it’s a good bet that most of them also
slotted Exubera into their most expensive drug tiers.
PFIZER PULLS OUT
Pfizer’s pullout had an immediate, damaging ripple effect Thursday on the small
companies that contributed to Exubera’s invention. Nektar’s stock tumbled about 15%
in early Nasdaq trading to $7 a share, down from more than $17 last December, while
Britain’s Consort Medical (CSRT.L), which makes the inhaler component, fell as much as
14% on the London exchange.
Not even a multimillion-dollar ad campaign could save Exubera. Pfizer has been pitching
the product (BusinessWeek.com, 7/24/07) on TV and the Web since July. The company
reported that Exubera only brought in sales of $12 million in the first nine months of this
year. The decision to bail, says Aristide, “reflects our commitment to use our resources
wisely and to be realistic when we are not seeing the results we had expected.” Perhaps
next time Pfizer will do a little more homework to determine whether an innovative idea
truly has a market.
Weintraub is the associate editor in science and technology for BusinessWeek.

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Familiarity with regulatory affairs

Regulatory Affairs has developed from the desire of the governments to protect
public health, by controlling the safety and efficacy of products in areas including
pharmaceuticals, veterinary medicines, medical devices, pesticides, and
complementary medicines. Ever-changing laws and regulations are driving the
demand for the brand managers to keep themselves updated on current regulatory
issues. They need to have at least the basic knowledge.

The brand manager should be in close liaison with the department of regulatory
affairs in the company to keep track of the ever-changing legislation. Subscribing to
sites like Pharmabiz.com or Drugs.com will give the brand manager an idea of the
happenings in India and the international market.

Case Study – Rosiglitazone in India

Marketing of Avandia (rosiglitazone), by Glaxo Smith Kline has been under a cloud from 2007 when
the first serious objection to its safety surfaced.(5)
Avandia was approved by the US FDA in May 1999 for the treatment of type 2 diabetes and the drug
is widely prescribed in the US, European and Asian markets.
Doubts about the safety of Avandia came in the open with the publication of a study in New England
Journal of Medicine in May 2007 by the US cardiologist, Dr Steven Nissen of the Cleveland Clinic.
The study had pointed out that the patients who are taking the drug have 43 per cent higher chances
of suffering a heart attack.
GSK had strongly disagreed with the findings of Dr Nissen and held the view that Avandia was no
riskier for the heart than other diabetes drugs. Although Dr Nissen’s findings raised some concern
amongst some patient groups, the US FDA chose not to take any serious steps to limit the use of the
drug among patients except directing GSK to issue a black box warning on the label. Subsequently, in
November 2008 the US advocacy group,
Public Citizen, called upon the US FDA to ban Avandia as it was found to cause death from liver failure
and posed many other life-threatening risks.
Despite all the negative reports coming in, a large Indian company was pouring huge amounts on
promoting its rosiglitazone. Had the brand manager concerned been abreast with the recent trends
and its likely ban in Europe and USA, it would have saved the company lakhs of rupees on its
promotion. It is high time that the brand managers in the Indian Pharmaceutical Industry become
proactive and act on their own in matters like stopping promotion or even recommending withdrawal
of a harmful drug, without even waiting for a DCGI decision.

A brand manager therefore needs to have knowledge of the happenings in the world which may have
an impact on the Indian regulatory affairs. He should be on the lookout for latest trends and their likely
impact in the Indian market.

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Technical competence

Technical competence refers to the scientific knowledge of the brand. It is the

medical and scientific knowledge a brand manager should possess for successful
accomplishment of her task of building a brand. A brand manager should be the master
of her brand, with knowledge levels that are far superior to those of anyone else in the
organization. She should be aware of the complete pharmacology, indications, both
approved and ‘unapproved’, contraindications, the complete side-effect profile, drug-
drug interactions and much more. She should have complete details of clinical trials,
including landmark studies, and the current reports about the product as published
in many online sites like Drugs.com. She should seek to improve her technical skills by
attending relevant courses offered by her own organization; if such courses are not
available, she can pursue other sources, such as external courses, computer-based
training or technical publications. Keep up to date with technological advances in
the industry. Visit libraries of medical colleges, or some reputed ones like the British
Council Library. Coordination with the company’s Medical Services Department is
essential. They can provide her all the scientific information on the product including
bioavailability, efficacy, therapeutic use, and superiority over other molecules in the
same segment, side effects, contraindications and drug interactions.

Case Study – How moisturizers can be marketed throughout the year

It is generally assumed that dermatologists prescribe moisturizers only in winter. This is

not a correct assumption.
A client of mine markets a wide range of moisturizers. About 60% of the sales were made
during the period November to February after which the sales declined substantially. The
brand manager did not have any solution to this. The CEO of the company approached
me. I studied these products and their promotional strategies intensely. I realized that
there is a vacant slot, which I confirmed by meeting dermatologists across the country.
Moisturizers have a very important role to play in chronic skin conditions like psoriasis
and atopic dermatitis. These conditions are generally characterized by sudden and
severe flare-ups followed by a period of remission and again flare-ups and remission.
During the flare-ups, doctors prescribe corticosteroids and then stop therapy after the
severity subsides. Instead, if doctors prescribe a moisturizer along with steroids during
the flare-ups and continue with just the moisturizer during the remission period, the
patient can be doubly benefitted.
i. The severity and the intensity of the next flare-up will reduce considerably
ii. The intervals between two episodes of flare-ups can also be prolonged.

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If the brand manager had deep technical knowledge of moisturizers, these products
could have been promoted in chronic skin conditions – much before my intervention! The
positioning strategy was changed. With this there was a steep rise in the sales of their
moisturizers even during the non-winter months.

Familiarity with distribution channels and systems

P for ‘Place’ in Kotler’s classic ‘Four Ps of Marketing’ is a factor of distribution (6).

India is a geographically diverse country with extreme climates that make distribution
a critical function. The long channel of distribution and high incidence of brand
substitution makes it mandatory for a brand manager to ensure that all the C&Fs,
stockists and retailers maintain an adequate inventory of stocks. Most brands have
generic versions of drugs and retailers can usually obtain higher margins with generics
than branded products.

Drug distribution in India is a very important component of logistics and supply

chain management. Distribution in supply chain management means the distribution
of goods from one business to another - from the factory to C&F, to the stock points,
then to the retail chemists / hospitals and finally to the actual point of purchase. It is
necessary for the brand manager to familiarize himself with the distributions systems
in his company. He should know the packing size, the shipper size and even suggest
modifications to cut down on costs. He should get acquainted with the discount
structure, which could be useful when at times the push strategy needs to be applied

Here are the current margins at various levels of distribution system (as on 1st
March 2014).

Levels Margins
Clearing and forwarding agents 0.85 -10% depending on the total turnover
Stockist or distributors 8% on scheduled drugs, 10% on nonscheduled drugs
Retailers 16% on scheduled drugs, 20% on non-scheduled drugs

Task II - Finding out

This refers to what is essential to be known and found out to build a big brand. This
includes:

• Internal data
• Audits
• Attitudinal surveys
• Brand Testing

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Internal data

Internal data is the data recorded and stored by an organisation as it completes its
normal transactions and activities. The term ‘internal data‘ refers to any information
useful to the brand manager in the decision-making process, which is found within
the company. There are a number of sources for this, such as the accounting system,
sales reports, the client list, field force, and historical data.

Management Information System (MIS) is now an important source for internal

data. MIS is a computer-based system that provides Brand Managers with the
tools for organizing and evaluating the brand. In order to provide past, present and
prediction information, an MIS can include software that helps the Brand Manager in
decision making.

Internal data is normally not accessible to outside parties without the company’s
express permission.

What kind of internal data can a brand manager have?

The details of the top 10% performers of her brand
Details of 10% worst performers
Can she keep a record of who the innovators are?
Who are the early adapters, the late adapters and the laggards? This will be particularly
important when launching new products. When the medical representative visits the
innovators and the early adapters, and gets his first prescription, his morale is elevated. On
the other hand, when he visits a laggard and does not get prescriptions he loses faith in
himself and even in the product.

Brand Audits

The brand audit is to the brand management team what a financial audit is to the
accounting department. Brand audit is an organized review of your brand activities.
It is a self-administered method for identifying and realizing underutilized marketing
resources (7). A brand audit examines the health of your brand by looking at your
brand equity. A brand audit will prove to be of great value when you want to
determine the strengths and weaknesses of an existing brand, or to predict the
health of a new brand. Why should you fritter away time on carrying out a brand
audit when you know what you are doing? The reason is simple. The world in which
you are competing is constantly changing. At times you may assume that you are
facing the same competition and external environment, but that may not be true.
Your competitors may change. The actions they are taking against you could change
– and that is where brand audit helps. A brand audit is a very powerful tool because

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it sets your future strategic direction. It can make all the difference to your future
success in the marketplace.

The marketing audit system consists of two crucial areas:

• External Audit
• Internal Audit
The external audit can be broadly split into three environments:

1. Economic environment: Any improvement in the economic conditions such

as standard of living, purchasing power of the citizens, demand and supply,
and distribution of income can affect the size of the market. The rise of the
cardiovascular segment in the IPM is a consequence of the great progress in the
Indian economy which may be amongst the top three in the world in coming times.
2. Competitive environment: This means understanding what and whom you are
competing against, and how they could threaten your current market share and
position.
Michael Porter’s five forces of competition have become a central concept to
business theory. (8)

These five forces are:

i. Threat of new entrants

ii. Bargaining power of suppliers
iii. Bargaining power of buyers
iv. Threat of substitute products
v. Intensity of rivalry among competitors

Porter’s five forces drive competition in an industry. (8)

Michael Porter writes “Competitive rivalry is fierce if there are numerous competitors in an industry,
markets are mature, with little differentiation and innovation. The threat of new entrants will be high if
an industry is attractive, i.e. there are enough customers, profit margins are high and set-up costs low.
Substitute products are a threat if they perform the same function as the product or service they replace.
A substitute which provides more or is better value for money is a greater threat. Buyers generally are
powerful if they have the opportunity to shop around for the best deal and they purchase a significant
amount of a product. Suppliers are powerful if there are few suppliers of a good or service, as the buyer
is denied the opportunity to shop around for a good deal.”
(Please refer to Chapter 13 on how you can play in a market in which there is no competition)

Companies need accurate information about their competition. The company’s

most immediate competitor is the one most like itself: the company would sell to the
same target market and use the same marketing mix.(9) Here in the Indian context,

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Torrent Pharma, Sun Pharma and Intas Pharma are typical examples of ‘companies
most like itself’. Torrent Pharma in the nineties was a much bigger company than
Sun Pharma and Intas - way ahead of them. It neglected its true competition and the
result: both Sun Pharma and Intas have outgrown Torrent Pharma.

3. Your own market environment: Since the market is dynamic and is changing
at high-speed, it may require you to rethink your key markets. In the IPM, the
current shift is towards rural marketing and many top pharmaceutical companies
have separate divisions for this. For instance, Ipca Laboratories have their Intima
Division with focus on rural marketing.
The internal audit on the other hand looks at your own business: What is your
current situation, how profitable is your brand, and how effective is your marketing
mix. Internal audit function is one way to help increase the effectiveness and promote
excellence.

Once you have studied all these key sections, you should run through the outcome
of your audit in your marketing plan, clearly showing the current position and market
overview. Only now you know what the current market requires and how to effectively
decide on your brand plan for the future.

Attitudinal surveys

Brand attitude is the opinion of customers toward a brand. (10) This can be determined
through market research. The brand attitude tells the brand manager just how much
the brand is wanted by the doctors in the market-place. It tells her whether the
brand answers the needs of the doctor. Knowledge of brand attitude is very helpful
in planning a campaign.

A successful brand attitude strategy requires a correct understanding of the level

of involvement when a physician makes a prescribing decision, and what motivates
his behavior in the category.

A brand attitude survey, a market research study, covers many aspects associated
with a brand. It also includes external aspects that may influence the perception of a
customer. It will tell the researcher whether the advertised brand and presentation
meet the customers’ expectations and if there are any shortcomings.

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Case Study - Brand attitude (11)

“The process of brand attitude is a process of perception. Brand popularity is the primary source of
customer brand attitude. One of the differences between rational advertising and emotional advertising
lies in the advertising appeals.
Emotional advertising contributes to increasing positive customer brand attitude.
Emotional advertisements are more effective than rational ones. Brand developers should keep in mind
the effect of mixed advertising when designing their communication campaign.
Emotional advertising gives a brand some of its specific characteristics which impact the brand
differentiation and the customers’ decision-making process.
The process of customer brand attitude is a process of perception and acceptance. Advertising can
affect the brand attitude. The customer perception of an advertising appeal is an important component
of brand attitude. Experimental studies found that when the individual’s information handling style
matches the advertising style, advertising can contribute to a greater degree to brand attitude. David
Aaker points out that brand attitude can help convey customer needs, satisfaction, express customer
attributes and simplify the decision making process”.
An illustration of an emotional advertisement

Brand Testing

More than a thousand brands are launched in India every year from the organized
sector of the IPM; many more from the unorganized sector. [As on March 2014 there
are 24000 pharma companies in India of which just 330 are in the organized sector.
(12)
A physician is exposed to more than 250 brands every day! What then is the
perception of your brand in the minds of a prescriber? Brand testing can determine
how strong your brand is. It examines, for example, whether your brand can produce
an attractive and unique proposition that satisfies the rational and emotional needs
of the customers. More important, it tells you how your brand stands in comparison
to your competition. This can help you in making strategic decisions about your
brand. The dream of every brand manager is to make her brand a ‘top-of-mind’ brand
or spontaneous recall brand.

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The market researcher asks a set of questions, or exercises are given to prescribers
to evaluate their perception of the brand. The brand is presented to a variety of
target customers or to a specific group of people. A feedback is then asked about your
brand. Decisions are then taken.

Brand testing and tracking is a critical input to the brand management process,
and therefore to the growth and profitability of your brand.

Case Study - Brand testing

Brand testing is mainly to know about the rank of the product in a doctor’s mind. Is it a top
of the mind product? Top of the mind brand is that brand when you ask a doctor to name
brands within a product category and your name pops out first! When a doctor prescribes,
he has no time to think of the brand name. He prescribes the brand which is on the top
of his mind. The challenge to the brand manager is to elevate her brand to the top of the
mind position.
As against this is ‘aided recall’. The doctors are shown a list of brands and asked if
they remember this brand. From ‘aided recall’ to ‘top of the mind’ should be the brand
objective, while at the same time ensuring that her brand is not toppled from the ‘top
of the mind’ position.
For example, a physician is asked to name three brands of paracetamol. The doctor
immediately mentions Crocin and Metacin. These are his ‘top of the mind brands’. He is
then asked if there is a brand from GSK. The physician thinks and mentions ‘Calpol’. The
physician is then asked if he has heard about ‘Malidens’. The physician answers in the
affirmative. These two brands belong to the category ‘aided recall’. The challenge to the
brand manager is to move his brand from the rung of ‘aided recall’ to ‘top of the mind’. A
greater challenge is to ensure that his brand is not toppled from the ‘top of the mind’ rung.

Task III - Planning/ Monitoring

The next step for a brand manager is writing a brand plan and monitoring its progress.
A brand plan is a written document that gives details about the vital actions and
measures to achieve the objectives of the brand. It is an intended course of action
required to successfully implement a brand strategy and is a part of the overall
marketing plan of your company. It can cover a period of between one and five years.
The brand plan should have:

Executive Summary – It is a high level summary of the brand plan. This is to help
the top management to get an overview of the brand plan. Although the brand plan
should start with the executive summary, it should be written after the entire brand
plan is complete.

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Situation Analysis – This is an analysis of where you are today. What is the rank
of your brand both in trade audit and prescription audit? What is your market share
in retail audit? What is your prescription share in prescription audit? What is the
outcome of the SWOT Analysis you have done?

The Challenge – This gives a brief description of the brand, such as the strategic
goals, the sales figures to be achieved, and the intended market share. What is the
market share you want to achieve? Do you just want to take a share of the market
or do you desire to increase the size of the pie? All these are the challenges before a
brand manager.

Competition Analysis – Essentially you are up against the competition; your success
lies in beating them. Their market position, their market shares, their strategies, and
very important, competitive SWOT Analysis are an absolute must for a brand manager.

Marketing is warfare. (13)

In their very popular book ‘Marketing Warfare’, Al Ries and Jack Trout say that marketing is
war. Companies should become competitor-oriented. If the key to success is to introduce
products closest to those wanted by customers, the market leader would be the company
that performed the best market research! It is much more.
Al Ries and Jack Trout compare marketing to a football game. If a team simply identifies the goal
post and moves the ball towards it, without regard to the competing team, they will be most
likely blocked in their effort. To win the game the team must focus its activities in outwitting,
outflanking or overpowering the other side. Similar is the situation in cricket, hockey, war or
marketing. A good marketing plan should include competition; nay it is essential.
Al Ries and Jack Trout say that marketers can learn from military strategies. Their book talks
about several famous battles in history that illustrate lessons of warfare. The lessons from
these famous battles illustrate the concept of planning, maneuvering and overpowering
the enemy. These principles are relevant not only to warfare but also to marketing.
Marketing is warfare has now been challenged by W.C.Kim in his book Blue Ocean Strategy:
How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make the Competition Irrelevant, which will
be discussed in detail in Chapter 13

Market segmentation and brand positioning – A detailed analysis of these two topics.

Segmentation and Positioning

Segmentation is different from positioning. The division of a market into different
homogenous groups of prescribers is known as segmentation. It is separating a market into
distinct groups of potential prescribers who share common characteristics and interests
and who are likely to be attracted to particular products. The basis for segmentation can
be geographic, demographic, psychographic or even behavioral. Segmentation allows the
brand manager to satisfy the needs of the potential prescribers. It is target marketing
rather than mass marketing. An example would be the promotion of pregabalin to a
segment of elderly diabetics who have not been able to control glycemic levels and are
therefore prone to diabetic neuropathy.

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Positioning on the other hand is what the brand manager does to the minds of the
prospective prescribers. “Positioning is about clearly differentiating the brand from its
competitors; find a gap and then fill it.” (13) Say Al Ries and Jack Trout: “The basic approach
to positioning is not to create something new or different but to manipulate what’s up
already in the prospect’s mind – to retie the connections that already exist. Today’s
marketplace is no longer responsive to strategies that worked in the past. Positioning is
not what you do to the product – it is what we do to the prospect’s mind.”

Short- and long-term projections of the brand

Realistic goals and projections are developed from the SWOT analysis. They are not wishful
thinking. Setting goals converts the brand’s mission, strategic vision and objectives into
specific performance targets. Goals can be short-, mid- or long-term. For building a strong
brand, one has to look at long-term perspectives and even be prepared to make losses
in the initial stages of a launch. Prevalent business belief is that brand building is a cost,
rather than a strategic and long-term investment. In real terms, these are not costs or
losses but brand investments. Just like when we buy a flat or a bungalow, it builds equity,
over a period of time. Similarly, your brand builds equity over time.

Sales forecasting

A sales forecast is an estimate of demand (6). It is an estimate of the quantum of

prescriptions that doctors can give to a product. Sales forecasting is the process of
organizing and analyzing information in a way that makes it possible to estimate what
the sales of your brand will be. Forecasting what’s going to happen in the future has
never been easy. In today’s fast moving and unpredictable world predicting future
events is more difficult than ever before. The bitter fact remains that forecasting is
difficult and forecasts are more often than not wrong. However, this does not mean
that we should discard forecasting altogether. Anyone involved in decision making
needs to base their decisions on what has happened in the past, what is happening
currently and what they think will happen in the future. The market forecast shows
expected market demand, not maximum market demand (14, 15)

A sales forecast is an essential skill required by a brand manager for managing her
brand/s, especially when it comes to new products when you do not have historical
data. Accurately forecasting sales and building a plan for a new product helps you
avoid many unforeseen problems and helps manage production and financing needs
effectively.

A general principle to follow while preparing a sales forecast is discussed below. It

can be divided into the following stages:

• Analyze past data

• From this data, try to identify trends and patterns in the data

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• Project these trends and patterns in the data

• Modify the projected data based on our own experience and judgment –
qualitative forecasting
An important step in creating the sales forecast is to estimate market demand,
i.e. the total volume that would be bought by a defined customer group, in a defined
geographical area, in a defined time period, in a given marketing environment. This
is also referred to as the Market Demand Curve. But is past history always the best
basis for forecast? No! (16)

Forecasting involves methods that derive primarily from judgmental sources

versus those from statistical sources. Judgment and statistical procedures are often
used together. Judgmental methods are generally appropriate in cases where previous
sales data do not exist, such as a new product forecast. Judgmental methods use the
input of experts with experience in developing demand forecasts. Statistical methods
extrapolate from existing data. This data is about current or past sales or market
statistics to develop a forecast. The brand manager making the forecast extrapolates
from the current data, which sometimes is limited, to an expected future result. For
example, a brand manager may take the sales from the three previous quarters and
use a moving average to generate a forecast for the fourth quarter. This method is
especially effective in cases where the product has been on the market for a while
and managers expect little change in consumer preferences.

Statistical Judgmental
Mathematically derived, therefore reproducible Subjective, therefore not reproducible
Must have sufficient and full historical data Can be managed even without full data
Computer graphics – allows professional display Less complicated – Involves experience
and gut feeling
Can be validated Cannot be validated

Finally, forecasting is not all about numbers. You still need to understand your
products, your company, and your market place before you can make a sensible sales
forecast. (17)

Production planning concepts and systems

Production planning is indispensable in pharmaceutical manufacturing and the brand
manager is an integral part of this process. Or rather, he plays a pivotal role. This
process of production planning starts from the forecast given by the brand manager.
Effective production planning is the foundation on which the manufacturing unit
operates.

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Production planning is an intricate course of action that covers a wide range of

activities that ensures that materials, facilities and human resources are available
when needed. The production planning document characteristically begins with a
sales forecast, or sales plan prepared by the brand manager and the marketing team.

From the brand manager’s forecast, the entire production planning document and
other processes start.

The production planning document includes material, labor, capacity, and training
and also contains a backup plan, should things go wrong. Each area of production
planning is dependent on the other and must be done in unison. It makes no sense
to procure material if production cannot produce, or plan production if materials are
not available or the brand manager is unable to create prescription demand.

Production planning is a collaborative effort amongst various departments like

brand management, marketing, distribution, production, quality assurance, purchase
and finance. Every company has a strategy for achieving that goal, but within the
company there are departments whose focus may seem to be in disagreement and
in contradiction to the objectives of the company. The production department, for
instance, is interested primarily in long production runs to minimize manufacturing
costs, even though this may result in high inventory costs. In contrast, the finance
team wants a minimum of funds tied up in inventories. The brand manager and the
marketing team will want to make sure that their brand is available at all Carrying &
Forwarding Agents (CFA) and stockists so that prescription demand is not wasted.

Expenditure budgeting and monitoring

If you ask a group of architects how much it costs to build a home you will get a
handful of different answers. The cost depends on the home being built. The same is
true when the question is, “How much does it cost to build a brand?” The variables,
for instance, could include the level of competition for the brand, the desired market
share, or maybe even creating a new market. If the particular molecule is being
launched for the first time in India, the budget will need to be on the higher side to
create an awareness and great impact for the product. The product will have to be
launched with great fanfare in order to capture a sizeable market share before the
arrival of competitors.

As in any other investment project, a brand manager should have a clear budget for
brand development. Budgets are useful for both managing expenses and for
disciplining the campaigns for brand development. The goal of a brand budget is to
control the expenses and project revenues. It also assists in the coordination of your
brand management activities. A well-designed brand budget is also a tool to keep you
on target and indicate when there is a need for modification in the marketing plan.

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To develop a budget for building a brand, you should take into account the costs listed here:
• Creating brand name and logo design
• Creating business stationery such as brochure, letterhead, envelope or packages of
the product
• Innovative product packaging
• Visual aids, literature, leave-behinds
• Suitable gift which will aid in brand recall
• Training
• Communication to the field staff
• The launch of a micro-website/ or changes to an existing one
• Travels costs
• Symposia for doctors
Developing a brand is often a long drawn process. Brand managers should speed up this
process. You should ensure that the field staff is thoroughly trained and understands your
brand values. Logos, advertising and other activities should be done so that the customer
has a clear understanding of the brand.

Managing your own time effectively

Why do some brand managers accomplish so much in a day while some cannot seem
to get anything done at all? Maybe, some are able to allocate their time better than
others. Time is your most precious resource today, because it is limited. You can’t
create more - there are only 24 hours in a day. But still our lives seem to get busier
and busier. What is the most important technique for a brand manager to find quality
time? Prioritize!

First list out the tasks on hand, then prioritize. Keep the importance of the task in
mind and the time needed to meet these deadlines. Once you know your priorities,
rank them and set a time- table for finishing these tasks. Be disciplined in keeping
your schedules. Effective time management skills will allow you to accomplish more
in the given time frame.

The first step towards getting more things done is completing tasks on time.

When you take up any project, make it a necessity to finish it before the deadline,
even if there is no one to force you. No matter what it takes to complete that task,
finish it on time and with perfection.

If you desire to get more things done in less time, then focus on completing tasks
on time, or even better, before the deadline. Remember the Pareto Principle (80/20
rule); focus on 20 % of the most useful and worthwhile tasks that bring 80% of the
results. (18)

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Task IV - Making Known

Communication and presentation skills - verbal and written

Effective Communication is the key to the successful career of a brand manager.

A person with inadequate communication skills is not really appropriate for the job
of a brand manager. Communication is a skill area and can be built up and practiced.
Brand communication skills have to be developed and honed on an on-going basis.
Misleading brand communication in advertisements can have adverse effects. (19) Wrong
communication can actually reduce not only the prescriptions of a product, but also the
goodwill of the company. Effective brand communication can break the market clutter
of pharmaceutical advertising in the doctor’s chambers and help you to stand apart
from competition. It is an opportunity to separate your brand from the competition
and improve your brand recognition. Communication and advertising is an exciting
field to work in and the industry is constantly changing to provide new challenges
and creative problems to solve (20). Most people in business think they communicate
pretty well. However, even the best communicators can have their communication skills
undermined when they are caught on the wrong foot, face potential humiliation, feel
misunderstood or get really surprised by someone else’s behavior.

Case Study – Example of breaking from market clutter

All hematinics are promoted in anemia of pregnancy. Their messages are almost identical.
Here is how a company promoted it in a totally different way away from the clutter.

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Presentation skills are also very important for brand managers. Why are
presentations necessary? (21)

• To disseminate and exchange information

• To sell strategies, tactics, and other relevant details to internal customers, like
medical representatives and field managers
• To create an image, a strategy
• It gives you an opportunity to influence, educate and get commitment to your
ideas
• To suggest a solution or new concept
• Presentation is much more interesting to the audience than reading literature or
information
• It is simply the most practical and dynamic way of getting your message across
as clearly as possible
• To sell the goals of your brand and also yourself, there is no better way to get into
the spotlight than to stand up and do a presentation

Preparing of literature and sales aids

Pharmaceutical advertising of prescription products are generally in five forms:

i. Detailing
ii. Gifting
iii. Drug samples
iv. Participating in congresses of the various medical associations – like their annual
conferences (such as APICON, NEUROCON, DERMACON, and ANCIPS)
v. Sponsoring medical seminars

Detailing, however, continues to be a very important method of sending

messages across to the medical professionals. For this reason your message while
preparing literature and other sales aids is very important. It should be delivered by
the medical representatives precisely, with impact and clarity – an important role for
the brand manager.

Literature and other sales aids are very powerful tools in pharmaceutical
advertising. Advertising influences consumer behavior (22,23,24). Advertising also
influences a physician’s prescribing behavior ( 22,25, 26, 27). A great pharmaceutical
brand is one of the company’s most valuable assets and advertising is an important

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ingredient in brand building. Communicating the brand message effectively is critical

to its success.

Whatever your message is, it should stand apart from those of your competitors
and penetrate the minds of doctors, remain at the top of his mind when he wants to
prescribe – a big challenge for the brand managers.

Making the message crisp and catchy is getting more and more important.
Currently, there are approximately 120000 medical representatives in India, trailing
some 400000 prescribers. A doctor is exposed to around 250 brands a day or in other
words, 8000 brands a month. And there are at least 10 new launches every week.
A medical representative will often try to meet a given doctor every few weeks, at
times in cycles of just 1-2 weeks. A key point to remember is that today, a doctor on
an average, gives less than a minute to a medical representative and the message of
at least three to four brands have to be conveyed in this time!

The number and the diligence of medical representatives have placed a load
on the time of physicians. As the number of medical representatives went up, the
amount of time a medical representative spent with doctors went down. Physicians
no longer spend much time with medical representatives. Getting even a minute, at
times, is a luxury. It is estimated that by 2020, IPI may have a field work force of about
2 lakhs!

In this clutter, the brand manager has to ensure that the medical representative
delivers his message effectively, making your task as a brand manager more
challenging.

Case Study - Colimex Drops

Way back in 1974 when I had just entered this profession, Colimex Drops of Carter-Wallace
was under active promotion. Colimex Drops is indicated for infants with colic pain. We,
the medical representatives of Carter-Wallace were well motivated to make Colimex Drops
the brand leader.
Our Sales Promotion Manager (as brand managers were then designated) Mr. P.M. Sapre,
who later rose to be the President of Lupin designed a small 4-page literature with a
crying baby doll in a lemon yellow background on the front page with the headline “When
colic brings tears…”. The second page was the same doll laughing and in a dark pink (what
we today call ‘rani’ color) background and the slogan read “Colimex brings cheers”. The
third page gave the USPs of the brand. The detailing story was made so musical and the
medical representatives enjoyed detailing Colimex. Colimex soon became the brand leader
– despite its inherent drawback – it’s very bitter taste.

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The most important reason for Colimex Drops to become the brand leader was that the
detailing was made so enjoyable. Pure communication was responsible for the leadership
position of Colimex Drops.

Commissioning of sales aids:

Here are a few steps to follow while commissioning a sales aid, whether it is a
literature, a leave-behind or a visual-aid folder.

Step 1: Determine the purpose of the sales aid

Literature, visual aids and electronic messages offer a lot of support to the medical
representatives in the prescription generation process. Before you commence this
activity, ask why you need this, what is the purpose of the particular sales aid. Is
it the introduction of a new product? Is it conveying a new indication or dosage?
Is it for the education of a doctor? Is it a part of a series of literature? Is it just a
brand reminder? Once the purpose is established, proceed to write the copy to
meet your requirements. Before producing it, check with the customers, both
internal and external whether the material answers the purpose. The material you
produce should tell the benefits of the products to the doctors – not the features.
Printed sales material does not sell anything. It only offers support. Nevertheless,
a classy sales promotional aid will boost the morale of the first customer, i.e. the
medical representative. Produce material which can involve the doctors. The medical
representatives work closely with doctors. What they talk in flesh and blood, it gets
more attention than video or computer screen.

Step II: Write the copy keeping the purpose of sales-aid in mind

It has often been said that great copywriting requires 50% information, 15%
inspiration, 25% personalization and 10% perspiration. (27) Copywriting is not easy if
you don’t put in hard work. Copywriting is an art and one needs to be original as
well as imaginative. Good command over the language as well as sound technical
knowledge holds the key to a good copy. Finding the right words to capture your
audience is a challenge. Hardly any company in the IPI hires specialized copywriters.
It is generally done by the brand managers and the marketing team after a brain-
storming session. To be a decent copywriter I would recommend you to master
“The Copywriters Handbook” by Robert Bly from Longman Publishing Group. It is a
comprehensive guide to the principles of writing copy headlines and other medico-

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marketing copy. He says: “As a creative person, you naturally want to write clever
copy and produce fancy promotions. But as a professional, your obligation to your
client is to increase sales at the lowest possible cost. If a classified ad works better
than a full page ad, use it. If a simple typewritten letter gets more business than a
four color brochure, mail the letter.” (29) You will now know how to write a wide variety
of materials for any type of material you wish to produce. However, as usual two
heads are better than one and I would always recommend brainstorming and team
work involving other members of your brand management team and your seniors in
marketing, finance and HRD.

A pharmaceutical copywriter is like a medical representative sitting in front of a

laptop or a PC and writing to a doctor.

Once the copy is written and the necessary approvals taken, Step III is to brief the
design agency

Step III: Briefing the design agency

Briefing the design agency or the ad agency is a skill by itself. To get the best
creative work out of your design agency, you need to brief the agency appropriately.
Tell them what you want to achieve, not how to. Do not dictate to them. Creative
people are generally over-sensitive. They may give you a stunning alternative to
achieve your objectives if given a free hand. And of course, give them sufficient
time to explore lateral alternatives. The final output is as good or as bad as your
briefing. An advertising brief is the basis upon which the design agency produces
the communication ideas. Your briefing should help the agency to recognize your
needs, objectives, target audience, budget, and a timetable. Also provide pertinent
background information. The quality of your brief is the key to the success of your
communication activity.

While briefing the agency, any particular visual or special effect/idea the brand
manager has in mind needs to be discussed. Also suggested visuals for particular
medical conditions can be provided simultaneously along with bar/pie charts or
graphs. So the layout can be planned accordingly.

Let me re-emphasize, the output from a design agency can be as good or as bad as
your briefing! “Don’t just inform the agency. Inspire them. If you tell them the entire
context of the brief, they will feel more motivated than ever to help you.” (30)

Tips for a good brief to the design agency:

• Explain why you need the sales literature

• Define as closely as possible the objectives of your sales literature

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• Place it into the overall framework of your communication

• Provide an outline of the timing and sequence of events including presentation
of the creative aspect
• Give yourself adequate time for study and research. This involves testing of
creative ideas, looking for negative responses from the research and subsequent
modifying of the creative
• Obtain relevant approvals and get yourself sufficient time for this

“Working from verbal input, without a written brief, is how amateurs waste time
and money (31).”

You can thus avoid the frequent problem which design agencies face - that briefs
are ambiguous, lack specific details, or are incomplete. The brief should tell everyone
on the creative team everything they need to know so that the final output will match
your expectations.

Case Study - Written Brief on new Leave Behind Literature of Ironium XT

• Purpose of the LBL – Ironium XT is a new product introduced by Jupiter Pharma

two months ago. This Leave Behind Literature is to reinforce the message in the
introductory LBL of Ironium XT, where we had talked about the use of Ironium XT
in memory disorders in the elderly. Memory loss is often because of inadequate
supply of oxygen to the brain and one of the causes could be iron-deficiency anemia.
Ironium XT corrects this deficiency.
• Positioning Statement – “Ironium XT is a hematinic which improves executive
functions”. Executive functions mean cognitive functions and includes thinking,
reasoning, concentration and psychomotor skills.
• Strategy – To promote Ironium XT Tablets to neurologists and psychiatrists; and
Ironium XT Syrup and Drops to pediatricians, so that the patient is energized both
physically and mentally.
• Mechanics – back-to-back A4 size paper; to be printed on glossy paper
• The LBL should talk about the benefits of Ironium XT in both the physical conditions
(like fatigue, exhaustion and weakness) and mental symptoms (like loss of
concentration and attention).
• The visual should depict an elderly person trying to read a book but unable to
concentrate. He is also fidgety.
• In the reverse page show this elderly person is happily reading a book.

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• The boxes with the references can be depicted as pin-ups with one corner slightly
folded.
• Superiority of Ironium XT over other haematinics and the lower incidence of side
effects should be highlighted graphically.
• Since Ironium XT positioning is unique, give the LBL some special effects like ‘pop-
ups’ or ‘cutouts’ – so that the doctor’s mind remains focused on this while the medical
representative is detailing.
• Expected date of completion of the rough options – Thursday 3rd August 2011 evening.

Step IV: Post-briefing and printing tasks

Once the design agency gives you the rough output, decide on the final option
after discussing with your team-mates and immediate superior. See whether the
rough output matches the brief you have given. If not, see where the lacuna is.
Selecting the right option is not an easy task, especially after your top-class briefing.
Empathize; put yourself in a doctor’s apron and then take a decision.

You have various alternatives to choose from-

• The size of paper – A4, A3, A5 size

• Number of folds - single fold, multiple folds
• Number of pages
• Back-to-back, 4 pages, 8 pages, 12 pages
• Thickness of paper - quality and its caliper (thickness). Paper today, doesn’t only
vary in its texture, size and color, but also in its caliper which in India, is generally
expressed in weight per unit of area e.g. grams per square meters (g/m²) or gsm.
Paper thickness is required for certain printing applications. The pages of a visual
aid binder (VAB) will require 300 gsm, preferably laminated on both the sides as
it will be handled by a medical representative at least a 1000 times in a three-
month cycle.
• Printing – one color, two color or four color. Four-color printing or also called
CMYK process (C= Cyan or blue; M = Magenta or red; Y = Yellow; K = Pure Black).
The four inks are placed on the paper in layers of dots that combine to create
the illusion of many more colors. Sometimes, however, the four process colors
do not capture the intensity or specific color you want. At times, to highlight
the brand name or strengthen the visual, the brand logo, printers resort to ‘spot
color / spot lamination’. More advanced processes involve the use of six colors
(hexachromatic process), which add orange and green to the process. The two
additional colors are added to compensate for the ineffective reproduction.
A spot color or spot lamination is a specially mixed ink used in printing. Spot color

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inks come in a rainbow of colors, including some specialty inks such as metallic
and fluorescent.

Conducting a symposium

Medical Symposium is a meeting or conference for discussion amongst the doctors.

A company sponsored symposium will discuss the company’s new product or health
concerns relevant to the product on promotion. Medical professionals comprise
the audience. Either the company doctor or someone very knowledgeable on the
product makes the presentations. Medical Symposium is one of the most important
tools for brand promotion, especially if a new product is being launched. The doctors
exchange information on the product or on the subject. The biggest advantage a
brand manager gets is that the new product is exposed to a big audience, sometimes
even up to 300 doctors, simultaneously. At times, the doctors are taken on cruises or
even to an international venue for launching new products.

Medical symposia also help to unfold disease awareness amongst the medical
professionals. A classic example of this is when in 1989, Sun Pharmaceuticals
introduced the antidepressant, Prodep (fluoxetine), almost at the same time as the
international brand, Prozac. Many non-psychiatrists like the internal physicians, the
cardiologists and gastroenterologists who previously were unaware of the indicators
of depression and its negative effect on the prognosis of a disease realized the
importance of adding an antidepressant. (See Prodep Case Study in Chapter 13)
Today, in the management of almost all chronic medical conditions like hypertension
or diabetes, doctors routinely prescribe an anxiolytic or an antidepressant.

On a smaller scale, clinical meetings in medical colleges are sponsored by

pharmaceutical companies. Clinical meetings serve as a platform for students and
their teachers to come together and discuss the various intricacies and complexities
of day-to-day practice. As a group many more activities can be carried forward like
discussions on acute emergencies and new products. In some colleges, it is mandatory
for all house officers / registrars to attend. The sponsoring company may put their
product posters and banners and may even provide lunch. A proactive brand manager
will seldom miss this opportunity. Another very important beneficial spin-off of such
medical symposia and clinical meetings is that it helps the field staff to develop closer
professional and emotional relations with the medical professionals.

Physician’s samples as inputs

In many companies a great chunk of the brand’s promotional budget is spent on

physician’s samples. A trend started over 75 years back continues even today! It has
become a ritual for every medical representative that after every call on a doctor he
should be given some samples. Just like a priest offers ‘prasad’ to a devotee going

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to a temple. For the medical representatives who are inept in communication skills,
samples have become akin to crutches to a lame person. He cannot make a call on a
doctor without samples. Who can correct this? None other than the brand manager!

What is the purpose of physician’s samples? The actual uses conceived 75 years
ago are as under:

• For visual acquaintance and inspection of the shape, size and color of the tablet
/ capsule. If it’s a liquid, for its taste
• As a starter dose for a patient who sometimes came at odd hours
• For initiating a pilot study, particularly if it’s a new product
• For a new product, to enable the doctor to assess the efficacy and side effects
• Drug samples are commonly taken by physicians and office staff for personal and
family use. The ethical implications of this practice warrant further discussion (31)

Very recently (in 2011) I informally interviewed around 31 consultants (post-

graduates) from Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Kolkata, Mumbai and Mangalore. This included a
cross-section of cardiologists, gastroenterologists, neuro-physicians, neuro-surgeons,
psychiatrists and pediatricians. 26 of them told me that they do not really value
the samples given to them by pharmaceutical companies. Physician’s samples are
unnecessarily dumped on them by the medical representatives. Just imagine 26 out
of 31 i.e. close to 84% consultants do not value samples – yet, even the experienced
brand managers set apart a big chunk of their budget for physician’s samples.

Think over many times about the costs you apportion to physician’s samples.

What would the pharma CEO expect from you?

The pharma CEO expects you to be a skilled brand manager, proficient in all the
functions of building strong and sustainable brands in the overcrowded IPM. He wants
you to know that marketing is warfare and the strong brands triumph. He wants you
to be different. He expects you to manage your time effectively so that a balance is
maintained between family life and professional life.

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Marketing

Self Analysis

B efore we proceed further, let us do a self analysis. Please answer all the questions
below honestly. Your answers will provide a guide to the marketing practices in
your organization.

YES NO
A - Market / Marketing Research

Do you use market research to establish sales trends / competitive

performance frequently?

Do you use marketing research to test customer reaction to proposed

or actual promotional activities?

Do you use data from ORG-IMS / C Marc or any independent retail /

prescription audit agencies?
Have you made provisions in your brand budget, for market /
marketing research?

B - Marketing Mix
Have you defined your brand in terms of the total package available to
the customer, e.g. brand support, company image?
Do you (can you) use any regional / local strategies to get competitive
advantage?
Do you monitor sales compared with forecasts and production planning
to avoid out of stock risks?

Do you weigh the relative value of various promotional activities?

C - Forecasting
Does you brand plan have the assumptions on which forecasts are
based?
Can you with certainty state the degree of confidence for your
forecasts, i.e. are they 80% accurate or 90% accurate?
Do you list the key factors which might influence sales when you are
forecasting?
D - Promotional Budgets

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Do you prepare a detailed promotional budget for each of your key

brands?
Do you review promotional expenditure to keep it in line with brand
objectives?
E - Marketing Plans
Do you carry out a full SWOT analysis for your brand and those of
competitors?
Do you use the SWOT analysis when producing brand objectives?

Does your local marketing strategy match the declared global strategy
for the brand?
Does your Marketing Plan contain details of how the progress of the
plan will be monitored? (Note: It is not simply checking sales vs.
forecasts)
F - Producing Effective Promotional Literature
Do you define the precise function of the literature / visual aid and the
expected result of its use?
Is the literature designed to help the representative to structure his
interview, i.e. sequence of data, summary / action statements?
Are medical representatives actually “trained” (or have a role play) in
the use of each piece of the literature?
G - Promotional Cycle Notes
Do you provide a written briefing to all medical representatives for
each brand when promotional cycles change?
Does the written briefing contain interview objectives for each brand?
Does the written briefing contain a suggested interview structure for
each product?
H - Technical Competence
Do you deal effectively with medico / commercial queries from field
force and customers?
Do you issue techno / commercial comments on published papers, etc.,
to support rep interviews?
I - New Product Launch
Do you develop a structured plan for launch with a timetable for
completion of the various activities?
Do you plan post-launch research to monitor performance (acceptance
of promotional theme, sales)?
Do you use or intend to use market / marketing research to position a
new brand before launch?

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Now discuss the results within your team and with your superiors and agree upon
an appropriate course of action to further develop your brand management skills. If
the answer is yes to all these questions it will indicate that you and your organization
are on the right track to establish some strong brands!

Market Research and Marketing Research

Introducing a brand in the market needs both quantitative and qualitative research
to get familiar with the trends and different attributes. Proper market research allows
you to launch the right brand for the right segment.

‘Market Research’ and ‘Marketing Research’ help you in finding out areas where
you can increase your business. Research is valuable only if you use the results in your
work.

Market research is a systematic, objective collection and analysis of data about

your target market, competition, and environment. Through the market research
process, you can tabulate data – a variety of related or non-related facts – and create
useful information to guide your brand. Market research is not a one-time activity;
it is an ongoing study. Researching your market in advance is a sound decision for a
brand manager. Unfortunately, it is often overlooked and ignored. The results can be
loss of revenue and a slow start to a new product introduction. Conducting market
and marketing research has a number of benefits for the brand:-

• It will reduce uncertainty and minimize risks

• It will help you to identify hidden opportunities and even threats in the
marketplace
• It will create new benchmarks
• It helps you to evaluate progress and monitor performance
• You will know your customers better
• It can guide your communication with prescribers and non-prescribers

‘Market Research’ and ‘Marketing Research’ are not synonyms; there is a technical
difference between them.

Market research is concerned specifically with markets (33). It is the study of markets
where you would like to market your brand. It deals with gathering information about
size and trends. Market research provides information relevant to a particular brand,
e.g. the size and trend of the total current market, the competitive situation, the
potential, the degree of segmentation, the effects of government policies and the
influence of technological developments (6).

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Marketing research is concerned specifically about marketing processes (34).

Marketing research helps us assess the effect of our marketing activities, e.g. how
customers respond to our advertisements; what the effect is on customer’s opinion
/ attitude following a specific mailing campaign; how customers perceive us in
comparison to our competitors. It is also learning about your customers.

Active market / marketing research is a time consuming process. You should

plan well ahead, so that the proper amount of time can be devoted to carry out the
research project, analyze the results, and then utilize them in the development of the
brand plan. Do not think about market / marketing research when it is too late.

I. Market Research
What kind of information can you gather during market research?

a. Determination of potential (i.e. market size)

• Number of patients or patient days
• Total sales of product, including those of competitors
• Number of opportunities to use the brand
• Total sales of therapy area
• Number of prescriptions written

b. Description of the market and segmentation

• Leading product groups and products in that market
• How is your brand used currently?
• Who is prescribing these products: e.g. neurologists, cardiologists,
gastroenterologists, surgeons or other specialists?
• What is your prescriber profile (specialization, age, sex)?
• What is the number of these specialists in India (size of target group)?
• How are they distributed geographically in India?
• What are the patient profiles (age, sex, indications)?
• Who are your main competitors: products and companies?
• Are the brand names of competing products easier to recall as compared
to yours?

The more you know about your competitors and customers the better basis you
have for finding out areas where you can increase your business.

How can you carry out Market Research?

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You can use published data, such as IMS Health Information and Consulting
Services India Pvt. Ltd., (Earlier ORG-IMS Research Pvt. Ltd.) and C MARC, which give
a lot of information, e.g. sales statistics, competition, market structure, prescription
trends, volume of prescriptions, and other important data.

However, in many cases you may not be able to find the data needed either from
IMS Health or any other published source. It can be collected from primary data
sources, for example, stakeholders like doctors, pharmacists, retail chemists, and
wholesalers.

To obtain valid data from these sources is a super-specialized skill and is best
carried out by market research specialists and not the field staff. Large companies
have their own market research wings; others can also outsource the task to market
research companies for specific needs.

2. Marketing Research
Marketing research tells us about what kind of information one can collect. Here
are a few examples.

a. Which factors influence a doctor when prescribing a particular product?

• Promotional activities of pharmaceutical companies
• Catchy brand name which reminds the doctor of the molecule or the disease
condition and which are easy to remember
• Recommendations from seniors or peers
• Published data from journals and text books
• Cost
• Availability at the marketplace

b. Which are the most and least important of the above factors?
c. What information sources are the most / least important in the prescription
decision?
• Medical representatives / company literature
• Advertisements
• Mailings
• Symposia
• Group meetings

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d. What “message” do customers get from reading your advertisements

/ literature (e.g. detail aid testing before general use by medical
representatives)?
e. What are customers’ impressions of different pharmaceutical companies
including your company in terms of:
• Support for their profession
• Quality of literature
• Authenticity of claims
• Professionalism of representatives
• Technical support etc.

This list could extend to cover many different aspects of the effect of pharmaceutical
marketing on customers’ attitudes, opinions and practices.

Al Ries and Jack Trout however signal a final bell of caution! “Many people think
marketing is a battle of products. In the long run they figure out that the best product
will win. Marketing people are preoccupied with doing research and ‘getting the
facts.’ They analyze the situation to make sure that truth is on their side. Then they
sail confidently into the marketing arena, secure in the knowledge that they have the
best product and that ultimately the best product will win. This is an illusion. There
are no facts. There are no best products. All that exists in the world of marketing are
perceptions in the minds of customers or prospects. The perception is the reality.
Everything else is an illusion. All truth is relative. Relative to your mind or the mind of
another human being.” (34)

Comprehensive Data Analysis

Data analysis comprises scrutinizing, cleaning, converting, and modeling data so as to

derive useful information which can support decision making. The purpose of the data
analysis is to transform the data collected into reliable evidence for taking market-
based decisions. Data and figures do not speak for themselves. They reveal what you
as a brand manager can detect. Comprehensive data analysis makes a brand manager
think from all angles and helps her take right decisions and get a competitive edge.

What kind of data does she need to analyze? The three vital ones are on
prescriptions, retail sales and distribution.

A major share of pharmaceutical sales comes from the diagnosis which a doctor
makes and his subsequent prescriptions. Consequently any marketing activity has
to be directed towards a prescriber. C Marc, a prescription research organization,
through continuous prescription monitoring follows the trends in the prescription

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behavior of doctors. Once you are able to analyze the data they provide, you can
anticipate changes, future demand, success factors and marketing strategies. A brand
manager who is able understand and analyze this data has a tremendous marketing
advantage.

While C MARC provides data only on prescription research, IMS Health gives
other quantitative details like market size, growth, regional dispersion and market
share through millions of transactions happening every year. IMS Health ‘Stockist
Secondary Audit’ captures stocks sold by the stockists to the retailer and sub-stockist
and provides data on all the products in the Indian pharmaceutical market. All the
data it provides, such as on the ranking of companies and ranking of the brands,
is based on volume sales. C MARC also gives ranking of companies, but it is based
on the quantity of prescriptions generated. A brand manager has to correlate and
analyze both these data to reach accurate decisions.

Comprehending and analyzing data is an essential skill to be learnt by a brand

manager.

What would the pharma CEO expect from you?

The pharma CEO expects you to analyze yourself periodically so that you become
stronger day by day. He wants you to analyze data to build strong brands. He wants
you to communicate effectively with your field staff, and bring out the differences
between the selling process and the marketing process. Their mindset should be
oriented towards marketing and not selling.

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Marketing Mix

T he term “marketing mix” was coined in 1953 by Neil Borden in his American
Marketing Association presidential address. However, this was actually a
reformulation of an earlier idea by his associate, James Culliton, who in 1948
described the role of the marketing manager as a “mixer of ingredients”, who
sometimes follows recipes prepared by others, sometimes prepares his own recipe
as he goes along, sometimes adapts a recipe from immediately available ingredients,
and at other times invents new ingredients no one else has tried (35).

Elements of the marketing mix are often referred to as the “Four Ps”. To satisfy
customers’ needs we must develop the right product, charge the appropriate price,
supply or distribute the product to the right place for use and advertise / recommend
the product through promotion.

These four topics, Product, Price, Place and Promotion constitute the Marketing
Mix (or 4 Ps).The Brand Manager has to exploit the varying influence of each of these
to achieve the declared marketing objectives. How can this be done? A brief insight:

The Marketing Mix

Product Customer wants and needs
Price Cost to satisfy
Place Convenience to buy
Promotion Communication

Product

“The Product” is much more than just the tablet or capsule – it is the reputation
of the company – the support and services it makes available to its customers, its
brand image. It provides value to a customer, value that may not be tangible. Skilful
use of these unique properties can help the brand manager to profile the product and
give it real competitive advantage.

Price

Pricing is an important strategic issue and affects the other marketing mix
elements. Pricing of a product can be done in many ways. Set a high price where
there is uniqueness about the product i.e. premium pricing. When ciprofloxacin was
first introduced in 1990, the price per tablet of 500 mg was in the range of Rs.30.00

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per tablet. Imagine the value of Rs.30.00 in the nineties! Yet Cifran and Ciplox went
on to become mega brands!

Penetrating prices is when the price charged is set artificially low in order to get
a market share. Once this is achieved, the price is increased. Intas Pharmaceutical
frequently uses this strategy. When Amtas (Amlodipine) was first introduced in 1995,
the price was Rs.0.50 for a 5 mg tablet. The price today is Rs. 3.46 per tablet (Batch
No. DM 1824, Mfd. June 2011).

Place

It refers to the place where the customers can purchase the product and how
the product reaches out to that place. This is done through different channels, like
C&Fs, wholesalers and retailers. This is not so easy to understand at first, but assumes
significance in the context of the product not being physically available when needed
by the patient, when the doctor prescribes it. The brand manager must ensure that
forecasts of sales (i.e. prescription demands) are regularly monitored and adjusted,
and that production schedules or import quantities are appropriate to the demand.
This would ensure that there is a steady supply of the product into the distribution
system; thus, the risk that the product may not be physically available when needed
by the customer is minimized. Our product not being available does not just mean ‘No
sale’! It means much more. It gives the competition an ideal opportunity to obtain
our business! When a product is not available when the doctor prescribes, it is much
more than loss of sales. It also means we are losing out on our competitive edge and
lending a helping hand to our competitors.

Promotion

This is the element of the marketing mix where the brand manager can have the
greatest influence and this is where the major portion of the promotional budget
is spent. Promotion in all its senses is a very wide topic covering personal and non-
personal selling and public relations. It includes the various ways of communicating
to the customers of what the brand has to offer. It is about communicating about the
benefits of using a particular brand rather than just talking about its features.

People

These days, especially in the context of the Indian Pharmaceutical Market, there
is a new dimension - a new P - to the 4 Ps, i.e. People. ‘People’ refers to the internal
customers, i.e. the medical representatives and the field managers. The fifth P is a
highly important component in today’s marketing mix. The field force, especially the
medical representatives of a company, are seen by doctors as a manifestation of the
brand. It is essential for the brand manager to realize that the reputation of the brand
is in the hands of people. How they communicate the brand message, the way they

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present themselves in a doctor’s chamber, their confidence in the brand itself will
determine how well a brand will be built. Brand managers, apart from sharpening
brand management skills, should also be adept at people management skills.
Obviously, without people, you cannot build a brand. Making medical representatives
passionate about a brand, treating them as brand ambassadors is a huge competitive
advantage.

Personal Selling

Personal selling may involve anybody who has direct contact with customers but
obviously includes the field force. Getting optimum results from personal selling is
dependent on:

• The amount of effort put in by the medical representative i.e. representative’s

call rate.
• The quality of effort, i.e. selling and communication skills and detail aids.
• The direction of effort, i.e. call targeting and prioritization.

Non-personal Selling

This includes advertising, mailings, exhibitions, congresses / symposia, product

support materials, trials, publications.

Advertising – After defining the advertising objective (e.g. to create or increase

awareness, etc.) the brand manager must then decide

• What message to use

• The appropriate level of advertising; frequency and number of advertisements
• Which journals are to be used to reach the target audience and the cost / value
of the proposed schedule

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Mailings – Again, the objective must be defined first so that the message, design,
target audience and response measurement can be planned. Mailings can be
expensive in terms of printing / postage costs but does allow specific selection of
target audience. However, one can now use e-mails.

Exhibitions – These can be relatively expensive in terms of rent of space, cost of

special stand, samples and literature and staff time. Hence the required objective
must be defined before the decision is taken to participate – does the cost relate to
the realistic objective?

Congresses / Symposia / Meetings – These may be at local, national or international

level. More important is the degree of control which the host company has over the
programme and speakers. Obviously we get better value if the event is designed to
meet our objectives.

Product Support Materials – The production of detail aids is the responsibility of

the brand manager and demands skill and appreciation of the representatives’ needs
in the interview situation.

Trials – Phase IV or other marketing-oriented studies (Post Marketing Surveillance

or PMS) can be very effective in creating customer knowledge / experience of the
product and can produce a useful “pool” of speakers for meetings / congresses, etc.
Such trials must however always satisfy our own scientific and ethical standards.

Professional Relations (PR)

PR is often interpreted as Public Relations; but, in our context, it is better thought

of as Professional Relations. This increasingly useful medium for communicating our
message includes medical press releases (particularly for new products), reports on
scientific meetings / symposia, reviews of publications, accounts of clinical trials and
professional meetings.

Specialized PR agencies exist to handle all the necessary work – the brand
manager is one of the people who would brief such an agency, to describe her needs
and objectives, provide all the relevant data and contacts and monitor / review the
various stages in the process.

What would the pharma CEO expect from you?

The pharma CEO expects you to have a thorough understanding of the marketing mix,
and four P’s of marketing. He particularly expects you to handle the new P – people -
with respect and dignity. He knows that in the IPM, people have a key role to play in
building strong brands.

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 Chapter 4

Forecasting

F orecasting is the estimates of the sales volume of your brand for a particular
period. It is a prediction based on past sales performance, the trend analysis of the
pattern of sales, and an investigation of the expected market conditions. (6) It is one
of the most difficult and challenging exercises for a brand manager. For a mega brand
even a variation of 1-2% could have repercussions amounting to crores of rupees!
Forecasting is an essential part of the brand manager’s job. A forecast is required in
order to plan production, distribution, resource allocation (e.g. promotional budget
and manpower) and, above all, the profit contribution. The market forecast shows
expected market demand, not maximum market demand (6),(8) There are numerous
forecasting techniques but none will guarantee a “correct” forecast – if only because
forecasts are, by definition, concerned with the future and nobody knows what the
future will hold. Forecasts therefore are always an expression of opinion which is
based on assumptions. It is important that the assumptions are stated alongside
the forecasts so that, as time elapses and events take place, the accuracy of the
assumptions can be judged and appropriate changes made to the forecast.

Forecasting assumptions

The major forecasting assumptions hinge around using your acumen, foresight and
experience on the forthcoming market events. You need to give a thought to the influence
of those events which can impact the prescriptions of your brand. You need to recognize
which events are likely to happen in the near future.
Some of the potential market events which can impact forecasts include:
• Unpredictable government regulations, like from NPPA
• The entry of new competitors
• Newer strategies or tactics of the current competitors
• A new indication for the brand. Aspirin is an example here. Aspirin was getting
obsolete as a pain killer; however, the new indication, low-dose aspirin to prevent
cardiac events gave it a new lease of life
• New product formulation. The introduction of escitalopram almost killed citalopram
and has made Nexito of Sun Pharma, the leading antidepressant
• Change in medical guidelines / publication of major study. For instance, the publication
of HOPE study changed the fortunes of Cardace (Ramipril) of Aventis
It is not possible to quantify the impact of these events, but just recognize them as
potential threats or opportunities.

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How should a brand manager go about preparing the forecasts?

Before you commence the forecasting exercise the following steps would be
useful.

• Determine the use of the forecast

• Decide the time horizon for the forecast
• Select the forecasting model
• Collect the data
• Make the forecast
• Validate the results

Review the actual historical sales data for your brand. Using this data, you can
identify the general level of sales. You can also determine whether there is a pattern
or trend, such as an increase or decrease in sales volume over time. A further review
of the data may reveal some type of seasonal pattern, such as peak sales occurring
before a particular period. Thus, by reviewing historical data over time, you can
develop a good understanding of the previous pattern of sales. Understanding such a
pattern can lead to more accurate forecasts. Identifying other factors that influences
sales such as historical data or any other variables can also be used to generate
forecasts of future sales volumes.

For instance if a brand manager for a moisturizer cream has to make a forecast for
her brand, while collecting historical data, she will observe that in the IPM, the sale
of moisturizers starts looking up in October, peaks up in the months of December and
January and generally starts declining after February. This seasonal pattern will help
her in making forecasts so that the production is also geared up to meet this added
demand in winter months. This is the importance of accuracy in forecasts in product
planning. Although historical data can give a general guideline, you have to keep in
mind the strategies, tactics and promotion of competition as it can make a significant
dent and even throw all forecasts into disarray.

Before the process can start, a number of points must be considered:

1. What is the time scale for the forecast?

Short term e.g. a few months
Medium term e.g. a year
Long term e.g. 3-5 years

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2. What data exists? How accurate is it? How complete is it? What time period does
it cover?
Note: the data period should be at least twice the length of the required
forecast period – a forecast for the next 12 months needs data from the last
2 years.

3. How accurate must the forecast be? What limits of confidence are acceptable?
E.g. If you have 80% confidence that the forecasted sales will be 100,000
units, this means that the sales could range between approx 80,000 and
120,000 units. Would this be acceptable? A 90% limit of confidence would
narrow the range to 90,000 – 110,000.

There is of course, no formula to help you calculate the limits of confidence

of your forecasts. However, by considering the implications of ‘loose’
forecasting, as shown above, you may be encouraged to give more thought
to your forecasting technique. This will help you to minimize the degree of
error and increase confidence.

4. Is the forecast for a new or an existing brand? Obviously there should be an

adequate data base available for an existing brand, but a new product forecast
may have to be made using data for a similar (maybe competitive) product.
For instance, Sun Pharma recently introduced Ilosure (in July 2011), containing
Iloperidone, an anti-psychotic. The brand manager of Ilosure can make her
forecasts based on the benefits Ilosure offers over Paliperidone and Risperidone.

There are two basic approaches to forecasting, judgmental and statistical.

Statistical forecasting methods are based largely on past sales patterns, but actual
sales are influenced by a variety of factors.

Judgmental forecasting is the use of subjective opinions of managers.(36)

Judgmental forecasting techniques, to a very great extent, rely on the knowledge of
experienced persons in the organization. Often this type of forecasting is carried out
within the framework of fairly formal and regularly scheduled meetings. Judgmental
forecasting methods incorporate intuitive judgments and opinions. The more
sophisticated forecasting techniques utilize statistical tools such as regression analysis.
Mathematically, it is possible to forecast sales with some precision. Realistically,
however, this precision can be dulled because of external market and economic
factors that are beyond your control. Some external factors that can affect sales
forecast include relative state of economy, political events, regulatory interventions,
direct and indirect competition.

Both judgmental and statistical methods of sales forecast have their advantages
and disadvantages.

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Judgmental Statistical
Advantages Involves experience – Mathematically derived,
gut feeling therefore reproducible
Can manage without Adaptable to
full data computerization
Less complicated Computer graphics allow
professional displays
Disadvantages Subjective – not Must have sufficient
reproducible historical data
Cannot be validated Brand manager must be
mathematically skilled or
experienced with software
packages

Statistical forecasting methods are based largely on past sales patterns but actual
sales are influenced by a variety of factors. Product sales can be affected by:

Company factors Non-company factors

Resources Competitors
• Budget Sales activity
• Manpower Price
Quality
Numbers
Availability
Promotional theme Market
Demand vs. supply
Economics
Season
Technology
Production / distribution
Price

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The forecast of your brand can be affected by:

Company factors Non-company factors

Resources Competitors
• Budget Sales activity
• Manpower Price
Quality
Numbers
Availability
Promotional theme Market
Demand vs. supply
Economics
Season
Technology
Production / distribution
Price
Customer targeting and brand positioning

The best approach to forecasting is not to rely on one method alone but to use
maybe two or three to establish the most likely range of prediction

It is important that forecasts generated should not be too far from the actual
future outcomes. When considering the forecast for a new product, the relative
influence of all the above factors must be considered.

• Will competitor activity remain constant?

• Will production meet its scheduled targets?
• Will the level of demand increase or decrease?
• What will be the effect of reduced advertising or of a new promotional approach?

Some of these factors would affect sales quickly (e.g. stock shortage), but maybe
only for a very short time. Other factors like technological improvements will have a
more lasting effect on sales.

Forecasts drive manufacturing line production, which in turn drive inventory,

supply, costs, and ultimately revenues. Most supply problems result from poor
forecasting.

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Performing post-mortem of forecasts

Brand managers must continually look at what worked and what did not in order
to improve their efficiency and capabilities. Forecasting should be especially subject
to this scrutiny - both forecasts that were underachieved and also those that were
overachieved. The bellwether of a well managed brand is the consistency of accuracy
of the forecasts made by the brand manager. The forecasting process should be
continually questioned and examined to improve it.

What should you look at?

1. Compare the actual sales achieved against the sales forecast.

2. Determine whether the assumptions were accurate.
3. If the forecast was significantly missed (positive or negative) find out why.
4. Modify the forecasting process or assumptions to avoid these reasons for the miss.
5. Involve customers in the forecasting process.

Sales forecasting is, after all, a prediction of what prescribers are likely to do.
Why not involve doctors in the forecasting process, especially current prescribers?
If there is a strong relationship with your doctors and you are bringing real value to
the relationship, don’t hesitate to have a discussion. The focus of these discussions
is to validate the assumptions behind your forecast and determine whether any new
factors are coming into play that you do not know.

Promotional Budgets

When, on the basis of good market / marketing research, objectives for the brand
have been set and appropriate marketing activities have been defined to achieve
them, the relevant costing or expenditure must be calculated.

You, being the brand manager, have the full responsibility for producing a realistic,
sensible and target-oriented promotional budget. When doing this, you should
consider producing a zero-base budget.

What is zero-base budgeting (ZBB)? (37)

Zero-Base Budgeting is now a popular technique of planning and decision-making

and almost invalidates the working procedure of traditional budgeting. In traditional
budgeting, the brand managers need to substantiate only changes over the previous
year budget. This means what has been already spent is automatically sanctioned.
In case of ZBB, no reference is made to the previous level of expenditure. Only the
budget heads are reviewed. ZBB is a technique, by which the budget request has to

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be justified in complete detail starting from the Zero-base, for every new period. The
ZBB is not concerned whether the total budget is increasing or decreasing compared
to the previous year. The most important advantage of zero-based budgeting is that it
forces the Brand Managers to think through their operations in order to plan for the
forthcoming year. One of the most serious disadvantages to traditional budgeting is
that brand managers may rely upon historical data without considering its relevance.

This means that the brand manager should not fall into the trap of looking at
the previous year’s budget and then just adding X % for inflation and Y % for extra
activities. This is a sure recipe for disaster, since it would lead to a constant increase
in promotional spending, regardless of market needs, competitive situation, own
product portfolio, and other relevant factors.

What are the advantages of ZBB? (37)

• ZBB allows an effective allocation of resources as it is based on the current needs

and benefits
• It pushes the brand manager to find out cost effective ways to improve operations
• It recognizes and eliminates wastage and obsolete operations
• ZBB can lower costs by avoiding blanket increases or decreases to a prior period’s
budget.

The ZBB process would start with the brand manager considering the full range of
promotional items and activities needed to achieve the brand’s marketing objectives.
The relative value of each should be assessed at two levels:

• For different marketing activities, e.g.: Is mailing a better alternative than

advertising in medical journals, with reference to the particular objective?
• Within the same activity, e.g. is advertising in one medical journal more cost
effective than the same advertisement in comparison to another?

It may not be possible to calculate the true cost effectiveness of different

promotional activities, since one can never actually measure the effect. You can,
however, use your judgment and experience to assess if money spent on one activity
gives as good value as it would if spent on a different activity.

Keep away from the same old beaten track. Question and brainstorm your own
ideas and decisions until you are convinced that you have achieved the optimal
promotional plan and budget.

Some useful techniques of challenging your ideas are:

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Ask yourself, “What would be the effect of NOT doing a particular activity?” E.g. of
NOT giving samples; of NOT participating in a symposium; of NOT advertising

This may be relatively easier to answer rather than judging the effect of sampling,
participating in a symposium or advertising. Calculate how much extra would have to
be sold to generate enough profit to meet the cost of the specific promotional event.

On this basis it may be possible to identify promotional activities which have a

high, medium or low payback potential. The various promotional activities, and the
funds needed for them, should be listed separately as shown in the example below.

Case Study – Typical Promotional Budget *

±%

Advertising 1050000 -15

Literature 500000 -12.5
Mailings 600000 20
Exhibitions 200000 =
Symposia (National) 700000 =
Symposia (International) 260000 -55
Sponsorship 500000 =
Video (production) 0.00 =
Samples 100000 =
Gifts 600000 =
Others (+ contingency) 500000 =
Total 5010000 -9

The figures in the ±% column indicate the change over the previous budget and
allowing the reader to see at a glance how and where the promotional activities are
changing. = indicates that these head were not budgeted the previous year.

*While budgeting for a new product for the first time, the column pertaining to
change is superfluous. Ditto for ZBB!

If you have truly attempted to produce a zero-base budget, this analysis should
be made only for the purpose of comparison and should not influence the actual
production of your plan and budget. The more detailed the list is, the easier it will be

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for you to go back and compare actual activities / costs to those originally planned.
This could prove quite useful since at a later stage you may find that you have to alter
the total amount. Having a detailed list of planned activities / costs would be of great
help to you in deciding where to make these alterations.

Budgetary approval process

in a typical professionally managed company
Having completed her budgetary allocation exercise, the brand manager would
present her proposed budget to her group product manager / marketing manager
who would consider the total promotional budget for all brands in the portfolio. If
satisfied the group product manager / marketing manager would pass this, together
with other budgets like stay and travel costs, upwards to the general manager. To this
extent, the main consideration would be the relative allocation of costs to the brand
sales forecasts.

The general manager would be concerned with the effect of proposed budgets on
profit (i.e. sales revenue minus costs). The ‘Review Committee’ within the company
would then consider the total budget and, if accepted, that would be passed on to
the ‘Corporate Executive Committee’.

The role of the ‘Corporate Executive Committee’ (or the highest authority) is to
consider not individual budgets but the combined total from all the brands. If the
proposed total is not acceptable for any reason, then instructions would be passed
back for appropriate amendments. The proposed budget can, of course, be “rejected”
at any intermediate stage and necessary amendments made before being passed on
to the superiors.

What would the pharma CEO expect from you?

The pharma CEO expects you to master the skills in forecasting so that the process
of production planning and material control is optimized. He also expects you to
understand and use the modern techniques like ZBB. The organization should not
carry unnecessary inventory while at the same time there should be no artificial
shortages because of inaccurate forecasting.

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 Chapter 5

Brand Plan

M arketing plans

For a brand’s success, planning always plays a key part. One of the major
parts of a brand manager’s work is the production of a brand plan.

A brand plan serves as a reference to execute a brand strategy. A well-constructed

brand plan will be of great value by requiring the brand manager to analyze the
market and its potential, define objectives, describe strategies, lay down financial
budgets and monitor progress.

A brand plan should answer four main questions relating to the product’s
performance:

Where are we now? Market / Brand Analysis

Where do we want to get to? Objectives
How will we get there? Strategy formulation and execution
How will we monitor progress? Control

The final purpose of a brand plan is to establish targets so that progress can be
monitored. Accordingly, it is important to put both quantities and timescales into the
marketing objectives (for example, to capture 20 % of the market within two years)
and into the corresponding strategies.

The Importance of Assumptions

Production of a comprehensive brand plan obviously depends upon the availability

of a considerable amount of data but, unfortunately, in many situations sufficient
data is not available. In these circumstances the brand manager has to rely on her
own knowledge or even “gut feeling”. The danger in this situation is that plans
which are based on a brand manager’s own assessment of the market rather than
on quantitative material are difficult to validate. It is therefore very important that
the plan contains records of any assumptions on which specific decisions have been
based. This will help the brand manager to assess the accuracy of her assumptions
with the passage of time and to judge if any changes need to be made to the brand
plan because assumptions proved to be inaccurate. Itemizing the assumptions also
helps in focusing the brand manager’s thoughts on the need to plan for contingencies:

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Case Study – Newex vs. Oldex

Example A
Planned Action
To launch a new brand Newex in September 2013
Assumption
New product permission from DCI will be granted before end June 2013.
Contingency
What do we do in September 2013 if Newex product permission is not granted in June?
Example B
Planned Action
Sales volume increase of old product Oldex by 5%
Assumption
Key competitors will not reduce their price below current levels?
Contingency
If key prices fall significantly, how will we react?

A Team Effort

Obviously the above process demands the collection and collation of a considerable
amount of data and it is advisable that this should be discussed by all the relevant
members of the brand management team before decisions are committed to the
plan. Thus, although a brand plan is the prime responsibility of the brand manager,
it should not be prepared by the brand manager in isolation. This should, ideally,
be a team effort, drawing in as wide a base of experience as possible. Being in the
right place with your brand, at the right time, is a combination of experience and
good planning.

Contents of a Brand Plan

There are various lists of topics which may be included in a Brand Plan, the essential
difference being the amount of detail required. The Plan for an established product
in a well-known market (e.g. ‘Amixide’ from Sun Pharma, a brand introduced in 1984
for management of depression) would not be as elaborate as that for a new product
in a new market (e.g. ‘Ilosure’ for psychosis).

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 It is also worth remembering, however, that very long documents are seldom read
thoroughly!

Certain topics should, however, be included in every brand plan:

Essential topics
Current Position Where are we now?
SWOT Analysis
Marketing Objectives Where do we want to get to?
Strategy How will we get there?
Pricing Policy
Specific Activities / Timings
Forecasts and Assumptions How will we monitor progress?
Financial Statements
Performance Monitoring

Current Position

Before any realistic plans for the future can be produced, we must know as much as
possible about the current situation – where are we now? The information needed
is in three areas:

• The market environment

• Competitor companies and brands
• Our own company and brands

SWOT Analysis

A SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) is a tool for

auditing a brand, a company, or even an individual. Used in a commercial context,
a SWOT analysis assists you to analyze and study your brand. SWOT is used to make
important marketing decisions. The power of SWOT analysis can change your life. (38)

SWOT Analysis is the first stage of planning and enables the marketers to focus
on key issues. To repeat, SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and
Threats. Strengths and weaknesses are internal factors. Opportunities and threats are
external factors. What makes SWOT particularly powerful is that with a little thought,
it can help you uncover opportunities that you are well placed to exploit. Thus by
understanding the weaknesses of your business, you can manage and eliminate
threats that would otherwise catch you unawares. (38)

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The SWOT analysis should cover the major factors influencing the market in which
we operate, including our own product and organisation, and what our competitors
are doing. Involve other colleagues in helping you to complete the SWOT analysis and
make notes under the following heading:

Strengths and Weaknesses (Internal factors)

E.g. Strong company image, product features / benefits

Opportunities and Threats (External factors)

E.g. Government restrictions, price regulations, competitors’ activities

To complete a detailed SWOT analysis requires self-discipline and a thorough

understanding of the market. Deep thought results in a clearer understanding of
the market place in which you operate and the key issues which may influence your
business.

As a brand manager you should also perform a SWOT Analysis at a personal level
on a regular basis and measure your own progress!

Marketing Objectives

Marketing objectives should be produced from priorities identified in the SWOT

analysis. Marketing objectives must always be

• appropriate
• achievable (in the available time)
• measurable

They should not be confused with marketing strategies, as the strategy is the
means by which the objective will be achieved.

Strategy

Strategy is the plan of action to achieve the brand objectives. Without a good strategy,
the brand may not attain the desired results. A brand strategy helps you to focus your
attention to make optimum use of the resources at hand, to increase the prescriptions
of your brand and win over your competitors. To arrive at a useful strategy for
your brand, look carefully at the different chunks of your brand, particularly at its
profitability and cash generation.

For a new product / indication, there should be a clear statement of the product
profile (its comparative properties) and its positioning within the therapeutic class.

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 Such a positioning statement may be repeated in successive plans to guard against
unintentional variations from the original.

Brand Strategies are usually described under the four main areas of marketing
activity and include the 4 Ps that constitute the marketing mix: (6)

• Product
• Price
• Place
• Promotion

Pricing Policy

This should not be a simple statement of the actual price of the product but should
describe the policy which is being adopted to establish or defend the product’s
competitive position.

Specific Activities / Timings

These are the tactics – comprising the detailed plans – which transfer the strategies
into actions to meet the various objectives.

Under this heading, promotional themes, plans and an action list that defines who
will be responsible for which task and the time frame by when it must be completed
must be included. This will ensure that progress is monitored and should be reviewed
weekly or monthly.

There is little point in producing a detailed plan and then putting it into a file until
next year! The brand plan should be a constant reminder of what needs to be done
by you or sales, medical, training or production personnel.

Forecasts and Assumptions

These are your commitment as to what sales or profit (depending on your

responsibility) your plan should achieve and what stock you require. Always include
the assumptions on which your forecasts are made.

Financial Statements

These should illustrate how much money is to be allocated to each promotional

activity (Promotional Budget) and, if possible, what profit your forecasted product
sales will contribute.

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Progress Monitoring

In order to check that your Brand Plan is ’on course’, define what will be measured /
monitored, by whom, when and how.

Summary

In preparing a Brand Plan seek the thoughts of your colleagues from other disciplines
(medical, training, production, sales). Their cooperation is vital in ensuring that the
marketing objective is achieved.

Use the preparation of a Brand Plan as your self-discipline throughout the year to
reflect on what is happening in your marketplace. Never approach the preparation of
a Brand Plan as something you must write to satisfy senior management. It is your
time to reflect and be creative, perhaps seeking newer opportunities and ways of
staying ahead of your competitors.

Product portfolio management and analysis

An essential analysis to be carried out before preparing the brand plan is the product
portfolio analysis. The best business portfolio is one that fits into the strengths of
the company so that it can take advantage of the attractive opportunities. Using
Pareto Principle is one way. The BCG Matrix (Boston Consulting Group), however, is
perhaps one of the most comprehensive models to decide the status of a brand in the
business portfolio.(6) A company can classify all its brands in this matrix and can serve
as a valuable guide to take strategic decisions on the brand.

The BCG Matrix is based on the Product Life Cycle (PLC). To start with, the Brand
Manager has to locate her brand in the PLC. It is the progress of a brand through a
sequence of stages from introduction to growth, its maturity and decline.

Product Life Cycle is based on the biological life cycle. For instance:

• A seed is planted, i.e. the brand introduction stage

• It begins to sprout, i.e. the growth stage of the brand
• It shoots out leaves and puts down roots as it becomes an adult, i.e. a brand
attains maturity
• After a long period as an adult the plant begins to shrink and die out, i.e. decline
stage of the brand.

In theory, after a period of development a brand is introduced or launched

into the market; it gains more and more prescribers as it grows; eventually the
market stabilizes and the brand becomes mature; then after a period of time the

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 brand is overtaken by technological development and the introduction of superior
competitors; it then goes into decline and is eventually withdrawn from the market.

Of course, exceptions do make the rule. In the IPM for instance, Becosules is still
growing although the brand is over half a century old.

Unfortunately, as we will see later, most products in the IPM fail in the introduction
phase. The PLC impacts the marketing strategy and marketing mix.

Figure: Reference (6)

Once you locate the position of your brand in the PLC, the next step is to determine
its priorities. The BCG matrix is a user-friendly and very popular portfolio management
tool. Place your brand in the appropriate box.

The BCG matrix is one means of analyzing the balance of an organization’s product
portfolio. According to this matrix, two basic factors define the strategic stance of a
brand in the market- place, viz.

• Relative market share - for each product. It is the ratio of the share of the brand
divided by the share of the market leader.
• Market growth rate - for each product, the market growth rate of the product
category.

Relative market share is important because it is advantageous to have a larger

share than competition. The theory of double jeopardy states that small brands are
punished twice! First, they have a small market share. Second, doctors prescribe it
less frequently and therefore are not loyal to brand.

Placing products in the BCG matrix results in four categories in a portfolio of a

company:

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 What The Pharma CEO Wants From The Brand Manager

STAR brands are high growth with a high market share in a growing market. STARS
are the leaders in the business but still require a lot of support. If you are able to
sustain the market share, a STAR can grow into a cash cow. As of now (2011), Cardace
(ramipril) from Aventis is a typical example of a STAR brand.

Question Marks have a low market share in a growing market. Question mark
brands are essentially new products where the prescribers have yet to notice them.
The marketing strategy here is to get markets to adopt these products. Question
marks have high demands and low returns due to low market share. Question mark
brands need to increase their market share rapidly lest they become dogs. One way
is to handle Question marks is to invest heavily in them to gain market share. Ilosure
(Iloperidone Sun Pharma) in 2011 is a Question mark.

Cash Cows are low growth brands with a high market share in a mature market.
Cash cows have high profit margins and generate a lot of cash flow for the company.
Because of the low growth, promotion and placement investments are low. Cash
cows are the products that businesses strive for! Becosules is a classic example of a
cash cow.

Dogs are low growth brands with a low market share. Dogs should be avoided and
minimized. It is best to shelve the dogs.

Figure: Reference (6)

Apart from its relation with completion, product portfolio analysis will tell you
how to rationalize your promotional budget for each of the brands in the company.

Question marks will require the highest investments if they need to be evolved
into stars. Stars are another category which requires high investments. While you
need to sustain the cash cows, you may definitely consider shelving the dogs.

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 Monitoring the performance of your brand

The sales progress of your brand must be constantly monitored as compared to the
goals you have set in the brand plan. This is brand vigilance, an important job for a
brand manager. This will help you to make sure that the brand goals are being reached
and enough prescriptions are being generated.

On a regular basis, at least once a month, compare sales of your brand against
targets which have been defined in the brand plan. The revenue generated from sales
should also be tracked against the company’s budget.

In the monitoring process, it is always desirable for you to understand why the sales
of a brand are high or why they are low. This can help you re-adjust your approach or
learn about your competitors so that more prescriptions can be generated in future.

First study the national sales average of the brand. How is the brand performing at
a macro-level? How is it performing in North, East, West, and South? Then go to the
micro-levels: state, area and so on. You should also constantly monitor the top 10%
and the bottom 10% territories. The top and bottom 10% territories should always be
at your finger tips. This will help you focus on the brand and most important, help you
in designing local tactics wherever necessary.

Monitoring and constant vigilance are necessary for the success of your brand.
The MIS system should be used to the advantage of the progress of your brand. The
brand plan is not a docket to be filed – it is for continual use by the brand manager for
the benefit of the brand. Here is a hypothetical example of a case study.

Case Study – Brand Plan for Ironium XT

1. Executive Summary: It will be a one to two page assessment of the main facts
and recommendations for Ironium XT contained in the Brand Plan. This is for the top
management who may not have the time to go through the micro-details of each and
every brand. Most important, the Executive Summary should have the forecast of
Ironium XT, the proposed budget and the likely profit or loss for Ironium XT. Tell the
top management in this summary:
• Where Ironium XT stands today in volume sales, value sales market share, growth
and brand standing
• Then tell them where you intend to take the brand next year - includes your targeted
volume and value sales, anticipated growth and market share.

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 What The Pharma CEO Wants From The Brand Manager

• In brief, how are you going to take Ironium XT to where you have planned and the
budget?
• Finally, what is the anticipated profit or loss for Ironium XT for the current year
• The Executive Summary should not exceed two A 4 pages – although one A4 page is
ideal.
2. Company situation for Ironium XT: This will give information on the sales of
Ironium XT for the last 2 years data [or from the date of introduction if the brand is
less than 2 years old] on internal sales, retail market share, prescription share. This
will be at a micro-level i.e. up to state level for bigger companies and even up to the
level of a first-line manager for smaller companies.

Ironium XT Sales and Forecast - National

Sale Strips of 10’ Value (Net Rs. 7.63) Growth
2009-10 1000000 7630000
2010-11 1500000 11445000 50
2011-12 2500000 19075000 66.7
Ironium XT Sales and Forecast - West Zone
Sale Strips of 10’ Value (Net Rs. 7.63) Growth
2009-10 300000 2289000
2010-11 500000 3815000 66.7
2011-12 800000 6104000 60.0

3. Environmental situation: Where Ironium XT was for the past 2 years, compared to
Ferrium XT, Orofer XT and C-Pink and where Ironium XT is today. Where Ferrium XT,
Orofer XT and C-Pink, the top 3 competitors two years back, where are they today.
Here below is an hypothetical example:
How do competitors in unit sales and growth

Year Orofer XT Ferrium XT C-Pink Ironium XT Total of all

2009-10 2500000 2000000 1500000 1000000 7000000
2010-11 4500000 3500000 2500000 1500000 12000000
2010-12 5000000 4000000 2500000 2100000 13600000
Market Share (%) of leading brands
Year Orofer XT Ferrium XT C-Pink Ironium XT
2009-10 35.7 28.6 21.4 14.3
2010-11 37.5 29.2 20.8 12.5
2011-12 36.8 29.4 18.4 15.4

What do we see: The market share of Ironium XT is increasing every year

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 4. SWOT Analysis: SWOT Analysis of Ironium XT, SWOT Analysis of Ferrium XT, Orofer
XT and C-Pink, their strategies and other relevant information which will be useful to
us to build Ironium XT.
SWOT Analysis of Orofer XT as done by the brand manager of Ironium XT
SWOT – Orofer XT

Strengths Weaknesses
A very strong brand name come from The same communication to all the
(selected by) its forerunner Orofer segments of doctors
which contained iron polymaltose
complex and was also a very strong
brand.
Has the first-mover advantage which Undifferentiated promotional strategies
they have sustained even now.
A well-trained field force with brand
management orientation
very strong commitment to Orofer XT
by the top management
Opportunities Threats
A rapidly growing and vibrant market The success of Orofer can attract many
more players with ferrous ascorbate salt
Can buy away small regional players Some can even change over from existing
and ‘stop their nuisance’ value iron salts to ferrous ascorbate
Move into segments rather than just in The ever-looming eyes of DPCO and NPPA.
anemia of pregnancy

5. Strategy analysis: Positioning analysis of Ironium XT, Ferrium XT, Orofer XT and
C-Pink, and their positioning statement; the communication strategy of Ironium XT
and the communication strategy of Ironium XT, Ferrium XT, and Orofer XT.
Having done the SWOT Analysis of a competitive brand let us do the strategy analysis.
• What does Orofer XT promise?
• What is positioning of Orofer XT?
• How has the brand identity / personality been defined? If Orofer XT is a human, what
is he/she trying to say?
• Who are their customers?
• What is their communication strategy?
• Any other relevant information you need to strengthen Ironium XT?
6. Objectives for the next five years: Where do we intend to take Ironium XT in the
next five years, its market share, and targeted brand standing year after year? And
how do we take Ironium XT there.
In the next five years the objective is to make Ironium the number two brand,
dislodging C-Pink and Ferrium XT.

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If we have to reach this position, we need to be different from the competitors. In

fact we can create a new segment and even be a leader in that segment.
What is that new segment we can create?
Look for a segment where competition is weak. And what is that segment?
Hematinics are being very widely promoted in anemia of pregnancy. If Ironium XT too
is promoted in this segment, it would be looked down as a commodity. Ironium XT will
be positioned as a brand for the senior citizens. One of the reasons for memory loss
in senior citizens is that they are mal-nutritioned and anemic because of inadequate
supply of oxygen to the brain. With increased longevity, this is a novel market to
look at. Moreover, instead of taking a strong competitor head-on, we can circumvent
Orofer XT and a new virtually virgin market would be available to us.
7. Market development: Consolidating the 25 top territories (10% 0f the company’s)
of Ironium XT, developing the 25 weakest territories. Similarly for the five strongest
Areas (An Area of a First-line manager) and five weakest Areas, two strongest Regions
and two weakest Regions.
This is a very important step. General human tendency is to focus on the weak and
take the strong territories for granted. Let us know ‘who are our strengths and further
strengthen and consolidate them. Using Pareto Principle over 75% 0f your efforts
should be on strengthening the strengths. This avoids unwanted stress or strain and
helps you to take responsibility for developing your brand.

8. Activity programme: Specific activities, tactics, timetable and completion

dates for building Brand Ironium XT.
Now that we have decided to position Ironium XT differently, all activities should be
directed towards it- may be like having a brain-shaped literature to promote Ironium
XT and so on.
One can even have a symposium on why Ironium XT should be an essential co-
prescription for a malnutritioned adult.

9. Anticipated results: Projected profit and loss statement of Ironium XT on

a yearly basis.
Chart down the anticipated results for the next five years giving the rationale. It
should not be just paperwork but your deep thoughts and insights should be reflected
in this.

10. Contingency plans: What to do if sales, profits and other goals of Ironium
XT are not met. Have ‘Plan A’, ‘Plan B’ and even ‘Plan C’ ready for Ironium

What would the pharma CEO expect from you?

The pharma CEO expects you to prepare a meticulous brand plan which is
implementable and not just be of ornamental value. He knows that many of the
brand plans are stacked beautifully, unread, once it is presented and approved! The
brand plan should be referred to every week to make sure you are on the right track.

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 Chapter 6

Producing Effective
Promotional Literature

P romotional literature is a very important tool for the medical representative to

interact with the doctors to promote their products. It is used by virtually every
medical representative around the world whatever product he may be selling. It will
usually carry information and illustrations which recommend the use of the product
and of course, it will carry the name of the company. In India, Visual Aids (or Detail
Aids) are the most common promotional literature used by the pharmaceutical
companies.

Before proceeding to prepare a promotional literature, the following report in the

Indian Journal of Pharmacology is worth reflecting on: “A total of 134 promotional
leaflets given to medical practitioners were collected. Out of these, 102 satisfied the
inclusion criteria and were subjected to analysis. The analysis showed that as many
as 20% of the claims were exaggerated, 32% were inconclusive, 17% were false and
only 21% were authentic. In 10% of the leaflets, original data from literature was
misrepresented to suit the therapeutic claims made.” (39)

If this is the kind of reputation the pharmaceutical industry has been able to
project, you need to be extra-careful while producing literature. Honesty and
integrity towards the doctors and patients can take you places. For example, it would
be unethical to promote arthemeter or arthemeter / lumefantrine as the first-line
drug in malaria or clozapine as the ‘drug of choice’ in psychosis.

What are the key guidelines for producing promotional literature?

1. What is its precise purpose or function?

2. What should be the result of its use?
3. How should it be designed?
4. When and how should it be used?
These four questions are all interrelated and each should be answered before the
production of any piece of promotional literature is started.

1. Purpose or function of the promotional literature

Of course the promotional literature is meant to communicate a message – but
about what? What is the literature intended for?

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 What The Pharma CEO Wants From The Brand Manager

• Introduce a new product or a concept for the first time?

• Reinforce current use of the product?
• Expand use to new patients?
• Expand use to new doctors or indications?
• Compare / contrast with competitors’ products?

Although a combination of answers could seem plausible, promotional literature

becomes very complicated and less effective if it attempts to perform too many
functions. Keep it simple whenever possible.

2. Result expected from the promotional literature

Promotional literature by itself will not actually get the prescriptions of your
brand. At best it will help to stimulate a doctor’s thoughts by defining or clarifying a
specific situation. In this context, the promotional literature may be intended to serve
as an aide memoire for the customer (a leave-behind piece), or it may instead help
the medical representative to explain a particular point which mere words cannot
describe adequately (detail aid)

Each item of promotional literature should therefore have a defined objective.

Answer the question, “What should be the result of using it?”

3. Design of the promotional literature

Literature design is not simply what size and shape the piece should be or what
colors and photographs / illustrations should be used. Design means structure and
the structure is related to its function.

Having decided what function the literature is to serve, the relevant data and
information must then be assembled in the correct sequence.

Promotional literature is similar to a letter; it should have an opening, a message

and sign off line which could be repeated on every page. The sign off line is usually a
key statement related to the USP of the product on which the attention of the doctor
needs to be focused. The appropriate use of visuals can strengthen each of these
aspects considerably.

A picture can be worth a thousand words! (19)

• Photographs and good visuals can “set the scene”­– and help focus the doctor’s
mind on the situation that you want him to consider

• Graphs and bar charts can display comparative data clearly

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• Pack and product photographs can help the doctor to recognize and remember
the product

But, remember, each of these sections or parts of the literature must comply with
the previously defined function of the piece and must combine to produce the result
expected.

It is well accepted that the most difficult part of a selling interview is the beginning
and the end. It is strange that many medical representatives do find it difficult to
get the doctor’s commitment – to ask for the prescription! Similarly, difficulty is
often experienced in initiating a business discussion, and asking the first question.
Thoughtful / skilful literature design can make an interview not only more easy for a
medical representative but also effective and interactive.

4. When and how should the promotional literature be used?

Some very effective interviews take place without any literature being used until
the summary, but these are the exceptions. More usually the literature is brought
into the interview when the medical representative makes a statement which needs
illustrating.

Each interview between the medical representative and the doctor is unique but,
as brand manager, you have the responsibility of describing to the team of medical
representatives how you intend the literature should be used and what the objective
of its use is.

There are a number of ways in which any piece of promotional literature can
be used and a brand manager should attempt to test each piece of literature in the
market before it is made available to the sales team. Such testing may involve the
brand manager herself conducting a few interviews or some well-chosen senior
medical representative doing the same after thorough briefing. These days, digital
printouts are available and one need not go in for bulk printing for the purpose of
testing a literature. Hopefully this process will indicate the most satisfactory way of
conducting the interview using the new literature. However, whether this preliminary
testing is carried out or not, the brand manager should write her recommendations
down so that every individual medical representative has a set of “instructions” to
refer to. Discussions at sales meetings are soon forgotten.

Remember the 3 C’s of communication: Clarity – the message is clear and

authentic; Consistency – the core content is the same, may be slightly tailored for
each medium of communication & Constancy – constantly reiterating the same brand
message.

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 What The Pharma CEO Wants From The Brand Manager

Briefing the copywriter

“Fresh and original writing oils the wheels of every aspect of commercial activity, and
language is a key element of many forms of modern design. Copywriting is not about
copying – it’s about communicating in an original way.” (40)

Creative writing for business is challenging and rewarding and a brand manager
in India has to develop this skill, as usually copywriting is done by the brand manager
herself. However, the trend is changing and companies are handing over this job to
specialized copywriters. Briefing the copywriter is a very important skill area.

Briefing is not something you can skimp on when it comes to copy. Take the time
to clarify the aims of the item and the messages that you want to communicate.

The brand manager must communicate her needs by both verbal and written briefs
to the copywriter and designer. The written brief is important to avoid misinterpretation
and unpleasantness later. In essence, it entails providing your copywriter with all the
hard facts. If you yourself are doing the copywriting, as it generally happens in India,
discuss and brainstorm the final copy with your teammates.

A proactive brand manager will also like to see that her production is of the highest
quality. She will coordinate with the printer for proofing of the final output. This is
important as many times there is a variation in the shades of the colors we see on the
computer screen and the final output. She will also see that the special effects have
been produced exactly as she desired.

Compliance with Regulatory Requirements

When producing any promotional material (including advertisements, mailings or

detail aids) the brand manager must always ensure that the item complies with:

a. The local code of practice and local legislation

b. Company’s own “Internal Guidelines on Advertising and Marketing Practices”.

IDMA and OPPI have issued some specific guidelines to maintain ethical standards
and also to ensure that the information is not misleading in any way. Keep them
handy and use them. These guidelines and codes of conduct are issued to ensure
that promotion of products by the IPM is maintained at a high ethical standard, that
information is not presented in a misleading manner and that only approved claims
and indications are promoted.

There are certain technical details in a promotional material, such as trademarks,

generic (approved) names, and prescribing information, among others, which must
satisfy the relevant legal requirements. Other promotional aspects must satisfy the

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advisory code of practice, not only of the Indian regulatory affairs but also of your
company.

It is possible in some circumstances that the different guidelines make different

recommendations, e.g. the OPPI code may permit something which your company
guidelines may not permit. A case in point is the credo of Novartis; their corporate
citizenship code of conduct says: “Where local requirements are less stringent than
Novartis policy, we insist our more stringent requirements take precedence.” (41)

If there is any doubt about the interpretation of any point, the brand manager
should first seek guidance from the company’s medical advisor who, in the Indian
environment, is the person responsible for judging the correctness of literature and
approving its use.

The function of the medical advisor would be to ratify the medical correctness,
but will have no say on the other aspects of the promotional literature like the
strategy or the positioning. To be on the safer side, it may be prudent even to get
approvals from your legal department, especially if you are using the brand names of
your competitors.

And finally the brand manager should ensure that the printed promotional
material reaches the field staff at least a week before its intended date of use. Your
logistics in-charge can give you an idea as to when the printed material should reach
his department from the printer.

What would the pharma CEO expect from you?

The pharma CEO expects you to produce top class promotional material – scientifically
accurate and visually appealing copy – but without exaggerating the benefits of
your brand. He knows that the printed promotional material is going to leave some
impression in the doctor’s mind and expects the brand manager to actively manage
that impression and the doctor comes to a positive conclusion about the brand.

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 Chapter 7

Cycle Meetings and

Promotional Cycle Notes

S ales promotion is the process of persuading a potential prescriber to prescribe

the product. Activities, promotional materials, devices, and techniques used to
supplement the marketing efforts keep on changing every cycle. Every pharmaceutical
company operates on the basis of changing its promotional approach at regular
intervals. During a cycle, the medical representative is expected to meet all the doctors
in his master list within a predetermined period time frame as decided in every cycle
meeting. A sales promotional cycle could vary from one month to three months,
although most of the bigger companies in India prefer to have a cycle of one month.
After the end of the cycle and the beginning of the next, a cycle meeting is called
by the sales manager to discuss the sales performance. The brand manager briefs
the medical representatives on the visual aid, communication tactics, promotional
themes and the promotional tools and incentives.

In every case, the medical representatives need written briefing documents which
will give them all the relevant information to help them carry out the promotion
along the guidelines defined by the brand manager and the marketing team.

Developing Presentation Skills for Cycle Meetings

Apart from analytical skills and writing effective copy, a brand manager should possess
excellent presentation skills. Presentation skills are necessary to communicate
our ideas with all. For brand managers, it is all the more important to be able to
communicate our thoughts and ideas effectively, using a variety of tools and media.
We will need to develop and use this skill throughout our careers; when we attend
job interviews, make new product presentations, present our budgets and on many
more occasions.

It should be known to all brand managers that there are two practical assumptions.

First, a presentation can be made to anyone.

Second, presentations do not occur in a vacuum. Our audience does not evaluate
presentations of any kind solely on its merits.( 42) Instead, the culture and climate of
our organization, past interpersonal experiences, social and professional relationships
and impressions, our attitude towards our audience, all count in the evaluation of

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our presentation and ourselves. Presentations can be used and are necessary for
gathering and exchanging information.

Sales meetings, meetings to review compensation packages, budget meetings,

press conferences as well as training and development programmes are all examples
of events at which presentations are made.

Why are presentations necessary? (43)

To gather, disseminate and exchange information.

• To sell strategies, tactics, and other relevant details to internal customers, like
medical representatives and line managers
• To create an image, a strategy
• It gives us an opportunity to influence and educate and get commitment to
our ideas
• To suggest a solution or new concept

Presentation is much more interesting than reading literature for the information.
It is simply the most practical and dynamic way of getting our message across as
clearly as possible. To sell the goals of the brand, our company goals, and also
ourselves – there is no better way to get into the spotlight than to stand up and make
a presentation.

Things to remember while developing presentation skills:

1. Oral communication is different from written communication

Listeners have just one chance to hear our talk. They can’t “re-read” when they
get confused. Being clear is particularly important if the audience can’t ask questions
during the presentation. There are two well-known ways to communicate our points
effectively. (a) The first is to K.I.S.S. (To Keep It Straight and Simple). Focus on getting
only one to three key points across. Think about how much we remember from
a presentation we heard in the past and learn from the success or failure of that
presentation. (b) Repeat key insights: tell them what we are going to say (Forecast),
and tell them what you told them (Summarize).

2. Think about our audience

Audiences should be addressed at different levels: some are experts in one sub-
area, some in others, and others know little or nothing. Who is most important to us
in the audience? Can we still leave others with something? For example, focus the
body of the presentation with the experts, but make the forecast and summary easy-
to-understand to all.

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3. Think about our rhetorical goals

In a conference, if for example, you are presenting a paper, you should have
two rhetorical goals: (i) leave your audience with a clear picture of the gist of your
contribution, and (ii) make them want to read your paper. Your presentation should
not replace your paper, but rather you should whet the appetite of the audience.
Thus, it is useful to talk indirectly about the information in the paper that you may not
be able to cover adequately in the presentation.

4. Prepare and practice

Prepare for your presentation. Research the facts that you want the audience to
take home. It is hard work and practice. You have to keep your audience glued to
what you say for full 40 minutes!

There are three elements to a great presentation – Content, Design and Delivery.
To make a presentation great there must be a synergy of all these three elements.
Each of these elements carries equal weight and importance. Our presentation will
not be great unless all these three elements are incorporated. (44)

i. Content includes research and organization of material

ii. Design is the architecture of the slides and graphical enhancements
iii. Delivery is how we voice our message

Non-verbal skills in presentations

Audience analysis shows that body language communication is a very important part
of any presentation. You need to be aware of your body language from the moment
you stand up until your presentation is complete. The audience will analyze your
body language, even if they are unaware of this at the conscious level. A brilliantly
prepared presentation delivered in an interesting voice will fall well short of the mark
if accompanied by negative, intrusive or hostile body language.

Research in communication has consistently shown that messages are conveyed

in many ways, besides words. Dr. Albert Mehrabian of University of California states
in his book, ’Silent Messages‘that the effectiveness and believability of what you
communicate is influenced only 7% by words, 38% by tone of voice and 55% by body
language. In other words, 93% of the message is conveyed using ’paralanguage‘.

The science of proxemics talks about the ideal distance between the speaker
(sender) and the audience (recipient). You should be aware of the concept of personal
space – that area around an individual into which other people should not venture
uninvited. Audiences too are very conscious of this space and when presenting you
should not stand within 10 feet of the audience. This distance is known as the public

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zone and if you violate it you are likely to antagonize the audience. This distance
also creates an effective stage area in which the presenter can perform. Once you
are positioned in the correct zone then think about the four main aspects of body
language; what to do with your eyes, what your facial expressions indicate, the
positioning and movement of your body and limbs, and your hand gestures.

The Mehrabian Principle

Your body speaks louder than your words! You are continuously sending signals to
others unknowingly. Body language, combined with vocal tone, can override or even
cancel the meaning of the words you say. Therefore, it is important to ensure that
your body and your words are in concurrence and convey the same meaning! It
is also of great significance to control your non-verbal messages as much as your
verbal ones.

While making preparations for the presentation, look in a mirror and watch your
typical gestures and facial expressions. The best way to become aware of your body
language is to videotape yourself while speaking in front of a group. This will give a
true picture of the way others see you. After watching yourself, you will know what
adjustments are necessary.

Everyone is somewhat self-conscious when it comes to seeing themselves. Yet, a

lot of your communication power comes not from what you say, but how you say it. It
is, therefore, important that you use body language to your greatest advantage. Self-
analysis will help you to improve your presentation skills dramatically.

Planning the presentation: The brand manager should set aside some quality
time for doing research on the topic of her presentation. Oral presentations require
depth of understanding of the material. It will not be considered of sufficient quality
if you only give an impromptu presentation. You must decide what you are going to
say, what points should be illustrated with visual aids, and how long the presentation
should be.

Remember again, the audience will hear the presentation only once. Make it easy
for them to understand the major points of your speech.

Contents: An oral presentation must be well organized so that the information

flows smoothly and the listener is able to understand it easily. Because the audience
hears the presentation just once, the ideas communicated should be clear and
precise.

Organization: The most successful presentation is simple in its organization. First,

you tell the audience the purpose of the speech; then present the major ideas; finally,
end your presentation with a conclusion or a summary.

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Small ‘Note Cards’ can allow you to present your speech with less anxiety. In fact,
it might allow the audience to believe that you are delivering your speech with little
effort and great enthusiasm. Notes on small, say 8 cm X 12 cm cards can:

• Remind you of what needs to be said

• Help you keep your ideas organized and in proper sequence
• Keep you on the subject
• Help you stay within the allotted time
Use key phrases or key words on your cards. Thus it is easy to glance at the card
and see the next idea. Number the cards as you prepare them. Should they become
disorganized, you can quickly place them in the correct order. Use a highlighter to
spot ’cues.’

Visual Aids: Some material will be much easier to explain with an effective visual
aid. It may take the form of a simple list of points with the use of bullets or numbers,
a chart, a graph, a diagram or a picture. Use of visual aids adds significantly to the
quality of preparation and presentation. Decide also where in your presentation the
visual aids would fit in best (in terms of flow and explanation). These visual aids can
also be used to remind you of key points to make during your presentation. Be sure
to mark the insertion of visual aids on your note cards.

Timing: How do you know how long your presentation is going to take to deliver?
The best way is to practice it several times, preferably in front of the mirror. Allow
extra time to explain visual aids or perhaps for a question-and-answer period after
the presentation. If the time allotted is set, practice until you stay within the allotted
time. It might be necessary to shorten the material to be presented or to lengthen it.

Towards the end you will find that the benefits of doing a presentation vastly
outweigh the time and effort you put into it. But the biggest benefit of all is that you
no longer have a fear of doing presentations and can go on to get better and better!

Why have written program notes on every cycle?

Production of a written promotional program every cycle can be a time consuming

process. But if you, as brand manager, want to ensure that the sales-force has
a clear understanding of what you want them to do, there is no better way of
communication! Discussions alone will not be as effective, since details of discussions
are soon forgotten and cannot be referred to as the cycle progresses. In addition, the
production of written cycle notes is a very useful discipline ensuring that you prepare
and present your thoughts logically and clearly.

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Check list for Promotional Cycle Notes

For each brand the following points should be included:

1. Current performance**– sales / forecasts by:-

• Cycle
• Year to date
• Last year

May be omitted if briefing meeting is undertaken. Any commercially sensitive

**

data would be given verbally and NOT printed in the Cycle Notes.

2. Promotional cycle objectives, e.g. sales / call rate / market share.

3. Introduction to new promotional material – the objective of a particular
literature, how to handle it, its design, the reason for choice of a particular color
or a font, any relevant marketing research and importantly, competitive activity
4. Interview objectives – the points the medical representatives should have made
to the customer by the end of the interview which leads to the required customer
commitment.
5. Description of the literature or the Detail Aid – to tell the medical representatives
how the literature is designed to meet the interview objectives.
6. Suggested interview structure – and how the literature / detail aid should be
used. This is an outline of the strategy which, if followed, should meet the
interview objectives. However, it should have sufficient flexibility to meet
individual customer needs.
7. Other interview support items, e.g. publications, booklets, gifts.
8. Film meeting: Details of any audiovisual material and how it should be used, e.g.
a guide to introducing the film and to leading a business discussion afterwards.

Well constructed promotional cycle notes, which are then discussed thoroughly
at cycle meetings, will help to reinforce your brand guidelines and ensure a well co-
ordinated and more effective medical representatives’ effort.

What would the pharma CEO expect from you?

During cycle meetings, the pharma CEO expects you to impart high quality briefing
and training to the field staff so that the messages in the promotional material are
delivered uniformly and precisely across the country – without any dilution in the
message. At such briefing meetings, the CEO expects the brand manager to make
medical representatives passionate about the brand. He also expects you to make use
of such fora to effectively ‘sell’ the brand strategy for better execution.

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 Chapter 8

Technical Competence
of the Product Manager

O ne of the many definitions of marketing is “…the management process of

identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer requirements profitably.” (21)

Since identifying, anticipating and satisfying the customer is an important chore

in the brand manager’s portfolio, the brand management process requires a brand
manager in the pharmaceutical industry to have a very high level of technical
competence. This is so because both the products you are promoting and the
customers you are dealing with rely heavily on a technical platform for presentation
and evaluation.

Why technical competence?

This can help the brand manager to identify and / or anticipate the customers’
requirements. The brand manager must have a detailed knowledge of the following
areas for each product:

• The particular ’disease‘

* Its incidence
* Its presentation
* Causes and consequences
* Risk factors
• Current treatment regimens, including non-pharmaceutical
* (E.g. physiotherapy / surgery)
* Diet / exercise
• Advantages and disadvantages of current regimens
• Effects on the patients
* Of the disease
* Of its treatment
• Current trends in medical opinion
• Economics of treatment

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Case study – Being Different

Amisulpride is a widely used antipsychotic for treating both positive and negative symptoms
of schizophrenia. Today, it is one of the most popular drugs in the armamentarium of a
psychiatrist in the management of schizophrenia.
At low dose it is an excellent drug for treating dysthymia i.e. low grade depression. It is
now conclusively proved that the prognosis of certain chronic disease like hypertension,
cardiac disease is better when the mind is also treated with anti-depressants or anxiolytics.
Low dose amisulpride therefore has a great potential to be co-prescribed by cardiologists,
gastroenterologists and other specialists treating chronic disease conditions.
This vital information however was not with the brand manager of a client of mine.
I recommended to the managing partner of this company to try position their brand as
an antidepressant and promote it only to non-psychiatrists. This was implemented. The
outcome was beyond the expectations of the client.

To be able to satisfy the prescriber’s requirements, the brand manager must be

able to match what her brand can do with what the doctor wants that brand to do.
A good training maxim is that “Doctors don’t prescribe products; they prescribe what
products will do for their patients.” Therefore detailed knowledge of your products
and the translation of their features into benefits are essential.

How much product knowledge?

For every topic there is always a nucleus of essential information – details which are
fundamental to the topic. This ’must know‘information is surrounded by a layer of
’should know‘facts which extend the range of knowledge. To complete the picture,
there is an outer layer of additional information ’on the fringe ‘of the main topic; this
is the ’could know‘ layer.

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To be fully effective in her job, the brand manager should be the best informed
and trained member of the marketing / sales function in her speciality because, as
well as needing to demonstrate her own credibility, she will often be called upon to
provide training input to others such as to the field staff or other brand managers in
the organization.

In any ’selling situation‘the actual amount of knowledge or data which is used may
be quite small compared with the total volume of facts. It is like an iceberg – the small
visible part of the iceberg can be compared with the relatively small amount of data
or knowledge which is actually used (by a brand manager) in any particular situation.
In order to have any value or credibility, however, it must be supported on a much
larger raft of knowledge. The brand manager, therefore, must possess not only the
‘must know’ information but also have the ‘should know’ and the ‘could know’.

Iceberg concept

It must always be remembered that there are two dimensions to knowledge;

quantitative and qualitative. The qualitative dimension relates to understanding, not
just knowing a fact but understanding it as well.

How and where to obtain technical training?

A high level of competence in each of the above areas will only be possible by
investing time in reading and ‘digging for knowledge’. Wherever possible attend
specifically designed training courses. But a lot of information has to be gained by
reading text books, published articles and medical literature. Professionally qualified
contacts and colleagues are also a valuable resource for getting information. I would
also suggest a membership of the British Council Library or even the libraries of
reputed medical colleges.

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Collection of all scientific material on the product to be launched is the first step.
This will include clinical trials data from reputed international journals. Bigger pharma
companies have a separate medical department which is responsible for building
up a sound medical data base on the product and then passing on this information
to the brand management team. But in smaller Indian pharma companies, many
times the brand manager has to take on added responsibility of assimilating medical
information and compiling the same.

Pharmacovigilance

Pharmacovigilance is defined as the science and activities relating to the detection,

assessment, understanding and prevention of adverse effects or any other drug-
related problem. W.H.O. established its ‘Programme for International Drug
Monitoring’ in response to the thalidomide disaster detected in 1961. (45)

At times even after Phase III trials, all the adverse reactions or drug-drug
interactions are not observable immediately. They are seen only after long-term
use. Two past examples are cisapride and rofecoxib. Both these drugs were
considered to be very safe and doctors were prescribing them very frequently. Later,
due to pharmacovigilance, adverse cardiac events were observed and both drugs
were immediately withdrawn. Very recently, asenapine, an atypical antipsychotic,
launched in India a few months back (in July 2011) has come under a dark cloud
as Phase IV trials detected a life threatening side effect (severe allergic reactions,
including anaphylaxis and angioedema). This has been reported in Medscape of 1st
September 2011. Pharmacovigilance was able detect its adverse effect. Asenapine
now has a black-box warning from US-FDA. Recently the safety of fluoroquinolones
is being questioned as they are likely to cause arthropathy. All this is possible
because of pharmacovigilance. This is one issue on which pharmaceutical brand
managers need to keep themselves constantly updated. Those who do that will
always have the upper hand while preparing or modifying strategies and preparing
communication material.

What would the pharma CEO expect from you?

The pharma CEO expects you to have an in-depth knowledge of your brand, both
technically and from the commercial angle. He expects your knowledge about the
brand to be far superior to that of anyone else in the organization. He wants you to
be the brand champion and the medical representatives and field managers to be the
brand advocates.

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 Chapter 9

New Product Launch

R oughly 80% of all new products fail or dramatically underperform expectations.

Although this metric varies between industries, the cumulative performance
across all products and services represents a staggering indictment of marketing. (46)

Even more alarming is the IMS-Health Study. IMS Health studies of 4,000
product launches over the past 10 years reveal that less than one percent of newly
launched brands out-perform in key dimensions of success, such as market share and
promotional effectiveness.( 47)

With this backdrop, pharmaceutical new product launch campaigns are becoming
far more complex than ever before. An underperforming launch will negatively
impact revenue throughout the entire lifecycle of the brand. Launching of a new
product requires an art as it can make a brand or break the product. A successful
launch makes potential prescribers keen to try it. Shorter product lifecycles, rapid
advances in technology, and obsolescence are some of the challenges that pharma
companies face when launching new products at higher frequency. New products,
however, are the life blood of all progressive companies. (48)

Research shows that people (in general) like new products and services. Indeed
they go out of their way to try to find them. (49)

Although every brand manager looks forward to launching a new product, the
responsibility of getting everything ready as per schedule is a heavy one and is no
doubt extremely challenging.

In today’s pharma setting, the product launch period has become extremely
important. To set up a pattern for long-term sales and profits, the brand must make
a big splash during the introductory phase itself. The common pitfalls should be
avoided. There is ample evidence in IPM that performance in a new product’s first
year is a strong predictor of long-term results. Therefore, maximizing the success of

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new product launches is critical. But making this happen is a process that can be filled
with uncertainty, confusion and frustration. Mistakes can set back years of effort and
even crores of rupees in expenses. A new product launch really is a team effort. Even
so, the brand manager is the person responsible for coordinating the whole process
and for many of the decisions.

In the progressive companies in India, the process starts maybe two to three years
before the actual launch date with registration application and the necessary local
clinical trials, but before that, there must be a thorough examination of the market,
both customers and competitors, to establish whether the new product would be
appropriate to customer needs and be sufficiently competitive in the market to
succeed. Or more ‘Exuberas’ may follow.

Performance Evaluation Review Technique (PERT)

PERT is following a timescale of events and evaluating the progress of a new launch at
regular intervals. A PERT chart below illustrates the lead up to a new product launch.

Issue Months before Launch

Clinical trials 36-24
Market analysis Concurrent with clinical trials
Competitor analysis 24
Regulatory affairs 18-12
Forecasting budget 18-12
Trademark 18-12
Pricing 12-6
Promotion 12-6
Contingency planning 12-6
Field force training 1
Monitoring 12 and onwards after launch
Post-launch market research 12 and onwards after launch

Simultaneously, the brand manager must start preparing the brand plan. The
profiling and positioning of the new product is critical. If wrong decisions or actions
are taken at this stage, a change of direction is at best very difficult and, at worst,
impossible.

She should start developing a brand personality depending on how she would like
to project its image. This will be based on who will be the actual prescribers and the
actual users. A brand meant for geriatric use will have a personality different from
that for pediatric use.

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Data which is collected must be constantly updated and reviewed, assumptions

checked for validity, dates set for completion of various stages and activities and
progress monitored to identify delays or failure in the process – a very demanding job
but a very satisfying one when all the plans are converted into sales. This very short
review of the process of launching a new product is intended only to illustrate the
complexity of the process.

J. David Viale(50) sums up the challenges in introducing a new product beautifully.

He says: Companies today are under tremendous pressure to reduce their product
development time. If you want to stay competitive and make profits the top eight
challenges are:

1. Bring products to market faster

2. Reduce your costs
3. Deliver high quality products
4. Be flexible and open to change
5. Develop an informational organization
6. Improve your employee training and education
7. Improve your information exchange systems and network
8. Improve your forecasting accuracy

Post-launch activities

Post-launch activities include post-marketing surveillance (PMS), especially if you are

introducing the product for the first time in India. PMS will help you understand the
efficacy of the drug in actual clinical practice. Sometimes you may be able to identify
some new off-label usages of the product.

Another important post-launch activity is extensive field work to gauge your

strategy, its implementation levels, to know the response to the sales promotion
material and even your communication strategy.

Monitor the acceptance of the product; identify both the successful and less
successful territories. Analyze the reasons for success and replicate the success
stories in other territories.

Field-work will help you to get first-hand information on how the competitors are
reacting and what their counter-strategies are. Use your imagination and many more
post-launch activities will emerge.

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What would the pharma CEO expect from you?

The CEO is aware that millions of rupees are wasted when a product enters the market
ill prepared and the reason for the abysmal rate of success of new launches. The
pharma CEO expects you to have this goal: to ensure that every new product launched
becomes a powerful brand which is feared and respected by the competition. The
CEO is prepared to bear losses during the initial stage of launch - only initial. He
expects you to remember that companies rise or fall on the success or failure of a
new product launch. So do careers of brand managers!

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 Chapter 10

Importance of a good brand name

M any centuries back Shakespeare did say “What’s in a name? That which we call
a rose by any other name would smell as sweet” – but probably he would not
have said this if he had lived in our age. In these modern days, a brand name has
become something that means a lot to the thinking people and something that has
now come to stay. It is a status symbol of the elite.

Just listen to what James Dettore, President of the Brand Institute in Boston says
about a brand name: “First, it should be able to communicate on its own without
a lot of advertising. It has to be easy to pronounce and have neutral to positive
associations around the world, or at least in various languages. Because of the high
ethnic influences here in America, you still have to have a name that crosses over
many ethnic and language barriers.”

The name is the foundation of your brand. Whether we realize it or not, most of
the prescriptions are given to certain companies because doctors recognize and trust
their brand names.

In the IPM where there is a plethora of companies, ‘fixing’ a brand name is

perhaps a very challenging task. A typical brand manager will first try to ‘fix’ a brand
name from its generic name – and it is the easiest thing to do. But she should also
bear in mind that there are another ten brand managers like her doing exactly the
same. Now just imagine ‘Famonite’, ‘Famotin’, ‘Famocid’, ‘Facid’ – all brand names
of famotidine! All from top class Indian companies which are within the top 15 in
the IPM. Confusing? Do you find any differentiation? But the bigger challenge is
after the brand manager develops a strong brand name she is unable to convince
the top management, especially the CEO of the company who has the final say.
Many potentially strong brand names have not seen the light of day because of the
obstinate CEO. Great brand names have died even before they were born or because
the brand manager was not able to sell her idea to the CEO.

The name is the first and most powerful part of your brand. A great name can help
you stand out in a crowded market. It can position your brand as a leader, and even
explain what the brand does. Rather than ‘fixing’ a brand name, one should ‘evolve’ a
good brand name. For this, a brand manager should think like a child but should have
the maturity of a person in her fifties and sixties!

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In the business world the brand name is of the utmost importance. Without a
good brand name, no matter how good the product is, the overall business would
probably not be encouraging.

Case study – A brand built a company

The year 1992 was a landmark year for Intas Pharmaceuticals, then a non-entity in the
industry. I was then the Group Product Manager and was given charge to handle their
new product cisapride. Torrent Pharmaceuticals, then a giant, had launched cisapride
towards the end of 1991 with the brand name – Unipride. Sun Pharma by then was
a name to be reckoned with in the IPM and they too had launched it under the name
‘Esorid’
With this backdrop I was asked to launch the Intas brand of cisapride. David versus not
one, but two Goliaths!
I studied the product and also the competition. The medical department of Intas gave
a lot of support. I found that both the products of Torrent and Sun had weak brand
names. This is one chance I thought of toppling these brands by having a strong brand
name. Calling together the brand managers and selected sales personnel, I explained to
them the importance of a good strong brand name. I even mentioned that this product
has the potential to break or make Intas. We deliberated on the brand name for full two
days. We wanted to keep the brand name short and snappy to make it memorable. We
shortlisted on ‘Cisa’.
After this, we interviewed about a dozen gastro-enterologists. They did like the name
Cisa, but one of the brand executives mentioned that the doctors were verbalizing the
name with a ‘z’ and not with an ‘s’!
I immediately said then we shall keep the brand name as Ciza.
Ciza was a big hit as I had foreseen earlier. Ciza was ranked within the top brands in ORG
within three years of introduction. Ciza transformed Intas from a little known company
into a company to be reckoned with in the IPM. All gastrointestinal products introduced
later on were big hits catapulting Intas into the Big League of Pharma India.
A good brand name can change the fortunes of a company.

Some more examples are Oxalgin which transformed Cadila! Taxim took Alkem to
new heights. Mox transformed Gufic (Mox was later acquired by Ranbaxy).

A great brand name would be something that a doctor can associate with what
the product offered. It will also help in brand recall. The most important thing is
for the doctors to remember and identify a product with either its attributes, the
benefits it offers or with the generic name. Feliz, an antidepressant from Torrent is
one such example. While depression is characterized by sadness, the name Feliz is

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from a Spanish word ‘felicidad’ meaning joy and happiness, and this is what Feliz did
exactly – spread happiness in the lives of depressed patients.

When the doctors associate the name of a company with its brand/s, that company
has found the ultimate success in brand recognition. Doctors will prescribe the brand
just because it is recognizable. They may feel the brand is more reliable, trustworthy,
or better, because they recognize the name. A well branded company also tends to
have loyal customers. Other companies may offer the same product, and quality, but
not generate the prescriptions, simply because of brand loyalty. Whether we realize
it or not, most of the prescriptions are given to certain companies because doctors
recognize and trust their brand names. “A brand name is no longer shackled to the
product that made it famous. It’s a free agent, capable of being marketed on a broad
range of products that bear no resemblance to the original product.” (51)

The importance of a good brand named can be highlighted in a small anecdote. -

While speaking at a small scientific conference in 1969, Cambridge physicist Sir Roger
Penrose announced his discovery of what he called a “gravitationally completely
collapsed object.”

The world yawned.

Months later, he changed the name of his discovery to ‘black hole’ and the news
of his discovery raced around the world.

Today, the term black hole is a part of the world’s working vocabulary.

Delano (51) says that there seven principles which can help a brand manager to
develop an omnipowerful brand name.

These are:

i. Capture the product’s essence, uniqueness or spirit (ideally on one word), with
a big idea.
ii. Win the consumer’s attention, inspire the imagination.
iii. Insist on a quality of sound that is highly appropriate to the product’s category.
iv. Keep it simple.
v. Make it unforgettable by creating a visual image and sound that are recorded in
the consumer’s mind forever.
vi. Stay targeted on the correct sexual image profile.
vii. Make believable what you claim the product is capable of delivering.

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Case study – Selecting an apt brand name

The first and foremost role of a brand manager is to suggest suitable brand names for
the product being launched. The following parameters need to be taken into account
while short-listing a brand name:
The brand name should be short and catchy. It should be easy to recall.
A brand name can be derived from the name of the key drugs in the product. It can also
incorporate part of the company’s name, or can suggest the indication/category in which
it is going to get maximum usage
In case of brand extension, the original brand name should form part of the new name.
The most important point to be noted is that the suggested brand name should not be
similar / clash with other brands available in the market. The brand name suggested
should also not remind you of a product from an altogether different therapeutic segment.
Once a list of 5-6 brand names has been worked on, the same can be sent for trade
mark search and out of available names the most appropriate one should be finalized
for registration.
In the Indian milieu, you have a prefix or suffix to a common name, just as Apple has
done it for their range – iPhone, ipad, iPod and so on. La Renon, has successfully done it
in India by suffixing the term ‘gress’ (from the word ‘egress’ meaning the act of leaving
a place) to all their products launched in their new CNS division. The shortened generic
name is suffixed with ‘gress’ as in Valgress (Valproate sodium), Escigress (Escitalopram)
and Divalgress (Divalproex)

What would the pharma CEO expect from you?

The pharma CEO knows that it is not easy to name a new product in the Indian pharma
set up. Yet, he expects you to coin strong memorable brand names which help in the
brand building process – catchy and easy to remember, but also different!

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 C h a p t e r 11

Brand Building in
Indian Pharmaceutical Market

“T he art of marketing is largely the art of brand building. When something is not
a brand, it will be probably viewed as a commodity.” (9) “A product is made in
the factory. A brand is created in the mind”.( 52)

P+I=B (52)

That is Product + Image = Brand

Product (What you make in the factory) + Image (What you

make in the mind) = Brand (What people think about it)

“Branding is the process of lodging your offer in the customers’ mind to remind
them you exist as and when they need you.” (53)

“Names, logos and designs are the material markers of the brand. Because the
product does not yet have a history, however, these markers are empty. They are
devoid of meaning. Now, think of famous brands. They have markers, also: a name,
a logo, a distinctive product design, or any other design element that is uniquely
associated with the product. The difference is that these markers are filled with
customer experience. Magazine and newspaper articles evaluate the brand and
people talk about the brand in conversation. Over time, ideas about the product
accumulate and fill the brand markers with meaning. A brand is formed.” (54)

A brand is a set of complex intangibles. Although a brand may represent invaluable

intangible assets, creating and nurturing a strong brand poses considerable challenges.
(55)
Brands stimulate demand and a consequent desire by customers to associate (or
even dissociate) from the company’s offerings. Companies with strong brands tend to
perform those with weak brands.

Building a brand in the Indian pharmaceutical market is perhaps a very daunting

and challenging task even for the most gifted brand manager. Every product has
hundreds of me-too variants. On last count, scanning through various medical indices
like ‘CIMS’, ‘MIMS’ and ‘Drug Today’, in January 2013, I identified 436 brands of
‘Rabeprazole + Domperidon SR’. You can now gauge the enormity of the task of a
brand manager in the IPM.

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To build a brand successfully, the brand manager should first understand how to
develop brand identity – to know what the brand stands for and to effectively express
that identity. (56) Brand identity can be clearly defined by answering the following
questions (57):

• What is the brand’s aim?

• What makes it different?
• What are its values?
• What are the signs which make it recognizable?

Building a brand means improving its equity, creating a strong brand identity and a
strong mind share through ethical brand promotion. Doctors come into contact with
your brand in numerous ways: pharmacology of the product, its efficacy, side-effect
profile, packaging, price, marketing, medical representatives and many more. Each of
these touchpoints creates the doctor’s impression about the brand. Some of these
touchpoints are obvious, like the efficacy of the product, and one-on-one interaction
with the company personnel. Other touchpoints, such as the promotional material,
packing of sample cache-covers, and scientific information are other influential
brand effects. The dominant touchpoint however is the medical representative – the
most powerful. Brand equity, brand identity and brand image get translated into
prescription or non-prescription.

In the world of IPM, through these factors, you create a healthy prescription
demand for your brand. Prof. Chitta Mitra of C MARC, the doyen of the IPM, keeps
on reminding us that the health of a pharmaceutical company in India is directly
proportionate to the total number of prescriptions generated for that company. More
the prescriptions, stronger is the health of the company; lower the prescriptions,
poorer is its health. The health of a pharmaceutical company rarely has any relations
to its volume sales. Volume sales could come through a push tactic and give a
temporary kink in the sales. It may even come though institutional sales or sales to
government agencies. Such sales are not always stable. But prescription sales are
generally steady.

Brands set expectations. When doctors are faced with uncertainty they tend to
prescribe the safer option, the brand they know. Doctors know what to expect from a
brand they know. The importance of brand building is becoming supreme. For brand
building in the IPM you need to focus on increasing the prescription demand.

A strong brand in the IPM is an outcome of three important elements:

• Physical response to a brand

• Perceptual response to a brand

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• The character of response

Physical response: Pharmaceutical companies spend a great deal on promotion

for just one reward – prescriptions. Physical response means the total number of
prescriptions generated for a company.

Pharmaceutical promotion which is based on persuasive scientific communication

is the true tonic to the good health of a company. The brand manager asks “What
would motivate a doctor to prescribe my brand?” She may research to find what
makes doctors prescribe her brand or make prescribing decisions. Here the message
disseminated from the promotion of a brand is factual, evidence based, unambiguous
and has a profound effect on the minds of the doctor. Such promotions can be termed
as pull prescriptions.

A pull strategy involves motivating doctors to prescribe your brand in an active

process – based on the benefits and the U.S.P.s of the brand. Pull strategy means
making the doctor to come to you. Pull strategy requires high initial investment. If
the strategy is successful doctors will continue to prescribe your product on its own
merits.

You can also get physical response for your brand using push strategy. Physical
response can be enticing a doctor to prescribe a brand through physician samples,
gifts, cruises and holidays. A push promotional strategy involves taking the product
directly to the doctor using indirect tactics.

Physical response through pull strategy is always superior although this means
patience and long-term investments. Pull strategy is profitable to the brand in the
long term.

Perceptual response: Perceptual response is an important outcome of

communication between a medical representative and a doctor. The perception of
the doctor is stimulated as a result of their interaction. Perceptual response is the
representation of what is perceived by the doctor to your brand communication, as
communicated by the medical representative. It is an effect of the communication on
the doctor’s percept. It is based on the principle “What I See Depends on Me”. The
doctor’s mind is usually like a blank slate. The medical representative writes on that
slate and what he writes and the doctor perceives remains.

For instance you are trying to communicate and position pantoprazole, a PPI in
NSAID induced gastritis. The doctor however prescribes it in peptic ulcer disease. This
is an indicator that the perceptual response of the doctor to your communication
is not very strong. There is a gap between the intended communications. Either
the communication strategy is not very strong or the message has been mis-
communicated.

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To improve the perceptual response, the communication needs to be crisp and

crystal clear. The brand manager has to ensure that the field staff is well trained on
the communication aspect or the brand may be reduced to a commodity.

Character of response: Character means a combination of qualities or features

that distinguishes one person, group, or thing from another. Character of response of
a prescription represents the quality of the doctors who are prescribing your brand.
Are you getting the response from the right doctors, i.e. from the doctors whom you
have targeted and positioned your brand? For instance, if you are in a super-specialty
company promoting rabeprazole to consultants, are you getting the prescriptions
from gastro-enterologists or from general practitioners? If you are getting majority of
the prescriptions from gastro-enterologists, the character of response is very strong,
but if it is from a general practitioner, it needs to be questioned. Similarly if you are
in a company having a range of products for gynecologists, and you are promoting
Ironium XT, are you getting the majority of prescriptions from gynecologists or from
psychiatrists? If the majority of prescriptions are from gynecologists, the character of
response is extremely strong.

Communication and response to communication has powerful bearings in

pharmaceutical brand building. A strong brand should have a powerful pull physical
response. The perception of the prescriber should match the intended communication
of the brand communication. The character of response has to be very strong.

In the final analysis, a powerful brand is built by people (brand managers) staying
consistent with the brand’s image; being creative and daring; knowing how to package
the brand; never taking on anything that is second rate. (58)

What would the pharma CEO expect from you?

The pharma CEO expects you to convey very strongly to the field force that there are
no shortcuts in building pharma brands. That brand building in the pharma industry
is only through prescription generation. This leads onto another important factor in
brand-building: he expects the brand manager to invest in prescription generation
activities where pharma brands are built in India rather than on short-term attractions
like free offers.

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 Chapter 12

The Building Blocks

of a Pharma Brand

B rand building in the Indian pharmaceutical industry today is akin to the release of
a new film where the producer only looks at the box office collections of the first
few days and the media gauges the success of the film from these collections. Gone
are the days of ‘Mughal-e-Azam’ or ‘Sholay’ where the producers were aiming at runs
for years – both these movies ran for five continuous years!

Ditto with the new pharma brands introduced in the past few years. Why do a
majority of the Indian pharma brands have such a short life? As the common adage
in management lexicon goes: ‘When in deep trouble go back to the basics.’ Let us go
back to the basics of brand building.

What is a brand? It is not easy to define a brand today; the definition has become
very complex. To me a brand is a value signal, a promise of performance. A brand
has to feel like a friend. “This is for me!” should be the passion of a brand manager.
Prescribers have more options than ever before. So a brand has to be a conduit of
trust to the ultimate decision maker – the doctor. Trust is truly the future of brands.
The prescribers are becoming more demanding, wiser and worried.

Brand building is a process in which the net present value of cumulative trust
earned comes from consumers’ trust derived from past marketing efforts. (58) Strong
brands have an identity and stimulate the senses to prescribe. Weak brands on the
other hand get very little attention, do not encourage loyal and repeat prescriptions.
Worse, the cost of getting a prescription increases. Marty Neumeier says that to build
a strong brand, “Brands have to be different… no really different” (59). No truly great
brand has ever been created by imitating another brand.(59)

Let us look at the building blocks of a brand. Simon Middleton talks about four. (59)

The Four Building Blocks of a Brand

Why do you go to Raymond’s when you want to buy a suit or to Louis Philippe when
you want a superior quality, well-fitting shirt? Because of the promise made by
Raymond’s and Louis Philippe. A pharma brand is a promise of the quality, value and
worth which a doctor will receive from the product. A strong brand is priceless and
precious, as the war for prescription share heats up day by day. Consistency in quality

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across all channels of communication is vital in the brand building process. Or else, it
may confuse your prescribers. Brands are all about pacts, but how do you create such
a pact? By complying with these four vital principles which are the four solid pillars!

A brand is the sum-total of all the meanings that all your possible audiences (i.e.,
both the internal as well as the external) carry in their heads and in their hearts.

In other words, your brand is everything that your prescribers and prospective
prescribers think, feel, say, hear, read, watch, imagine, suspect and even hope about
your product. In India, with over a 150 brands for every molecule, brand managers
often ask, “Is it possible to build a brand as all ‘brands’ talk about the same USPs?” In
fact, these so-called brands have been reduced to generics. In this milieu it is certainly
not easy; it is indeed very challenging! Simon Middleton has identified four pillars of
brand building. Let us look at these four pillars. They are (59):

1. Being authentic
2. Being highly distinctive
3. Being compelling
4. Being excellent

1. Being authentic
What is being authentic? Having a robust commitment to deliver what is promised
in your brand communication is being authentic. Successful brands are not only
unique, but they are also the ones that are authentic. A brand must always come from
the heart. It must define who you are. A brand will be successful only if it represents
the actual picture with truthfulness. Authenticity helps fuel success in today’s over-
crowded markets as doctor’s search for greater meaning and sincerity from the brands
they choose to prescribe. This is stimulated by a desire to connect with products
that they feel are safe and certain for the patients. At its core, authenticity is about
practicing what you preach; being totally clear about who you are and what you do
best. When a brand’s oratory gets out of sync with the doctors’ actual experiences,
the brand’s integrity suffers.

Joe Pici has identified six key drivers of brand authenticity through qualitative
exploration and quantitative data modeling. (60). Originality: It is the extent to
which your brand has offered something new and different to the market. “Original
advertisements drew more attention to the advertised brand. More importantly
however, advertisements that were both original and familiar attracted the largest
amount of attention to the advertised brand, which improved subsequent brand
memory. In addition, original and familiar ads were found to promote brand memory
directly. Implications of these findings for communication and media planning
strategy are discussed.” (61) Be really different!

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a. Brand Utility: Brand utility is all about the question: “How, as a brand, can
I help you (the prescriber)?” It blends product promotion with product
usefulness. Brand utility promotes a brand by helping people. A good
example which comes to my mind is that of Nokia. Nokia helps connect
people by offering ‘silence booths’ in noisy places such as in public
meetings or musical fetes. In pharma, brand utility helps the prescriber get
closer to the brand. Give the prescriber a reason by translating intangible
propositions into something useful for society. Brand utility can increase
the brand preference and stimulate usage, because a brand that helps the
prescriber is more likeable. Brand utility can take away the stumbling blocks
for prescriptions. When Novo Nordisk introduced insulin pens, NovoPen,
they traced the end-user, the patient. They educated the patients on how
to use NovoPen. They eliminated everything which could have deterred the
doctor from prescribing NovoPen.
b. Declared Beliefs: Your brand should have a core belief. That core belief
should be at the center of every brand-building activity you conduct. To be
successful, you should have a core brand belief. Very importantly, having
a brand belief focuses the minds of everyone in the organization. It helps
everyone channel their energy onto that clear belief. It will help generate
passion within a company as it gives everyone something to rally behind.
Brand managers with passion can change the world! Living to the declared
beliefs, values and ethics is the oxygen of a successful marque, because it
inspires prescribers to see qualities in the brands they choose that make
them feel more comfortable while prescribing.
c. Sincerity: It is the extent to which your brand tries hard to live up to the
prescribers’ expectations. Brands built on hype and rhetoric alone may enjoy
initial success, but frequently struggle to retain the prescribers. They remain
successful only for a short time. Prescribers will reward sincerity with loyalty.
d. Familiarity: It is the degree to which how well your brand is known to
everyone. Brand awareness, or familiarity, and brand choice are highly
correlated.(62,63;) This relationship undoubtedly reflects the fact that choice
increases awareness, if for no reason other than that people will be exposed
to the brands they choose more often than brands that they leave on the
shelf. (64) Brand familiarity will therefore play a causal role in the prescription
choice. This has been further confirmed in a study by Nielsen which
surveyed 29,000 respondents with internet access from 58 countries. It says
– “More than half (60%) of consumers around the world with Internet access
prefer to buy new products from a familiar brand, rather than switch to a
new brand.” (65) The Nielsen Study concludes: “Brand familiarity reigns king
around the world.” (65)

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e. Momentum: It is the extent to which your brand has an aura of becoming

more popular. Brand momentum is not the same as sales momentum. Brand
momentum has no relation to objective factors like market share, growth or
sales volume but is related to subjective responses of the customers. Is the
brand apparently increasing or decreasing in popularity? Is the quality of
the brand perceived as getting better or worse? Positive brand momentum
tends to spur brand growth. (66)

Audiences have one thing in common, says Simon Middleton. They are fantastically
good at sensing inauthenticity. (67)

2. Being highly distinctive

If ‘Coca Cola Diet’ can be made into an attractive, distinctive brand to its users,
carbohydrate conscious dieters, why cannot the same be done with pharmaceutical
brands? Without doubt, the market is cluttered with me-too’s; this makes it all the
more important to make a brand distinctive. Your brand must be expressed uniquely.
A strong brand is a company’s greatest asset. Marty Neumeier says that brands have
to be first and foremost ‘different…no really different’. (67) The primary visual elements
in a product’s branding, if developed properly, can support the brand’s desired
positioning and image. It will set the tone for nearly all other promotional materials
that follow. As such, it will be the starting point for a brand that is memorable and
distinctive. Trika (Alprazolam - Unichem) is perhaps the best example: its Monarch
Butterfly logo. A butterfly signifies freedom and its logo symbolized freedom from
anxiety.

In our pharma world, naming a product can be maddening and time-consuming.

All the good names have been taken! But one solution is to create a coined name
which is distinctive. Why only after the generic or its pharmacological action? It does
help and the best name I can recall is ‘Lomotil’ (Searle India); Lowers G.I. Motility!
This distinctive name made the brand very strong. It is a different story that the brand
later attained notoriety because of misuse. (See Chapter 10 ‘Selecting an Apt Brand
Name’)

One way to make your brand distinctive is to pinpoint those customers whom you
don’t want. It is an important way to refine your brand. The simple truth is that you
brand can never, never ever, just can’t appeal to all. (68)

A common communication strategy to break through this competitive clutter is to

increase ad originality. (69)

Today, we need to think out of the box. This does not mean being weird or wacky!
Think about those characteristics which are positive and can add to the longevity of
the brand.

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3. Being compelling
Think of any consumer brand you like very much. Say, Louis Philippe for shirts.
How does it make you feel? When you are attending an interview for a higher position
in your company, how will you feel about yourself when you select a Louis Philippe
shirt instead of a Cambridge shirt? Wearing a Louis Philippe shirt will increase your
confidence level, won’t it? And that confidence level will certainly help you to have a
better competitive edge. Louis Philippe has captured your mindshare because it is a
compelling brand.

Your brand should be so interesting and exciting that the audience pays attention
to the brand. A compelling brand will captivate, excite and move the audience. To
make your brand compelling, research the target market and audience. Research your
competition and see what you can do better than the competition to make your brand
compelling. Is your brand eye catching? If not, what can you do to make it compelling?
“Very few understand how our brain works, what is attractive to the customer and how
they decide what they like or don’t like. Our brains are trained to look for something
brilliant and new, something that stands out from the landscape…” (61) When the doctors
look at your promotional material, are they engaged or bored by the ‘sameness’? Be
unique. Innumerable brands are available to them for their consideration.

4. Bringing Excellence
Excellence is not about perfection. Perfection is black and white with no shades of
grey. The pursuit of excellence is the desire to attain a goal of excellence, to achieve
at a high level, to be the best that one can be.

A brand should strive for excellence during the brand building process. Look at the
seven drivers of bringing excellence:

a. Trust: If your brand does not command trust, you won’t get anywhere. If
you want your doctors to prescribe more, and not consider the price, then
harnessing brand trust is the key. When a customer trusts a brand, 83% will
recommend it to others and 82% will use the product more frequently,(68)
b. Communication: Brand communication is a reflection of strategy. Message
explosion in a doctor’s chamber may distort your message and may not be
retained. Shift focus from functional to emotional benefits. This will increase
visibility.
c. Longevity: Brand longevity is defined as the continuous presence of a brand
in the relevant market. (68) The brand should have longevity or display qualities
and attributes necessary to make it resilient to negative market influences.
d. Customer loyalty: This is when doctors who become committed to your
brand give repeated prescriptions over time. Loyal doctors will consistently

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prescribe products from their preferred brands, regardless of convenience

or price. Will the brand’s prescribers choose it repeatedly and automatically
over competing brands?
e. Goodwill: Goodwill reflects the intangible value that comes from the
customer’s loyalty. Is the brand perceived favorably by prescribers and is it
accepted without questions or reservations?
f. Overall market acceptance: Is the brand a part of everyday life for the
relevant market segment and is it automatically in the prescribers’ list of
choices for that product?
g. Market Dominance: All this should result in market dominance, i.e., the
brand dominates the market and holds a significant share in the market.

Case study – Elores from Venus Remedies

It took Venus Remedies almost 10 years of constant hard work, focused approach and
dedication to develop this breakthrough product named ‘Elores’ before it was brought to
the world. Venus has made it its mission to combat antimicrobial resistance, which has
been recognized by WHO as a severe medical crisis. Elores is the outcome. Elores is a
novel antibiotic adjuvant entity (AAE) to combat antimicrobial resistance caused by MDR,
ESBL producing strains. It is designed specifically to target growing bacterial resistance
mechanisms. The authenticity of the brand is loudly visible.
Venus has a dedicated team of highly specialized and trained people for promotion of
Elores.
What makes Elores distinctive is its positioning. It is positioned as ‘an antibiotic for
multidrug resistant infections in ICU’. Across the world, ‘hospital acquired infection’ is
a difficult problem to handle, and the rise in resistance is increasing. Elores creates
a synergistic effect due to its activity on AMRINGER (Acquired Multiple Resistance in
Gram Negative Enterococci and Rods), which stops development and spread of bacterial
resistance. This distinctive positioning of Elores will make it difficult for any company to
supplant.
Elores is compelling because it is captivating and exciting the medical professionals.
Elores has created power statements to communicate its benefits and results.
Elores is certainly pursuing excellence. Venus Remedies Limited has bagged the UBM
India Pharma Award for its flagship product; Elores will definitely dominate this niche
market. It is estimated to cross $100 million by 2018. It is already surging ahead with a
MoU with Austell Laboratories of South Africa.

The sales force of a company is seen by doctors as a manifestation of the brand.

Hence, it is important they have the knowledge, skills and organizational support to
deliver the functional brand value. Be very cautious while recruiting staff. Identify

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those who genuinely believe in the brand values and therefore have their values
aligned with those of the brand. A pan-company approach is needed to build and
sustain brands; a team-based approach is important. (58)

What would the pharma CEO expect from you?

Pharma brand promotion is becoming mundane. The CEO expects the company’s
brand managers to build brands that will stimulate the prescribers, even if they have
to use the ideas of FMCG promotion. They want that the brand stories should be
distinctive, yet authentic. The brand must be expressed uniquely. They want the
brand managers to make brand communication so interesting and exciting that the
audience pays attention. They want a brand not only to be dominant but also to have
longevity. Every CEO expects his brand managers to be involved in the recruitment
process so that only those who genuinely believe in brand values are recruited.

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 Chapter 13

The Blue Ocean Strategy

for Pharma India

N ote: The central idea in this chapter is from the book “Blue Ocean Strategy”. The
credit goes to the authors, W.C. Kim and Renee Mauborgne. These ideas have
been interpreted for Pharma India on how to build a successful brand (69)

Pharma India has long engaged in head-to-head competition in brand building

and marketing activities. The usual STP strategy has been used, i.e. Segmentation,
Targeting and Positioning. As the competition became stiffer and stiffer, marketers
have made their lives and that of the field force very comfortable by replacing STP
with the Super LJG Strategy. LJG stands for Lunches / Dinners / Jaunts and Gifts! This
was further refined to ‘transactional marketing’. While selling costs are increasing;
the quality of field force is deteriorating.

There is a fierce ongoing battle for a minuscule piece of the market share pie.
Brands are battling head-on resulting in a bloody “red ocean”; rivals are fighting for
bits of market share. This is akin to a school of sharks fighting in the ocean for a share
of the prey, turning the ocean red.

‘Brands’ make an attempt to grab a bigger share of a finite market. The result is a
zero-sum game in which one brand’s gain is attained at another company’s loss. The
focus is on dividing the red ocean, where healthy growth is increasingly limited. The
brand manager divides the market into attractive and unattractive ones, based on her
own perception. Then accordingly she decides whether or not to enter. “The growth
issue has become increasingly salient. It is more imperative than ever to move from
red oceans of bloody competition to blue oceans of profitable growth.” (69)

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The reality in Pharma India is that ‘the supply of products far exceeds the demand’.
As a result, we see a commoditization of products. Hardly any brands are being built.
The price wars, the free offers and ‘transactional marketing’ are stifling the growth of
brands. Supply is overtaking demand.

To accentuate what a Red Ocean is, it is Identical to what happens when sharks
fight for the same prey in the ocean. Bloodshed, turning the ocean red! And the shark
gets a smaller and smaller piece of the prey.

For Pharma India, Red Oceans represent the known market space. In the red
oceans, business boundaries are defined and accepted, and the competitive rules
of the game are known. Brands try to outperform their rivals to grab a greater share
of existing demand. To sustain in the marketplace, Red Ocean strategists focus on
building advantages over the competition, usually by assessing what competitors do,
and striving to do it better.

Blue oceans, in contrast, denote the unknown market space, untainted by

competition. In Blue Oceans, demand is created rather than fought over. Competition
is irrelevant. Blue Ocean is an analogy to describe the wider, deeper potential of
market space that is not yet explored. Like the “blue” ocean, it is untouched, vast and
deep in terms of profitable growth.

The endeavor of a good brand manager should be to create new demand in an

uncontested market space, or swim in the Blue Ocean rather than compete head-
to-head. Says Swan, “Don’t find customers for your products; find products for your
customers.” (70)

To summarize, here is the difference between Red Ocean and Blue Ocean Strategy:

Red Ocean Strategy Blue Ocean Strategy

Fight for a market share in the existing Create a new space in which currently
market space. there is no competition.
Hit the competition. Make the competition irrelevant.
Exploit the existing demand. Create and capture a new demand.
It is a market-competing strategy It is a market-creating strategy
Make value-cost trade-off. Break value-cost trade-off
Red Ocean strategy is about how to Blue Ocean strategy is about how to get
out-pace rivals in existing market space out of established market boundaries to
leave the competition behind
Red Ocean strategy assumes that Blue Ocean strategy recognizes that the
there is only a finite market space to market boundaries do not exist. They
compete. do not let existing market structures
limit the thinking of brand managers.

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The foundation of Blue Ocean Strategy (BOS) lies on three elements.

Value Innovation

Value Innovation is the cornerstone of Blue Ocean Strategy. It is the simultaneous

search for differentiation and low cost. Value Innovation creates a leap in value,
worth and merit for both the prescribers and the brand.

For a prescriber, the value of a product comes from its utility minus its price.

(Value for a prescriber = Utility - Price)

For a brand, on the other hand, value is generated from the product’s price minus
its cost.

(Value for a Brand = Price - Cost)

Value innovation is achieved when the whole system of utility, price, and cost are
aligned.

To break the value-cost trade-off, consider the following questions:

• What components can be eliminated that the pharma industry has taken for
granted?
• What factors can be reduced well below the industry’s standard?
• What components can be raised well above the industry’s standard?
• What factors can be created that the industry has never offered?

Dynapar AQ is a classic example on how using value innovation made it a strong

brand.

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You can see the benefits of Value Innovation for Dynapar.

• What factors can be eliminated that the pharma industry has taken for granted?
– The cost of the ampoule cutter is eliminated.
• What factors can be reduced well below the industry’s standard? – No overfilling
of diclofenac to compensate for the loss while administering.
• What factors can be raised well above the industry’s standard? – Has been made
suitable for children.
• What factors can be created that the industry has never offered? – Almost pain-
free injections, which can be administered even in the arms, and not just the
gluteal region.

In short the brand Dynapar AQ has value innovated by cutting down on the costs
while simultaneously increasing the value of the brand. This has catapulted the brand
to the No. 2 position while enhancing the image of the company immensely.

Tipping Point Leadership

The second element in the Blue Ocean Strategy is the tipping point leadership

If a new idea or a strategy, like the Blue Ocean Strategy, or some change has to
be adopted, resistance is bound to be there. Some will oppose it. How do we sell this
strategy to all? The customary theory of organizational change rests on transforming
the mass of people. So change efforts are focused on moving the mass. This requires
expensive resources and long time frames - luxuries few can afford.

Now consider the concept of ‘Tipping Point Leadership’. By contrast, this takes
a reverse course. ‘Tipping Point Leadership’ means focusing on those people who
disproportionately influence the outcome.

It focuses on transforming the extremes: the people who exercise a disproportionate

influence on performance. By transforming the extremes, tipping point leaders are
able to change the core fast to execute their new strategy.

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Says Malcolm Gladwell in his book: ‘Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big
Difference’: “Merely by manipulating the size of a group, we can dramatically improve
its receptivity to new ideas. By tinkering with the presentation of information, we can
significantly improve its stickiness. Simply by finding and reaching those few special
people who hold so much social power, we can shape the course of social epidemics.
In the end, Tipping Points are a real affirmation of the potential for change and power
of intelligent action. Look at the world around you. It may seem like an immovable
place. It is not. With the slightest push – in just the right place – it can be tipped.” (71)

Case Study – Tipping Point Leadership

Carter Wallace field staff in those days, when I was Sales Manager (West), was highly
unionized. They followed the diktats of the Carter-Wallace Council (internal trade union)
leaders. To the extent when the Council lodged a complaint against me for calling on 13
doctors during joint fieldwork when the number agreed to (as per the agreement between
Carter Wallace management and the Council) was 10 doctors, I was admonished by the
then General Manager, R.C. Kapur.
Leading 52 people and 9 District Managers in such a milieu was challenging.
Whenever any new idea or a tactic needed to be executed it first met with tremendous
opposition.
Deliberating on this issue, I along with my team of nine District Managers decided that
before we discussed any new idea with the medical representatives, we would first throw
the idea to Hemubhai Shah, the most active Council member and a very senior medical
representative and ask him to chew over it for a couple of days.
On the day of the cycle meeting, the idea used to be presented and thrown open for
discussions. Towards the end, Hemubhai was asked his opinion. He generally used to
come out with constructive suggestions. In the end, we asked Hemubhai to explain the
idea or strategy to all the 52 people.
Tipping Point leadership was in action.

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By single-mindedly focusing on points of disproportionate influence, reaching

those few special people, Tipping Point Leadership helps managers overcome the
many hurdles to execution quickly.

Fair Process

Fair process builds execution into strategy. This can be done by getting the agreement
and commitment of all the stake-holders to accept the Blue Ocean Strategy. When
fair process is exercised in the strategy-making process, people trust that a level
playing field exists. This inspires them to cooperate voluntarily.

What is it that can inspire? It is the ‘Three E’s!

Engagement

Engagement means involving individuals in the strategic decisions by asking for

their input and allowing them to debate openly on the merits and the demerits
of the strategy. The ideas can be questioned and satisfactory replies be obtained.
Engagement results in greater commitment from all involved to execute those
decisions.

Explanation

Explanation means that all stake-holders should understand why final strategic
decisions are made as they are. Explain in detail the thinking that underlies the final
decision. This will make people confident that the management has considered their
opinions and has made decisions impartially in the overall interests of the brand. An
explanation allows people to trust the intentions even if their own ideas have been
rejected. It also serves as a powerful feedback loop that enhances learning.

Expectation

Expectation clarity requires that after a strategy is set, people understand the
strategy very clearly. They will have to be told the new rules of the game. Although
the expectations may be demanding, people should be crystal clear on what criteria
they will be judged. They should also know the consequences if they fail. There should
be clarity on the goals of the new strategy; the new targets and milestones; who is
responsible for what? When people clearly understand what is expected of them,
they can focus on executing the strategy rapidly and effectively.

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Principles of Blue Ocean Strategy

1. Reconstruct market boundaries.

The mind of the brand manager is the limit of expectations. The brand manager
should think laterally, outside the box to build his brand. The typical ‘market-share’
mentality should be a thing of the past. Think on how you create a new market in
which you are the only player. (72)

Case study – Prodep

1989 was the year when Sun Pharma launched Prodep and I was the brand manager.
Prodep was a novel antidepressant at that time, but was the fourth fluoxetine to be
launched in India after the giants of those times like Torrent Pharma and Cadila.
Antidepressants in those days were prescribed only by psychiatrists. The promotion too
was only to psychiatrists!
I wanted Prodep to be promoted differently.
Once, while travelling I happened to meet an ayurvedic doctor who mentioned to me
about the Ayurvedic system and how it is differs from the modern allopathic medicines.
He emphasized the importance of treating the mind and the body together.
That triggered my thought process – can Prodep be promoted to non-users like consulting
physicians and cardiologists? Some more research revealed that most chronic diseases
like hypertension, diabetes and arthritis have depression as the underlying cause. This
further strengthened my belief that Prodep should launched to non-psychiatrists.
Interviews with some cardiologists and physicians brought to light that the level of
knowledge of these doctors about depression and anti-depressants was abysmal. How
were these doctors to be reached? Would attempting this be suicidal? Promotion had to
be so appealing that Prodep should catch the fancy of the doctors instantly.
I decided that a special promotion through caricatures be prepared which could also lighten
the mood of the doctors. A leading cartoonist from Marathi magazines was deployed –
Vasant Halbe (the original creator of Shikari Shambu in the children’s magazine, Tinkle).
In a hilarious way, the various facets of depression and how to recognize depression
were depicted. It was virtually educating the non-psychiatrist doctors on depression and
the use of antidepressants.
Prodep was a hit and eventually went on to become the brand leader. It received great
prescription support from them and eventually went on to become the brand leader in
its category. This helped the consulting physicians and cardiologists in better prognosis
of the mother disease.
A new pie for Prodep was created. Prodep did not have any competition in this segment
for quite some time and thrived. The market boundaries for anti-depressants were
recreated.

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2. Focus on the big picture, not the numbers.

What is the strength of your brand? Does it have the intrinsic strength and ability
to create loyalty, and therefore to keep on generating prescription demand and
growth and profits for the future? Look at the entire perspective of the situation.
Take a broad, overall view of the issue. The opposite is absence of vision or marketing
without an understanding of the customer experience! Looking at the big picture
will help you attack marketing problems and find innovative solutions. Design the
brand’s strategic planning to go beyond incremental improvements to create value
innovations. Do not get submerged in numbers.

3. Reach beyond existing demand.

Challenge the two conventional strategy practices, i.e., focusing on existing
customers and driving for finer segmentation. The conventional thinking has two
disadvantages. The more forceful the competition is, the greater is the resulting
customization of the product. As brands compete to make the segmentation finer,
the possibility of creating too-small target markets increases.

Create a new mass of prescribers. Begin with knowing your prescribers and non-
prescribers. You have generally three types of non-prescribing doctors:

i. Casual prescribers or ‘soon-to-be’ non-prescribers. They are the fence-sitters

who are ready to jump to the other side, any time.
ii. ‘Refusing’ non-prescribers, who intentionally choose against your brand.
iii. ‘Unexplored’ non-prescribers who are in markets distant from yours.

Instead of concentrating on prescribers, look at the non-prescribers. Focus on

customer differences and then build on powerful commonalities in what prescriber’s
value. Thus, you can unlock a new mass of prescribers that did not exist before as you
have seen in the Prodep case study.

4. Get the strategic sequence right.

Let us understand the term ‘buyer utility’. This means the doctor has a compelling
reason to buy (prescribe) your product! If this compelling reason does not exist, Blue
Ocean does not exist.

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Set the strategic price. Will the mass of target prescribers find the price attractive?
Is there a compelling reason that patients have to pay the price?

Can your product be manufactured at the target cost and yet make profit?

What could be the hurdles to adopt this? Could they be from the retailers, the
stockists or even the doctors themselves?

If the above four issues are addressed, you have a commercially viable Blue Ocean
idea! The formulation of Blue Ocean Strategy is complete only when you can address
adoption hurdles in the beginning.

5. Overcome key organizational hurdles.

You need to knock over the hurdles of strategy execution within the company. The
four main hurdles are (i) Waking up the sales force to the need for a strategic shift.
(ii) The limited resources available for strategy execution. (iii) The motivation – drive
people so that they execute of their own accord. (iv) And finally the politics involved
in the execution of the Blue Ocean Strategy. Use Tipping Point leadership!

6. Build execution into strategy.

Peter Drucker once wrote: “Strategy execution is a dismal failure in most
organizations. If military teams performed as well as corporations on strategy
execution – as corporates do – they would lose any war!” Build the sales force people’s
trust and commitment deep in the ranks and inspire by using the Fair Process and the
3 E’s.

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Creating Blue Oceans is not a static achievement but a dynamic process.

Because Blue and Red Oceans have always coexisted, practical reality demands that
companies succeed in both oceans and master the strategies for both. But because
brand managers already understand how to compete in red oceans, what they need
to learn is how to make the competition irrelevant. Blue and red oceans have always
coexisted and always will. Practical reality, therefore, demands that brand managers
understand the strategic logic of both types of oceans.(69)

What would the pharma CEO expect from you?

The CEO would desire that any new product introduced will imbibe the Blue
Ocean Strategy. He would like that his brand manager builds his brand by creating
a new market for the product instead of fighting for an insignificant market share.
He would like to build in the three elements of the Blue Ocean Strategy viz. Value
Innovation, Tipping Point Leadership and the Fair Process while preparing the brand
plan. He would like the brand manager to shape up sustainable brands which in turn
will further enhance the stature of the organization.

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 Chapter 14

Patient-Centric Marketing

P harma marketers in India are stuck in a time warp – they keep on doing what
they have been doing for half a century. Pharma India has been and remains
a laggard relative to other industries. The current pharma marketing practices in
India replicate the practices adopted by the western world, from where modern
medicine has evolved. But is this relevant today? The time is ripe for a change. Brand
Managers should apply the modern principles of patient-centric marketing in their
strategies. Being patient-centric means putting the needs of the patient first! This is
much beyond distributing patient-pamphlets and posters helping them to recognize
a disease or asking them to inquire with their doctor about a particular brand. It
is about understanding patients and learning how better to serve them, e.g. by
improving patient adherence and outcomes!

How much is the estimated annual pharmaceutical revenue due to medication

non-adherence? Capegemini Consulting estimates it at US $564 billion or 59% of the
$956 billion in total global pharmaceutical revenue in 2011! (73)

An informal study by ‘The Enablers’ has revealed that specialists on an average

spend around 19 minutes with the patient but less than 30 seconds to explain the
medication – generally the specialist will ask the attendant or even the receptionist
to brief the patient on the medication! Patients feel helpless and powerless! There
is a power imbalance in the doctor-patient relationship. The last thing a sick person
would like to do is to challenge and confront the doctor.

Traditionally, pharma brand managers bring out the brand and its attributes to
the customer; i.e. the doctor. The challenge is – just who is our customer? As the
healthcare system is changing, and life-style products are getting more attention,
the customer is more often the patient. “As chronic diseases continue to weigh
more heavily on health care resources, lifestyle management and compliance with
treatment becomes paramount to patient care and care coordination (74).” Despite
rightfully being at the centre of the healthcare system, patients increasingly feel set
adrift. The top priority both for doctors and the pharma industry is to improve the
quality of care – that is why Patient-Centric Marketing assumes importance.

In the Indian scenario, the patient: doctor ratio is abysmally low and gets even
lower when it comes to specialty care such as neurology, cardiology or psychiatry.
This hampers the time which a doctor spends with patients. The traditional medical
model of diagnosing, treating and prescribing leave doctors without adequate time

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to educate patients. They are often caught in a conflict between their altruistic desire
to educate the patients and the lack of resources, like time and technology, to do
so. They have to tackle informed patients who, from passive recipients of care, are
fast becoming active participants in improving and maintaining their own health and
wellbeing. Doctors have to tackle another problem: Prescription drug abuse and
overdoses are on the rise, say psychiatrists in India! With such challenges, doctors
now have increased pressure to deliver better outcomes and success depends on
that. If doctors cannot help patients to make the right choices, outcomes suffer. The
marketing code of Indian Drug Manufacturers Association (IDMA) recommends “All
promotional activity should primarily entail a benefit to patients.” (74) OPPI Marketing
Code also reiterates this: The healthcare and well-being of patients are the first
priority for pharmaceutical companies. (75)

Doctors need an ally they can trust to give them effective strategies in their quest
to address treatment adherence to improve healthcare outcomes. Doctors are
trained and are competent in their discipline; however they may not be aware of how
they should address patient behavior. They need a helping hand to make a difference
in improving health outcomes. Here comes the role of pharmaceutical companies
and the brand managers in patient-centric marketing.

A patient centric approach for a brand manager would entail using resources with
her in improving the doctor-patient relationship. She can develop actionable patient
education tools for doctors to use in their practices. She can play a role to make
doctors more resourceful and the patients more conscious about their conditions
by investing in ‘Information Therapy’ which can help the doctor “prescribe” the right
information.

Information Therapy

Research shows that patients have significant difficulty remembering and

understanding medical information after clinical encounters. Patients forget
somewhere between 40 and 80 percent of information given immediately after the
visit. Of the information that is remembered almost half is remembered incorrectly
(76)
. The ‘After Visit Summary’ (AVS) is an information therapy tool that can be used
to help patients to remember pertinent medical information. (77) Patient recall and
comprehension is facilitated by high quality communication between clinicians and
patients. (78)

Both doctors and patient misjudge patient understanding of medical information

and instructions. (79,80)

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Case study – Patient-centric marketing for a Parkinson’s Disease drug

Parkinson’s Disease is a chronic disease affecting the senior citizens. It is a neuro-

degenerative disorder which leads to progressive deterioration of motor function due
to loss of dopamine-producing brain cells. Most individuals with Parkinson’s disease
are diagnosed when they are 60 years old or older, but early-onset Parkinson’s
disease also occurs.
Symptoms include tremor, stiffness, slowness, impaired balance, and later on a shuffling
gait. Secondary symptoms include anxiety, depression and dementia. The mainstay of
this disease continues to be co-careldopa despite its unpleasant side-effects
With just around 1800 qualified neuro-physicians in the country and the continuous
rise in this disease, the brand manager can play a vital role through ‘Information
Therapy’.
The brand manager via the field staff can contact patients and ensure that they
take their medications continually. She can establish adherence teams. Patients can
be reminded on when to refill prescriptions. The brand manager can actively work
with patient and doctor to identify potential side-effects, the interactions between
drugs for Parkinson’s Disease and other drugs the patient is prescribed. The brand
manager, via the medical department may even recommend medications that might
have been overlooked.
The brand manager can initiate ‘Patient Organization’ like say ‘Clubs of Parkinson’s
Disease Patients’ in cities. The Club can conduct regular meets of such patients
and, with the help of health care providers like the physiotherapists or counsellors,
provide the right exercise that would continue to allow them some flexibility, some
improved cognition, and some remedy to the stiffness that neurologists have to deal
with. Exercise has been shown to help reduce the symptoms of Parkinson’s Disease
Such patient-centric activities can have an impact on the brand and a fallout on other
neurology-related brands of the company would be immense.

Patient Adherence

There is a compelling case for patient adherence. Adherence can be defined as an

understanding between the doctor who has prescribed a medicine and the patient
who has been prescribed that the medicine will be taken as recommended in the
prescription. Non-adherence may limit the benefits of medicines, resulting in lack
of improvement, or deterioration, in health. The economic costs are not limited to
wasted medicines but also include the knock-on costs arising from increased demands
for healthcare if health deteriorates. It is thought that between a third and a half of
all medicines (81) prescribed for long-term conditions are not taken as recommended.
Poor adherence to treatment of chronic diseases is a worldwide problem of “striking

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magnitude” (82) An Eyeforpharma report has some great information on adherence.

There are many reasons given by patients for not adhering to their prescribed
treatment. The most obvious are that they simply forgot to take their medicine.
This generally corresponds to only about 30% to 40% of cases. In other words, up
to 70% of non-adherence is voluntary; people decide not to follow their therapy,
either discontinuing it altogether (i.e. not being persistent) or not taking it as often
as they should (non-compliant). (83)  If the prescription is appropriate, then this may
represent a loss to patients, the healthcare system and society. The costs are both
personal and economic. Non-adherence should not be seen as the patient’s problem.
It represents a fundamental limitation in the delivery of healthcare, often because
of a failure to fully agree the prescription in the first place or to identify and provide
the support that patients need later on. (82) In the Indian context, patients discontinue
treatment because they ‘start feeling better’, little realizing that in chronic conditions,
medication has to be continued indefinitely. There are also concerns related to side
effects. Financial problem is another major cause of non-adherence. Increasing the
effectiveness of adherence interventions may have a far greater impact on the health
of the population than any improvement in specific medical treatments.(83)

Can the brand manager be a conduit between the doctor and the patient to offer
guidelines on how to involve patients in decisions about prescribed medicines and
how to support adherence?

NICE clinical guidelines state that treatment and care should take into account
patients’ needs and preferences and patients should have the opportunity to
make informed decisions about their care and treatment, in partnership with their
healthcare professionals. (82)

Case study – Patient-centric marketing for patients with diabetes

People who may need insulin therapy include those with Type I and even some with Type
II diabetes. Doctors will prescribe the insulin that’s best for the patient. It’s possible that
patients may need more than one type of insulin. It’s important that doctors may space
insulin doses throughout the day to keep blood sugar levels within the normal range
despite eating habits and activity patterns.
The people judge a book by its cover! Success of treatment depends a lot on the quality
of communication of the doctor and subsequent patient adherence.
In a country like India where an endocrinologist may not have the time to continuously
monitor the patient’s adherence, the brand manager can step in.

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With the endocrinologist’s consent she can be in constant touch with the patients; the
patients can be educated on the correct procedures for self-injecting insulin and how
to use the insulin injecting gadgets like the insulin-pens correctly. She can set up a cell
where the patient or their caretakers can contact for help in case the patient experiences
hypoglycemic symptoms. The possibilities of patient-centric marketing are immense.
If NICE guidelines are to be implemented, good communication between healthcare
professionals and patients is essential. As said earlier, endocrinologists are trained and
competent to diagnose and treat diabetic patients, but do medical schools train them in
quality communication with patients? This is where a pharma brand manager can play a
role, if her focus is on patient-centric marketing.

Tips for Patient-Centric Marketing

• Understand the patients: Patients may not follow the doctor’s instructions
mainly because of two reasons – either the doctor’s instructions are complex or
the patient is unable to pay for the prescribed medicines. In the Indian context,
it could be both. Communication is fundamental and a doctor has to be certain
of understanding the patient and also being understood. The brand manager
must be able to understand the reality so she can offer patient-centric solutions.
She should also realize that many patients may not be ‘health literate’ enough
to express their problems with doctors clearly and therefore may inadvertently
conceal their problems. Low health care literacy has an effect on not only those
patients with general low literacy but also the high-profile patients who may
be extremely literate in their own areas of proficiency (e.g. an architect or a
journalist) but may have a problem in understanding medical terminology. The
brand manager may help the doctors in creating patient-friendly forms to be
filled which the doctor can read before starting the diagnosis. She needs to
avoid medical jargons in these forms which a doctor may find difficult to create.
She can thus create a psychologically safe environment in fostering doctor-
patient relations.
• Patient Engagement: Patient engagement refers to the continuous and
constructive dialogue between the patient and the doctor. It should be thought
of as a tool for transforming the doctor-patient relationship. There is growing
evidence that patients who are actively involved in their own healthcare
experience better outcomes at lower costs. Pharma companies can identify
patients with chronic conditions and help the doctors engage with these patients
like providing the patients with timely personalized information. This can help
the doctors to strengthen the key relationships with patients. Engagement
can be made the hub of marketing program, since it provides relevance to the
doctors and the patients. She can create a robust platform that allows doctors
and patients to have an ongoing, continuous relationship and to communicate
on a personalized basis instead of episodic visits to the doctor’s office.

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• Relevance: Whatever activity is conducted, the brand manager must ensure that
it has relevance for the patients, or they will not be engaged. This is best ensured
when the brand manager understands the patients and knows which issues they
are concerned about. Relevant activities can improve the patients experience
with the brand and ultimately can have a positive effect on the bottom line.
• Add value to the patient: It is increasingly apparent that Pharma India has a role
to play in patient support. Brand managers need to move away from the 50-
year old mindset of getting focused on increasing prescriptions. By building a
community and utilizing it the brand manager can add value to the patient while
promoting her brand. She can develop patient support programs. There is all the
more need to have such support programs considering the poor adherence rates.
Longevity is increasing and in time to come there would be more senior citizens,
many well informed. If the credibility of Pharma India has to be enhanced, brand
managers must feel a responsibility to ensure that right information is given to
patients at the right time.

It is time to rethink on the strategies of pharma marketing. Keeping pace with

changing consumer needs and wants needs a serious look. Putting patient first is
always and will continue to remain good marketing. New capabilities are required
for pharma marketing. The corporate social responsibility of pharma India is to keep
the patient at the center of all brand promotion activity and go in for patient-centric
marketing approach.

What would the pharma CEO expect from you?

The pharma CEO expects the brand manager to break through the 50 year time
warp and think afresh on how to offer something to patients and, at the same
time, enhance the credibility and the image of his organization. He wants the brand
manager to act like a conduit between the doctor and the patient and strengthen
the relationships. He ultimately expects the brand manager to master the skills of
patient-centric marketing. Any brand promotion activity she thinks of must benefit
the patient eventually. ”Every marketer should be on the road half of the time…you
get that sixth sense only by spending time in the marketplace. You need to live and
breathe the market. You need to speak to the market participants on a continuing
basis. I demand at least 25 percent of the time on the road for marketers – though I
quickly add preferably 50 percent.” (72) This powerful message comes from Tom Peters
who sums up the importance of fieldwork by the brand managers.

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 Chapter 15

Field work by Brand Managers

W hat role do you as a brand manager have when you work in the field?

In the first place, you have to organize your field work with precise objectives
which are related to the performance of your brand and to understand how you can
get a better prescription share for your brand. Before you start field work, you should
decide on the specific objectives.

A few tips to gauge the performance of the brand are given below.

• Know how well your strategy is being implemented by the sales force.
• Assess the effectiveness of your communication strategy.
• Comprehend the doctor’s perception of your communication.
• Acquire first-hand information about competition and their strategies
• Be aware of where your brand is in the doctor’s mind vis-à-vis competition.
• Decide how good your strategy is vis-à-vis competition.

Having said this, please keep in mind that you as a brand manager have no
authority on the sales force – they do not report to you. You have to work under
certain constraints.

A few dos and don’ts during field work by a brand manager:

The Don’ts

• Do not replicate the job of field managers

• Do not try to exert authority – you really don’t have any. Make the sales force
your ally
• Do not compete with field sales managers
• Do not do anything which will break field discipline (like asking them to change
their tour program, reaching the contact point late)
• Do not look down upon field staff (Oh! He is just a medical representative, what
does he know?)

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The Dos

• Work out a strategy during joint call – before the call.

• Work for the full day in the field.
• Maintain the doctors and retail call average as stipulated by the sales head.
• Spend a lot of time with retailers – this is the place where you can get familiar
with a lot of brand management related information.
• Let the medical representative be the hero during chemists’ or doctors’ call.
• Set you own objectives before planning field work.
• During a joint call, discuss the call plan before entering the doctor’s chamber. Let
the medical representative know exactly what role he will play and you will play
during the course of the call.
• Avoid unplanned intervention when the medical representative is interacting
with the doctor. Plan the intervention tactic before the call.
• Ensure that you are thorough with your brand strategy – not only of the brand you
are handling but also the brands in the portfolios of the other brand managers in
your organization. The field force looks at you as a responsible person from the
corporate office.
• Ensure that your communication and detailing are perfect before you start field
work – rehearse before your marketing managers / general manager / vice
president

As mentioned earlier, you as a brand manager have no authority over the sales
force. Some brand managers may find it awfully difficult to accept this. Nevertheless,
one need not always use authority to get the medical representatives and their field
managers to collaborate with you in building your brand.

So how can you as a brand manager influence the sales force to get their help in
building brands?

One can try out the approach known as ‘Cohen-Bradford Influence Model’.

This model was created by Allen R. Cohen and David L. Bradford, both leadership
experts and distinguished professors. The model was originally published in their
2005 book, “Influence without Authority”. (58) Cohen and Bradford believe that
authority can be problematic. It doesn’t always guarantee that you will get support
and commitment from those around you. On the other hand, it can create fear, and
motivate people to act for the wrong reasons.

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This is why it is so useful for brand managers to learn how to influence others
without using authority.

You can use the Cohen-Bradford Influence Model:

• You need help from the sales force over which you have no authority.
• You do not know the medical representative or the field manager well.
This model suggests the steps to be followed.

1. Assume that the entire sales force is your potential ally in building your brand.
2. Be open with them. Clarify your goals and priorities when working in the field.
Focus on your work goals, and leave personal drivers aside.
3. Understand the world of the medical representative. Use empathy to step into
his world. Understand what drives his behavior.
4. Deal with relationships. Focus on building trust and building a good relationship
before you move on to the final step.
5. Influence through give and take. Once you feel you know what the medical
representative wants and you have clarified what you have to offer, you can make
“the exchange” and put your findings into action. In other words – build a win-
win situation

Understanding what is important and significant for the field-force is the key to
bond with them and have an influence over them – even when you have no authority!

What would the pharma CEO expect from you?

The pharma CEO expects you to spend at least fifty percent of your time on the road
so that you are in constant touch with the prescribers and the potential prescribers.
He expects you to get first hand information about the competition, especially their
strategies, by moving in the field and not sitting in the comfort of the office. This he
knows is important for the brand managers to give implementable strategies and
build strong and sustainable brands.

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 Wrapping up

P harmaceutical marketing is a very lucrative career option for young graduates in

an evergreen industry, often called ‘recession-proof’. The pharmaceutical industry
is India’s, most stable and fastest growing businesses in the entire world.

And one vocation within the pharmaceutical industry, where the demand far
exceeds the supply is that of a brand manager.

It would always be advantageous to have a post-graduate degree in pharmaceutical

management. Many business schools offer an M.B.A degree in pharmaceutical
management like Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies (NMIMS),
Mumbai, Centre for Management Studies, Ahmedabad and Carreograph Institute of
Management Studies (CIPM), Kolkata, which is affiliated to Vidyasagar University.

For those who desire to earn and learn, one can opt for the UGC approved MBA
course in Distance Learning from Carreograph Institute of Management Studies,
which has a high standard. For more details, please do visit www.carreograph.com.
For their complimentary Continuous Management Education program in developing
managerial skills, they have a monthly e-publication ‘CarreoSkills’.

Good luck to all budding pharma brand managers!

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 Works cited

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