The client wanted to differentiate its products in a way that would be distinctive and compelling, and would ensure that patients needing its products would receive them. The client wanted to communicate the differentiation of its products in such a way as to set standards for marketing excellence in the pharmaceutical industry.
The environment in which the client was pursuing this goal made it particularly challenging to create unique and recognizable brands. For example:
- Strong competition rules the industry, with unclear positioning among multiple brands claiming to treat the same disease, even though significant clinical differences existed between brands.
- Numerous stakeholders with their own objectives and means of influence affect pharmaceutical decisions.
- The importance of interactions with prescribers has changed as people turn to new media for information.
- Regulatory constraints and industry guidelines limit the ways pharmaceutical companies communicate.
Against this background, the client wanted to improve its marketing skills in ways that would make its products more competitive and increase their sales. In addition, the client realized that applying these skills throughout its organization would create common ground that would then allow the changes to become part of the corporate culture.
A core part of this transformation was to ensure there were deep and clear insights on the needs and behaviors of its customers: prescribers, patients, and all the other stakeholders involved in pharmaceutical decisions. Given the large scope, the client had to quickly focus on issues that would have the greatest impact on business, and develop practical tools that sales and marketing staff could adapt for any country organization.
The key questions for the client were:
- What is keeping our medicines from reaching patients who would benefit from them? Why are physicians not prescribing our products to more patients?
- How can we react more quickly to actions by our competitors and shifts in prescriber and patient needs?
- How do we communicate the value of our products to prescribers?
- How do we develop messages and ways to reach all the other stakeholders involved in pharmaceutical decisions?