Pharma marketing - The business of paradigms

For Indian companies marketing differentiation coupled with aggressive selling is the key, says Ramakrishnan Iyer

Over the last couple of years, pharma marketing professionals are slowly changing their strategies. This drift is driven by market forces. Patients’ understanding of the disease and disease management have also seen a positive shift.

Today, a doctor is subject to a lot of questioning and reasoning by the patients both about the disease and disease management. Hence, we see some of the products in the ‘‘direct-to-consumer’’ mode of sale wherever the regulatory requirements permit.

The mind game

The industry today is besieged with more than 50 brands for any of the large selling molecule. This, infact, makes the job of the doctor extremely difficult to remember a brand and simultaneously a marketing man also finds himself miserable as to what he should communicate about the brand and how he would make brand recall work. ‘‘The Black Box’’ of a practicing doctor in our country is perhaps impounded with more number of brands than what it can hold. An old saying is that ‘‘Doctors have a very strong memory and hence forget what they do not want to remember.’’ The challenge to a marketing man today is to ensure that his brand falls in the category of ‘‘Want to remember’’ with as many doctors as possible. This is an extremely difficult task, needing a lot of innovative approach.

One can see, sense and visualise the slow and steady drift of the pharma marketing to the FMCG mode. Therefore, crisp brand names, value based brand differentiation, perceivable and beneficial brand values; therapy specific brand packages and highly customised promotion are some of the vital ingredients. While a doctor is a customer to the marketing man, the patients are customers to the doctor.

Convenience and ease of dosing, acceptable route of administration added to quality and price are extremely important. This perhaps is one of the reasons that we see a plethora of combination drugs in the Indian market which is uncommon in the western world.

The success mantra

When a brand succeeds there is a huge fight for ownership whereas when a brand fails it is orphaned. Many a time, why a brand has succeeded may go unanswered and unexplored. Some of the contributing factors for the success of the brand could be outside the purview of marketing. Aggressive sales push at the doctor and retailer level and consistent repeat visits can drive a brand ahead.

One of the recent articles has also indicated that a survey of many doctors evidenced the fact that frequent reminders occupy the top slot for a doctor to remember a brand more often. Hence, between the two, a well explained failure is better than an unexplained success.

To support the aggressive sales push, doctors need to receive brand recall gifts, to be involved in PMS studies, explore the possibility of creating a platform for sharing of experiences and validate efficacy and safety through peer group.

Doctors also need to be involved in activities like medical camps both diagnostic and treatment. This will give an opportunity for the company salesman to be in touch with the doctor for four hours or more.

The paradigm shift

The challenge for today’s marketing paradigm is to create a difference in the doctor’s mind. The product may not always be able to deliver the advantage of dosage convenience, drug delivery or price. These differentials are not a variable anymore, hence what can make a difference is the brand name, the packaging and aggressive strategy.

The GATT era will herald the entry of new molecules largely from MNCs and companies with a strong R&D base. There has already been a rush from the industry for in-licensing, technology transfer, acquisition of overseas company etc. All these products will see aggressive strategies to sell the molecules and hence for them branding only a consequence.

Almost 90 per cent of the diseases today can be treated with existing drugs available in India. There is nothing path-breaking even in the antibiotic therapy area for sometime now. The entire world will be looking forward to some revolutionary new drugs like cost effective treatment for cancer patients; new drug discovery for AIDS and ‘‘treatment’’ for chronic diseases like diabetes, arthritis etc. Till then anything new will only be perhaps a new molecule at a great cost which will need urban market support perhaps due to high cost.

For Indian companies marketing differentiation coupled with aggressive selling is the key. Even today more than 50 per cent of Indian pharma market is rural and the ‘‘GATT Effect’’ will not be immediate in rural India. To know the doctor’s mind and also to occupy a place there with a brand; the brand manager must be in the market with the doctors and understand the specific needs of the doctors and design promotion.

By this he will also be in a position to know what the field is actually implementing. This synergy is a must for brand success and growth.

The marketing paradigm can be summed up as:

• Do not be rigid on strategies; they are dynamic
• Do not oversell but hard sell
• Tailor to customer needs and keep changing
• Curb greed; Expose only four brands per customer
• Understand the importance of trade and earmark time for them
• Create trade promotion through the field representatives
• Do not lose rural focus
• Innovate or evaporate.

The writer is vice-president, Sales & Marketing, Wallace Pharmaceuticals Pvt Ltd.