Brand Marketing

Reprint List Ad Execs Not Viewed as Innovative By Americans

Says AstraZeneca Survey

Sorry to break this to you, but Americans don’t think advertising executives are very innovative. The AZ survey shows that Americans think advertising executives are only as innovative as teachers, but much less innovative than doctors, artists, engineers, or scientists.

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The Brand Marketing Mix

This article is a summary of a presentation made before a pharmaceutical brand team on marketing tactics that are viable now and in the future, how to avoid risk by balancing risk vs. impact, and what the marketing mix trends will be one to five years out.

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Blogs and the Pharmaceutical Industry

This article presents the basics of blogging and offers several examples of how pharmaceutical companies and marketers can use blogs effectively without shooting themselves in the foot!

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Branded Physician Education: How to Integrate Promotion and Education

While funding for CME may have shifted out of the control of the marketing departments at most pharma companies, there is still a desire for marketing to reach out to physicians with educational promotional programs that are more within their control. MedPoint Communications, a marketing and educational services company headquartered in Evanston, IL, manages multi-channel, “within label medical education” programs for its pharmaceutical clients.

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Branding as a Management Tool in Pharma

The views of Jesper Kunde, one of Europe’s fastest-rising marketing gurus and author of the book Corporate Religion, are reviewed in this article.

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Branding Internally: Think Brand, Not Product

Creating brand loyalty as opposed to product loyalty allows marketers to maximize a product’s sales potential. However, this requires that brand teams understand the difference between the philosophy of “brand” versus that of “product.” Thomas Willard, Vice President of Marketing at Schwartz Pharma, Inc., discusses the difference between ‘product’ and ‘brand’ and identifies the personnel beyond the marketing team that should be encouraged to buy-in to brand thinking.

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Building a Blockbuster

Moving Towards a New Service Model

TNS Healthcare research suggests that you can enhance your chances of building a blockbuster brand by developing a customer-driven approach that focuses more on building relationships with physicians than does the traditional detailing model. In support of this, TNS surveyed primary care physicians in the US and 5 European countries. The results are summarized in this article.

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Consequences of Direct-to-Consumer Advertising

Links to Higher Prices and Less Competition

This article focuses on a new study that suggests drug price increases are engineered to cover the costs of Direct-to-Consumer Advertising (DTCA). Drug price trend data from AARP, AHRQ, and prescription drug consumer price index (CPI) are presented. Also, what’s the link between DTCA and competition?

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Controlling Your Brand’s Switch Destiny

An effective strategy for maximizing the profitability of a switch begins prior to even Rx approval. The optimal timing of the actual switch may not always coincide with the end of patent protection, bottoming Rx sales, or loss of competitive advantage. Multivariate models are now available to help pharmaceutical marketers develop more preemptive strategies for switching.

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Digitally-Feeble Pharma

Is Your Brand a Digital Genius or a Feeble-Minded Idiot?

When it comes to digital IQ, some brands are geniuses and some are feeble-minded idiots, according to the “L2 Digital IQ Index” for pharmaceutical brands, a first-of-its kind measurement of the digital competence of 51 pharma brands across eight therapeutic categories.

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Emotions, Focus and Storytelling: How Cialis is Challenging Viagra

So who wants to go head-to-head with Viagra? The ultimate pharmaceutical mega-brand: a blockbuster drug, with a superbly executed global campaign, an urban legend. According to Blair Waite, Brand Manager, Global Marketing for Eli Lilly and Co., Viagra is now the world’s 2nd most recognized brand name, after Coca Cola.

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The European eMarketing Scene: Desperately Seeking Strategy

The pharmaceutical industry is struggling to develop an eMarketing strategy in Europe, which is comprised of many relatively small markets (the member countries of the EU) having significant cultural and language differences.

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European Online Marketing Survey Results

This article presents selected results from a survey of pharmaceutical experts on eDetailing and Online Marketing conducted in 2005 by eyeforpharma, MediQuality, and PharmiWeb Solutions.

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Evolve Your Brand into a Relationship with Consumers and Physicians

This article is a review of a presentation by Keli Bennett, Consumer Marketing Director at Abbott Laboratories, where she contrasts and compares DR marketing and traditional DTC strategies and presents a Case Study showing the ROI benefit of integrating the two approaches.

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Free Gifts to Physicians: What’s the Big Deal?

Pharma Marketing News hosted an online survey and a Pharma Marketing Expert Roundtable discussion on the topic of pharma gifts to physicians. This article summarizes the findings of that survey and includes comments and insights from survey respondents and Roundtable members.

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Global Digital Asset Brand Management

There is a need to leverage rich media content across Rx brands and marketing campaigns on a global scale. This article is a review of ClearStory Systems’ ActiveMedia, which is an example of a next-generation digital asset management (DAM) solution for managing rich media.

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Got Game? Online Pharma Advergaming

While advergaming seems to work for the consumer package goods industry, will it also work for pharmaceuticals?

Topics covered include:

  • The Game: Give Your Legs a Rest
  • Not Medical Advice; Also Not Educational!
  • It May Fly in Battlecreek, But Not in Raritan!
  • Rx Drugs Require More Than Branding

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Hard Sell: The Evolution of a Generation X Salesman

This scathing review of the book ‘Hard Sell: The Evolution of a Viagra Salesman,’ which is a tell-a-lot-but-not-all about pharmaceutical sales, explores the connection between flagging sales force effectiveness and the generation gap between Boomers and Gen-Xers. ‘Dude,’ read it!

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Helping Pharma eMarketing “Grow up”

comScore’s eMarketing Benchmarks

Pharmaceutical marketers are continually challenged by their superiors to quantitatively measure the return on investment (ROI) of their campaigns. This is especially true for their eMarketing initiatives.

So, how do you know which online tactics are giving you the best return on your investment? To get started it is helpful to compare and contrast your own online strategy’s performance against competitive and perceived “best-of-class” tactics to evaluate the effectiveness of online programs, emulate effective strategies, and establish best practices. In other words, you need some eMarketing benchmarks.

This article summarizes a Pharma Marketing Talk conversation with Carolina Petrini, SVP, Marketing Solutions, comScore, regarding her company’s consumer e-marketing effectiveness benchmarks for the pharmaceutical industry.

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Is It Time to End Industry Sponsored CME?

Preliminary results from a survey of Pharma Marketing News readers about their views regarding industry sponsorship of accredited CME, including views on value, bias, ACCME firewalls, and alternative means of CME support.

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Measuring Consumer Sentiment About Prescription Drugs

At a recent Pharma Marketing Talk podcast, John Mack spoke with Mark DePaoli, life sciences analyst at BrandIntel, an online information service, about mining CGC to evaluate consumer sentiment about pharmaceuticals. This article summarizes that discussion and presents a case study analysis comparing consumer sentiment of Botox vs. Restalyne.

Topics covered include:

  • The CGC/UGC Landscape – some statistics
  • Case Study: Botox vs. Restalyne
  • Impact of Advertising on CGC
  • Monitoring Adverse Events in Conversations

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The New Branding Model: From Blockbusters to Targeted Therapies

Targeted therapies, based upon genotype, require a new brand model that addresses smaller segments of the population. This model, according to Francoise Simon, professor of marketing at the Columbia University Graduate School of Business, requires a fundamental reorganization of the biopharma value chain, from discovery to manufacturing and marketing.

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Optimizing DTC Performance

How TNS Healthcare Helps Clients Build a Lifetime Connection Between Consumers and Brands

DTC spending is up 6.6% in the first half of 2006. What is the pharmaceutical industry getting in return for this increase? However you look at the numbers, typical DTC approaches often don’t deliver the impact they should for the dollars invested, according to TNSfyi, a product forecasting and healthcare/pharmaceutical modeling division of TNS Healthcare.

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Optimizing Market Access

A Guide to Effective Pricing, Reimbursement and Messaging Strategies

In today’s competitive market, pricing and reimbursement strategies are key to maximizing brand success and ROI. Because every country’shealthcare system is different-and every product situation is unique-every brand requires a specific access plan, tailored to each market. And you must support each plan with effective messaging that ensures strong product acceptance and uptake. Experts from TNS Healthcare spoke on this issue in a recent webinar and during an exclusive interview with Pharma Marketing News.

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Pfizer Battles to Protect Lipitor Cash Cow

Lipitor Won’t Go Gentle Into that Good Generic Night. Pfizer is taking a number of steps to protect it’s Lipitor franchise and it hopes that many patients currently taking Lipitor will remain loyal to the brand.

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Pharma Brand Personality Traits

Imbuing Brands With Human Characteristics Can Boost Sales

According to Lea Katsanis, PhD, Marketing Professor at Concordia University’s John Molson School of Business, developing a strong brand personality is an important way that pharmaceutical marketers can increase brand loyalty, brand trust, and ultimately brand equity.

Dr. Katsanis recently published results of a study that investigated the existence of prescription drug brand personalities as perceived by consumers in the Journal of Consumer Marketing. She was a guest on Pharma Marketing Talk on February 14, 2014, where she discussed the results of that study.

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Pharma SmartPhone/Tablet Apps: Is There a Regulation for That?

Pharmaceutical marketers have jumped on the mobile application bandwagon as more and more companies roll out health-related applications for smartphones and touchpads such as Apple’s iPhone and iPad. But will the FDA regulate certain smartphone apps as medical devices? This article discusses the regulatory and other issues associated with pharma developed or sponsored health apps.

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Pharma Trends to Watch in 2006

This is the time of the year when we all look into our crystal balls and try to come up with predictions for the new year. This article summarizes the collective wisdom from respondents of the 2006 Pharma Trend Survey and participants of the Pharma Marketihng Roundtable. Includes sections:

  • FDA Regulation of DTC: To Be or Not To Be?
  • Risk: I Say Relative, You Say Absolute
  • New Directions Part 1: Alternative Media
  • New Directions Part 2: Unbranded DTC

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Pharmaceutical Market Access 2010

Future revenue growth in the US and EU will be limited as the EU wrestles with cost effectiveness and the US debates healthcare reforms. Meanwhile, pharma and biotech companies are looking to emerging market opportunities in Brazil, Russia, India, and China (i.e., BRIC) to drive future business. What does this all mean for patients, physicians, payers, and pharmaceutical/biotech manufacturers? This article addresses that question.

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Pharma’s Image Conundrum

Building Brand Loyalty and Consumer Confidence

In this guest article, Carla Stratfold, CEO at OnRequest Images, presents several key learnings and best practices that pharmas can follow when building brand and consumer loyalty.

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Pharma Paid Celebrity Best Practices

Should Pharma Disclose Payments to Celebrity Spokespeople?

Pharma marketers in the U.S. sometimes use celebrities as spokespeople for their branded drugs or for non-branded campaigns. Such celebrities include TV personalities, athletes, movie stars and others who have thousands or millions of fans, Twitter followers, etc. Should Pharma Disclose Payments to Celebrity Spokespeople? This is just one of the issues explored in a recent survey of Pharma Marketing News readers.

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The Phil Mickelson Enbrel Campaign

From the Audition in the Press to TV, Web, and Print Advertising.

Pfizer and Amgen demonstrate how to launch a branded spokesperson campaign starting from a bit of over-the-top unregulated press relations to fully regulated TV, print, and Web advertising. It must be costing a mint!

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Physicians Favor Brands With a Compelling Adherence Program

Highlights from a Physician Survey by HealthPrize Technologies

his article summarizes the results of a survey of physicians designed to assess the value of various adherence solutions — including HealthPrize — and the potential of these solutions to influence physicians’ prescribing behavior.

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Print DTC: How Does It Measure Up?

Over 60 drug ads that appeared in several major consumer magazines were analyzed. In each, the space allocated to images, benefit statements, risk information, and the brief summary was measured. This article summarizes the findings.

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Product Branding, e-Marketing May Be Underutilized

Strengthened pharmaceutical branding and increased utilization of online marketing tools can have a significant impact on the revenue and market value of pharmaceutical firms, according to a presentation by Bill Trombetta, professor of pharmaceutical strategy and marketing at The Erivan K. Haub School of Business at St. Joseph’s University.

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Protecting Your Brand with Anti-Counterfeiting Solutions

This article reviews Cardinal Health’s portfolio of brand security technologies.

Drug counterfeiting puts the general public at risk. It is estimated that up to 25% of the medicines consumed in poor countries are counterfeit or substandard. Counterfeit drugs hurt pharmaceutical companies’ bottom lines as well. An estimated $30 billion worth of drugs are counterfeited each year and that number is expected to increase.

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Protection from Brand Infection

Marketers Must Take Control of Their Brands, Especially Online

In response to concerns about the growing range of threats to brand value and the sheer volume of brand hijacking incidents, the CMO Council set out to assess the challenges marketers face as stewards of their brands. The result is Protection from Brand Infection, a seminal authority leadership report that outlines the proliferating threat-scape that marketers face and reveals how marketers are struggling to understand and measure the impact brand intrusions have on their second most valuable asset, their customer.

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The Revitalized Brand: Creating a New Brand Image from an Old Product

This article summarizes a presentation made by Lynne Brookes, Vice President, US Marketing, Cephalon Inc. in which she discussed the marketing strategies behind Gabitril and Actiq.

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Stop Wasting $Millions on Ineffective DTC Ads!

Testing Technology Can Help Improve Ads and Engage Viewers. This article highlights PreTesting’s ad measurement technology and reveals interesting insights about the major mistakes that pharmaceutical advertisers make with regard to measuring the effectiveness of their ads.

Topics covered include:

  • Three Common Mistakes Made by Most Advertisers
  • PreTesing Technology
  • Case Study: Sleep Aid Ads
  • Testing TV Ads in a TiVO World
  • How to Create an Effective Drug Ad — 17 learnings from PreTesting

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Surviving the Election Wars

The pharmaceutical industry must take a pro-active stance if it is to counter all the negative publicity the 2008 presidential campaign will generate. With the billions of dollars that the industry spends on DTC advertising, there is an opportunity to use DTC to focus more on humanitarian goals of the industry.

Topics and issues covered include:

  • The Permanent Campaign
  • Emerging Issues
  • 2008 Election Outlook
  • Building Trust with DTC
  • Summary of the Roadmap to Surviving the Election Wars

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Use of Celebrities for PR and DTC Advertising

“Break a Leg,” But Avoid Pratfalls!

If you have questions about the ‘dos & don’ts’ and ‘pros & cons’ of using medical and non-medical mouthpieces for pharma PR and DTC advertising, this article provides some answers and opinions based on interviews of experts with years of experience in this area.

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Will Healthcare be Rationed or Rational?

A Case for Supporting Comparative Effectiveness Research

This article presents selected results from a survey of pharmaceutical experts on eDetailing and Online Marketing conducted in 2005 by eyeforpharma, MediQuality, and PharmiWeb Solutions.

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