Marketing Module - 'How to Move from Strategy to Creative Execution'

Has marketing become just another word for promotion? How can you break out of the marketing rut? To create memorable and effective communications clients must take responsibility for marketing and challenge agencies if they are to come up with long-term winners.

John Flaherty - Communications Consultant (left) and Paul Stuart-Kregor - The MSI Consultancy

The latest PM Society Masterclass provided essential insight and excellent practical advice for all those working in marketing, whether in pharmaceutical companies or service agencies. Key topics included:

• How brand champions drive thinking and 'own' the brand strategy
  
  
• Long-term 'local' brand strategy in the increasingly 'global' pharmaceutical world
  
  
• Benefits of long-term brand and marketing communications for ROI
  
  
• Getting 'great creative'
  
  
• Making the client/agency relationship work.

The importance of real marketing
Great creative executions, those that have the 'wow' factor, require long-term brand strategy. According to Dr Paul Stuart-Kregor, the first step towards great execution is to really think through all a spects of the brand strategy - an area that could often be improved in the pharmaceutical industry. The key drivers for a successful strategy are:

• To have true 'brand champions' who understand brand building and brand management, be it global or local
  
  
• Real customer insight - why customers do what they do: what does/could motivate them?
  
  
• Clarity about what you are doing, why you are doing it, and what you need to achieve it.

The brand champion
Marketers naturally want to 'do' things as we all know a new product manager will frequently change the advertising or promotion as this is how they 'value' their activity. All too often in the pharmaceutical industry there is too much doing and not enough thinking. But it is not always necessary to reinvent the wheel. The 'brand champion' knows this and has a long-term entrepreneurial guardian role over the brand, as well as a clear vision of the brand for the future. Proctor & Gamble, for example, have brand champions and never meddle with their brands, even though personnel change. The brand champion understands what the brand is all about and the long-term features that will remain consistent throughout the product lifecycle.

What is a brand?
The brand is the sum of tangible and intangible characteristics that differentiate that brand and make it unique in the minds of the customer. The brand adds value to customers on more than just a functional level. Really strong brands have a clear vision about what they stand for and core values to support that vision. They also satisfy the customer's needs, the functional needs with the product and by adding value beyond the product itself by meeting emotional needs. Managing a brand is about building and maintaining relationships with customers: what makes a brand last is its emotional connection with the customer.

Brand value defines what the brand is about. In pharmaceuticals this means defining the benefits of the brand for the customer. The brand's overall 'value proposition' is how the brand then adds value to the customer - the functional and emotional benefits. The acid test is whether the end-user is motivated to use (or prescribe) the brand.

Local and global brands
Global brands are a fact of life. However, the world of fast moving consumer goods realised some time ago that one size does not fit all. The pharmaceutical industry has not quite caught up with this yet.

The 'glocal' approach is a global brand that allows some local adaptations. This requires objective and rational assessment of local market conditions. In assessing whether to use a global campaign you should ask the following: Will the brand vision and brand value work in our market place? Are our customers different? Are our customers' needs different? Are the competitors different?

Customer insight
Long-term brand strategy is about really understanding customers customer insight. Too often we look at our customers too traditionally and have no clear understanding of their motivations and attitudes. Without understanding what makes the doctor tick we cannot give the quality of brief the agency needs to develop effective pharmaceutical advertising. Analysis of the customer should therefore go beyond the obvious scripted questions to understand the information that will make a real difference to how we communicate with doctors.

Managing the brand
Brand equity is built on brand strength and brand stature. This can be represented as a pyramid, starting with the foundations at the base where the brand is differentiated in the market place and made meaningful for the customer. This is the brand's strength. On this can be built knowledge and respect for that brand, ultimately creating the brand's stature.



When a brand is first launched, advertising is generally based around building its strength, namely what makes it different, and it's all about salience, awareness, interest, evaluation and trial. In pharmaceuticals, messages are often based on product/functional benefits. By the time the brand has developed eg with sales of over $10 billion US dollars a year (like Lipitor) the meaning and differentiation of the brand is already in place so there is no need to explain what it is. At this stage, advertising emphasises what the brand does for the doctor and concentrates on the emotional aspects. In this way, over time, the brand's communication strategy will move from the functional to the emotional.

Thinking the way the customer thinks
In the pharmaceutical world the brand values must resonate with our customers the doctors. It is vital to think the way they think, use the words they use, and feel things the way they do. In the award-winning Solpadol campaign, begun around a decade ago and still running, the creative idea came from talking to customers and deciding to position the brand for short-term distressing pain in otherwise fit and healthy patients. The agency then came up with a very smart execution which effectively differentiated the brand, based around understanding the doctor's thinking and the doctors language.

To brief the agency we therefore need a real understanding of the market, our customers and the competition to come up with a sustainable, meaningful, credible and differentiating long-term brand value proposition. This is then fixed and will not change. We also need to understand the terminology, tone and communication style required to exemplify those values. Finally, to get the message across we need to understand the communication objectives, the challenges we face, and the prescribing triggers our communications are aiming at. Without this level of understanding and input we will not get that award-winning campaign.



References
[1] Keller K.L. 2001 "Building customer-based brand equity: A blueprint for creating strong brands', Marketing Management, Vol 28, No. 1, pp35-41




Real communications and real results
In the view of John Flaherty, real communications must be based on credible insights, big ideas, and customer empathy. And all communications should strive to achieve real results: long-term brand building, financially measurable assets, short and long-term sales increases, and internal confidence within the company. We have seen how the role of marketing is internal - how the company defines and delivers its promises. The 'wow' factor is external.

There are a number of barriers to achieving that 'wow' factor, not least a breakdown in trust between agencies and clients, as well as poor briefing, and an inability to integrate messages due to poor communication with and between partner agencies.

This is not a criticism of clients or agencies, but more a criticism of structure. Despite downward pressure on costs, complex structures still exist within companies and large numbers of people are engaged in 'marketing'. This gets in the way of great ideas, with little scope for delivery of focused and integrated communications. The result is bad briefing and confused communications.

If, on the other hand, strategy is strong then an agency needs only two things: great insight on which to base a proposition, and great ideas.

Customer insight
Good customer insight is important because it provides both the inspiration and the foundation for successful brand positioning. Insight reveals the customer 'question' to which your brand can provide the unique 'answer'. Insight also helps pinpoint how a brand can achieve both customer relevance and competitive differentiation, and guides the development and delivery of an effective integrated brand mix.

Insights are not what the customer said or did (they are the findings). Insight means understanding why the consumer said what he or she said, or did what he or she did. Gaining real insights takes hard work.

How do we identify insights? First, they are fresh. An insight is a new understanding of old information and may well seem obvious once you find it. Second, an insight has to be relevant to the consumer. Third, it is enduring it is true today and it will be true tomorrow. Finally, it has to inspire. An insight defines a growth opportunity and inspires the team to act by identifying a potential competitive advantage.

Ideas
The true value of an idea lies in the skill, creativity and experience of the person who comes up with the idea. The idea is not the ribbon in someone's hair but the skill of the hairdresser who had the idea of using it. Don't sell the ribbon! The ribbon is the account director getting to the meeting on time, not what is delivered at that meeting, or it's the Apple Mac, not the person sitting at it thinking up the ideas. You need skill, creativity and experience to come up with real ideas. Don't pay a lot of money just for a ribbon with no substance behind it.

Inevitably, however, we feel safe selling ribbons because they are quantifiable. Ultimately a good client will not pay much for just a ribbon but they will pay large amounts for real ideas. Good ideas need a strong, focused strategic platform from the client, a proposition based on that strategy, and an insight which suitably talented people can turn into a great creative idea.

The following case histories illustrate these points: all have a strong unique strategy, all are based on original insight leading to an original idea, all have peerless execution (all have won creative awards), and all have provided handsome return on investment.

Seretide
Based on comments about the product that came out of market research, such as 'It's quite miraculous for some patients. It's more than control - they just feel they don't have asthma', the perceived insights were that patients realised Seretide changed their lives from the moment they started taking it. From this developed the following:

• There are moments in time of historical significance
  
  
• There are moments in time you remember forever
  
  
• And there are moments that only you can feel - '...like the moment I stopped feeling like an asthmatic.'

Based on this, a series of advertisements was developed, including 'Seretide - the moment', 'Seretide - feeling good', 'Seretide - makes your heart sing', and 'Seretide - breathing space', all with appropriate visual images. The advertising allowed the doctor to empathise with the asthma sufferer with the result that Seretide is now regarded as 'the one'.



Tritace
Market research revealed that doctors knew all about Tritace but did not see many patients to whom they felt they could prescribe it. Doctors also thought that these patients were already on so much medication that they should not add to that burden. The key insight from this attitude was that doctors believe they should help save the lives of problem patients. From this came the emotionally engaging idea of equating these patients with endangered species.

The resulting series of ads included 'Save the whale', 'Save the penguins', 'Save the panda', 'Save the tiger', and 'Save the walrus', all of which were based around arresting 'human' visual images. The result was that sales increased from £52 million MAT in 2002 to £110 million MAT in 2004 and an increase in the breadth of prescribing across all patient types.



The Economist
In business, we all want to get ahead of our colleagues and don't mind standing out from the crowd, but we are scared of getting found out (not knowing the answer to a particular question). We also want to surpass ourselves and feel that we are on the inside track that there is something only we know. The Economist tapped in to these fundamental aspects of human nature and used a simple strategy based on these customer insights to get the right message to the right people at the right time.

To cover getting ahead The Economist used the slogans 'How to win at board games', and 'It's lonely at the top, but at least there's something to read.' For don't get found out there was 'Protects against foot-in-mouth disease' (very topical at the time). As to surpass yourself, the slogans were 'Great minds like a think', and 'You are the strongest link. Hello'.



Finally, to cover being on inside track the slogan 'Hello to all our readers in high offices' was written on the top of a bus. Someone seeing this from above would think it was aimed solely at them - a great creative idea. Others in this series included 'The knowledge' on the side of a taxi, 'An overview' on an air balloon, and 'No spin' on a rotating advertising hoarding.

The results of this campaign were that circulation of The Economist grew by 64% (1998 2001) against a market decline for similar journals of 20%. They also saw an increase in subscriptions over five years of 95%.

While the big ideas in the Seretide and Tritace campaigns were expensive to execute, by contrast the campaign for The Economist was relatively inexpensive. There was no ribbon, just a pure idea.

In conclusion, profitable communication must be based on real marketing directed by the client. Great creative needs insights, not facts, and ideas, not ribbons. Finally, a big idea does not necessarily cost more but has far greater returns.




Talking points
Clare Chamberlain (Sanofi Pasteur MSD) asked who should be developing the brand strategy, the agency or the client, or both together. Paul Stuart-Kregor emphasised that the brand strategy has to be owned and developed by the company, and specifically by the brand champions within the company. It must be consistent across time and the advertising must reflect the appropriate stage in brand building and develop a range of different creative executions at different times. Creative needs will vary over time but the brand values should stay the same throughout.

John Flaherty added that in reality the agency sometimes becomes the brand champion, however, as they tend to know the brand well often for longer than the person in charge of that brand within the company. But this is not ideal, particularly from a commercial security point of view.

Asked who has ownership of the key insight, the client or the agency, Paul Stuart-Kregor stressed that the emotional insights have to come from the marketing team before the agency can produce great creative. However, if the marketing department are not doing their job properly and do not understand the key insights then the agency will step into the vacuum. Unfortunately, if the marketing team does not have real insight into what makes the customer tick there is a tendency to fall back on just outlining safety, efficacy and tolerability. But so what? Where are the levers to prescribing in this? Customer insight is the basis of all marketing.

In response to a question about patent expiry, Paul Stuart-Kregor stated that many global companies believe sales will drop off after a patent expires when, if fact, if handled properly many of these brands can keep going. It can be done, but it is tough. Unfortunately not many brand managers stay with the brand long enough to see this through.

Matthew Hunt (International SOS) asked whether it is more effective to reflect the patient's or the prescriber's emotions in advertising and which have the most leverage. John Flaherty felt that in the pharmaceutical market there is no hard and fast rule there is no generic 'customer', as the customer varies for each product. Every product therefore has to be evaluated individually. And often it is only with hindsight that the true answer can be known. Brands grow rather like children, and we hope they will grow into good ones. Paul Stuart-Kregor added that, while based on the emotional benefits to the patient, all the examples above appealed more directly to the emotional benefits to the doctor. But the emotional values built into a brand can vary and market research can be either doctor driven or patient driven, depending on the product area.

Ian Walker (AstraZeneca) asked what can be done in-house to maintain brand strategy. Paul Stuart-Kregor stated that companies like Proctor & Gamble have a 'brand book' which clearly defines the brand. When personnel change, any new person must work with the brand book. They don't fiddle with brand values.

Asked if the brief alone is enough to communicate the insights to the creative agency, John Flaherty's view is that in the client/agency relationship the client needs to provide real insight, not just in the form of a document but rather as a thorough understanding. Both partners in the relationship need to commit to this understanding. There is a danger that the brief becomes just words rather than this complete understanding. Of course, the skill of a good agency is to look behind the written brief and ask the right questions to fully understand the brand and the brand positioning.

On the question of whether it is possible for the client and agency to work together to develop a brand, Paul Stuart-Kregor stressed that this is feasible but the client needs to drive the process. The agency can change but the brand has to keep going. The brand vision must therefore be fixed over time, something which generally does not happen in pharmaceutical companies.

Steve Mackenzie-Lawrie (PM Society and Health Decisions) added that the thinking behind the development of the PM Society's PRIME initiative (see below) is to help marketers become more involved in gaining customer insight, thereby strengthening the development and execution of their marketing plans, and helping them as marketers build and extend their marketing skills. Part of the remit of the PM Society is to create a forum for the exchange of ideas and to provide opportunities for education which will help them take the initiative and drive the process forward. There is often a huge gap between theoretical marketers and the practicalities faced by the brand manager.

Paul Stuart-Kregor added that it is interesting that very few marketers make it to senior positions in pharmaceutical companies. This is a clear indicator of marketers' success (or lack of it) in adding value to their companies. Clearly there is an opportunity for marketers to demonstrate that they can add value - if they get it right. The PM Society's PRIME initiative therefore comes at an ideal time to start putting the key principles in place to allow marketers to demonstrate that they can deliver better performance.


The launch of PRIME
PRIME is a new training initiative from the PM Society. Sandy Thomson outlined how PRIME is a flexible modular training programme developed by the industry for the industry. Interactive training sessions are specifically focused on pharmaceutical marketing, and use real-life pharma examples with practical application, not just theory. PRIME offers a unique opportunity to share experiences with colleagues across the entire industry and provides participants with core pharmaceutical marketing skills.

PRIME 1 covers the essentials and provides core practical skills. It is aimed at the newly promoted product manager or aspiring marketer, as well as those in the service sector who interface with marketers. Comprising a number of individual modules, the programme allows flexibility and a framework for accelerated development.

The core module consists of three days' training and covers an introduction to marketing, the marketing challenge and the role of brands, operation plans, getting the balance right in the marketing mix, driving sales and profit, and an introduction to market research, as well as enhancing the relationship between client and agency.

Additional optional one-day or half-day modules then cover a number of different scenarios: making the most of the ABPI, competitor assessment, and pharmaceutical marketing for non-marketers.

Further details of the PRIME programme, including dates and costs, are available at www.prime.pmsociety.org.uk.

Held on: 24/02/2005