Journal of Medical Marketing: Device,Diagnostic and Pharmaceutical Marketing

In the ever-changing business world, CEOs are often faced with multiple interrelated issues or problems where the solutions do not fall within traditional line management responsibilities. One approach to addressing such issues is to design a transformation road map and implement the identified initiatives. The key is to know the right time to embark on such a venture and then to create a vision of the future that can be detailed into specific initiatives to bring them about in a timely way. These elements will be discussed together with practical implementation steps in a global business scenario. In addition, practical examples of actual market situations will be used to identify critical success factors in the pursuit of transformational programmes. The speed, complexity and scope of transformational programmes have increased over the last two decades. New educational initiatives and resources will have to be deployed if managers are to be able to effectively lead such transformational programmes in the future. It is time, therefore, to review transformational planning and implementation in the present context of experience over the last 20 years of change management initiatives.

Across the developed world, the demographic composition is changing as the birthrate falls and longevity increases. Increased longevity is a great achievement for society, but it also presents significant challenges for the provision of healthcare. On the one hand, new innovations offer the potential to better prevent, manage and cure disease. However, healthcare funding is now one of the key challenges facing payers. Healthcare manufacturers on their own cannot bring about all the changes needed in the system. There is an urgent need to take an integrated approach whereby all co-responsible players, including citizens and decision makers, share the responsibility of optimising quality and activity throughout life. This paper proposes that health leaders and other co-responsible players should change the manner in which they value health, by looking at health as an investment rather than a cost. Marketing professionals should actively contribute to this by leveraging their skills to motivate people to engage in prevention and wellness activities, to adopt healthy behaviours and to engage in chronic disease management programmes. Marketing professionals should also collaborate with third parties around health literacy and health promotion in order to drive a system-wide change towards better health across society. Improving the health of people generally can, in turn, be an important strategy for reducing costs over the long term.

This paper aims to outline China's pharmaceutical market with a focus on the changing health consumer. Currently, the Chinese population numbers 1.3 billion and estimates suggest 25 per cent of the population will be aged over 60 by 2050. Moreover, trends toward higher living standards and urbanisation are increasing and there is a growing movement toward lifestyle medication, self-medication, buying drugs online and ‘modern’ medicine — the use of traditional Chinese medicine is decreasing gradually. Keeping close track of these trends will provide the best opportunity of investing effectively in China.

The pharmaceutical industry is looking for answers to the trust and public image issues it is facing. Public relations and corporate social responsibility initiatives fail to address the root causes of those issues. Using networks as a framework to understand the changing nature of the healthcare environment, the paper proposes a shift from the traditional marketing metric of share of voice to a more balanced approach to measure the value the industry is creating: share of care. The paper outlines the high-level organisational implications of implementing this change.

Until recently the ‘ethical’ pharmaceutical industry had an unassailable set of social, political, technological and economic credentials. Its single-minded pursuit of integrity was widely respected, and its reputation, image and influence were without equal. The reputation that took decades to build has now become severely tarnished. With stakeholder trust at an all time low, the industry is now the recipient of especially vehement criticism. The strategy to rebuild the reputation of the industry will require a deep understanding of the agendas and needs of all relevant stakeholders so that expectations can be fully met. This document explores a number of possible strategic and tactical initiatives to rebuild stakeholder trust and to restore the reputation, image and influence of the industry.

The world of branding is divided between consumer practices and those employed in the pharmaceutical world. Fast moving consumer good companies focus on a brand creation model while pharmaceutical companies create products. The pharmaceutical brand model does not easily fit into consumer theory and this leads to few people understanding the subject well. Consumer brand architecture theory is reviewed and then related to pharmaceutical practice (current and future). Aspects covered include the consumer work of Kapferer and Aaker in the area of brand architecture, examining how their work can be translated to pharmaceuticals. Recommendations for pharmaceutical brand management in the future conclude that, although there are many examples of excellent brand building in pharmaceuticals, the discipline has not yet reached a strategic level.

The paper's aim is to introduce an approach to implement Accountability in Marketing Communications (Marcoms). The measurement platform is based on the MCA™ methodology, which stands for Market Contact Audit™. MCA is category and market specific and provides a universal metric—a common currency—to measure the effectiveness of a brand's diverse Marcoms initiatives from the consumers' perspective. This approach helps to address the following questions:

How to have simple and operational KPIs for the marketing function at the enterprise level?

There are several problems associated with the ex ante pricing of new drugs and a key objection is the delay in launching drugs in order to permit cost-effectiveness analysis and set price. The Commitment Process™ provides a transparent and workable methodology for setting price upfront which aligns the interests of both company and assessment authority and confers considerable benefits to both parties. A critical benefit of this process is the removal of any delays in launching new drugs following MHRA authorisation.

With blockbuster brands such as Pfizer's Lipitor, GlaxoSmithKline's Advair, AstraZeneca's Nexium and many others, the pharmaceutical industry has demonstrated its expertise in building strong product brands. Product branding-focused marketing, however, leaves many patients untreated. Patients who do not recognise particular symptoms and medical conditions are less likely to seek medical attention and treatment, especially when their family doctor often lacks the time to probe for each and every possible medical condition. Product branding tells consumers about a solution but not about the problem which the solution addresses. Condition branding educates consumers, physicians and other stakeholders about the problem. We propose that the pharmaceutical marketing paradigm be broadened. Pharmaceutical marketers should build strong condition brands, in much the same way as they build strong product brands. Condition branding facilitates customers' decision-making, contributes to better health and may improve the standing of the pharmaceutical industry, which stands accused of overly aggressive product branding efforts, among other criticisms. When condition and product branding are well coordinated, each enhances the effectiveness of the other, raising patient health and brand sales.