Leading pharmaceutical executives recommend a 'culture of measurement' to beat marketplace pressures

Leading pharmaceutical executives recommend a 'culture of measurement' to beat marketplace pressures

(Philadelphia 04/11/05) With threats to profitability and growth turning up the heat, pharma's reputation for marketing overspend is rapidly becoming history. Creating and implementing a marketing plan with proven ROI is now a chief concern, no matter who you work for.

Which means pharmaceutical marketing teams are increasingly expected to deliver better results with fewer resources in an increasingly competitive climate. Pharma marketers must strive for a new level of sophistication and precision in their marketing initiatives which requires organizational and cultural changes http://www.eyeforpharma.com/marketingusa05/report.shtml )">.

'When times are lean, like they are now, there's no where to hide from a poor decision, "Paul Rabideau, Executive Director, Marketing Science and Portfolio Analysis for Novartis, says. "So, the act of doing ROI analysis or evaluating the effectiveness of promotion is critical to determining proper resource allocation.

"Even where quite a bit of analytics is going on, only about a third of the battle is about whether you can do good analysis," Rabideau says. "The other two-thirds is driving it into the business and getting it used."

When understanding the dynamics of pharmaceutical branding, a culture of measurement needs to be considered. Roland Powell, Director of Marketing and Sales Capabilities for Lilly's European Operations says "brand equity" may be the most important marketing ROI measurement to assess, but warns it is often passed over in favor of more easily measured metrics.

Brand equity can guide strategy and tell companies whether their positioning in the market is unique and relevant, Powell says. But, he stresses, brand equity is not marketing mix recommendations, words for messaging, a detail aid development guide or a message recall.

"Brand equity should be the basis for all of the market research you do," he says. "In the pharma industry, we tend to try to measure everything that moves. And because it's not easy to measure things in pharma, we tend to be drawn to those things we can measure, as opposed to those things we really should measure."

Powell stresses that brand equity is really the sum of positive and negative associations with a product.

"You can't just think about the nice stuff and ignore the nasty stuff," he cautions. "You might have some equity associated with your brand you don't particularly want, but if you ignore it, your customers will punish you for it because you may not be listening to what is relevant to them."

To hear more insight on ROI Marketing from leading industry thought leaders, register to attend eyeforpharma's 5th annual marketing congress, Marketing ROI USA 2005 being held June 14-15, 2005 in Philadelphia. For more information, visit www.eyeforpharma.com/marketingusa05 or call Izzy Wakeling, Conference Director on 1 800 814 3459

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