PHARMACEUTICALS AND HEALTHCARE

Reflecting on the Pedicon 2012, Gurgaon experience

2012-01-22T21:42:00.012+05:30

A foggy start to PEDICON 2012, Gurgaon

Sales is the outcome of many a factor. The conversion of goods to cash and the monies entering the cycle of production is a sequence of several steps. In the pharmaceutical profession, the standard thinking is: 'THE MR is the traditional demand creator. His efforts in presenting the product with its features, advantages and benefits - motivates the prescriber to offer the product(s) to his patients. The MR is a crucial link between the product and patient (through the prescriber, stockist and chemist)'.

Things started to change...

As the no. of manufacturers started increasing, mere salesmanship (regularity, detailing, sampling and communication elements) of the MR was not sufficient to produce sales results.

The paradigm shifted to other elements of the marketing mix: sales promotional offers (ie., bonus offers), site (credit) facility, packing innovations, flexible pricing, distribution management, other communication media and platforms.

Cartigen from Pharmed stormed the market solely on the strength of advertising in medical journals. Cipla retained its market share during field force unionism related problems through courier based marketing approaches.

There have also been changes in the in-clinic activities with the flow of time. Upto the 1970s, the accent was on scientific presentation of the brand with the help of communication aids and providing samples for triggering prescribing behavior. Next, with the advent of multi-brands of the same generic, the focus shifted on brand presentation, with less focus on scientific matters, the emphasis was on brand benefits and gifting practices.

The FIRST – MOVER advantage in gifting practices was also vital for successful companies. Those bold companies who first redefined ethics of pharma marketing, showered practitioners with gifts and deals for increased prescription share, got better sales outcomes. A classic case study is the growth of Himalay Drug Company, whose rise in the pharma firmament was through sophisticated clinical study literatures backed with high quantity gifting. Doctors would wait eagerly for the “gifted Himalaya MR”.

With a wider spread of such dealing and gifting practices including from companies like Aristo, Micro and Alkem, the other pharma companies also wizened up to the market practices and joined the gifting bandwagon.

Gifting and dealing helped empower the MR, so his involvement also increased; it helped the MR gain valuable bargaining power. So it was not the MR’s scientific expertise and communication skills that alone mattered, what became important was also his negotiating and follow-up ability to see through deals with prescribers and meeting demands of both the provider (his employer company) and the doctor.

Thus, in the 1980s to almost up to 2000 the growth of companies started on the platform of gifting and dealing: many an Indian firm gained through such strategies.

NOW IT IS THE ERA OF MAN-TO-MAN DEFENCE!

The sizzling growth of Mankind brought one more facet to the gifting and dealing practices. It was about doing the gifting and dealing more intensely, focusing on the core customer relationship management. Not all products had to be profitable, the overall company topline and bottomline (profits) only mattered.

Now, with the rise of Gujarat based Eris Lifesciences we are witnessing another historic event of pharma marketing. Eris is now the latest case study and is being talked about on the same lines as Mankind - about 5 years back. Micro, Eris, Alkem, Aristo, Zuventus, Mcleods, Intas … and such other companies are now operating in a predatory market. Each is vying with one another to snatch prescriptions for survival and growth.

Will it lead to marketing strain or will the learnings from Eris and such other companies create new marketing energy?

The fact is that the growing Indian pharma market has abundant potential. There are patients waiting to be diagnosed, there is more investment in medicare and healthcare with rise in incomes of people. There are a billion patients there! Each person is a patient one way or the other!! It is clear there is space for more Eris like companies.

In basketball, there is a strategy called man-to-man defence. Opposite team members stick to each other and battle it out for the ball. It is now the era of man-to-man defence in pharma marketing! It is about focusing intensely on a band of doctors and tight servicing, so that prescribed brands roll out in favour of the marketer - avoiding predatory efforts of competitor marketers. This is the era of intense marketing.

SALES comes from MR or doctor or other promotional items?

This leads us to the basic question: what is the influence of the MR on the process of sales generation in a company that has mapped doctors on its IT infrastructure? Is the MR’s presence generating the sale, or is it the gift or is it the sweet deal or is it the bonus offer (1 +1!) which has generated the sale? How do we rate each of the market demand creating factors? How do we allocate company resources to each of these factors?

The current marketing challenge is: how to relook at established marketing notions? What is the influence of each of the factor of marketing:

a) MR's scientific expertise and communication skill

b) MR's or customer service agent's negotiating ability to strike a deal
c) Bonus offer
d) Gift
e) Deal
f) Sponsorship to medical conferences
g) In-stall activity

For which brand and to what extent has each of above factor influenced the sale of the brand?

Each of above marketing factor has an influence on the selling process: the executive judgement is to understand which factor and to what extent does it influence the selling process?

The answers can be found. But what is required is an open mind! Also required is courage to face the market truths!

PEDICON 2012, GURGAON

The annual meet of paediatricians at Gurgaon was a good one – the cold and foggy weather did play spoilsport, reducing the expected no. of delegates. But it did not dampen the spirit of learning, connecting and marketing (through in-stall activity).

The rise of Eris Lifesciences who took over a strategic place (the central lawn) for their marketing activity was THE marketing fact of Pedicon 2012 event. Once again the rise of Eris shows how deep the pharma market of India is, and how necessity creates aggressive strategies for survival and growth. Each company has a DNA which is responsible for its presence in the market jungle. Marketing follows only Darwinism: survival of the fittest and most adaptable!

THERE ARE MORE ERIS LIKE COMPANIES WAITING TO BLOOM IN THE PHARMA MARKETING PLACE! Pedicon 2012 was a great marketing learning experience too!

At Pedicon 2012, it was inspiring to see young and upcoming doctors (who are no doubt commercially savvy) but also hungry for knowledge. It was also great to connect to doctors like Dr. Deepak of Shimoga (whom we met last Pedicon 2011 at Jaipur) who once again spoke on a frontier topic: Windows 7. The knowledge sessions had improved attendance by delegates and the sessions were well appreciated by attendees.

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Organizational reliability & customer satisfaction: two sides of the same coin

2012-01-15T16:29:00.006+05:30

The above excellent image representing trust building was taken from here, where the blog writer elucidates on the importance of trust in day-to-day marketing activities.

The desire to achieve organizational success – which is defined, based on attainment of preset performance parameters - is what drives work in an organization. The top management personnel of any organization define the concept of success for their firm, set parameters of success and monitor progress towards this picture of success. This movement for success is from the point of view of employers and employees.

Now, the point to ponder: what is it that defines success of an organization from the customer’s and outsider’s point of view? Success may mean many things:

a) For a competitor salesman, the market share, movement of products in the market, market goodwill, stockist opinion of the company, customer comments and brand image are probably his parameters to measure the success of a competitor company
b) For a financial analyst, a firm’s sharevalue growth, profit margin, sales value, earning per share, future growth prospects, dividends offered and cash reserves are probably the measures of success
c) A person from the production field will surely be impressed with the technology of the machinery, plant layout, material flow systems and other operational aspects of the competitor firm.

So the moot point: is there a common denominator for defining success? From the above paragraph, success apparently means different things to different people.

NEVERTHELESS, THERE IS ONE WORD WHICH IS THE COMMON DENOMINATOR OF SUCCESS … IT IS:

RELIABILITY (or trust)

If you ask a superior why she regards a particular subordinate or colleague valuable, again the point that the superior will emphasize is RELIABILITY of the subordinate or peer or colleague! When a customer finds that the product or service of an enterprise is consistent in meeting expectations or requirements, then the firm is regarded as reliable by the customer. An employee has implicit and explicit expectations from the employer company, a firm that meets these employee expectations, will find the employer company reliable. So finally, reliability factor is what makes a firm (or even an individual) successful.

How to be reliable?

The first interesting aspect of reliability is that it is a moving target (what is defined as reliable now may not be the same tomorrow, since competition will set new standards. However, basic elements of performance will remain steady). When a Raymond’s fabric product is purchased, there is a certain expectation of quality, durability, look and feel of the fabric, from the purchaser. The day Raymond’s stops meeting this set of expectations, the firm loses the customer.

Reliability is thus about ‘being at it’! Understanding the performance expectations and meeting the same consistently. Reliability is a continuous operation; it is not a one-off process.

So are there any sutras or guidelines to build trust or reliability in an individual or organization? Reliability sutras are common for an individual personality or organizational personality. Let us explore the reliability sutras with respect to a MR:

1) The reliabile MR is one who shows up regularly! Consistent communication or messaging and being there, builds trust ie., reliability image.
2) Reliability is not built through big-ticket expenses; it is done through the small things (thoughtful activities on a day-to-day basis). A small thing like providing the required samples on a monthly basis to the target doctor, for personal use, will prove the MR more reliable than the boisterous and flashy competitor MR who lavishes the doctor with freebies and praises.
3) Promptness and the element of involvement with concern for the work on part of the employee or MR, is a feature that will build the picture of a reliable person.
4) Avoiding giving excuses: blaming on the season, or extraneous reasons for a negative development, passing-the-buck, may help a person get reprieve, however, this creates a cycle of working based on excuses and alibis, by the MR or employee, and this makes the MR create a sense of unreliability about him/herself.
5) Reliability is: ‘not crossing the line’. Maintaining the decorum in any relationship or at any setting creates a sense of reliability about the person.
6) The message of reliability is also put across in the dress, mannerisms, body language and communication of a person. A smart MR who regularly shows up clean shaven, with a tie and looking very presentable will surely have a better appeal of reliability.
7) Familiarity: is said to breed contempt. However, familiarity also creates a sense of reliability about a person. Familiarity also builds confidence. When Jane Goodall would study chimpanzees in forest settings, the first thing she would do was being still, simply observing and recording the proceedings. She would sit still for hours together in the forest setting near the chimpanzees. This helped Jane and the chimpanzees develop a bond of trust. The chimpanzees did not sense any threat from Jane. The cornerstone of Jane’s research success was reliability.
8) Skill set and relevant knowledge base: in a MR or employee is the core of creating reliability about a person or organization.
9) Empathy: is a quality that could have come in point no. 8 (skill set), however, it requires a special mention. The ability to empathize or imagine oneself in the other person’s shoes, will make the MR behave appropriately with the doctor/chemist, this will improve the reliability rating of the MR.

The same sutras seen above apply to organizations for achieving reliability. Consistent and regular communication, doing small things with promptness, being constructive, not giving excuses but having a dialogue and negotiating, being responsible, having requisite skill sets and knowledge management at the organizational level, and having organization-wide empathy - all these are fundamental sutras that drive reliability organization-wide.

An organization’s survival and growth depends on the image of reliability. The foundation of all organizational success is trust or reliability. Organizational reliability and customer satisfaction are verily the two sides of the same coin! A RELIABLE ORGANIZATION ACHIEVES CUSTOMER SATISFACTION!!

A firm has to be trusted or found reliable by customers and other associates, this is the end-point of all organizational processes (and also the requirement for individual success). Unreliable individuals or unreliable companies do not taste durable success.

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KALAM MAGIC

2012-01-08T15:16:00.010+05:30

The name Dr. A P J Kalam conjures up an image of a scholarly person. And of a person of vision and dedication. However, it was also fascinating to observe his rock-star status among the youth, recently, at a function.

It was my good fortune to help play a role in organizing, do some brand promotion and participate at an event in a medical college. Dr. A P J Kalam was the chief guest at this function. Dr. Kalam’s down-to-earth attitude, humility, ability to strike a chord with the audience, scholarship, genuine concern, tone of a dedicated person … was all awe-inspiring. Dr. Kalam’s presence created an inspiring thrill amidst the gathering. Dr. Kalam, the scientist, administrator, policy maker, winner of all the top three civilian awards of India (ie., Padmabhushan, Padmavibhushan, and Bharat Ratna), past-President of India - comes across as a highly integrated personality. There is integration between his thoughts, words and deeds. And this last rare quality creates an aura that is ethereal.

SO WHAT DOES BRAND KALAM STAND FOR?

Brand builders and marketers have a lot to learn from Kalam - the brand persona. Standing aside and observing the crowd of listeners and Dr. Kalam - it was a lesson in marketing!

Brand Kalam is an attractive story teller: Brand marketers are alluring story tellers. The narrative is gripping. Brand marketers lure people towards their wares through their words. They promise brand benefits, build trust, grip the target audience, command their attention and inveigle brands into the lifestyle and verily into the thought construct of the target audience. Brand marketers are lifestyle modifiers. Brand Kalam started with the most arresting lines that made people listen with full attention:

Brand Kalam said: ‘Here I am addressing medical students in a college which is celebrating its silver jubilee. So what does that mean? It means that in the past 25 years, the earth has revolved round the sun 25 times – Shri Devaraj Urs Medical College (SDMC) has also revolved round the sun 25 years or 25 times!’

This very scientific opening to his talk was a superior attention getter. People listened to him with rapt attention! Kalam successfully commanded the attention of his target audience!

Brand Kalam is serious and dedicated to his target audience: Dr. A P J Kalam announced that he would read a speech prepared for the audience at SDMC. His Excellency then proceeded to read the title of his prepared speech (it was on medical practice and compassion). The fact that Dr. Kalam had prepared an exclusive speech for this event, this itself made the audience bond with the speaker. When a person says there is an exclusive speech for the audience, there is a lot of significance. It means that Dr. Kalam has given a lot of importance to the audience. It implies Dr. Kalam has dedicated his thoughts, energy and time for the audience in preparing for the event’s speech. That affirmation itself created enthue among the listeners.

Brand Kalam simplifies complexities: Brand Kalam has a keen sense of humour and ability to simplify complex issues. The lucid presentation gelled well with the target audience. Simplicity is the height of sophistication. Making things simple requires a person to go deep into the problem and understand. Dr. Kalam has excelled in the art of simplification.

Simple things have only one destiny: they succeed enormously. Think of all successful brands and products: iPad, electrolyte energy drinks in Tetra Pak package (in Indian pharma market), Wikipedia, google, coke … they make a simple promise, they offer convenience, they are simple, understood easily by target audience members, and they become a part of the lifestyle easily.

Brand Kalam is knowledgeable: The philosopher – saint of India, Swami Vivekananda, has said: Man’s search is not just for comforts, it is in fact for knowledge. When brands have a knowledge base and communicate insights, knowledge, wisdom, and information they gain the confidence of prospects and customers. Take any brand, they may be simple but they enjoy reliability or trust because the brand is backed by knowledge. Coke is a big brand: it has become big through the knowledge of customers and brand promotion based on this knowledge. Kalamji is a person of knowledge. He believes in knowledge absorption and dissemination. Kalamji speaks with tact and in a people or customer friendly way. The knowledge is not intimidating. It is packaged in a user-friendly manner. Knowledge is consumed easily when Dr. A P J Kalam speaks. Google is a big brand, this is because, google offers knowledge to seekers in a friendly approachable way. Knowledge makes a brand big, presenting knowledge with user-friendliness makes the brand bigger, this is why Brand Kalam is larger than life!

Brand Kalam is stern: Brand Kalam is not about being funny and humourous – it is seriousness with a sliver of humour. This makes Brand Kalam appealing. Brand Kalam is not boring, thanks to the anecdotes, humour, ready repartees and one-liners.

During the speech, Dr. A P J Kalam administered an oath for the medical students regarding ethics, and to focus on rural practice also. This was amazing. Brand Kalam was being stern when required; Brand Kalam made people adhere to a certain value system. Brand Kalam is about certain values, principles, ethics and a code of conduct. This makes Brand Kalam enduring.

The Bhagawad Gita is an enduring book of wisdom: the timeless values encased in this book makes the ‘song of the divine or Bhagawad Gita’ enduring. Values espoused and practiced by Kalamji make him an enduring brand. Values make a brand enduring.

Brand Kalam is purposeful: Brand Kalam is a brand with a mission, which is based on a vision. Kalamji is an empowering brand, so that as per Brand Kalamji’s vision, finally, India will emerge a developed country by 2020. This sense of purpose makes brand Kalam big. Brand Kalam inspires guides, provides a sense of direction to those who connect with the brand, empowers, satisfies, delights and gives hope for the future.

So the lesson for us brand marketers by observing Brand Kalam is here in a nutshell: Make the brand say an authentic story, make the story alluring, use excellent attention getters, be serious about your dedication to the target audience, simplify complexities, be elegant, ensure that the brand is a mine of knowledge and wisdom (for eg., Van Heusen shirts not only talk about the brand benefits, but the advertisements also present technicalities showing that the brand is knowledge based, this helps generate customer confidence), be stern when it comes to standing for certain core brand values and ensure that the brand has an integrated personality (the brand promise and brand performance should match).

End of article thoughts:

The development of totally drug resistant TB in certain cases here in India is a serious happening. The Govt. of India needs to relaunch a health awareness campaign on TB and its treatment with zeal.

There is an excellent article in Economic Times, 8.1.2012, page no. 18, on the importance of Vit. B₁₂ (cyanocobalamine). The article has highlighted that Vit. B₁₂deficiency, more common in vegetarians, leads to many debilitating diseases. It’s worth reading, I expect pharma companies to see a market gap here! Vit. B₁₂ prices – will shoot up due to increased demand in coming months?!

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WISH YOU ALL A HAPPY NEW YEAR 2012!!

Me @ 63rd IPC, Bangalore

2011-12-25T15:53:00.013+05:30

The most favoured brand event for pharmacists, in fact, this 'event brand' is a legacy brand with a great emotional bonding for pharmacists, it is the INDIAN PHARMACEUTICAL CONGRESS (IPC). This annual event is a time to RELEARN, RECONNECT AND REINSPIRE. The IPC is held every Dec, this year's edition was at Bangalore (16.12.2011, 17.12.2011 and 18.12.2011). Bangalore is my place of stay since 1990 (when I came for studying M Pharma in Pharmacology at Govt. College of Pharmacy, Bangalore; I have come to Bangalore from Mysore my birthplace, Mysore is located 160 km from Bangalore; however, my family roots (ie., my parents' native place) are in Durga village, Karkala, Udupi district).

Naturally, the excitement level was very high since the IPC was making its presence in Bangalore almost after a decade.

Above: a long range view of the inaugural session

Our encouraging JMD

Thanks to the encouraging JMD of my employer company, our registrations to IPC were ensured and thanks to his support I could engage in useful relearning, reconnecting to my classmates and other acquaintances, and participate in the scientific session through a poster that I put up.

In above photo I pose before my scientific poster

In the above image I receive my certificate for poster presentation from Dr. Asha of Al Ameen College of Pharmacy, Bangalore who was the Chairperson of K series poster presentations (on pharmaceutical management)

The above is my certificate of the paper presentation (ie., scientific poster presentation)

My scientific poster was on THE LONG TAIL STRATEGY IN PHARMACEUTICAL INDUSTRY. Chris Anderson proposed a concept: companies are offering many unique products sold in smaller quantities along with major brands. This, he said, contributes to a boost of marketshare, ROI and profits. In my scientific poster, I have extrapolated this concept to the pharma industry. I observe that companies (particularly MNCs) in the absence of blockbuster brands, are adopting a strategy like the long tail strategy to enhance marketshare or achieving other corporate objectives.

In the above picture I am with my company and industry colleagues. The gentleman with blazer is Mr. S G Biligiri, VP - Technical in my company and

a prominent member of the local pharmaceutical community.

Mr. Biligiri was also an active person of the 63rd IPC's local organizing committee. It was fascinating to go around with Mr. S G Biligiri during the IPC event. With every two steps he took, three individuals would come up to greet him and talk to him! Such is his network!!

During the 63rd IPC, Bangalore I could also reconnect with dynamic Mr. Madhusudhan (third from reader's right, ie., next to me on my right side, the gentleman wearing suit, wedged between me and Mr. Biligiri).

Mr. Madhusudhan is one of the leaders of Karnataka pharma industry. When I was a pharma student in the late eighties and early nineties, Mr. Madhusudhan was very active in the pharma circles of Karnataka as a leader of the corporate world. I had represented Karnataka in the national pharma elocution contest, three times - during my final B Pharma, first M Pharma and second M Pharma, and during all these years, the person who used to motivate us students - and take special care of us was Shri Madhusudhan. Golden memories!! When I met him, after all these years, Shri Madhusudhan remembered me!!

I listened to his illuminating lecture, during the IPC, on 'data integrity and other manufacturing concepts as practiced in USA and India', (on 18.12.2011 at Cassia hall). Mr. Madhusudhan is currently based in USA.

During the inaugural session, the Chairperson of 63rd IPC, Bangalore, Mr. Subodh Priolkar, General Manager of Colorcon gave an outstanding talk on the growth prospects of the Indian Pharma Industry.

Later on, during the day, a talk by Ms. Aditi Kare Panandikar, Wholetime Director of Indoco Remedies, Mumbai, was riveting. Her professional commitment and scientific training was stark clear, this young professional was at her inspiring best. Her incisive analysis backed by hard data gave a precise view of the developing trends in Indian pharma, and the opportunity for new business models. Truly, she has a 360 degree view of the developing pharma business, and has kept herself abreast with the latest happenings of the pharma world.

By George, Dr. George Patani, Director, Inga Laboratories, Mumbai was at his oratorical best. The attention getter example in his presentation, of the legal definition of land was very striking. He went on to present his concerns and views in a persuasive way - such as the challenge on the pricing front faced by Indian pharma industry.

Both speakers highlighted that since outsourcing of pharmaceutical work was at every stage of the value chain (ie., CRAMS (contract research and manufacturing services)), Indian pharmaceutical industry was at the cusp of another exciting growth phase. This they have reiterated will demand well trained professionals...

Mr. Ganesh Nayak, the pharma leader from Zydus Cadila group, was at his authoritative best talking on strategies and business models available for pharma enterprises in today's context. Mr. Nayak presented his talk on 18.12.2011, however, I could not listen completely to the talk, since I had to be there along with my scientific poster too.

Dr. R B Smarta, a consultant spoke on an interesting concept of pharmacoeconomics. His talk was well illustrated with graphic elements. This emerging concept deals with pricing vis-a-vis therapeutic benefits offered, and consequently looking at the cost of therapy from a holistic angle.

Mr. K Kiranshankar, a veteran marketer of the pharma industry, spoke on the current status of the pharma market from the 4 Ps point of view: product, price, promotion and placement. It was a ringside view of a practicing marketing artiste!

A pleasant surprise was the speech by Dr. G Parthasarathi, Head - Pharmacy practice, my B Pharma alma mater. He has grown rich in stature today, a leader and academic expert. He has also edited a text book on pharmacy practice, which I plan to buy shortly! His talk was well received and made high impact in the audience.

Dr. B R Jagashetty, Drug Controller of Karnataka, also lent his majestic presence to the show.

Dr. Saranjit Singh, Dean, NIPER, Mohali gave a thrilling lecture on the level of impurities and their impact on exports. He gave exciting case studies on how a small change in level of impurities in a pharmaceutical formulation can become a barrier to selling in regulated markets!

All in all, the IPC was inspiring, all about learning sessions, and reconnecting. I would have liked to listen to all the lectures, but it wasn't possible to be everywhere at the same time! Moreover, visiting the Pharma Expo requires a lot of time! So time is/was a constraint.

The food and other arrangements were 'overall good'. IPC @ Bangalore was a memorable one!!

Good old memories!!

Above I am seen with Dr. K M Bhat Phd of QA dept., College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Manipal. Bhat was my B Pharma classmate and later on during my Bangalore years, he was my roommate . He went on to do PhD from Gujarat, and is now a well placed Associate Prof. at the above college, which is a few kms from his hometown! While I was submitting my scientific poster, he was an evaluator for another series of scientific posters at the 63rd IPC, Bangalore! It was nice connecting with him at IPC, after 18 years, although we have been in touch through e-mail and phone. We are seen (above) next to a table of vegetable carvings in the

dining hall during IPC.

Self with company colleagues at IPC, Bangalore (in above two photos)

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Success through sensory experiences

2011-11-06T12:45:00.005+05:30

ABOVE IMAGE FROM HERE.

Pharmaceutical products, traditionally have not been associated with a positive sensory experience. If at all, the top-of-the-mind recall word for a medicine, is bitter! In fact, in earlier times it was also considered an appropriate attribute of a true pharmaceutical product - a pharma product was expected to taste unpleasant! A good medicine was supposed to taste bitter or offer a rather unpleasant experience. Homoeopathic products were the only exceptions - since they used sugar pills to deliver the medicament.

With competition coming of age and patient preference becoming more towards a pleasant experience while taking medicaments, the time has certainly come in the Indian pharma market to see if the sensorial qualities of a formulation can be tweaked to offer a competitive edge. A pharma product with a better taste, aroma, mouth-feel and after-taste will certainly have improved patient compliance, with low desertion index.

The other drug attribute, affecting patient acceptance - is the side-effect profile. When a drug offers unpleasant sensory experience and has many side-effects, it will certainly have a patient unfriendly image. To make a medicine formulation, patient-friendly, it ought to have a positive sensory appeal and a low side-effect profile.

In the case of food industry, as pointed by this reference, it is already well established that taste and sensory pleasure aspect of a food is important while devising nutrition intervention strategy.
Presentation of medicaments with a positive sensory attribute will certainly enhance chances of successful establishment of the formulation in the market. The look, feel, taste, aroma, after-taste and mouth-feel: all these have an overall impact on patient well being.

The chemical basis of positive sensory experience on consumption of a substance is an interesting study. For eg., this write-up (click) explores the endorphin effect of chocolate! It is evident that chocolate has 600 natural flavouring substances and pharmacologically active substances. Chocolate flavour has an unique ability to provide "feel-good" factor to a patient if used along with the medicaments.

The development of pharmaceuticals with improved sensory qualities, ie., reduced YUCK FACTOR - has been debated for long. With generic competition becoming stiffer and new product lines becoming dicier, it is imperative that existing products are strengthened to improve their sales performance. One of the ways of doing this is continuously improve the pharmaceutical formulation characteristics such as sensory attributes, disintegration profile and dissolution nature.

One cannot forget the days when we were young, and bitter tablets were powdered and administered in a tablespoon of honey for improved patient acceptance!

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Koln fragrance

2011-10-19T15:47:00.009+05:30

Thanks to my employers and JMD, my maiden foreign tour was most memorable. In the first photo we see a panoramic view of the crowds at Anuga 2011, in photo two, I pose at Wuperthal, Germany; in the third photo my colleague and I pose at Zurich (Switzerland).

The globalization juggernaut rolls on unstopped. It is difficult to remain isolated from the wave of globalization thanks to the ever "shrinking" world. 'Englishization' is spurring the breakdown of communication barriers. People are the same everywhere - the common interests are to have fun, be at peace, and engage in productive and progressive work. Socio-econo-emotional forces are driving global transactions.

We attended ANUGA 2011 a fair for food and beverages at Kolnmesse (Germany). Oh! What an exhilarating experience. Thousands of serious delegates with suits crowding the massive exhibition halls, talking at the various booths with the company officials in the hope of latching on to something good for business: it could be an idea, a sweet deal or some inspiration to launch new businesses, the fervor of business was a memorable experience to be savored.

The South Koreans are real aggressive 'tiger' marketers. Vita500 a Vit. C (500 mg per bottle) beverage promoted to doctors and end consumers - is the no. 1 drink of South Korea, they were there proudly displaying their achievements, and looking to globalize too. Another South Korean marketer promoted his sea-salt which he claimed was better to taste and had more magnesium! The other South Korean marketers were also very aggressive in their attempt to promote traditional herbs and foods on a global scale.

The Chinese too were prominent in their activities - they were warm, although not as communicative as the South Koreans. The European companies were at their conservative and sophisticated best. The Australians and American stalls were going all out charming booth attendees and at their professional best. The olive oil marketers including Sicilians , Greeks, Italians and Moroccans, were doing their best. The Indian stalls were charming, accommodating, not as aggressive or having significant presence - say as the South Koreans and Chinese.

The interesting point was that most marketers having stalls at ANUGA, were all eager to do business in India. The large population and the hype on India is getting on to them, they just want to enter India! However, Indian market is a tough nut to crack! The play of price and product benefits is challenging because Indian marketers are competitive, the Indian customer is quite discerning and requires value-for-money. Indians can be quite conservative too.

Germans are very organized and systematic. On the roads in Germany, compared to India, there are hardly any people. Germans are all inside the buildings and in cars. It is cute to observe that pedestrians in Germany and Switzerland, get a lot of priority from automobile drivers while crossing etc, on roads, they even stop their cars, so that pedestrians cross the roads! Further, in Europe compared to India, there is high level of consumption of liquor (beer, vodka, whiskey and wine) and smoking too (particularly young women!). The amazing thing is free education or nominal fees up to degree education, for citizens of Switzerland and perhaps Germany too.

I will never forget the moment when a waitress in Switzerland said: "The tap water here is better than Italian mineral water!" In Germany and Switzerland (perhaps in other European countries too), tap water is potable!

Indians are quite liked out there! We could bond easily with co-passengers, other delegates, business associates, and people who work in restaurants etc. People are also curious about India.

Truly, a refreshing and memorable visit to the European continent! Thanks for reading this blogpost, kindly read all other post, scroll down if required, and click on older posts as and when required.

PERMA approach for happiness

2011-09-25T13:57:00.006+05:30

THE ICON SMILEY IS A POPULAR SYMBOL OF HAPPINESS.

The purpose of business is to make profits... NO! THE NEW TRUTH?!: The purpose of BUSINESS IS MAKING PEOPLE HAPPY! Profits will follow, like a faithful dog!! Sounds a little odd, however, with the present trend of most markets becoming buyer or prescriber markets, business has verily become a happiness management system.

Making people happy

To make customers (external & internal) happy is not an easily defined process. Happiness is a relative state of mind. The concepts of happiness change from time to time in the same person, and happiness means differently to each individual. For the same person, what delivered happiness now may not do so after a few days, because his threshold of happiness has got elevated! Hence, happiness is called a fuzzy concept (ie., unfixed).

Sources of happiness

There are endless sources of happiness - from the intangible to tangible. Most of times we associate only tangible items as sources of happiness, such as money or material gifts - no doubt, these are are very vital sources of happiness to MRs, field personnel, office employees, doctors, stockists and retailers. However, there are also other intangible sources of happiness too.

The pleasant, attractive and fragrant presence of a MR in a dull and tense clinic or hospital environment, is a source of happiness to the staff and doctors alike. When this same MR, has good conversational skills and a knack to appreciate, the MR becomes a highly acclaimed resource of happiness for the doctor. To appreciate a person, is not easy, it requires a good deal of homework about the prospect or customer, and appreciating accurately.

Many a times, a doctor is looking for a confidante to share his thoughts and experiences, the trustworthy MR often fills this void in a doctor's life.

Theories and practices to generate happiness

Business experts and scientists have done deep studies on the science of happiness. Serotonin a brain chemical (neurotransmitter) is the well established 'chemical of happiness'. One of the ways to ensure serotonin boosts, is by engaging the Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs - this not only boosts happiness, we see a happiness economy in action! Business practitioners suggest using happiness as a framework for organizational activities. Need for happiness is at the root of a consumer's purchase behaviour. Hence, business @ happiness is a pertinent concept!!

PERMA approach

Martin Seligman - is a psychologist and American author who has worked for decades in the field of happiness or positive psychology, as he calls it. He has several insights for obtaining happiness. For instance, magenta is his favourite colour for its amazing effect to calm humans.

This scientist offers the PERMA acronym for happiness:

P for pleasure (eg., tasty food, warm baths, conveniences etc)
E for engagement (being absorbed in a challenging yet absorbing activity)
R for relationships (social ties that are fulfilling)
M for meaning (being engaged in a very meaningful set of experiences, being a part of something bigger)
A for accomplished (having a set of tangible accomplishments)

The PERMA based technique for employee and doctor engagement is a useful approach rather than concentrating only on material inputs for engaging doctors.

When a field manager, during joint field work, provides timely and good beverages and food at good joints, to the MR, the work becomes a pleasure. This is a simple and affordable input but it goes a long way to establish foundations for good organizational operational working.

Many doctors are driven and highly energetic. This is because they find their vocation highly absorbing and provides them with a feeling of accomplishment. Taking a leaf from this analogy, when an organization, offers a melange of absorbing activities to MRs and field personnel, with a potential for generating accomplishments, the employees become more engaged.

Accomplishments need to be celebrated at proper platforms in form of organizational events. A promotion, achieving a sales target, making a record turnover, obtaining certifications ... celebrating such events, will empower and engage employees, and provide with higher involvement and confidence. An employee is eternally looking for PERMA based experiences, a doctor or customer also has PERMA based needs that will provide him with happiness. Hence, PERMA is an interesting approach for strategising.

Training modules with interactive activites that are PERMA based will create fabulous training outcomes. Not only will employees be engaged in activities, they will have take-home messages and experiences that will improve productivity.

All in all, today, pharma business is not a simple production and marketing activity, it is becoming a well thought out process of generating happiness to internal and external customers. Pharma business is about offering pleasures to prescribers (egs.: appreciation, samples, small gifts and sponsorships), it is about engaging them in thoughtful and relevant in-clinic activities, it is also about having sound ethical relationships, it is also about partnering with doctors in creating meaningful experiences (and reiterating products); and finally, pharma marketing is about being a partner in each doctor's accomplishments. A contemporary pharma company has a PERMA approach to happiness management of doctors and retailers; as well as internal customers.

A permanent solution for high employee turnover in the Indian pharma industry is the 'perma approach' which is holistic and not a one-way street.

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Social skills and Pfizer

2011-08-28T14:04:00.013+05:30

JEFF KINDLER: ABOVE, the EX-CEO OF PFIZER

Social skill has become an important attribute in business workplaces. Social skills refers to the way we INTERACT and COMMUNICATE (ie., send messages) with others. There are many ways we communicate - warm, affectionate, cold, neutral, factually, negatively, positively, creatively, emotionally, intuitively ... The way we communicate and interact makes a great difference to transactional and/or business results.

A MR may be very effective with detailing, however he or she may be slightly inhibited in nature, this makes him or her come across as non-assertive, reserved and cold. Such a social nature becomes an obstacle to establishment of good relationships with doctors or chemists (pharmacists).

Hence, social skills are vital for providing favourable business outcomes.

It is not enough to have functional knowledge, there is something more than technical competency required for success, it is a skill of knowing how to move with people in a balanced way, and thereby help attain business objectives. In a globalized world, and media rich society, it is not enough to have domain skills - social skills are equally vital, both within the organization and outside.

In the complex world of transactions, relationship management has acquired higher importance. The ability to manage one's network of relationships is crucial to help attain one's business objectives. Social skills help one realize value through social interactions.

For eg., let us say, we are talking to a field manager on phone. While it is common to go straight to the point which we want to resolve, it is good social skill to generally exchange views on the weather or general business conditions, and strengthen the social aspect of the conversation. It is new cultural thing to do this because the norm is to stick to business talk and resolve issues, however, a social skill component is to exchange pleasantaries and talk on other aspects too.

Social skills are not easy!

One may wonder why this is said so?

The first and most important obstacle to good social skill is lack of interest in practicing good social skills. The point is why exert more? Rather, it is better to stick to the business agenda and be done with it!!

There are occasions where many organizational members are tolerated as necessary evils, this happens mainly due to the concerned people having low social skill.

A stumbling block to practice of effective social skill is ego - a heightened sense of self-importance. This creates hostility in relationships, conflict management becomes the central issue rather than working together for mutual business interests.

Historically, technical skills are given more value than social skills. In many organizational cultures, social skills are also discounted and not adequately considered as an important skill set.

In skill inventories and skill audits conducted by HR personnel, technical skills, sales skills, etc are given high importance, there is no mention of social skills and specific social skill sub-types for HR audit.

Social skills are an important glue that hold organizations together and breathe life into transactions. Such social skills create a difference to the way of business conduct. A simple smile along course of technical presentations, an open attitude in body language during a serious business meeting - these can create a 'feel-good' mood, and this establishes a positive culture.

Social skills are really not easy, it takes training and practice, and an emphatic personal will to ensure that one practices optimal level of social skill.

An organization's culture is made of many components. The Organizational Culture (OC) is a psychological framework of the company. It is a set of characteristics or traits that sets an organization apart. For eg., when Ranbaxy was growing fast under Dr. Parvinder Singh, it was a power oriented organization, and a company that did not smile! A serious culture pervaded the entire organization. The OC is vital for the fortunes of a firm.

Pfizer: a case study from the OC perspective

The recent 'palace coup' article of Pfizer in Fortune Aug 2011, detailing how Jeff Kindler was sent home, makes absorbing reading. The article describes in a riveting style - with a very alluring narrative - the background and chain of events leading to departure of Jeff Kindler from Pfizer.

However what comes out of the story - hitting the reader hard is the ABSOLUTE DISCONNECT BETWEEN PEOPLE IN THE ORGANIZATION AND EVENTS at Pfizer.

It is hard to believe that the Directors' at Pfizer gave such a long rope to Jeff Kindler. Is it a Wild West type of a company with CEOs having a cowboy attitude?!

Probably, Jeff was brought in with a mandate to shake things up, break 'I-scratch-your-back- and you-scratch-my-back' type of relationships, infuse new dynamism - or else why would you hire an aggressive questioning type of trial lawyer as a CEO - that too of a pharmaceutical major?!

Frankly it appears too far-fetched that Jeff's leadership style would go unquestioned for so long!! It appears, after reading the article, 'Jeff and his leadership style' is the fall guy for clearing the decks and providing Pfizer a clean slate for a new hopeful beginning. It is a clean-up job by the Directors. Hope it will augur well for the world's biggest pharmaceutical company!

In a way, the article is 'tragi-comic'.

It is truly hilarious to read about Mary Mcleod and her helicopter rides in the article!!

The events described in the article do not speak highly of the management style and organizational culture of Pfizer.

No one will expect events as described in the article, in a company like Pfizer. (Heh!! I am being cheeky here - no offense meant - Indian pharmaceutical companies are always much much better!!).

The carry-home messages that come after reading the article, to an outsider:

Carry home message 1: Pfizer, as an organization - its organizational personality has poor social skills. There is vast scope to develop a positive social skill character in the length and breadth of the organization. The way people interact and communicate with each other is surely very very poor out there in Pfizer! May be it is because of Jeff ... but anyway it appears to be a part of Pfizer's DNA. Where is the warmth and stimulation to achieve there?!

Carry home message 2: Pfizer seems to have overlooked implementing Dr. Edward Kaplan and David Norton's BALANCED SCORE CARD system, one of the best management tools to keep a tab on performance and cultural issues. The lack of such a system leads to disconnect and episodes such as the Kindler episode of Pfizer.

There are viewpoints that the pharmaceutical industry, by and large, is a very conservative one and does not have an open mind to management concepts or adoption of management ideas.

Sadly, even Pfizer does not seem to be an exception.

The Article in FORTUNE will finds its way to all the case study classes of various management institutes!

End quote: The steps of power are often steps on sand - Edward Counsel

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Business process mapping

2011-07-31T15:29:00.004+05:30

Managers are professionals, like lawyers, doctors and teachers. The area of professional competence is management. Managers are committed to 'management' to produce results in line with the firm's goals. A firm has a mission, the raison d'etre of the firm. The mission statement outlines the firm's important commitment, for example it may be providing excellent processed food products or quality and affordable medicines .... Based on the mission, objectives are drawn, goals are set, strategies are plotted; policies, programs and procedures are laid down. In essence, a process is created. Managers are professional process creators and process managers.

Process refers to a sequence of events, interlinked procedures to produce an output. Managers are in essence process managers. Let us assume that there is a manager for each part of the process. If the manager understands he is a part of the larger process that is generating an output, then his work will be in harmony and in balance with the firm's needs.

The MR visits doctors, promotes products, creates demand, with the help of marketing inputs - strategies - training inputs - collaterals. This demand is served through the distribution system. Products come in to the distribution system, through the production system. The inputs for the production system come from the purchase dept. All in all, a process is on, with the MR being a part of the larger system called the firm, which is full of processes in action.

Habits

HABIT: you remove H you get ABIT; you remove A you get BIT; if B is gone, you get IT. Hence, it is difficult to get rid of HABITs!

Processes create habits, and these in turn create comfort zones. Hence, revisiting processes gets a tad difficult. One is comfortable doing things the way they are, since they appear to produce outputs in line with corporate goals.

Process revisits

Process revisits are crucial to seek improvements in the processes. Improved processes will certainly produce improved outcomes. The processes revisited can belong to any department. It may be material procurement processes, HR processes, production processes, audit processes, quality processes, marketing processes, training processes ....

Revisiting processes involve understanding how things are being done, and then looking for ways to improve the way they are done, with an eye to

a) reduce wastage
b) improve efficiency
c) increase effectiveness
d) get better output

Thus, if the MR is a value delivery process of a pharma firm, we observe, MRs deliver communication inputs, render messaging, build relationships, involve in two-way transactions, offer gifts, sponsorships, and help create the demand output.

Another way of looking at things is to create a support system to improve value delivery to customers. Such an approach is value delivery through a mailer system. Or through other platforms which will engage target audiences and create the demand output for the firm. After all, the MR process is for demand creation. Hence, any other process that will create or support current process for demand output, with less wastage (or leaks), increased efficiency and effectiveness will surely be attractive to a pharma firm.

Steven Covey has said:

If we keep doing what we're doing, we're going to keep getting what we're getting.”

This is quite logical, hence, revisiting processes makes sense. For instance, today, pharmacist focus is on in the marketing process. Pfizer and GSK are organizing education meets on products for pharmacists, to get goodwill, shelf space and OTC (over-the-counter) push sales.

The idea to look at business activities with a process attitude - this is what ISO 9001 is all about. Business process mapping is what is the need of the hour for the pharma Indian industry today. Businesses are essentially processes, producing defined outputs; repeatedly.

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Donkey driver managers v/s professional managers

2011-07-24T15:26:00.006+05:30

Top management and owners of companies appoint managers to ease their work, ensure that their vision and mission is implemented for the organization, and that the firm reaches the envisioned place. In simple language, 'manager appointees' are people who make things happen and ensure that the work is done (particularly through the non-managers) to achieve pre-stated objectives.

The popular managerial approach ('donkey driver' approach), is use of reward power and coercive power (see image above) to ensure accomplishment of tasks. Managers are supposed to be the drivers of reward power and coercive power in an organization.

Will a manager become successful for the organization through the 'donkey driver model' of managerial working?

The donkey driver model, utilizing reward power and coercive power, is successful up to a point. It has its limitations. A professional manager has three additional keys for success:

a) Demonstration and co-shouldering of responsibility
b) Give confidence and security
c) Use positive and negative reinforcements tactfully (and discreetly if required)

a) Modeling or demonstration of technical or other work skills is critical to win the subordinates' confidence and trust. Providing feed backs and co-shouldering of the responsibility is the best way of getting things done to achieve targets.

It is easy to say, "Look I have provided the resources, now achieve the targets!" "If you achieve the targets you get your incentive, if you do not achieve, well then, you can look for some other job more suited for you!"

This sort of carte blanche approach, is easiest for the manager, however, if the managerial system is co-shouldering, based on providing solutions, target achievement happens as a matter of rote, what happens however is something bigger: EVOLUTION OF THE ORGANIZATION.

Growing together, making organizations evolve, and making firms stronger in the marketplace is what is the essence of managerial success.

Let us assume a manager is successful in target achievement, merely by driving his subordinates to work harder and harder, however, the 'donkey driver model' has its limitations. Such a manager will finally face human resource problems, and a plateau will emerge ... from where evolution seems impossible.

The 'donkey driver' managerial model of working assumes, non-managers need to be driven and results automatically happen, it does not take in to cognisance the following facts:

a) that teams can be broken
b) non-managers can leave companies
c) results are system outputs
d) reinforces 'marketing and results myopia'

More often than not, organizational results are not a result merely of 'donkey driver model'. Reward and coercive power are vital in an organization, however, expertise power, legitimate power, connection power, and referral power of an organization are critical elements of organizational success, growth, survival, safety and evolution. These powers need to be enhanced in concert at all levels, thereby these factors would interplay and will provide the necessary organizational outputs.

b) Giving confidence and security, based on values and discipline, makes subordinates fearless in attitude, this provides stability, loyalty and higher involvement in work. Finally this attitude translates in to tangible results and employee stability to an organization.

Organizations that have a "wicket keeping attitude" (where most of the managerial work is about fixing the responsibility for lapses or dis-satisfactory results and/or 'fault finding'), keeping people in a state of fear of being "wicket kept", will surely see the organization becoming weaker by the day! After all, organizational success is based on doing work (which involves risks, lapses, and mistakes), if organizational intolerance to failure is a cachet, then organizational outcomes will never see improved fortunes! Growing organizations have a hearty appetite for knowledge, and risks!!

c) Use of positive and negative reinforcements: Life is a complement of negative and positive experiences. Fire can give warmth or it can cause burns. Utilizing perceived positive and negative reinforcements intelligently to motivate and make people work enthusiastically in the line of business goals is an important aspect of managerial work. This is not akin to the 'donkey driver model'. It involves use of intangible positive and negative reinforcers (not just tangible rewards and punishments), it is also about being tactful and discreet about these reinforcers so that desirable work behaviours are elicited.

Managership is a great responsibility, its influence on destinies is great, destinies are made or destroyed through exercise of managership. The above three keys of managership (which include elements of the 'donkey driver model') are useful for responsible and fulfilling managership experiences.

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KMS & CKOs

2011-07-17T14:48:00.004+05:30

Above interesting graphic from here.

Knowledge is the most important resource of a firm. The insights, experiences and information - are all resources that help add value, make business processes efficient and enhance outcomes. Let us say, a MR joins a firm, does excellent work, his field work in terms of samples provided, no. of doctors and chemists met, is regularly received from him in form of reports, and is being monitored. However, one fine day, to meet his other ambitions, if the MR leaves the job, out goes with him all that territory knowledge, insights and experiences!!

Imagine, another scenario, where the knowledge bank of the MR, is stored in the IT infrastructure of the firm, ie., the database of the firm. If this data is used to provide tips either through e-mail or sms to the newly recruited MR, the territory will become productive faster.

Eg 1. of a sms to this new MR can be: "17.7.2011 is the birthdate of Dr. Sharma OBG specialist, meet him with a bouquet and detail the target products".

Eg 2. of another sms to this new MR: "Monday is an excellent day for field work in Kanakapura ex station, meet Dr. G Gowda Paediatrician and promote Product X".

The above 'marketing result improvement system' is possible only with a robust Knowledge Management System (KMS) of a firm. Knowledge needs to be:

Captured
Assimilated
Organized
Mined
Delivered

to the recipients, and potential beneficiaries in a proactive manner.

One can also visualize KMS as an extension of the ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) modules of an organization.

Knowledge increases organizational confidence

Imagine a remotely located, highly productive field manager and his team. This closely knit team is no doubt a great asset of the organization. However, let us assume, the manager and his team leave the organization to start their organization or set up their firm. Such an event is legitimate and perfectly alright.

However, the mother organization is a loser, since the parent firm loses not only good human resources - their contacts, knowledge, insights and working patterns are all lost. One has to reinvent the wheel with a new team! This sort of a situation creates organizational weakness and erosion of organizational confidence.

Good KMS ensures seamless working

People may come and go, yet the show has to go on! Such a scenario is possible only when various systems including KMS is very strong, and so are database marketing approaches. KMS and database marketing help insulate organizations from uncertainties and ensure seamless working.

CKOs: Chief Knowledge Officers

The CKOs manage and maximize the intangible assets of their organizations, they are acknowledged masters of understanding the importance of knowledge to potential beneficiaries, and ensure that this useful knowledge is provided to the potential beneficiaries. CKOs create the cutting edge for a firm, in a competitive world. CKOs not only manage field knowledge, they manage the firm's total knowledge.

As the below wordings from Wikipedia say:

Collecting relevant data that is useful for the organization as knowledge
Developing an overall framework that guides knowledge management
Actively promoting the knowledge agenda within and beyond the company
Overseeing the development of the knowledge infrastructure
Facilitating connections, coordination and communications.

The CKO is thus a crucial change agent of the organization, mirroring knowledge and its results to potential users, and ensuring right knowledge is available in a timely manner to the potential beneficiaries. This overall, ensures improved organizational outcomes and organizational safety.

Improving adaptability

Adaptability refers to the ability of individuals or firms to modify behaviour to suit the changed circumstance. Adaptability implies ability to learn new things (gain knowledge or learn new skills - behaviours). Adaptability of organizations makes them gain knowledge, keep an open mind, ensure constant improvement, and this contributes to the firm's success, survival and growth.

Adaptability is a offshoot of KMS. CKOs, in reality, ensure more adaptable organizations. CKOs have a tricky role. They are internal marketers of knowledge inputs.

A departmental head may be perfectly happy with the way things are going on in his area of responsibility, hence he may or may not be open to new suggestions or new knowledge. After all, new ways and new knowledge always come with an element of risk. CKOs are the ones who through their networking and communication skills impart the message of confidence, and help in absorption of knowledge to enhance departmental and finally organizational outcomes.

Knowledge provides ideas and creates visions for individuals, departments, groups and finally the firm itself. KMS make a major difference.

KMS creates adaptability and KMS is responsible to drive change - rather than succumbing to the change coming from outside. KMS represents an attitude of INTERNAL LOCUS OF CONTROL of an organization, rather than having an EXTERNAL LOCUS OF CONTROL, where the outer forces are responsible for change and knowledge.

Good KMS = Great leadership

KMS (either officially or unofficially) is responsible for market leadership. Toyota is well known to make great cars, their way of doing work is a subject of many great case studies. However, at the root of Toyota's success, lies an avaricious organizational appetite for knowledge! Knowledge comes through an intense zeal to measure. In turn, knowledge influences practices of organizations, creates adaptability and rewards the firm with market leadership. KMS is intangible. But it creates tangible outputs.

KMS, learning, training ... these are inter-related activities. These intangibles are powerful in influencing tangible results.

KMS: today's necessity

There was a seller led economy. You had to have a production unit for the service or product, it would sell, because of the innate demand for services or products. However, the situation in most markets is now more mature. A seller mentality will not function, marketing is required, and at another level, KMS is vital. No wonder it is emphasised that these are the days of KNOWLEDGE ECONOMY.

The development of new media: to carry messages, information, insights, ideas and knowledge seamlessly, at real time and instantly has created a new and renewed emphasis on KMS of organizations.

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Macro environment

2011-07-03T14:50:00.005+05:30

The above macro environment analytical chart sourced from Pricewaterhouse (HERE)

Marketers ultimately have to ensure consumption of goods and services in the environment - outside of the company. The environment has a major influence on the marketing outcomes.

Marketing of pharma goods is affected by factors in the
a) macro environment
b) micro environment
c) internal environment

The marketing environment graphic from here.

The macro environment refers to the external factors that are outside the control of the firm. These factors are often analysed under the acronym: PEST

P for political
E for economic
S for social and cultural
T for technological

The PEST happenings shape the marketing approach and results significantly.

The winds of change (ie., enhanced media focus and calls for transparency) are blowing strongly on the healthcare sector. For eg., on page 2 of Deccan Herald (3.7.2011) an entire page is devoted to the pharma retail scene, with examples on how banned drugs are being sold and the need for better antibiotic policy. The DoP has also come out with a marketing code for pharmaceuticals in India. DoP (Department of Pharmaceuticals) has invited comments on the new code, and are seeking to make it a law if voluntary compliance from Indian pharma sector is not satisfactory. These political initiatives are certainly important - these have the potential to alter marketing outcomes emphatically.

P in PEST refers to the political (including legal) factors that affect marketing policy, strategy and results of a pharma firm. Today the 2 G spectrum issue shows graphically the impact that political and legal forces can have on enterprise fortunes.

E in PEST is the economic dimension of the macro environment.

The rising purchasing power of Indians has significant implications, since healthcare spend comes just after household routine provisions and clothes. Most of the medicine cost is borne from personal resources. The trend of Govt. pharmacies or other institutions, which provide free medicines or low cost medicines is another economic macro environmental factor. NPPA (National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority) is a political, legal and economic factor, decisions of this body influences pharma enterprise fortunes.

S in PEST are the social and cultural forces of change

In China, the market penetration of modern medicines is lower than that of traditional Chinese medicinal products. In India, although allopathic medicines have good market penetration, the potential is higher, and traditional Indian medicines have a lesser market value.

Many other social or cultural factors influence market habits for consumption of healthcare products. For eg., Deccan Herald (page 2, dated 3.7.2011) has highlighted the growing mistrust between doctors and patients. There are many people who prefer to seek guidance of an outstation familiar doctor rather than the neighbourhood doctor, and patients look at medical advice for diagnostic tests or emphasis on particular brands prescribed by doctors, with a sense of suspicion. Social and cultural attitudes affect healthcare and pharmaceutical marketing outcomes.

Technological (the T of PEST)trends cause seismic shifts in market trends. Today, biogeneric market is the new frontier in medicine marketing. In 3 years to come, a significant value can be expected to come from biogeneric product range. It is a new biogeneric vocabulary that is gaining ascendancy in pharma, and getting traction. EGA (European Generic Medicines Association) offers a handbook on biogenerics for informational purposes. This organization is also working as a lobbying and change agent so that European pharma companies have generic products in their basket, rather than concentrating only on 'innovator medicines'. In India, the biogeneric queen company is Biocon - it is a billion dollar (Rs. 4000 crores plus sales value) annual sales turnover firm. The business model of Biocon reflects the importance of technology and its impact on financial results of a firm.

The micro environment refers to the outer factors that are more controllable (than the factors in macro environment) for a pharma firm. For eg., distributor behaviour, local regulatory agencies, customers, intermediaries etc.

The components of the internal environment of a company are: men, machines, capital etc. These aspects are well in control of the management.

Marketers also use other acronyms to understand the macro environment:

PESTEL: is the acronym of Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Environmental and Legal aspects of the macro environment that affect a pharma company's fortunes.

STEEPLE: expands to Social, Technological, Economic, Ethics, Political, Legal and Environmental aspects of macro environment. This framework is more important for charities and could also be considered for pharmaceutical companies since these enterprises are supposed to operate in an ethical environment, with a philosophy of ethical sales.

EPISTLE stands for Economic, Political, Information, Social, Technological, Legal and Environmental factors of the macro environment. The dimension of Information is given an exclusive focus. Information of/from the macro environment is said to be of high value for enterprises using EPISTLE framework for scanning the environment. The EPISTLE framework is useful for share brokerage firms.

STEEL PIE is the last and not so popular framework of macro environment analysis, it stands for Social, Technological, Environmental, Ethics, Legal, Political, Information and Economic factors. STEEL PIE covers all the points of macro environmental analysis.

ONE CAN CONSIDER MEDIA as a special macro environmental factor, given the fact that it is all pervasive and highly influential.

In the early 1990s and even earlier, macro environmental analysis was of little value to pharma firms. You needed to get a license for a brand or molecule, have the copycat (reverse engineering technology) procedure to manufacture, and then market it by employing MRs. Today, the situation is different, marketability of a pharma product or products of a healthcare enterprise, needs to have macro environmental analysis to be done continuously, to see how the political, legal, social, cultural, technological, environmental, ethical, economical, informational and other factors play and impinge on the firm's functioning.

In fact, the bigger the enterprise, the more it is impacted by macro environmental factors.

API (active pharmaceutical ingredient) manufacture was a hot trend up to late 1990s, however, availability of Chinese material proved to be a game changer. Today biogenerics is becoming hot ... similarly, media, legal and political aspects are increasingly influential. It is the era of macro environmental factors in pharma marketing today!

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Only Reliability

2011-06-26T15:13:00.005+05:30

NOSTALGIA IS ALL ABOUT RELIABILITY! Above image from this site!

When we were in school, Reliance was starting to make its mark, Only Vimal was its imagination capturing slogan!

What was Reliance all about? Was it quality? Good marketing? Image building? Reliance was, as its name indicates, all about RELIABILITY (or trust).

Customers were confident of its high quality fabric - Vimal, customers were also offered good service at exclusive showrooms with its wide range of fabrics, shareholders were happy with its ever growing share value, dividends and bonus shares; traders enjoyed doing business with Reliance; bureaucrats and politicians were pleased with the relationship management practices of Reliance (they have dedicated personnel to manage relations with key bureaucrats and politicians) ... Hence, all associates found Reliance to be reliable.

Clearly, the key of success was RELIABILITY, for Reliance.

Many summers back, when I had just started my career and field work, I happened to meet up with a senior MR from Wockhardt during field work. While conversing we were discussing the reasons why doctors patronized brands. His tip for field success was simple: BE RELIABLE!

Yes it was trustworthiness or reliability along with other inputs that provided the key link to success - there is no compromise with reliability!

The senior MR elaborated: when you are regular with doctor calls, the doctor gets a feeling that the company, brands and the MR are reliable. When you gain confidence of the doctor, when the doctor feels the pharma company or MR is reliable - it makes success happen!!

Everyone is ready to provide sponsorships to doctors for various clinical reasons, however, the one who is most reliable is the one who gets the maximum mind share and prescription share or even the chance to sponsor a thing or two for the doctor.

I recollect one more incident: this was when I served as a first-line manager for South Karnataka: A doctor whom we met in an interior of South Kanara district, was peeved. He was hurt by the fact that a senior MR of another big company had not provided a rechargeable lamp along with the goods purchased, as promised by the senior MR.

The doctor was upset that a senior MR whom he thought to be reliable had "dumped" goods on him, on a false promise of a gift. The doctor was hurt with the apparent breach of trust.

Reliability was the key question here, it was not just about the gift!!

This goes to show how reliability makes a great difference, in customer management and brand success.

One of the important secrets of success of most senior MRs during my field working time, was their reliability. The senior MRs were trusted for their quality of communication and their regular field activity. It was this image of reliability that created success for most pharma companies.

During my independent field work in Bangalore in the 1990s, one of the elderly lady Govt. doctor's in Kadugodi (then an ex-station of Bangalore!), requested for some extra samples of Metacin, Cinaryl etc for personal use. I took her home address (located some where in R T Nagar, mind you I was new to Bangalore field work, searched for her house, and left the samples at her residence, the same evening!).

The next month, I was surprised to find a good amount of prescriptions in favour of my products, she said, she was happy that I was reliable. This incident brought out the full force of reliability (to me) in pharma business.

Today, too, the means of communicating reliability may be myriad, however, reliability of the brand promise, and reliability of the value delivery mechanism of a firm remain the main reasons of success.

Being reliable is the foundation for market success.

Regularity (of pharma field work) definitely provides the perceived value of reliability. Besides regular field work, constant creative communication inputs that reiterate SAFETY, EFFICACY, PURITY, CONCERN FOR THE CUSTOMER, VALUE DELIVERY, INNOVATION AND AVAILABILITY create the image of reliability.

Communication inputs that refurbish testimonials from doctors, depict images of various certificates earned by the firm (like ISO 22000 etc), the appeal and quality of the communication and marketing inputs - all these enhance the perception of reliability of a pharma firm. Reliability - which is an emotion (a sense of trust) - ensures business.

Conversely, low perception of reliability and any breach of contract that reflects poor reliability - is the main reason for, loss of business.

Building reliability requires understanding market expectations and those of all stakeholders. One should constantly enquire: what the customer or prospects want - for a firm to be classified as reliable. Once the RELIABILITY AUDIT is done the points that generate reliability need to be built in to the pharma enterprise's functioning.

Building reliability in to the processes of a pharma enterprise is a continuous affair. For eg., Auto companies are doing that continuously with new models of cars, innovations, customer feedbacks that are then incorporated in to the car and retailing formats, phone surveys and high quality after-sales service. It is these concepts that can be migrated in to pharma enterprise functioning to keep oneself as the most reliable.

Today, MNCs are creating various marketing formats for engineering higher perceived value of reliability. While GSK has put together a community pharmacy team to service pharma retailers, Pfizer has launched a continuous series of RETAILER MEETS through their MRs, where education programs for pharmacists (on their products and on patient counselling concepts) are held frequently at various towns and villages. This has helped create a new market demand creating force for Pfizer. Pharmacists now hold Pfizer in high esteem!

Futuristic and aggressive pharma firms like Glenmark are using enabling IT systems and processes for improving field force effectiveness and value delivery to doctors, this has in turn helped such companies improve their image as a reliable firm.

IT and mobile telephony has helped improve communication, this has made work more efficient, such improvements have finally increased appeal of reliability of pharma firms.

When a doctor finds a product best-in-class, of good quality, assured availability, sees that his or her patients are happy with the product performance; when the prescriber is happy with the presentation of the product-MR-company-communication inputs-complimentaries-sponsorships, then the reliability factor rises up! Better the reliability, improved are the pharma firm's fortunes.

Hence, the question each pharma manager should ask himself and try and seek answers or solutions for: ARE WE PERCEIVED AS HIGHLY RELIABLE BY THE TARGET MARKET SEGMENTS?

Reliability is not just for the customers. VENDORS, bankers, regulators, traders, service providers, investors, employees, other associates and the general society - all have "reliability requirements".

A pharma firm that meets many of the reliability requirements of most stakeholders, through best practices, will find growth in corporate image, brand equity, sales, market share and good ROI (return on investment). It is this reliability focused functioning that has taken firms like Google, Make My Trip, Intel, Marriott, AND CLARIS LIFESCIENCES (the only pharma company) in the 2011 list as the best places to work for! This is a truly great achievement for Claris, since even biggie pharma firms like DRL, Cipla and Abbott have not made it to the list!!

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TRILOGIES!

2011-06-17T17:43:00.004+05:30

JURAN TRILOGY

Trilogy refers to a series of three related works, for eg., a trilogy of dramas or literary works. Amitav Ghosh is now on a trilogy literary work (Ibis trilogy), first book: SEA OF POPPIES, second book: RIVER OF SMOKE. Third is in the pipeline.

Joseph Juran whose name is synonymous with QUALITY, has given a quality based, 'trilogy of related activities' that will help any business enterprise (the Juran trilogy is represented below):

The first of the triad (above) is identifying the customers and their needs - to satisfy. Thus, value delivery system begins with, identifying needs to be satisfied. When it comes to doctors, what are the main needs to be satisfied?

The broad framework of needs are:

Doctor's need for a reassurance that he is prescribing a quality product which will deliver the brand promise
Doctor's need to prescribe an appropriate product after weighing the pros and cons, risk to benefit aspects
Doctor's need to make the patient healthy and happy (delight patients)
Doctor's need to ensure that the patient recommends him/her so it may enlarge his practice
Doctor's need to be seen as a responsible, trustworthy, and confident professional by his patients
Doctor's need to have inputs and tools that will help in diagnosis and providing the best-in-class therapy to his patients
Doctor's need for a comfort level with material nick-knacks that will help him concentrate and deliver good care to his patients; doctor's need to sponsorships that help him
Doctor's need to be updated with knowledge, provide the same in an easily assimilable form
Reinforce the doctor's confidence with SEEING IS BELIEVING based marketing stories
Doctor's need for status, ego-satisfaction and 'positive strokes'
Constant emphasis that the company and brand is of HIGH QUALITY and of up-to-date technology

In the pharma marketing process, the pharmacist (chemist) retailer and patient too are customers, although doctors are prime customers.

The concerns of pharmacist are

1) Knowing the brand availability and its technical features (in a nutshell)
2) Commercial aspects of the product (MRP, bonus offers, retailer margin etc)

The patient's concerns are the:

1) side effect profile
2) efficacy
3) palatability and organoleptic qualities that affect patient compliance
4) affordability
5) availability
6) quality
7) confidence that he is on the right track!
8) dosage convenience

The second part of the Juran trilogy: is developing processes to produce goods and services, to deliver the value and satisfy above needs.

It is here that pharmaceutical companies invent and manufacture products that deliver efficacy, safety, purity, quality and other value concepts that satisfy the stakeholders including, doctors, retailers, patients and stockists.

The special focus of marketing processes is on attractive and to-the-point communication (messaging), to enhance sales and perceived value. This in turn, strengthens, brand equity, profits, increases market penetration and demand, prescribing and purchasing habits, goodwill, brand image, market share enhancement; gives ideas for further product improvements, better innovations (success breeds success), word-of-mouth and the WOW factor. Creating the market buzz and captivating target audiences in a world where there is severe competition for attention, is the focus of marketing activities. Thus, marketing facilitates the exchange process, sales, prescription generation and retail shelf space availability.

The third component of the Juran trilogy of activities, is the most difficult one! It is about challenging one's comfort zone and taking on complacency. The third point is: CONSTANTLY IMPROVING THESE PROCESSES!

For marketers, it means constant market study, seeking to understand customer perceptions, positioning and repositioning exercises, understanding present and future competition, getting to know the market trends, revisiting marketing strategies, planning new directions for investment of efforts and resources, investing in marketing technologies, new product working ... and finally, constantly improving perceived value and delighting the customer in a surprising way.

There are other trilogies that one can think of:

For example the following is a market structure trilogy.

On one corner, we have the buyer (the patient or patient's attender), the second point of the triangle, we have the seller (trader or manufacturer), and the third most important entity who often goes un-noticed in FMCG marketing, but has a sacred spot in pharmaceutical selling - it is the INFLUENCER (doctor).

In different contexts, the buyer-seller-influencer vary. For eg., it can be

Situation A

Buyer: stockist
Seller: Pharma company C & F
Influencer: Medical Representative (or field personnel)

Situation B

Buyer: Chemist retailer
Seller: Distributor or stockist
Influencer: MR or stockist salesboy or doctor (his prescriptions) or patient (who is insisting on a brand)

Hence, it is important for marketers to take all three points in to consideration for value communication and delivery. The marketer should not be focused only on the influencer doctor, there are also situations A & B (above) which require value delivery.

The other interesting trilogy is one of DEMAND-SUPPLY AND PROFIT.

Often marketers are obsessed with demand creation, there can be a mismatch between supply and demand, and profit is not on the radar! However, when enterprise activities are in line with all three components DEMAND-SUPPLY-PROFITS, there is a healthy organization!

The 'trilogy model' is an effective management tool to represent and clarify ideas. Clarity leads to better action! Thanks for reading this blogpost, please recommend this blog to your acquaintances, read all other blogposts, click on 'older posts' as and when required.

Waves of change

2011-06-05T13:04:00.012+05:30

Above image from here.

There are strong winds of change in India, there is a major trend in Indian society towards transparency, anti-corruption and clean governance. Swami Ramdev, the Yoga evangelist and social reformer, held a major anti-corruption cum yoga camp at Ram Leela Grounds in Delhi on 4.6.2011. In the wee hours of 5.6.2011, a 5000 strong police force evacuated the thousands who had gathered there using force and tear gas attacks. The winds of change are evident.

Anna Hazare and Swami Agnivesh, both social reformers and Sri Sri Ravishankar, the international peace worker, discoverer of the Sudarshan Kriya pranayama technique, and social reformer are also working hard to strengthen the anti-corruption movement.

Winds of change in pharmaceutical industry

The pharmaceutical industry is not inured to these societal changes. The DoP (Department of Pharmaceuticals) has drafted a Uniform Voluntary Code of Marketing Practices, which will be reviewed after 6 months. This code will be made statutory if there is no voluntary compliance by pharma industry. The chief mover of the voluntary code for pharma marketers is the DoP.

It is interesting to observe that the DoP has asked for feedback on the code of marketing practices for pharma marketers, at binayk.singh@nic.in

This move is keeping with the major trends in Indian society, for increased transparency. Perhaps, world over, it is one-of-its kind move, by a Govt. department, to regulate pharma marketing activities. Overall, one has to appreciate this initiative.

Abroad, including in USA, pharma marketing is a very controversial process. This is because of the huge marketing expenditure on prescribers. There are lots of web pages on the controversial activities of pharma marketers abroad, one just has to search on google.

What should the focus of any pharma marketing code be?

Pharma marketing is a very responsible and critical business function. Pharma marketing activities affect fortunes of pharma enterprises in a big way. If pharma marketing is weak, if the doctor perceives that value delivery is insufficient, then marketing outcomes are dis-satisfactory to pharma enterprises.

The main reason why pharma marketing is a tricky process, is that the patient has no say on the brand purchase. The doctor prescribes the medicine being promoted to him by pharma marketers, and the actual purchase is done by the patient. Thus, hand-in-glove relationships between doctor(s) and pharma marketers serves mutual interests. Hence, the need for a code of marketing conduct today!

Pharma marketing code is an interesting document and reads as a long list of do's and don'ts. In fact, the pharma marketing practice code needs to be marketed, not just put out!!

For instance, the pharma marketing code can be brought out in the form of an illustrated book, with each do's and dont's supported by graphics and any live examples from the market (the brand name and pharma marketer identity can be hidden), this will drive the point home better. If there are no examples to emphasize the points in the code, then the points in the marketing code tend to become ambiguous. Live market examples and supporting graphics will make the code points more clearer.

For eg., in point no. 2.4 of the marketing code, if live examples are provided in form of supporting literatures from market or any other market evidences, then point no. 2.4 will be clearer.

There can also be some disputes, for eg., the word 'new' cannot be used for more than 12 months (says point no. 2.3) (but what if the pharma marketer has gone in for a staggered launch - not nation wide launch, by the time it comes to the last geographical region for new product launch, the time for use of the word 'new' would have expired.) Thus, in such a scenario, a regulator may raise objection, which will affect pharma marketer's marketing strategy. And why should "new" mean only 12 months, why can't it be 3 years? Innovations do not get diffused easily. This "new" point needs to be illustrated by live examples to clarify further.

The marketing code ought to have a VISION STATEMENT. This can provide the spirit of the marketing code for pharma marketers.

For eg., the vision statement can include the following points:

"THE CODE OF MARKETING PRACTICE FOR INDIAN PHARMACEUTICAL INDUSTRY endeavors to promote transparency, put information of relevance to public access, prevent acts of omission and commission that may take place between pharma marketer and prescribers, promote legitimate interests of patients, and ensure that the healthcare system in India is the world's best and absolutely trusted.

THE PHARMACEUTICAL MARKETING CODE ENVISIONS TO MAKE THE PHARMACEUTICAL MARKETING PROCESS A KNOWLEDGE DRIVEN PROCESS, rather than a pure commercial value delivery process. Pharma Marketers will be encouraged to contribute to knowledge dissemination and renewal, which will help patient interest. "

It is the age of the internet, in this vein, the pharma marketing code should emphasize that each pharma marketer should compulsorily provide the complete product monograph of each marketed brand on the company website, the print literatures should provide the relevant URL of marketed brand.

Point 3.5 is well written: that promotional materials should be in good taste and non-offensive, however, live market examples should also be provided to illustrate this point. The same should apply to point no. 3.10

Points no. 4.1 to 4.5 deal with the tricky part of regulating in-clinic activity of Medical Representatives and pharma marketers. MR activity involves striking deals with prescribers and shoring up brand sale values. This means, pharma companies should educate themselves and MRs on the right way of in-clinic transactions.

Doctors should also be provided with education on the pharmaceutical marketing code, so that, they do not make uncomfortable demands. Doctors leverage on their prescribing power to strike rich bargains with pharma marketers.

Merely making a marketing code for pharma marketers is not enough. Doctors should also be aware of the pharma marketing code and should adhere with its provisions.

Points 5.1 to 5.5, on right use of samples: Samples are known to boost sales values, they are also known to end up at pharmacies or are sold at lesser value to patients by pharmacists or doctors. Samples ought to be given free for trial ... however ... Will a mere pharma marketing code ensure right usage of samples?

One way out is ensuring that doctors keep a written document (this is said in point no. 5.5) on a Govt. format, on the samples received by him and the usage of samples ie., to which patient he has given it etc. This document can be periodically checked by DRUG INSPECTORS during their field visits, drug inspectors should be empowered to check this document (kept by doctors). This may help rein misuse of samples. Furthermore, sale of samples by pharmacies should be strictly penalized.

When psychotropic substances are sampled, this becomes more tricky. For eg., it is well known that Corex and Phensedyl are abused "medications" including by doctors and medical students (Corex from Pfizer is sold only in India, no where else in the world!)!! Although, point no. 5.4 says that such psychotropic samples should not be given, pharma marketers should be allowed to sample these, but a record of same should also be kept by doctors.

The tricky part of the code is 6.1 and 6.2. The gluttonous appetite for gifts by doctors, has led to major fortunes for pharma companies, many a Ayurvedic company has its sales running on the oxygen of pharma gifting. If gifts are banned, bust goes the prescription flow!

This even threatens the functioning of product management department, in most companies, their major duty is lining up gifts to be provided month after month!!

Pharma companies gift electronic goods, once I was waiting for my turn to call on a skin specialist, when a MR and his manager walked into the clinic, to gift an electronic audio item, the doctor sent back the MR to fetch another model which he wanted, the doctor was not satisfied with the model being gifted!

Wining and dining, along with the throwing of a seminar by a KOL (Key Opinion Leader doctor) is a regular feature.

Pharma companies are known to gift every thing under the sun!!

If gifts are not provided by MRs, they are shunned by doctors!!

A pharma marketing code for gifting and sponsorship (point nos. 7.1 to 7.7) is not easy to practice!! DOCTORS OUGHT TO KNOW ABOUT THE pharma marketing code for these items too!!

TO BE PRAGMATIC, THE PHARMA MARKETING CODE, SHOULD PROVIDE FOR ETHICAL GIFTING AND SPONSORSHIP PRACTICES. The code should be revised and include a section on ethical gifting and sponsorship practices (relationship marketing).

By inviting a cross-section of views from doctors, pharma marketers and general society members, a frame work for ethical gifting and sponsorship practice should be worked out. Small clinically oriented gifts should in fact be encouraged so that pharma marketers empower prescribers. Relationship marketing has to have an ethical framework, and THE MARKETING CODE SHOULD INCLUDE THE ETHICAL GIFTING AND SPONSORSHIP PRACTICES FRAMEWORK IN A NEW SECTION ON RELATIONSHIP MARKETING PRACTICE.

One way of ensuring ethical gifting, sponsorship and relationship marketing is by ensuring that each and every pharma marketer publishes on a Govt. DoP website, on a monthly basis, the gifts and sponsorship activities done and the names of doctors who are recipients of the same. This will also make doctors wary of asking for and receiving gifts and sponsorships.

THE REST OF THE DOCUMENT FROM DoP ON THE UNIFORM CODE OF MARKETING PRACTICE FOR INDIAN PHARMACEUTICAL INDUSTRY, deals with the system of capturing complaints on pharma marketing malpractices and methods to address the same. As such, the endeavour is quite appreciated, however, in India, all these voluntary concepts will not work!! Only a law may work!! Chalta hai is India, hence, voluntarily following the code will not work.

The pharmaceutical marketing arena is more complex

There are more elements of pharma marketing process which are not covered by the present code.

For eg., pharma marketers provide gifts to pharmacies and retailers, so they may "push" and substitute prescribed pharma brands in favour of the pharma brand that provides best margins or gifts. Retail push marketing is a legitimate marketing effort, however it is a joke like atmosphere, there are companies who provide free goods eg.: 1 box free on purchase of 1 box, or even more!! No free goods go to the patient, it is only to the pharma retailer. The pharma retailer also enjoys the fierce competition between pharma marketers, by getting freebies and free goods (and adjustment of samples!). All these practices are not covered by the present pharma marketing code.

Pharma marketers provide exclusive offers or discounts to chain purchasers or hospitals or dispensing doctors, purchasing the product. The benefits are enjoyed by the traders or these purchasers, the patient does not get the advantage.

Pharmaceutical marketers also produce goods for OTC consumption

Pharma marketers also provide products for OTC consumption (dietary supplements etc). These activities are not addressed exclusively by the pharma marketing document.

PHARMA MARKETING INCLUDES

BULK DRUG MARKETING
EXCIPIENTS MARKETING TO PHARMA MANUFACTURERS
PACKAGING MATERIAL MARKETING TO MANUFACTURING COMPANIES,

and there are interesting 'relationship marketing' practices, here too, which can also be looked into, since these practices also affect the cost price of the product!!

The bright spot is that DoP has begun addressing patient concerns. DoP is trying to discipline the marketing environment. In the end, a disciplined pharma marketing environment will benefit all, including the pharma marketers themselves.

FOR EG., WHEN I WAS TALKING TO A SENIOR PHARMA MARKETING PERSON, HE SAID:"SUNIL, EVEN IF I WANT TO REDUCE SPONSORSHIPS OR GIFTS, I CAN'T -THE MARKET WANTS IT, DOCTORS TAKE IT AS THEIR RIGHT, THEY DEMAND SPONSORSHIPS AND GIFTS, MY FIELD FORCE WANTS GIFTS TO BE GIVEN DURING IN-CLINIC ACTIVITY, THEY FEEL WEAK WITHOUT GIFTS FOR DOCTORS, OR SPONSORSHIPS TO DOCTORS, I HAVE TO COMPLY, THERE ARE PRESSURES OF SALES, GIFTING AND SPONSORSHIPS (of delegate fees, stay, air tickets, vacations, special items, special services like painting the clinic etc), IS A ROUTE THAT WILL HELP ACHIEVE SALES TARGETS. THE FACT, IS NO COMPANY CAN AFFORD TO STOP GIFTING OR GIVING SPONSORSHIPS, ONCE THEY HAVE STARTED IT, IT IS A 'TIGER' - WE HAVE TO RIDE IT AND NEGOTIATE."

CLICK HERE FOR THE UNIFORM CODE OF MARKETING PRACTICE FOR INDIAN PHARMACEUTICAL INDUSTRY.

Thanks, for reading this blogpost, please scroll down and read all other posts, click on older posts wherever required, kindly recommend this blog.

The core is adaptability

2011-05-29T14:43:00.004+05:30

Above interesting image and a good write up on adaptability available here.

While imparting training one often wonders, what is the core output that one is trying to provide to the organization, as a trainer?

Is the concept of training, all about the ability of the raw MR trainee to understand what a visual aid is, and how to do visual aid detailing with pointer, or is it making him understand the importance of retail prescription monitoring? Or is it inspiring him with the interesting complexities of pharmacodynamics and pharmacokinetics of a drug?! Or is it impressing him on the approach to marketing, the way the brand is delivered to prospects and customers, ie., internal marketing?!

The answer is yes to all the above questions, yet training is much more than above elements. Verily, training's core output is IMPROVING ADAPTABILITY OF AN ORGANIZATION!!

Change management, adaptability and training

Adaptability is changing oneself or changing a process to fit in to the changes that are occurring (in the environment, internal and external)! In essence, organizations and personnel who are adaptable, are ones who finally grow and survive. Training is an approach that provides organizations and personnel, the knowledge and tools for adaptability!

The need for adaptability is at all levels. The top management, members of middle and lower tiers of management - all require adaptability. The concept of adaptability implies learning and applying new knowledge and tools for growth. Hence, adaptability, training and learning are intertwined processes.

Training for the new recruit

When new MRs or field managers grace training programs, they have definite expectations of empowerment. They are on the look out for product knowledge, field approach tips, and tools that will help them adapt and take on challenges in the market. This adaptability should help the field personnel in 'prospect conversion to customers', and facilitate customer retention. Only when training programs provide skills, knowledge and tools for adaptability, only then will they be perceived as vital and relevant.

Evolving training approaches, strategies, and programs

Training is a very delicate discipline. Trainees may find training experiences useful or useless. This depends on how relevant training programs are. Mere training on product knowledge will not be satisfying. After all, there is 'good to know knowledge' and 'good to use knowledge'. It is the latter type of knowledge that will improve adaptability of the trainees. So it is essential to give practice to trainees so they may equip themselves with talking points of products, only then will they be empowered and adaptable.

Training programs are successful when

a) they empower trainees and enhance adaptability of trainees (to the company culture/environment and to the outer market conditions)
b) during training programs, the trainees are kept highly engaged and they find it fun (while being useful)
c) trainers present training material in 'adult ego state of mind' (not in child ego or parent ego states). It is important to appreciate that trainees in firms are 'grown ups' and are treated as adults, by the trainers. Any delinquent behaviour, or inappropriate trainee behaviour should be dealt with by negative reinforcements, and rewarding positive behaviours of trainees, rather than being a 'controlling parent type of trainer', which will be detrimental to both trainer and trainee. This is easier said than done, because the requirement here is, the trainer should be a very mature, knowledgeable, and emotionally integrated person
d) the focus is on providing training inputs that enhance confidence (fearlessness) and future performance of trainees
e) the training programs provide HOPE. The content, style and presentation should inspire and give hope to trainees that the inputs are truly relevant for enhancing personal effectiveness.

Researching adaptability: Management By Walking About

How to bring in adaptability points in to training programs? The best way that brings in adaptability in to training programs, is MBWA! This stands for Management By Walking About. It refers to the need of trainers to be constantly interactive with present and future trainees, participative in the current processes, and at the same time have a keen mind to learn about market dynamics and environmental fluxes so that the trainer will know the needs of potential trainees in advance, and through his knowledge of market or processes or the environment, the trainer can design training programs that will enhance ADAPTABILITY of trainees (whether they are field personnel or office employees). Training is thus, in its final analysis all about enhancing the learner's adaptability. Only then will training contribute to organizational survival and growth.

PS: Just concluded a good training program at Lucknow!

Thanks for reading this blogpost, please scroll down and read all other blogposts (click on older posts as and when required), please recommend this blog to acquaintances.

Disruptive technologies

2011-05-22T12:22:00.008+05:30

We see above the evolution of audio-video products, each technology innovation has disrupted the earlier market! Today, where are the gramaphone records or audio cassettes?!

Innovation is vital for business growth, this is a well known fact - innovations help business enterprises with breakthrough products or services that provide transformational results. Normally, this huge outcome is a result of successful commercialization of a disruptive technology.

A disruptive innovation comes by applying new set of values. It disrupts the current market. For eg., if a EV (electric vehicle) transforms personal transportation, it is a disruptive technology which will affect fortunes of gasoline based vehicles. Tata Nano is such a disruptive technology car. It is all set to enjoy steady growth after its very poor sale performance (in Nov 2010, its sales had dipped to just 500 cars, today its growth is on!).

Sustaining innovations are non-disruptive improvements in products or service. For eg., combining diclofenac with serratiopeptidase for better efficacy in pain management or offering diclofenac potassium in lieu of diclofenac sodium for hypertensive patients (in pain management therapy). However, sustaining innovations need not disrupt the market, even though they can create transformational results.

The holy grail of innovation is now succeeding with disruptive technology in the market.

In pharma business, breakthrough drugs are disruptive technologies that out-date older molecules and create fortunes through the innovator molecule. In H2 receptor blockers, cimetidine created a wave, this was outdated by ranitidine. Today, cimetidine is off the market. Ranitidine in turn got a truncated market through launch of proton pump inhibitors: omeprazole, pantoprazole, lansoprazole etc. Thus, disruptive technologies create mega markets and sustained results.

Disruptive technology based products need not come through new molecules in pharma markets, new packaging concepts can disrupt the market and produce exciting results. This has been the case with electrolyte energy drink products in Tetra Pak aseptic technology packaging.

FFS (form fill seal) technology for parenterals that was promoted vigorously by the now defunct Core Laboratories, created a disruptive market and Core was a big name in 1990s for FFS parenterals.

From where do disruptive technologies come?

It has been observed by management experts, disruptive technologies do not come usually from established giants or well established companies, as they are used to working in a particular way. Hence, giants on noticing disruptive technology products or services from other smaller companies often buy them up! This is quite common in the international pharma industry.

Creation of disruptive technologies requires a system reorganization in companies. Most established companies like status quo with incremental product improvements or changes, not uncomfortable quantum restructuring! Hence, most well established companies normally do not produce disruptive technology products or services.

Application of mobile based communication in pharma marketing communication is regarding very disruptive. Biosimilar business is also reckoned to be a disruptive marketing model.

The innovator mindset

The amazing and ceaseless changes in society: empowerment, knowledge and idea dissemination, communication systems, and media improvements (like digital media) is heralding a new era of innovation. In the past, quality of medicines was a qualifier, today, an innovator mindset in pharma field is a necessity for survival and growth. One is forced to have an innovator mindset whether it is evolutionary innovation or disruptive innovation, INNOVATION IS A PREREQUISITE IN MODERN DAY PHARMA BUSINESS!

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Scenario planning in pharma

2011-05-15T16:03:00.004+05:30

ABOVE IMAGE FROM HERE.

People work. Why? The reasons are many - such as, NEED, GREED, FEAR, PASSION, INTEREST, OBSESSION, LOVE ... however, the common denominator of every reason is - trying to achieve a particular idea of success. It is this vision of success that drives individuals to work or activity.

The success concept may be simple (such as going to a good restaurant for lunch) or complex (like producing a successful biogeneric). This drive to succeed makes people, teams and organizations work in a particularly way and in a certain direction.

The direction and intensity of work depends on the inputs of decision making. These inputs come from the internal or external environment. The direction and intensity of work sometimes comes from serendipity too. However, firms are always bothered about the direction and intensity of work, as it influences business results.

Companies look at past experiences to create a strategic work plan. Or companies look at possible future scenarios and then plan their work activities. For instance, the futuristic disease trend is CARDIOMETABOLIC disorders. Hence, a firm's activities will be to address the near- future scenario where there will be about 15 crore diabetic patients in India. Hence, scenario planning attitude implies, creating products and services that address this emerging market.

Scenario planning is heavily dependent on knowledge of present and emerging social, lifestyle, disease, economic, cultural, business, political and technological trends. Based on this understanding value delivery mechanisms are engineered so that a firm will have good sales in future time. Scenario planning is the bedrock of long term range planning. It involves understanding SWOT (Strength Weakness Opportunity Threat) matrix of a firm in present time, and planning future outcomes.

Rise of pharmacy power

The emerging scenario points out to the developing power of pharmacies. Organized pharmacy chains in India are getting stronger. Med Plus is today a well entrenched chain. Hetero Pharmacy (a part of Hetero group) is now executing expansion plans to have more retail outlets. Understanding this growing power of pharmacies, and the importance of pharmacies in influencing the outcomes of pharmaceutical marketers, pharma companies have now started chalking out robust plans to address and partner this pharmacy growth.

GSK (as per Chronicle Pharmabiz, 5.5.2011) is now setting up a strong community pharmacy team, which will empower pharmacies to communicate better with patients. By aligning with this pro-pharmacy trend, GSK will be in a better position to retain and expand its shelf space. Retail availability is very vital for pharma success.

In coming 2 to 3 years, we will see pharmacies getting pampered, as much as doctors, to improve pharma marketing fortunes. Hence, relationship management with pharmacies is inevitable for superior value delivery by pharma marketers.

Media power on the rise

Today, the Third Front of the society, the media, is a very powerful institution. Bureaucrats, rich capitalists, politicians AND MEDIA are the change agents of contemporary society. The jasmine revolution in the Arab world, the growing might of Al Jazeera channel, AND the electronic media coverage of assembly and parliamentary elections, are all examples of the omnipresent media. Attitudes and events are shaped by media. Marketers ought to take cognizance of the media might, particular electronic and digital media while crafting marketing strategies.

CHRONICLE PHARMABIZ has been kind enough to publish my article on THE ERA OF LONG TAIL in the May 5th issue, PLEASE CLICK HERE. However, will this esteemed journal continue in its present form and shape in coming years? Futuristic scenario trends certainly do not indicate this. Chronicle Pharmabiz will probably have an extensive digital footprint in coming 5 years.

For eg., a futuristic scenario may be as follows:

A registered mobile no. in the Chronicle Pharmabiz portal will get sms alerts on his mobile at regular intervals (for eg., everyday at 11.00 am and 4.00 pm) such as:

Benadryl sms headlines: GSK sets up community pharmacy team. Click to read full story.

If interested the internet mobile phone user will read the story, and pay through mobile currency. Digital and convergence technology will surely influence the way information, news and knowledge is consumed by individuals and groups of people. The way knowledge, news and information is presented will also change.

Another example of sms or e-mail alert would be: New Feature just published in Chronicle Pharmabiz: THE ERA OF LONG TAIL, please click to read further.

Hence, digital communication will gain traction, one has to understand the unfolding technology and incorporate it into scenario planning.

Savvy marketers of pharmaceuticals will also herald a new digital era of marketing by creatively employing cloud computing, mobile based internet communication, and portals to TRAIN front line pharma personnel, and communicate with target audiences to influence potential and actual prescribers.

Imagine a pharma marketing organization having a mobile phone database of say 300000 pharmacies across India. At the push of a button, the pharma organization can communicate retail bonus offers to them, or information of new product launches, this will create superb marketing results. This is what GSK is aiming for through its community pharmacy team.

Imagine another campaign: GSK launches special Periton lucky dip offer. Purchase 15 bottles of Periton with retail offer, send us the invoice no. and date. Registered Mobile Nos. providing genuine invoice no. will be automatically enrolled for lucky dip. Lucky mobile nos. stand to win a double door refridgerator!!

Such a seasonal offer will surely cause significant uptake of sales, since cough syrups can be pushed over-the-counter.

Communicating with pharmacies will not only be on educative lines, the connectivity can be employed for significant results across the COMMUNICATION MIX:

In personal selling, MRs will get better response from pharmacies that have already been primed with mobile phone based marketing activities

In sales promotion: retail bonus and gift offers can be communicated, and this will ensure retail offer benefits are transferred (not blocked by distributors)
From publicity angle, digital communication will enthrall pharmacists in an engaging way
It establishes a possible two way direct communication between database marketing division and the market retailers, improving business results

In years to come marketing activities will surely be two-way thanks to growth of media, particularly electronic and digital. Marketers will be forced to creatively explore the potential of new media and pharmacies for value delivery, catalysing exchange processes, and enhancing customer delight, while building brands, and enhancing market penetration. It is such efforts that will create the WOW factor, build on trust, improve relations, make a buzz in the market and finally, hold on to customers in this ever-changing and fickle world.

In a static world, where uncertainties, disruptions and changes are seldom, such as in protected economies, scenario planning has no significant meaning, it is only sales estimates that are required there.

However, in a globalized and fast-changing world, SCENARIO PLANNING gains significance. Emerging short term, medium term and long term trends need to be spotted, and activities to cash on them is required. It is the age of ECLECTIC MARKETING people - those who are alive to the world around them and creatively use the tools and trends!! Marketing belongs to such people now!! Growth is the outcome of good marketing. Positive change in sales cannot come in routine marketing activities. One has to look out and understand possible emerging scenarios, plan for addressing future scenarios and emerge stronger with time. Marketing muscle depends on scenario planning!

Thanks for reading this blogpost, hope the scenario looks good for you too, please scroll down and read all other blogposts, click on older posts wherever required, please recommend this blog too.

Work habit

2011-04-10T14:37:00.003+05:30

The above image from here.

The basic premise of organizational functioning is WORK HABIT. People are habituated to working, hence it keeps the organization going. Creating and strengthening of desirable work habits is what organizational management is all about. If the work habit of a MR suffers, employee productivity goes down. If managerial slothfulness happens, managerial working is lackluster. Work habit is vital for organizational well being, it is important for society too.

Eliciting desirable work habits

In any professional situation, there are desirable work habits and undesirable ones. For eg., a desirable picture, is when each employee shows up well on time at the workplace. Another desirable trait is involvement, each employee puts his or her heart, mind and soul in to the assignment and proactively proceeds to execute the tasks. When work is done with involvement, it will naturally show up in the form of acceptable results.

The opposite of the above picture is a situation where lackadaisical employees come as per their whim and fancy. Employees are more bothered about what is happening around them rather than the assignment allotted. Employees are frustrated or bored or distracted. Definitely, it is not a picture of a positive workplace with positive work habits.

Work habits in the pharmaceutical workplace

The pharmaceutical sector is a key, sensitive and health oriented one. Any small mistake can affect patient well being significantly. Hence, there is a lot of emphasis on SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures) and practices (like GMP - Good Manufacturing Practices, GLP - Good Laboratory Practices etc). Habits and attitude can influence pharma enterprise results in a major way.

The most important work trait in the pharmaceutical workplace (in offices, factories, trading establishments and during MR field work) is alertness. Pharma working requires a high degree of alertness and being aware. One cannot mechanically mix ingredients, go through the artworks superficially, or turn up at doctors' clinics and use the visual aid by rote - at every stage of pharma activity there is need to be alert and hence, pay attention to detail. One has to look at copy matter and visuals on collateral(s) with high alertness, lest an error would creep in.

While doing field work, again one has to be alert to the moods of target doctors and chemists, and to the goings-on in the marketplace (such as competitor activity, competitor collaterals, and trade association activities etc). Based on these observations, the MR has to modulate his communication.

How to build alertness in to work habit?

Alertness is being aware and highly observant. One is best at alertness when one knows there is a benefit by being aware. Another step to strengthen alertness is by encouraging reporting. When one knows reports are being read, and are important tools for decision making, alertness gets increased. Alertness creates actionable reports, which can improve organizational outcome.

Alertness helps bring in proaction in to the working style. Alertness also helps create defensive actions in the face of adverse circumstances. Today, NPPA (National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority) has started a TV campaign encouraging patients to ask doctors to prescribe economical quality brands. The Karnataka Govt. has asked Govt hospital doctors to prescribe 'generic generics' (unbranded generics). The DTAB (Drug Technical Advisory Board) has started "clean up" by banning drugs like PPA and paediatric use of nimesulide. Alertness to such events would inevitably impact strategy making.

Alertness is a habit that reflects knowledge seeking. Alertness implies a problem solving attitude too. Hence, alertness is an important personal and organizational trait that contributes to success.

With a careful placement of positive reinforcers for alertness, an alert organization can be created. Wish you all an alert and happy week ahead!! Thnks for your alert reading please recommend this blog.

Brand communication

2011-03-27T16:48:00.005+05:30

Brands are as important as products, the latter being described in textbooks as the bread and butter of firms. The core concept of brand communication is to reinforce core values of brand benefits in a creative and engaging way. This ensures constant reminder of the brand benefits, maintains brand buying or brand prescribing habits, helps the brand enter new demographic or geographic segments or new specialties (extends prescribers or buyers in to new target segments). In fact, constant creative brand messages through old and new media help in market penetration and market expansion.

Brand positioning statements versus brand positioning words

The core benefit of a pharma brand is wrapped in the product positioning statement, for eg., Inac TR is the key to improved mobility. Brand A is for pain-free injection of diclofenac ... so on. The debate now is whether to focus on the key brand positioning word or the entire statement! For, this is a world of message overload - a doctor is exposed to at least 50 brands per day through the MRs calling on him. So how to position the brand? What should the brand mean to the prescribing doctor in just one word?! Is it possible to distill the entire product message in to just one word! That is the challenge to brand marketers!!

In the complex world of pharma marketing, messages are technically complicated and aimed at the educated doctors, hence, it surely will not be easy to wrap the brand message in to a single word of product positioning. (In FMCG marketing the One Word Equity is used: Eg.: Brand America stands for freedom, Coca Cola is refreshing etc). However, it would be interesting to work out and see if it is possible to distill the pharma brand message in to just 2 or 3 words, and use these in certain brand messaging formats. Telegraphic brand messages can work as prescribing stimuli, reinforcing messages, brand recall communiques etc.

Incidal had such a memorable brand communication strategy, some years back - they would show photos of animals or birds such as deer, cheetah, eagle etc, with a single word caption ALERT! This was the core message of their brand. Their literatures and visual aids had detailed messages on their brand Incidal, however, there were other print promotional inputs that had just one word brand recall communication ie., INCIDAL ALERT!

To a doctor such one-word brand positioning and communication messages are vital for brand recall and brand prescribing stimulus. The doctor has n no. of things to remember. Hence, to help the doctor recollect, maintaining uniformity in brand representation (through standardized typos, brand positioning statements, logos and now brand positioning word(s)) will help improve brand sales.

This one word brand mantra can be very powerful to not only actuate target prescribers - it can also capture the imagination of the entire company and create excitement, it can influence business strategy and future of the business.

For eg., think Google, think search!

Such is the power of the single brand positioning word. Search is a word "owned" by Google. Their by-products like G mail also encapture the spirit of Search. For searching e-mails, G mail is the best option. This is the power of positioning in action and word(s).

Is positioning very important?

Positioning is not the be-all and end-all of business, it is not healthy to have a hyperfocus on brand positioning, the ultimate goal of business is profits and sales. Positioning is an approach to help one's journey in this direction. In fact, sharp positioning is a great help! Brand communication in line with positioning helps further!! And single brand communiques reflecting the product or brand positioning help even further!!!

To latch on to the single word and positioning statement of the brand, one has to gain customer insights of the brand. Diclofenac is a generic that powerfully owns the 'anti-inflammatory mountain'. The word Diclofenac owns the word 'swelling'. When a doctor wants to decrease inflammatory swelling, diclofenac is the drug that he will go for. Similarly, when a doctor wants a safe analgesic and antipyretic for paediatric patients, paracetamol is the generic he will go for. When a paediatrician wants an alternative to paracetamol, mefenamic acid is his or her choice.

Thus, products and brands can succeed by having sharp focus of positioning. While this can help, it can also create competitors who will take up attacking positioning statements, to divide the target audience. This is when, the long tail comes in to play!!

Long tail

Long tail is an economic concept. The idea here is that in a fragmented world and market, it is not easy to find mass markets. Hence, the other option is to have a long tail of brands, where small volumes of products are sold for profit. One has a long tail of products, with various positionings' to cater to many markets and sub-markets. This is also a product management strategy.

In a world with many pharma marketers, where offerings have little differentiation, applying the concept of a long tail is resorted to, for survival in a cluttered pharma market place!

Thus, the challenge is to work on brand communication - with sharp product positioning statements, product positioning word(s) and also in a world where the long tail of products is becoming more common. Thanks for reading this blogpost, please scroll down and read all other posts, spread the message of this blog!!

Benchmarking

2011-03-20T15:00:00.004+05:30

One of the most important approaches in business strategy is BENCHMARKING. In this strategic approach we constantly scour the environment to find out the best practices. After understanding this practice, it is incorporated in to the firm, to enhance competitiveness.

For eg., if many diclofenac brands are being launched, the companies benchmarking the market activities, start launching their own brands of diclofenac to get a slice of the market. Here the benchmarking effort has helped in new product launch. Benchmarking in a way is copying the best practices. Benchmarking is elaborated as the analysis & learning the best practices, and incorporating the same either directly or adapting the practice to ensure cultural fit in to the organization for improved outcomes.

Recently the ET reported on 3.3.2011 that major MNCs are launching a slew of me-too generics (ie., branded generics) to get a share of the booming pharma market. With new product pipelines not ensuring blockbuster successes (ie., atleast 500 million USD annual global sales), the idea is to launch new brands that are copycat brands of successful molecules and improve sales results.

This means MNCs are no longer relying on their personal marketing wisdom. It indicates a new openness in the pharma marketing approach. MNCs too are learning best practices from the market that ensure market success. One of the key approaches for success in India, is launching branded generics. MNCs are betting on this game with firm resolve!

What is the moral of the story?

If MNCs too are interested in launching me-too brands, to ensure better market penetration particularly in to rural pockets, this indicates that MNCs are now learning and incorporating new market practices for improved marketing outcomes. This indicates that the concept of benchmarking has got a boost. Today, pharma MNCs and nonMNCs are eager to learn of the best practices in the marketplace, and incorporate them for bettering marketing results.

BENCHMARKING is about understanding current business practices of one's firm, and understanding the business practices of other successful or above par companies. This learning is then incorporated for enhancing performance and reducing performance gaps.

One cannot operate as a silo. It is the dawn of a new era of benchmarking and co-operative competition, for survival and mutual growth. There was a time when pharma companies would not look outward for answers to their problems. Today, looking outwards and benchmarking has become the norm for survival and growth. Benchmark or suffer degrowth seems to be the guiding principle!

WHOM SHOULD WE BENCHMARK?

The final goal of benchmarking is improving performance outcomes. Thus, any practice that can potentially improve performance ought to be benchmarked! Learning anything that does good to the business is the norm. Benchmarking need not be from the pharmaceutical industry alone; it can also be, say, from the hospitality industry, that is, if the practice can potentially improve performance.

For eg., soft skills are vital in the hospitality industry. Hence, benchmarking soft skill training from hospitality industry for MRs and other front line personnel is certainly not a bad idea. Training of soft skill concepts like time-sense, courtesies, etiquette ... will certainly improve in-clinic performance to enhance sales outcomes.

Benchmarking is about learning and incorporating processes or practices that enhance performance, from other companies in the industry or other industries.

Benchmarking cultural attitudes like a learning culture and horizontal communication was attempted by DRL by benchmarking with software companies. It has certainly helped DRL in creating a learning culture.

http://pibg.org/ this is the website of a pharmaceutical benchmarking group, where success practices are shared among members and improved performance outcomes are sought.

The ultimate goal of 'managements of enterprises' is to constantly improve employee productivity. For knowing how to do this, knowledge sharing of practices is vital. Benchmarking helps with this. Since benchmarking is linked to employee productivity and can enhance the same, there is an appreciation on the concept of benchmarking. This helps incorporate best-in-class practices for better productivity.

Imagine the database of a pharmaceutical marketing company that has mapped the MR reports over three years. Based on this historical data, the infotech group can provide an e-mail to each MR, suggesting to the MR on the important calls that can be made in the next three days, including the timings of the calls, and the products to focus on. This concept can help reduce planning time, ensure better call outcomes, optimize time spent on doctor visits and if the MR is new, it will provide a great helping hand for efficient planning. This is the strength of a robust database department.

Above database based marketing practice is based on practices observed in FMCG companies, which helps them enhance sales.

There are many other types of benchmarking viz., strategic, operational, financial, functional, performance, metrics, best in class etc. With the dawn of a new era of benchmarking (even MNCs are into strategic benchmarking, as they are seen to launch me-too branded generics), benchmarking is on a take-off mode. It is important to institutionalize benchmarking formally to help improve employee productivity and organizational outcomes.

Thnks for reading this blogpost, please scroll down and click on older posts to read other blogposts, please recommend this blog to others.

Joint field work (dyad)

2011-02-27T15:09:00.004+05:30

ABOVE IMAGE FROM HERE.

One of the important sales building step in pharmaceutical marketing is JOINT FIELD WORK. During joint field work, a Medical Representative and one superior manager work jointly, calling on doctors, pharmacies and stockists. They work in a spirit of mutuality to enhance brand sales. Productive joint field work is described as a five step process: skill identification, training, sales rep observation, manager observation and coaching stage. Joint field work will significantly improve sales outcomes and brand establishment.

Recently I had the joy of joint field work in Bhubaneshwar. As such, there are three types of MRs (in my experience):

a) the difficult type: they are not self starters, these MRs are inflexible, jaded, frustrated, demotivated, and follow the "rules" to the T. Typically, they are always having field problems and few solutions!
b) the systematic type: these MRs work as per tour plan, systematically, and are not used to out-of-the-box thinking or to new ideas of product promotion. They like to do things as they are doing, and feel it is the best. These MRs may be self-starters too, however, they like to do things in the established ways
c) the self-starters and entrepreneurial type: these type of MRs (or managers) are few in no. They are very active in the field. They are constantly at work (mentally and physically). They are capable of accommodating many activities. They have an art of getting along with people. They are looking for higher and higher results. Their EQ (emotional quotient) too is very high. These MRs have empathy and drive. They score very high in the salesmanship equation:

S = ED

S = salesmanship, E = empathy (ability to imagine oneself in the other person's shoes) and D = drive.

It is indeed a joy to work with the third type of MRs. These MRs also typically enjoy a high level of contacts. Ask them to get a taxi, they will do the work in a jiffy - they always have a reliable contact in their radar. Such MRs have good working relationships with a wide cross-section of people. These MRs neither have fear or bravado, such MRs (or managers) have a sense of balance. Such people also enjoy a higher degree of negotiating ability. There is practicality and high self-esteem in them too. Their main motto is to establish results with win-win relationships.

I enjoy working most with the third type of MRs/managers (although some would find them 'pushy'); however, joint field work with such people is a joyous and learning experience.

Another characteristic feature of such involved MRs is their improvisations (and openness to improvisations). This is an important trait that makes their work entrepreneurial. While working with these adaptable type of MRs, it is working with ideas particularly the novel ones, that makes joint field work entrepreneurial.

There were days of the systematic joint field work, then came quality joint field work, today the approach required most is entrepreneurial joint field work. It is important to be innovative and help impart innovative-ness.

Joint field work is also about empowerment. Being a senior the experience and higher skill level will empower the junior during joint field work. The learning process will provide better value to the field work activity.

What do we do in joint field work?

The first thing, that the superior manager must understand is that the MR or subordinate is an internal customer. He is looking for value added service from the superior manager during joint field work. Supervisory bossy behaviour which includes fault finding, policing, cross checking, constantly nagging and correcting, berating, over advising, and high control oriented monitoring will not elicit favourable outcomes from joint field work. It will only be a cat and mouse game, leading to distrust and may be acrimony. So the ideal way would be to map the profile and needs of the subordinate and accordingly offer value added service to the MR.

If the MR is slightly weak in detailing, the better approach would be for the superior manager to detail the product at certain doctor chambers and help the MR or subordinate through such modeling activities. So the central theme of joint field work would be to increase involvement and help the MR or subordinate enjoy the work. When people are immersed in work, results will automatically follow. The idea is improving involvement by addressing the subordinate's concerns (eg., detailing). Joint field work is about mutually increasing confidence.

Joint field work is also a window of opportunity to observe execution of strategy and use of promotional inputs. The observations will further provide ideas for strategy making. Joint field work will help the skeptic MR see the positive results of strategy implementation and the manager can get first-hand feedback.

Joint field work is an important although, little focused on part of marketing process. Most of the focus is on supervisory aspect of joint field work. The idea is that the superior manager should exercise control over the subordinate and make the junior generate results in line with corporate expectations ... or else - the Damocles sword will hang over the head of the junior!!

Up to a point this approach is OK ... but it is fraught with severe limitations. The engagement is not positive and is based more on use of authority. The improved version of joint field work is when it becomes positive, empowering, entrepreneurial (ie., innovative) and value added to the customer and the MR.

There was a time when the superior manager would accompany the MR, he would silently observe the MR's in-clinic activity and other field behavioural patterns. The superior manager also makes observations in his diary and finally, after the day's work provides his feedback, gives assignments to improve the junior's work behavior and - off - goes back the superior manager to his HQ in the evening.

Today, the dyad (superior + subordinate) can ill afford to function in this manner. If the dyad has to be relevant to the organization, the dyad has to generate a synergistic (ie., 1 + 1 > 2) response in the field. This can only come if the dyad is enterprising, entrepreneurial, empowering, constantly improvising, mutually inspiring and result oriented.

These are changing times. And changing times require new ways of dyad working. In an age of empowerment and entrepreneurship, it is a contemporary challenge for trainers and top management personnel to cultivate the traits of 'entrepreneurial dyads'. Thanks for reading, scroll down and also click on older posts to read all other posts, kindly recommend this blog to others too!!

Scolding

2011-02-20T13:57:00.007+05:30

ABOVE IMAGE FROM HERE.

Recently during a meeting, I asked a group of front-line pharma managers:

HAVE YOU SCOLDED ANY DOCTOR TILL DATE?!

Most were amused with this question, some giggled, and a few others were wonderstruck?! Obviously none had scolded any customer-doctor till date, although some said they had done it out of frustration behind the back, probably because the doctor had not prescribed the promoted brand or the doctor had made demands that the field manager found impossible to fulfill.

In any case, the most common phenomenon of organizational communication is scolding! It is more common than appreciating!! We see managers scolding non-managers, we observe such transactions between workers and supervisors, we see it when irate doctors or customers interact with company personnel. Although, this type of communication is very common, and has very important implications for organizational functioning, and enterprise outcomes, there is hardly any management study done on the organizational phenomenon called scolding!!

During the meeting, we proceeded on to a small dialogue on the concept of scolding. By and large, most front-line managers felt scolding leaves a bitter taste - the person scolding and the person at the receiving end - do not enjoy it. Scolding will not necessarily produce outcomes as desired. It may even increase the distance between the parties.

Simply put, SCOLDING IS REBUKING OR DISAPPROVING STRONGLY AND HARSHLY.

In inter-personal communication, scolding has a very bad impact. People scold because of over-aggression, in their bid to be assertive people end up scolding, and this complicates the situation. Even if a subordinate does not react back, the harshness will make the person who is rebuked, have resentment. This will then lead to disharmonious relationships, difficulty in getting things done, and probably unpleasant circumstances later on.

During the group discussion, on scolding as an inter-personal phenomenon in organizations, it was felt that scolding by - and - large is a negative communication and should ideally never be resorted to. However, the reality was that scolding was a common thing particularly during month ends, when sales pressures for target achievement was high!!

Some other interesting points about scolding:

a) scolding is most often done by people who have the bullying habit
b) scolding is a sign of frustration
c) scolding is an abuse of authority
d) scolding is a bad habit (ie. to say some people do not know any other way of communicating!!)
e) scolding is not done when the opposite person is more powerful (for eg., a doctor, or a physically strong or politically well connected subordinate)
f) scolding normally complicates situations, it does not solve problems
g) scolding is different from being assertive or insisting on a course of action
h) diabetics and hypertensives scold more often than normal people
i) scolding comes due to lack of presence of mind, and absence of effort to plan things; scolding happens when people feel overwhelmed

What to substitute scolding with?

If one does not want to scold, then how should it be substituted or how should the situation be managed?

One can avoid scolding:-

a) through problem solving attitude
b) habit of appreciating people and things, ie., speaking positively
c) maintaining silence (to cool off things)
d) by humorizing the situation with ready repartees or out-of-the-box thinking
e) through effective training to equip the personnel with skills and right attitude like time-sense, prompt communication, timely interventions etc. This will improve level of motivation. Hence, managers will not face circumstances where scolding has to be resorted to.

Furthermore:

g) scolding is also a result of negative emotions like anger, pride (ego), greed, unsatisfied needs, hatred, fear etc
h) scolding can also come from physiological needs like hunger, tiredness, dehydration, etc.
i) scolding can be avoided by communicating the points through another individual who is more close to the subordinate (for eg., put the point across through the immediate superior or senior colleague)
j) communicate with coolness, assertiveness, and rationality, indicate that there is no intention to hurt to avoid 'scolding situations'.
k) scolding can be avoided by having good caring relations - this includes asking about health, enquiring about family, shaking hands, patting the back etc.

Scolding is a familial, organizational and societal reality. As an organizational phenomenon it needs to be explored further. For example, the causes, implications, pros and cons of scolding should be scientifically collected and studied. Besides, the triggers of scolding, and the management of scolding too needs to be looked into. Thanks for reading this blogpost, kindly scroll down, read all other posts, click on older posts if required and please recommend this blog to your acquaintances.

Entrepreneurship and epigenetics

2011-02-13T14:36:00.008+05:30

ABOVE IMAGE FROM HERE.
Opening quote

Michael Porter the famous management expert says:

if a company makes above average profits when compared to the industry average of profits, then the company has a sustainable competitive advantage. A company achieves sustainable competitive advantage through three means:

a) cost leadership strategy: the firm delivers same quality and service at a lesser cost. This could be through efficient processes, cheaper raw materials or other value engineering means.

b) differentiation strategy: the product or service ie., value offering of a company has unique qualities that customers pay extra for it. A patented product is an example of a differentiated offering. Technology or superior quality helps in differentiation, that helps command a premium for it. Thus, differentiation strategy provides a platform for higher growth of profits.

c) niche market strategy: here, the enterprise focuses on a narrow market segment and becomes the biggest fish in the smaller pond and achieves higher profits.

Whichever the strategy a business enterprise uses, it requires the quality of ENTREPRENEURSHIP to succeed. Firms requires the buzz - ideas, they need to be driven to take chances, firms should be energetic and nimble. Entrepreneurship within organizations at all levels helps firms survive and grow.

Entrepreneurship and epigenetics

Epigenetics: Conrad Waddington (1905 to 1975) is said to have coined the term epigenetics in 1945. Epigenetics refers to a phenomenon where there are heritable changes in gene expression without changes in DNA sequence.

What this means is as follows:

We are commonly aware that a gene is a code on the DNA. A gene is a unit of heredity. A small part of DNA is a particular gene:
The above is a part of a DNA which is a unit of heredity (ie., gene). It codes for some trait, for eg., colour of the eyes.

We normally understand that this part of DNA (ie., gene) is responsible for the characteristics in the offspring or the individual.

Today, science has established that the expression of the genetic trait can change; even though the DNA sequence has not changed! So the blueprint DNA is not the only responsible factor for genetic expression. So the person may have a DNA code for blue eyes, but it may not be expressed due to epigenetic changes.

Let us say, there is a gene responsible for hereditary diabetes in a person. However, the expression of this genetic trait (to cause hereditary diabetes) need not take place even though it is in the genes of the offspring! That is what the field of epigenetics says!

Genome is the entire set of hereditary information in the organism. The genome and - the dietary or nutritional or environmental factors interact, this shapes and influences the genome. This is to say that nongenetic factors interact and influence how the genes behave.

Eg., even if the genetic predisposition to obesity is not there, the lifestyle - diet - other environmental factors influence the genetic function, and the net result may be that the person becomes obese (even though genetically he or she is not inclined to be obese!)!

What this goes to say is that GENES are not everything, there is a phenomenon called epigenetics that influences genetic functioning, gene expression, and consequently onset of disease or expression of traits.

Epigenetics presents the power of change, above the level of genes! It represents an intervention that can change things for the better. Thus, even if a person is predisposed to Alzheimer's disease (AD), through an understanding of epigenetics, one can intervene through dietary or nutritional or other factors and influence gene expression, and thus can potentially prevent occurrence of AD in an individual. Epigenetics literally means "above genetics".

Epigenetics represents hope. Epigenetic changes are responsible for health and disease. DNA methylation (a chemical reaction where methyl group is introduced in to the DNA), is a epigenetic change and is thought to be responsible for diseases like inflammatory bowel disease. Epigenetic changes can be corrected through nutritional interventions like folic acid supplementation. In epigenetics, non-genetic factors cause genes to behave differently.

Genes code genetic information. But this is only one part of the story!!

Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship is about converting innovation in to economic goods/services through business and financial acumen. Entrepreneurship provides hope by filling market gaps through value. Entrepreneurs make profit through their entrepreneurial activities.

However, for every successful entrepreneurial story, there are scores of entrepreneurial losses. It is a part of the game of entrepreneurship! For every Big Bazaar (supermarket) success story, there is a Vishal (supermarket) that is in loss!

This is like epigenetics! Even if it is not in the genes, epigenetics can change the story coded in the genes!! Even if entrepreneurship is not coded in organizational DNA, it can be induced!! Entrepreneurship can change things in the market unexpectedly! Entrepreneurship is the game changer, like epigenetics!! Entrepreneurship is the cardinal tenet of business.

Closing quote:

Business has only two functions: marketing and innovation - Milind Kundera

The moral of the story is that entrepreneurship is required to get the competitive advantage in today's fierce marketplace. Even if entrepreneurship is not there in the DNA of the organization, taking a leaf from epigenetics - is a ray of hope! Epigenetics changes gene expression!! Entrepreneurial business culture can be injected in to any organization to change organizational expression!! Thanks for reading this blogpost, please scroll down and read all other posts, click on older posts as and when required, please recommend this blog too!

Competitive edge

2011-02-06T15:54:00.005+05:30

Above portrait of Sun Tzu from here.

The present era is of fierce competition between marketers, yet this competition is still in its first lap! PICTURE BAAKI HAI!! (There is more to come!!). The typical pharma marketing attitude, one can say by rote, is to make a copycat pharma product brand, appoint MRs, offer them handsome incentives, and promotional inputs like samples, literatures, gifts, sponsorships, and deals with doctors.

Recently, while talking to a pharma front line MR who is neck deep in to such 'wheeling and dealing with doctors,' he said to me that the 'bait sentence' was:

"So, doctor, what are you planning to purchase in the near future?!"

The doctor will take the bait and put forth his plan and together the MR and Dr. will 'work out' the financing plan for the same and the returns in terms of Rx or sales commitment from the doctor! So this is the world of MR centered fierce competition of the pharma market!!

The next question is: Will the above pharma marketing attitude suffice to provide the competitive edge to pharma companies?

There are other interesting options - primarily top-management driven approaches (below) that can help add horsepower to the pharma marketing approach!!

To fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence.
Supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting.
- Sun Tzu

The following approaches are in the spirit of above quote of Sun Tzu, they are beyond oneupmanship type of marketing. These approaches provide superior competitive muscle that can break the competitor activity 'even without fighting'.

Palmtop based call-by-call reporting

A device that can potentially revolutionize MR working is palmtop based call-by-call internet enabled reporting. Cipla is trying out laptop based real time internet enabled reporting. As soon as a doctor call is over, the field person is expected to despatch the call report. If palmtops or such gadgets are used for call-by-call reporting, one can capture many aspects of call activity instantly and also ensure that the MR gets to the field daily! It helps reduce the manipulation and false report activity to the minimum.

However, to implement any such gadget based reporting system, the requirement is a lot of training and tact. It also requires great maturity among the managements of companies. For one, to implement such a system, a lot of investment will be required on the infrastructure, secondly, one will have to pay the field persons competitively to ensure that there is diligent application of the gadget during field activity and that there is sufficient positive reinforcement for the MR to do it.

If the MR perceives the use of such gadgets as draconian and policing, it will lead to a new set of problems. Hence, implementation of gadget based call-by-call reporting requires great tact and sufficient maturity in the organizational culture. It is a HR challenge to create new organizational cultures!!

Nevertheless, the call-by-call reporting system has the potential to transform the way of field work.

Database marketing

Hand-in-hand with gadget based call-by-call reporting is the need to have a robust IT enabled database department. The department will not only have the onerous task of collection and analysis of reports, the database department can also help create a new ecosystem of database marketing.

For eg., if the MR call report says, "Dr., interested in Brand A, but wonders about the side effect on liver", the database department can instantly provide feedback to the doctor or through the MR on the side effect profile. Database marketing can potentially offer significant real-time value and enhance efficiency and effectiveness of field calls.

Another contribution of database marketing can be in relationship marketing. If the database marketing department provides the list of birth dates of doctors in a month, the tour-plan of the MR can be appropriately planned, to ensure excellent CRM (Customer Relationship Management).

Database marketing department is a "homework department". The departmental work here is detail-driven. Yet these details can help transform business results for a pharma company.

Balanced score card (BSC)

Invented way back in 1992, by Kaplan and Norton, the BSC breaks down the organization's strategy in to quantifiable goals and measures activities against it. BSC focuses on measuring. 'You get what you measure' is a management saying! The BSC starts with the vision, mission, then strategies, tactical activities and the metrics.

The BSC's specialty is that it provides an ALL ROUND VIEW of the business. The BSC has four key dimensions:

a) The financial perspective: how do we look to shareholders and stakeholders?
b) The customer perspective: how do we look to customers?
c) Business process perspective: how effective are we internally?
d) The learning and growth perspective: how can we change and improve?

The use of BSC in an organization removes the hyperfocus on MR centric working and creates a wholistic picture for marketing improvements. The ALL ROUND VIEW is what one gets through the BSC and this creates new patterns of marketing. BSC can influence, positively, the type of products being launched, the pricing strategy, promotional approach, the distribution activities and communication mix employed.

Blue ocean strategyWhen there is severe competition, the ocean becomes blood red, thanks to the fierce marketing wars! The superior approach of marketing is swimming in calm uninfested waters (where there is hardly any competition) - ie., the Blue Ocean. This requires a new framework of thought in companies. This involves CREATING VALUE THAT TAKES COMPANIES IN TO UNKNOWN UNCONTESTED MARKET SPACES.

Dell created such a marketing approach when they took orders over phone and supplied PCs at rock bottom prices with great quality. It was a new market space discovered by Dell. This is an example of blue ocean strategy.

Another pharma company is currently creating waves through their range of refreshing electrolyte energy drinks in natural fruit juice base manufactured with aseptic technology. There is great market acceptance by prescribers. The market is virgin and truly a blue ocean. The waters are not infested with competitors.

Blue ocean strategy can come through superior processes, packagings, or products. Blue ocean lends a major competitive edge.

We see above four approaches that can create a competitive edge to the pharma company, much like what Viagra did to Pfizer! Thanks for reading this blog, please scroll down, click on older posts as and when required to read all other posts, feel free to recommend this blog to your acquaintances.

The "GADGETIZATION" phenomenon

2011-01-30T11:32:00.010+05:30

ABOVE IMAGE FROM HERE.

Dec 2010 and Jan 2011 were hectic due to organizing activities and participation in three trade stall activities viz., ASICON 2010, Delhi; AICOG 2011, Hyderabad and PEDICON 2011, Jaipur. The three events were for surgeons, obstetricians and gynaecologists, and paediatricians respectively. The events were as usual, well organized, with ASICON and AICOG setting new benchmarks of organization. Pedicon was at a very artistically attractive venue. Doctors too were very enthusiastic and the indication is that doctors are getting very professional particularly because there is a lot of competition between doctors unlike in the 80s or 90s and earlier, where doctors enjoyed monopoly markets. Today, corporate hospitals too are competing to offer medical services.

During my journey back to Bangalore from Jaipur (post Pedicon 2011) I had an interesting conversation with Dr. Deepak, Paediatrician. This young and feisty doctor practices in a rural setting. He has a high achievement orientation and ever hungry for knowledge. What is interesting is his adaptability to usage of IT concepts and gadgets in his practice.

Conversationally he said that his talk at PEDICON, Jaipur was on use of smartphones and gadgets to become a SMART PAEDIATRICIAN! Imagine this talk is not from a person of a tech savvy city like Bangalore, but from a paediatrician of a rural place ie., Tarikere (Shimoga district). This place is a town in Shimoga dist. Dr. Deepak has a 120 bed hospital here and a well established practice.

His office practice is IT enabled. All patients have a no. and this helps access their EMR (Electronic Medical Record). In fact, he provides Rx to his patients only through e-mail and as printout from his computer printer. He has a smartphone and uses the same to be the SMART PAEDIATRICIAN that he espouses.

Dr. Deepak THE 'SMART PAEDIATRICIAN' (above) at his office (with his gadgets, including his smartphone below!)

Today, it is impossible to function without electronic gadgets. Unfortunately, we at pharma (barring the big pharma companies) are yet to lap use of gadgets with aplomb. Gadgets bring in transparency, maintain records of transactions, and increase efficiency and effectiveness significantly.

Gadgets can help deliver information of value instantly to strengthen marketing communication. Gadgets can help in branding with a hi-tech and hi-touch concept. Gadgets can boost MR performance during in-clinic and in-chemist activity. For eg., a palmtop can track goods available at a chemist store, distributor premises and instantly provide the information to the company server at another location. The most interesting gadget in modern day marketing is the Tablet PC - portable and packed with info it can be used as a communication tool.

Above is a pix of the tablet PC.

Many things in life have a ripple impact. There is no directly visible cause and effect phenomenon. For eg., a scientific product newsletter seems to be a simple activity. However, when it is distributed in the market among target doctors, there is a buzz created that enhances consumption of products. These gadgets too will have such an impact.

In the coming days, conformity pressure, sales pressures from gadget manufacturers, need for trendy marketing communication devices in the market and an environment with rich use of gadgets - all this will lead to increased "GADGETIZATION" in society. In fact, in PRACTICAL PEDIATRICS UPDATE 2011 organized by a leader paediatric website, ie., pediatriconcall.com a session is being devoted to smartphones and gadgets for pediatric practice.

To make gadgets a part of one's professional life, adaptability is required. Gadgets are becoming a necessity today.

Organizational culture tidbit

OCTAPACE principle:

O openness
C confrontation
T trust
A autonomy
P proaction
A authenticity
C collaboration
E experimentation

Thanks, get Gadget Savvy, scroll down to read all other blogposts, and click on older posts for reading other posts.

Thinking cap marketing!

2011-01-16T19:45:00.016+05:30

Today's competitive market conditions call for only for one form of marketing!

IT IS 'THINKING CAP MARKETING'!!

ABOVE ARE COUGH SYRUPS IN PET (TOP) BOTTLES AND GLASS BOTTLES (BOTTOM)

Tablets in aluminum strip foil

Tablets in blister strip packaging

Tablets in Alu-Alu packaging

BELOW: EVOLUTION OF PACKAGING CONCEPTS OF MILK

Milk bottle

Milk in sachets

Milk in Tetra Pak packages

WHAT IS NEXT?

Marketing breakthroughs: this is what every company is on the hunt for! All companies are continuously working at creating marketing breakthroughs. The traditional pharma method is to invent new molecules: Atorvastatin and sildenafil citrate (Viagra) were such marketing breakthroughs for Pfizer. Marketing breakthroughs can come from various other concepts too. Even the unique shape of a tablet can create a breakthrough for a pharma marketer!

Marketing breakthroughs in pharmaceuticals can come from new generics with better therapeutic benefit or improved convenience (like Cifran OD ie., ciprofloxacin once daily)(a novel drug delivery system) or they can also come from improved convenient packagings. This can in fact 'reboot' the market for the product.

Milk (a nonpharmaceutical product) is an interesting example, which started off in cans. Then came the milk bottles for retailing milk, this was next replaced by plastic sachets ... and now Tetra Pak packages are making inroads in to the milk retailing market.

If a company can help invent or visualize the NEXT big thing ... then the company has a marketing breakthrough on its hands.

There are two ways of marketing: One is the ME-TOO approach. If a there is a successful brand of a generic, then avid pharma marketers launch me-too brands and take a share of the cake! In fact, in a protected market where the product patent was not applicable, and it was more of a seller's market, such an approach was OK, it made business sense and people made good money too!!

Now the market picture has changed with increased commoditization of pharmaceutical brands. Talking points are copy cat points, there are no real brand USPs (Unique Selling Prepositions) to differentiate pharma brands in a convincing way. Emotive differentiation too has limitations, prescribers are not easily won over today!!

So which way out?

The only way out is creating marketing breakthroughs in products. Something that truly differentiates the pharma brand from the clutter on the chemist shelves; products that can get a mindshare very easily from target prescribers.

Marketing breakthroughs need not mean new molecules, they can also represent new packagings or new ways of representing the product or new dosage formulations ... so on.

Thinking cap marketing

So what is required is a lot of thinking cap marketing across the organization to help create marketing breakthroughs!! Today only ' thinking cap marketing' works in the pharma industry!! AMEN!!

Thnks for reading this blogpost, please scroll down and click on older posts for reading all other posts!!

My scientific poster at 62nd IPC, Manipal

2011-01-02T12:17:00.010+05:30

Pharmacists in India are treated to an annual feast of pharmaceutical science, lectures, technology, and envisioning process, thanks to the concept of IPC (Indian Pharmaceutical Congress). This year, IPC was at Manipal, Karnataka.

IPC @ Manipal has warm memories for me. During the 42nd IPC, Manipal, I had not only won the second prize in the National Elocution Contest, I had also presented a paper on management. (In fact, I have represented Karnataka during my Final B Pharm, 1st Year M Pharma and 2nd Year M Pharma ie for 3 years, in the National Elocution Contest @ IPC and won the second prize twice!).

This year too, I was eager to do my 'bit' - remotely or in situ, since the IPC was at Manipal (in our own state of Karnataka, and that too at a place where I have very warm memories of IPC. Morever, our family roots are in Udupi district (Durga village, Karkala Taluk). So Manipal which is at Udupi dist., has an emotional bond with me too!!).

Accordingly, I registered as a delegate of the 62nd IPC, Manipal where I incidentally got the first registration no., and I submitted a scientific poster (seen atop). The poster was on BRAND FORTIFICATION STRATEGIES used in Pharmaceutical Marketing. The idea was to bring out the techniques used to strengthen brands in pharma marketing, since today, brands are very important assets (recollect that Piramal Healthcare sold 350 brands and just 1 manufacturing plant at Baddi for a whopping Rs. 17000 crores - to Abbott.).

Some philosophy

It is vital that pharma professionals participate wherever possible in such knowledge exchange events, either through attendance, presentations, posters, talks etc simply because knowledge exchange leads to furtherance of knowledge and strengthens the environment of pharmaceuticals.

The philosophy is that we are all fundamentally, 'children of the environment'. If the environment is rich in resources - systems - knowledge, fostering creativity, and providing impetus for individual achievements, then each person stands to benefit. Many ask, why is it that Indians succeed in America? Whereas in India, the Indian will be mediocre. The main reason is the environment - the opportunities and inputs that the American environment provides, creates successful Indians. Hence, it is in the best interests of all people that we endeavor to create an 'enabling environment'.

Since every drop counts to make an ocean, I put in my bit through registration as a delegate and a scientific poster.

The 62nd IPC @ Manipal, Karnataka was a stupendous success in terms of methodical glitch-free organization and excellent facilities. CONGRATS TO THE ORGANIZERS OF THE 62ND IPC,Manipal.

Research involves collection of data, analyzing the same (quantitatively like using statistical methods, and qualitatively), doing some experiments (testing hypothesis or seeing for repeatability). Research in fact, is not an 'ivory tower' type of activity. The practice of research methods is possible for one and all. Surely a research oriented work culture is about being scientific and inventive. Research is not something abstract. Research and development or innovation can be a part and parcel of every professional's life.

THE NEXT IPC IS AT BANGALORE!!

Empowerment marketing

2010-12-05T12:21:00.003+05:30

Above image from here.

One of the key factors for organizational successes is EMPOWERMENT. Essentially, this is a process where individuals or a community are invested with resources, decision making powers and a sense of authority. Obviously, this means making people feel responsible. Making people feel responsible for a deed or an area of operation, itself makes a difference to the person who is gaining the powers. Along with responsibility - accountability, sense of ownership and the feeling that he/she is answerable, tags along. Empowerment is a process that needs to administered with tact and training. Empowerment is surely responsible for many successes in organizations.

An interesting marketing concept is that of Tetra Pak. This is a Swedish MNC. Tetra Pak is a pioneer food processing and packaging company, they have pioneered paper or cardboard based aseptic technology packaging material too. Their approach to marketing is interesting.

Tetra Pak joins hands with companies, helps innovate and works with them to produce beverages and food products that use Tetra Pak based processing and packaging materials. More the sale of those products, more is the sale of the Tetra Pak based packaging. This way there is a symbiotic relationship between the product marketer and the packaging supplier (ie., Tetra Pak).

Tetra Pak does not manufacture or market the end products themselves at any time. They are solely bothered with sales and solutions based on their packaging materials. The result is that the packaging material helps the product manufacturer market better and make more money.

Verily, Tetra Pak is EMPOWERING the product manufacturer through his packaging systems. Tetra Pak empowers the product manufacturer with technology, expertise in processing and packaging, marketing support, new ideas, fresh knowledge, insights ... . This process of making the purchasers, of its food processing equipment and packaging materials, empowered has in turn made Tetra Pak very rich and successful too.

This is a fresh and successful facet of marketing that can be rightly called as EMPOWERMENT MARKETING.

In a similar vein, Mc Donald's and the franchisee based marketing business model owes its success to the process of empowerment embedded in marketing design. There are scores of entrepreneurs who have become multimillionaires by becoming franchisees of McDonald's.

Empowerment marketing actually provides resources and a platform for companies to tap the potential of individuals.

Imagine Mc Donald's without its franchisee or joint venture based marketing model. Certainly one can conclude that it would not have grown to its present stature if it were not for its business model based on systems, monitoring and consequent empowerment.

Empowerment is not blindly offering resources, and authority to the recipients. Empowerment is a scientific process of offering training, creating monitoring systems, constantly validating those systems, measuring, taking stock of the new challenges from the environment, and so on. Empowerment is a joint responsibility of the person(s) empowering and those getting empowered. It is a story of constant communication between the two parties, evolving win-win agreements and making the joint working 'work'.

Empowerment is about synergism: ie., 1 + 1 > 2.

Marketing is a process of empowerment: particularly, during 1950s, pharma marketers were a valuable lot to the doctors. Pharma marketers during those days (where print media was not very penetrative and electronic media were absent), brought important clinically relevant information, tools and other materials to doctors. In turn, due to the benefits, doctors would provide sales through their prescriptions. Since, the pharma marketing information and tools were offered only to doctors for prescription, it was called ethical marketing.

Today, the process of empowerment is not just through Medical Representatives. Brand touch points are available through various other media. And through all contacts prospects and customers are actually trying to get empowered through the value being delivered. Hence, marketing is a core process of empowerment.

It is a fact, I have ideated the concept of empowerment marketing and the term EMPOWERMENT MARKETING.

HOWEVER, THE WORLD OF INTERNET SHOWS THIS CONCEPT HAS BEEN THOUGHT OF BY OTHERS. Empowerment marketing is a term used by this blogger in a slightly different way.

Why does EMPOWERMENT MARKETING succeed?

Empowerment is a process that helps an individual or set of individuals go about with a SENSE OF PURPOSE. There is a sense of autonomy experienced by the empowered individual(s). This autonomy and sense of purpose when used in marketing helps the process of marketing succeed.

Bottomline: In essence, marketing should deliver value that empowers the target audience. This helps the marketing process succeed!

Thanks for going through this blogpost, please recommend this blog to your acquaintances and scroll down to read other blogposts.

Marketing is win-win empowerment

2010-11-14T16:09:00.010+05:30

ABOVE BEAUTIFUL IMAGE FROM HERE.

We live in a society with a distinct trend towards TRANSPARENCY. It is a media and information driven society. Technologies like latest mobile phones are breaking the information barrier. One can get information from the internet, media and acquaintances in a jiffy. Transparency is a result of this media explosion. Transparency is leading to an age of the EMPOWERED SOCIETY.

Concept of empowerment

Power is the ability to influence and control resources, events and behaviours. Power comes from one's competencies (ie., knowledge and skill sets) and position. When a person gains a particular position in a workplace, club, NGO, or Govt. system, the role comes with a package of associated powers. Thus, the position of the person creates an ability to influence and control resources, events and behaviours.

Empowerment is the process of investing a community or individual or set of individuals with power. This can come through mechanisms that strengthen or create new competencies or granting certain positions, when a person gains the position, he gains power. New Media (internet, mobile, social communities on the web, etc) and flow of information has created a gigantic infrastructure for empowerment in society.

This has changed social life and the game for marketers.

Marketing: which way ahead?

Marketing is a value delivery process, it stimulates consumption of goods, strengthens brand equity, and facilitates exchange processes (goods or services are exchanged for monies). When a person does not have access for information search (and thus, getting empowered in the buying decision process), the marketer has an obvious upper hand. The marketer can educate customers and influence the buying process more easily.

The situation of customers, patients and prescribers in the contemporary world is different. There is an enhanced network available for information flow. 25 years back, a GP had to book a trunk call to a city based consultant to get advice on treating tricky OPD medical cases. Today, when in doubt, the GP can give a call on the mobile and if patient is lucky, ie., if the specialist is free, the doctors will discuss the case on real time basis and institute appropriate therapy to improve the lot of the patient. In this tele-conversation, brand names get endorsed or recommended. Marketers can ill afford to ignore such mobile based or internet enabled conversations. Empowerment is not only through the pharma marketing process, there are other connecting media with prospects and customers (target doctors and doctors).

Marketing as an empowering process

In a recent conversation with an ad film maker, he asked me a basic question: Why do doctors meet MRs?

The obvious reasons are as follows:

a) MR gives positive strokes, appreciates, gives a 'face to the medicine brand', builds confidence through conversations and detailing on the brand; creates emotional bonding with promoted brand/company

b) MR positions himself (unconsciously or consciously) as a person who is there in the clinic to help the doctor provide a better service to the patient

c) MR provides freebies (samples, small compliments that help in clinical practice, books, reading material, compliment gifts that are a great help at home, sponsorships to conferences, vacation trips and so on)

d) Talking to MRs helps the doctor jog his memory. MRs act as sparks who rekindle memories of medical knowledge, this is a great help to doctors

The above list may not be exhaustive but covers most of the points.

In essence, we notice that marketing activities conducted by pharma companies through MRs or through other media are basically empowering.

The pharmaceutical company's marketing activities, enhance the power of a doctor. By promoting products, giving literatures, and knowledge material, there is a contribution to the doctor's expertise power. Freebies enhance the material power and resources of a doctor. In essence, empowerment is the final objective of pharma marketers (or other marketers).

When a customer shells out monies to purchase a product or service, on the emotional side it is for satisfaction, and on the other side, the act of purchasing, enhances power of a customer or empowers the customer.

Conclusion: The tact for marketing success is win-win empowerment!

The marketer should empower his customer through marketing or value delivery activities, and the customer should feel empowered (not weakened or exploited). This is a great lesson of marketing. When the marketing rhythm is lost, when the customer does not feel empowered, but gets a weakening feeling of exploitation, customer is displeased.

When the marketer feels that the customer has exploited the marketer and bargained too much, then again the marketing game is not win-win and there is a sense of loss in the mind of the pharma marketer.

The point is pharma marketing game is about empowerment. Both marketers and prescribers or chemist retailers are in the game of becoming powerful in each transaction. When there is win-win empowerment, there is a successful transaction.

When a MR has to provide extra sample adjustment, site facility (or extra days to retire payment) to stockist or institutional purchaser, the marketing game is a distress game, not a win-win empowerment game. When a MR feels a sense of loss, he will surely avoid gaining similar experience in the future.

This process of win-win empowerment is not just at the stockist or distributor level, it is at the doctor level too. When a MR simply does not provide any material inputs, only details and asks for prescriptions for a product, the process can go on only for some time. After sometime, the doctor will surely feel that the MR transaction is not empowering him (the doctor). That is when the doctor will lose interest in the pharma marketer. Thus, maintaining win-win empowerment relationship is the key to successful marketing.

Empowering is a process that should make both parties in the transaction feel empowered (get the feeling that they have strengthened).

Training, an empowering process

In this vein, training too is an empowering process. When training is viewed by trainees, as a process by which they are gaining strength, confidence, and power, the training modules and program will gain appreciation.

On the other hand, if trainers work to expose the weakness and ignorance of trainees, create an atmosphere where trainee feels he is facing weakening situations, the training will surely fall flat and fail to achieve its objectives.

Marketing tools are meant to empower, not distract or cause burden

Pharma marketers work hard to provide tools for selling, marketing and brand building activities. Visual aids, CDs, literatures, reminder cards, gifts, samples in special sample cache (or catch) covers and various other product promotional materials are given for the "magic bag" of the MR. If the MR feels that these inputs are mere distractions or burdensome materials, the marketing tools will fail to deliver their objective. Ideally, marketing tools should provide a sense of purposeful direction to the user, and help the MR in his in-clinic, in-stall, in-chemist and in-stockist activities.

If the front-line sales personnel or doctors themselves do not get any value from the marketing tools, they become burdensome marketing inputs. The central idea is that the value delivery marketing tools or inputs should in the final analysis create a feeling of empowerment in MRs, the front-line sales personnel, and customers (doctors, chemists, patients and stockists or distributors).

Marketing is surely becoming a process of empowerment, a process of establishing win-win empowerment through transactions. It is not just about value delivery, or facilitating exchange processes. Marketing should empower, customers and marketers alike, with mutuality.

Why are Americans very successful marketers?

If we look at contemporary or modern business history, we see Americans as the most successful marketers. They really know how to sell! Americans are constantly inventive and creating interesting products and services to sell more and market more. But why are Americans successful?

As such, with every product or service that these Americans sell, they are not there to merely satisfy the customers. In fact, their information based labeling and packaging techniques, their product communication and advertisements are all meant to make the prospect or customer feel empowered through the product/service (the customer should feel that he or she is gaining something that is going to make a powerful difference in his life and will empower him).

This is what the master marketer PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA, did when he came to India. He said Jai Hind in the Indian parliament. President Obama talked all right things: Gandhi, Swami Vivekananda ... he said the right things at Hotel Taj Mahal, Mumbai ... Obama talked about India as a super global power ... basically he, as a master marketer, made Indians feel very special ... very powerful. Obama talked about India becoming a part of UN Security Council. What a master marketing stroke!! Obama did all this to create jobs in America, to help American marketers get better access to the Indian market ... Obama did all this as a patriotic American, a loyal marketer of Americanism. Truly, the India visit of Obama was a testimony to the fact that marketing is a win-win empowerment process.

ABOVE IMAGE FROM HERE.

Hope this blogpost has created a satisfied feeling of empowerment in you, for more food-for-thought nuggets, kindly scroll down, read all other blogposts, click on older posts as and when required, feel free to empower your acquaintances by recommending my blog. Thnks in advance.

Growth addiction

2010-10-29T17:44:00.007+05:30

Above graph from here.

Growth will continue to be a desirable and indeed a necessary business objective.

- Peter Drucker

Peter Drucker, described as the Aristotle of management science, has elucidated a lot on growth. He has reiterated that able and competent management results in growth. Hence, the innate emphasis in all pharma (and nonpharma) companies on growth.

Driven by competence, the Indian pharma industry is growing!

As per MAT June 2010 IMS figures, the pharma industry is showing 20% growth (MAT value of Rs. 43823 crores). Established brands are registering good growth. Vaccine market is zooming. Antidiabetic drug market is the leading growth market segment. The June 2007 MAT value was Rs. 28841 crores and in June 2010 the MAT value of the pharmaceutical (retail) market is Rs. 43823 crores!

Managing growth is a challenge to businesses

Growth is a great motivator for employees and owners! A growing business offers hope of a better and improved future. Stagnation is killing and creates cesspools. Hence, companies and people do (or should) plan for growth and work for growth.

Growth in pharma does not come only by covering more doctors, increasing doctor call frequency, pumping in more samples, gifts and sponsorships ... there are other points that are a necessity in managing growth:

a) Process development

b) Knowledge management

c) People practices

d) DEVELOPMENT OF A VALUE FRAMEWORK AND ACTUALIZATION OF THE SAME

To understand how indisciplined growth can lead to disastrous results to society, Govt., owners, employees, and to the business as a whole ... look at SATYAM COMPUTERS! OR look at the iron ore mining industry of Bellary district (Karnataka). In both these cases, growth lacked a value framework for the organization and industry, respectively. Growth has come with a whole load of problems. There was also no value actualization at Satyam or in the mining industry.

This is why Infosys emphasizes POWERED BY INTELLECT, DRIVEN BY VALUES. At Wipro too, the six values are given a lot of emphasis. MindTree too has a value framework and emotional infrastructure in place to carry on growth.

Growth without a value framework, company culture, people practices, process development and KM (knowledge management) will lead to corruption or breakdown and other problems. Very often growth is associated only with money management, improved marketing penetration and throughput, inventory management, and physical infrastructure (like production facilities, technology etc). However, such a growth has its susceptibilities or weaknesses and can lead to several problems. Managing growth means a lot more.

Knowledge management (KM) refers to strategies and practices of organizations to access, create, identify, document and share insights and experiences. It is a very sophisticated, subtle and powerful science. The ability of KM to produce change and match employee thinking to the market thinking is very potent.

The time is ripe now in Indian pharma industry to take a leaf out from Indian IT industry to learn about managing growth comprehensively, even as IT, is today, celebrating BangaloreIT.biz. Thnks for reading this blogpost, and we warmly WELCOME PRESIDENT OBAMA AND FAMILY TO INDIA, a bit in advance!! Please scroll down and read all other posts, click on older posts, do kindly recommend this blog to your acquaintances.

Crisis management: USP of Indians

2010-10-17T16:18:00.005+05:30

SPECTACULAR! This year's Commonwealth Games, Delhi 2010 were truly spectacular and very satisfying to athletes and viewers. This year's games' were mired in controversy. One wondered whether they would take off, at all!! Anyway, all's well that ends well!!

So what is the take home message from the 19th Commonwealth Games, New Delhi, 2010? The message is that we INDIANS ARE PAST MASTERS AND (PRESENT AND FUTURE) MASTERS OF crisis management!!

When things look hopeless, you will find that Indians have an inborn quality of doing necessary jugaad or street smart innovativeness and salvage the situation. Jugaad includes frugal engineering but not necessarily strictly so. When Citibank was in a deep mess and required a messiah to salvage the situation, it was Vikram Pandit who took the bull by the horns!

India is in a permanent state of chaos. First time visitors to India are stunned by the dust, heat and general muddle. In fact, they wonder how India ticks, being in a permanent state of chaos!!?! For us, Indians, management of challenging chaotic situations, is, of course, all in a day's work!! We Indians are deeply tolerant, hence, we can take in all the chaos very equanimously!

Incredible India! Incredible health situation of India

We call this chaotic situation as unity in diversity! This diverse and chaotic environment gives us a special quality to do jugaad and try and come out of the tight situation.

Consider the mess that the disease situation of India is:

a) India has the largest TB cases in the world (23% of world's TB patients)
b) 86% of the world's diphtheria patients are in India
c) 54% of the world's leprosy patients are here in India
d) 55% of the world's malaria patients are in India

India is the well known 'capital of diabetes of the world'!

Polio (42% of world's patients are in India), tetanus and pertusis are also prevalent significantly in India. This is as per World Health Statistics 2010 released by WHO.

But this deplorable health situation seems almost implausible after seeing the fantastic opening and closing ceremonies of Commonwealth Games, 2010 at New Delhi! But the above health situation is true and represents a great continuing opportunity for pharma marketers to try and improve the health situation.

Managing crises is a second nature for us. We are sure we will be kaamyaab in bringing a turnaround in the health situation of India. For that firstly, we have to agree that there is a crisis. That is difficult for us Indians!! However, until we agree there is a crisis we will not act! Once we know that a crisis is on us, we will put the act together, that is how we Indians behave! Otherwise ... chalta hai!!

Today the fact is that India is booming. Economic liberalization has created an economic resurgence. Yet, it was not a proactive liberalization policy that was brought in! We were shamed, way back in 1991, when IMF (Indian Monetary Fund) bailed out a bankrupt India. This forced the Govt. of India to liberalize and galvanize the Indian economy. This caused growth of Indian economy.

We should hit a crisis - only then do we wake up! That is why we Indians are great at crisis management - the evidence is the Commonwealth Games, 2010!!

Crisis means an unpredictable event has occurred and it needs to be managed. Today, we are sitting on a major silent health crisis. Private entities and Govt. bodies need to take on the challenge facing India before it becomes recognized as a crisis issue. It is a silent crisis today, but when international organizations start coming in to India, in a major way to save the health situation of India, we will only be collaborators with these entities. Global healthcare NGOs are seeing a big opportunity in India. Will we Indians require international attention and guidance to improve our healthcare situation or can we do it ourselves?

Thanks for reading this blogpost, please scroll down and read all other blogposts, click on older posts as and when required. Please feel free to recommend this blog to your friends.

Communication mix in pharma marketing

2010-10-10T19:22:00.004+05:30

Above image from here.

One interesting observation of people who take a fresh view of pharma marketing or when a new person looks in to pharma marketing, he observes that the communication mix is heavily tipped in favor of PERSONAL SELLING.

The next important element of the communication mix, particularly in India is SALES PROMOTION (providing cash discounts or bonus offers), to retailers and stockists (not to patients). Nevertheless, there are some interesting new parts of communication that are gaining traction like mobile based messaging, and POP (point-of-purchase) promotional activities. Pharma companies are definitely seeing the importance of various other communication systems hitherto not emphasized in pharma marketing.

The traditional view of pharmaceutical communication is providing an emphasis on the following elements:

1) Personal selling: this element of the communication mix gets the maximum focus in pharma marketing, MRs are appointed who are trained to provide the personal selling function.

2) Sales promotion: mind you, the focus of sales promotional offers unlike FMCG marketing is solely the retailer (and to some extent the stockist ie., wholeseller), almost never the patient!!

3) Advertising: is a useful input of the communication mix in pharmaceutical marketing. Pharmed established its new concept products in the 1990s ie., glucosamine based products solely through slick print advertisements in medical journals. Advts. continue to be important for providing information and provoking prescription flow.

4) Direct marketing: was employed by Cipla (it is being done to some extent by them even now), when they had some problems in personal selling function. In fact, the mailers and inputs provided through direct marketing was so impressive, doctors would wait for the material to arrive through mail or courier.

IF PERSONAL SELLING IS A PROBLEM DUE TO TERRITORY DISTURBANCE OR LACK OF MRs OR LACK OF WORKING BY MRs OR UNIONISM OR LACK OF QUALITY COMMUNICATION BY MRs, then direct marketing is an important approach to supplement or substitute personal selling and keep the marketing game on! Some marketing is always better than bad or no marketing!!

Direct marketing is an interesting approach. Firstly, it is not a foot-in-the-door type of approach. It respects the target person's privacy. It gives a freedom to the doctor to go through the mailed material at his leisure.

Often management personnel think that mailers received by doctors go to the waste paper basket directly without them being opened. This is not wholly true. It depends on the corporate image of the sender. For instance, when the then Glaxo and Cipla would send mailers doctors would value them - content in the mailer makes the difference.

When the content is plainly uninteresting then it is obvious doctors will loath mailers. Direct marketing mailers are not a failure approach, but the content being inferior makes the mailer approach a failure.

To put the above point in right perspective, imagine a slothful and unimpressive MR, will he be encouraged by the doctor? Just because the quality of the MR is poor, can we conclude that personal selling function based on MR is not useful in product promotion?

On the product promotional horizon, the personal selling function is getting challenging, MRs are not committed as before, quality MRs are difficult to get, the no. of MRs is getting a tad too crowded in the market ... so which way out?

Already, people are putting their money on sales promotion. But that is not going to be enough. Still more options of the product promotional mix need to be used to ensure best returns for the marketing buck. These options include targeted direct marketing, POP promotion, advertising, trade stall promotion ...

The Indian healthcare market

The Indian healthcare market including pharmaceutical market is looking up. 18% growth is assured. There is a lot of scope for market penetration. The need for pharma products and healthcare services is growing day by day. The Indian pharma retail market of about Rs. 45000 crores is growing at 18%! The media labels it 'steroid growth'. This pot of honey is attracting many entrepreneurs.

The usual approach to the pharma communication mix will out date the marketing game of pharma companies. With the personal selling function getting hotter in the Indian pharma market, it is inevitable that all other elements of product promotional mix will gain in importance.

Optimizing the marketing funds

If you have Rs. 10/- how will you distribute it among the elements of the pharma communication mix? This will be the real challenge ahead in pharma marketing. Marketing money allotments will only increase with competition become fiercer. How to optimize, how to expand communication activities? How to transform pharma marketing communication activity? There are a lot of interesting challenges ahead! Will making visual aids, literatures, allotting samples, gifts (big and small), providing schemes or bonus offers to retailers (of which much is gobbled by wholesellers, ie., the retail offers may not percolate down completely), alone suffice? Grappling with these questions is essential to pharma companies to survive and grow profitably in the future market!

Thnks for reading the blogpost on communication mix and how it may evolve in the future in Indian pharma market! Please scroll down to read all other blogposts (click on older posts as and when required), do recommend this blog to your friends.

Mind, a craving organ

2010-10-03T10:54:00.007+05:30

Above image from here.

The intangible is often taken for granted! I recollect a conversation with a leading paediatrician of Bangalore sometime back. In addition to paediatric practice, he offered customised books or journals for pharmaceutical companies, who then would provide the same to doctors, as a service. Once when we were involved in a transaction, I requested him to provide the articles in CD form, the printing would then be taken care of by the pharma company. However, he insisted on providing the final printed journal. The reason was simple, he said:"Sunil, in India, the intangible intellectual property does not have value!! Business people give maximum value only to tangible things! So intangible contributions are most often discounted or taken for granted. So it is better I supply the final book product"!! How right!! The intangible is particularly in the Indian context almost always discounted or taken for granted ... just like the mind - an intangible organ.

Mind, a craving organ

The mind is defined as originating from the brain. The most important attribute of this intangible organ is that it is a craving organ. There are several cravings in this organ that direct the human behaviour. These types of cravings include: recognition, wealth seeking, working for higher stature in life, security, rich foods, nutritious foods, entertainment, frequent sex, alcohol consumption or thrill seeking.

Recently, I came across a very interesting medical event. A gentleman was afflicted with uncontrolled diabetes. Finally, he had gangrene of the foot. The doctor seeing the condition advised immediate amputation, if this was not done, the prognosis was bad - the patient would die in a month's time. The patient haughtily refused surgical treatment, went in for Ayurveda and other alternative treatments, that provided mixed results. Unfortunately, he passed away yesterday.

On deeper analysis, it is evident his mind directed him not to seek surgical treatment, for whatever reasons. He had this craving to avoid surgical treatment and seek alternative nonsurgical treatment. This craving did him in. That is the power of cravings!!

So the bottom line is that cravings (in the mind) direct human behaviour and they create different experiences for him/her.

Making a choice

Cravings are inevitable attributes of the mind. Some mind researchers classify only the higher mental functions like reasoning and memory as attributes of the mind. Nevertheless, cravings are a part and parcel of mind.

With one's mind we can exercise our imagination and create a smörgåsbord of cravings, these can range from plain to exotic. The ability to choose a particular craving requires the function of will, intelligence and knowledge.

BUT WHY ALL THESE PHILOSOPHICAL RUMINATIONS?

Marketers depend on these cravings!

If the patient does not have a craving to get better, if the doctor does not have a craving to heal his patients, where will we pharma marketers go?!

Delivering competitive value that satisfies the cravings is very important

Take for example, the success of electrolyte energy drinks in Tetra Pak concept, in India. The craving in the patient was that paediatric and other patients need to get in electrolytes, safe water, energy, and the patient should enjoy the experience. Tetra Pak technology provided aseptic technology that made the product ultra safe. The fruit juice base enhanced palatability and ensured patient delight. When the patient was delighted so was the doctor!! This superior value was the best competitive offering in the market - for offering fluids to weak and dehydated patients. Hence, the above product concept has succeeded.

Making superior value offerings is always fraught with risks. Innovations to enhance value can be risky prepositions. If they click, there is a bonanza for the pharma marketer. If it bombs, there is a big loss.

Recently, Crocin suspension innovated. They have for the first time launched a child resistant cap for the bottle. But those who have used it will know, what a pathetic innovation it is. If a patient buys it, he will never buy Crocin suspension again! Opening the cap is not easy, and it gets locked so firmly that it is not possible to reopen the bottle!

Hence, innovation to improve value offerings is always risky that can hurt if it backfires in the market!

The electronic industry is always in a race to offer better and improved value offerings. After the LCD TV, came the HDTV and now the rage is 3 D TV! Value offering is the sum of all brand experiences of a customer. If the value offering is superior to competitor brands, then the customer will be satisfied or delighted.

In pharma marketing, delighting the doctor is the key, rather than delighting the patient!

Traditionally, pharma marketing is always about making service offerings to doctors who prescribe the brand. The content of the value offering to doctors includes regular calls by MRs and field personnel, positive strokes and praises by field personnel, clinical reports, trial summaries, samples to try on the patient (because seeing is believing), and freebies (small gifts, large gifts, and sponsorships) to delight the doctor. More delighted the doctor, more the prescription flow in favor of the brand, and more the sales of the pharma brand.

The other entity is the pharmacist or chemist, who needs to be plied with retail offers to delight him. Or the chances of brand substitution is greater. Hence, the chemist should also be kept happy.

With patient empowerment improving slowly, there are small changes where patient may demand for a particular brand. However, patient consciousness (patient is the one who actually pays for the pharma product) on pharma products is still very low. Product performance should delight the patient to ensure doctor is confident on the pharma product.

Competitive value offerings ensure that cravings in the market, change constantly. Accordingly, pharma marketers should reinvent value offerings to ensure customers are delighted in an ever dynamic market place. There was a time where doctors had very low cravings from pharma marketers. They only wanted regular calls and some samples and a small gift every now and then. Today, competitive value offerings from pharma marketers has created a lot of new cravings in doctor customers. These need to be understood and accordingly serviced!

Cravings are a part of life since the mind is life! A craving-free mind is a philosophical target reached by very few. Marketers, markets and products/services are always in demand, because cravings are ever growing and changing. Cravings make markets!

Hope this blogpost has satisfied your present craving for a nice read! Feel free to talk about my blog with your acquaintances and scroll down (click on older posts, as and when required) to read all other posts.

Transformational leadership

2010-09-18T19:27:00.003+05:30

Above image from here. Winston Churchill was an inspiring leader. He galvanized people BY showing a vision. Churchill transformed attitudes of people, creating a following.

Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference - Winston Churchill

There are said to be two types of leaderships:

a) transactional leadership
b) transformational leadership

Transactional leaders are the typical good managers, who with integrity ensure that transactions are perfect, they ensure order in business transactions, and often leave things slightly improved or as they were.

Thus, in a pharmaceutical company, if the typical attitude is to check the ORG (or IMS) market figures, try to find out the best selling branded generics, then the transactional leader puts the typical new product (ie., new brand of a generic) launch process in motion. The transactional leader ensures launch of a 'new product' (ie., new brand of a generic):

- in glitzy packing
- with minimum 50% bonus offer to chemist retailers
- provides sales pack as samples to MRs for ensuring availability of product at retailers
- regular physician's samples with an attractive cache (or catch) cover
- a visual aid with big brand name some supporting lines, UV spot lamination for the pack shot, and a flap or some other attention getter on the visual aid
- literatures
- launch gifts
- special gifts linked to no. of prescriptions generated or order purchase (by dispensing doctors)
- launch incentive scheme to MRs and field staff

The transactional leader does this by rote. And ensures incremental increase in business. If board members are happy with the ROI (return on investment) it is business as usual, all are very happy, the picture is hunky dory!

But in today's pharma scenario is this approach enough? It is after all safe., time tested ... BUT ... BE WARNED ... this transactional leadership based business model will have limitations and will cause strain on pharma enterprises. This is not a doomsday prediction! It is reality. It is being pragmatic.

TAKE A LEAF FROM THE ELECTRONIC INDUSTRY.

The electronic industry is always in a tizzy. There are tech innovations firing up new product launches. There is no scope for cocooning in transactional leadership. People are always trying to look at

- creating CHANGE (rather than getting run down by change in the industry)
- being INNOVATIVE (doing something new, adding value and improving the competitive offering)
- encouraging ENTREPRENEURIAL attitude (calculated risk taking, not pulling down people with ideas)

Knowledge, renewal and vision

When organizational knowledge is encouraged and strengthened, when robust intra-enterprise systems share knowledge with employees and stakeholders, when there are animated discussions, ideas are thrown around, the churning creates vitality, renews the organization, and the automatic result is ... visions of, what to go for.

The above scenario is distinctly different from a transactional environment. There is questioning, a process of inquiry, deep thinking, knowledge and idea sharing, questioning established paradigms ... this is the very different environment of transformation.

Microcosm and the macrocosm

The microcosm and the macrocosm are inter-connected. A business enterprise is a part of the societal framework. A firm cannot function inured from changes sweeping society. If there are a lot of transformations going on in society in general, they will impinge on the enterprise too. The microcosm is after all a reflection of the macrocosm.

There are sweeping changes in marketing communication, customer connect, messaging, and customer aspirations in the pharmaceutical and healthcare industry. So will a transactional environment of a business enterprise suit the transforming marketplace?

It is time to wake up to a new order of transformational leadership in pharmaceutical organizations. The well established SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures) will not suffice!

Thnks for reading this blog ... scroll down for more no. of motivating blog posts ... spread the word that this blog is a worthy read! BONJOUR!!

Survival instinct and tactile branding

2010-09-09T15:26:00.001+05:30

To try and survive is an instinctive thing! However, self destructive habits can kill the survival instinct. Anything that goes against the survival instinct is self destructive!!

Employee success

To attain success, growth or survival in organizations, it is not the work related behavior alone that matters. There are many other behavioral patterns that arise from high adaptability - in fact; this is responsible for employee survival or success. The intensity of adaptability is again directly proportional to the intensity of survival instinct.

In work environments, there are many attributes an individual needs to adopt for survival, growth and success. This is in spite of the fact that the constant environmental changes may go against an individual’s conditionings, likes and dislikes - but adaptation to environmental changes is critical for the individual’s survival and success.

Changes in the work environment

Let us say, an intense work culture is practiced by an individual for many years. Then one fine day, a series of changes in the work environment happen due to either change in the bosses or owners or when a new generation of leaders’ take over. As part of the new changes, let us say it is not just work related behavior that becomes important. There are other nonwork related behaviours that also become important. So what does the employee do in this changed context?

Eg. 1: A new expatriate boss comes in. This guy believes in ‘work hard and play hard’. So he starts weekend parties for key employees. So this causes new strain on his reportees and key employees. They have to start accommodating weekend parties and other party related social skills to ensure survival, success and growth. Employees who have never played card games, or taken liquor, or cracked typical party jokes, or learnt and practiced party etiquette will have to now start indulging in the same.

How will the employee change and adapt to the new environment?Only through the survival instinct (of the employee)!

Eg. 2: Let us say a new senior expatriate boss comes in. This guy has a fancy for taking morning walks on the beach and countryside walks during weekends. Well, then ... starts a new chain of behavior patterns among key personnel and important employees. They would also have to start walking in the morning and go for long walks in the countryside during their weekends!!

Learning and adapting to this new behavioral pattern is important if the employees have to thrive and succeed!

Eg. 3: Now let us say, a new senior management person takes over, and starts a package of annual extracurricular competitive events like carom, chess, quiz, memory test etc for engaging employees.

The employees who have been for decades practicing only work related behavior (and have not played memory test or cricket or any other event for decades will have to now start adapting to this change to participate effectively); they will have to suddenly adapt to this change and start participating in the same, either by organizing or by participating in the events or at least by being the audience for the events.

This type of adaptability is important for survival, success and growth. So how will this change in the employee, particularly in theconditioned senior employees, come? This change will come only if the employee’s adaptability is high and survival instinct is sharp!

So the bottomline is that an intense survival instinct is a must for individuals and organizations.

This almost ‘animal like instinct’ will make a person/organization adaptable, and hence he/she/organization will learn new behaviours’ required for survival, growth, and success.

Organizations and their instinct for survival

Organizations can thrive if the collective instinct for survival and consequent adaptability is sharp. The ability to respond to environmental changes, and give appropriate responses through learning, is adaptability. The trait of adaptability is related to the survival instinct. When organizations have a sharp instinct for survival there are changes such as:

a) learning new technologies
b) doing business in new ways
c) investing in new production machinery and producing superior products
d) adopting new marketing techniques and tools to connect with new markets and present markets in a value added manner

Aging and adaptability

Aging is not just physical - it is also a state of mind. When an individual does not have the will or faculty to learn, for adaptation, we can say, age is catching up with the individual.

This logic applies to organizations too. When organizations remain in a comfort zone, have blocks to gaining knowledge or experimenting with knowledge, well then, the organization is aging! Organizations that lack the ability to adapt ... age!

Aging causes weakness, infirmity, lack of energy, loss in stamina, aboulia (loss of will power) and susceptibility to disease! Organizations, in the same vein, are also susceptibile to aging if organizations lose the ability to adapt!

In the contemporary pharma world, the adaptable organizations understand the importance of brands!

Brands too require the survival instinct!

Brands need to have adaptability for survival and growth or success in the marketplace. For this brands need to have a survival instinct.

It would be more accurate to say that brand marketers need to have an intense survival instinct and consequent adaptability... only this will help their brands flourish!

Materialization of brands

One important component of brand management that is contributing to success of brands is, materialization of brands.

Brands are often thought of as intangibles. Brand image is all about the emotional connect, look and feel ... so what is materialization of brands?

Tactile dimension of brands

Materialization of brands refers to consciously increasing the materiality of brand communication. It is about making brands less abstract. One way of doing this is by focusing on the tactile dimension of brands.

Tactile branding

Tactile refers to the sense of touch. The brand's perceptibility to touch is increased in the communication. This means making the brand more tangible and tactile (on the dimension of touch), ensuring that brands create a memorable experience.

Pharmaceutical marketing has always been quite strong on tactile branding. Sampling, collection of clinical experience reports, and case studies are key examples of tactile branding in pharmaceutical marketing.

However, the tendency of brand marketers to resort to gifting at the cost of tactile branding is another pitfall.

Nevertheless, tactile pharmaceutical brand marketing is challenging because the consumption of the pharma brand is by the patient (not by the doctor).

However, the electrolyte energy drink brands being marketed enjoy a distinctive advantage. It is possible for the marketers to increase tactile brand marketing simply because the doctor can also consume the samples of the product. The doctor can rarely do this with other pharma brands.

Tactile brand marketing is a very strong reinforcer of purchase and prescribing habits. Yet for pharma marketers it is difficult to indulge in tactile brand marketing as the drug is normally not consumed by the doctor.

Let us say, you meet a paediatrician to market your brand of paracetamol suspension. Let us also assume that the brand being marketed by you is superior in taste and flavor compared to competitor brands. But how will the doctor appreciate this? Perhaps only through patient feedback.

On the other hand, let us say, the savvy pharma marketer prepares a dummy formulation (one without the drug, having only the flavor) and the marketer makes the doctor taste a spoonful of the flavored dummy product. The likelihood of the doctor appreciating the formulation benefit of better flavor and taste, is more with this method of TACTILE BRAND MARKETING (which involves touch and other senses)! And this will perhaps increase the prescription flow in favor of the marketed brand.

Another dimension of tactile marketing is preparing a flavored product (without the drug) of the competitor brand. And make the target doctor taste (touch, get a feel!) this ugh! flavor and then follow it up with a sample containing the better flavored product. The target doctor gets to appreciate the superior taste through tactile marketing instantly!

Thus, success is possible by increasing the materialization of brands, and enhancing focus on tactile branding.

Let us say, you have a pharma product that is very clear - like crystal clear water. So one marketing approach based on tactile branding is to offer complimentary premium crystal clear drinking water in bottles as gifts to doctors! This will make the doctor appreciate the quality of clearness in the pharma product, through this tactile brand marketing route. Here the water bottle acts to create a touch between the marketed brand and the doctor.

To adopt new learnings, one requires adaptability at the individual and organizational level. Adaptability depends on the intensity of survival instinct. Hope this blogpost has helped you in your quest for successful survival and growth. Please read all other blogposts by scrolling down, clicking on older posts, and kindly recommend my blog to your acquaintances!

Alienation

2010-08-22T13:40:00.006+05:30

Above image from here.

Organizational success undoubtedly depends on its people. By people we mean their activities - verily, their involvement. When involvement is high, activities are done with a lot of enthusiasm. A low involvement employee performs activities mechanically - as a chore. Enthusiastic activities of involved personnel help generate better organizational outcomes.

Alienation

The opposite of job involvement is alienation. If there is low job involvement, the implications to organizations include:

a) absenteeism
b) employee apathy
c) deliberate sabotage
d) strikes
e) go slow work campaign
f) lack of enthusiastic customer service (For eg., a MR who is very involved, is likely to ensure doctor requirements are serviced in a timely manner. However, a MR who has a lackadaisical attitude will not service doctors appropriately).
f) other forms of employee resistance.

The real challenge for managements and managers is to generate high involvement in a continuous manner. It is a situation where employees willingly and enthusiastically work towards company objectives. Low job involvement or alienation will not produce such an employee behavior.

Overcoming alienation

There is no single formula to generate high job involvement. Some of the factors that help generate involvement and avoid alienation:

a) Cultural background of candidate: In various cultures, work ethic is interpreted variously. In certain cultures, work is itself considered a reward, there is intrinsic reward in the work being performed. In other cultures, extrinsic rewards help produce required work behaviour patterns and involvement. Hence, while recruiting if possible it is important to assess the work ethic dimension of applicant. A candidate who places high value on the work itself is usually a better candidate.

b) Socialization and training process in the organization: The way the new employee encultures in to the organization is the key to successful work behaviour. If the new employee sees low job involvement as an inner organizational trend, the new inductee is likely to pick up such cues and get accordingly ingrained. For eg., certain companies have a club like atmosphere, others have an atmosphere that encourage boss-pleasing, and so on... It is during the entry and socialization experiences that an employee picks up company specific traits. Socialization and training inputs help shape new employee attitude in line with company values, and objectives.

c) Self actualization, social need and security need: High job involvement generated by the organization tends to encourage self actualization or the need for employee to tap his or her potential. The enterprise that helps strengthen the individuality of the employee will be better appreciated by the employee, this generates high involvement. Organizations that have systems to provide security and social needs of employees will tend to generate higher employee involvement. The trick is that the organization should be viewed as a purposeful platform for meeting certain important individual needs.

d) Job enrichment: When jobs become repetitive and boring, casualness and alienation seeps in like a silent thief. It is imperative that organizations institute training and upgradation skills that help employees enrich their jobs. Interventions that encourage job enrichment (such as new tools for job execution) will prove useful in increasing job involvement.

e) Isolation, meaninglessness and normlessness: Jobs that encourage social isolation - that do not strengthen self esteem of employee will see higher degree of alienation. This in turn causes higher employee turnover.

Jobs should ideally imbue a sense of meaningfulness in the employee. A MR who sees his job as helping transform the prescriber's practice in a meaningful way, and a MR who gets a sense of success by converting prescribers, will obviously be more successful. On the other hand, when a MR sees his job as a mere routine, and will not see any challenge or meaning in his vocation, will experience a greater sense of alienation, affecting organizational fortunes negatively.

Norms of a job should guide the employee behaviour and help the employee realize his individual goals. If the job norms do not help employee reach his social and professional goals, the employee is most likely to abandon the job with a sense of normlessness.

e) Coping mechanisms: Coping with the challenges of jobs and the sense of alienation that jobs may create should be understood by managers. Effective coping strategies should then be taught so that employees learn how to cope with the alienation and eventually become more involved.

f) Motivational programs: are becoming increasingly important in organizations, as the market place has become very dynamic. Motivation of employee leads to improved job involvement, reduced alienation and better organizational outcomes.

Pharma enterprises today face significant employee challenges. Adequately trained personnel are not picking up pharma jobs particularly in the sales field. Job opportunities in society for the educated are in plenty. Various new sectors are providing jobs to aspirants. Pharma companies have to compete in such situations and attract good candidates. Moreover, the recruited candidates should be moulded in such a way, that they show high degree of job involvement. Further, they should also stay on in the firm. Such are the challenges confronting managers today. This is the nettlesome contemporary pharma scene! Do pharma companies have a cogent strategy to take on the alienation bull by the horns?

Thanks for reading this blogpost, please scroll down, click on older posts wherever required for reading the older posts, and kindly do recommend this blog to your acquaintances.

Thoughts on branding

2010-08-07T20:32:00.007+05:30

THE ABOVE IMAGES FROM HERE.

The concept of branding started with branding of cattle, horses and slaves to indicate ownership (in the 1800s). However. from the end of 19th century, the concept of branding extended to various products. Branding has become a very vital component of business practice. Particularly after Piramal Healthcare Solutions sold 350 brands and just one manufacturing location for a fancy Rs. 17000 crores (3. 2 billion USD), the importance of branding in pharmaceutical industry is felt stronger.

Brands help businesses STAND OUT from the crowd. A brand is not just about a logo, name and 'look and feel', it is also an emotional connect with the target audience. Thus, managements are spending more time looking at brand concepts, brand touchpoints and brand equity or brand value. This includes product brands, service brands and corporate brands.

How may branding develop in the future?

Businesses will strengthen focus on brand equity. Increasing perceived value of brands will gain momentum. Brand management will gain traction as brand assets are becoming more important than the physical aspects of a business. If Pfizer is a valuable company, it is not because it has 'n' number of manufacturing locations, or 'x' number of employees (including field force) - Pfizer is as valuable as its brands. Period! Corex is a Rs. 200 crore brand today. Corex is the no. 1 pharmaceutical brand in India. This and other brands from Pfizer make Pfizer valuable. This logic is applicable to any other company too. Businesses are valued mainly on brand equity.

This was not the case in the 1980s or earlier. Then, the physical assets of a company had greater value. The land and manufacturing plants were providing the main value to the pharmaceutical business. Today? It is the brand equities that are adding value to the enterprise.

This trend of increasing importance of brand equity or brand value will usher in a new approach of corporate working where the emphasis will be on increasing brand values or brand valuation.

Brands gain value or equity from:

1) brand sales
2) brand profits
3) brand scalability: is there scope for the brand to grow? Can the brand value increase exponentially with future time?
4) brand image: is it respectable?
5) brand penetration: is the brand more urban focused? Is the brand more focused towards specialists?

Brands versus threats of obsolescence

In pharma industry, brands have a unique threat, ie., of getting outdated. For instance, brands of astemizole, terfinadine, cimetidine, rofecoxib ... where are they now? With the generic molecule getting outdated or being withdrawn from the market, due to adverse drug reactions, the brands also have died a premature death. For a brand marketer, it is a tragedy. With great efforts the brand marketers have worked for ensuring good BRAND RECALL in the market. Finally, with controversy dogging the generic, the brand also has to suffer premature death. All the brand marketing investments have come to a nought!

Brands are separate assets

With brands becoming more valuable than even physical assets, brands need to be protected and brands need to live longer in the market in the best interests of the pharma company. With generics becoming outdated or withdrawn, how can a company preserve the brand name?

Misbranding

This was the marketing conundrum faced by the marketers at Reckitt. Sometime back quietly the marketers changed their DISPRIN from aspirin to paracetamol. The marketing thought was that Disprin was no longer being used for headaches widely, paracetamol was the faster selling generic in this space, hence, the quiet replacement of generic aspirin with paracetamol. However, when this happened, it stirred a hornet's nest. The regulators objected to this change as it was imprinted on the mind of prescribers that Disprin is aspirin. Disprin is used as a blood thinning agent too. So the company had to do a volte face.

The pragmatic marketers of Reckitt heeding to the public outcry and comments of the drug regulators, so they launched Disprin Paracetamol as a line extension. This has avoided the allegation of misbranding too.

Line extensions the way out

The above case study of Disprin (aspirin) and Disprin Paracetamol shows the way forward for pharma companies in brand management. With brand clutter being the order of the day, resorting to line extensions is becoming a necessity. Saving the brand name in the event of a generic becoming outdated or banned is an important challenge to brand marketers. Brands are built over time through costly investments. These efforts and resources spent, should ideally not come to a nought, just because a generic is no longer wanted. The brand name of the generic is still an important asset. The brand has generated a lot of pen habit among prescribers. Line extensions is a way out to save the brand name. This is especially because brands are today, very important assets, and it is not easy to establish brands. Disprin aspirin and Disprin Paracetamol is a very interesting and pragmatic approach.

The case of Althrocin

Ask any doctor what 'heritage brand' Althrocin is, pat will come the reply, Althrocin is erythromycin. At one time, in the 1990s, Althrocin was among the top 5 pharmaceutical brands of India. Today, with erythromycin prescriptions becoming lesser due to rise in prescriptions for cephalosporins and fluoroquinolones, the brand name Althrocin has become very weak. The brand equity is a pale shadow of its glorious past. What a brand tragedy?!

POINT TO PONDER

If brand Althrocin was redefined to include all similar generics like Azithromycin, Roxithromycin, and Clarithromycin (ie., macrolide antibiotics), through line extensions, would it have helped the marketing cause of increasing brand value of Althrocin?

Unless, brands evolve with times, ensuring relevance to the target audience, the brand values will inevitably become weak. Technology has to be harnessed to prop the brand higher. Brands should extend to various types of dosage formulations to ensure the brand is still exciting and relevant. In today's context, brand marketers should not easily bury brands, just because they have become old and mature. Brand marketers should help brands evolve and remain pertinent with changing times. That is the true call of brand marketing!

Brand marketing in pharmaceutical marketing is now a greater challenge since the brand is a master asset. In the above examples, brand marketers can take brand decline lightly and be party to the 'degrowth of a brand' because the brand is getting old OR like the interesting case of Disprin Paracetamol, brand marketers can make strategic moves (such as line extensions, there are other approaches too) to ensure brands evolve with time, and that brand equity enhances with time, so that there is a good future for all brands. NOW THAT IS SOME FOOD FOR THOUGHT!

Wishing all brand marketers all success in their professional life! Please do recommend this blog to your acquaintances, kindly read all other blogposts by scrolling down and clicking on older posts when required. Trumpet the benefits of the brand, do not make the voice feeble!

The organization and marketing spirit

2010-07-31T19:51:00.007+05:30

The above image from here.

First there were governments then there are organizations!

"Young people will have to learn organizations the way their forefathers learned farming"
- Peter Drucker

Truly, it is a different world! In medical practice there was an era of the solitary reaper! In India, doctors would have to just complete their MBBS and with the help of well wishers or through Medical Representatives (who through their travel are aware of the good spots where clinics can be put up), the doctor would start a clinic and start counting the money! Is it that easy today?!

Besides competition from individual medical practitioners, a doctor (new or old) will have to face competition from medical institutions. There are medical organizations competing to offer medical services to patients. And this is changing the way medical services are being delivered, thanks to the medical organization.

Wherever you go ... there are organizations and more organizations. Peter Drucker is right in the above quote where he has indicated that it is now an organizational society. The post industrial society and the e-enabled society (internet driven or information society) is seeing a plethora of virtual and "brick and mortar" organizations.

Living in and with organizations

Life in organizations is not easy. It is not as in family (which is also an organization, in a way). The basic principle of life in organizations is ACCOUNTABILITY (which is not so very tight in families, ie., it is more flexible in families. There is scope for "free lunches" and poor ROI ie., return on investment in families. Come what may, normally families are always together - there is no sacking or leaving the organization). Besides accountability, there is the ROI factor in organizations. When organizational resources are being used for activities by individual(s) in the organization, inevitably there are formal and informal assessments of return on investments done. And it is this that makes life in organizations challenging.

Why do people join organizations?

Organizations refer to groups of people having a common purpose. At the very basic level, people join an organization to get money - for a living. This is the first level why a person joins an organization that pays him/her. Organizations provide jobs, and people need jobs. So people join organizations. There is no other easier way of earning money today.

At a slightly higher level, a person joins an organization due to his or her qualification. There is a match between the joinee's profile and organizational need. For the services rendered, the entrant to the organization is paid a salary or provided a compensation.

At a higher level, an ideological level, people join an organization inspired by the mission or purpose of the organization. Joining political parties, or NGOs or terrorist organizations (!) or even some commercial organizations that have a particular culture or inspiring purpose are such examples.

Why do people start organizations?

There are various motives why people start organizations. Typically, an unmet market need, visualized by an entrepreneur is the spark for the start of organizations. When the Indian Patents Act, 1970 came in to being (where product patent was not recognized in India, only process patents were recognized), many entrepreneurs smelt a market kill through reverse engineering and marketing branded generics. Cipla, Aristo, Alkem, Sun Pharma, Zydus Cadila etc are examples of Indian companies who grew on the foundation provided by the new market opportunity created by the Indian Patents Act, 1970.

The game has however changed from 2005. Now product patents are recognized. Reverse engineering is getting progressively more difficult. So inevitably product innovations are getting to be more important. Marketability is also gaining higher importance rather than mere selling based organizations.

The second need for starting organizations is the ego drive or power need. People like to have reportees. Individuals enjoy having people reporting to them, and having these reportees doing the organizational leader's bidding. These are the feudalistic type of organizations. The financial control of leaders in the organization provides them with the power to have and control behavior of reportees.

The third set of people who end up starting organizations are those who reach very high levels. Egs.: Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Michael Dell. They are the marketers. They create markets through their ideas and products. There are very few of them in this world, and they create organizations of maximum value. In fact, their organizations recast the business world. Their activities are paradigm shifts, their entrepreneurial and marketing work causes tectonic shifts in the business milieu. Their organizations change the lifestyle of people and the way of the society significantly.

Steve Jobs is doing this with his i series of products: the i-pod, ... and now the i-pad. In fact, in the pharma marketing news (electronic newsletter) published by John Mack: he has written nicely on how the i-pad can revolutionize pharma marketing communication activity. Ray Croc who created the franchisee business model of McDonalds - changed eating behaviour of human beings particularly in USA!! He is the marketer's marketer!! Coca Cola that started as a product sold in pharmacies, has changed the way people quench thirst and consume fluids.

Organizations, ideas, products and marketing

The question to ponder on: do organizations create super products or do super product ideas create organizations or is it a mix of these two approaches? One thing is for certain, good product ideas require organizations. Nevertheless, for the organization which revolves around a good product idea to succeed, the MOST ESSENTIAL INGREDIENT is the marketing spirit.

Marketing is not just about charismatic marketers (like Vijay Mallya or Steve Jobs or Richard Branson). Such marketing approaches that depend on the charisma of certain people will not be as effective as a marketing process driven organization. A typical company that is marketing process driven is the collossus GOOGLE. Contrast Google with the way Apple works. Apple appears to click only when Steve Jobs is around. However, GOOGLE is always clicking! Until recently or even now there are many who have not heard of Larry Page and Sergey Brin (the founders of Google). So the marketing process, ideas, great product concepts and then the organization ... these are the ingredients for success in today's world!!

In India, till 1991, the Govt. was the most important entity. After 1991, the economic liberalization process started under the guidance of IMF, which bailed out a bankrupt Indian govt. After 1991, the importance of private organizations has slowly and steadily increased. The development of new media and increased educational attainments of Indians, has further catalyzed the process. Hence, to succeed in the organizational society of India, as Peter Drucker says, we need to gain important organizational management skills! Thnks for reading this blogpost, kindly scroll down and read all other blogposts, please recommend my blog to your acquaintances.

Category killers

2010-07-05T16:01:00.006+05:30

Steve Jobs (above) is not just a product entrepreneur, he is a category inventor. Steve creates products that are 'category killers'! Apple, Mackintosh, i-pod, i-phone, i-pad ... all these products are about a new category of products. Steve's success lies in making products that meet new customer needs. He has the knack to identify the market gaps, fill them, and succeed.

Entrepreneurs aim for mega successes. They look for concepts that create something new, redefine the present, set new standards, help gain a leap in sales and provide a higher platform of performance. From where do such mega successes come?

Categories not products create mega successes

New categories are the paradigm creators. New categories create mega successes:

Ujala: the whitener for clothes
Nirma: the first mass market affordable detergent powder
Hero Honda: India's first four-stroke mobike that combined style, performance and ECONOMY, it became a runaway success
Nano, the car: from Tata has created a lot of buzz and in June 2010, Nano helped make Tata Motors become India's second largest 4 wheeler manufacturer after Maruti
Viagra: for the management of erectile dysfunction, from Pfizer, was a runaway success. Viagra was a new product, in fact, a new pharma category
Ciprofloxacin: the fluoroquinolone antibiotic was India's first twice daily effective antibiotic for typhoid and gastroenteritis, this molecule got instant acceptance from prescribers
Mineral water @ Rs. 10/-: Before the mass packaged drinking water concept, brand Bisleri was the only bottled 'mineral water'. Things changed when more manufacturers jumped in to the packaged drinking water bandwagon, and produced packaged (bottled) mineral water - this created a new category
Electrolyte-energy drink concept from Jagdale Industries Ltd., Bangalore is a category creator that has met with robust market success
Mobile phone is a category product that has altered commerce, communication and society in general, as never before. The mobile is not just a communication tool, it is an entertainment device to watch TV, listen to music, and now banks are looking towards the mobile for banking solutions. In the future, the mobile will enable those out of the banking net (right now) to be brought in. People will be able to having bank accounts via the mobile and pay through the mobile. The Indian Railways is also looking to reduce paper usage by providing the "ticket" through sms
The 'i' series of products ie., i-pod, i-phone, and i-pad are all new categories of products backed by fluent marketing

The nub of the matter is that mega success comes from category killers as illustrated above.

Category killer is a brand, product, company or service that has a distinct sustainable competitive advantage that competing firms find it almost impossible to operate profitably in that industry.

There is of course another meaning to this term: large retail chains like Wal Mart that put other smaller retailers out of business are called category killers. However, in marketing and strategy, category killer is a group of products or a product that delivers superior value and creates a category in the market. A category killer redefines the market.

Oral insulin is another example of a change champion product that can become a category killer. Biocon is working on this concept. If oral insulin becomes a reality, Type 2 diabetes mellitus becomes easier to manage, similar to thyroid disease, where oral thyroxine tablets are given. Just imagine, if management of thyroid disease was possible only through injectable thyroxine what a painful disease hypothyroidism would have been.

It is difficult to create products that have superior value that can create a new product category market. Hero Honda continues to be the evergreen example of a product that has created a new category in the market, leading to its triumph in the motorcycle market. Steve Jobs seems to have perfected the art and science of hitting the market regularly with new categories of products backed by savvy marketing.

New categories = innovation

Simply put, innovation is doing something new that is useful. It takes an interdisciplinary approach to do it. And innovation depends on competition. The need to innovate comes from the desire of an organization to exist in the market.

Innovation in the Indian pharma market

Today, the pharmaceutical industry and marketing is a demystified place. People know the tricks of the trade. There is a thriving ecosystem that provides products, this has led to commoditization, and a plethora of brands. Hence, in the Indian pharma market place the need to innovate is felt as never before. Innovation to try and create new product categories is becoming a vital strategy in the Indian pharma industry.

Thnks for reading, pls scroll down and read all other posts, clik on older posts as and when required, and kindly recommend this blog to ur acquaintances.

Making people happy

2010-06-27T15:39:00.004+05:30

Pharma marketing is tough, it is like a comedian's life! A comedian does not have the liberty to wallow in sadness, in spite of his personal troubles, because it is his duty to make people laugh. The same is with pharma marketing, whatever the troubles of the pharma marketer may be, at the end of the day, he should make his doctors, pharmacists and patients happy.

The pharma marketer's life is something like Raj Kapoor in 'Mera Naam Joker', where Raj Kapoor makes people happy despite personal tragedies:

Does it mean, pharma marketers are jokers!? No, by all parameters, they are very serious people in a very serious business, it is just that their objective is to make people happy, in spite of any personal challenges they may face from the company or at the personal level or from other market operators.

When I asked a very senior MR how to make doctors', chemists (ie., pharmacists), and patients happy, he paused and replied: 'Don't make them sad or angry!'

Well, that is interesting I thought, but the point is how to do it?! For an outsider, pharma marketing is not something you associate with happiness. Doctor's are in the serious business of treating diseased or ill patients (ie., making them better), pharma marketers offer products and services to help the doctors do that. Pharmacists or chemist shop owners want to provide the best goods and services, and earn hefty margins. So how to make all these people happy?! And is there any place for cheer in pharma marketing, after all?!

1) Two-way communication

The pharma marketing mindset is hinged on the 10/5 concept. The communication concept in pharma is to recruit a MR, give him a bag, a visual aid, lbcs (leave behind cards or literatures), samples, and small complimentaries (like Rx pads, pens, immunization cards, antenatal cards, pen stands, stationaries etc) and get him to make atleast 10 doctor calls, and 5 chemist calls per day. This the MR does on a regular monthly basis, to a preselected pool of doctors (In pharma marketing language we say these doctors are in the MR's territory). However, this pharmaceutical marketing approach, which forms the backbone of pharma marketing, can be tweaked a bit to make it a two-way process. This will engage the doctor better during in-clinic activity.

Thus, the focus of the in-clinic activity will not just be the MR's representation of talking points, and giving away of other inputs, it will be to obtain a specific feedback that gives an indication of the unmet need. This can then be followed up to delight the customer. For eg., a doctor may want a specific OBG medical journal as a gift - which may not be on offer from the company, however, if the company wants to go the extra mile and delight the doctor, then the pharma company can offer the journal gift to the doctor. This will make the doctor happy.

2) Feel-good factor through brand building efforts

Brands are covenants of trust, they are a bridge between doctors and the company, brands can delight or put off the doctor. It is interesting to note that product brands and corporate brands are very vital emotional bridges that improve business prospects in pharma industry. A doctor writes a specific brand because he feels good doing that. The doctor has confidence on the quality, safety, efficacy, and supply or availability, and other services associated with the brand. This creates the feel-good factor, and makes the doctor happy. Hence, brand building generates happiness in customers (doctors, pharmacists, and patients) and generates business.

3) Humor makes customers happy

A dash of humor, does help in the AIDA (attention, interest, desire and action) process. Humor is used to make doctors/pharmacists happy. In this story, a writer details how he uses humor as a tool to make doctors happy. The writer cites an example where he even jogs in situ to make the doctor happy! I think that is taking things a bit too far!!

4) Empathy always delights

Empathy (ability to think and feel as the customer, ie., being in the shoes of the customer) is the most vital factor that helps deliver happiness. It takes a lot of knowledge and understanding to empathize with the customer. Empathy requires listening skills and keen observational techniques, which unfortunately get buried in the need to accomplish one's own targets. Empathy leads to a refined communication that will be well received, messages better perceived, and customer delight is consequently ensured.

When one develops empathy, the direction of marketing activity is better oriented towards customer delight. Empathy requires emotional intelligence (EI). This not only implies the ability to identify and manage one's emotions, it refers to the ability to understand and manage others emotions too.

When a MR or marketing person, empathizes and takes appropriate steps, the result is: marketing that delights! So an empathetic MR will visit a doctor when the doctor is not preoccupied rather than meeting a doctor when it is convenient for the MR! The MR will provide inputs that are useful to the doctor rather than what is available with the MR. The empathetic marketing person too provides strategies and promotional inputs that are truly delightful rather than doing convenient things.

All in all, we observe, making people happy, is not easy. It invariably requires going the extra mile, and is an intense experience. Nevertheless, the pharma marketer's commitment is to move in this direction. And this makes the job challenging.

Please scroll down, click on older posts to read other posts, do recommend this blog to your acquaintances, thnks.

Continuing Pharmacy Education

2010-06-18T17:17:00.015+05:30

Continuing Pharmacy Education

The other day, my esteemed friend from Mysore, Mr. Vivek Balse, PSO, Pfizer rang me up and asked a quickie ... DOES METFORMIN INCREASE THE BODY WEIGHT OR DECREASE IT?

He wanted the answer, preferably, fast and accurate. He had confidence in me due to my identity as a pharmacist, and my qualifications. Hence, he expected a good answer from my end.

On many other occasions, when I visit my relatives or friends, health issues are discussed, lab reports, and prescriptions are shown, and they seek clarifications or explanations. The other day, my couzin, rang up and asked why the brand of sitagliptin he is consuming is costly, and why there are no cheaper branded generic alternatives. Then we had a telecon on Indian Patents Act, 1970 and its modification in 2005 to include product patents, preventing reverse engineered copycat brands.

The above are typical and regular situations that pharmacists find themselves in.

In the eyes of relatives, friends and acquaintances, a pharmacist is a trained healthcare individual and he or she expects a certain level of expertise power in a pharmacist. Hence, the image of a pharmacist depends on the way he handles such transactions.

In this context, it is unfortunate to note that we, the pharmacists, do not have a viable continuing pharmacy education program. It is all up to us to learn and keep ourselves updated. For eg., when I checked my Satoskar and Bhandarkar (a textbook of pharmacology purchased by me during my B Pharma years) there was no mention of Metformin! Phenformin was mentioned. Wikipedia did help me to learn more about Metformin. But the point is we pharmacists need a nice, inspiring, motivating and engaging continuing pharmacy education program ...

Now let us dream: !magine!! The Dept. of Pharmaceuticals, GOI, IPA (Indian Pharmaceutical Association) and PCI (Pharmacy Council of India) get together to launch a cogent annual Continuing Pharmacy Education program for pharmacists - THIS INITIATIVE WILL NO DOUBT DO YEOMAN SERVICE TO PHARMACISTS.

How can it be done?

Background

The business model of an interesting journal called Current Medical Journal (CMJ) can be used for the purpose of embarking on a Continuing Pharmacy Education program.

CMJ is a monthly published from Chandigarh. CMJ positions itself as the journal of Continuing Medical Education (CME) program to improve the day-to-day clinical practices of family physicians. It is a knowledge packed journal written by invited medical experts. CMJ claims to be the only medical journal in the world to give MCQs (multiple choice questions) for every article. CMJ is in its 16th year of publication.

CMJ, as it appears, is not a glitzy print product, publicity hungry venture, it is a quiet no-nonsense knowledge oriented journal. It is a good model for us to follow.

The suggestion here is for Dept. of Pharmaceuticals, PCI and IPA to jointly create such a monthly journal with MCQs. The proposed pharmacy journal should be general and not oriented only for clinical pharmacy, retail pharmacy, etc. It should cover all pharmaceutical topics so that the world view of the pharmacist reader expands and the pharmacist becomes a contemporary person. Topics such as biopharmaceuticals, latest developments on the regulatory front etc, should be present.

It is well known that after completing formal pharmacy education, the pharmacist becomes a frog in the well, a marketing pharmacist is more in to marketing, and a decade later loses touch with industrial pharmacy ... and so on! Hence, it would be ideal for Dept. of Pharmaceuticals, PCI and IPA to create a continuing education pharmacy journal with a global view.

So what happens after a pharmacist reader goes through one calendar year's supply (ie., 12 issues) of this journal?

Well, the subscriber pharmacist becomes eligible to write an objective cum descriptive exam on the topics covered. This exam can be conducted at various locations in India. It will also be exciting for pharmacists to gather under one roof under this pretext. Learning together becomes fun!

If the exam is internet based, you are not sure whether the examinee is copying and writing or taking help of other people. So a written traditional type of annual exam is ideal.

Why should a pharmacist write the exam?

This voluntary participation in the exam will offer the pharmacist cum continuing pharmacy education learner a chance to pass the exam and get a CERTIFICATE endorsed by Dept. of Pharmaceuticals, GOI, PCI and IPA. This certificate will certainly be worthy of displaying at the premises, or office, and the pharmacist will cherish it.

Why will such a venture succeed?

The main reason is that this CPE (Continuing Pharmacy Education) venture will provide an opportunity for pharmacists to update ... and it will fulfill many other psychological needs.

As per Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory, individuals have the following needs: physiological needs, security, social, esteem, and self-actualization. This exam and journal experience will provide pharmacists a platform for all the above needs. Hence, the success of this project has bright chance.

Security (safety): Knowledge is power! The ability to influence and control events, resources, and behaviors requires knowledge, and updated knowledge through the CPE program will improve one's sense of security!

Love/belongingness: This exam will certainly promote belongingness to the profession of pharmacy, and professional friendship. But may not promote sexual intimacy directly!!

Esteem: is an important need, and the knowledge polish that this exam can apply will make the pharmacist shine!

Self-actualization: to tap one's potential is an innate need in us. This exam will provide a power boost to the career of pharmacists.

Why should Dept. of Pharmaceuticals, PCI and IPA do it?

It is important to understand that authorities have a lot of influence. If the continuous pharmacy education student receives his certificate having PCI, IPA and Dept. of Pharmaceuticals, Govt. of India logos, then we can imagine the immense positive impact it will have on the pharmacist community.

If we examine the root of all thoughts - the single common thread is the HUNGER FOR PROGRESS in all of us. Career progress, the growth of our children, advancements in the organization, increase in family income ... and so on ... all these thoughts are centered on a common platform: progress. Certainly the CPE will make the pharmacist community progressive, it will then play a major role in educating society; empowering pharmacists through CPE is a major constructive program. I hope the Dept. of Pharmaceuticals, PCI and IPA will come together to create CPE program, and markets it well so that CPE becomes a major part of pharmacy life.

Some more progressive thoughts!

IMA: a misleading name!

I do feel Indian Medical Association (IMA) is a misleading name. IMA should actually be renamed as Indian Allopaths Association. How can allopaths take control of the word MEDICAL? This is a global name. Ayurvedic doctors, and Siddha medicine practitioners are also medical specialists. IMA is a misleading name, as it is an association of only ALLOPATHIC PRACTITIONERS.

BAP: a mantra of entrepreneurs

An entrepreneur disclosed his basic formula of business success. It was BAP standing for:

a) Bulletproofing: ensuring protection of his business process, through legal, marketing and other processes.

b) Asset value increase, including the brand asset value

c) Profits

Thanks for reading these progressive thoughts on pharmacists, IMA and entrepreneurship, please do read all other blogposts, kindly recommend my blog to your acquaintances.

Marketing and Organizational Development

2010-06-06T15:46:00.003+05:30

The above image from here.

Delivering value to the customer is now the sine qua non of organizational functioning. The value delivery system is now a pan-organizational activity rather than being a departmental function, so customer-centric marketing has become a very vital organizational activity. To deliver value an important approach is ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT (OD).

What is organizational development?

OD is a planned effort, conducted by process specialists who improve the organization's diagnostic skills, coping capabilities, create a culture of mutuality and create linkage strategies through semi permanent systems. The product of OD efforts is to improve the overall efficiency and effectiveness of the organization.

It is similar to consulting a physician, who audits the body parts and describes the state of functioning. Diseased or sick organs are then treated to improve overall body functioning.

Vision

The starting point of any organization is the vision of the founders or major stakeholders. It is of course a common thing in business enterprises that the ultimate reality is that the major stakeholders want cash ie., profits. To get that cash and a feel-good factor the major stakeholders have various organizational objectives to achieve. These are in terms of market share, sales, brand equity and ROI. However, the foil is the vision that the major stakeholders have for the organization - this vision for the organization is what drives all efforts. Clarity of vision gives rise to a clear shared value system for the stakeholders and other employees.

Values

Vision gives rise to the value system. Values are a silent driving force, an inner framework that makes a person commit to a choice from the available alternatives. The direction and intensity of effort is also influenced by the value system. Desirable or undesirable behavior of employees is due to the value system. Hence, corporate values systems are internalized and actualized through induction and special intervention programs to ensure a common set of shared values.

Unity of action

Common values have a great impact on employee working. Core corporate values generate UNITY OF ACTION. This means employees and organizational members share the values and this creates action in concert. The shared values and unity of action, enables achievement of the organizational vision, cash profit goals and other objectives of the major stakeholders.

For eg., when Piramal Healthcare Solutions was planning to sell its major brands, in line with this vision, the marketing values were evident in their activities. The field force at Piramal were heavily in to market penetration activities - gifting for Rx generation, POB through special chemist centred benefits and so on. All this helped Piramal Healthcare generate good brand valuation and thereby the major stakeholders got a good deal through the sale of the 350 brands of Piramal Healthcare Solutions.

OD interventions required

Abbott after purchasing Piramal Healthcare will need to embark on an extensive OD intervention strategy to cope with the stresses of integration. Process specialists will have to work hard to establish shared values and ensure reallignment by all employees. Only then will Abbott deliver the marketing value. OD will help create synergy and improve customer-centric functioning that is so vital for Abbott now.

Purchasing a company is one thing, however, integrating is the other big and major challenge. Only a finely strategized integrating process and OD based intervention will ensure financial justification for the pharma purchase of the millenium in India! (ie., purchase of Piramal Healthcare Solutions by Abbott).

What will an OD approach entail?

OD intervention will kick off with information gathering for a preliminary report. There will be observation reports, interview with key personnel, surveys, attitudinal mapping activities, culture diagnostics, and process understanding activities undertaken by the process specialists. Finally in the first stage, the OD intervention experts will create a preliminary report on the state of the organization. This will lead to a debate on the basic elements of an OD approach.

The second stage is problem identification. OD specialists will identify specific problem areas through interviews, sharp observations, motivational patterns, mindset analysis and other data gathering instruments. Based on the data, strategy will be devised on how the overall efficiency and effectiveness can be improved.

The third stage is specific intervention. This refers to a planned stuctural group of activities to achieve the goals of OD. This will include marketing strategies, product management strategies, team building, organizational structural changes, and any other means of resolving problems.

The fourth and final stage is that of collaborative culture. The end productof OD intervention is enhanced collaboration between various individuals and other intra organizational entities. This is done through keen analysis of data, reviews and restrategizing till an acceptance of the change is attained.

Hence, we see above the importance of OD approach to enhance marketing value or customer-centric functioning. OD helps re-engineer values and will contribute a great deal to improve general state of organizational functioning and overcome integration challenges in case of mergers or acquisitions. Thanks for reading this blogpost, please scroll down to read other, click on older posts when required, kindly recommend this blog to your colleagues.

Dyad

2010-05-30T15:25:00.003+05:30

I got the above image from here.

A disturbing sms is doing the rounds:

Zydus Cadila area manager of Pune murdered by his own 4 medical reps by drill machine yesterday (ie., 28.5.2010)

This brings in to spotlight the importance of dyads and HRD in pharma companies.

The reality

In most pharma companies, the HRD dept. is only a paper tiger. They are a routing dept., for various personnel related matters. In top pharma companies, mainly the MNCs, the HRD dept. is a very crucial dept., involved in all matters of recruitment, development, promotion, and retirement or resignations of personnel, organizational culture, empowerment, HRD systems like career system, core values, socialization, organizational behavior modification, improving productive work behaviors, coaching, counseling, training, communication and organizational development.

However, the usual picture in pharma is that the various departmental heads look in to the HRD aspects in their sphere of control. This sort of an atmosphere prevails in most big Indian pharma companies too. Nevertheless, in a handful of companies like Ranbaxy (as per heresay) even the Marketing Director cannot 'sack' a medical representative unless HRD investigates, gives its report and consent!

Why is the present reality so?

HRD is a poorly appreciated subject in pharma India, including by top management personnel. Sales is the magnificent obsession of pharma management. Hence, principles of HRD and things like 360 degree assessment are given a routine treatment, if at all applied. In fact, 360 degree feedback is not adopted by most pharma companies. The norm in the Indian pharma market is that pharma companies operate with a feudal or semi-feudal mindset. Hence, there is a lack of appreciation of the finer aspects in HRD functioning and its ability to contribute to organizational efficiency and effectiveness.

As a seasoned HRD person once said about HRD in pharma: HRD is about salary, wages, the annual picnic or annual day and keeping the union at bay!!!

The winds of change are blowing

India is now a maturing market. Production or product or sales mindset in running pharma companies will have its limitations. A customer-centric mindset will be required. This includes internal and external customer management. Marketing with a customer-centric mindset is the need of the hour.

India is also coming of age with respect to improved level of educational attainments & expectations, employment options, and employee expectations.

The earlier norm of a manager was a tall man with a gruff & loud voice who seldom smiles! It was OK in the past perhaps until the late 1990s, but now? The era of hypercompetition has arrived in the Indian pharmaceutical market. More and more companies are interested in pharma marketing. Franchisee marketing/PCD marketing is a force to reckon with in pharma marketing. Hence, merely putting pressure on MRs, asking them to work harder, make more calls, get more POB etc will not give the desired sales outcomes. Marketing strategies, product selection, process management, customer-centric organizational working and the quality of HRD including organizational culture are mattering more than ever for sales results. The manager is a key, but the managerial competence is mattering more now, than the gruff voice!

A must read: GO KISS THE WORLD

Subroto Bagchi, the maverick co-founder and prime mover behind Mindtree (a prominent software company of India) has written beautifully about work philosophy and life in his book GO KISS THE WORLD. In this book Subroto Bagchi describes in detail how they went about founding and setting up Mindtree. What is striking to a reader about Subroto Bagchi's account of founding Mindtree is that it is not about creating some new fangled technology for Mindtree's success ... it is simply about creating the right organizational cultural DNA. It is in fact, HRD in action at Mindtree!!

In this book, Subroto keenly describes how he even takes help of external management consultants to help create a positive atmosphere in his company when things were looking gloomy (including businesswise) after the 9/11 Twin Tower fall due to terrorist attack.

Subroto describes the intense activity to develop intangibles like the logo of Mindtree (through specially challenged children), values, vision, and mission of Mindtree. In fact, this book is about how to generate values, vision, and a mission. Subroto gives the keen understanding that values are the glue in organizations, they provide unity of action, and ensure productive work behaviors.

The traditional corporate mindset in India, is that people need jobs, hence, salaries and some comfort level - this will ensure employees will work as per directives to ensure organizational objectives are met. However, the new trend of HRD, and humanism is that people are very vital assets and they need to be treated differently from material resources. The HRD assets require development - time and resources need to be invested for the same. HRD and people resources provide the sustainable competitive edge.

So what pharma India needs to do now is to take inspiration from GO KISS THE WORLD to avoid negative corporate episodes like the one at Pune (involving Zydus Cadila).

Dyad

Dyad refers to the smallest social unit of two people. In pharma marketing companies an example of a very important dyad is the first-line manager and his MR. The strength of pharma companies comes from this dyad. When the first-line manager is very committed and competent, the MR team itself will be high performance oriented. If the first-line manager lacks character or competence or commitment, the MR team will be a demotivated one. Hence, pharma companies that develop the dyad through empowering programs stand to gain a lot.

Various unsavory events in pharma marketing (or for that matter in any department of a pharma company) occur due a weak dyad.

HENCE, A DYAD MANAGEMENT strategy at the company level will prove very useful.

Thanks for reading this blogpost, let us hope for better times, please scroll down to read other posts, click on older posts whenever required, be kind - recommend this blog to your acquaintances to your colleagues/acquaintances.

Return of the MNCs

2010-05-22T16:57:00.009+05:30

I got the above image from here.

Sometime back Businessworld had reported that the branded generic biz of Piramal Healthcare may be up for sale. Piramal Healthcare was expected to concentrate on contract research and manufacture. Finally, this event happened - headlines in newspapers on 22.5.2010 was that Piramal Healthcare's branded generic biz was sold out to Abbott, the entire company is not sold out, only its main branded generic biz platform...

MNCs are back in action! LPG (liberalization, privatization and globalization) has paved the way for MNCs to get back in to the Indian pharma market with a bang. Pfizer, an American headquartered MNC, has the topmost brand in the Indian pharma market, ie., Corex (the codeine based anticough oral liquid formulation). This brand is followed by Phensydyl (another codeine phosphate anticough oral liquid formulation) - a brand owned by Piramal Healthcare.

Today, this brand too will be owned by another American pharma company - Abbott, a Illinois (USA) based MNC pharma company, which has purchased the Piramal Healthcare generic formulation business, by paying a hefty sum of 3.2 billion USD (ie., Rs. 17000 crores). MNCs are back and shopping for pharma companies with big shopping budgets!

A remarkable coincidence

With the acquisition of Phensydyl by Abbott along with the company it is purchasing (ie., Piramal Healthcare Solutions), both the codeine phosphate oral liquid anticough brands (ie., Corex and Phensydyl) with very high addictive potential, will be owned by American MNCs. What a coincidence, wonder what the karmic linkage is!!

Corex - Pfizer
Phensydyl - Abbott

Ajay Piramal: a consummate businessman

Ajay Piramal, Chairman of Piramal Healthcare, has got an unbeatable offer for his branded generic biz. The monies paid to him are 9 times the 2010 sales of Piramal Healthcare branded generic sales, 30 times the EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, and depreciation) and Mr. Piramal loses only one manufacturing unit at Baddi (Himachal Pradesh) to Abbott. Piramal Healthcare is a big pick for Abbott, Piramal Healthcare has a stunning 44% CAGR in market cap, (Piramal Healthcare's valuation has grown from Rs. 6 crores to Rs. 17000 crores in 22 years!), and as a standalone entity, it is in shooting distance of being the topmost pharma company in India (Cipla is India's topmost pharma firm - now, with Piramal being taken over by Abbott, this American MNC Abbott + Piramal combination is the topmost pharma firm of Indian pharma market) .

Abbott, thanks to Piramal Healthcare, is now the topmost (#1) pharma entity in India with 7% market share. Pharma companies in India are now getting fancy valuations, because MNC companies want to enter and play big in the Indian pharma market. BRIC countries are on the radar of MNCs. Ajay has chosen the moment to triumph. He is flush with Rs. 12000 crores cash to reinvest anywhere else (this money is after removing payments as capital gains tax and monies used for retiring debt). Abbott, in return, has reached the topmost perch in the Indian pharma market, it also has 350 brands from Piramal Healthcare, and 5000 odd field personnel from Piramal Healthcare - all thanks to Ajay Piramal!

The field personnel from Piramal Healthcare are highly trained, aggressive, and a motivated lot. Piramal Healthcare has a great image in the field including with stockists and pharmacies. Piramal Healthcare has always been viewed as a very professional and aggressive firm. The brands from Piramal Healthcare enjoy a great market penetration. So in that sense, Abbott is very lucky to pick Piramal. It is thanks to Piramal, Abbott has achieved what it could not have imagined to achieve.

There will be integration challenges in this acquisition. Indian pharma firms are known to be aggressive in giving gifts and sponsorships to doctors, and retail bonus offers to chemists. Abbott has been traditionally in the ethical pharma space without giving much freebies. Thus, the brand values of Piramal Healthcare's generic brands are due to these marketing activities, which Abbott will not indulge in, due to its code of marketing conduct. So how will Abbott maintain the marketing tempo?

The field personnel of Piramal Healthcare are used to the typical Indian style of pharma product promotion, how will they manage the marketing cultural shock when being integrated in to Abbott? Will Abbott maintain the brand sales without using the marketing strategies and tactics of Piramal Healthcare?! HAS ABBOTT CONSIDERED THESE MARKETING CULTURAL ASPECTS WHILE BUYING PIRAMAL HEALTHCARE? These are very interesting and challenging marketing questions.

THE PROGNOSIS OF THE PIRAMAL HEALTHCARE BRANDED GENERIC BIZ ACQUISITION BY ABBOTT WILL MAKE A VERY INTERESTING CASE STUDY.

While it is easy to assess the financial picture and make the purchase, Abbott will find it more difficult to maintain the marketing tempo, because of the cultural dichotomy between Piramal Healthcare and Abbott.

The great Indian pharma melting pot!

Two of the largest Indian pharma companies are lost to MNCs: Ranbaxy to Japanese Daiichi Sankyo, and Piramal Healthcare Solutions to the American company Abbott. Thus, we have European companies, Japanese companies, American companies and Indian companies in the Indian pharma marketplace. Truly, the Indian pharma market is a great melting pot! Companies of diverse nationalities are pouring in to this pot!

Torrent, Mankind, DRL, Cipla - which company next - on the shopping list of MNCs?! Let us wait and watch!

MNCs and biopharma: MNCs score over Indian pharma companies on the biopharma and research platform. Abbott has a no. of biopharma products and one can expect they will launch the same with gusto thanks to their enhanced field presence through acquisition of Piramal Healthcare Solutions. Abbott has done that which, Pfizer has not done! Abbott (not Pfizer) is India's biggest pharma entity (company)! As a global strategy, MNCs are looking to increasing the geographic reach, as it is besieged with lack on new products including absence of new blockbusters. By expanding presence in more markets, MNCs can improves sales outcomes.

A NEW ERA BEGAN, IN INDIAN PHARMA, IN 2008, WHEN RANBAXY WAS PURCHASED BY DAIICHI SANKYO. Now with the acquisition of Piramal Healthcare Solutions's 350 branded generics by Abbott, the pharma game gets more and more interesting! Thanks for reading this blogpost, let us hope for the best, do recommend this blog to your colleagues.

Alcohol

2010-05-16T14:23:00.008+05:30

Among various heady brews, feni is a Goan drink that has many fans. In the above picture, we see a person making feni.

Last week at Guwahati on a work tour was very interesting. Many things have changed in the past 10 years. Guwahati is now more peaceful (ie., relatively speaking, compared to past). A developmental attitude is also there, thanks to the media that is changing mindsets in places like Guwahati.

Alcohol consumption on the upswing

During my 18 odd years of travel, if I have seen any noticeable trend, year after year, it is of ever increasing consumption of alcoholic beverages (not only in Guwahati but elsewhere too). In the early 1990s, seeing families in bar and restaurants was a rarity. Today, it is not so. Consuming alcoholic beverages is seen as thrilling - that which provides a sense of elation & excitement, a feel good activity, or a habit that helps overcome sense of remorse. Westernization too is having a major impact on Indians. Supermarkets have alcohol beverage sections. Alcoholic beverages are taken in shopping carts by people! Earlier, people would take alcoholic beverages surreptiously! So, overall, alcohol beverage market is seeing sizzling growth.

For entrepreneurs and marketers, alcohol beverages is an attractive market. This is because it is large growing market, and because the likes of Godrej, Tatas, Ambanis, Mahindras and Birlas will not immediately enter this segment due to ' moral reasons' or 'value systems'. Hence, professional competition by the people with deep pockets will be lesser in this market. So fast growth in the alcohol biz market is an attractive preposition for many marketers.

Even people who do not consume alcoholic beverages or do consume it very occasionally, are interested in marketing alcoholic beverages because it is a habit based market. There is competition, but a lot of money to make, because people are habituated to it. The logic of such marketers is: IF YOU DO NOT MAKE AND MARKET ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES, somebody like Vijay Mallya will do it and laugh all the way to the bank! So as a businessman, why should I miss the boat?! A salesman said to me: Let us say, you are a marketer of antihypertensives, will you consume the product just because you market it?! You will do it, only if you need it or want it! So you need not consume alcohol just because you market it!

People who consume alcoholic beverages, are by and large, habituated to it. So the customer is always there for the alcoholic beverage product. As one alcohol beverage salesman said: it is about getting the prospect or customer to like the first peg! After the second peg, taste does not matter!!

Growth of alcohol beverage market and impact on health

Alcohol is perceived as an exciting good mood drink. When alcohol is taken it initially makes a person uninhibited. This makes it appear that alcohol improves mood, makes the person bolder and if he is anxious or depressed, the person feels he is getting over it. However, nothing can be further than truth. Alcohol is pharmacologically defined as a PRIMARY CONTINUOUS DEPRESSANT. Alcohol gives an initial feeling that the person is not depressed. But later it increases depression.

One cannot help but recollect my conversation with an advocate. He was narrating an incident where a senior pharma marketing person with whom he was sharing drinks, after a few drinks this marketing guy started sobbing in a depressed manner. So alcohol consumption is about precipitating depression and getting further depressed! Alcohol is known to make people reckless and irresponsible too.

So the moot point is that alcohol consumption will in fact, increase mental ill- health and products for mental health management like anxiolytics, antidepressants, sleep inducers, cognitive enhancers, and alcohol deaddiction medications will see major boost due to increased growth in sales of alcohol beverages.

Irresponsible and reckless behaviour will also see increased violence (for eg., domestic violence) and accidents. This will increase consumption of medications for mental health, first aid medications, and wound healers.

Why do people drink alcohol?

Some reasons are: curiosity, to be with the crowd, TO GET OVER THE FEELING OF EXHAUSTION, JOINT PAIN AND MUSCLE PAIN, to relax ie., as an antistress drink, and finally due to PHYSIOLOGICAL ADDICTION (craving).

Health market due to alcohol

Alcohol has its first impact on the stomach. Most alcohol consumers suffer from hyperacidity, acid peptic disease, heartburn, and GERD (gastro esophageal reflux disorder - where acidic gastric contents undergo back flow in to the alkaline environment of esophagus and cause irritation and burning pain). This problem is increased when alcohol consumers smoke or eat spicy "sides" or spicy foods along with booze.

Hence, one can safely conclude that the pharma market for hyperacidity or heartburn will always see a good growth, thanks to the alcohol consumers.

Moderate drinking of alcohol is said to be very beneficial. If you click here you will access studies on the benefits of alcohol - that are so convincing that you will feel like taking a peg immediately!

Frankly speaking, personally I have not met any 'moderate drinker' in my life. Either there are people who drink regularly (good amounts), or there are some who drink rarely due to certain people pressures or do not drink at all. I do not recollect meeting a genuine 'moderate drinker'.

One can safely suspect that many of the so called benefits of alcohol are in fact, marketing gimmicks meant to enhance acceptance and sales of alcohol. The long term effects of alcohol are well documented, they can cause liver disease, cardiovascular dysfunction and cancer too.

The most powerful impact of alcohol is on the liver. This organ, which is the largest internal organ of the body bears the insult of alcohol. The liver recognizes it as a foreign body (or xenobiotic) and works hard to convert it to an easily excretible chemical. In the process the liver gets damaged. The initial manifestations are fatty liver (where fat deposits in the liver), then hepatomegaly (liver enlargement), followed by hepatitis (inflammation of liver), fibrosis (growth of hard connective tissue fibre as a part of healing process) and finally cirrhosis (where the liver becomes hard and completely fibrosed). Cirrhosis is an irreversible condition and is fatal.

In India, the alcoholic drink market is said to be Rs. 8200 crores with per capita annual consumption of 0.5 L (the per capita annual consumption in China is 20 L, and in USA it is 100 L). One estimate puts the growth story of alcoholic drinks market as very positive - it is estimated to reach 3 billion liter mark by 2012 (in 2008 it was 1.95 billion liters). As the billion strong (100 crores) Indian population is youth oriented (60% is less than 30 years), growth of beer market is a very strong - estimated to reach 17.2% CAGR by 2011. Another report mirrors the growing popularity of vodka.

Basically India is seeing a revolution of sorts. Westernization, increased earnings, a youthful population, and media penetration, are all influencing consumption patterns. There is a growth of both of alcoholic and nonalcoholic beverages drink markets. The increased off-take of alcohol beverages presents an opportunity for marketers; pharma marketers will also see growth of certain markets like anxiolytics, liver protectives, antipeptic and antihyperacidity drugs etc, due to increase in alcoholic beverage consumption.

Thanks for reading this blogpost, please feel free to recommend my blog to your acquaintances.

The smart wave and lead generation

2010-05-09T11:46:00.004+05:30

Today there is a new pharma marketing phenomenon: the rise of importance for lead generation. (I got the above image from here).

The word 'smart' is the IN word now! You have smart cards, smart cars, smart mobiles, smart rooms, smart whiteboard, ... many entities are now smart, ie., tech enabled. Whatever the smart tech features we want in business activities, it is ultimately for increased sales revenues - for improved value delivery to customer. In the contemporary world, business is marketing, and marketing is campaigning. Smart tech helps marketing or value delivery and facilitates better campaigns.

Lead generation: the new pharma marketing phenomenon

There was a time, in pharma marketing, when the concept of lead generation was an unheard concept! The MR had a big playground! He would comfortably call on 8 or 10 doctors and the business would follow. Things have changed today - doctors are more demanding or business savvy, competition is fierce, there are more and more brands, pharma marketers, and commoditization of the pharma market is very high. Hence, the concept of lead generation is now becoming more important.

Leads are information bits or enquiries that can lead to concrete business results. For eg., let us say, a MR attends a social function in his neighbourhood. Casually, he bumps in to a new doctor who evinces interest in the MR's product range. Then the MR has a lead, which may lead him to a prospect and hopefully this doctor is converted in to a customer (ie., prescriber).

In today's context, all doctors are not prospects. There are many factors that play a role in converting prospects in to prescriber or dispenser customer doctors. For eg., there are doctors now who prefer franchisee or PCD market operators for routine pharma brands and prefer only those MRs who market specialty brands (products not offered by PCD operators). So the MR needs to collect leads, qualify them to locate prospects, and then convert them to prescribers or purchasing doctors. All leads need not lead to prospects. The scenario was different 10 years back; during that time all doctors were prospects! Today, all doctors need not be prospects. Because, many of these doctors have their commitment to certain companies or PCD operators. Hence, location of leads, qualifying them for locating prospects and then converting them to prescribers or purchasers has become a new marketing and sales phenomenon.

TOMORROW: LEAD GENERATION AGENCIES?

Leads are important for sales personnel. When MRs get strong leads from chemists (pharmacisits) or fellow MRs, or tips during conversation with doctors, or references from doctors, they follow them up. These leads will lead to potential prescribers.

Collecting leads, sorting them, prioritizing them and follow up is an important exercise. Pharma companies now get a lot of leads from trade stall activities, where stalls are put up at doctor conferences. Let us say, the veterinary segment is not tapped by a company's field force. When the company puts up a stall at a veterinary doctors conference, the company personnel will realize that there is good potential in the vet segment, and through interactions with vet doctors of the conference, they will get good leads, who can prescribe a lot of products. These leads need to be collected, sorted out, the respective MRs should be given them, they should assign priority to these leads, follow up and the company can realize more business.

Considering that lead generation is gaining importance in the business of pharma marketing due to various circumstances, it is not far fetched to imagine that in the near future, there may be specialist agencies who will get in to the business of providing leads, doctor lists, conduct surveys, provide qualified leads and thus add value to a pharma company's business operations.

Let us consider this example: A pharma company is operating for the past 20 years with its basket of herbal drugs and nutraceuticals, and enjoys a certain level of sales in South Bangalore. Let us assume, the company as part of its business development proposal, invests in an agency to help generate good qualified leads in the same territory. The agency people will obviously go conduct interviews with various doctors, compile the interview data, analyze and generate a list of doctors with addresses who have evinced interest in this set of herbal drugs and nutraceuticals. So what the marketing agency has done is, provided a list of qualified leads in South Bangalore, the MR of the client company covering South Bangalore can prioritize the leads, follow up and thus generate better business through a new set of customers. So the agency has provided leads that has led to new business and growth.

Constant lead generation is crucial for business growth

Leads need to be constantly generated, trade stall activities help in this regard, chemist surveys will give leads to new potential doctors. However, most MRs (as is human) are satisfied with status quo new leads are not solicited. This stagnates business in the MR's territory or makes it dependent on certain prescribers only. Direct enquiries to pharma companies from doctors through a dedicated sms no., call no., or web site helps generate leads to pharma marketers.

CMEs and sponsoring doctor meets

When pharma companies sponsor doctor meets and pitch their products there, a no. of leads are generated - many doctors who are not met by MRs get exposed to the pharma brands. Thus, CMEs, and doctor meets present an opportunity for product promotion and lead generation (for follow up later).

Smart technology and lead generation

Let us assume, a pharma company launches a sms joke service to interested doctors, or launches regular e-newsletters through e-mail to doctors. On one hand, the company is engaging prospects and customers through the e-newsletters, on the other hand, the engagement will lead to lead generation, where doctors get interested in new products they are not familiar with, after all, the MR cannot promote all products to one doctor! So leads are vital.

Every day is a new day in pharma marketing! There are new product concepts doing the rounds, new marketing approaches creating market eddies ... all this points to the importance of focusing on those customers who will give a good sales yield. This requires good LEADS. We, pharma marketers, are most certainly going to focus on this new pharma marketing phenomenon that is gaining traction. Every doctor need not be our customer. Hence leads to good prescribers are gaining importance.

Hope, this blogpost will lead you to better times! Please scroll down, for leading to other blogposts, when you click on older posts, you will get leads to other blogposts. Please recommend and lead your acquaintances to this blog URL. Thnks.