Reuters Events | Pharma

Thought leadership and innovation for the Pharmaceutical Industry

Big brands, big profits? That is not true anymore just ask the people from Starbucks, Palm, Nissan and GM.

Big brands, big profits? That is not true anymore just ask the people from Starbucks, Palm, Nissan and GM. It used to be that a cohesive integrated branding strategy executed perfectly would result in brand equity that could add a lot of black to company balance sheets but that all has changed. What changed? Consumers have changed and changed forever the way they think about brands. Gone are the days of wants over needs and taking out the plastic to purchase things we don't really need. They have been replaced with "do I really need it?" Pharma spends a lot of money around branding but when was the last time you saw someone outside the industry wearing a Lipitor or Plavix tee shirt? Pharma needs to rethink how much effort they put into branding and take the money they save to invest in new ways to reach consumers.

Pharma brand names are a great way to remember the names of prescription drugs whose generic names are often hard to pronounce. At its core branding is a feeling that someone has about a brand/product and the problem that the brand helps the customer solve but with pharma products branding is the name on the sample box, the website URL and other DTC materials. People are not in love with pharma brands like Cialis, Lipitor, Caduet or Plavix. These are products that help us lead better quality of lives but when they go generic we'll be glad to ditch these brands to save money.

Take what has happened to Starbucks recently; It used to be that people would line up for their lattes and espressos at Starbucks and be more than willing to pay $3 + for a cup of great coffee. Then Dunkin Donuts and McDonalds decided to cut into Starbucks pie and now McDonalds sales have increased due to their gourmet coffee while Starbucks is trying everything from instant coffee to ads that talk about price to bring customers back. Will it work? I doubt it...once customers try something new and find that it works for them it's hard to get them back. Starbucks has lost a lot of its customers because the brand failed to deliver the value in customers eyes.

There is a lesson to be learned from Starbucks branding failure that can be applied to pharma. The brand relationship of pharma products and its customers can best be described as sterile and cold. Pharma brands do nothing to embrace people into the brand experience. They provide no value other than the tablet itself thus when some big names go generic is it any wonder that 85% of people switch to generic? Just what has pharma done to increase the value of the brand outside of the product itself? The answer to that is nothing.

One of the greatest asset of any brand today is its customers and customer information. By getting to know their customers better than they know themselves brands can add value that extend beyond the product itself. Pharma has largely ignored its current customers to focus on market share and new Rx's. That's a shame because now more than ever people want to form relationships with brands that provide the value beyond the product. There are lot of people searching for health information and want to hear about new treatments and science but for now they will have to spend a lot of time searching the Web for information that pharma has that should be shared with customers in an age of transparency.