Welcome to The Return on Focus bLog!

It’s time for a little self-reflection. How often have you said to yourself or your team, “we really need to do something about that” or “we should get together to figure out what’s going on there.”

The truth is, too often key strategic issues are tabled for a time to be determined in the near future, only to be overshadowed by more pressing issues or forgotten altogether. By not making time to reevaluate some of the foundational underpinnings of your brand, you’re actually making a conscious choice not to do it.

Look, I know these conversations aren’t easy to have. Confronting the value (or lack thereof) in your physician or patient segmentation schemes can be unnerving. Bringing up the fact that your brand’s global positioning may not be focused or supportable by your proof sources is not for the faint of heart.

The point that I’m getting at here is that there are consequences to deciding not to examine these things. When you don’t examine a difficult aspect of brand planning, tactical execution, or communication development, you are in fact making a decision. You’re choosing to ignore it.

Admit it! You have ‘bright shiny object syndrome.’

It’s easier and more pleasurable to think in terms of tactics and the creative development behind them than it is to think about strategic issues and level of evidence. But, before you fall in love with a tactical idea, take a step back and evaluate it with some objective criteria. Chances are in 2011 that you’re either going to be asked to prune some tactics or be given the opportunity to add to a tactical funding wish list. Why not be ready?

After objectively assessing the level of evidence behind more than two-dozen pharmaceutical marketing brand plans in 2010, let me share with you the basic ROF evaluation criteria for investments:

1. Focus – Effective in reaching a defined, high value target that is quantifiable
2. Scale – Able to be tested in a pilot phase and easily ramped up, if proven successful, to a level that can impact sales
3. Additive – Covers multiple channels of communication to enhance the impact of each one
4. Proximal – Close to the ‘point of prescription’ in the buying process
5. Measurable – Beyond surrogate, transactional metrics to derive an ROI

The key is to have a set of objective criteria because when you’re put on the spot you want to and need to have a rationale. Publish the criteria to your team to increase the quality of ideas brought forth as you continue to iterate your plan moving forward.