Wait, Did Every Agency Strategist Go to The Same Mid-Level Seminar?

My business partner and I have noticed an epidemic of Mid-Level HCP Strategy recommendations among our biotechnology clients lately. We were averaging roughly 1 mid-level HCP focused level of evidence appraisal per year, but over the past 12 months we’ve examined this topic no less than a half dozen times. We’re starting to think that there was a Mid-Level HCP Seminar that everyone went to and didn’t tell us. Actually, it seems to be the strategy du jour once you start to believe that you’ve exhausted your physician and patient strategic opportunities (which is almost never the case).

If you find yourself drawn into a discussion about creating a Mid-Level HCP Strategy for your brand, here are a few things that you should consider: (more…)

You’ve done all the right market research and you look over the scores for your carefully crafted brand positioning and messaging platform tested with your high-value segment.

• Believability – 10 out of 10
• Comprehension – 10 out of 10
• Differentiation – 10 out of 10
• Likelihood to Prescribe – 10 out of 10

You started to feel confident about your product’s potential despite the competitive market place and the concerns that managed care won’t be receptive to your premium price strategy. Yet, you haven’t asked the one the cut through the hypothetical responses on intent and gets to actual behavior. The key question that is going to determine the success of your brand is the following: (more…)

At ROF, we get to see a lot of brand positioning. Sometimes we help develop it, but other times we are exposed to brand positioning as part of our strategic road map service. In all of the positioning statements that we have viewed over the years, there is one word that shows up more than any other – “confidence”. As in, “…so doctors have the confidence to…” and “…so that patients can be confident that they…”.

Given the ubiquity of this term within pharma and biotech brand positioning, we have been giving some serious thought to what it takes to actually engender a feeling of confidence within your customers. Not surprising for ROF, we came up with an equation of sorts.

Confidence = Knowledge + Positive Experience

Simple enough, right? Well, maybe not so simple when you think about execution.

The first part of the equation is pretty easy. This is what we do for our brands every day. Create great materials, hire awesome sales reps, buy the right targeted advertising, stir vigorously, and voila!, we have knowledgeable customers.

Now for the hard part – generating positive experiences. As with any drug launch, there are always early adopters who try a new product right away, specifically so they can gain personal experience with it. But what about the other 85% of your market, who are generally satisfied with their current options and are waiting until the product is proven in the market? How do we overcome their inertia and give them just enough confidence to try the product once or twice? (more…)

Marketers are rushing into rare disease positions as the job opportunities and product portfolio to treat these rare conditions dramatically expand. To the uninitiated, the allure of rare disease marketing is strengthened by the myth that all patients (and their families) have been empowered by their difficult circumstances, and that each is being treated by an expert in the field.

In consulting with organizations new to rare disease markets, most assume that patient marketing as a strategic lever is a foregone conclusion based on these false assumptions. In reality, to be successful in rare disease marketing, you need to plan your marketing efforts to address the reality for each of your patients as opposed to a marketing ideal.

Two key characteristics of rare disease markets are (1) the pre-diagnosis maze and (2) un-established referral patterns. (more…)