Innovation and Renovation Needed to Move Brands Forward To achieve higher levels of brand success, we should all challenge ourselves to re-examine the structure of the marketing teams at both the manufacturer and the agency, and look for ways to incorporate better insights and ideas into the marketing plan. Phil Deschamps, President As a pharmaceutical marketer, sometimes I wish we could turn back the clock to a simpler time when physicians were the only decision makers who mattered and salesforces were the single channel used to reach them. A time before the Internet, globalization, DTC, managed care, and changing FDA regulations made launching a product so challenging. A time when agencies could drive brand performance by simply creating a great advertising campaign. Clearly, those days are gone. The environment that pharmaceutical marketers work in today is far more complex — and traditional strategies and tactics often are not enough to achieve expected levels of growth. If pharmaceutical manufacturers and their agencies wish to stay ahead of the curve, a new era of innovation and renovation is needed. To achieve higher levels of brand success, we should all challenge ourselves to re-examine the structure of the marketing teams at both the manufacturer and the agency, and look for ways to incorporate better insights and ideas into the marketing plan. Renovation Through Team Restructuring Despite the growing complexity in the market, the structure of brand teams within pharma companies has remained pretty much the same. Brand directors — the senior-level marketers on the team — are forced to serve more as “team leaders” and the majority of their time and energy is absorbed by managing administrative team issues. As a result, they have little time left to drive their vision for the brand and provide guidance to the agency — often leading to marketing programs that lack bold and innovative ideas. To reverse this trend, brand teams should consider restructuring and allocating different roles and responsibilities throughout the team. Brand directors should try to delegate more of their administrative duties so that they may lead their marketing activities and agency teams more directly. Enhancing marketing ownership among senior staff, while moving administrative duties to junior staff, will increase the efficiency of the team and make their work more satisfying and more strategic. It will also support a more stable and productive relationship with the agency. Taking Small-Scale Risks Another major challenge facing pharma manufacturers is the risk associated with innovation. Because the United States is the industry’s largest market, spending on marketing programs is typically an all-or-nothing game. Companies are hesitant to commit to a new idea because it will require $10 million to $15 million to execute nationally and it is unproven. Instead, they opt to stick with tactics that are considered “tried and true.” To encourage greater innovation, pharmaceutical marketers need to be able to experiment. Rather than rolling out a new program nationwide, they should test it in smaller “trial markets” first. For example, if a program is implemented with three groups of 100 physicians in three representative geographies, the risk is virtually nonexistent. But the response collected from those trial markets should provide an accurate indication of how the program will be received nationwide. If pharmaceutical marketers can prove the effectiveness of a program on a small scale, then expanding the investment to take it national carries far less risk. Innovation Through Better Insights Pharmaceutical companies are not the only ones who need to make changes. Healthcare agencies also must evolve to focus on innovation. The traditional team structure of account and creative people is not optimal for generating new ideas. Inevitably, both sides become embedded in their clients’ business, making it difficult for them to uncover new insights or identify new marketing opportunities. Long ago, consumer agencies introduced a third role to their teams — the account planner. This role was created to bring new objectivity and fresh thinking to every account and to better understand which communication channels would be most effective in changing customer behavior. While tremendously important in consumer agencies, most healthcare agencies have yet to adopt this role. Adding a planner to the traditional team of account and creative leaders ignites the generation of new ideas. The combined skills of the planner and account people raise the effectiveness of the strategy, while the combined insights of the planner and creative team result in stronger creative concepts. The planner also helps free the account and creative leads to focus on building client relationships. As greater trust is built, clients are more willing to implement big ideas. So, the moral of the story is that there is still hope for the future. If pharmaceutical companies free their most seasoned leaders to focus on marketing while embracing experimentation on a small scale, and if agencies seize the opportunity to gain better insights through account planning, we can truly begin to drive bigger and better ideas. GSW Worldwide, Westerville, Ohio, an inChord Communications company, liberates brands and clients with fearless innovation and unmatched health and well-being insights. For more information, visit gsw-w.com. March 2005 VIEW on Advertising The Agency Structure

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