5 Keys to Boost your next Pharma Brand Plan

Strategic brand planning in the pharmaceutical and medtech sector is one of the most important elements for industry leaders. Why? It is the way in which available resources are allocated to a strategy designed to enable the brand to achieve its sales targets. Todays strategic planning must adapt to the "new normal" of increasing market volatility, uncertainty and ambiguity. For this reason, it is a must for brand managers to make planning Effective, Agile and Customer Centric.

According to a survey conducted by PWC, 80% of European pharmaceutical executives believe that their approaches, processes and results are not adequate. Furthermore, they need a radical change in brand planning, even though it is resource-intensive and time-consuming.

What are the main problems with current brand planning?

• Product-focused plans versus customer engagement-focused plans.
• Lack of useful data to measure the impact of actions taken.
• Need to compensate for the lack of frequency of delegate visits to doctors.

At Compettia we have extensive experience working with the TOP 10 most relevant pharmaceutical and medtech companies in the world and we have developed different programs to ensure the success of their brand plan. For this reason, we have gathered the 5 primary keys to boost your next Brand Plan. Let's get started!

_{#1 - Engage your stakeholders through a full program}

The massive health crisis caused by COVID-19 has exposed the model of visits based exclusively on face-to-face visits, which was the most widely used before the outbreak of the global pandemic. During this time, this model has practically disappeared as sales teams have been working remotely. Companies must redesign their commercial models to create new channels of contact.

Healthcare professionals need information on the products they prescribe, the pathologies and instruments they handle, as well as any new developments that may appear, but due to day-to-day situations, they need flexibility to receive it. It is a main objective of the companies to have agile, dynamic and efficient mechanisms to respond to current needs.

The Compettia team has developed the "One Voice" digital program that aligns all messages from the Medical, Marketing, Sales and Market Access departments with the doctor through a single channel. This program allows the healthcare professional to have all the information sent by the different departments available on his or her smartphone. Our training programs with healthcare professionals have been successful, obtaining a 30% increase in knowledgeat the end of the training course.

_{#2 - Create a Brand Plan with agile and Customer Centric methodology}

It is imperative that when creating your brand plan strategy, you focus on your customers and on delivering the best brand experience. How can you do this? To do this, you must segment your customer base depending on where they are in the "sales funnel". In addition, in many cases, poor coordination during strategic team planning results in duplicate tactics being launched to the same segment.

Furthermore, in the past, when brands' interactions with healthcare professionals were face-to-face and limited to delegate visits, medical meetings and magazine advertisements, the need for a customer engagement strategy was less important. However, in today's world of multiple customer segments, increasing access restrictions and numerous content channels and formats, customer engagement strategy has become an essential discipline for companies.

The annual brand planning process offers an excellent opportunity to include digital tools to create new agile multi-channel communication. In this way, it is possible to create a customer experience that meets customer expectations, engages customers and advances brand objectives.

_{#3 - Train your field force in an efficient and motivating way}

The current difficult situation keeps a large part of the sales force working remotely, which has changed the process of launching new products, the continuous training of employees and the effectiveness of cycle meetings. To adapt and be efficient in this change, it is important to equip teams with digital solutions that help transform large amounts of complex information into small doses of learning.

The Atrivity app offers the functionality to segment information for different audiences of interest. Thanks to this technology, it is possible to send each of them a specific content of 2-5 minutes of reading time and obtain real-time information on: content opening, reading time and degree of knowledge, through questions associated with the content.

In addition, the algorithm integrated into the application repeats the most failed questions individually, ensuring maximum absorption of the information. In a simple way you can accompany the launch of a new product or reinforce the knowledge of an existing one, ensuring the achievement of sales targets.

_{#4 - Perform lean, aligned and agile processes}

Once the key ideas are identified, it is easier to create focused processes that direct effort and time to core issues will add value to brand planning. According to the PWC study, more than 80% of respondents called for better cross-functional and cross-brand alignment at global, regional and local levels, without restricting functional and country autonomy.

Agility, real-time organisational learning, as well as continuous improvement and adaptability to change are critical to ensure that strategic brand planning remains focused, up-to-date and relevant to all stakeholders, throughout the stages of the brand lifecycle.

_{#5 - Implement a cohesive organizational culture with technological tools}

Strategic brand planning does not work well in isolation. For this reason, it is imperative that roles and responsibilities are clear to everyone involved, as well as assigning unique tasks for good cross-functional team management. One of the solutions lies in implementing advanced technology and digital tools in a smart way, leveraging the business acumen capabilities of brand teams to deliver focused plans. Why? You have to make your employees fall in love with you!

Attracting and retaining talent within your organisation by meeting their objectives, needs and professional projection is an extra incentive to achieve positive results during the implementation of the brand plan. It's time to empower your internal lovemark!

With the Atrivity app it is possible to train employees on brand history, corporate values, organisational culture, processes, regulations, and any other necessary topics. Both for current employees and new recruits. Thanks to gamification technology it is possible to build a great work environment that encourages talent to join and/or entice current employees to stay.

Include individual and team game dynamics in which the objective is to reinforce values and knowledge about the company, strengthen bonds between colleagues and generate a relaxed atmosphere while teaching important concepts. Solutions such as Atrivity are a perfect fit and meet the objective of making employees fall in love with the company.  

_{Atrivity teams conclusions}

Pharmaceutical and medtech companies need a strategic brand plan adapted to the new relationship model between the company and healthcare professionals to be successful in an increasingly segmented and digital environment. At Compettia, with Atrivity, we have the solution for this new relationship and the experience of implementing it in more than 60 countries and the TOP 10 companies worldwide.

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