Wanted Dead or Alive: Healthcare Brand Positioning Conceptual and Methodological Considerations

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1 Wanted Dead or Alive: Healthcare Brand Positioning Conceptual and Methodological Considerations Ted Felix, President and Michael Tucker, Ph.D., Senior Vice President SciMedica Group Marketing Research and Consulting

2 Wanted Dead or Alive: Healthcare Brand Positioning! Maneuvering through the Complex Healthcare Spectrum The healthcare system is becoming more complex: Increased competition and lack of obvious points of differentiation across brands. Increased stakeholder considerations (including payers, patients) who may have a disproportionate influence on your brand s success. Promotional efforts have been truncated, meaning brands have to do more with less (fewer boots on the ground). We argue that one solution to all of these problems is a revitalization of the concept of Brand Positioning in marketing.

3 Wanted Dead or Alive: Healthcare Brand Positioning! Overview: What We Are Here To Do Define Positioning: What it is, what it is not. Determine its status: Is it Dead or Alive? Why is it presumed dead? Why should we try to revive it? How do we develop and test optimal brand Positioning?

4 What Is Positioning? The definition is extremely important, to distinguish it from other marketing endeavors. Ries & Trout remains one of the pivotal definitions of product Positioning: "[P]ositioning is not what you do to a product. Positioning is what you do to the mind of the prospect. That is, you position the product in the mind of the prospect. Positioning is also the first body of thought that comes to grips with the problems of getting heard in our overcommunicated society. Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind (2011) (emphasis added)

5 Why Is This Definition Important? This definition highlights several important and defining features of Positioning: Brand Positioning is a cognitive/ emotional construct, something that lives in the mind of your customer. It provides a shorthand way of thinking about your product (especially versus competitors) and ideally will evoke positive emotions regarding your brand. It highlights a problem to be solved, and a way that your brand in particular can solve this problem.

6 Why is Positioning Important? It helps simplify the marketplace for customers in order to help them make decisions. Successful Positioning helps to avoid Confusion, Commoditization and Complacency. Confusion Commoditization Complacency The market is crowded and getting larger. Keeping track of new entrants is tricky, especially line extensions, combinations of earlier agents or other variants of existing products. Without a shorthand way of cataloguing or pigeonholing products, prescribers payers and patients may be unable to distinguish products from each other. When properly executed, Positioning a product motivates utilization of your brand.

7 Messaging Without Positioning May Lack Differentiation What is the Positioning here? What is the Central Idea being asserted? PARKINSON S DISEASE

8 Messaging Without Positioning May Lack Differentiation What is the Positioning here? What is the Central Idea being asserted? ALZHEIMER S DISEASE Namenda

9 Messaging Without Positioning May Lack Differentiation What is the Positioning here? What is the Central Idea being asserted? Depression

10 Misperceptions about Positioning Myth: It is the story that you tell about your brand. Fact: This is messaging, a way to deliver the positioning idea to customers. Myth: The positioning is the advertising slogan. Fact: This is also related more to messaging than true Positioning. Myth: It is fixed and unchanging we ve already developed our positioning and there is no need to revisit it. Fact: While a good positioning may require time to take hold, it may change over time (for example, at launch versus when the brand has matured). Your Positioning may be something emotive that you don t say in print, but still be an idea that your customers believe and will motivate them to use your product.

11 Is Positioning Dead? If Positioning is such a valuable component to marketing, why do some think its time has past? Payers are more important than Positioning. Price is king. Payers determine the ultimate role for pharmaceutical products, and determine whether a product will succeed or fail. For devices or surgical products, a product not covered by a GPO or on hospital formulary may be doomed to obsolescence.

12 Is Positioning Dead? If Positioning is such a valuable component to marketing, why do some think its time has past? Physicians only prescribe products on formulary. Even if a product has a particularly compelling Positioning, or value proposition, physicians will not consider it if patients cannot afford it and it does not have an advantageous formulary status.

13 Is Positioning Dead? If Positioning is such a valuable component to marketing, why do some think its time has past? Our clinical data are superior to our competitors. We don t need to worry about Positioning. The marketing team s position may be that with a clinically superior product, the path to success is simply to emphasize that clinical superiority.

14 Is Jon Snow Dead?... We don t know!

15 Is Positioning Dead? We say NO! We Assert that Product/Brand Positioning is Vital and Vibrant

16 Is Positioning Dead? We say NO! Addressing key objections: Payers are more important than Positioning. Price is king. Physicians only prescribe products on formulary. Comparable formulary status at best levels the playing field. When competitors are on the same tier, a compelling reason for choice among them is still necessary. This may or may not be tied to the product s performance, but rather the understanding of what problem the brand is solving.

17 Is Positioning Dead? We say NO! Our clinical data are superior to our competitors. We don t need to worry about Positioning. We have a better product. The race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong. The data may be superior, but if this advantage is not perceived and believed by key stakeholders, it is lost. Further, marketing around a compelling positioning can nullify clinical advantages on paper (especially if the contrast is simple and highlights an emotional benefit).

18 Is Positioning Dead? We say NO! Cialis Viagra

19 Is Positioning Dead? We say NO! Positioning research is involved, costly and time consuming, and we don t have the resources to invest. While the research approach to successful Positioning can be involved and require both time and effort, this is not unique to Positioning, and the benefits to the brand can be dramatic. Investing in Positioning research prior to launch (or prior to dramatic changes in a brand s profile or indication) can be much more cost-effective than error-correcting after a sub-optimal launch. Ultimately, the Positioning for your brand must be pressure-tested with your key customers to verify its credibility and motivational capacity.

20 Reviving Positioning: Methodological Considerations Positioning Research Works Best when Evaluating an Argument on Behalf of the Brand. Positioning is an idea, a way to own cognitive/emotional landscape in the customer s mind. To that end, a Positioning target for testing must: Credibly identify a key unmet need for the customer (a problem to be solved that customers generally agree on). Articulate the Positioning for the product/brand as a solution to this problem. Provide acceptable evidence that the brand can solve the problem/address the unmet need that has been articulated.

21 Reviving Positioning: Methodological Considerations Positioning Research Works Best when Evaluating an Argument on Behalf of the Brand. The format of the argument can vary for testing: For: (target customers) Who: (have the following problem) Our product is a: (describe the product or solution) That provides: (cite the breakthrough capability) Unlike: (reference competition) Our product/solution: (describe the key point of competitive differentiation) For the target market (a) Brand X plays in the market (b) and it gives the main benefit (c) That s because of the following reasons to believe (d). Premise: A problem to be solved, relevant to the treatment area and the target audience. Promise: The Positioning for the brand, the solution to the problem articulated in the Premise. Proof: Reasons to believe the Promise can achieve the results desired, to address the Premise/unmet need.

22 Reviving Positioning: Methodological Considerations Evaluating the Argument. Irrespective of the structure of the argument, the argument must be evaluated for its internal consistency, relevance, credibility, and persuasiveness to the key audiences. Relevance: the Problem/Unmet need: How well has the problem been defined? How much of an issue has this been for me? And how well do you seem to understand my needs? How motivated am I to find a solution to this problem?

23 Reviving Positioning: Methodological Considerations Evaluating the Argument. Persuasiveness: The Promise (reason to believe). How convincing on its face is the promise in terms of solving the problem as defined, and how motivated are the target customers to consider your brand if it lives up to its promise? If I know nothing else about your product, you ve given me a really compelling reason to learn more about it. Let s hope you can prove it to me

24 Reviving Positioning: Methodological Considerations Evaluating the Argument. Credibility: Supporting Data (Proof): If the claims of the Positioning statement are engaging, how well has the brand substantiated those claims via the data? How much information is needed to really substantiate the Positioning promise? This is persuasive information and I m more inclined to consider your product because of it. You should figure out a way to say this in a concise way to get my attention.

25 Reviving Positioning: Methodological Considerations Evaluating the Argument. At the end of the evaluation, how differentiating is this argument for your brand? I ve heard this all before. Remind me again how you re different from all of the other choices I already have? Are you repeating what your competitors have already said or are you carving out a unique space in the customer s mind? This sounds just like the story that Brand X has been telling me for months.

26 Reviving Positioning: Methodological Considerations Gaining Consensus around the Methodology and Positioning Approach. Building consensus and collaboration regarding Brand Positioning is vital to any successful Positioning effort. Workshop: Gain consensus on Positioning Platforms to be tested. Include Marketing, Marketing Research, Regulatory, R&D and even Sales. Avoid word-smithing here focus on the ideas, not the messaging. Utilize Positioning workshops both at the launch stage, and after new indications/new data become available.

27 Reviving Positioning: Methodological Considerations Gaining Consensus around the Methodology and Positioning Approach. Qualitative Research with Key Target Audiences. May include physicians, payers, patients, other key players. Focus on those audiences who are most likely to utilize/consider your brand *or* those who have an impact on its uptake and adoption. Pressure test all aspects of the positioning both the ideas and the support data and narrative around the positioning. This approach provides an entrée into messaging research down the line. (If this is the idea we want to communicate, how do we achieve this most effectively?)

28 Reviving Positioning: Methodological Considerations Gaining Consensus around the Methodology and Positioning Approach. Quantitative Verification Research with Key Target Audiences. How well does the Positioning approach work with a larger, more robust audience? How confident are you that the Positioning approach will succeed beyond a small qualitative sample?

29 Wanted Dead or Alive: Healthcare Brand Positioning! Summing Up: Is Positioning Being Maximized for Your Brand? We believe that Positioning is vibrant and necessary in the branding of any product. The research expenditure for good Positioning work can be high, but the dividends can be even higher: Capturing the mind of your customer! Methodologies vary, but evaluating the emotional and cognitive argument for your brand will yield compelling results.

30 Wanted Dead or Alive: Healthcare Brand Positioning! Summing Up: Best Practices. Go Forth and Position! Gain internal consensus to develop a brand Positioning (including agreement on the definition of the term). Internally vet preliminary positioning concepts, considering all stakeholders and competitors, and agree on concept format. Conduct Qualitative research with key customer audiences. Verify Quantitatively. Re-assess positioning after determined period of time.

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