Communication- Know Your Audience
Written by: Zena D’souza
Suneeti had been in pharma marketing for 8 years. She had worked across three top companies and in each company, people spoke of her dedication and commitment. She had recently joined an Indian Global major ranked among the top 5 in the Indian Pharma Market (IPM).
In the 5th month of her joining her boss called her and informed her that the division was getting into a specialty segment and she was to launch the first brand in this segment. Imagine her joy! She resolved that her launch would be the talk of the company, nay of the entire pharma industry. People would give examples of her launch to the new joiners for years to come.
But history is not created by dreams alone – she knew she would have to forsake all extra activities and put her 100% behind making this product a MEGA Brand.
In the next 2 months, Suneeti traveled and met important doctors. She gave a robust plan to manufacture 1,00,000 strips every month – despite the cautioning of her boss. Such was her belief in her brand that she was ready with her plan in 2 months and insisted on launching this product to the field as soon as possible.
A 2-day meeting was arranged for this launch. Science and scientific inputs were to be the basis of promotion. A 24-pager visual aid was made – the best words to make an in-clinic impact were used. Loads and loads of medical information were imparted to the field personnel regarding the disease, the molecule, and its advantages over other molecules.
After the whirlwind of meetings came the actual launch – goods had reached all regions and were made available with major retailers. A day was chosen when the entire field would begin the launch inside the doctor’s chamber – Extensive follow-up was done to ensure that absolutely no slippage happen when it comes to implementation.
The sales in the first month were 30 Lacs but the prescriptions were only about 2000 – both values were lesser than what Suneeti had projected. But she wasn’t worried at all. After all, prescriptions were bound to go up resulting in booming sales month after month, and in no time the brand would become a Crorepati brand monthly. Imagine her horror and shock when in the next month the absolute prescriptions grew by only 500 and the sales dipped to 16 lacs. The third month was also bad – 1500 prescriptions and 15 lacs of sales. The brand finally settled around this average only in the next 6 months.
Suneeti analyzed every aspect of her brand launch. Her bosses reviewed her week every month initially and then every fortnight eventually. In frustration and anger, Suneeti resigned after about 8 months of her brand being launched.
The next brand manager who was entrusted with the brand post-Suneeti’s exit was young and also close to the field personnel. The boss did not have many hopes but thought let us try a fresh perspective here. Being close to the field the new brand manager asked about 20 medical representatives who were close to her – Why are you able to sell all brands except this one? The answer shocked her – the medical reps confessed that the visual aid had words like ‘armamentarium’ that they could not pronounce. Also, it was full of medical studies which they did not understand and 24 pages were too much for any doctor to hear.
Hence the new visual aid for the new brand was ignored and instead the old visual aid with the old brands was being detailed every day.
The brand manager got to work on a simpler visual aid. A new campaign that was interesting but very simple to detail was rolled out along with training quizzes for increasing product knowledge. The brand sales grew every month and soon it entered the Crorepati club.
Suneeti ignored one of the cardinal rules of communication – know your audience. In this case, even if the audience who were doctors knew these words the stakeholder who was the bridge didn’t know them.
The very basis of communication is to connect with the audience and to make sure that they understand it and are able to repeat it with clients the way you want them to. People don’t repeat what they don’t understand. Using simple language or simple words is not a liability – in many instances, it can mean the difference between being good or great.
What say?
If you want to get better at communicating, join the upcoming live learning workshop on “Fundamentals of Communication.” Register Now>
You must be logged in to post a comment.