Learn from Detective Sherlock Holmes About Pharma Brand Management

Learn from Detective Sherlock Holmes About Pharma Brand Management –

Position and Communicate Your Brand for Success!

Do you know even Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who created Sherlock Holmes the Detective, knew about the strength of a narrow niche segmentation and positioning?

“You see”, he explained, “I consider that a man’s brain originally is like a little empty attic, and you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose.

A fool takes in all the lumber of every sort that he comes across so that knowledge which might be useful to him gets crowded out, or at best is jumbled up with a lot of other things that he has a difficulty in laying his hands upon”. (Sherlock Holmes in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s “A Study in Scarlet”)

Narrow Down Your Positioning

Imagine the difference between having a crowd of 150 participants at a training session you are going to conduct versus an intimate learning session of just 15.

Getting through those 150 is not very smooth – there are a 135 more participants competing for your attention! Will all the 150 be heedful? Besides, the probability of their getting your rapt attention is diminished.

The same thing is true about positioning. Narrow positioning leads to your brand becoming the centre of attraction and unique.

Positioning is getting into the mind of the doctor and this itself is the biggest differentiator. Communicating the positioning message in a creative simple way is the secret of building a mega brand.

In our pharma world where brand loyalty is increasingly being bought and purchased, positioning, the right positioning is the art of building enduring brands.  

The impulse for Pharma Brand Managers to be everything to anyone has always been strong, but now as I see it is becoming compelling and almost compulsive.

To maximize branding effectiveness, brand managers must strive to position their brand as narrowly as possible. The logic is very simple! The biggest problem with being general is that to be noticed and recognized, you have to be more places, all the time.

Case Study 1

Let us for instance look at Louis Philippe. Louis Philippe has an iconic brand status in India. Louis Philippe is not for everyone because of its premium positioning – it is for a select few elite. Louis Philippe has sacrificed the very big segment of middle class and lower class which it does not want to use it. Yet it commands a formidable market share, despite.

If tomorrow Louis Philippe decides to broaden its positioning to – ‘for all age-groups from 18-80’ and reduce its price – can you imagine what would be its fate?

The consumers will get confused. Will they have the same exclusive feeling about a Louis Philippe shirt? People wear the shirt with the upper crest, to make a statement of being well dressed. It increases their confidence in a public forum. All this will be gone. Louis Philippe will be relegated to a ‘Cambridge Shirt’.

Case Study 2

Consider Lux – the soap for the young and the old, from men to women to children who have desire to look beautiful and handsome.

If that becomes the ‘broad positioning’ of Lux, I would say: “RIP Lux. Amen.”

Take any new launch in Pharma India. The brand manager will be tempted and will be comfortable moving toward a broader opportunity via the positioning strategy. This less descriptive positioning strategy will be an attempt to widen the field of opportunity for product use. The brand manager hopes that if she casts a wider net, she can have a greater chance of catching more fish. 

But sadly, it is exactly the opposite. 

A very broad positioning is obviously less defined, less focused, and less able to differentiate the brand. The result is that the brand communicates with more and more people but less and less effectively. The result – more people will be less interested in the brand and will end up being a minor player or completely fail. This is the reason why many new brands have failed so miserably.

Communicate the Positioning Message in a Simple Way

Communication to grab attention and retain awareness is the key in tactical communication. Communicate should be very simple yet creative. In a world crowded with complexity, simplicity stands out. Simplicity brings clarity and clears confusion.

Says David Ogilvy:

“When you sit down to write your body copy, pretend that you are talking to the woman on your right at a dinner party. She has asked you, ‘I am thinking of buying a new car. Which would you recommend?’ Write your copy as if you were answering that question”

In other words your copy should be factually based with no fluff. Don’t beat about the bush – go straight to the point. Avoid superlatives, generalizations, and platitudes. Be specific and factual. Be enthusiastic, friendly, and memorable. Don’t be a bore. Tell the truth, but make the truth fascinating.

Brand managers often tend to complicate the positioning message by using puns, alliterations, literary allusions, and other figures of speech. Avoid that. The simpler the message, the easier it is to decode and convert into action.

When you write a copy or brief the copywriter evaluates these four steps.

1.  Will my headline copy stand out in the clutter?

2.  Will it be memorable?

3.  Is my copy so simple that it is understood by my child in Class VI?

4.  Is my copy consistent with the copy in my previous campaigns?

The positioning and communication are a statement of your brand. Keeping it narrow and simple. is a competitive edge. You are now on the way to building a strong, memorable brand.

With the right positioning and communication, your brand will create an indelible impression.

So, isn’t Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes, not just a brilliant detective but also a pharma brand management Guru?