Upgrading US Pharmaceutical
Marketing Capabilities¹

The Situation

In the late 1990s, regulations in the US pharmaceutical industry evolved to allow direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising and communication. At first, pharmaceutical marketers spent millions of dollars annually on TV campaigns that did not yield a positive ROI. At the core of the issue, was that marketers in the pharmaceutical industry typically have a scientific or clinical background, and were not trained on any aspect of consumer marketing. We were engaged by one of the leading pharmaceutical companies to create a DTC Planning Process and train their entire Marketing team in consumer marketing best practices.

What We Did

• Worked with Client Team to map out a process for developing the DTC Marketing Plan
• Developed and led 3 customized workshops which were each conducted 3 times over a 9 month period:
  • DTC Marketing Planning: Consumer opportunity analysis, identification of consumer target audience, identification of patient insights, development of a positioning statement
  • DTC Marketing Mix Elements: Best practices in media planning, relationship marketing, concept development, and consumer market research
  • DTC Advertising Effectiveness: Characteristics of effective advertising, development of a creative strategy/brief, and conducting copy meetings
• Created a case study in DTC Marketing utilizing one of the client's brands and documented all DTC Planning concepts into an enduring manual

Results

Marketers acquired the capabilities to develop more targeted and effective consumer marketing plans and programs, and ultimately improve the return on their DTC investment.

Service Areas: People and Performance, Plan Implementation

¹ This project was co-led by Jacqueline at Tandem International

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