Marketing Excellence encompasses the actual delivery of promised benefits to the end-user. For the Pharma sector, regulation has largely prevented direct conversation with patients, and to some extent, the sector has been unable to take advantage of the tools that can help build excellence around marketing. At a time of digital transformation and change, it is timely to look at what Pharma can learn about Marketing Excellence and building brand equity from other sectors.
Brand equity sits as an intangible asset on the balance sheet, it is core to business success and value. Brand equity stems from the greater confidence that consumers place in a brand than they do in its competitors. The measurement of brand equity can assist in the evaluation of the marketing mix elements of brand strategy, plan and execution. Furthermore, brand equity is incremental value to a product or service by its brand name, and is considered as a foundation advantage by many firms.
The ‘Value’ of the meaning behind the name is the heart of what Brand Equity is. Brand Equity can further be split into two catagories.
- Financially based brand equity – “a set of brand assets and liabilities linked to a brand, its name, symbol, that add to or subtract from the value provided by the product or service to a firm…” Aaker (1991).
- Consumer based brand equity – Consumers perceptions associated with a brand including brand awareness, brand attitude and brand loyalty.
Keller’s brand equity pyramid can be used to categorise how strong your brand equity is:
Looking to other sectors – Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola maintains its No 1 rank for the 5th year as the world’s most chosen brand (Kantar) with a turnover of $80 Bn. The story starts with the consumer experience. It frames how consumers see their world in a way that heightens demand and relevance. The brand’s power is derived from the goodwill and name recognition that it has earned over time, which translates into higher sales volume and higher profit margins against competing brands.
Relevance to Pharma?
Pharma and fast moving consumer goods have different challenges and opportunities, yet best practice in building brand equity can be shared. Patient centricity has been built into many Pharma mission statements, but how is that ability to listen to patient experience and confidence measured? Until now Pharma has been unable to leverage the utility of brand equity through a systematic score and benchmark metric by medicine.
Talking Medicines have launched PatientMetRx® insights to meet this need. It provides a measurement tool to accelerate marketing excellence by utilising the AI-driven Patient Confidence Score. For each individual medicine brand there is a mathematically calculated score between 0 (low) and 1 (high) that simplifies direct feedback from patients as an actionable measure over time. It is derived from both awareness (through the number of posts by patients) alongside context from what patients are saying about a named medicine. Collected directly from patients at scale, then aggregated and structured through AI it measures both the trending & immediate patient confidence for a named medicine and its competitive set. As digital transformation takes place it will be critical to put the right systematic tools in place to close the loop on aggregated patient feedback, and to gauge brand strength and equity. This is a new measure, a new way of looking at marketing, but one where other sectors have shown the value of knowing and understanding the confidence that users give to your brand.
To build strong brand equity you need to show:
- Salience: Who are your patients?
- Performance/Imagery: Are your patients needs met on a social and psychological level?
- Feelings/Judgements: Consider the Quality, Creditibility, Consideration and Superiority that you offer Patients.
- Brand Resonance: This is the most desirable level of brand equity because you achieve behavioural loyalty, attitudinal attatchment, sense of community and active engagement.
What Next?
As you enter a period focusing on brand planning, you may be thinking how do we build brand equity in the most effective and efficient way? The simple answer is to bring the patient into the centre of your brand planning to be able to start building brand resonance. However, to do this you need one simple metric that tells you how your patients feel about your brand. PatientMetRx® provides you with just that… a simple platform where you can start listening to what your patients are saying.
The time for change is now, book a discovery session with a member of our team to find out about the one tool that can connect you with your patients. #DoThingsDifferently
Find out more about the Patient Confidence Score at www.patientmetrx.com
References:
Keller, K., 2019. Strategic Brand Management: Building, Measuring, And Managing Brand Equity. 5th ed. Pearson Education, p.33.
Aaker.D (1991), “Managing Brand Equity: Capitalizing on the Value of a Brand Name”, Free Press, New York.
