In today's consumer-empowered, Internet-driven marketplace, the product brand and the corporate brand - the "brand behind the brands" - are inexorably linked, and strategic,
multifaceted PR programs are essential to their development and protection.
This merging of product and corporate brands has been utilized for years in many high-profile, consumer product industries, including automobiles (Chrysler during the Lee
Iacocca years), food (Ben & Jerry's), beauty (The Body Shop), and fashion (Benetton). Now the pharmaceutical industry is emerging as one of the world's most profitable, and
marquee prescription drugs, such as Viagra, Prozac, and Claritin, are being fueled by multi-million dollar DTC (direct-to-consumer) advertising campaigns. As such, marketers must
now address the interdependence of product and corporate brands.
Addressing Brand Advocates
Every constituent is a consumer - from medical specialists to managed care executives to regulatory officials - and thus a potential advocate for or against your brands. This
affects every communications initiative. For example:
- Corporate communications messages also impact the ultimate end user of medical products.
- Issues management programs must directly and harmoniously address the concerns of multiple audiences, including employees, investors, analysts, physicians, and consumers.
- Consumer marketing programs must be relevant and acceptable to employees, and resonate with the healthcare community.
An exciting communications convergence is emerging in today's healthcare marketplace. The previously discrete disciplines of marketing, issues management, corporate
communications, and internal communications are now interwoven, with each laying the groundwork for the others. Protecting and promoting a corporate or product/service brand are
the flip sides of the same coin.
Consider the importance of internal communications to the brand-marketing program. Every healthcare company employee is a potential brand spokesperson. Companies must clearly
and compellingly communicate key brand messages - from corporate values to product benefits - to all employees. Employees then communicate these messages to external audiences via
the Internet, in face-to-face business meetings, at scientific or medical meetings, and even during informal community and social gatherings.
This lesson hit home a few years ago when we helped a company launch a new drug in a category in which they were already well established. The marketing executives believed
the drug was a potential blockbuster that could extend their category dominance for years. Unfortunately, the researchers who developed the compound viewed it as something less
than a scientific leap forward. As a result, product development slowed, and the competition got an edge in timing. Only after some extraordinary sessions with their marketing
counterparts did the researchers begin to appreciate the consumer appeal of the drug and recognize how it could underscore the corporation's hard-earned reputation for innovation.
After these sessions, the company began to speak with one voice, and the launch was very successful.
Enhancing the Corporate Brand
Consumers demand more from brands now than ever before. They expect respect, information, access, and interaction in their product purchases and their dealings with companies.
Many consumers demand not only a quality product, but also visible corporate responsibility from the brands they choose. A cadre of successful companies are noted for their
corporate responsibility and values, including Johnson & Johnson, Ben & Jerry's, and The Body Shop.
Savvy healthcare marketers recognize that the need to actively shape the corporate brand is both a requirement and an opportunity. It is a requirement because, just like
nature, branding abhors a vacuum. If you don't define your corporate brand, others will. It is also a tremendous opportunity to instill your company (and your products) with
clear values, and to communicate these values to consumers, investors, physicians, employees, and other audiences.
There is no single best way to enhance a corporate healthcare brand. However, we have used the following tactics, and many others, to distinguish our clients' corporate brands,
as well as support product marketing:
- town hall meetings sponsored in partnership with leading medical institutions;
- PSAs and advertorials highlighting healthcare issues, disease states, or local concerns;
- daily radio medical reports on a variety of healthcare topics;
- storefront medical resource centers or kiosks in airports and train stations;
- community medical vans to localize corporate initiatives;
- promotable consumer surveys highlighting issues that support corporate branding messages; and
- think tanks with opinion leaders (who may potentially serve as corporate brand advocates), the results of which can be publicized.
Nancy Turett is president of Edelman Health. She can be reached at 212/704-8195 or [email protected].