Pharma Branding Opportunities During Crisis
Earlier today I spoke in front of roughly 50 pharma people at a conference in Bucharest on anti-crisis strategies for pharma companies. I graduated medical school shortly after founding Grapefruit, and incidentally, we have done a lot, and diverse work for pharma companies—from brand audits and strategies to naming, identity and package design, to digital and employer branding. Obviously, my presentation had to touch the sensitive crisis issue.
So here’s my point of view, beyond the part where I boasted with our work and discussed our holistic approach of the brading process:
What is the predominant management strategy during crisis? Budget slashing. Period.
I had a recent discussion with a large client, and I was terrified that his management strategy was focused exclusively on survival throughout the crisis period (which, obviously, no one has any idea when it would end). Nothing more. Just get the ship to the shore without sinking. Hello? What happened to the part with increasing revenues?
Crisis is an opportunity
Most managers are in a state of panic. Investors hire managers that know how to cut. People are sacked, products and brands are buried forever, marketing and HR budgets are just a shadow.
This is a great opportunity for someone who wants to zig when others zag. Competition is in chaos fighting in pricing. Costs are lower (from production to media to salaries and almost everything). I don’t see a low budget as a threat (well, it is, but it’s not the end of the world), but as an opportunity to do things smarter.
Wise managers adjust their strategy to exploit this status-quo to their advantage. Their management (and implicit branding) strategy is based on action rather than expenditure. They have a plan that extends beyond the crisis. They listen, then act and always measure (that’s why accountability now becomes more important than time to market).
Build loyalty, rather than awareness
It’s common sense. New client acquisition costs are higher than retaining an existing client. And strong brands are about loyalty, not about awareness (think of niche brands).
Consolidate and optimize
Choose to work with just a few suppliers. Benefits will show sooner in volume discounts and in shorter project timeframes (due to smoother process). Optimize production costs—Unilever plans to save hundreds of millions by reducing their packaging color palette from over 100 to just 6 throughout their range of products.
Less advertising. More PR and digital.
This is a plea for more effective communication. PR and digital branding are cheaper and more accountable than TV. While during the past years, huge amounts of the budgets were spent on TV, due to convenience and time-to-market, a good idea and carefully chosen channels can get good results with just a fraction of the former TV budgets.
Social media allows for good listening, measurable objectives. By the way, get the habit of setting hard objectives (30% success rate) rather than soft objectives (7% success rate).
Most importantly, communicate as often as possible (be relevant) to make up for the loss in media space.
Most important. Focus on people.
I always complain about clients not understanding the whole of branding. I have to admit that leadership is often more disregarded than branding (at least in Romania, and probably in most emerging economies). Leadership is an essential (if not vital) skill, especially during tough times when the crew needs a strong captain that steers the ship towards a clearly stated goal.
The most important asset (brand-wise, too) in pharma companies that manufacture/market generics are people. Great people (defined by Auren Hoffman as A-players) are harder to find, due to the noise of mostly-mediocre, freshly unemployed victims of the downturn, which haunt the recruitment market. However, I think they are more likely to come aboard a ship with vision, rather than keep a safe-place on a ship going nowhere.
Staff whose daily tasks are reduced due to decreased production or other processes, should receive new responsibilities that will help them feel a part of the solution (not of the problem). Job enrichment is a good way to keep optimism and motivation.
The final conclusion
Charles Darwin, the known naturalist said that
It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.
However, the closing question of the conference’s moderator, Nicolae Iordache Iordache, should give more food for thought on this eternal debate on branding, management, marketing and crisis—what’s your plan for when the crisis ends?