COVID-19 cases continue to spread in-country and across the globe, Indian Pharmaceutical industry and medical fraternity recognised the importance of digitalization.
Over the last two decades’ interactions with physicians by the sales reps drastically diminished, but when surveyed many doctors wanted the sales representatives, they believe sales reps are one of their most-valued ways to learn new launches, treatment pointers, etc.,
But thousands of sales reps across the states are locked out of access to doctors in promoting the brands. How do companies succeed in this kind of scenario? The solution was found in the way of digitalization, accordingly many companies have made the provisions and budgets for Digital initiative in the brand plans and tweaked brand plans to reach out to doctors in promoting their brands.
Whether it is face-to-face interactions, digital interactions or any other mode the plan is important in how you want to achieve the objective set for the brand. Hence, brand plan is important tool.
What is a Brand plan?
A brand plan is an element of brand management that dictates your approach on how your branding should go. Essentially, it is your long-term plan for the development of a successful brand in order to reach its specific goals. It can affect all aspects of a business especially if it is well-defined and executed.
Effective Brand plan has to answer 5 strategic questions:
- Where could we be? – Purpose/Goals/Vision
- Where are we? – Situation analysis
- Why are we here? – Key issues
- How can we get there? – Strategies
- What do we need to do? – Execute and measure
A strategic plan makes gives you an idea how to allocate resources to drive the best return. Most importantly, the strategic brand plan gains approval from senior management around spending, strategies, tactics, goals, and projects and more importantly the strategic brand plan helps the Brand Manager who wrote it to stay focused on delivering on what you said you would deliver.
Identify your business goals
To develop your marketing strategy, establish your business goals, so you’ll be able to then outline a group of selling goals to support them. Like.
- Increasing the support from Existing prescriber and adding new brands
- Increasing awareness of your products and services
- Reaching a new speciality- Indication expansion or Product extension etc…
- Reaching to New markets with your existing brands
Setting SMART goals, it’s critical to be as targeted as possible so you can effectively measure the outcomes against what you set out to achieve
- Specific — state clearly what you want to achieve
- Measurable — set tangible measures so you can measure your results
- Achievable — set objectives that are within your capacity and budget
- Relevant — set objectives that will help you improve particular aspects of your business
- Time-bound — set objectives you can achieve within the time you need them.
State your marketing goals
Define a set of specific marketing goals based on the business goals you listed above. These goals will motivate the internal stake holders and help you benchmark your success.
Examples of marketing goals include increased market penetration (Increasing the support from Existing prescriber and adding new brands, Increasing awareness of your products and services) or market development (selling existing products to new target markets) or Market Expansion (Reaching a new speciality- Indication expansion or Product extension etc… .) These marketing goals could be long-term and might take a few years to successfully achieve. However, they should be clear and measurable and have time frames for achievement.
Make sure your overall strategies are also practical and measurable. A good marketing strategy will not be changed every year, but revised when your strategies have been achieved or your marketing goals have been met. Also, you may need to amend your strategy if your external market changes.
Research your market
Research is a necessary a part of your strategy. Analysis primarily doesn’t get to be the info given by the marketing research agencies, what insights you’re generating and the way your putt into action is a lot of vital. A hunt ought to able to gather data regarding your market, like its size, growth, social trends and also the competition (Direct and In-direct). it’s vital to stay a watch on your market thus you’re awake to any changes over time, thus your strategy remains relevant and targeted.
4 common market research methods in marketing
- Surveys: the most commonly used
- Interviews: the most insightful
- Focus groups: the most dangerous
- Observation: the most powerful
Conducting market research can be a very eye-opening experience. Even if you think you know your buyers pretty well, completing the study will likely uncover new channels and messaging tips to help improve your interactions.
Understanding the Competition – SWOT Analysis
Before you can do successful marketing, you need to have an understanding of your market. That sounds obvious enough, right? Start by identifying the following four things:
- Strengths: What does your product or service do best?
- Weaknesses: Where is your product or service vulnerable to competition?
- Opportunities: How can your company improve?
- Threats: Are there any external factors that could negatively impact your success
Market Positioning
Positioning is the image of your product or service that you create in the mind of your doctor. Your goal is to create an image that’s unique, differentiated, and definable in the mind of your doctor. To position your product or service, try the following:
- It’s essential that all of your marketing materials support the position or image you are creating.
- It’s also critical for you to know your present and potential competitors, both direct and indirect. Examine their strengths and weaknesses relative to yours. This will help you select a market position that provides a competitive advantage.
Your overall position ought to emphasize those factors that your doctors value most, and people that cause you to stand out from your competition.
Understand the distinction between Strategy Vs. Tactics:
Strategy defines your long-run goals and the way you’re aiming to deliver the goods them. In alternative words, your strategy provides you the trail you would like toward achieving your organization’s mission.
For Example, Strategy is like trying to turn around an aircraft carrier—it can be done but not quickly
Tactics square measure far more concrete and square measure usually familiarized toward smaller steps and a shorter time-frame on the manner. They involve best practices, specific plans, resources, etc. They’re additionally referred to as “initiatives.”
The concept of tactics talks about, the “how” part of the equation. Your tactics help you answer the question, “How are we going to accomplish our goal?”
All Set and ready for the fun:
Now it’s time to require your strategy to future level and switch it into action. you would like a promoting execution arrange. Without it, your strategy can collect mud and you’ll finish up:
- Wasting the time, you spent to build your marketing strategy
- Falling short of your goals and miss out on new customers and revenue
Brand execution brings everything to life – visually, verbally and experientially. It’s regarding activating your whole – developing go-to-market strategy and designing for launch. And it’s regarding observance and measure your whole over time.
and Final words of Wisdom…
That’s how brands deviate from all the others. The tangible components contribute to this — a gorgeous logo, a sharp slogan, an authentic manifesto, and a clear brand voice — but truly strong brands thrive when they focus on the big picture of their brand. Get to the essence of your intended interest group and your association, and an effective brand will follow.
Bye…
Article By Venugopal
The Unstoppable Learner
