Transformational leadership

Above image from here. Winston Churchill was an inspiring leader. He galvanized people BY showing a vision. Churchill transformed attitudes of people, creating a following.

Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference - Winston Churchill

There are said to be two types of leaderships:

a) transactional leadership
b) transformational leadership

Transactional leaders are the typical good managers, who with integrity ensure that transactions are perfect, they ensure order in business transactions, and often leave things slightly improved or as they were.

Thus, in a pharmaceutical company, if the typical attitude is to check the ORG (or IMS) market figures, try to find out the best selling branded generics, then the transactional leader puts the typical new product (ie., new brand of a generic) launch process in motion. The transactional leader ensures launch of a 'new product' (ie., new brand of a generic):

- in glitzy packing
- with minimum 50% bonus offer to chemist retailers
- provides sales pack as samples to MRs for ensuring availability of product at retailers
- regular physician's samples with an attractive cache (or catch) cover
- a visual aid with big brand name some supporting lines, UV spot lamination for the pack shot, and a flap or some other attention getter on the visual aid
- literatures
- launch gifts
- special gifts linked to no. of prescriptions generated or order purchase (by dispensing doctors)
- launch incentive scheme to MRs and field staff

The transactional leader does this by rote. And ensures incremental increase in business. If board members are happy with the ROI (return on investment) it is business as usual, all are very happy, the picture is hunky dory!

But in today's pharma scenario is this approach enough? It is after all safe., time tested ... BUT ... BE WARNED ... this transactional leadership based business model will have limitations and will cause strain on pharma enterprises. This is not a doomsday prediction! It is reality. It is being pragmatic.

TAKE A LEAF FROM THE ELECTRONIC INDUSTRY.

The electronic industry is always in a tizzy. There are tech innovations firing up new product launches. There is no scope for cocooning in transactional leadership. People are always trying to look at

- creating CHANGE (rather than getting run down by change in the industry)
- being INNOVATIVE (doing something new, adding value and improving the competitive offering)
- encouraging ENTREPRENEURIAL attitude (calculated risk taking, not pulling down people with ideas)

Knowledge, renewal and vision

When organizational knowledge is encouraged and strengthened, when robust intra-enterprise systems share knowledge with employees and stakeholders, when there are animated discussions, ideas are thrown around, the churning creates vitality, renews the organization, and the automatic result is ... visions of, what to go for.

The above scenario is distinctly different from a transactional environment. There is questioning, a process of inquiry, deep thinking, knowledge and idea sharing, questioning established paradigms ... this is the very different environment of transformation.

Microcosm and the macrocosm

The microcosm and the macrocosm are inter-connected. A business enterprise is a part of the societal framework. A firm cannot function inured from changes sweeping society. If there are a lot of transformations going on in society in general, they will impinge on the enterprise too. The microcosm is after all a reflection of the macrocosm.

There are sweeping changes in marketing communication, customer connect, messaging, and customer aspirations in the pharmaceutical and healthcare industry. So will a transactional environment of a business enterprise suit the transforming marketplace?

It is time to wake up to a new order of transformational leadership in pharmaceutical organizations. The well established SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures) will not suffice!

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Survival instinct and tactile branding

To try and survive is an instinctive thing! However, self destructive habits can kill the survival instinct. Anything that goes against the survival instinct is self destructive!!

Employee success

To attain success, growth or survival in organizations, it is not the work related behavior alone that matters. There are many other behavioral patterns that arise from high adaptability - in fact; this is responsible for employee survival or success. The intensity of adaptability is again directly proportional to the intensity of survival instinct.

In work environments, there are many attributes an individual needs to adopt for survival, growth and success. This is in spite of the fact that the constant environmental changes may go against an individual’s conditionings, likes and dislikes - but adaptation to environmental changes is critical for the individual’s survival and success.

Changes in the work environment

Let us say, an intense work culture is practiced by an individual for many years. Then one fine day, a series of changes in the work environment happen due to either change in the bosses or owners or when a new generation of leaders’ take over. As part of the new changes, let us say it is not just work related behavior that becomes important. There are other nonwork related behaviours that also become important. So what does the employee do in this changed context?

Eg. 1: A new expatriate boss comes in. This guy believes in ‘work hard and play hard’. So he starts weekend parties for key employees. So this causes new strain on his reportees and key employees. They have to start accommodating weekend parties and other party related social skills to ensure survival, success and growth. Employees who have never played card games, or taken liquor, or cracked typical party jokes, or learnt and practiced party etiquette will have to now start indulging in the same.

How will the employee change and adapt to the new environment?Only through the survival instinct (of the employee)!

Eg. 2: Let us say a new senior expatriate boss comes in. This guy has a fancy for taking morning walks on the beach and countryside walks during weekends. Well, then ... starts a new chain of behavior patterns among key personnel and important employees. They would also have to start walking in the morning and go for long walks in the countryside during their weekends!!

Learning and adapting to this new behavioral pattern is important if the employees have to thrive and succeed!

Eg. 3: Now let us say, a new senior management person takes over, and starts a package of annual extracurricular competitive events like carom, chess, quiz, memory test etc for engaging employees.

The employees who have been for decades practicing only work related behavior (and have not played memory test or cricket or any other event for decades will have to now start adapting to this change to participate effectively); they will have to suddenly adapt to this change and start participating in the same, either by organizing or by participating in the events or at least by being the audience for the events.

This type of adaptability is important for survival, success and growth. So how will this change in the employee, particularly in theconditioned senior employees, come? This change will come only if the employee’s adaptability is high and survival instinct is sharp!

So the bottomline is that an intense survival instinct is a must for individuals and organizations.

This almost ‘animal like instinct’ will make a person/organization adaptable, and hence he/she/organization will learn new behaviours’ required for survival, growth, and success.

Organizations and their instinct for survival

Organizations can thrive if the collective instinct for survival and consequent adaptability is sharp. The ability to respond to environmental changes, and give appropriate responses through learning, is adaptability. The trait of adaptability is related to the survival instinct. When organizations have a sharp instinct for survival there are changes such as:

a) learning new technologies
b) doing business in new ways
c) investing in new production machinery and producing superior products
d) adopting new marketing techniques and tools to connect with new markets and present markets in a value added manner

Aging and adaptability

Aging is not just physical - it is also a state of mind. When an individual does not have the will or faculty to learn, for adaptation, we can say, age is catching up with the individual.

This logic applies to organizations too. When organizations remain in a comfort zone, have blocks to gaining knowledge or experimenting with knowledge, well then, the organization is aging! Organizations that lack the ability to adapt ... age!

Aging causes weakness, infirmity, lack of energy, loss in stamina, aboulia (loss of will power) and susceptibility to disease! Organizations, in the same vein, are also susceptibile to aging if organizations lose the ability to adapt!

In the contemporary pharma world, the adaptable organizations understand the importance of brands!

Brands too require the survival instinct!

Brands need to have adaptability for survival and growth or success in the marketplace. For this brands need to have a survival instinct.

It would be more accurate to say that brand marketers need to have an intense survival instinct and consequent adaptability... only this will help their brands flourish!

Materialization of brands

One important component of brand management that is contributing to success of brands is, materialization of brands.

Brands are often thought of as intangibles. Brand image is all about the emotional connect, look and feel ... so what is materialization of brands?

Tactile dimension of brands

Materialization of brands refers to consciously increasing the materiality of brand communication. It is about making brands less abstract. One way of doing this is by focusing on the tactile dimension of brands.

Tactile branding

Tactile refers to the sense of touch. The brand's perceptibility to touch is increased in the communication. This means making the brand more tangible and tactile (on the dimension of touch), ensuring that brands create a memorable experience.

Pharmaceutical marketing has always been quite strong on tactile branding. Sampling, collection of clinical experience reports, and case studies are key examples of tactile branding in pharmaceutical marketing.

However, the tendency of brand marketers to resort to gifting at the cost of tactile branding is another pitfall.

Nevertheless, tactile pharmaceutical brand marketing is challenging because the consumption of the pharma brand is by the patient (not by the doctor).

However, the electrolyte energy drink brands being marketed enjoy a distinctive advantage. It is possible for the marketers to increase tactile brand marketing simply because the doctor can also consume the samples of the product. The doctor can rarely do this with other pharma brands.

Tactile brand marketing is a very strong reinforcer of purchase and prescribing habits. Yet for pharma marketers it is difficult to indulge in tactile brand marketing as the drug is normally not consumed by the doctor.

Let us say, you meet a paediatrician to market your brand of paracetamol suspension. Let us also assume that the brand being marketed by you is superior in taste and flavor compared to competitor brands. But how will the doctor appreciate this? Perhaps only through patient feedback.

On the other hand, let us say, the savvy pharma marketer prepares a dummy formulation (one without the drug, having only the flavor) and the marketer makes the doctor taste a spoonful of the flavored dummy product. The likelihood of the doctor appreciating the formulation benefit of better flavor and taste, is more with this method of TACTILE BRAND MARKETING (which involves touch and other senses)! And this will perhaps increase the prescription flow in favor of the marketed brand.

Another dimension of tactile marketing is preparing a flavored product (without the drug) of the competitor brand. And make the target doctor taste (touch, get a feel!) this ugh! flavor and then follow it up with a sample containing the better flavored product. The target doctor gets to appreciate the superior taste through tactile marketing instantly!

Thus, success is possible by increasing the materialization of brands, and enhancing focus on tactile branding.

Let us say, you have a pharma product that is very clear - like crystal clear water. So one marketing approach based on tactile branding is to offer complimentary premium crystal clear drinking water in bottles as gifts to doctors! This will make the doctor appreciate the quality of clearness in the pharma product, through this tactile brand marketing route. Here the water bottle acts to create a touch between the marketed brand and the doctor.

To adopt new learnings, one requires adaptability at the individual and organizational level. Adaptability depends on the intensity of survival instinct. Hope this blogpost has helped you in your quest for successful survival and growth. Please read all other blogposts by scrolling down, clicking on older posts, and kindly recommend my blog to your acquaintances!

Alienation

Above image from here.

Organizational success undoubtedly depends on its people. By people we mean their activities - verily, their involvement. When involvement is high, activities are done with a lot of enthusiasm. A low involvement employee performs activities mechanically - as a chore. Enthusiastic activities of involved personnel help generate better organizational outcomes.

Alienation

The opposite of job involvement is alienation. If there is low job involvement, the implications to organizations include:

a) absenteeism
b) employee apathy
c) deliberate sabotage
d) strikes
e) go slow work campaign
f) lack of enthusiastic customer service (For eg., a MR who is very involved, is likely to ensure doctor requirements are serviced in a timely manner. However, a MR who has a lackadaisical attitude will not service doctors appropriately).
f) other forms of employee resistance.

The real challenge for managements and managers is to generate high involvement in a continuous manner. It is a situation where employees willingly and enthusiastically work towards company objectives. Low job involvement or alienation will not produce such an employee behavior.

Overcoming alienation

There is no single formula to generate high job involvement. Some of the factors that help generate involvement and avoid alienation:

a) Cultural background of candidate: In various cultures, work ethic is interpreted variously. In certain cultures, work is itself considered a reward, there is intrinsic reward in the work being performed. In other cultures, extrinsic rewards help produce required work behaviour patterns and involvement. Hence, while recruiting if possible it is important to assess the work ethic dimension of applicant. A candidate who places high value on the work itself is usually a better candidate.

b) Socialization and training process in the organization: The way the new employee encultures in to the organization is the key to successful work behaviour. If the new employee sees low job involvement as an inner organizational trend, the new inductee is likely to pick up such cues and get accordingly ingrained. For eg., certain companies have a club like atmosphere, others have an atmosphere that encourage boss-pleasing, and so on... It is during the entry and socialization experiences that an employee picks up company specific traits. Socialization and training inputs help shape new employee attitude in line with company values, and objectives.

c) Self actualization, social need and security need: High job involvement generated by the organization tends to encourage self actualization or the need for employee to tap his or her potential. The enterprise that helps strengthen the individuality of the employee will be better appreciated by the employee, this generates high involvement. Organizations that have systems to provide security and social needs of employees will tend to generate higher employee involvement. The trick is that the organization should be viewed as a purposeful platform for meeting certain important individual needs.

d) Job enrichment: When jobs become repetitive and boring, casualness and alienation seeps in like a silent thief. It is imperative that organizations institute training and upgradation skills that help employees enrich their jobs. Interventions that encourage job enrichment (such as new tools for job execution) will prove useful in increasing job involvement.

e) Isolation, meaninglessness and normlessness: Jobs that encourage social isolation - that do not strengthen self esteem of employee will see higher degree of alienation. This in turn causes higher employee turnover.

Jobs should ideally imbue a sense of meaningfulness in the employee. A MR who sees his job as helping transform the prescriber's practice in a meaningful way, and a MR who gets a sense of success by converting prescribers, will obviously be more successful. On the other hand, when a MR sees his job as a mere routine, and will not see any challenge or meaning in his vocation, will experience a greater sense of alienation, affecting organizational fortunes negatively.

Norms of a job should guide the employee behaviour and help the employee realize his individual goals. If the job norms do not help employee reach his social and professional goals, the employee is most likely to abandon the job with a sense of normlessness.

e) Coping mechanisms: Coping with the challenges of jobs and the sense of alienation that jobs may create should be understood by managers. Effective coping strategies should then be taught so that employees learn how to cope with the alienation and eventually become more involved.

f) Motivational programs: are becoming increasingly important in organizations, as the market place has become very dynamic. Motivation of employee leads to improved job involvement, reduced alienation and better organizational outcomes.

Pharma enterprises today face significant employee challenges. Adequately trained personnel are not picking up pharma jobs particularly in the sales field. Job opportunities in society for the educated are in plenty. Various new sectors are providing jobs to aspirants. Pharma companies have to compete in such situations and attract good candidates. Moreover, the recruited candidates should be moulded in such a way, that they show high degree of job involvement. Further, they should also stay on in the firm. Such are the challenges confronting managers today. This is the nettlesome contemporary pharma scene! Do pharma companies have a cogent strategy to take on the alienation bull by the horns?

Thanks for reading this blogpost, please scroll down, click on older posts wherever required for reading the older posts, and kindly do recommend this blog to your acquaintances.

Thoughts on branding

THE ABOVE IMAGES FROM HERE.

The concept of branding started with branding of cattle, horses and slaves to indicate ownership (in the 1800s). However. from the end of 19th century, the concept of branding extended to various products. Branding has become a very vital component of business practice. Particularly after Piramal Healthcare Solutions sold 350 brands and just one manufacturing location for a fancy Rs. 17000 crores (3. 2 billion USD), the importance of branding in pharmaceutical industry is felt stronger.

Brands help businesses STAND OUT from the crowd. A brand is not just about a logo, name and 'look and feel', it is also an emotional connect with the target audience. Thus, managements are spending more time looking at brand concepts, brand touchpoints and brand equity or brand value. This includes product brands, service brands and corporate brands.

How may branding develop in the future?

Businesses will strengthen focus on brand equity. Increasing perceived value of brands will gain momentum. Brand management will gain traction as brand assets are becoming more important than the physical aspects of a business. If Pfizer is a valuable company, it is not because it has 'n' number of manufacturing locations, or 'x' number of employees (including field force) - Pfizer is as valuable as its brands. Period! Corex is a Rs. 200 crore brand today. Corex is the no. 1 pharmaceutical brand in India. This and other brands from Pfizer make Pfizer valuable. This logic is applicable to any other company too. Businesses are valued mainly on brand equity.

This was not the case in the 1980s or earlier. Then, the physical assets of a company had greater value. The land and manufacturing plants were providing the main value to the pharmaceutical business. Today? It is the brand equities that are adding value to the enterprise.

This trend of increasing importance of brand equity or brand value will usher in a new approach of corporate working where the emphasis will be on increasing brand values or brand valuation.

Brands gain value or equity from:

1) brand sales
2) brand profits
3) brand scalability: is there scope for the brand to grow? Can the brand value increase exponentially with future time?
4) brand image: is it respectable?
5) brand penetration: is the brand more urban focused? Is the brand more focused towards specialists?

Brands versus threats of obsolescence

In pharma industry, brands have a unique threat, ie., of getting outdated. For instance, brands of astemizole, terfinadine, cimetidine, rofecoxib ... where are they now? With the generic molecule getting outdated or being withdrawn from the market, due to adverse drug reactions, the brands also have died a premature death. For a brand marketer, it is a tragedy. With great efforts the brand marketers have worked for ensuring good BRAND RECALL in the market. Finally, with controversy dogging the generic, the brand also has to suffer premature death. All the brand marketing investments have come to a nought!

Brands are separate assets

With brands becoming more valuable than even physical assets, brands need to be protected and brands need to live longer in the market in the best interests of the pharma company. With generics becoming outdated or withdrawn, how can a company preserve the brand name?

Misbranding

This was the marketing conundrum faced by the marketers at Reckitt. Sometime back quietly the marketers changed their DISPRIN from aspirin to paracetamol. The marketing thought was that Disprin was no longer being used for headaches widely, paracetamol was the faster selling generic in this space, hence, the quiet replacement of generic aspirin with paracetamol. However, when this happened, it stirred a hornet's nest. The regulators objected to this change as it was imprinted on the mind of prescribers that Disprin is aspirin. Disprin is used as a blood thinning agent too. So the company had to do a volte face.

The pragmatic marketers of Reckitt heeding to the public outcry and comments of the drug regulators, so they launched Disprin Paracetamol as a line extension. This has avoided the allegation of misbranding too.

Line extensions the way out

The above case study of Disprin (aspirin) and Disprin Paracetamol shows the way forward for pharma companies in brand management. With brand clutter being the order of the day, resorting to line extensions is becoming a necessity. Saving the brand name in the event of a generic becoming outdated or banned is an important challenge to brand marketers. Brands are built over time through costly investments. These efforts and resources spent, should ideally not come to a nought, just because a generic is no longer wanted. The brand name of the generic is still an important asset. The brand has generated a lot of pen habit among prescribers. Line extensions is a way out to save the brand name. This is especially because brands are today, very important assets, and it is not easy to establish brands. Disprin aspirin and Disprin Paracetamol is a very interesting and pragmatic approach.

The case of Althrocin

Ask any doctor what 'heritage brand' Althrocin is, pat will come the reply, Althrocin is erythromycin. At one time, in the 1990s, Althrocin was among the top 5 pharmaceutical brands of India. Today, with erythromycin prescriptions becoming lesser due to rise in prescriptions for cephalosporins and fluoroquinolones, the brand name Althrocin has become very weak. The brand equity is a pale shadow of its glorious past. What a brand tragedy?!

POINT TO PONDER

If brand Althrocin was redefined to include all similar generics like Azithromycin, Roxithromycin, and Clarithromycin (ie., macrolide antibiotics), through line extensions, would it have helped the marketing cause of increasing brand value of Althrocin?

Unless, brands evolve with times, ensuring relevance to the target audience, the brand values will inevitably become weak. Technology has to be harnessed to prop the brand higher. Brands should extend to various types of dosage formulations to ensure the brand is still exciting and relevant. In today's context, brand marketers should not easily bury brands, just because they have become old and mature. Brand marketers should help brands evolve and remain pertinent with changing times. That is the true call of brand marketing!

Brand marketing in pharmaceutical marketing is now a greater challenge since the brand is a master asset. In the above examples, brand marketers can take brand decline lightly and be party to the 'degrowth of a brand' because the brand is getting old OR like the interesting case of Disprin Paracetamol, brand marketers can make strategic moves (such as line extensions, there are other approaches too) to ensure brands evolve with time, and that brand equity enhances with time, so that there is a good future for all brands. NOW THAT IS SOME FOOD FOR THOUGHT!

Wishing all brand marketers all success in their professional life! Please do recommend this blog to your acquaintances, kindly read all other blogposts by scrolling down and clicking on older posts when required. Trumpet the benefits of the brand, do not make the voice feeble!

The organization and marketing spirit

The above image from here.

First there were governments then there are organizations!

"Young people will have to learn organizations the way their forefathers learned farming"
- Peter Drucker

Truly, it is a different world! In medical practice there was an era of the solitary reaper! In India, doctors would have to just complete their MBBS and with the help of well wishers or through Medical Representatives (who through their travel are aware of the good spots where clinics can be put up), the doctor would start a clinic and start counting the money! Is it that easy today?!

Besides competition from individual medical practitioners, a doctor (new or old) will have to face competition from medical institutions. There are medical organizations competing to offer medical services to patients. And this is changing the way medical services are being delivered, thanks to the medical organization.

Wherever you go ... there are organizations and more organizations. Peter Drucker is right in the above quote where he has indicated that it is now an organizational society. The post industrial society and the e-enabled society (internet driven or information society) is seeing a plethora of virtual and "brick and mortar" organizations.

Living in and with organizations

Life in organizations is not easy. It is not as in family (which is also an organization, in a way). The basic principle of life in organizations is ACCOUNTABILITY (which is not so very tight in families, ie., it is more flexible in families. There is scope for "free lunches" and poor ROI ie., return on investment in families. Come what may, normally families are always together - there is no sacking or leaving the organization). Besides accountability, there is the ROI factor in organizations. When organizational resources are being used for activities by individual(s) in the organization, inevitably there are formal and informal assessments of return on investments done. And it is this that makes life in organizations challenging.

Why do people join organizations?

Organizations refer to groups of people having a common purpose. At the very basic level, people join an organization to get money - for a living. This is the first level why a person joins an organization that pays him/her. Organizations provide jobs, and people need jobs. So people join organizations. There is no other easier way of earning money today.

At a slightly higher level, a person joins an organization due to his or her qualification. There is a match between the joinee's profile and organizational need. For the services rendered, the entrant to the organization is paid a salary or provided a compensation.

At a higher level, an ideological level, people join an organization inspired by the mission or purpose of the organization. Joining political parties, or NGOs or terrorist organizations (!) or even some commercial organizations that have a particular culture or inspiring purpose are such examples.

Why do people start organizations?

There are various motives why people start organizations. Typically, an unmet market need, visualized by an entrepreneur is the spark for the start of organizations. When the Indian Patents Act, 1970 came in to being (where product patent was not recognized in India, only process patents were recognized), many entrepreneurs smelt a market kill through reverse engineering and marketing branded generics. Cipla, Aristo, Alkem, Sun Pharma, Zydus Cadila etc are examples of Indian companies who grew on the foundation provided by the new market opportunity created by the Indian Patents Act, 1970.

The game has however changed from 2005. Now product patents are recognized. Reverse engineering is getting progressively more difficult. So inevitably product innovations are getting to be more important. Marketability is also gaining higher importance rather than mere selling based organizations.

The second need for starting organizations is the ego drive or power need. People like to have reportees. Individuals enjoy having people reporting to them, and having these reportees doing the organizational leader's bidding. These are the feudalistic type of organizations. The financial control of leaders in the organization provides them with the power to have and control behavior of reportees.

The third set of people who end up starting organizations are those who reach very high levels. Egs.: Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Michael Dell. They are the marketers. They create markets through their ideas and products. There are very few of them in this world, and they create organizations of maximum value. In fact, their organizations recast the business world. Their activities are paradigm shifts, their entrepreneurial and marketing work causes tectonic shifts in the business milieu. Their organizations change the lifestyle of people and the way of the society significantly.

Steve Jobs is doing this with his i series of products: the i-pod, ... and now the i-pad. In fact, in the pharma marketing news (electronic newsletter) published by John Mack: he has written nicely on how the i-pad can revolutionize pharma marketing communication activity. Ray Croc who created the franchisee business model of McDonalds - changed eating behaviour of human beings particularly in USA!! He is the marketer's marketer!! Coca Cola that started as a product sold in pharmacies, has changed the way people quench thirst and consume fluids.

Organizations, ideas, products and marketing

The question to ponder on: do organizations create super products or do super product ideas create organizations or is it a mix of these two approaches? One thing is for certain, good product ideas require organizations. Nevertheless, for the organization which revolves around a good product idea to succeed, the MOST ESSENTIAL INGREDIENT is the marketing spirit.

Marketing is not just about charismatic marketers (like Vijay Mallya or Steve Jobs or Richard Branson). Such marketing approaches that depend on the charisma of certain people will not be as effective as a marketing process driven organization. A typical company that is marketing process driven is the collossus GOOGLE. Contrast Google with the way Apple works. Apple appears to click only when Steve Jobs is around. However, GOOGLE is always clicking! Until recently or even now there are many who have not heard of Larry Page and Sergey Brin (the founders of Google). So the marketing process, ideas, great product concepts and then the organization ... these are the ingredients for success in today's world!!

In India, till 1991, the Govt. was the most important entity. After 1991, the economic liberalization process started under the guidance of IMF, which bailed out a bankrupt Indian govt. After 1991, the importance of private organizations has slowly and steadily increased. The development of new media and increased educational attainments of Indians, has further catalyzed the process. Hence, to succeed in the organizational society of India, as Peter Drucker says, we need to gain important organizational management skills! Thnks for reading this blogpost, kindly scroll down and read all other blogposts, please recommend my blog to your acquaintances.

Category killers

Steve Jobs (above) is not just a product entrepreneur, he is a category inventor. Steve creates products that are 'category killers'! Apple, Mackintosh, i-pod, i-phone, i-pad ... all these products are about a new category of products. Steve's success lies in making products that meet new customer needs. He has the knack to identify the market gaps, fill them, and succeed.

Entrepreneurs aim for mega successes. They look for concepts that create something new, redefine the present, set new standards, help gain a leap in sales and provide a higher platform of performance. From where do such mega successes come?

Categories not products create mega successes

New categories are the paradigm creators. New categories create mega successes:

Ujala: the whitener for clothes
Nirma: the first mass market affordable detergent powder
Hero Honda: India's first four-stroke mobike that combined style, performance and ECONOMY, it became a runaway success
Nano, the car: from Tata has created a lot of buzz and in June 2010, Nano helped make Tata Motors become India's second largest 4 wheeler manufacturer after Maruti
Viagra: for the management of erectile dysfunction, from Pfizer, was a runaway success. Viagra was a new product, in fact, a new pharma category
Ciprofloxacin: the fluoroquinolone antibiotic was India's first twice daily effective antibiotic for typhoid and gastroenteritis, this molecule got instant acceptance from prescribers
Mineral water @ Rs. 10/-: Before the mass packaged drinking water concept, brand Bisleri was the only bottled 'mineral water'. Things changed when more manufacturers jumped in to the packaged drinking water bandwagon, and produced packaged (bottled) mineral water - this created a new category
Electrolyte-energy drink concept from Jagdale Industries Ltd., Bangalore is a category creator that has met with robust market success
Mobile phone is a category product that has altered commerce, communication and society in general, as never before. The mobile is not just a communication tool, it is an entertainment device to watch TV, listen to music, and now banks are looking towards the mobile for banking solutions. In the future, the mobile will enable those out of the banking net (right now) to be brought in. People will be able to having bank accounts via the mobile and pay through the mobile. The Indian Railways is also looking to reduce paper usage by providing the "ticket" through sms
The 'i' series of products ie., i-pod, i-phone, and i-pad are all new categories of products backed by fluent marketing

The nub of the matter is that mega success comes from category killers as illustrated above.

Category killer is a brand, product, company or service that has a distinct sustainable competitive advantage that competing firms find it almost impossible to operate profitably in that industry.

There is of course another meaning to this term: large retail chains like Wal Mart that put other smaller retailers out of business are called category killers. However, in marketing and strategy, category killer is a group of products or a product that delivers superior value and creates a category in the market. A category killer redefines the market.

Oral insulin is another example of a change champion product that can become a category killer. Biocon is working on this concept. If oral insulin becomes a reality, Type 2 diabetes mellitus becomes easier to manage, similar to thyroid disease, where oral thyroxine tablets are given. Just imagine, if management of thyroid disease was possible only through injectable thyroxine what a painful disease hypothyroidism would have been.

It is difficult to create products that have superior value that can create a new product category market. Hero Honda continues to be the evergreen example of a product that has created a new category in the market, leading to its triumph in the motorcycle market. Steve Jobs seems to have perfected the art and science of hitting the market regularly with new categories of products backed by savvy marketing.

New categories = innovation

Simply put, innovation is doing something new that is useful. It takes an interdisciplinary approach to do it. And innovation depends on competition. The need to innovate comes from the desire of an organization to exist in the market.

Innovation in the Indian pharma market

Today, the pharmaceutical industry and marketing is a demystified place. People know the tricks of the trade. There is a thriving ecosystem that provides products, this has led to commoditization, and a plethora of brands. Hence, in the Indian pharma market place the need to innovate is felt as never before. Innovation to try and create new product categories is becoming a vital strategy in the Indian pharma industry.

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Making people happy

Pharma marketing is tough, it is like a comedian's life! A comedian does not have the liberty to wallow in sadness, in spite of his personal troubles, because it is his duty to make people laugh. The same is with pharma marketing, whatever the troubles of the pharma marketer may be, at the end of the day, he should make his doctors, pharmacists and patients happy.

The pharma marketer's life is something like Raj Kapoor in 'Mera Naam Joker', where Raj Kapoor makes people happy despite personal tragedies:

Does it mean, pharma marketers are jokers!? No, by all parameters, they are very serious people in a very serious business, it is just that their objective is to make people happy, in spite of any personal challenges they may face from the company or at the personal level or from other market operators.

When I asked a very senior MR how to make doctors', chemists (ie., pharmacists), and patients happy, he paused and replied: 'Don't make them sad or angry!'

Well, that is interesting I thought, but the point is how to do it?! For an outsider, pharma marketing is not something you associate with happiness. Doctor's are in the serious business of treating diseased or ill patients (ie., making them better), pharma marketers offer products and services to help the doctors do that. Pharmacists or chemist shop owners want to provide the best goods and services, and earn hefty margins. So how to make all these people happy?! And is there any place for cheer in pharma marketing, after all?!

1) Two-way communication

The pharma marketing mindset is hinged on the 10/5 concept. The communication concept in pharma is to recruit a MR, give him a bag, a visual aid, lbcs (leave behind cards or literatures), samples, and small complimentaries (like Rx pads, pens, immunization cards, antenatal cards, pen stands, stationaries etc) and get him to make atleast 10 doctor calls, and 5 chemist calls per day. This the MR does on a regular monthly basis, to a preselected pool of doctors (In pharma marketing language we say these doctors are in the MR's territory). However, this pharmaceutical marketing approach, which forms the backbone of pharma marketing, can be tweaked a bit to make it a two-way process. This will engage the doctor better during in-clinic activity.

Thus, the focus of the in-clinic activity will not just be the MR's representation of talking points, and giving away of other inputs, it will be to obtain a specific feedback that gives an indication of the unmet need. This can then be followed up to delight the customer. For eg., a doctor may want a specific OBG medical journal as a gift - which may not be on offer from the company, however, if the company wants to go the extra mile and delight the doctor, then the pharma company can offer the journal gift to the doctor. This will make the doctor happy.

2) Feel-good factor through brand building efforts

Brands are covenants of trust, they are a bridge between doctors and the company, brands can delight or put off the doctor. It is interesting to note that product brands and corporate brands are very vital emotional bridges that improve business prospects in pharma industry. A doctor writes a specific brand because he feels good doing that. The doctor has confidence on the quality, safety, efficacy, and supply or availability, and other services associated with the brand. This creates the feel-good factor, and makes the doctor happy. Hence, brand building generates happiness in customers (doctors, pharmacists, and patients) and generates business.

3) Humor makes customers happy

A dash of humor, does help in the AIDA (attention, interest, desire and action) process. Humor is used to make doctors/pharmacists happy. In this story, a writer details how he uses humor as a tool to make doctors happy. The writer cites an example where he even jogs in situ to make the doctor happy! I think that is taking things a bit too far!!

4) Empathy always delights

Empathy (ability to think and feel as the customer, ie., being in the shoes of the customer) is the most vital factor that helps deliver happiness. It takes a lot of knowledge and understanding to empathize with the customer. Empathy requires listening skills and keen observational techniques, which unfortunately get buried in the need to accomplish one's own targets. Empathy leads to a refined communication that will be well received, messages better perceived, and customer delight is consequently ensured.

When one develops empathy, the direction of marketing activity is better oriented towards customer delight. Empathy requires emotional intelligence (EI). This not only implies the ability to identify and manage one's emotions, it refers to the ability to understand and manage others emotions too.

When a MR or marketing person, empathizes and takes appropriate steps, the result is: marketing that delights! So an empathetic MR will visit a doctor when the doctor is not preoccupied rather than meeting a doctor when it is convenient for the MR! The MR will provide inputs that are useful to the doctor rather than what is available with the MR. The empathetic marketing person too provides strategies and promotional inputs that are truly delightful rather than doing convenient things.

All in all, we observe, making people happy, is not easy. It invariably requires going the extra mile, and is an intense experience. Nevertheless, the pharma marketer's commitment is to move in this direction. And this makes the job challenging.

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