ahieving global launch_excellence2
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Pharmaceuticals global launchTRANSCRIPT
patent life. However, because of particularmarket issues, maintaining a fully alignedglobal approach can be challenging.”
Ken Ribotsky, president and CEO of TheCore Nation, says at its core a global productlaunch is actually a series of individual mini-launches that are specific to each market.
“A global launch involves navigating atremendous number of nuances: different peo-ple, languages, and cultures; different pre-scribing behaviors; different levels of knowl-edge among patients; different laws,regulatory requirements, and healthcare cov-erage,” he says. “So in my mind, a globalproduct launch is an endeavor in which onemust consider and address all of these nuances,effectively engaging diverse audiences with abrand that resonates, is memorable, and moti-vates people worldwide to make a change ortake action.”
Breaking it down further, Mr. Star says thebare bones of a global launch might consist ofhaving a shared global brand name and visual
Taren Grom
“Some clients take a centralized approach,which adopts a worldwide market positionthat rallies around a brand offering that res-onates with the largest percentage of the tar-geted population from market to market,” hesays. “Other clients prefer to defer more to thedemands of local market forces. The trend inrecent years has been for global marketingleaders to assume more and more responsibil-ity for driving the brand into markets. Thistrend skews toward global launches that areanchored by points of commonality.”
Emma Sergeant, managing director globalbusiness at Ogilvy CommonHealth World-wide, says the key message and launch cam-paign strategy are driven from the global teamacross the communication channels.
“How the regulatory bodies approve thebrand for launch and the label indication willdefine the operational roll out,” she says. “Inrecent years there has been a much strongerdrive to maintain one brand name to allow eq-uity to be developed for the brand during its
he details of what comprise aglobal launch vary dependingupon who is doing the defin-ing, but experts can agree that
the launch environment is becoming morechallenging. And with the value of the globalpharmaceutical market expected to grow 5%to 7% in 2011, according to IMS Health, theincentive to reach multiple markets is enoughto have global brand teams rallying around acommon goal, whether it’s a true worldwideapproach or a series of mini launches.
“Global launches tend to require complexcoordination across a broad functional span,”says Gene Guselli, co-founder, president, andCEO of InfoMedics. “These can run from thebasic general organization of traditional devel-opment and commercialization activities,often loosely coordinated and not necessarilydriven by global teams with established au-thority, to highly structured, organized, andoftentimes well-financed global leadershipwith clear and real authority. It is importantto understand the precise characteristics ofeach global organization before making anyassumptions about the effort required.”
Larry Star, chairman and CEO of Harrisonand Star, agrees that the corporate culture ofthe company influences the launch strategy.
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AchievingGlobal Launch
EXCELLENCE
Defining what comprises a global launch is almostas complex as executing a global launch strategy.{ }
“ The process of developing a globalbrand requires the genuine involvementof the whole organization. ”
PHIL DESCHAMPS / GSW Worldwide
28 January 2011 � PharmaVOICEPDF created for: DEBI EMERICK ([email protected]) 1/5/2011
Global Launch
Global Launch Experts Define Global
PHIL DESCHAMPS, GSW Worldwide
A global launch is any launch that targets more
than one market simultaneously and where it is
prospectively determined that a brand can
share a core marketing idea.
GENE GUSELLI, InfoMedics
The most general definition of a global launch
would be when a pharmaceutical company has
a product that it intends to introduce into
multiple markets.
KEN RIBOTSKY, The Core Nation
Global means pertaining to the world, and at its
most basic definition, a global product launch
can be defined as increasing awareness of a
new product in the majority of key international
markets to ultimately achieve sales results and
help the greatest number of patients
worldwide.
EMMA SARGEANT,
Ogilvy CommonHealth Worldwide
For the majority of pharma companies, a global
launch involves developing a central strategy,
brand essence, and proposition.
LARRY STAR, Harrison and Star
Ultimately, a global product launch is defined
by the client and is a direct reflection of the
client’s operating philosophy.
AL TOPIN, Topin & Associates
A global product launch involves uniting
multiple geographic markets with common
elements and objectives — product name,
brand identity, positioning, and messaging —
to leverage media channels, publications, and
medical congresses, which continue to become
increasingly global.
“ Each member of the global teamneeds an opportunity to have his orher voice heard, and feel that his orher opinions are considered whendevising the ultimate strategy. ”
LARRY STAR / Harrison and Star
“ Often, the foundation for asuccessful global launch is noteasily visible but occurs behindthe scenes. ”
AL TOPIN / Topin & Associates
identifiers, such as logo, color palette, icon,etc., but at the other end of the continuum,clients might embrace these minimal ele-ments, while demanding continuity acrosscontinents in terms of the brand’s positioningplatform, core messages, and brand identity.
“Brand teams may also require a commonset of go-to-market strategies and a singleglobal launch campaign that would use thesame core creative in each market allowing foronly minor modifications to meet local regula-tory and cultural dictates,” Mr. Star continues.
According to IMS, launches, even the bestones, are not doing as well as those in previousyears in terms of early market share, and com-panies are acknowledging, but not yet consis-tently responding to, the new demands of thechanging launch environment.
Al Topin, president of Topin & Associates,also believes it’s more difficult today for mar-keters to execute any product launch becausethe challenges are greater, the audiences areblending, costs are higher, customers have be-come more jaded, and the risks have grown.
Global Launch Success“Internationally, companies are beginning
to gather payer insights much sooner, in timeto genuinely influence development of thelaunch value proposition, although rarely be-fore Phase III,” says Chris Nickum, VP andglobal practice leader, commercial effective-ness, at IMS Health Management Consulting.“In some cases, successful organizations havedriven earlier country-level stakeholder en-gagement and examples exist where this hasbeen vital to launch performance in that coun-try. However, it is still unusual to devote sig-nificant resources to stakeholder managementas early as a year in advance.
“There’s an ongoing shift in power amongstakeholders, with decreasing influence fromprescribers,” Mr. Nickum continues. “Allstakeholders have expanded the criteria bywhich they assess new products, generatingrequirements for stronger and broader levelsof evidence. To engage these stakeholders,companies are expanding their business func-tions, which are, in many cases, stretching ex-isting organizational operations.”
Mr. Star believes the most important factorin a successful global launch is to have an or-ganization, and a team leader, that gathers in-
29PharmaVOICE � January 2011PDF created for: DEBI EMERICK ([email protected]) 1/5/2011
Global Launch
starts with making sure the company is prop-erly aligned and organized for the complexi-ties of global marketing.
“I have seen global brands that should havebeen blockbusters right out of the gate becomecompletely derailed because the organizationdid not have all of the required systems inplace, from manufacturing and supply chain,to securing market access, reimbursement,sales, and even customer service,” he says.“Proper planning and anticipating market-specific obstacles are crucial, but unfortunatelythe process can never be started early enough.The approach to global product launch plan-ning should be a holistic one, and it should in-tegrate all of the processes, systems, and capa-bilities so that they will converge and cover theentire life cycle of the brand.”
Another critical factor to global launchsuccess, according to Mr. Star, is the ability tolook at the market, the competition, and thecustomer’s brand and identify the one thingthat will differentiate the brand in a relevantway from the competition.
“Too often, companies base their strategyaround what they want to believe is a point ofproduct differentiation rather than what themarket dictates as a relevant differentiator ona global scale,” he says.
Another priority, Mr. Star says is developingand communicating a value proposition orunique selling proposition that is both relevantand compelling, and the best way to accom-plish that is by solving an identified problem.
“This is where things can get tricky becausea problem that physicians are experiencing inProvo, Utah, may be entirely different fromthe problems doctors are facing in Paris,France,” he says. “Another key to a successfulglobal launch is preparing the market, andwhat I mean by that is engaging opinion lead-ers and key stakeholders in such a way thatthey are completely on board before thelaunch. This also ties back to the developmentof the value proposition. It is much easier toachieve momentum with all stakeholderswhen there’s early buy-in from KOLs, patients,disease-state community members, and evenmore so now, regulators, and payers.”
Ms. Sergeant agrees that gaining local mar-ket input and buy-in to the global strategy willensure that the approach is embraced, adopted,and operationally resourced and supported.
“Ensuring the market is prepared appropri-ately within local regulatory requirements,which critically now involves developing a clearmarket access program, is key,” she says.
Often, the foundation for a successful globallaunch is not easily visible but occurs behindthe scenes, Mr. Topin says, and requires: a well-structured and defined global team chargedwith a specific and detailed planning process;clear and effective channels of team communi-
requires the genuine involvement of the wholeorganization. Global marketers need to be con-cerned about what the brand is going to standfor, i.e. positioning and brand hallmarks, andthe regional and local marketers need to be fo-cused on how that positioning is going to con-nect with the local audience.”
Mr. Guselli concurs that one of the keys tosuccess lies in the global launch team’s abilityto listen to and respond to the specific needsof the local market teams.
“Issues involving regulatory authorizationor approval, market access, reimbursement,pricing, etc., coupled with market and culturaldifferences, require significant flexibility in theglobal planning process,” he says.
Global launches are successful when thebrand stands on a consistent platform in thetarget markets.
“This usually means that the disease stateis treated in similar ways and the cultural sen-sitivities lend themselves to be able to ownthe same platform in each target market,” Mr.Deschamps says.
Mr. Ribotsky agrees that a global launch
sight, information, and critical local marketperspectives from all key constituents.
“Each member of the global team needs anopportunity to have his or her voice heard andfeel that his or her opinions are considered whendevising the ultimate strategy,” he says. “At theoutset of a global launch, disparate market rep-resentatives will naturally focus on the differ-ences between individual market dynamics.The key to a successful launch necessitates shift-ing this myopic perspective to a 20,000-footview of the brand that lets each player see theimportance of speaking to the benefits that arecommon in the majority of markets.”
Phil Deschamps, president and CEO ofGSW Worldwide, says global launch successrests with the company’s readiness to execute acomplex strategy — it has to be philosophicallyand actually structured to do a global launch.
“Global, regional, and local marketers needto have defined roles and accountability to theprocess or much of the synergy the organizationmay be looking for is lost in the redundancy ofroles,” he says. “This is not just a top-downissue. The process of developing a global brand
Executing a Successful Global Launch
IMS Health research has identified three recurring
themes that are common to every excellent launch and
that analysts believe will be the key to future launch
success.
1An Aligned and Prepared Organization
Misalignment can occur at the functional as well as the
geographic levels. Common goals, shared incentives,
and earlier launch preparation are essential. The
importance of organizational alignment has been
central to the findings of IMS launch excellence studies,
underscoring its pivotal role as a driver of success. At its
simplest level, alignment means that the various
functional and geographic elements of a company are
working together in harmony, with common goals, on
the launch. This may seem obvious and straightforward.
Yet both quantitative analysis and qualitative research
suggest that lack of real alignment for launches is very
common and achieving it is very difficult.
2A Powerful and Pertinent Value Proposition
Successful launches are powered by compelling
demonstrations of value, drawn from evidence
generated that addresses disparate stakeholder
needs. Gaining advocacy, approval, and market
access require a powerful and pertinent value
proposition that appeals to both regulators and
payers. This increasingly means meeting
dissimilar — and possibly contradictory —
needs. IMS research suggests that companies
are facing the growing dilemma of finding the
right balance between regulatory requirements
for trials versus payer expectations from trials as
well as trial investment (for the same label)
pre- and post-launch.
3Effective and Efficient Stakeholder Engagement
Stakeholder power shifts are acknowledged and
earlier engagement is growing, but new models
must address ability to influence widespread
product usage. Companies are well aware of
changes in the relative importance of
different stakeholders. But have they adjusted
their approach to development and
commercialization? Where are the genuinely new
models of effective and efficient stakeholder
management for launch? How have they fared?
30 January 2011 � PharmaVOICE
Source: Chris Nickum, IMS Health Management ConsultingFor more information, visit imshealth.com.
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Global Launch
“ It’s important to design and executea learning solution that works for diverse audiences and across diversemarkets. ”SHABNAM IRFANI / ClearPoint Learning System
cation that allow for geographic nuances andgive each participant a voice; and a plan for reg-ularly scheduled team meetings, includingface-to-face global team interactions.
“Structure and planning help to clarify eachteam member’s role and responsibility, andshould include a flexible launch timetable thatlists specific milestones, and incorporate a cleardecision-making process,” he says. “Establishedchannels of communication assure that eachteam member is up to speed and can contributeat each stage of the process. And at critical junc-tures, it’s important that team members stepaway from conference calls, get on a plane, andmeet each other face to face. While these meet-ings take extra time and add to the launch costs,they enhance clarity, accelerate decision mak-ing, and build team unity and understanding.It’s difficult to overemphasize the importance ofeffective communications. In fact, when talkingabout global launches, there should be no suchthing as overcommunicating.”
In addition to communication, ShabnamIrfani, director of learning solutions at Clear-Point Learning Systems, says training is vital.
“It’s important to design and execute alearning solution that works for diverse audi-ences and across diverse markets,” she says.“To accomplish this, training departmentsmust fully understand the global launch prod-uct plan and engage key stakeholders from thecommercial team to develop a training planthat meets the organization’s goals. A trainingplan should be comprehensive and includecritical dependencies, organizational objec-tives, and clear metrics around success at aminimum. Secondly, during the training de-sign and development process, criticalthought must be given to the treatment ofcontent and how it will address the varyingneeds and requirements of the global trainingaudience. Aside from language differences andlocalization needs, it is important to considerhow content matter varies regionally. For ex-ample, the reimbursement landscape variesfrom region to region, so the training in thisarea should be designed to support easy mod-ification. And finally, when a blended learningsolution with varied media choices is devel-oped, it is important that the media choice bematched to the content to avoid costly recre-ation of training materials.”
The Future of Going Global
According to our experts, there are severaltrends that will impact global launches in thenext five to 10 years, not the least of which areshifting payer control, emerging markets, andpressure from local markets.
“We can expect that the pressure to answerlocal customers’ needs is going to be greaterand greater,” Mr. Deschamps says. “Also, thestakeholders involved will proliferate. Manu-facturers need to focus on creating value fortheir customers rather than pushing a particu-lar message to their audience. We call this theshift from being an advertiser to being an ad-vocate for the disease state being served. Thatvalue needs to be clearly articulated to payers,physicians, healthcare professionals, advocacygroups, and government. Differentiating basedon message alone will not be enough; brandsand companies will need to focus on differenti-ating themselves based on the value and posi-tive outcomes they create for their customers.This will require healthcare marketing expert-ise that is in short supply on a global basis.”
Mr. Ribosky says marketers will be forced toshift their mindsets, largely because of the fi-nancial crises that are actively affecting — orlooming above — so many markets.
“Many of the bread-and-butter-drugs withsales of more than $30 billion that have fueled
“ At its core a global productlaunch is actually a series of individual mini-launches thatare specific to each market. ”
KEN RIBOTSKY / The Core Nation
“ Because of particular market issues,maintaining a fully aligned global approach can be challenging. ”
EMMA SERGEANT / Ogilvy CommonHealth
31PharmaVOICE � January 2011PDF created for: DEBI EMERICK ([email protected]) 1/5/2011
“ Global launches tend to requirecomplex coordination across a broadfunctional span. ”
GENE GUSELLI / InfoMedics
“ There’s an ongoing shift inpower among stakeholders, withdecreasing influence from prescribers. ”
CHRIS NICKUM / IMS Health
32 January 2011 � PharmaVOICE
tinue to be a dynamic industry, and whenviewed on a global level, Mr. Topin sayschange is not just continual, but often seismic.
“Over the next decade, we should expect tosee communication channels and media con-tinuing to become even more global; govern-mental approval processes growing even moreunpredictable; regulatory bodies shadowingeach other’s decisions; growing regulation andapproval of biosimilars in various regions;continuing consolidation of large pharmamanufacturers; and expansion of cross-re-gional comarketing agreements.”
The result of all of this Mr. Topin says, willbe a difficult path for any global player.
“Both the incentives and the risks involvedwith launching brands on a global level haveincreased, local and regional competition hasgrown, and generic threats have impacted thelife expectancy of even the most successfulbrands,” he says. “Manufacturers continue tospread their risk with comarketing agree-ments, but the global launch process is im-pacted by the challenge of managing differingpersonalities, approaches, and perceptions ofresponsibilities. It’s the equivalent of manag-ing a group of type A personalities all playingtogether in the same sandbox.”
Mr. Star says a major trend will be the eval-uations of brands by customers to includemore factors than just the features and bene-fits of a drug.
“The service offering will be as critical to thesuccess of a drug as its brand attributes and ef-ficacy,” he says. “Because adherence to the drugregimen erodes over time and doctors have lesstime to closely monitor their patients’ compli-ance patterns — or lack thereof — service of-ferings that make it easier for patients to stickwith their treatment increases the chances ofsuccessful outcomes.”
Mr. Star says often the core element forsuccess lies in developing a relationship withthe patient.
Mr. Guselli believes there will be a contin-ued trend toward stronger, centralized coordi-nation and financial support from globalteams, who will be given increasing authorityto execute multi-country product launches.
“The global leaders who will rise to the topwill be those who discover the correct balancebetween global coordination and control, andrespect and empowerment of the local marketleaders,” he says. “I truly believe that thesepeople are the future leaders of the globalpharmaceutical industry.” PV
Global Launch
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profits for so long are moving off patent, andwe’re not seeing the no-holds-barred type oflaunches that create or expand markets the waythey used to,” he says. “Marketers will be re-thinking their global launch strategies and en-tering high-potential, pharmerging markets
earlier, rather than at the tail end, which wasthe old paradigm. Me-too drugs have passedtheir shelf life, and progressively fewer drugswill be approved unless they can offer somenovel value.”
The pharmaceuticals business will con-
PHIL DESCHAMPS. President
and CEO, GSW Worldwide, an in-
Ventiv Health company, which is
one of the largest healthcare
companies in the world. For more
information, visit inventivhealth.com.
GENE GUSELLI. Co-Founder,
President, and CEO, InfoMedics
Inc., which works with
biopharmaceutical marketers to
break down walls that exist in health
communications and enable doctors and
patients to better communicate about a
treatment experience. For more
information, visit infomedics.com.
SHABNAM IRFANI. Director of
Learning Solutions, ClearPoint
Learning Systems, an interactive
health education company that
creates media-rich educational and train-
ing solutions supporting the needs of a
wide range of constituents across the
healthcare spectrum. For more information,
visit clearpointlearning.com.
CHRIS NICKUM. VP and Global
Practice Leader, Commercial Ef-
fectiveness, IMS Health
Management Consulting,
which provides market intelligence to the
pharmaceutical and healthcare industries in more than
100 countries. For more information, visit
imshealth.com.
KEN RIBOTSKY. President and CEO, The
Core Nation, a family of healthcare
marketing and medical communications
companies (Core-Create, Brandkarma, and
Alpha & Omega) that offers strategic, branding, and
creative consulting services. For more information,
visit thecorenation.com.
EMMA SERGEANT. Managing Director
Global Business, Ogilvy CommonHealth
Worldwide, is a global healthcare
communications network serving clients in
64 offices across 33 countries. For more information,
visit ogilvy.com.
LARRY STAR. Chairman and CEO, Harrison
and Star, a healthcare advertising and
communications agency providing a full
array of strategic and creative services for
pharmaceutical, biotechnology, diagnostic, and device
companies. For more information, visit hs-ideas.com.
AL TOPIN. President, Topin & Associates
Inc., an independent full-service,
medical marketing communications
company. For more information, visit
topin.com.
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Dave EspenshadeSenior Vice President
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he UpsideLarry Star, chairman and CEO ofHarrison and Star, says the pri-mary advantage to a global
product launch is that drugs exist in a smallerworld than ever before.
“Doctors, whether practicing in Shanghaior Rio or Dallas, are beginning to converge interms of treatment approaches,” he says. “Peo-ple cross continents to participate in profes-sional society meetings so it’s good to have theconsistency in messaging and positioning.And of course, the Internet is a powerfultouch point for all brands regardless of thecategory. For these reasons, building a solidglobal foundation can be a vital element inbuilding awareness and adoption at launch.”
Ken Ribotsky, president and CEO of TheCore Nation, says the advantage of a globallaunch is that the brand can reach the great-est number of people possible, which means ithas greater potential for therapeutic and fi-nancial success.
“Marketers also gain valuable intelligence,including what the uptake drivers are in differ-ent parts of the world, all of which can helpthem down the road when they launch a futureproduct,” he says. “Marketers can also developor improve their core competencies, such as un-derstanding how reimbursement varies fromone country to another. Medical communitiesare global today, so companies can benefit fromhaving a constant and consistent brand pres-ence across all markets.”
Phil Deschamps, president and CEO ofGSW Worldwide, says the advantage of aglobal launch, once it has been determinedthat a brand can have an effective global posi-
even the largest corporations hesitate to dowhen the world economy is as shaky as it isright now. Companies also assume greaterrisk, and are far more exposed because successis going to be evaluated based on how well abrand does in individual markets, which isvery different from an average or aggregatedassessment that occurs in one large marketlike the United States. So if, for example, aglobal launch effort fails miserably in theUnited Kingdom, it’s going to be muchharder to hide that failure. And since compa-nies really only have a six-month window tomake their mark, the stakes are really high.”
For Emma Sergeant, managing directorglobal business at Ogilvy CommonHealthWorldwide, the advantages of consistency andefficiency — time, resources, and cost — canbe offset by several disadvantages, includingmissing some local market nuances and buy-in, not necessarily producing marketing cam-paigns that are adventurous and push theboundaries, and becoming too process-drivenand losing sight of innovative approaches.
Mr. Topin says the disadvantages or risksare also obvious but difficult to manage, suchas adjustments and compromises to accom-modate local/regional customs, medical pro-tocols, government approval processes, and re-imbursement that can potentially dilute theimpact of branding and messaging.
Furthermore, he says, a global launch re-quires additional time to build and coordinatea global effort vs. a single regional launch. Ad-ditionally, there is a risk of missing timely ap-provals in key markets, or facing differing in-dications and restrictive labeling in keymarkets.
Taren Grom
The PROS
Industry experts discuss the advantages/disadvantages of undertaking a global product launch.{ }
and CONSofGlobal Launches
tion, is the campaign develops brand equitymuch more quickly.
“It is more efficient to produce such a cam-paign and global, regional, and local market-ing resources can be streamlined,” he says.
The advantages of a global product launchare clear but can be elusive, says Al Topin, pres-ident of Topin & Associates. These include theimpact of a unified global branding and consis-tent messaging on multiple audiences, signifi-cant efficiencies and economies of unifiedbranding and communication, and potential topreempt competition in multiple markets.
The Downside“The primary disadvantage of a global prod-
uct launch is that the nuance that is importantto a local market can be lost because it mayhave to be sacrificed for the benefit of the globalbrand,” Mr. Star says. “This can cause somecompetitive disadvantage in that local market.It is not possible for a brand to be all things toall people so a global product launch runs therisk of losing local flavor.”
Mr. Deschamps says the only disadvantageis that a global campaign requires more coor-dination and that without real roles and re-sponsibilities, defined any advantages will notmaterialize.
Mr. Ribotsky says there is a misperceptionthat global product launches are going to beless expensive than market-by-market intro-ductions.
“A marketer’s focus should always be oncreating a bigger brand and not a cheaperlaunch,” he says. “Another downside is that aglobal launch requires more resources, which
T
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rope,” he says. “Another misstep is relying toomuch on ‘the old bag of pharma marketingtricks,’ those tried-and-true channels or tacticsthat worked really well for years, but may notbe as effective in today’s environment. Mar-keters need to look at a multiple channels, de-termining which ones will be the most appro-priate to prepare and shape each market. I alsothink while the overall marketing strategy isdetermined by the home team, brand teamsneed to allow some flexibility for individualcountries to condition their markets, and per-haps even refine messaging so that it’s specificto individual market challenges. And whilemany pharma marketers spend a great deal oftime and resources on aligning external stake-holders, they overlook alignment of their in-ternal stakeholders. This often results in inter-nal confusion on positioning and the valueproposition. Everyone needs to be on board,from the CEO to the most junior employee.”
Mr. Deschamps explains that it’s impor-tant to remember that global sameness is notglobal marketing and branding.
“While clearly a brand needs to share aglobal position and branding hallmarks, thisdoes not mean the campaign or marketing ap-proach should be the same in each market,” hesays. “A brand has to share a visual and posi-tioning core but local marketers are the ex-perts at connecting that brand to their cus-tomers locally. Without the local
customization the global manufacturer isgoing to try to penetrate the market with ablunt object rather than an arrow point.”
Mr. Deschamps also warns that marketersshould avoid being global for the sake ofbeing global.
“Every situation is different and needs to beassessed as to whether a brand should be global,regional, or local,” he says. “Only when researchdetermines that the brand can have a globalmarketing platform should the global approachbe used. A great example of this is the ADHDmarket. In North America the market is muchmore developed than in Europe, so for brandstargeting this disease state there should be dif-ferent approaches in each of those regions.”
Lastly, Mr. Deschamps says marketers needto remember to make sure the global brandscan breathe.
“Most global organizations establish theglobal strategy for a brand and do not have themeans or the structure to gain real-time feed-back on the brands’ performance in the marketplace beyond market share,” he says. “In today’senvironment the opportunities for gaining in-sight into customers’ relationships with a brandis measured in minutes or days not years. Mostmanufacturers are more concerned that thelocal affiliates execute the ‘global’ campaignbut they also have to make sure the global cam-paign responds to local customer needs throughmicro message and campaign tweaking.”
Global Launch
Best PracticesGene Guselli, co-founder, president, and
CEO of InfoMedics, says at all costs compa-nies need to avoid a one-size-fits-all approach.
“Also, it’s important to remember that theultimate success of the global plan will be de-pendent upon the enthusiasm and support pro-vided at the local level,” he says. “Therefore, theglobal leadership teams need to be ever-vigilantwhen it comes to making sure that local mar-ket personnel feel — and to some extent get —true ownership of the program.
“When they hear the term global launch,most people assume a single button getspushed somewhere at corporate headquartersand overnight a brand goes live across theglobe,” Mr. Guselli continues. “Nothingcould be further from the truth. In fact, inmost cases, even with well-conceived and exe-cuted strategies, it can take anywhere fromone to three years to truly execute a globallaunch. As such, success is highly dependentupon a strong communication structure andmonitoring and control systems that produceactionable information.”
Mr. Ribotsky agrees that the most disas-trous mistake is adopting a one-size-fits-allapproach.
“Just because something works well in theUnited States doesn’t mean that the same setof tools will create a similar reaction in Eu-
Key Global Market Dynamics
According to IMS Health, there are several
important trends that are expected to impact
the global market:
» Divergent growth rates expected for developed and pharmerging markets.
As countries recover from the global economic
crisis at different rates, there is growing
divergence in the pace of pharmaceutical
growth among major markets. The 17
pharmerging countries are forecast to grow at
a 15% to 17% rate in 2011, between $170
billion and $180 billion. Many of these markets
are benefiting from greater government
spending on healthcare and broader public
and private healthcare funding, which is driving
greater demand and access to medicines.
China, which is predicted to grow 25% to 27%
to more than $50 billion next year, is now the
world’s third-largest pharmaceutical market.
Among major developed countries, Japan is
forecast to grow 5% to 7% in 2011, a year when
biennial price cuts will have little impact. The five
major European markets (Germany, France, Italy,
Spain, and the U.K.) collectively will grow at a 1%
to 3% pace, as will Canada. The
United States will remain the single largest
pharmaceutical market, with 3% to 5% growth
expected next year. Pharmaceutical sales in the
U.S. will reach $320 billion to $330 billion, up from
$310 billion forecast for this year, not including the
impact of off-invoice discounts or rebates.
» Peak years of patent expiries shift major therapiesto generic dominance. In 2011, products with
sales of more than $30 billion are expected to
face the prospect of generic competition in the
major developed markets. In the United States
alone, Lipitor, Plavix, Zyprexa, and Levaquin —
which together accounted for more than 93
million prescriptions dispensed in the past 12
months and generated over $17 billion in total
sales — likely will lose market exclusivity. The full
impact of patients shifting to lower-cost generic
alternatives for these products, as well as other
brands in their therapy classes, mostly will be felt in
2012, due to the timing and expected competitive
intensity among generic entrants.
» Broad measures applied by public and privatepayers to reduce growth in drug budgets.
Governments are pursuing an ongoing wave of
budgetary control mechanisms that target drug
spending as one way to restore fiscal balance.
Multiple markets will be impacted by these
measures in 2011. Prominent examples include
substantial reductions in the price of generics
relative to their branded counterparts in Spain
and in Canada, where generic pharmacy rebates
are expected to be eliminated; new price
negotiation requirements for brands launched in
Germany; and across-the-board price cuts for
branded products in Turkey and Greece. In the
United States, health plans are stepping up their
use of pre-authorizations and cost sharing
provisions in an effort to address rising healthcare
expenditures.
Source: IMS Health. For more information, visit imshealth.com.
PharmaVOICE � January 2011
DIGITAL EDITION — BONUS CONTENT
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January 2011 � PharmaVOICE
DIGITAL EDITION — BONUS CONTENT
Ms. Sergeant says there are three things toavoid when launching a global brand: first,central development with limited market in-volvement; second, allowing local market’sinput to splinter a central strategy, losingbrand cohesiveness and resulting in multipleapproaches that are time-, resource- and rev-enue-intensive in a cost-constrained environ-ment; and third, poor expert engagement, re-sulting in potential lack of thought leadershipinvolvement and voice at launch.
Shabnam Irfani, director of learning solu-tions at ClearPoint Learning Systems, sayswhile some organizations have achieved afully integrated global product launch, oth-ers are beginning to isolate the areas inwhich a global approach can yield significantbenefits. Training and education is one ofthose areas.
“Through effective planning, collabora-tion, and the use of educational technologyand media, organizations can drive more con-sistent messaging and eliminate many of theredundant design activities that occur in re-gional silos today,” she says. “Failing to con-sider and actively address the traditional divi-sions between regions and departments wouldaffect a global launch negatively. Therefore, itis critical that training organizations havesolid communication and collaboration expe-rience between various departments.”
Key Indicators of SuccessAccording to Mr. Guselli, key performance
indicators for global launches need to be es-tablished and agreed upon before the globallaunch and not after the fact.
“This is important to ensure a consistentunderstanding of expectations and how per-formance will be measured,” he says. “Onceagain, a certain amount of flexibility is neces-sary to accommodate local market conditionsand measures of success.”
Mr. Deschamps says brand metrics need tobe expanded beyond market share.
“Brand equity is a more comprehensivemetric,” he says. “Companies should deter-mine what value they need to create in themarketplace to be successful. This should becustomized to each situation. A primary carebrand will require a different type of valuemetrics than a specialty biopharmaceutical.While it is difficult to determine how phar-maceutical manufacturers can participate inthe social media explosion, it is perfectly clearhow they can use it, inspect it, and use it as alistening post. Customers are talking aboutbrands 24/7, 365 days a year, so brand leaders
need to listen for the key trends to determinewhat insight will allow them to create valuefor their customers.
“I really think we need to go beyond theobvious performance-based metrics of pre-scription and payer data and find effectiveways to measure customer engagement acrossall audiences, whether they are prescribers,patients, or payers,” he continues. “With in-creasing regulatory restrictions, access tophysicians is going to get even tougher, so weneed to measure how successfully we are en-gaging these professionals through non-rep-delivered methods. We need more real-worldengagement to find out what customers arereally thinking. One of the newest key per-formance indicators (KPIs) is going to be thenumber of patients who begin a product-spe-cific discussion with their doctor. Another as-
pect to consider is that KPIs tend to be short-term and we need to look at our long-termimpact: what’s the value creation in the life ofyour brand? Another area that often goes over-looked is how well unbranded disease-statecommunications are working. Adherence isanother area that needs to be measured quan-titatively.”
Mr. Topin says beyond the standard meas-ures of growth and share, monitoring ongoingmessaging in key regions is critical because itbecomes an indicator of brand acceptance.
“Constant vigilance can help the brandteam to quickly act and modify messages toaccelerate growth,” he says. “Following aglobal launch, marketers should monitor howquickly a product is accepted in each market,then compare that with the resources allocatedto the market launch.” PV
Global Launch
EXPERTSPHIL DESCHAMPS. President
and CEO, GSW Worldwide, an in-
Ventiv Health company, one of
the largest healthcare compa-
nies in the world. For more information,
visit inventivhealth.com.
GENE GUSELLI. Co-Founder,
President, and CEO, InfoMedics
Inc., which works with
biopharmaceutical marketers to
break down walls that exist in health
communications and enable doctors and
patients to better communicate about a
treatment experience. For more
information, visit infomedics.com.
SHABNAM IRFANI. Director of
Learning Solutions, ClearPoint
Leanring Systems, interactive
health education company that
creates media-rich educational and train-
ing solutions supporting the needs of wide
range of constituents across the healthcare
spectrum. For more information, visit
clearpointlearning.com.
CHRIS NICKUM. VP and
Global Practice Leader,
Commercial Effectiveness,
IMS Health Management
Consulting, which provides market
intelligence to the pharmaceutical and
healthcare industries in more than 100
countries. For more information, visit
imshealth.com.
KEN RIBOTSKY. President and
CEO, The Core Nation, a family of
healthcare marketing and
medical communications
companies (Core-Create, Brandkarma, and
Alpha & Omega) that offers strategic,
branding, and creative consulting services.
For more information, visit
thecorenation.com.
EMMA SERGEANT. Managing
Director Global Business, Ogilvy
CommonHealth Worldwide, is a
global healthcare communications
network serving clients in 64 offices across 33
countries. For more information, visit
ogilvy.com.
LARRY STAR. Chairman and
CEO, Harrison and Star, a
healthcare advertising and
communications agency providing
an array of strategic and creative services for
pharmaceutical, biotech, diagnostic, and de-
vice companies. For more information, visit
hs-ideas.com.
AL TOPIN. President, Topin &
Associates Inc., an independent
full-service, medical marketing
communications company. For
more information, visit topin.com.
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