MedicoMindsPro

When you are the umpteenth player launching a branded generic drug, positioning is a huge challenge. The benefits and data of the drug are already known, and there is nothing new to talk about. What do you communicate in such a situation? How do you build the brand?

One of my clients was in this situation when they wanted to launch an Angiotensin Receptor-Neprilysin Inhibitor (ARNI) brand for heart failure. There was nothing left to share in terms of benefits, patient profiles, and data.

After some brainstorming, we decided to create a persona of the drug, albeit using science again. The plan was to create an image that resonates with the brand name and also a benefit, such that whenever an HCP is looking to provide a specific benefit to his/her patient with heart failure, the brand comes up in the mind.

Based on the data, I presented the client with 4 ideas, from which they were to choose one and build creatives around it. Pls note, some heart failure guidelines have changed since then, and not everything below may be true in the current context. Most ARNI data at that time pertained to Heart Failure with Reduced Ejection Fraction (HFrEF), and Sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 inhibitors (SGLT2i) had not come into the HF guideline recommendations

1️⃣ Save the family the burden of admitting the patient again -this was based on the data that early initiation of ARNI after the first HF episode reduces subsequent hospitalizations. The patient persona here was a patient recently discharged after their first HF hospitalization.
2️⃣ Let the young heart live long – This was based on higher benefits and reduced risk of mortality with ARNI in young patients. The patient persona here was a young patient (age group 45-55 years) with heart failure. We used the emotional stories of a young person’s family left financially vulnerable due to the sole earner’s death at a young age- EMIs to be paid, children still studying etc.
3️⃣ More power to the heart- This was based on the benefit of improved ejection fraction due to ARNI. Here, we used emotional imagery of a person struggling to climb a single flight of stairs, indicating a decline in physical function.
4️⃣ Life does not stop – This was based on evidence that withdrawing ARNI may be associated with an increase in repeat heart failure hospitalization, and the imagery was used accordingly.

The idea was not to own the entire heart failure space because there were already other brands of ARNI. We tried to associate our brand with a specific patient profile. We had done some market research to understand the common patient profiles in heart failure in India. The client chose one theme and created launch campaigns and creatives around it. For the first few months after launch, they focused more on the tagline that conveyed the benefit, and the creatives showed different patients every month. Each creative input only mentioned one data point without getting into much detail. Once the brand image had been built over the first 6 months, we then focused on regular scientific inputs, advisory boards, CMEs, and other activities while maintaining the tagline and the brand persona.

This is a real-world example of how science can help in creating a brand personality. Creatives built on a foundation of science imprint the message in the mind.