Return On Focus » What We Think

Four Pitfalls to Sub-Optimal Launch in Specialty and/or Orphan Disease States

dreinhardt — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 02:39:04 +0000

We recently had the opportunity to perform a disciplined evaluation of specialty care products that never reached their intended market potential (as assessed by publicly available manufacturer sales expectations). Think Provenge by Dendreon or Benlysta by HGS/GSK as examples—although neither of these products were included in our analysis. During our analysis, four key pitfalls were [...]

Reactive Market Research During Brand Planning… Don’t Let it Be You

dreinhardt — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 14:45:19 +0000

Don’t look now but 2013 brand planning is almost upon us . . . I know . . . it doesn’t seem possible that it could be on the horizon. There is a window of opportunity for most brand managers and market planners to be proactive with their market research needs. At ROF, we see [...]

Brand Positioning Within Franchise Accentuates the Innovators Dilemma

dreinhardt — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 01:54:35 +0000

Today’s marketers are increasingly experiencing a side effect resulting from a decision made roughly ten years ago by most biotechnology and big pharmaceutical companies. This decision was to commit to an exclusive focus on a limited number of disease targets. The side effect is what the Harvard Business School professor, Clayton Christensen, called The Innovator’s [...]

Marketing Application of Social Media Listening – ROF Engagement-Voyeurship Matrix

dreinhardt — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 02:29:33 +0000

The democratization of social media listening in healthcare has been accelerated by the availability of relatively cheap tools that allow pharmaceutical and biotechnology marketers the ability to garner more data . . . but that’s all it is – DATA! Marketers need information that is by definition ‘interpreted data.’ At ROF our focus with our [...]

You’re so Vain, You Really Thought My Blog Post Was About You!

dreinhardt — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 01:06:22 +0000

The Client outpouring regarding last week’s blog post – Conjunction(s) Are the Death Knell of Pharmaceutical Brand Positioning was swift and immediate. No less than a half a dozen Clients called me inquiring, not so subtlety I may add, whether the genesis for the blog post was their brand. My answer? It was and it [...]

Conjunction(s) Are the Death Knell of Pharmaceutical Brand Positioning

dreinhardt — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 04:16:20 +0000

After five years of intensive focus on pharmaceutical brand positioning, I stepped away from the discipline in 2006 to start Return on Focus. With the clarity of a five-year sabbatical and a renewed focus on increasing the level of evidence behind communication platform development (positioning + message hierarchy), I’ve found the primary culprit to poor [...]

Ride the Hype Cycle

amanning — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 15:21:07 +0000

You may have just recently sensitized your organization to the need to understand and analyze what patients are saying online about your brand prior to, during, and after launch. At Return on Focus, we’ve been helping to answer this question for brands by conducting social media monitoring or what we call Sentiment Analyses for almost [...]

Achieving Scale in 2012 – Understanding Brooks’ Law

dreinhardt — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 03:56:57 +0000

In response to last week’s blog post where I christened 2012 – The Year of Scale in BioPharma Marketing, I was asked to provide some additional evidence supporting my assertions. Specifically, the feeling that we have too many people, doing too many tactics while placing their own spin on the communicative elements along the way. [...]

2012 – The Year of Scale in Pharmaceutical & Biotechnology Marketing

dreinhardt — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 22:07:12 +0000

Reflecting on our past 12 months of level of evidence marketing, it’s readily apparent that 2012 is going to be the Year of Scale for successful pharmaceutical and biotechnology marketers. Scale in the foundational illustrated by singular, focused brand positioning with a well-articulated and validated message hierarchy Scale in the executional illustrated by a core [...]

Creative Concept Evaluation Criteria – Adding Objectivity to Something Inherently Subjective

dreinhardt — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 18:01:05 +0000

To my knowledge, no Client or Academic Institution offers a training program for Product Directors to learn how to effectively and objectively evaluate creative concepts. Yet everyday, Clients and their agencies wrestle over the appraisal of creative executions and promotional ideas. The stakes only escalate for consumer creative when the perceived risks become higher, particularly [...]