Brand Differentiation in the Pharmaceutical Industry: Interview with: Robert Finkel, Principal & Chief Creative Officer, Kane & Finkel Healthcare Communications, a sponsor company at the marcus evans PharmaBrand Summit 2012, on differentiating brands in the highly restricted pharmaceuticals industry.

1. Brand Differentiation
in the Pharmaceutical Industry
Could these restrictions be used for brand’s point of difference and eliciting
a client’s advantage? the desired behaviour. The tonality and
content of professional communications
Many of the rules and regulations have have to be carefully guided, while
been in place for years, since before factoring in the specific needs to
new media channels came along. The communicate a clear message that will
real issue is that some of these rules are resonate in a respectful manner.
ambiguous and often misinterpreted.
Can you share one of your success
As an agency, it is important for us to stories?
understand the organisation’s internal
policies and appreciate their appetite for A case that comes to mind involved an
risk. Our job is to make clear anti-seizure medication for epilepsy that
Interview with: Robert Finkel, re co m m e nd a t io n s t ha t are a l so we were trying to introduce into a
Principal & Chief Creative Officer, actionable. We try to balance the crowded market that at the time was
Kane & Finkel Healthcare company’s needs with the brand team’s largely satisfied.
Communications desires to push the boundaries for how
best to communicate with its target The drug’s obvious point of difference
audience. was not the most compelling reason for
One important aspect of physicians to prescribe it. In fact, it was
pharmaceutical marketing and reason not to use this treatment – a big
communications is about understanding dilemma. Nevertheless, the client had
the internal policies of companies and
their risk appetite, and pushing the
Sometimes first instructed us to emphasise the
unique delivery system. From our
boundaries as far as they are
comfortable seeing them go,” says
we need to look experience we know that mechanism of
action is generally a reason to believe,
Robert Finkel, Principal & Chief Creative
Officer, Kane & Finkel Healthcare
beyond the confines but not a reason to prescribe. Our
recommendation was to create a
Communications.
of product compelling point of difference that we
could capitalise on. This was a drug that
From a healthcare advertising agency at
the upcoming marcus evans
characteristics could work in the body much faster than
other drugs, so we focused on the
PharmaBrand Summit 2012, Finkel
discusses the restrictions in the
and clinical results outcome that would be jeopardised if a
seizure was not treated quickly enough:
pharmaceutical marketing and morbidity and mortality for the patient,
branding space, and how to overcome and higher costs to the healthcare
them creatively. organisation that would have to deal
with the complications of an
What does your slogan “Creative How does your approach to uncontrolled seizure. This new drug was
thinking in a chaotic world” mean? pharmaceutical product marketing the answer to an unrecognised and
differ? unmet need.
As the healthcare communications
industry is highly regulated, We have designed a disciplined We discovered the way to communicate
pharmaceutical marketers are communication process that takes into an altogether different value proposition
required to exercise an unprecedented account the need to educate while that had far greater appeal. In essence,
level of strategic thinking to support promoting a product. There are times we first needed to change physicians’
their creative execution. With so many when we need to help our clients attitudes and belief systems, which
restrictions on what can be said or understand the behavioural science ultimately impacted their prescribing
done, creat ivity is r e quired to aspects of communicating with an behaviour.
circumvent the sea of sameness in order audience, how to invite interest and
to differentiate a brand. motivate change, rather than This taught us an important lesson -
manipulate behaviour. It is a delicate that sometimes you need to look
In addition, problems must be solved in operation. beyond the confines of product
a practical way, steering clear of what characteristics and clinical trial results,
may be disallowed by organisational and Not surprisingly, it is not always a to find the driving reasons to prescribe.
external regulatory bodies. straight line between communicating a We simply needed to tell the right story.

2. About the PharmaBrand Summit 2012
The Marketing Network –
marcus evans Summits group Offering much more than any conference, exhibition or trade show, this exclusive
delivers peer-to-peer information meeting will bring together esteemed industry thought leaders and solution
on strategic matters, professional providers to a highly focused and interactive networking event. The Summit
trends and breakthrough includes presentations and discussion panels on the future of healthcare, digital
innovations. marketing and stakeholder engagement that bring insight from pharma, medtech
and biotech marketers, payer and patient perspectives, as well as out-of-industry
case studies.
www.pharmabrandeurope.com
Contact
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About Kane & Finkel Healthcare Communications
Kane & Finkel (K&F) is a global healthcare brand communications firm specialising in marketing pharmaceuticals, biotech, medical
device, and diagnostic brands. With offices in London and San Francisco, K&F is well established among the top, independently
owned agencies in the world. Rooted in behavioural and communications science, K&F merges strong creative perspective and no-
nonsense business objectives with the goal of driving measurable results that strengthen brand equity and drive growth.
For more information: www.kaneandfinkel.co.uk
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To view the web version of this interview, please click here: www.pharmabrandeurope.com/RobertFinkel