Overthrow the Red Queen

‘How much investment should marketing make in advancing its capabilities?’ is a fair question. Marketing budgets are often limited, so selecting the best strategic approach for marketing execution is crucial. One of the common ways to address this issue is through Red Queen Effect theory, a theoretical approach named after a statement that the Red Queen made to Alice in Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking-Glass: 'Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place’. 

This applies in the very competitive prescription drug business: • If you do nothing or not enough, you fall behind • If you run hard, you stay in place

In its pessimistic implication, you are motivated at the very least to keep pace to remain relevant. At first glance, the Red Queen dictates continuing to promote your brand despite the costs whenever your competitors decide to increase the size of their sales team or otherwise successfully elevate their voice in the market. In response, you do the same, thus engaging in a multilateral race with zero net benefit. 

There might be a way to escape from this seemingly cursed cycle, however. Promoting prescription drugs in a complex environment defined by doctors’ and patients’ preferences, marketers and regulators consists of more than just increasing your voice in the market. Understanding the racetrack better or even defining it will help you to stay on it. Hence, let’s amend the two principles from Through the Looking-Glass for the prescription market as follows: • If you define the track yourself, you can move ahead • If you are not ahead, move to another track

Good predictive ability and agility in the market are well-known game changers. Quality attributes in the eyes of doctors are dynamically changing along with the rise of new evidence, patients’ developing preferences, socio-economic trends and, to a large extent, as a response to the joint influence of marketing communications. At CEEOR, we have been consistently finding evidence of doctors’ preference for high-quality information rather than frequent detailed contacts with reps. This means that content has more influence than the voice itself, and, consequently, preferences are not static but rather develop over time. Moreover, preferences are multifaceted; effectiveness, safety, quality of life, administration comfort, adherence and overall support by the manufacturer are just few of the perceived qualities that inform doctors’ behaviour. The landscape for racing is obviously complex enough to define your own preferences, form a strategy or disrupt established rules. 

In light of our findings regarding preferred communication, we believe that less is often more. In working with our clients, we have discovered some factors that are essential to avoid a cost-intensive arms race. We recommend increasing vigilance with regard to competitors and adopting agile strategies. These are the key success factors:

Insight – Gain unbiased insights into ever-changing customer preferences and understand their dynamics. Listen to what your competitors tell your customers and how they evolve their messaging.

Drivers – Analyse how your customers’ preferences are shaped by marketing communication content and other key influencers. What techniques are used by competitors, and what are the most influential statements? Improve your predictive skills, and get ready to respond fast.

Change the game – Shape market needs and preferences. Watch and interact in an active and timely way with the market. Seek new outside-the-box communication content. Differentiate your brand from the homogenous picture created by competitors. This is undoubtfully the most challenging part. However, in praxis, a closer look at actual communicated areas often quickly reveals great opportunities.

Visibility – Develop KPIs that match your business goals, not only through ultimate measures, such as sales, but also through proximate measures, such as satisfaction with a sales contact and providing relevant information. Without these, it is nearly impossible to gauge your progress. Track the KPIs and communicate the progress to your team throughout the sales cycles. Be ready to redefine your KPIs as the game changes.

Do not accept that there is just one racetrack. Transform your marketing efforts from voice-driven to a more analytics-driven, predictive and agile strategy and overthrow the Red Queen.