Best Practices for Life Sciences Brand Sustainment Initiatives

Wilson Learning has partnered with Life Sciences organizations on initiatives that have impacted individual brand's abilities to drive greater sales and customer engagement results.

The following are best practice examples of successful Brand Sustainment Team initiatives that Wilson Learning has supported. The first focuses on training the brand marketers to impact their Brand Sustainment Efforts, the remaining examples highlight programs that Wilson Learning developed to increase customers’ effectiveness.

Training for Brand Marketers

Problem: A pharmaceutical company wanted to increase the skills and abilities of those marketers who were responsible for the management of brands that generate millions of dollars and whose decisions could have an enormous impact on sales revenue and growth.

Approach: A curriculum and extended learning process that would support training efforts of all Marketers was developed and implemented.

Solution: The curriculum included classroom learning, case study application and simulated scenarios of competitive real life situations testing their decisions and their decision making process. In addition to instructor led training, webcast and on-line venues were also used transfer learning. Some of the topics covered within this curriculum included:

• Business Intelligence
• Successful Product Management
• Managing Marketing Information & Measuring Marketing Impact
• Brand Lifecycle Management
• Finance
• External/Internal Collaboration, Influence & Teaming
• Brand Lifecycle Management and Differentiation
• Product Promotion and Advertising
• Aligning the Components of the Marketing Mix
• Leading Projects for Consensus

Many touch points were put in place to ensure sustained learning and an increase of retention would be realized.

Measurement: Metrics were established that increased the comfort level of new and experienced marketers. Their ability to collaborate with external and internal stakeholders influenced better decisions. Brand sustainment initiatives received buy-in and greater commitment to the success of implementing integrated solutions that in turn positively impacted physician and patient perception of the company and the account/sales professionals that service them.

HIV Patient Speaker Program

Problem: A pharmaceutical company needed to ensure the correct use of their product for an opportunistic infection prevalent in HIV patients. The importance of diagnosis and treatment was critical to quality of life of the patient. As the importance of treatment and the correct use of the product were discussed between the physician and the patient, the company discovered compliance to actually staying on the product was very low. Physicians did not understand why patients did not stay on the product, which could be toxic, if not used properly.

Approach: A program was designed to support brand strategy for the pharmaceutical company. To address this issue, a Physician Awareness program was established that allowed physicians to experience the product from their patients’ point of view. Physicians were asked to take the same amount of treatment drugs (placebo) as their patients do on a daily basis.

Solution: As the majority of physicians could not get through one day of treatment, they immediately experienced the challenge their patients face and their approach to patient compliance was impacted drastically. A paper outlining this experience and the impact on physician and patient compliance was presented at a Global AIDS/HIV conference.

Additionally, a patient speaker program was designed to reach potential patients and train them on the benefits of treatment, the potential treatment options and specific use of the Brand product that was being supported. All materials were developed for the patient speakers, physicians and nurses (brochures, slide decks, Health Fair support materials). Patients were utilized at Health Fairs, Hospital Lunch & Learns, physician office seminars and physician education programs.

Measurement: Metrics were established that yielded an increase in the percentage of new patients diagnosed from awareness, number of patients that asked for the product, number of patient’s physicians put onto the product after feeling more educated, and percentage of patients that stayed on the product.

Diabetes Patient Education/Training Program

Problem: Patients were not utilizing the available medicine that could improve the challenges of living with diabetes.

Approach: A patient education program was established to support Diabetes Nurse Educators for unbranded and branded efforts of a pharmaceutical company.

Solution: Patient speakers were trained and deployed for use by sales representatives that serviced diabetes treating GPs, Internists, Endocrinologists, Diabetes Nurse Educators and Diabetes Treatment Centers. They were also speakers for Preceptorships for physicians and sales representatives. Training materials were developed to help each key stakeholder mentioned with the deployment of these programs. All materials were also translated into Spanish, Mandarin and French to make sure there were no language barriers in communicating this important information.

Measurement: Metrics were established that included impact on patients in control (better AC1levels), the number of patients that physicians put onto the product after feeling more educated, positive impact on patient’s compliance to daily testing and taking their oral medication, number of patients that used the product appropriately, and nurses that felt better supported and prepared to consult with their diabetic patients.

Cardiovascular Education Program

Problem: Patients suffering from Congestive Heart Failure were in need of a support system that increases awareness of possible treatments.

Approach: To create a program and an internet resource that supports a Brand that treats CHF disease.

Solution: The Cardiovascular Patient Management program was created and supported by an on-line tool that helped patients assess risk and seek potential treatment. There were also on-line blogs and “Ask the patient” sections of the site where patients shared information, experiences and treatment testimonials. These tools supported patients with CHF and increased their awareness of possible risk factors and treatment options.

Measurement: Metrics were established that included the number of hits to the site, physicians that used the site as a support mechanism for their patients, patients that physicians put onto the product after feeling more educated, number of new patients that seek treatment, support of Brand Strategy, and sales representatives sales goals.

Allergy/Asthma Cross Cultural Patient Education and Speaker Program

Problem: A large pharmaceutical company asked Wilson Learning for help on deciding whether a training program being developed needed culturally specific focus and materials.

Approach: Wilson Learning completed a baseline research study on the success of a Patient Speaker and Education initiative for programs targeted at multicultural groups -with a specific focus on African American, Hispanic, Indian, Native American and Asian cultures.

Solution: Wilson Learning supported the development of the program which was to reach both adults and children with allergies and asthma. The goal was to improve physicians’ ability to diagnose and treat patients with a special emphasis on those that were not exposed to the best medical care. Many patient speakers were used for grass roots efforts of advocacy groups, hospitals, employer groups and community clinics. At the completion of the study, it was decided that culturally specific materials would be warranted and would yield a higher return. These materials were developed and implemented to support awareness and getting more people into treatment.

Measurement: Metrics were established for this unbranded initiative and some of the base-line metrics included number of patients touched by the various programs, impact on culturally diverse materials, physician use of programs, impact on partner positioning efforts, impact on sales rep access. Level 1 – Level 3 was implemented (surveys and focus groups-sent to patients, to physicians and sales representatives)

Dermatology Physician Training Program

Problem: A program was needed to teach physicians the most effective use of the Branded product.

Approach: A best-in-class training program was established to support KOL Thought leaders, physicians/office staff and sales representatives.

Solution: Basic Standardized Treatment Techniques were established and a training continuum and materials were developed to support all physician training sessions, including pre and post training support tools (DVDs, KOL Training Kits and Support Materials Post Training). Patient programs were developed after initial consumer Qualitative/Quantitative research was conducted. As the success of this product is dependent, to some degree, on patients that agree to ask for and pay for treatment, consumer education is critical. These efforts were to support the launch of 2 separate indications for the same product.

Measurement: Metrics were established for this branded training initiative that included impact on patient outcomes, reduction in the side effect profile, perception of safety, physician's perception of their comfort level when using the product and their ability to consult with current and potential patients that seek treatment and ask for the product.

Epilepsy Education Program

Problem: A large pharmaceutical company was entering the CNS pharmaceutical marketplace for the first time with an anti-seizure medication. They hired a brand new CNS sales force to call on just the neurologist for this highly anticipated product. While the sales force was in place, the drug itself was not expected for 6 months. The pharmaceutical company was looking for a way to:

• Build awareness of the pharmaceutical company and build customer relationships within the neurologist community from a recognition baseline of zero
• Become recognized as an organization that wanted to contribute to the epilepsy market in a positive way, not only with a new effective product, but with an innovative, impactful patient oriented program as well.
• Build relationships with key third party organizations such as the Epilepsy Foundation and if possible to get their endorsement of their patient-oriented program as impactful and useful to the customers patients and families
• Provide their newly hired CNS field force, who did not have a product yet, with a reason to be in the Neurologists office, building relationships and providing a value added service.
• Provide a positive impact on the epilepsy community by offering an exciting new way for people with epilepsy to learn through shared experiences.
• Improve communication about epilepsy to patients and the community at large.
• Serve as a positive resource for the epilepsy patient, family & healthcare professional.
• Provide a mechanism to inform audiences of the resources available to people with epilepsy.

Approach: Working with the pharmaceutical company, we fostered a relationship between the pharmaceutical company and the Epilepsy Foundation on a non-branded patient/family oriented speaker program.

Solution: This program, trained people with epilepsy and parents of people with epilepsy as certified speaker mentors. The program provided concise information in standardized learning and teaching formats by the certified mentors. The curriculum was tailored to each audience and included four core educational modules including Epilepsy & Seizures; Impact of Epilepsy; Advocacy & Self-Management, and Seizures in Later Life. The program was highly successful and was rolled out throughout the United States.

Measurement: Metrics were established that included: recognition for the pharmaceutical company as a contributor to the epilepsy community, an increase in access to physicians by sales representatives because of the program, use of the program by physicians and community groups, impact on new patients diagnosed from awareness and audience satisfaction and perceived value from the pharmaceutical company/Epilepsy Foundation program.