A brand is a brand is a brand. Find out the needs of the consumer, satisfy it with a product that is better than competition and finally communicate the benefit of this better product in a clutter breaking way.
But selling this simple thought to the OTC healthcare marketer is next to impossible. It is almost like selling coal to Newcastle (notice a small twist to an age old saying!). They claim that healthcare brands are the consumer’s necessity (not his need), it is practically impossible to have a product that is better than competition (with all of them having a similar molecular composition as mandated by law) and finally it is virtually a communication nightmare!!
A natural conclusion of the above discourse would that there is no role for a concept called branding in the healthcare space. And yet, mere observation of media coverage of the healthcare industry would lead us to believe that nothing is as current or as fashionable as talking about building brands in healthcare. If this were to be taken as a mandatory, true practitioners of the craft of healthcare branding solutions would do well to recognize the differences (and the similarities) with FMCG style branding to evolve a new unique paradigm of building brands in healthcare.
Point of difference # 1: If brands in the FMCG space were about fulfilling desires, brands in the healthcare space are practically essential necessities. Hence, healthcare brand building is not as much about building emotional preference, but much more about building emotional reassurance
Point of difference # 2: If brands in the FMCG space make the consumers life better and more empowered, brands in the healthcare space are consumed only when the person is under the weather and usually when there is a feeling of a loss of control. Hence it is not about the good life as much as it is about sympathetic understanding
Point of difference # 3: If brands in the FMCG space engage with the knowledgeable consumer through entertainment, brands in the healthcare space engage with a consumer who has little or no knowledge. Hence, it is not about being as entertaining or connecting as a soap opera as much as it is about ‘clinical ness’, authority and expertise of the product.
Point of difference # 4: If brands in the FMCG space connect with the end user (who is also the buyer in most cases), brands in the healthcare space need to enlighten the end user while connecting with the influencer (the doctor). Hence, information dissemination needs to be superimposed by social responsibility (to avoid misinterpretation and misuse)
Point of similarity: Creating a healthcare brand is about creating a source of competitive differentiation to dominate the consumer’s mind just as it is in FMCG
Hence when both FMCG brands and healthcare brands seek DIFFERENTIATED DOMINANCE of the consumer mind, the dominant FMCG model of consumer behaviour to achieve this is the well-known AWARENESS >> INTEREST >> DESIRE >> ACTION (AIDA model).
However, if we were to take cognizance of the points of differences between FMCG and Healthcare, the parallel healthcare model of desired consumer behaviour would be AWARENESS >> KNOWLEDGE >> CONSULTATION (FOR CONSUMPTION) >> RECOLLECTION (AT MOMENT OF NECESSITY). This can be nomenclated as the AKCR model. Please do notice that I do not name it after myself for fear of being labelled a narcissist!
Three examples from diverse categories within healthcare (Rx, Public Service and OTC) – Inhalation therapy for Asthma from Cadila, the Pulse Polio program and Crocin illustrate the above differences between AIDA and AKCR.
Inhalation therapy for Asthma created awareness of asthma as a life-limiting symptom. It also created knowledge for the fact that new generation inhalation therapies can help overcome this limitation and exhorted the individual to consult the doctor.
The Pulse Polio program started with a quasi infomercial (with Amitabh Bachchan as the propagator of the message) to create awareness and knowledge of the inoculation programme. Subsequent messaging counseled new parents to take their children to the nearest health center as consultation for consumption. Finally, admonishment from the Big B himself and the promotion of the dates of polio drops administration was an exercise in creating recollection.
Unfortunately, most OTC brands (in the attempt to play the FMCG game) seem to move directly from creating awareness to creating recollection at the moment of necessity, missing out on the crucial steps of knowledge and consultation. This may be an explanation for why several new direct OTC launches (Mylanta comes to mind) seemingly fail. One of the only brands that have moved along the entire path is Crocin and that may explain why it is today is quasi-generic to the category of pain and fever.
In sum, AKCR is the AIDA of healthcare brands. And yes, healthcare brands should not be built the FMCG way.
This article has been co-authored with Pranoti Sheldenkar
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