Tuesday 30 June 2015
Monday 29 June 2015
Don't Laugh! You Too Might Have Pseudobulbar Affect (PBA)
Friday 26 June 2015
Palio Ignited a ISIS-style Disruptive - Some Might Say Destructive - Full Page Ad in PE Mag
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| Click on image for enlarged view |
A couple of full-page ads captured my attention, which I suppose mean that they were successful. One was the Palio Ignited ad shown here.
It glorifies the agency's "rebel" nature by using the image of a Molotov Cocktail. Instead of an ordinary bottle, the explosive device uses an erlenmeyer flask - didn't think I knew that, huh? - to symbolize, I suppose, scientific research.
The agency calls this "beautifully disruptive," but the symbolism conjures up in my mind images of destruction (e.g., ISIS).
Is being disruptive destructive or is it creative? Obviously, Palio wants you to believe the latter; i.e., that they have "revolutionary ideas."
If they wanted to convey better the notion of disruption, they should, IMHO, have emulated the type of full-page ad used by Saint Joseph University.
How so?
Read more »
Sunday 21 June 2015
Brand Update : Slice Downgraded to Sub-brand of Tropicana
In an interesting move, Pepsi has demoted its mango drink brand Slice into a sub-brand of Tropicana. Slice which was launched in 1993 , came in to limelight with some good advertisement campaigns. The notable is the Aamsutra campaign featuring the brand ambassador Katrina Kaif. Tropicana was launched in 2004 as a healthy juice brand.
What Pepsi has done with Slice is to migrate the brand to Tropicana by launching Tropicana Slice . The first launch being the variant Tropicana Slice Alphonso. The new product is being launched with the TVC featuring Katrina Kaif and Aditya Roy Kapur.
Watch the ad here : Tropicana Slice Alphonso
While Katrina Kaif stays to provide continuity to the Slice brand equity, the Aamsutra has been taken off. The focus of the variant still remains the " Taste + Indulgence " proposition.
In many aspects, Slice as a brand is dead because the individuality is lost. It now has to follow the Tropicana's positioning. And it will remain a second fiddle to Tropicana till the Pepsi brand managers get further confused.
I am not privy to the logic behind this brand merger. According to ET, Slice has a second position in the mango drink segment trailing behind Maaza.
The advantage I see behind merging Slice with Tropicana is that Slice will get the healthy tag associated with Tropicana. While Tropicana brand architecture will be confusing since it has a non-healthy sub-brand Slice attached to it. All the more, Tropicana also has a mango juice variant !
Frankly, I am little confused about this move by Pepsi, probably they will have some logic behind this move. It can be a rationalization of their portfolio. More marketing focus on Tropicana rather than Slice.
However , as a marketer, Slice will be missed.
Saturday 20 June 2015
Like 3-Day Old Fish, #LionsHealth Grand Prix Prize Stinks!
Desperate to award a Grand Prix this year to a pharma ad campaign, Lions Health judges declared DigitasLBI New York’s “Take it from a fish” for AstraZeneca Pharma Lions’s first Grand Prix.
Commenting on the choice, Jury President Rob Rogers, Chief Creative Officer and Co-CEO, Sudler, said that the jury had been captivated by the standard of work, which he described as being of greater variety and quality this year and a sign that the competition had come of age.
The Grand Prix winner, he said, “blew the door off the category” and dispelled the myth that a challenging environment was a barrier to ideas. “Regulations don’t define creativity. Constraints can sometimes help creativity.”
Personally, I don't see what's creative about Abbott and Costello channeled as fish.
Commenting on the choice, Jury President Rob Rogers, Chief Creative Officer and Co-CEO, Sudler, said that the jury had been captivated by the standard of work, which he described as being of greater variety and quality this year and a sign that the competition had come of age.
The Grand Prix winner, he said, “blew the door off the category” and dispelled the myth that a challenging environment was a barrier to ideas. “Regulations don’t define creativity. Constraints can sometimes help creativity.”
Personally, I don't see what's creative about Abbott and Costello channeled as fish.
Wearables, Ingestibles, Implantables: The Inescapable Future of Healthcare
As an example of what the future might bring, the image of a message from a doctor on an Apple Watch was thrown up on the screen at Lions Health (see image on left).
This got me to thinking of some of the issues regarding WII.
Read more »
Friday 19 June 2015
Male Otsuka UK Marketing Executive's Behavior Worse Than Bill Cosby's: Has Women Subordinates Provide Drinks to Intoxicated Female HCP
According to the UK's Prescription Medicines Code of Practice Authority (PMCPA), which oversees the self-regulatory code of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI), "An anonymous, non-contactable complainant alleged that a male employee of Otsuka Pharmaceuticals (UK) behaved inappropriately and provided inappropriate hospitality following a dinner at a meeting partly funded by the pharmaceutical industry.
"The complainant stated that he/she went from the private function area at a hotel where dinner had been held to the public hotel bar and noticed three Otsuka employees. Descriptions were provided. A female health professional, who the complainant remembered as being very drunk at the dinner, subsequently entered the bar and started talking to the Otsuka employees. Although she was obviously intoxicated a male Otsuka employee continued to ply her with drinks; his two female colleagues seemed unhappy with this" (see "AUTH/2752/3/15 - Anonymous v Otsuka").
Otsuka did not deny that the senior employee spoke to a woman in the public bar nor that "she was flirtatious and tactile." [You gotta love the pharma industry! It has no problems talking about erections on TV, but sexual encounters in real life must be described in clinical terms such as "tactile."]
The document goes on to describe in some detail what happened that night, which sounds like something straight out of a True Romance comic. Here's my graphic depiction of the suave style of the Otsuka executive:
You won't believe what happened next.
Read more »
"The complainant stated that he/she went from the private function area at a hotel where dinner had been held to the public hotel bar and noticed three Otsuka employees. Descriptions were provided. A female health professional, who the complainant remembered as being very drunk at the dinner, subsequently entered the bar and started talking to the Otsuka employees. Although she was obviously intoxicated a male Otsuka employee continued to ply her with drinks; his two female colleagues seemed unhappy with this" (see "AUTH/2752/3/15 - Anonymous v Otsuka").
Otsuka did not deny that the senior employee spoke to a woman in the public bar nor that "she was flirtatious and tactile." [You gotta love the pharma industry! It has no problems talking about erections on TV, but sexual encounters in real life must be described in clinical terms such as "tactile."]
The document goes on to describe in some detail what happened that night, which sounds like something straight out of a True Romance comic. Here's my graphic depiction of the suave style of the Otsuka executive:
You won't believe what happened next.
Read more »
Thursday 11 June 2015
LuvIt Chocolates : If Someone Shares, Ushaar !
Brand : LuvIt
Company : Global Consumer Products
Brand Analysis Count : # 558
LuvIt has been launched in South India with the actor Sidharth as the brand ambassador. For the launch the company has gone the musical route by launching a one minute music video featuring the actor. The Southern India accounts for 30% of chocolate sale.
Company : Global Consumer Products
Brand Analysis Count : # 558
LuvIt is new brand from Global Consumer Products - a startup in the FMCG space. Global Consumer Products was started by A Mahendran who was the Managing Director of Godrej Consumer Products. The fact that an entrepreneur is trying to take on the giants like Mondolez and Nestle makes LuvIt an interesting brand.
According to Economic Times, the Indian chocolate market is worth around Rs 6800 crore. The market is lead by Mondolez with a share of over 70% and distantly followed by Nestle with 18% and Ferrero with 8 % market share.
What makes LuvIt a brand to lookout for is the sheer ambition to fight the giants. The brand has huge ambition and it is seen by the way it was launched. It is reported in the news that Global Consumer Products has the backing of Mitsui Global and Goldman Sacs
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LuvIt has launched 9 variants with prices ranging from Rs 4 to Rs 45. The brand is essentially targeting the adults especially the youth. The brand has invested considerable thoughts in its packaging and stands out as a very vibrant young brand and distinct from the competitors like CDM.
LuvIt has been launched in South India with the actor Sidharth as the brand ambassador. For the launch the company has gone the musical route by launching a one minute music video featuring the actor. The Southern India accounts for 30% of chocolate sale.Watch the ad here : LuvIt
The basic positioning theme of LuvIt is focused on the taste. The brand says that it is too good to be shared. This is conveyed through the ads which says that if someone shares LuvIt then Beware. There is a hidden agenda behind sharing of the chocolate because the best way to enjoy chocolate is to enjoy it alone.
The brand is using the term " Ushaar " which means Beware in its campaign in South India. The ads are pretty, however, the theme is not new, The recently launched Schmitten Chocolate too had a similar message - it is a crime to ask for a bite.
It is interesting to note that while the market leader Cadbury Dairy Milk says chocolate is to be shared, the new competitors are focusing on being selfish with the chocolate, so it is to be seen whether the challenging brand's pitch on selfishness will find favor with the consumers.
What makes LuvIt different is the brand elements. The brand has used lively and loud colors and the ad is also flashy. So the brand has definitely all the elements to encourage a trial purchase.
Wednesday 10 June 2015
How I Stopped Worrying About the Battery and Learned to Love My Apple Watch!
"I don't often wear a watch. But when I do, I prefer Apple Watch," says the most interesting PharmaGuy in the world. "Stay digital, my friends!"
At first, I thought I'd wear the watch all day just to see how long the battery lasted. At least one person I know returned his Apple Watch because the battery did not last long enough.
But I haven't had that problem. At the end of the day, my watch has at least 68% charge remaining.
Maybe that's because I'm not constantly using it to take self-portraits like the one shown here. Which is really cool, BTW.
How did I do that?
Read more »
Thursday 4 June 2015
A Patient Journey Story Pharma Wishes Wasn't Told
Attend any pharma marketing conference these days and most likely you will hear these buzzwords: "storytelling" and "patient journey."For example, at iPharma 2015, Brandon Graham, Chief Creative Officer, EUXmedia, talked about "storytelling" and the "patient journey" and how to effectively use video to follow a typical patient in their "journey" from pre-diagnosis through therapy (read more about that here).
I hate to tell you this, but the news media does a much better job following Graham's advice than any pharma company I know. But media stories more often than not portray pharma as the villain, not the shinning knight that rides in to save the damsel in distress!
Take, for example, last night's NBC Nightly News story about Lauren Baumann, a cancer patient who manages her chronic myeloid leukemia by taking Gleevec, a medicine developed by Novartis (after much pushing & shoving by cancer patient advocates -- but that's another story).
What's her story? Why was it told on national TV? And what should have been done to prevent the story in the first place?
Read more »
Monday 1 June 2015
Male Lifestyle Drug Marketers Think FDA's Proposed Study on Spousal DTC Influence is Bogus!
At about the same time, the new ad for Viagra, which featured a sexy woman (no man), aired on TV (read "Oh Yeah, Baby! Show Me More!... Viagra TV Ads Like This. But Don't Let My FDA See It!").
Of course, I thought the FDA should study how wives (or significant other spousal equivalents) might influence their spouses' (i.e., husbands') response to THAT ad.
But, no, the FDA will be using asthma drug ads in their study. Huh?!
It appears that the FDA is using a benign drug category to get results that it may use against Viagra and other male/female enhancement drug ads. AbbVie and Eli Lilly -- two marketers of lifestyle-enhancing drugs for men -- recognize this ploy and have submitted comments to the FDA in an attempt to shoot down the study.
What's their beef?
Read more »
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