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Product Manager
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| Anna Stashower President/Publisher Welcome to PM360 |
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COMMON SENSE By Bud Bilanich |
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| Tweets to Live By |
2010 Product Manager's Survey
TODAY’S PRODUCT MANAGER 2010
RESPONDENT PROFILE
CAREER, SALARY, SATISFACTION, AND RESOURCES
SUCCESSES AND DISAPPOINTMENTS
SUCCESS
DISAPPOINTMENT
THE FUTURE
INDUSTRY IMPACT
HOTTEST NEW MARKETING TRENDS
ALL ABOUT YOUR BRAND
MASTER MARKETING PLAN
GETTING YOUR BRAND TO MARKET
MARKETING BUDGET
IMPACT OF ECONOMY ON BUDGET
PATIENT ADHERENCE
NCL’S MEDICATION ADHERENCE CAMPAIGN
THANKS TO OUR RESPONDENTS FROM THESE COMPANIES
The Second Annual PM360 Product Manager Survey takes a look into the career, responsibilities, and challenges of today’s product manager. The online survey, developed by Glickman Research Associates, was completed by 200 of our readers involved in product management or similar marketing functions.
There was an overwhelming response from the top 10 companies in the industry including Pfizer, Bristol-Myers Squibb, and Merck (see below). The results were compared to the 2009 survey to better illustrate the changes that occurred for product managers and within the industry. The survey’s overall purpose is to keep a finger on the pulse of product management and learn about the issues facing the industry today and tomorrow.
Our goal is to provide readers with an inside look into their colleagues’ thinking, to give them a better understanding of the marketplace, and to help them better manage their careers and business.
Nothing may have weighed more heavily on product managers’ minds than the current economic recession. The results revealed this was a tough year for many in the industry as the economic downturn led to lower salaries, budget cuts, and fewer available resources. Many also felt the recession negatively affected the overall market share of their brands. However, it is also possible that several brands may have declined while their actual shares held relatively steady. Nonetheless, the recession certainly made it more difficult for brands to grow.
A new feature in this year’s survey was an overview of healthcare marketers’ biggest marketing successes and disappointments. The most frequently mentioned response for a noteworthy success was a brand launch and for a disappointment was a misreading of the market. The answers also provide insight into the qualities that make product managers successful as well as revealing some lessons that marketers learned the hard way.
And what about the future? Not only the factors most likely to affect the industry in the next year, but also the hottest marketing trends. Yes, as you may have guessed, the hottest trend continues to be social media. Although many recognize it as more than just a fad, very few are actually using it to help their brands. That is likely to change as more people are investing in the Internet than ever before, and the FDA is working on clear guidelines for social media (though their date of arrival is still unknown). Even before healthcare reform was enacted, the political environment was seen as next year’s biggest obstacle. Marketers are already moderately concerned about the looming threats from Congress regarding DTC regulations.
The survey comes to a close with a special look at adherence, including areas respondents are investing in and barriers they’re encountering. We begin, however, with a look at the respondents’ educational and professional background, salaries, and satisfaction levels. Enjoy!
—Andrew Matthius, Supplement Editor
RESPONDENT PROFILE
The product managers who responded to our survey are a highly experienced group. The average respondent has been in the industry for 19 years compared to an average of 12 years in 2009. In terms of their educational background, one-third of respondents have an MBA, just under half have a BS or BA, 10% have an MA or MS, 3% have a PharmD, and 1% have a PhD. About 7 in 10 work in the pharmaceutical industry with the rest roughly spilt between biotech (14%) and devices (10%). About half work for a top 20 company with 40% working for a top 10 and 9% for the next 10 biggest companies (Figure 1). The average respondent has worked for 2 to 3 companies with only 27% having spent their career at a single company and 23% working for 4 or more companies.
This year’s group also has more brand experience. The average respondent has worked on 11 brands compared to 7 brands last year, and 57% have worked on 4 or more product launches compared to 40% in the prior study. The typical respondent also has experience in many areas of the marketing effort, as on average they have spent time in 2.5 different capacities. Three-quarters have worked in brand management, just over half worked in sales, and one-third worked in promotion management. Another quarter worked in market research and a similar share spent time in communications. On average, respondents have worked in 5.3 therapeutic classes that include a mix of 17 categories (Figure 2).
CAREER, SALARY, SATISFACTION, AND RESOURCES
The respondents’ average reported salaries (Figure 4) appear somewhat lower, which may come as little shock considering the current economic situation. The number of respondents making more than $200,000 has dropped from 14% last year to 1% this year, and those making $151,000 to $199,000 has decreased from 27% to 16%.
Despite lower reported salaries, respondents still seem quite satisfied with their current position. On a scale from 1 (unsatisfied) to 7 (very satisfied) the average score was 5.4 which is up from 4.83 last year. The average satisfaction rating for their salary also rose from 4.61 to 5.06. High marks were also given to their relationship with their boss (5.40) and their brand team (5.2).
Respondents are making use of a wide variety of resources to keep themselves informed about what is going on in the industry. Print journals lead the way, mentioned by 73%, followed by eNewsletters (61%), digital versions of print journals (51%), online magazines (32%), RSS feeds (18%), blogs (17%), and mobile apps (7%). The most important aspect these information sources provide is competitive intelligence, which received a 6.20 mean rating score on a 7 point scale. This was followed by industry news (5.6), regulatory news (5.5), FDA alerts (5.4), industry events and meetings (5.02), marketing how-to (4.86), webinars/podcasts (4.46), social networks (3.63), and blogs (3.47).
SUCCESS
Success can be judged in a variety of ways, and respondents gave a variety of answers when asked to name their biggest marketing success. The most common response given was a successful brand launch with mentions of hematology, cardiovascular, anti-inflammatory, dermatology, and anti-depressant drugs. Other respondents took particular pride in achieving growth for a brand such as attaining blockbuster success with an ophthalmology drug reaching over $1.5 billion with global marketing teams. A few more cited similar global successes as their greatest achievement, such as increasing Emerging Markets International business to over $700 million.
Overcoming challenges was another major theme of respondents’ success stories, as the ability to relaunch a brand or change the focus of a marketing campaign was mentioned by several respondents. For instance, taking over the marketing/sales promotion of an older NSAID and reintroducing it to a specific medical specialty to increase sales from $300,000 to $3.2 million.
Great success also came to those who were willing to take a new approach. One innovative idea involved creating an entire department focused on reaching healthcare professionals via digital and offline media using database analysis. Not everyone judged success by money earned or challenges overcome. One simply considered exceeding a client’s expectations as their greatest success.
DISAPPOINTMENT
Another common response was corporate bureaucracy, with mentions of delays by the FDA which led to uncertainty among patients and depressed sales. Other respondents mentioned a failure of upper management to allow product managers to have more control over their brands.
Some respondents attributed a product’s failure to lack of support, whether it was from vendors unwilling to collaborate, a sales force’s poor effort, or a lack of funding. Others cited disappointment with the stricter regulations that both hamper creativity and go beyond what is in the best interest of the physician or patient.
In the past year, respondents felt the regulatory environment had the most impact on the pharmaceutical industry, but not as much as it had in 2009. Almost half of respondents in 2009 named the regulatory environment as the industry’s most significant factor, but that number dropped to just 36%. This year respondents felt more impact by the political environment, mergers, and competition, as each increased 5 or more percentage points (Figure 7).
Next year, respondents expect the political environment to have a greater impact as the number jumps from 26% to 36%. It is important to note that this question was asked and answered before the recent healthcare legislation passed. The regulatory environment is expected to have as much impact as it did last year, while competition and mergers may have a somewhat smaller impact (Figure 8).
HOTTEST NEW MARKETING TRENDS
Even though some chose not to recognize social media as the hot new trend, 89% still believe it is here to stay and 80% believe pharma and medical device marketers will increase use of social media in 2010.
Currently, more respondents are using social media for personal use than they are for their brand. Personally, 72 respondents use LinkedIn, followed by Facebook (64), None (59), Twitter (28), YouTube (4), and Plaxo (3). Only 11 use Facebook for their brand, followed by LinkedIn (6), Twitter (6), YouTube (4), and WebMD (3), while 137 reported no usage of social media.
Respondents have brands in a variety of lifecycle positions (Figure 9) with 14% in pre-launch and 33% in 6 months to 2 years, which is up from 21% in 2009. Respondents are facing slightly more competition to their brands with an average of 6 competitors, up from 4 in 2009. Still, respondents gave their brand an average competitive rating of 5.7 (1=not very competitive, 7=very competitive), which shows they feel their brand stacks up quite well against their fiercest competition. Respondents also feel much better about certain attributes of their brand than they did a year ago. They rated the clinical profile’s competitiveness 5.62 compared to 4.09 last year, sales force support 5.03 com- pared to 3.43, resources/budget 4.57 compared to 2.70, and company regulatory environment 4.54 compared to 3.74.
Non-personal promotion and medical education also received 4.5 ratings, while Direct to Consumer advertising was the weak link with a 3.59.
None of this made respondents’ jobs any easier as they feel their responsibilities became more difficult in the past year, mainly due to fewer resources (for instance, budgets, sales). Last year, only 34% reported this as a challenge, jumping to 70% this year. Fewer staffers has also become a greater challenge, growing from 17% to 40%, while new supervisor decreased from 65% to 20% (Figure 10). Most respondents feel the economic downturn has had an overall negative impact on their brand. Forty-two percent feel the market share of their brand is “down a little” and 10% said it is “down a lot.”
MASTER MARKETING PLAN GETTING YOUR BRAND TO MARKET
Marketers remain busy throughout the year in order to attain their marketing objectives, but some feel their time could be better allocated. In a given year, respondents spend about 28% of their time executing tactics (down from 39% in 2009) and 22% planning (about the same as 2009). The rest of their time is tied up in internal meetings, bureaucratic/administration responsibilities, and external meetings with agencies/ vendors (Figure 11). In an ideal year, respondents would spend even more time executing tactics (33%) and planning (32%). Most feel they are losing valuable time performing bureaucratic/administration responsibilities and attending internal meetings (Figure 12).
Choosing the right agency is another important responsibility of marketers. When making this choice, the majority of respondents do not consider global reach to be a deciding factor. In fact, only 30% said they consider an agency’s global abilities to be a critical factor in their decision. Even with the majority of respondents recognizing the growing digital trend, 65% still use a traditional agency for their digital advertising/communications initiatives.
One issue on the mind of marketers is the possibility of increased regulation on DTC advertising. Federal legislators are attempting to introduce a bill later this year that will increase oversight of DTC advertising and affect how and when manufacturers promote to consumers. However, respondents are only moderately concerned about the implications of the possible regulation, with a mean rating score of 4.28 (1=not concerned at all, 7=very concerned). Even more changes loom on the horizon as the FDA is currently proposing to amend its regulations for DTC advertising, by mandating a statement regarding side effects, in television and radio ads, to be presented in a clear, conspicuous, and neutral manner. This means no more fast talking, distracting images, or overly medical terminology when presenting side effects.
Only half of respondents feel their budget is adequate to competitively market their brand, while last year nearly 60% were pleased with their budget. This unhappiness can probably be attributed to the overall decrease in respondents’ annual marketing budgets excluding sales force and sampling (Figure 13). Last year 18% had budgets in the $41 million to $100 million range, but only 11% are in that range this year. Forty-four percent of respondents reported budgets of less than $5 million, while last year it was only 29%. However, less than half of these annual budgets include direct-to-consumer spending. In terms of respondents’ ability to spend, about 6 in 10 are authorized to sign off on less than $100,000 per each individual initiative. About one third can sign off for $100,000 to $500,000, while 5% can sign off for $501,000 to $1 million and only 1% for more than $1 million.
Despite the changes in annual budgets, respondents still allocate the money almost identically as last year (Figure 14). Nearly 40% goes to personal promotion and 22% goes to non-personal promotion. In terms of allocating the portion that goes to non-personal promotion, there were some drastic changes. About 45% goes to the Internet/eMarketing/eDetailing/Social Media, which is up from 34%. Journal advertising dropped from 26% to 16% and direct mail dropped from 16% to 10%, while the rest goes to dinner meetings/teleconferences/webinars (20%) and point of care (9%).
It is clear the economic downturn has heavily influenced respondents’ budgets during the past year. Two-thirds indicated their budget decreased while only 2% reported an increased budget (Figure 15). The cuts have been rather significant, as 40% indicated a decrease of 5% to 10% while an even larger share (53%) lost 11% or more from their prior budget. Budget reductions lead to cutbacks, and personal promotion and non-personal promotion took the largest hits (Figure 16). For the lucky few who received an increased budget, they chose to increase spending in areas such as market research, samples, tradeshows, brochures, and advertising.
PATIENT ADHERENCE
When it comes to adherence, there are several barriers that can stand in the way. Respondents felt the most significant barrier was cost of medication (5.11), followed by motivation (4.13), lack of concern or just acceptance of condition (3.76), lack of support of doctor/caregiver (3.76), resistance to chronic therapy (3.7), lack of information about the product (3.6), concern over side effects (3.57), concern over drug interactions (3.12), and cultural/language issues (2.77).
Help overcoming these barriers may be on the way as the National Consumer League, with planning funds from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, is organizing a groundbreaking national multi-media campaign that aims to improve public health by raising awareness of the importance of proper medication adherence.
NCL’S MEDICATION ADHERENCE CAMPAIGN
- Raising awareness through public education and a coordinated national communications campaign.
- Involving a diverse group of both public and private stakeholders.
- Focusing special attention on those suffering from serious chronic conditions.
- Encouraging healthcare practitioners to communicate the importance of adherence to their patients.
For more information or to get involved, visit www.nclnet.org
THANKS TO OUR RESPONDENTS FROM THESE COMPANIES
Abbott Laboratories
ACADIA Pharmaceuticals
Actavis Aesculap
Agfa Healthcare
Agilent
Alcon Laboratories
ALK-Abello Pharmaceuticals
Allergan
Amgen
Amylin Pharmaceuticals
Anika Therapeutics
Astellas Pharma US
AstraZeneca
Avid Bioservices
Azur Pharma
Baxter Healthcare
Bayer HealthCare
BD
BioMarin Pharmaceutical
Boehringer Ingelheim
Bristol-Myers Squibb
Cegedim Dendrite
Celgene
Cephalon
CNS Therapeutics
Combe
ConvaTec
Cox Pharmaceuticals
Crown Laboratories
Cubist Pharmaceuticals
Cumberland Pharmaceuticals
Daiichi Sankyo
Dannemiller
Datascope
Dey Pharma
Diplomat Pharmacy
DuPont
EKR Therapeutics
Elan Pharmaceuticals
Eli Lilly
Elorac Endo Pharmaceuticals
ETHEX
Eyetech
FemmePharma Global Healthcare
Ferndale Laboratories
Ferring Pharmaceuticals
GE Healthcare
GenBio
Genzyme GHC
GlaxoSmithKline
Graceway Pharmaceuticals
Hospira
Inverness Medical
J. Knipper and Company
Johnson & Johnson
KCC Pharma
KnowledgePoint360 Group
Lundbeck
McKesson
MCS
MediaLinx
Medicis Pharmaceutical
Medi-Promotions Mettler Electronics
Merck
MWV Healthcare
Nalge Nunc International
Neuropharm
Novartis
Noven Pharmaceuticals
Novo Nordisk
Nycomed
Ohio Medical
Ortho-McNeil-Janssen
Pfizer
Procter & Gamble
Promius Pharma
PTC Therapeutics
Purdue Pharma
Ranbaxy Roche
Saatchi & Saatchi
Sanofi-Aventis US
Scanlan International
Sepracor
Shionogi USA
Shire Pharmaceuticals
SmartAnalyst
Solvay Pharmaceuticals
Spectrum Laboratories
Spectrum Pharmaceuticals
SunMed
Synthon
Ther-Rx
Transave
Tobar
UCB
Upsher-Smith
ViroPharma
Warner Chilcott
Watson Pharmaceuticals
Wockhardt USA
Wyeth
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