PM360 Product Manager Survey August 2011

ALL ABOUT YOUR BRAND

How brands stack up against their fiercest competitors.

Brand Attributes
Respondents have brands in a variety of lifecycle positions (Figure 13) with 15% still gestating in pre-launch, 28% with that new brand smell (6 months to 2 years), 22% entering their mid-lifecycle crisis (3-5 years), and 27% preparing to go generic—nearly double the amount of last year.

On average, each brand is up against 4.1 direct competitors—down from an average of 6 competitors last year—and two-thirds of respondents are very confident in how their brand stacks up against their fiercest competitor. Most respondents feel their brand’s clinical profile is its most competitive attribute followed by sales force support (Figure 14).

On the other end of the spectrum, nearly one-third of respondents feel that their Direct-to-Consumer advertising is just not remotely competitive. Unsurprisingly, DTC was also considered by most to be their brand’s weakest link last year. On average, respondents lost a little confidence in their brand’s resources/budget (4.57 last year, 4.49 this year), company regulatory environment (4.54 last year, 4.24 this year), non-personal promotion (4.5 last year, 4.33 this year), and medical education (4.5 last year, 4.21 this year). Respondents’ opinions varied when it came to the importance of co-pay assistance/reward/ coupon programs to the success of a brand. On a scale of 1=Not At All Important to 7=Extremely Important, the average rating of respondents was 4.2, however, 25% rated the importance as a 1 while 22% gave it a 7.

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