Maximizing the Impact of Patient Support Programs through Strategic Branding
A pharmaceutical company is powered by their portfolio of product brands, but can reach new heights by servicing patients, engaging prescribers, and driving better health outcomes.
Today, nearly all product brands offer some degree of customer service. For prescription drugs, this takes the shape of patient support programs (PSPs): opt-in enabled, manufacturer-provided services in the form of live support, AI support, educational tools, and financial resources, typically offered to eligible prescribed patients at no additional cost.
But simply offering services without branding and promoting them renders low utilization and little impact on medication adherence. In fact, only 16% of patients are aware of the patient services they are eligible for.1 Marketers invest in positioning and launching product brands. Applying this level of rigor to establishing a service brand can go a long way in optimizing the opportunity for the PSP. This, in turn, can have a knock-on effect to the product brand(s).
But how should a pharmaceutical service brand—or in other words, a patient support program—be branded?
A Shift Toward the Enterprise Approach
The right approach to branding a PSP is largely a question of where the equity is to be built—at the product, portfolio, or enterprise brand level. A product-level PSP is directly and exclusively connected to one brand. A portfolio-level PSP is often used when multiple products within a portfolio involve patient and/or prescriber overlap.
Recently, we have seen a shift toward an enterprise-level branding approach, a reflection of the resurgence of the pharmaceutical corporate brand.1 Enterprise programs create one cohesive corporate PSP with shared front-end experiences and backend systems. This approach enables cohesion and consistency and a program to grow with the pipeline. If done incorrectly, an enterpriselevel PSP may entail a patient learning curve.
For companies with a wide range of therapies, there is also a risk of overgeneralizing the varying support needs of patients. But the upside of an enterprise-level PSP is vast and should be branded in a way that builds flexibility into its design.
Some Considerations to Getting it Right
Regardless, successfully branding a PSP can make or break awareness and long-term utilization. Consider these factors:
Corporate vision:
What approach best supports the organization’s mission and objectives?
Portfolio and pipeline:
What does the portfolio look like today, and how might it change tomorrow?
Patient and caregiver experience:
What insights about the patient and caregiver experience will enable the highest program adoption?
Healthcare providers:
What would make healthcare providers most likely to engage with and advocate for patient support?
Health system:
What other support are patients exposed to outside of manufacturerprovided services?
These considerations may reveal competing demands of stakeholders, but this insight can help better anticipate challenges and opportunities ahead and make the right strategic decisions for optimizing the patient experience.
REFERENCE:
1. Accenture. 2020 Digital Health Consumer Survey.
