These types of emotional connections are enormously important for businesses, especially when there is little functional difference between products.
Along with my friend Tom Hargroves of Novartis, I presented a paper at the 2007 annual BHBIA pharmaceutical conference. The paper discussed how to measure brand equity in pharmaceuticals. It showed data from 2 quantitative surveys which considered 7 drugs from the ARB class - Amias, Aprovel, Cozaar, Diovan, Micardis, Olmetec and Teveten. These drugs are therapeutically very similar, but have very different market shares.
Here are some key snippets from the script of the paper relevant to this point:
Rationally, it might seem sensible that all doctors would agree as to which brand was “best” within a therapy class, and prescribe this one in preference to others. Yet, unless there is a clear therapeutic advantage for one drug over others, this does not happen.
What does happen is that whilst one doctor might think “Brand A” has significant benefits over the others; another might think this of “Brand B”, a third doctor would think this of “Brand C”, and a fourth might think that all these drugs are much of a muchness.”
…. doctors develop relationships with brands over time based on their experiences with it. These experiences will likely include the marketing support that the brand has had, the reps seen, the patients treated with it, and so on. The exact experiences that each doctor has had, with a specific brand, is going to be unique to that doctor. In general, the more positive emotional experiences that a doctor has had with a brand, the closer the relationship the doctor will likely have with it. One could imagine that a brand could become connected to the emotional fulfilment that a doctor achieves in pursuing his career - such as caring for patients.
Relationships are dynamic – they can strengthen and weaken. However, we know, intuitively, that strong relationships with brands are not likely to disappear overnight.
It is the number and strength of these relationships between doctors and pharmaceutical brands, which we believe, can be considered as a useful measure of brand equity.
… It is possible to measure how one brand differentiates from another, but the associations, emotions and values of a respondent to your brand is best understood within the context of their specific relationship with your brand.
And, intuitively, we know that strong relationships have momentum. The evidence is all around us in the relationships that individuals develop with BMW cars, with Sainsbury’s, with British Airways (or not), with Manchester United (or not), with the Grand National, with Apple Computers, with Coca-Cola, with Nike sports clothes, and so on.
And there are many other brands, big or small, that people come into contact with, and that people build relationships with.
Measuring these relationships can help us both forecast the future, and manage the future.
