I remember many years ago that the buzz word for global campaigns was consistency. Everything across all markets had to be consistent and the pressure to be consistent was so strong that companies would completely miss how illogical that requirement really is when marketing globally.
How can you be consistent when the market is not, when the audience is not, when the sales force is not? In some instances individual markets were forced to secretly change materials or add additional tactics simply to attempt to fit a square peg in a round hole.
Now don't get me wrong, I understand that pharmaceutical companies want their brands to have a certain reputation and feeling in the eyes of their customers...a consistent brand identity. Does that mean that the marketing should be consistent? No, I do not believe it does. Because markets are different, you need to be able to adjust your communication to each market. That does not mean changing the brand identity, only the approach - there are many roads leading to Rome.
"Consistency" is to "coherence", what "unchanged" is to "connected" OR what "same" is to "similar". Global marketing should have elements that are similar across all markets, but the implementation should be adjusted to fit the market by the individual country teams. After all, who knows the country markets the best? Surely the people who live there, work there, raise kids there.
I was raised in South Africa and moved to the UK, where I lived for a decade and I can tell you that even excluding culture and language differences, even the attitude to daily life is different. I would go as far as to say that in some cases marketing needs to be individualised to regions within countries.
Ultimately coherence allows markets to adjust communication to their customers, it allows for greater creativity, and I believe, greater acceptance of a global brand identity.
Tuesday 25 June 2013
Wednesday 12 June 2013
Alternative medicine = honesty?
I have yet to have a discussion about the pharmaceutical industry without a conspiracy theorist crawling out of the woodwork. The sad thing is that the pharmaceutical industry has been so closed off to the general public that the view of a "Big Pharma Conspiracy" is widely held and no longer the sole domain of the conspiracy theorist, apathy on the side of the pharmaceutical industry has resulted in this view moving towards fact!
This has created a lack of trust, not only in medication, but in the physicians who prescribe them. This situation can result in some dangerous consequences. Last year a family member started bleeding after taking a natural supplement, luckily he told me, I researched it and told him that the natural supplement he was taking could cause internal bleeding and he stopped taking it immediately...bleeding stopped, I still made him go for a check-up though.
Just as the "Big Pharma Conspiracy" seems to exist, so too the view that alternative medicine equals honesty and better health! That is why just about every lay person out there is happy to walk to their local chemist and buy something based on the fact that it says "natural" on the bottle. Many people won't take paracetamol, but are happy to go into a Chinese herbalist and take whatever they are given without checking what it is or what it interacts with.
My feeling is that it is very naive to think that the purveyors of natural/alternative medicines are somehow above the very human characteristics of dishonesty and greed. These products also use marketing, PR and advertising agencies and they market directly to the consumer, without in many cases having to prove their worth.
The pharmaceutical industry can only help itself by being more transparent with its processes, results and finances. However, I also believe that alternative medicine and natural remedies should be held just as accountable. These practices and medications should also be proven within the same rigorous system and regulated more stringently than they currently are.
Ultimately, the pharmaceutical industry (despite some bad apples) do not equal dishonesty, whilst, alternative medicine (despite a few good apples) does not equal honesty.
This has created a lack of trust, not only in medication, but in the physicians who prescribe them. This situation can result in some dangerous consequences. Last year a family member started bleeding after taking a natural supplement, luckily he told me, I researched it and told him that the natural supplement he was taking could cause internal bleeding and he stopped taking it immediately...bleeding stopped, I still made him go for a check-up though.
Just as the "Big Pharma Conspiracy" seems to exist, so too the view that alternative medicine equals honesty and better health! That is why just about every lay person out there is happy to walk to their local chemist and buy something based on the fact that it says "natural" on the bottle. Many people won't take paracetamol, but are happy to go into a Chinese herbalist and take whatever they are given without checking what it is or what it interacts with.
My feeling is that it is very naive to think that the purveyors of natural/alternative medicines are somehow above the very human characteristics of dishonesty and greed. These products also use marketing, PR and advertising agencies and they market directly to the consumer, without in many cases having to prove their worth.
The pharmaceutical industry can only help itself by being more transparent with its processes, results and finances. However, I also believe that alternative medicine and natural remedies should be held just as accountable. These practices and medications should also be proven within the same rigorous system and regulated more stringently than they currently are.
Ultimately, the pharmaceutical industry (despite some bad apples) do not equal dishonesty, whilst, alternative medicine (despite a few good apples) does not equal honesty.
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