Jon Chandler reviews the output from Third Tuesday over the last 18 months and looks forward to the creation of the Brand Manifesto in 2009.
Jon Chandler 
16 Dec, 2008
The Brand Manifesto
In sending out Third Tuesday to people in the healthcare industry who have an interest in Market Research our primary goal has been to talk about Market Research in ways that are interesting, relevant, distinctive and challenging. The guiding principle has been that all items must either educate or challenge the reader or some of the readership.
We have always been committed to thinking about what we do, challenging the
way that research is done and pushing at the boundaries of what is done with
research. For us, this is the continuation of a long process involving many
conference papers, articles and presentations over the years. A high point
in this was the publication by Sage in 2002 of ‘Developing Brands with
Qualitative Market Research’ by Jon Chandler and Mike Owen. This was
a very important milestone in the development of the company in recent years.
Producing this book was the crystallisation of many years experience and thinking,
which in turn helped to push forward many of our approaches to research.
For a long time we have thought about a follow up publication that could pick up where ‘Developing Brands…’ left off. In particular, we have felt there is a need to address some of the issues that are specific to healthcare research and the needs of brand development through the lifecycle of pharmaceutical brands.
Third Tuesday has provided us with a vehicle through which we have started to work towards this end goal. Over the last two years or more we have developed different articles and features designed to slowly knit into a single larger volume. This single volume… the Brand Manifesto… is intended for publication in 2009. This will aim to give the most definitive account of issues and approaches in brand research in healthcare.
The Brand Manifesto will deal with healthcare research at three main levels
- The Big Picture:
- Addressing the key areas of research in a brands life cycle, identifying needs & goals, issues to be dealt with & the most appropriate research approaches. We have already published a number of features that will help contribute to this ‘big picture’. Through 2007 and 2008 we have published a series of features looking over the Brand Horizon and exploring the major questions and research needs that have to be addressed between Phase 3 and Launch. In 2009 we are committed to continuing this focus with a series of features exploring the major questions and research needs that have to be addressed from launch to patent expiry.
- Understanding Research:
- Not only will the Brand Manifesto tackle the big picture, it will also cover an array of important issues and themes looking at specific areas within research. Again, we have already seen some of these features appearing in Third Tuesday over the past 2 years or so. We have seen features exploring issues of qualitative group size and groups versus one to one, features looking at identifying unmet needs, features looking at patient research, features looking at Semiotics. In 2009 we will continue this series with a range of important features; a series looking at what analysis is and where it can take us, a series looking at some of the areas that have been ‘hot’ in research in recent years … ethnography; what it is and what it can deliver, NLP and what new thinking it offers to Market research, war gaming as a tool in collective strategy development.
- Research Techniques:
- The Brand Manifesto will also look at some of the minutiae of research in the healthcare arena. From the outset Third Tuesday has often carried brief features addressing very specific research techniques. Here the focus has been on explaining & de-mystifying these, indicating what they are, what their value is and where they can be used. This began with the original ‘Qual Corner’ items and more recently has also come to embrace some very specific aspects of Quantitative research. In 2009 we will continue these.
As we move into next year the flow of interesting and informative items from everyone at Brand health will continue through the vehicle of Third Tuesday. Beyond this BHI will develop the Brand Manifesto as a guide to research and healthcare brand development.
Some of the features and items that have already been seen in Third Tuesday
In
May and June 2007 Mike Owen began our big picture series with ‘Launch
Minus 7’. The emphasis in this feature was that increasingly, strategic
planning has to start earlier and that market research can make a profound
contribution very early on. Mike identified five key objectives for research
at this early stage (launch minus 7):
- Assessing commercial viability
- Identifying requirements from phase III trials
- Identifying market preparation needs
- Creating core 'branding' principles
- Helping brand teams to achieve greater levels of insight.
In
July 2007 Jon Chandler followed up this theme with ‘Towards
Launch Minus One’. Jon identified the crucial research elements required to
bring a brand to market, looking at what really needs to happen between phase
III and brand launch. Here 5 key areas for research were established as providing
the vital foundations for optimising launch success:
- Market Insight
- Brand Positioning
- Segmentation and Targeting
- Communication Strategy and Messaging
- Brand Iconography, Personality and Imagery.
A subsequent series of features examined each of these in detail identifying key issues and how research can deal with these.
In April 2008 Jen Cassels took our focus to patient research in a feature ‘Let
patients have their say’. In this feature Jen explored the value of patient
research and some of the inherent issues. This was followed with a review of
some of the methodologies and techniques which can be utilised to maximise
the output from patient research and overcome potential problems.
And in 2009, Some of the features and items you will see in Third Tuesday
Through 2009 Mark Speeding will work with a team of BHI co-authors tracking
brand research needs from launch to patent expiry. Working alongside Paula
Scott, Rina Valeny, Vicky McLellan, Karen Petticrew and Weiwei Yang, Mark will
address a range of key areas: post launch assessment, Tracking and Monitoring,
Brand Health; reviewing the brand & sales, Line extensions & formulations
and finally Exit strategy.
Through 2009 Paula Scott, Karen Stevens and Rina Valeny will publish a series
of features opening up the enormous question of analysis. Here they will begin
by identifying the common ground of current ‘best practice’, subsequent
features will examine analytic modelling as a way of moving beyond research
reportage and finally asking how can we get from analysis to insight.
Through 2009 we will continue to look at some of the key techniques that have
been developed in market research, examining what these are, what they can
deliver and where they are best used. Here Jen Mallett, Karen Petticrew, Sara
Rivas, Paula Scott, Karen Stevens and Rina Valeny, will publish an array of
items looking at such techniques as; Adjective and Word lists, Brand Graffiti,
Diaries, Mapping exercises, Truth Games. This will add to and complete the
battery of techniques already examined in Third Tuesday.
Have a Happy Xmas & we look forward to next year.
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