It's Time to Embrace Branding as a Necessity

Many healthcare companies feel that branding efforts are a waste of their time and resources. This mindset is a holdover from past markets, and it is problematic in today’s market conditions.

In the past, healthcare markets were much smaller, and there may have been only one or two products available to treat any given condition. Now, there might be dozens of different options to choose from.

Building a stronger brand is one of the best things you can do to ensure that your company can thrive in this crowded environment. The following five benefits are just some of the many reasons to establish and nurture your healthcare brand.

1. Crystallize Your Competitive Edge 

What makes your healthcare company different from all the others in your niche? You know the answer well, but your prospective customers may not. Strong branding highlights your company’s unique value propositions and allows you to prove your worth to patients and healthcare providers alike. It gives customers a sense of what to expect when buying from you, and this may be enough to cement their decision to choose you over your competition.  

2. Build Trust in Your Company 

New drugs, technologies, and equipment often represent million-dollar investments for healthcare providers; choosing which ones to purchase is no easy decision. Products that are backed by an established brand are seen as less risky than those that are not. Branding makes the products feel like more of a known quantity than what competitors are offering, making it easier to justify the decision to buy from you. We speak from experience on this matter: as one of the country’s top healthcare consulting firms, we have taken care to ensure that our own brand is synonymous with integrity and reliability. 

3. Drive Patient Empowerment 

Good brands resonate with patients as well as healthcare providers. They cultivate patient trust by keeping a close eye on their needs through market research and patient advocacy, then implementing key insights from their findings to better reflect patient needs. They also build a reputation for transparency and trustworthiness, providing patients with all of the information they need to confidently direct the course of their treatment.

4. Contribute to Financial Security 

Even the biggest healthcare companies may see sales numbers dip from time to time. However, a strong brand has staying power that outlasts small roadblocks. People will always gravitate to brands they know and trust, even when budgets are tight. This means that products from strong brands are often some of the last line items to be cut in times of crisis. 

5. Confer Power During Mergers and Acquisitions 

Effective branding can also be an excellent asset during mergers and acquisitions. A company with an established brand has significantly more negotiating power in these propositions. If you are interested in an acquisition, you can command a higher price for the sale. You can also count on the strength of your brand to deter low-quality offers that are not in the best interest of your company; bigger brands are perceived as more difficult targets, even when the company behind them is relatively small. 

Build Your Brand with Quality Training Initiatives 

A strong brand starts with an exceptional team. You can home your staff’s sales, strategy, and interpersonal abilities with advanced professional courses from The Brooks Group. 

Here are some popular training courses we conduct for healthcare executives - 

Executive Level Presence - https://thebrooksgrouponline.com/training-programs/healthcare-executive-training-program/

Excellence in Account Management - https://thebrooksgrouponline.com/training-programs/large-account-management-training/

Get into Pharmaceutical Sales - https://thebrooksgrouponline.com/training-programs/get-into-pharmaceutical-sales/

Managed Care 101 - https://thebrooksgrouponline.com/training-programs/managed-care-101-training-seminars/

Contact us and let us help your team upgrade your company branding today.

This blog was originally posted in https://thebrooksgrouponline.com/2022/03/its-time-to-embrace-branding-as-a-necessity/

Healthcare Branding- 5 Ways to Stand Out

In the past, many healthcare companies were able to survive and even thrive based on the strength of their products and services alone. The market was narrow enough that if a company had an effective treatment available for a particular disease or condition, they were unlikely to have much competition in that niche.

After many years of scientific and medical developments, however, the healthcare industry has grown considerably. Hospitals and other care providers have many options available to meet their patients’ needs. In order to win their business, companies will need to make their solutions stand out above the rest using effective branding. The list below contains five tips to help you get started on this process for your own healthcare organization.

1. Offer Personalized Services

Every customer has unique needs and concerns. Taking the time to understand what your customers are looking for (and why) helps you to present them with options that they are likely to accept, increasing your sales and customer satisfaction at the same time.

Account management skills training can be used to upgrade your staff's skills and allow them to provide exceptional service to your customers. Likewise, market research or patient advocacy research reports can give your staff information on trends to help anticipate customers' needs and offer appropriate products and services before they even think to ask for them.

2. Set Your Organization Apart 

Highlighting the things that make your organization unique is a great way to build your brand. What does your organization have to offer that none of your competitors do? Do you have advantageous partnerships with other organizations, unique industry insights, or exceptionally attentive staff members?

Whatever high points you settle on, be sure to highlight these things in your promotional materials. Let your prospective customers know why they should choose your company to help them serve their patients.

3. Focus on Your Strengths and Improve Your Weaknesses

Every pharmaceutical organization has its strengths and weaknesses. For instance, your company might be excellent at bringing cutting-edge products to customers but struggle with pairing those newer items with older mainstays that would provide customers with a more well-rounded package of solutions.

Emphasizing the things you do best (such as innovative treatments or a patient-centric, personalized approach, for example) will ensure that your brand develops a strong positive reputation and a unique identity. It will also give you the opportunity to quietly work on the aspects of your organization that need further development until you are just as proud of them as you are of its strong points.

4. Maintain a Strong Brand Presence Across All Channels

Healthcare organizations have access to many advertising channels that they can use to reaffirm their brand. In addition to traditional channels like billboards and television ads, organizations can multiply their branding efforts by investing in online channels like social media.

Each healthcare company should have a solid marketing strategy that spans as many channels as is feasible with their resources and budget. Digital marketing through platforms like Facebook and YouTube is relatively affordable and makes a big difference in your company’s visibility.

5. Embrace Branding as a New Necessity

Whether you are eager to see what good branding can do or are reluctant to try it out, it is important to recognize its indispensability in modern contexts.

With so much competition to contend with, companies that do not invest time and resources into their brand will never be able to reach the same level of prominence as those that do. Working out your branding strategy now will help you capture more market share during this critical transition period.

Build Your Brand with Help from The Brooks Group 

Don’t wait to begin working toward a distinct brand for your healthcare organization – the sooner you act, the more effective your strategy will be.

The Brooks Group is a leading healthcare consulting company offering employee onboarding training, instructional design services, market research, and much more. Our assistance can help you devise and implement a branding strategy that will make your healthcare organization undeniably unique. Contact us to learn more about our services, their impact, and the next steps you can take to building a stronger corporate identity.

This blog was originally posted on https://thebrooksgrouponline.com/2021/12/healthcare-branding-5-ways-to-stand-out/

Top 10 Trends Shaping the Pharmaceutical Industry in 2021 - Part 2

 

 

In part one of this blog post we discussed emerging trends in the pharmaceutical industry, such as the growing use of AI, increased interest in precision medicine, biologics, cloud technology etc.

We are back with part two to discuss more emerging trends in the pharmaceutical industry, and how The Brooks Group can help your brand utilize these trends to maximize profits and growth in 2021.

Discounts and Rebates

Overpriced medications have been the focus of much public ire in recent years, especially when the drugs are considered life-saving. For this reason, both lawmakers and governmental agencies have made it a goal to reduce the cost of drugs with discounts and rebates.

With the growing concern over the prices of life-saving drugs like insulin and epinephrine, it is likely that this pattern of drug price scrutiny will continue into 2021 and beyond. Brooks Group’s managed care training seminars help sales and account managers understand the future of the healthcare market and how it will impact drug pricing.

Biologics

Over the past few years, there has been a growing body of research on the role genes play in disease resistance and susceptibility. This has created a rapidly growing interest in the fields of pharmacogenetics, epigenetics, and genomes.

In other words, pharmaceutical researchers are beginning to focus more on unique genetic factors when developing new treatments for cancers, viral infections, and other conditions. It is expected that genetics will be at the forefront of clinical research and development moving forward.

Focus on R&D

One of the key challenges for research-focused pharmaceutical companies is to make R&D a more efficient process. R&D efficiency is measured by the successful approval of New Molecular Entities (NMEs) and therapies versus the monetary investment required.

With the growing need for research, pharmaceutical companies are having to come up with novel ways to create meaningful R&D without hurting their bottom line. The rapid development of the COVID-19 vaccine has been a marvelous achievement of the biotech and pharma industries in 2020.

Note: The Brooks Group can provide pharma companies with market research to help explore how emerging technologies can improve their R&D efficiency.

Consumerization of the Patient

Now more than ever, patients are expecting more out of their pharmaceutical provider. Given the saturation of the pharmaceuticals market, patients have more control over the medications they choose to take. This means that pharmaceutical companies can no longer just provide medication, they have to take a more personalized, customer-centric approach to drug distribution and marketing.

Creating a more empathetic approach to drug marketing will help pharma companies set themselves apart from the competition.

Pharma companies can learn the right insights that will help them understand the needs of patients and personalize treatments with The Brooks Group’s market research offering for patient advocacy in the pharmaceutical industry.

Digital Training

Digital training is a great way to ensure that employees are properly utilizing new technologies. In the pharmaceutical industry, digital training ensures that employees are operating within the strict parameters of regulatory compliance. Additionally, this form of training maximizes employee efficiency.

The Brooks Groups' digital training programs help ensure that employees are properly utilizing new technology to boost efficiency and reduce compliance violations. The Brooks Group can save organizations money by training personnel on-demand from anywhere.

The Brooks Group Can Help You Leverage These Trends

Understanding what the future has in store for the pharmaceutical industry will allow you to effectively manage your marketing and R&D strategies to keep up with emerging trends.

With The Brooks Group, you can count on expert training, market research, consulting, and instructional design services to help your pharmaceutical brand maximize its growth and profits.

Here is a look at our learning demo sheet for a peak at the kind of insights and training we have to offer. Contact us here for more info.

This blog was originally posted on https://thebrooksgrouponline.com/2021/02/top-10-trends-shaping-the-pharmaceutical-industry-in-2021-part-2/

Top 10 Trends Shaping the Pharmaceutical Industry in 2021- Part 1

 

 

The COVID-19 pandemic and the events related to it have sped up the digital transformation of the pharmaceutical industry in an unprecedented manner. As one of the top healthcare consulting firms, at The Brooks Group, we keep a close watch on the innovations, disruptive technologies, global adaptations, evolving political climates, and everything else that affects the pharmaceutical industry in order to provide strategic insights to our clients.

We are bringing to you a two-part blog series that will help our readers understand the landscape and the drivers for change in 2021 and beyond. Here the top 10 trends in the pharmaceutical industry in 2021.

Use of Artificial Intelligence

For the pharmaceutical industry, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is proving to be instrumental in developing new drugs and scientific discovery. Companies that are investing in AI technology are cutting down on production time and user error, improving clinical trials and overall quality in the medical field.

Data Integration & Cloud Technology

From clinical trials to AI simulations to market research, the pharmaceutical industry has a vast repository of data. Storing this data securely and making it readily available is a challenge many companies face, especially since most pharma companies have multiple facilities spanning the globe. This is where data integration and cloud technology play such an important role.

Having all the data stored on cloud servers accessible from any approved device anywhere in the world saves time and increases organizational efficiency. It also eliminates the need to have a team of on-site IT personnel, thus saving costs. With the amount of data used in the pharmaceutical industry, cloud computing continues to be essential to saving time and money, and boosting productivity.

Compliance & Regulatory Environment

Thanks in large part to recent global efforts in creating a vaccine for COVID-19, pharma companies globally are moving towards a collaborative effort. With this change comes the need for compliance with diverse international regulations. Training in these regulations and emerging technologies will be imperative in the coming years to stay competitive in an ever-changing industry.

Precision Medicine

Drugs exclusively created for a patient based on a particular diagnosis (precision medicine) increase the overall effectiveness of the treatment. Unfortunately, the obvious consequence of having small-scale, tailor-made medication is a higher price tag. Most manufacturers cannot handle a smaller quantity of drugs, and specialized facilities that can produce precision drugs are rare. Thankfully a surprising number of investors have taken an interest to guarantee this trend continues to grow.

Virtual & Self Monitoring in Patient Care

Before the invention of IoT devices, patients would have to rely on visits to a medical facility for monitoring. Now, there are numerous devices that patients can bring home for a fraction of the cost that can do the same as if they were at a doctor's office, and the data can be shared in real-time with the medical personnel for review as needed. As patients and caregivers continue to embrace the idea of self-monitoring, the need for medical IoT devices will continue to grow and the technologies will continue to evolve. COVID-19 forced social distancing and isolation has also forced patients and providers to quickly adopt telehealth technologies and practices. This trend is predicted to continue even after the pandemic-related guidelines are no longer enforced.

Pharma companies are usually big behemoths that have to deal with tremendous security and compliance issues. So adapting quickly to change is always a challenge. It helps to make strategic decisions quickly if the leadership team, as well as other executives, stay ahead of the trends and are aware of the innovations and disruptions in the field.

Stay tuned for part two!

This blog was originally posted on https://thebrooksgrouponline.com/2021/02/top-10-trends-shaping-the-pharmaceutical-industry-in-2021-part-1/

Common Market Research Methodologies in Healthcare

Although healthcare is a unique entity in the consumer market, it relies on market research as much as any other industry. Market research helps connect caregivers to patients and provides crucial insights into each patient’s needs. There are several ways to go about this research, each with its own advantages.

The Most Common Healthcare Research Methodologies

Researchers employ several market research methodologies, depending on their goals and available participant pool.

Quantitative Surveys

Quantitative surveys are a simple way to connect with large numbers of participants. Users are asked to fill out information surveys about their preferences and experiences, generally intended to capture the ‘voice’ of the customer and gain broad insights into issues.

Focus Groups

Conducted in-person or online, this methodology brings small groups of participants together to answer questions in a moderator-led discussion. These responses tend to be more in-depth than survey answers and provide important contextual information on specific user segments.

Online Bulletin Boards

Bulletin board research allows participants to log into a web portal and answer questions in a public forum, usually conducted over a several day period. This strategy is flexible in nature, ideal for reaching participants who can’t attend in-person meetings due to physical restrictions or scheduling conflicts.

Ethnographic Research

Ethnographic studies leverage observational research alongside direct interviews to learn more about how participants use products, services, or technologies. Researchers monitor activities and combine their insights with user-provided data to formulate insights into trends and patterns.

One-on-One Interviews

Ideal for high-value participants who may not participate in group sessions (such as surgeons, C-level executives, or other time-restrained professionals), one-on-one interviews provide the most in-depth information of any methodology. They allow interviewers to probe deeper on issues while protecting each participant’s privacy in a confidential setting.

Data Reviews and Content Analyses

The above methodologies describe different ways to collect user data, but the collection is only the first step. Researchers must be able to review data and determine how to derive meaningful insights from the content.

Brooks Group’s approach to analyzing qualitative data differentiates us in the research market. We apply content analysis techniques and procedures that compress long-form data (as might be taken from a one-on-one interview or detailed survey) and break it up into smaller message categories. By doing so, we’re able to sift through large volumes of interview data quickly and efficiently.

In our experience, this is the best way to understand nuances among user responses, identify trends, and gain an empirical basis for monitoring changes over time.

Tools to Support Your Healthcare Research

The Brooks Group offers three products to help facilitate healthcare market research:

1. Voice of the Customer – Customer-driven feedback process that evaluates account managers on custom metrics relative to their competitors.

2. Equity Scan – Assessment tool designed to benchmark attributes and capabilities in key customer segments.

3. Level III Analysis – Detailed assessment process consisting of account manager skill assessments, gap analyses, and long-term strategies for skill development.

The Brooks Group is a leader in providing training, market research, consulting, and instructional design services to healthcare organizations. Visit our site to learn more about the value of implementing a structured methodology to your healthcare enterprise.

This blog was originally posted on https://thebrooksgrouponline.com/2021/01/common-market-research-methodologies-in-healthcare/