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January
2007 |
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In today’s pharmaceutical environment,
marketers must work harder and smarter than ever to differentiate the
features and benefits of their products and also remain on guard against
the competition. Smart marketers who do not want to be blindsided are
preparing for battle with competing products by leveraging a highly
effective strategic pharmaceutical marketing research exercise called
“war gaming.”
Derived from the military practice of developing future strategy and
tactics based on current military environments, war gaming as a pharmaceutical
marketing research exercise involves a simulation of a competitive sales
and marketing scenario with two or more products and pits them against
each other to assess the strengths and weaknesses of each product.
Depending on a research project’s objectives, which typically
range from wanting to understand the competition and the market, to
determining the messages important to physicians, to developing core
brand messages, there are generally three types of war gaming exercises:
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Objective:
To understand the competition and the market |
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Large-scale internal war gaming exercise (may be over a period of two days)
Internal “brand teams” are created to develop positioning and selling stories (in the form of visual aids)
for all products
Teams then present their selling stories before a panel of judges, which typically includes some physicians
and employees from the client company
Judges select “winning presentations” and offer critiques
Can be followed by research with physicians
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| Objective:
To determine messages important to physicians |
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More loosely structured external exercise involving physicians who build the positioning and selling stories
for two or more products using raw data, which is presented in the form of a “research brief”
Physician teams present to each other
Discussion and feedback
Often used when brand teams want to determine if they are “missing anything” (physicians may come
up with something different in positioning or potential message ideas)
Most useful in an exploratory context |
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| Objective:
To understand and develop core brand messages |
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Rigorous internal exercise using “dueling teams” to develop competing detail pieces for two or more
products (typically a half-day exercise)
Engage in role-playing or use sales training personnel to deliver simulated sales calls
Physician focus groups to observe, discuss presentations and determine perceived key benefits/weaknesses
of each product
Messages are refined based on feedback
Follow up with individual depth interviews
Final output may be a new
core visual aid, objection handlers or counter-detailing
strategy |
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GfK V2 Chief Executive
Officer Richard B. Vanderveer, Ph.D. and GfK V2 Executive Vice President
James E. Heasley II, Ph.D. discuss these exercises, which are used in
the company’s own approach to war gaming, called CAST™ (Competitive
Analysis of Strategy & Tactics), in an article published by Medical
Marketing & Media.
To download the article, War Gaming: Exercises in Defending Brand
Territory, click the link on the graphic image to the left.
No matter what type of process is used, conducting a war gaming exercise
can be extremely beneficial for product teams looking to:
 Develop maximally
effective
marketing messages
with built-in
competitive inoculation
Create effective
copy, as seen in the
context of the
overall message
Strengthen
sales messages to combat
the competition
Maximize the
confidence of sales
representatives
for selling in a competitive
environment by
arming them with effective
responses to key
questions and issues
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