OTC Brand strategy development
Strategy provides the direction of travel for a business. It provides the principles and roadmap to reach your brand goals from which we develop the brand plan.
As your marketing and sales team, using research as the foundation to our customer-centric OTC brand strategy modelling, we will work together with you to develop a tailor-made strategy. We will help determine your brands’ regulatory support needs, advise you on the best routes to market and help negotiate deals with distributors, retailers and suppliers. All to enable the consumer to buy your products in the way they want to. These plans will include direction and budgets for communication plans as well as deliveries, timescales and budgets.
With strategic direction in place, brand strategies can be built. We will consider all aspects of the marketing mix to ensure a 360° approach. When appropriate we will advise on branding, pack sizes, packaging, manufacturing, pricing, retailer strategies, E-commerce or online selling, as well as in-store promotions, agency selections and of course the communications plan. Our brand management team would then activate the strategy by developing the brand plan.
Brand Strategy
With strategic direction in place, brand strategies can be built. We will consider all aspects of the marketing mix to ensure a 360° approach. When appropriate we will advise on branding, pack sizes, packaging, manufacturing, pricing, retailer strategies, E-commerce, or online selling as well as in-store promotions and of course the communications plan.
Regulatory Strategy
For many products entering the UK market the regulatory strategic support that we can help you access is invaluable. The UK healthcare market is closely regulated by the Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Authority (MHRA) making high-quality Regulatory advice imperative to help ensure the products are presented legally to the market.
Research
We pride ourselves on a customer-centric approach to brand management. Research, therefore, provides the information we need to build our brand plans around identified consumer needs. We can help you structure a research program and then action the results as part of the ongoing brand and communications plan.
Sales Distribution
One of the major changes in OTC marketing in recent years has been the way consumers buy their medicines. We have expertise in E-commerce, even for P medicines, as well as managing online retailers including Amazon for General Sales List (GSL) products and cosmetics.
However, wholesalers and high street retailers are still a very important part of the supply chain for OTC pharmaceuticals, medical devices, and cosmetics. You will find us knowledgeable, action orientated and well connected with the right buyers, distributors and retailers that will make a difference to your product’s availability and your sales results.
Communications Planning
Every brand needs a communication plan. We will work with media professionals to build a media plan to determine which media channels the brand should be using to reach its consumer targets (TV, online video, programmatic, social channels, radio, cinema or print). Then we will work with creative agencies to plan the assets and adverts needed to run on those channels.
Much of the budget for an OTC or personal care product will be spent targeting the consumer at various points of the purchase journey driving them down the funnel from awareness, through interest to consideration and finally conversion (purchase). However the consumer is not always our target audience. It is important to allocate a proportion of both the media and creative development budget to targeting the healthcare professionals involved in recommending and selling your product to the consumers. These might be pharmacists, health visitors, midwives, nurses, or GPs. A core part of our service at this point in the planning process is to ensure that the brand can build professional’s knowledge and trust and make it their first-line-recommendation.
Negotiation & Budget Planning
Margins, cash flow and profit are critical success factors for any product. We are keenly attuned to every element in our negotiations with retailers, distributors, and service providers. Our objective is always to ensure products are listed in retailers and wholesalers at fair margins and that investments made in brand growing promotions or communications programs lead to profitable sales.
Project & Agency Team Management
Project and agency management are essential skills for an OTC brand manager. Having set the direction as part of the strategy and brand planning process, it is then important to carefully manage the activities and people to deliver the vision. Working with you and other cross functional team members we will produce a project plan, with clear timelines and deliverables to ensure visibility on all elements of the project.
Project and team management
Launching or switching a medicine requires careful planning and detailed project management. There will always be numerous workstreams, cross-functional colleagues and deadlines to manage, a great many agencies to co-ordinate, and more than a few management stakeholders to ensure are fully informed at key moments of the project’s lifecycle. An effective team needs excellent co-ordination, careful project management and detailed budget planning and time controls, skills that are at the core of Brilliant Basics’ services.
Crisis management
Over the years we have been invited into several businesses to help them manage a crisis or rebuild a business in the aftermath of a significant financial shock. This work has included reviving several ranges that were considered unsavable by their original owners, enabling them, through careful brand planning and very stringent investment control, to go on to become successful, profitable and vibrant brands in the market again.
Our methodology in these situations is simple. A strategy is produced to achieve the goals of the organisation. Activity is pared back to the minimum, investment in any activity is scrutinised and the plan is monitored in detail. Once the business is financially stable then investment to drive it forwards can be planned and activated. This tight loop control has enabled many brands to revive under our watchful eye
“Penny’s budget control and direction of the marketing department enabled the business to make a small but meaningful profit in its first year after being rescued from administration”. CEO
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