A Case Study on Branding in Iran Pharmaceutical Industry

During the past few decades, the pharmaceutical industry, as against "fast moving consumer goods" (FMCG) industries, has given little weight and value to branding and has had little success in promoting its products in spite of the allotment of large sums of money to do so. As for the Iranian pharmaceutical industry, where most of the companies rely on the government for both local and foreign exchange support, the situation is graver, particularly because of the allocation of production quotas to them. However, some environmental factors, the most significant of which is the change in governmental policies and regulations, have provided local pharmaceutical companies with opportunities to strive to create differentiation and competitive advantage to be able to survive and meet the challenges of the changing environment. There is the need in this regard to conduct a deeper survey of the present status of the pharmaceutical industry (so far as the branding is concerned) to be able to set up and implement appropriate strategies and policies. This study aims at surveying the "feasibility of the utilization of branding in the pharmaceutical industry in Iran". Attempts have been made to present status of the country's pharmaceutical industry in regard to "branding" along with recommended strategies to pave the ground for the success of the local pharmaceutical companies in an effort to create a brand and resultant brand equity for their products. In order to access to above mentioned object, relevant literature have been reviewed, expert views heard, and the method of case study with the model proposed by Wong and Merrilees (2005) has been used. Based on the interviews conducted with the management (both senior managers and executive ones), personnel, and pharmaceutical representatives of the selected companies, it may be stated that they are all sufficiently aware of the significance of marketing and that this awareness is being intensified as competition in the pharmaceutical industries of Iran shapes up and the importance of marketing become more perceptible. However, none of them (at the time of the interview) perceived branding as competitive leverage for the sale of their pharmaceutical products. They could not differentiate the products of one company from those of the other, either. It could be roughly concluded that, given the criteria for the assessment of brand-marketing performance, also considering the variety of the views received, the brand names of neither Company A nor Company B have attained the desired degree of achievement. To put it all in a nutshell, it may be said that the chief decision markers of the companies (that is, the senior management and the executive managers) did not know much about the processes of the utilization of brand name for their products and the prerequisites required for such utilization, though they understood the benefits of it. However, this understanding was never reflected in their macro strategies, organizational structure, and, above all, their manpower planning.