Analgesic Medicine Achieves Sales Growth Despite Pandemic Challenges

Challenge

Before we embarked on the brand awareness campaign, the product was not well received by doctors in Thailand mainly because of its presumed side effects and weak academic references of its benefits and treatment results.

The client wanted a marketing partner to help them change the treatment pattern of doctors in Thailand by embedding the product in the treatment guideline and having more mention of the product in medical books and journals available in the market.

Moreover, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Medical Association of Thailand had advised all doctors and hospitals to cancel or delay any non-emergency surgeries and elective cases for the early part of 2020. This led to decreased sales of almost 60 percent in the multimodal IV analgesics market.

Approach

The key for us was to position the product as an appropriate first-line analgesic in multimodal analgesia for postoperative pain management to help reduce the side effects of narcotics and NSAIDs usage. We sourced out key opinion leaders in the market to be part of an advisory board to overcome the side effect problems and recreate the brand’s positioning in the market.

We also worked on strengthening the relationship with different professional committees in the industry who have the authority to amend the treatment guidelines in Thailand. The next area was for us to support marketing activities and expanding academic information with stronger factual evidence for the product’s usage and benefits.

Due to the pandemic and logistics hurdles, we quickly adapted to focus on providing virtual marketing and online sales activities including expanding product and brand awareness to new users.

Result

Our team’s agility and quick adaptation to the logistic challenges during the pandemic proved to be the key success factors to successfully achieve the targets for our client’s product.

The product is now more prominently featured in Thailand’s treatment guidelines and medical academic books and journals. With updated protocols from the advisory board discussions, the side effects complaints and opposition against the product have reduced by more than 90 percent.

The product has also recorded 100 percent sales growth in the subsequent two years since the campaign’s introduction. Even during the pandemic in Thailand, it still brought in monthly sales growth of nearly 20 percent. This project team also came out as one of the winners in the DKSH Healthcare Brand Planning and Execution Award 2020 for the medical channel category.