Kantar Health takes a new look at pharma brand dynamics with Pinnakle service

Kantar Health (New York), a leader in market research and brand development for pharma clients, has started a new service, called Pinnakle, to bring together “access, experience and execution” of brand strategies in a more effective manner, according to Mark Sales, head of global brand & customer experience at the firm. The “access” part of this trio includes pharma sales teams interacting with formulary committees at health plans, but goes beyond that to include how well a brand’s message is reaching buying influences, including physicians and patients. “It’s still the physician who has the 360° view of a pharmaceutical product,” he says.

A key part of Pinnakle, according to Sales, is Kantar’s Conversion Model, a proprietary service that is used both inside and outside of healthcare for brand awareness and messaging. To that service, Kantar Health can add not only physician panels for testing messages, but also follow-on panels, called “pop up” communities, to evaluate preliminary results from a first-pass analysis of a brand campaign. Another new element is social media listening—but performed analytically, not simply to gather reactions. Operating globally, Kantar Health is also able to bring perspectives to brand managers that show what is working in one region or country that could be applied to others, he says.

“All these elements are known to brand managers at pharma companies, but our experience is that they are looked at in silos, and not holistically,” says Sales. “The strategic view can uncover new opportunities across the life cycle of a product.”