TargetRx
Breaking Through With Thought-Leadership

The Challenge:

How do you build a PR program for a client with no spokesperson, no messaging, no press kit materials, no news and no customers? Pharmaceutical sales and marketing information company TargetRx was completely unknown in the media community when it enlisted the help of LP&P. Company executives, including the CEO, had no experience speaking with members of the press. The competitive landscape was littered with numerous well-established and emerging companies – all who seemed to be telling the same story. In a data-driven and product-adverse media environment, the competition typically generated coverage by providing data on specific brands or pharmas. TargetRx, on the other hand, had no intentions to regularly reveal market research to the press, and in fact, had no steady stream of news. While its clients included the majority of the top 30 pharmaceutical companies, customer references were impossible to secure due to restrictions around client confidentiality. Despite these challenges, LP&P and TargetRx laid out the following objectives:

• Introduce the company into the market as the new – and really only – way to measure, manage and improve pharmaceutical sales and marketing;
• Increase visibility among current and prospective customers and investors;
• Establish and maintain thought leadership.

The LP&P Difference:

Knowing the team lacked all other “typical” PR resources, LP&P quickly realized that the opportunity for success with the media resided in TargetRx’s greatest asset: CEO Mike Luby. LP&P understood that while the company’s products were interesting to some trade reporters, what the pharmaceutical industry truly coveted were credible and reliable references. As a result, LP&P’s strategy was to build the entire PR program around Luby’s points of view to establish him as a thought leader and expert who could provide insight into pharma sales and marketing. LP&P emphasized that building relationships with the media – even if press meetings didn’t immediately turn into coverage – was the key to long term success.

By first conducting an extensive competitive audit, LP&P positioned TargetRx with the goal of “niching” all perceived competition. LP&P’s recommended messaging centered around TargetRx’s predictive capabilities: whereas all other market research firms provided backward-looking data on drug prescription activity, TargetRx could actually predict the performance of a drug in the months ahead. This positioning immediately resonated with the C-suite at top pharmas, as it directly spoke to future brand performance, and in turn, future market share.

LP&P recognized that the pharmaceutical industry had hit a critical inflection point where companies were making huge reductions to sales forces and shifts in their sales and marketing strategies for the first time in years. Vioxx trials were underway, Pfizer and Wyeth had just announced huge cuts and former Wyeth employee Jamie Reidy had just published a book “exposing” the cushy life of a sales rep, who gets paid to take doctors out to lunch, work half days, give out samples and play golf. The media climate was ripe with heavy criticism of the pharma industry more than ever before. LP&P’s communications strategy incorporated Luby directly into this dialog around “big bad pharma,” leveraging Luby’s controversial stance on many industry topics, his position as an industry supporter and years of experience as a pharma “insider” at Merck. 

Enablement:

• The Birth of a Spokesperson – Because Luby was working with the press for the first time, LP&P gave him consistent feedback after every media call and conducted a day-long media training once Luby was ready to move to the next level. In the training, the LP&P team filmed and recorded Luby’s responses and worked to hone his delivery, form key sound bites and drive home key messages with trade, business and broadcast press.

• We’ve Got Issues – LP&P took a close look at what the business press was covering in the pharma market and drove the creation of  a “topics to own” document. This working document tracked what was hot in the media and Luby’s opinion on those issues – ranging from the new sales model to free drug samples to a new drug launch. From this, LP&P drafted compelling pitches and abstracts that would serve to make inroads with the media.

• Taking the Straight and Narrow – In order to rise above the competition and appeal to C-level executives, LP&P ignored the typical “low-hanging fruit” market research media opportunities and focused only on building relationships with reporters at publications that CEOs or VPs would read. This narrowed the team’s focus to include only top tier trades like Pharmaceutical Executive and business press. LP&P honed in on the top industry reporters in the nation, as well as regionally-based media covering local pharma headquarters.

• I Spy a Story – During a weekly team call, Luby casually mentioned that he was developing a report, which he considered a tool to drive sales. As LP&P began asking about this “sales tool,” the team quickly realized that we had uncovered a gold mine. The team generated interest from dozens of trade and business media through TargetRx’s Sales & Marketing Quality (SMQ) Analysis, which ranked pharma sales forces across the U.S., and also provided detailed insight about the specific areas each pharma could improve as determined by physician prescribing. By positioning all other industry reports as “popularity contests,” we were able to easily niche the competition and uplevel TargetRx’s position among the C–suite at the major pharmas.

The Results:

During the first year, LP&P took Luby on three in-person, relationship-building tours with pharma and business press reporters in Philadelphia and New York. From Medical Marketing & Media to BusinessWeek to The Wall Street Journal, these meetings allowed Luby to introduce TargetRx, “wow” key contacts with his industry knowledge and expertise and lay the groundwork for future coverage opportunities. LP&P also closely tracked pharma industry news and events and created opportunities for Luby speak with reporters around issues like the launch or re-launch of particular drug brands, direct-to-consumer advertising restrictions and new laws around access to physician prescribing data.

In addition, LP&P designed an aggressive byline program, timing articles to appear around key company initiatives like the SMQ and supporting Luby’s presence in the business press. The topics were aligned with TargetRx’s key messages in sales force effectiveness and areas like detailing and patient identification where pharmas could improve performance. This program has culminated with an in-progress Op-Ed for the New York Times around how – despite recent controversy – the role of the pharma sales rep is actually crucial to patient care.

Finally, LP&P leveraged the story the team created around SMQ to land exclusive stories with BusinessWeek and Associated Press. LP&P timed the release of the news with the AP story and an online feature in Pharmaceutical Executive, leveraging the relationships the team had built to negotiate positioning and timing. After the exclusives hit, the team secured briefings with Wall Street Journal, Financial Times and Bloomberg, among others.

Overall, LP&P’s efforts brought the following results:

• Secured Top Tier Coverage – LP&P generated more than 96 feature articles for Luby in publications including: BusinessWeek, Associated Press, Philadelphia Inquirer, Indianapolis Star, New Jersey Star Ledger, Pharmaceutical Executive, Med Ad News and Medical Marketing & Media

• Generated Sales Leads – LP&P’s PR efforts directly enabled Luby to meet with C-level executives from 10 pharmas, including Merck, Abbott, J&J, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly, Novartis, Schering-Plough, Pfizer, Wyeth and GlaxoSmithKline. Luby sent an LP&P-generated BusinessWeek story to these contacts, who previously declined meetings, but were persuaded by Luby's presence in such a prominent publication. Following the BusinessWeek, AP and Pharmaceutical Executive stories, Luby received inbound requests for meetings from more than 30 pharmas. As a result, Luby secured meetings at the majority of the top 10 pharmaceutical companies in the U.S., all of which have led to either short- or long-term client engagements.

• Added to Rolodex of Leading Editors – TargetRx’s CEO is now sought after for contributed articles and quotes for industry trend pieces in publications including The Wall Street Jounral, Financial Times, Bloomberg, Boston Globe, PharmaVOICE, Med Ad News and Brandweek.

• Established Leadership Position – LP&P established TargetRx’s thought leadership by placing bylines in publications like Pharmaceutical Executive, Product Management Today and Sales & Marketing Management. In addition, LP&P generated Awards for Luby including the PharmaVoice100, Philadelphia Business Journal’s 40 Under 40 and the Eastern Technology Council’s Enterprise Award.