Brand, Identity and Reputation: Exploring, Creating New Realities ...

The process of building and managing brands in the pharmaceutical sector is a bit different to many other trades. If
compared with the fashion industry, the patents are not protecting for 15 to 20 years. While in the pharmaceutical
industry the patent protection usually last in between 12 to 20 years, depending upon the individual patent case in its
own detail. Despite this fact, the pharmaceutical companies spend considerable amount of their sales revenues on
building and promotion of brands. One of the key logic behind this is the fact that the life of patent is 20 years
(maximum) while the life of a developed brand is much more than this. For Instance Listerine is a brand of Pfizer, it is
not patented but due to the brand name it is one of the star selling products for Pfizer. This means that the significance
of branding in the pharmaceutical sector remains as high as in any other sector. These observations are the empirical
realism as it contains logical defence through financial data while it is also considerate to the environment of the
market. The Proposed Brand Management Framework is a model that proposes the development and management of
brands with the inclusion of financial measurement and R&D activities.
Branding is one of the key responsibilities for the marketing function. It is a responsibility of the marketing department
to develop and manage the brands of the products/services and the organization. The identity of the products/services is
called product brand while the identity of the organization is called corporate brand. In an overall philosophical sense
brand is the trust of the consumer about the product and manufacturer regarding the quality and its overall sense of
deliverable function. The initial contact between the consumer and the product is brand the functional performance will
come after the brand is purchased.
Brand Development and brand management are interconnected terms but somewhat different to each other. Brand
development refers to the creation and development of brand in a market. This is an initial work of development. Brand
management is a much more broad term that includes the promotional, extension, expansion, diversification,
enrichment, harvest and divestment of the brand. Brand management framework is a proposed model for the
development and management of brands. The new contribution of this model is the inclusion of financial measures,
Intellectual property rights, R&D initiatives, and core of brand performance for managing a corporate brand portfolio.
The foundation for the proposed hypothesize is based on financial measures. For public limited companies the audited
annual accounts and financial statements are the most credible source for financial data. This is even more authentic
than primary collection of data through interviews. The reason is the legal obligations placed on the corporations by the
financial regulatory authorities to declare the accurate information about the financial conditions of the business. The
use of secondary data is fully justified in this research project. In a case where hypothesis are based on measuring the
brand perception of consumers than the primary collection of data through questionnaires would be of more significant
value. The testing of data in this research project is through quantitative data analysis to deal with the hypothetical
options. The data analysis is according to the hypothesis requirement. The statistical data analysis for determine the
comparative brand equity requires more in depth application of the statistical tools. For this research project the
hypothesis are aimed at finding the significance of marketing expenditures, R&D expenditures and proportional of
intangible assets on the overall commercial performance of an enterprise. The findings are used in the development of
brand management framework as a model for developing and managing the corporate brand portfolio.
The epistemological stance for this research is towards realism philosophy. Realism has the inclusion of logical thinking
along with the viewpoint that environment is an important issue to consider that effects the situation and circumstances.
The use of theory is based on mixed methods that include deduction with induction. The hypothesis is developed by
reviewing the existing theoretical literature and revised by the research findings to present the brand management
framework. This outcome of this research is a proposed model with the empirical observation in the pharmaceutical
sector. This is a case of mixed approach on the account of deduction and induction. The Research strategy is based on
the empirical study of the Pharmaceutical industry. The analysis of data collected from secondary sources is from
quantitative perspective. The adopted research methodology is in reflection of the aims, questions, hypothesis and the
involved variables for this research project.
Key words: Branding, Brand management framework, Brand Performance, Brand Equity, Financial measurement of
brands, Intellectual property rights (IPR), Research& Development (R&D) pipelines, corporate brand portfolio, UK
Pharmaceutical industry.
Bibliography
Graziano & Raulin, Research Methods, Seventh edition, 2010, Allyn & Bacon, Boston.
Saunders et al, Business Research Methods, 2007, Financial Times, London.
Alan Bryman , Research Methods, (2007) ,Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Georgson , Strategic Brand Management, 2008, Financial Times, Harlow.
Kotler et al, Marketing Management,2010, Pearson prentice hall, Harlow.
Percy & Elliot, Strategic Brand Management, 2007, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Bainbridge D, Intellectual Property, 2010, Pearson education, Harlow.
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