What Exactly is Brand Building? – A Tribute to Prof. Chitta Mitra and Prof. Tarun Gupta
This essay is poignant tribute to the architects of pharmaceutical branding, Professors Chitta Mitra and Tarun Gupta.
On January 3rd, 2012, the world of pharmaceutical marketing lost a luminary with the passing of Professor Chitta Mitra.
To honor his enduring legacy, every year, January 3rd is solemnly observed as “WORLD PHARMA BRAND MANAGERS DAY”.
In a touching gesture of remembrance, learning and development events are held on the third Saturday of January at esteemed learning institutions.
Being a solemn event, it is always without glitter, glamour or glimmer.
In 2025, it is at “Dr. Reddy’s Leadership Academy” in Bachupally, Hyderabad, on 18 January 2025 2025.
What Exactly is Brand Building?
Preamble
In September 2025, I conducted a basic brand management workshop for young professionals at a mid-sized pharmaceutical company. It was at a location away from the corporate setting. It was nestled in the serene setting of Mount Abu.
Following a brief icebreaker, I posed a fundamental question to the group: ‘Can you define brand building?’
The responses were diverse, ranging from maximizing profits and boosting sales to achieving industry award and accolades.
This diverse range of perspectives presented a challenge. It became clear that a strong foundation in the fundamentals was crucial to ensure the participants grasped the multifaceted nature of brand building.
Understanding Brand Building
Brand building is the strategic process of creating, developing, and maintaining a unique and valuable identity for your product, or your organization in the minds of doctors, patients and even retail pharmacies.
It goes far beyond just creating a logo or advertising campaigns.
It’s about crafting a unique image, personality, and value proposition that sets your brand apart and builds trust, recognition, and loyalty over time. It involves developing and maintaining a consistent image, voice, and message that resonates with your target audience.
Your brand represents all the perceptions, emotions, and experiences doctors and patients associate with your company or brand. Therefore, your communication skills are crucial to ensure doctors’ perceptions align perfectly with your intended message. There should be no disconnect between what you communicate and how doctors understand it.
This is the heart of brand building!
Why is Brand Building Important?
- Trust and Loyalty
A strong brand earns the trust of doctors, patients and retail pharmacists. This encourages doctors to give repeat prescriptions, inspires patients not to look for alternates in generic stores and retail pharmacists to imitate repeat purchases. - Premium Pricing
Established brands like Revital H and Volini can charge more because doctors and patients perceive higher value. In the end, your brand your organizations earn more profits. - Long-Term Growth
A solid brand provides a foundation for launching new products and entering new markets leading to exponential growth.
Nine Key Elements of Brand Building
Here are the eleven key elements of brand building which every brand manager must internalize.
1.Crafting a Unique Value Proposition (UVP)
Your Unique Value Proposition (UVP) must lucidly define what sets your brand apart from others. It should explains how your brand solves a specific problem or fulfils the need of your doctors and patients.
Your UVP clearly should outline the benefits doctors and patient will receive by choosing your brand over competition.
What can be the UVP of Nexpro RD?
If I were the brand manager, my tagline would be: “Unique soft-purple capsules for lasting tummy comfort”.
I would capitalize on the soft-purple capsule which distinguishes it from other brands. I shall also create a purple colored mascot.
Can anyone copy this?
I have purposely used the colloquial word ‘tummy’ to make the heavy topic lighter and enjoyable. I will also create a purple-colored mascot for Nexpro RD.
2. Brand Identity
This includes your name, logo, tagline, colors, and other visual elements.
For example, the indigo color of Indigo Airlines immediately signals “you can fly even to smaller towns like Nasik or Hubli.
When you desire to fly to Dibrugadh or Kakinada, the first airlines which will come to your mind is Indigo.
3. Brand Messaging
It’s the promise which your brand makes and what does your brand stand for. For instance, Raymond Suitings messaging centers around style and sophistication.
It’s the promise which your brand makes and what does your brand stand for. For instance, Raymond Suiting messaging centers around style and sophistication.
For decades, Raymond didn’t just sell fabric – it revolutionized what it meant to be a modern Indian man. Breaking free from rigid stereotypes, the brand painted a portrait of ‘The Complete Man’ that was refreshingly human: a man who wasn’t afraid to show tenderness alongside his strength.
Here was someone who could lead in the boardroom yet kneel to help his child tie a shoelace, who balanced success with sensitivity, power with gentleness.
While later campaigns tried to capture luxury with “Feels like heaven… Feels like Raymond,” nothing quite matched the cultural impact of The Complete Man.
This wasn’t just clever marketing – it was a mirror that showed Indian men a new way of being, one where emotional depth was as admirable as professional achievement. The campaign didn’t just sell suits; it helped reshape masculinity itself.
4. Patient-Doctor Experience (PDX)
Every interaction your doctor or a patient has with your brand—whether through your product, service, or marketing—shapes their perception. Patient-centered approach in marketing can lead to a better PDX.
The ‘Sparsh’ patient-centered campaign played a major role in making Januvia / Janumet as the darling brand of doctors and patients.
5. Emotional Connection
Build trust and loyalty by tapping into emotions.
Consider how GSK promotes vaccine brands in India, such as Engerix B and Shingrix.
Their use of a film star as a brand ambassador for Shingrix to raise awareness about the risks of shingles among people over 60 is a powerful example of how to effectively leverage emotions to build trust and loyalty.
6. Differentiation
Consider how Bayer promoted Incidal, a classic antihistamine.
While sedation was a common side effect of many antihistamines, scientific evidence demonstrated that Incidal had the least sedative effect.
For many years, their marketing campaign simply featured an alert bird with the accompanying copy: “Alert.”
This concise and impactful message effectively communicated Incidal’s key differentiator, ultimately contributing to its success as a mega-brand.
7. Story telling
Business storytelling humanizes a brand, making it relatable and memorable for consumers.
It helps create an emotional connection, which can foster doctors and patients loyalty and trust.
Through compelling narratives, brands can differentiate themselves in a crowded market and effectively communicate their values and mission. Moreover, storytelling can simplify complex ideas, making them more accessible and engaging to the audience.
8. Brand Promise
A brand promise is the fundamental promise or commitment you make to your doctors and patients. You assure consistently what to expect from your brand.
It represents the unique value and experience that sets your brand apart from competitors and forms the core of the customer relationship.
A strong brand promise should be authentic, achievable, and meaningful to the target audience while being consistently delivered across all customer touchpoints. When effectively executed, it creates trust and loyalty by ensuring doctors know what exactly they’ll get every time they interact with your brand.
9. Brand Positioning
Brand positioning is the strategic process of creating a unique impression in the minds of doctors and patients about your brand compared to your competitors.
It involves defining what your brand stands for, how it differs from others in the market, and what value it offers to the target audience.
Effective brand positioning ensures that doctors and patients perceive your brand as distinct, relevant, and credible, which helps in building a strong and lasting brand identity.
This strategy is crucial for attracting and retaining doctors in a competitive marketplace.
Case Study – Cardace
Let me explain how Cardace (Ramipril – an ACE inhibitor for hypertension and heart failure) was built as an ethical brand by Aventis/Sanofi:
Brand Building Strategy for Cardace:
Medical Professional Engagement
– Focused heavily on building relationships with cardiologists and physicians through regular scientific presentations
– Organized continuing medical education (CME) programs focusing on hypertension management
– Created a network of “Key Opinion Leaders” (KOLs) among top cardiologists who could share their clinical experiences
Clinical Evidence Focus
– Invested in local clinical studies to demonstrate efficacy in Indian patients
– Regular sharing of global trial data (like HOPE study) that showed benefits beyond blood pressure control
– Created scientific documentation and medical literature that highlighted its benefits in specific patient populations
Sales Force Excellence
– Medical Representatives were extensively trained on technical knowledge
– They were equipped with detailed scientific literature and clinical trial data
– Regular medical updates and training sessions to handle doctor queries effectively
Trust Building Elements
– Consistent quality maintained over decades
– Reliable supply chain ensuring continuous availability
– Multiple strengths available (2.5mg, 5mg, 10mg) for flexible dosing
– Patient education materials provided to doctors
– Regular doctor feedback and generating insights which helped in building robust marketing strategies and tactics
Long-term Relationship Building
– Regular doctor contact programs
– Scientific symposia at major medical conferences
– Patient compliance programs through doctors
– Post-marketing surveillance studies
Case Study – Revital H
When Ranbaxy launched Revital H in 1988, India’s market for multivitamins and energy supplements was largely unorganized and dominated by physician-recommended brands. Revital aimed to carve out a niche as an over-the-counter (OTC) energy and vitality supplement targeting urban consumers.
In 2015, after Sun Pharma acquired Ranbaxy, it introduced Revital H, a daily health supplement, H connoting ‘Health’. Revital H is positioned as daily supplement for overall health and wellbeing.
Yuvraj Singh was the first brand ambassador for Revital, a product of Ranbaxy, India’s largest pharmaceutical company. Salman Khan became the brand ambassador for Revital in 2012. At the time, Revital was still a Ranbaxy brand. However, the association was discontinued after Khan’s contract ended when Sun Pharma and Ranbaxy merged in 2015.
Key Brand-Building Strategies
- Understanding the Audience
Revital focused on urban, busy professionals who experienced fatigue and wanted an easy solution for maintaining energy levels. They identified a clear pain point: the need for daily energy to meet life’s challenges. - Powerful Tagline and Messaging
The tagline, “Ab India Ko Chahiye Revital” (Now India Needs Revital), tapped into a sense of national progress and individual energy. This messaging resonated with the aspiration of the middle class to keep pace with a rapidly developing India. - Celebrity Endorsement
Revital’s partnership with Bollywood superstar Salman Khan was a game-changer. Salman’s image as a fitness enthusiast and action star reinforced the product’s promise of energy and vitality. This endorsement gave the brand widespread appeal and credibility. - Effective Advertising Campaigns
Revital’s ads showcased relatable scenarios, such as professionals tackling long work hours and homemakers managing busy schedules, all thriving with the help of Revital. These ads communicated the brand’s utility effectively. - Clear Differentiation
Unlike prescription-only multivitamins, Revital positioned itself as an easily accessible OTC product that combined ginseng, vitamins, and minerals—a unique formula that promised holistic energy enhancement. - Smart Packaging
The sleek red-and-white packaging with bold lettering stood out on shelves, making it easily recognizable.
Word of Mouth
Early adopters became loyal users who recommended Revital to family and friends, contributing to organic growth
Key Milestones and Achievements
- Category Leadership:
Revital became India’s leading OTC energy supplement, setting a benchmark for competitors. - Transition to Sun Pharma:
When Sun Pharma acquired Ranbaxy, it retained Revital’s core brand essence while strengthening distribution, ensuring the brand’s sustained growth. - Market Expansion:
Revital extended its portfolio to include variants like Revital H Women and other products catering to specific demographics.
Lessons from the Success of Revital H
- Target Specific Pain Points:
Understand your doctor’s needs deeply and offer a solution that fits seamlessly into their lifestyle. - Invest in Emotional Branding:
Revital connected with aspirations, making it more than just a product—it became a symbol of energy for progress. - Leverage Celebrity Power Strategically:
Choose endorsers whose persona aligns with the brand’s promise. - Build a Distinct Identity:
A unique formula, catchy tagline, and smart packaging differentiated Revital in a crowded market. - Consistency is Key:
Consistent messaging, distribution, and product quality over decades have helped Revital sustain its leadership.
Summary
Brand building in the pharmaceutical industry goes beyond logos and taglines—it’s about creating a unique identity that resonates with healthcare professionals, patients, and caregivers. The process involves crafting a compelling brand promise that reflects the product’s value proposition and aligns with stakeholders’ needs.
Key elements include:
- Scientific Credibility: Establishing trust through robust clinical data and evidence.
- Emotional Connection: Engaging stakeholders with a relatable, human-centric message.
- Consistency: Delivering a unified experience across all communication channels.
- Doctor Engagement: Building relationships with doctors, pharmacists, and patients through education and support.
Successful brand building in pharma requires balancing rational evidence with emotional appeal. It ensures the brand is not just recognized but also remembered and preferred.
By addressing medical needs and creating a meaningful impact, pharma brands can achieve sustainable growth and loyalty.