Have You Ever Taken a Journey Inside a Doctor’s Mind? BRAND MANAGEMENT 129
My wife Veena loves Kesar mangoes. For her, the Kesar from Saurashtra beats even the famous Hapus in taste.
Earlier, she would happily buy a full carton — nine or ten kilos — from our next‑door Capricorn Bazaar. It was cheaper, convenient, and lasted a week. No daily trips. No hassle.
But this year, she stopped buying cartons. Now she buys just a kilo or two at a time.
If the marketing team at Capricorn Bazaar looked only at the data, they would draw all the wrong conclusions:
- “Veena doesn’t like Kesar anymore.”
- “Maybe she has health issues.”
- “Maybe she finds them expensive.”
And based on these wrong assumptions, they might take wrong actions:
- Offer giant ‘premium’ Kesars for ‘true lovers’.
- Create a “less sweet Kesar for diabetics” corner.
- Give a 20% discount on full cartons.
All useless. All off the mark.
Because they never spoke to Veena. They never stepped inside her mind.
If they had, they would have discovered the real reason:
She stopped buying cartons because she never knew when the mangoes would ripen.
Some ripen today, some after three days, some after five — and sometimes the entire carton ripens on the same day.
And then her dear Vivek would go without Kesar for six days.
For her, that was unacceptable.
One simple conversation would have given the marketing team a powerful insight.
But they relied only on data, not on understanding.
And this is exactly what happens in pharma brand management.
Many brand managers look only at shop audits, prescription audits, or MIS reports.
They build plans on Excel and PowerPoint.
But they never take the most important journey — the journey inside the doctor’s mind.
Without that journey, what emerges is not a brand plan.
It is a guess.
Remember the famous Surf Excel campaign — “Dirt is good”?
It was born from real conversations with mothers, not from a data dump.
Today, we have more data than ever.
But data without insight is noise.
And noise cannot build brands.
What we need is a sharp focus on padocumer needs — the combined needs of patients and doctors.
That is where true insights live.
A Real Example: Sofinox
Sofinox (sodium fusidate) succeeded because the brand team understood the real pain points of doctors and patients.
Yes, clearing infection fast is important — that’s the ante.
But the deeper insight was this:
Doctors and patients want faster wound healing.
Apex Laboratories’ F&D team created a special matrix called Biochitoderm, incorporating chitosan — known to help tissue rebuild and reduce scarring.
This aligned perfectly with the insight.
The result?
Sofinox delighted padocumers.
The PDx — the patient‑doctor experience — was deeply satisfying.
And the brand grew.
The Lesson
As a brand manager, your real work begins outside the office.
Go to clinics.
Sit in waiting rooms.
Observe patients.
Listen to doctors.
Watch how they think, decide, hesitate, and prescribe.
That is where the truth is.
Not in Excel.
Not in PowerPoint.
Not in dashboards.
Undertake the journey inside the padocumer’s natural world.
Only then will you discover insights that no data sheet can ever show.
Only then will you truly understand what is happening inside a doctor’s mind when they choose a brand.
Disclaimer: Company and brand names are used only to explain the concept. I do not promote any company or brand.