In a strong growing multiple sclerosis (MS) market in Germany, the market share for an interferon drug shrank for several years. This trend gained pace and the company had to react fast. Our situation analysis showed that the organisational structure in terms of roles and responsibilities was not clear, nor were the target market or the marketing strategy. As the initial USP (convenience) of the drug was “once per week” vs 3 times per week for the competitors, two competitors had conducted a head-to-head study and shown an advantage in terms of efficacy during the first few weeks of treatment. The competitors leveraged these results and positioned their product as highly efficient resulting in a claim of “more is better”. This effectively neutralised the client ‘convenience’ argument and allowed the competitors to claim superiority in efficacy. As a result, the company with their “once a week” claim had adopted a defence position and even the sales force had started to question the efficacy of their product.
