Lessons on biotech brand building from 4 famous brand managers

Cleopatra, Joseph Goebbels, Jimmy Buffett, and Lance Armstrong are famous (or infamous) brand managers whose strategies can teach you about successfully launching your biotech brand.

When we study successful branding, this cast of characters may not come immediately to mind. But each has had a major impact on how people behave, what they buy, and what they remember. And this is largely due to the strength of the brands they have built.

Cleopatra, Brand Master
This brilliant strategist was all about the brand. She understood the importance of product impact.

Who can forget her ingenious launch tactic—a surprise entrance into Julius Caesar’s chambers, rolled up mostly naked in an exquisite rug? (And marvel at how she relaunched the brand to Marc Antony, as described in Stacy Schiff’s new biography.)

Ensuring Brand Loyalty

Cleopatra knew her audience. She grew brand loyalty and respect with generous sampling and impressive public displays of power. (She also had siblings and pesky dissenters killed.)

Cleopatra never underestimated a potential competitor. She always reinforced her own strength with an uncanny eye for her opponents’ failings.

How well did Cleopatra build her brand? She ruled a chunk of the civilized world during her lifetime and still dominates the public imagination centuries later. (Watch for yet another movie, this one starring Angelina.)

What’s your strategy to build brand loyalty?

Joseph Goebbels—Unsavory Branding

As repulsive as he is, it is interesting to look at how the minister of propaganda for the Third Reich built the brand.

Goebbels had the power of logo and symbol down. He also knew how to craft emotional messaging that changed behavior. Combine this with totalitarian control of the media and you get one of the most destructive brands the world has ever known.

Will your logo and key messages change physician prescribing behaviors?

Jimmy Buffett, the Brand Experience

Have you ever sat next to parrot heads on an airplane? They are a focused, mobilized, adoring bunch. Back in the ’70s, Jimmy Buffett took some songs about the Florida Keys and parlayed them into a hugely successful lifestyle brand.

Now, people see Buffett, perennially tanned, wearing an aloha shirt, and singing about hurricanes, and they wish that they, too, were on vacation. They don’t just hear songs; they imagine themselves on the beach. This branding has earned Buffett millions. Welcome to Margaritaville.

Does your branding speak to consumers?

Branding Lance

It’s interesting to consider how Lance Armstrong has built his powerful global brand. It’s not as though bicycle racing is America’s favorite pastime, after all.

Lance’s combination of athletic success, cancer survival, comeback story, and appealing persona have earned him a place in the hearts of would-be athletes and couch potatoes alike.

The Power of Yellow

His brand has been expertly packaged—Lance owns yellow like Tiffany owns aqua. His brilliantly named foundation, LiveStrong, combines aspiration with his last name (and who wants to LiveWeak?). The yellow rubber bracelets are worn proudly even in pharma C-Suites; and, with all the great programs the foundation supports, people can feel good about themselves while they support the brand. Ingenious.

Launching a strong brand is your goal. Learn the branding lessons that these 4 brand masters offer and you too can develop a winning brand strategy.