Business Mint- INDIA’S LEADING & MOST CREDIBLE MARKET RESEARCH COMPANY annually conducts “Nationwide Pharma Marketing Excellence Awards”. The purpose behind the award is to acknowledge the outstanding contribution of a marketeer towards the brand or a campaign aimed at improving patient outcome.

On the awards day, we get an opportunity to interact with Ms. Komal Raut, the winner of “Nationwide Pharma Marketing Excellence Awards” for “Excellence in Marketing-Urology”. Ms. Komal is a distinguished marketeer, currently associated with the leading pharmaceutical organization Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. as a Group Product Manager and brings in rich experience of 10 years in marketing. She is scripting her marketing career in a very important area of urology with a special focus on therapies of Over Active Bladder (OAB). After congratulating her, for winning “Nationwide Pharma Marketing Excellence Awards” for “Excellence in Marketing-Urology”, we had an opportunity to converse with Ms. Komal Raut. I am sharing a glimpse from an insightful and inspiring conversation for the benefit of all readers.

Q.1: Today you have been awarded as best marketeer in urology specialty, tell us, what inspired you to pursue the career in the profession of pharma marketing at first?

From childhood, I was fascinated by the working of the human body and I wanted to closely associate my career with the medical field. I come from a very small village wherein people are not fully aware about their diseases and medicines and they do not reach out to doctors on time. That’s when I decided to pursue my career in pharmaceutical marketing because proper awareness is required among the patients. Proper communication about medicines can be disseminated to doctors which can gradually reach to their patients.

Q.2: Can you tell us about your journey as a Marketeer, your learning curve & what was that inflection point in the journey which transformed you into a successful Marketeer?

After my MBA, I worked for two years as a medical representative in GSK which helped me understand the market thoroughly. During this time, I completely understood doctors’ and patients’ behavioural patterns which helped me build the foundation for marketing. This was the turning or inflection point in my career journey which helped me discover pharma distribution channels. Later on, I got an opportunity to work in an acute therapy such as anti-malarial, antibiotic, etc. wherein you have to constantly remind the doctor about your brand/product to create brand awareness. After that, I got into the chronic segment, i.e., Urology which is a niche speciality and both the segments, i.e. acute and chronic demands different types of marketing initiatives and strategies, based on the different doctors’ and patients’ needs.

Q.3: Being a successful brand manager, according to you, what are the traits of trade which a brand manager should inculcate to excel?

One thing to keep in mind is that brand managers need to have a Thesolid understanding of science as pharma marketing is done with the help of scientific knowledge. There is a plethora of products/brands available in the market today and to help your brand stand tall in the market, differentiating the undifferentiated market by choosing the right patient profile based on the product/brand attributes is a complete must. Additionally, one has to be constantly present in the market to understand the dynamics of competitors and various preferences of patients and doctors.

Q.4: Every specialty has a typical success lever, according to you what are those levers of success in the Urology specialty?

Urology is a niche, science-driven speciality and urologists are very keen to learn about new technologies, guidelines, etc. Unlike other specialities, you would not find new molecules getting launched in this speciality but there is an advent of new surgical options coming up every year in this speciality. We understand these needs and try to provide them with a platform wherein urologists can enhance and learn about new surgical skills.

Q.5: At last, what would you like to tell, to the budding Marketeers, hoping to carve out their career in pharma brand building?

There is a vast difference between what you learn in college and when you enter in the corporate world. One thing to keep in mind is to have a thorough understanding about your customers, patients, and the market dynamics. One good thing to do is to start a career in Sales which will help you understand the generation of prescriptions, patients’ psychology, competitors’ strategies that will help you to strategize your brand better when you get into the marketing.