Connection Cards

Aventis Oncology, October 2002

Overview

Connection Cards is a successful marketing campaign for Aventis Oncology that is now in its third year. In a difficult marketing environment where every move is scrutinized by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), this program fulfills a need for oncologists and breast cancer patients and produces positive, measurable results for Aventis. Each year the program drives closer to the heart of oncologist, nurse and patient needs as sales reps share firsthand feedback from their oncology accounts and the Agency continues to fine-tune the program.

Aventis Oncology markets Taxotere for breast cancer to 6000 oncologists nationwide through a 150-person sales force. Taxotere is approved by the FDA for the treatment of locally advanced or metastatic breast cancer in people whose disease has progressed following chemotherapy. Needless to say, promoting such a complex product intended to treat people with serious health issues is a daunting task that requires reps to deliver detailed information with a great deal of sensitivity. Taxotere's main competitor is Bristol Myers Squibb-Oncology's paclitaxel, which launched ahead of Taxotere. However, Taxotere is the #1 taxane used to treat patients with metastatic breast cancer and has been successfully positioned as having superior response rates and increased survival rates, along with a generally manageable safety profile. Taxotere's market share has been steadily increasing since it was launched in the marketplace in 1997.

This year, Agency was challenged to build on the program's success and to continue to differentiate Aventis from its competitors.

Promotion Objectives

Oncologists and oncology nurses are extremely busy, making it difficult for sales reps to talk about the advantages of their product. New regulations no longer permit the classic methods used to talk to doctors and nurses outside the office, when they'd have more time. Therefore, it was the Agency's job to get the attention of oncologists and nurses in the office during the workday and build the brand by strengthening relationships with these health care professionals. The Agency figured if it was going to compete for time doctors and nurses normally used to treat patients, the Agency needed make sure it was giving them something to help them in their jobs. Furthermore, if what was provided could echo the company branding of "helping patients move forward" the Agency knew they'd be right on target.

Aventis also asked that the program be "turn-key" for the sales force, easy to explain and implement, and create opportunities for reps to talk about Taxotere with their accounts.

Promotion Description

Research revealed that oncologists and nurses feel guilty for not having enough time to spend with patients and wish they could give patients more non-medical tools to assist them during treatment. The same research revealed that patients yearn for close contact with friends and family. They also want to learn about the disease in order to make informed treatment decisions, and they want to connect with breast cancer survivors who've successfully completed treatment.

Agency used this insight about "connections" to develop Connection Cards in order to help oncologists and nurses more closely relate to their patients and to help patients relate to the people and resources they needed to get through treatment.

Connection Cards is a gift ensemble containing note cards and a long-distance phone card to help patients make connections as well as a reference card profiling leading national cancer organizations and information about Taxotere to help women learn about the disease, treatment options and to connect with survivors. The gifts were small to make it easy for women to carry and keep with them for use throughout their treatment and recovery. They also included positive, uplifting art to avoid reminding women they were sick.

In September, 150 Aventis sales reps delivered 60,000 Connection Cards gift ensembles to their accounts, asking them to distribute the gifts to patients throughout October, marking Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Sales reps also delivered discount coupons for medical wigs and taxi service, two new program extensions for this year to further meet the needs of patients.

Discount Coupons for Medical Wigs: Agency negotiated a partnership with an online medical wig company to give 80,000 patients 15% off (a $10-$12 value).

Coupons for Taxi Service: Agency negotiated a partnership with taxicab companies in Chicago, Miami, Houston, Los Angeles and Philadelphia to purchase 5,250 taxi vouchers, giving less advantaged patients $15 off.

Agency also developed brochures, letters and PowerPoint presentations to help Aventis launch the program to reps and to help reps talk about the program in-office with doctors and nurses.

Performance Results

Aventis and Agency chose to survey the sales reps since Aventis feels strongly that its sales force is the best judge of the program's success. The email-based survey produced a response rate of 46%, a 14% improvement over last year. The program objective was achieved with 87% of respondents reporting that the program enhanced their relationships with their oncology accounts (a 2% improvement over last year.) Of those responding, 100% indicated that they would like to participate in the program next year (last year's figure was 93%). Additionally, respondents said the program was: • Received favorably by their accounts (98%-last year's was 94%) • Appropriate for breast cancer patients (99%-last year's was 98%) • Easy to explain to their sales accounts (92%-last year's was 99%) • Easy to execute (91%-last year's was 99%)

Given that the medical wig and taxi service coupons were new components, it's understandable that the program was slightly more complicated to explain and execute - however, these items still scored high enough to indicate success.

Qualitative data gleaned from open-ended questions showed that sales reps used the program to: Gain access to hard-to-penetrate accounts to talk about Taxotere for breast cancer Maintain regular dialogue with accounts to build long-term rapport Differentiate Taxotere and Aventis Oncology from its competitors in the minds of oncologists and oncology nurses

Sales reps also provided personal comments about the program, a sample of which included:

It is difficult to spend a lot of time at the Breast Clinic at MD Anderson due to hospital regulations, but this program allowed me...to speak with the nurses to explain the program and to follow up each week with more materials as needed.

It helped my accounts to see me and Aventis in a different way. It was good to walk into an office and say, "I have something that your patient can really use and you can feel good about passing on to them." I had one physician who said (regarding the taxi vouchers), "Someone at Aventis is going to heaven. What a great idea."

After three successful years, the Breast Cancer Awareness Month program and Connection Cards have become an integral part of the sales force's strategy for reaching their oncology accounts. In addition to becoming an annual tradition, the program continues to fulfill the Taxotere brand team's desire to approach breast cancer patients from a personal standpoint, understanding that support goes beyond providing medicine.