- Ciba-Geigy: Getting at the Heart of Innovation
THE CHALLENGE:
Ciba-Geigy, a multinational pharmaceutical company, was troubled with a vexing challenge: “How do we create a novel method of introducing a new cardiovascular drug to consumers?” The approach should differentiate their new drug from the pack of similar products that already crowded the market.
THE PROCESS:
The conventional strategy would have been to design a marketing campaign focused on informing physicians about the new drug and its benefits. But Ciba-Geigy did not achieve the success it has by relying on conventional thinking or by being timid. So Ciba-Geigy turned to Synecticsworld, asking the Synecticsworld community of creative catalysts to help Ciba-Geigy marketers understand what features of the drug, including and excluding its medicinal qualities, would attract customers.
Based on Synecticsworld-led skills development and team exercises in innovation, a range of market-focused operational adaptations were identified and pursued. Over time, the resulting activities were:
- Restructuring Ciba-Geigy’s marketing unit to build a team orientation
- Creating an initiative to address a revenue shortfall caused by a confluence of products
- Developing a market strategy for entry into the over-the-counter category
THE RESULTS:
In all, Synecticsworld helped Ciba-Geigy marketers create more than 70 ideas, including an innovative guarantee that promises consumers that the new cardiovascular drug would have a fixed price for the duration of the patient’s treatment, an attractive proposition for the company’s customers, many of who are elderly and likely to be on fixed incomes.
One drug, one price…just one of the ideas created by Synecticsworld-led innovation.
