Brand stagnation is usually perceived as a direct function of inadequate marketing efforts, but when the two companies applied the CUBE (Comprehensive Understanding of Brand Environment) model to these brands, several new dimensions on their inherent strengths and weaknesses emerged.

The CUBE model, designed by the Mumbai-based Interlink Marketing Consultancy, is a long-established survey of doctors' preferences and attitudes about the drug and their perceived corporate image of the pharmaceutical company and its marketing activities.

It is based on personal interviews with doctors, chemists, non-chemists and patients in the four metros. CUBE requires a minimum four centres with at least 350 doctors, while the brand under study is usually comparedto four competing brands in four centres. The model comprises five main sections: the brand phase, marketing-effectiveness phase, medical- practioners' phase, trade phase and the patient phase.

CUBE, according to Interlink managing director RB Smarta, addresses a host of issues -- why a doctor prefers a specific brand vis-a-vis competition; brand rating based on frequency of visits by the company's medical representatives (MR); how doctors perceive the company in terms of quality of products, R&D efforts, etc and prescription patterns. Doctors covered under CUBE comprise a significantly large proportion of "A" class medical practioners with large practices.

CUBE, Smarta adds, could even be a continuous activity in which a survey could be conducted every two-three years to gauge brand performance.Significantly, in the case of Roussel's formulation, the application of the CUBE model helped identify some major weaknesses. In terms of top-of-the- mind awareness, only 4 per cent of the doctors surveyed tendedto recall the brand, and the drug's side-effect profile and cost factor were also perceived as major disadvantages.

In terms of sheer MR impact, the south zone was a sore point for the product, while the brand also appeared to be victim of wrong perception. This inaccurate perception had inadvertently pitted the drug against major competitors in the general segment, though Roussel's formulation was a specialised product.

The CUBE model, however, also reiterated that the Roussel brand was most frequently prescribed by specialist physicians, and that every sixth doctor perceived it as an effective drug.

Other key strengths include the positive image of parent company and effective advertising thrust.Working on the findings and recommendations of Interlink, the Roussel management reworked the brand's marketing strategy.

Today, Roussel's formulation enjoys widespread support from the medical fraternity and is growing faster than the average growth rate in that particular therapeutic group. Similarly, theGlaxo management, based on CUBE, decided to change the ingredients in its formulation, accompanied by a fresh communication strategy to obtain the decided perception.