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The conference, to announce the launch of the India operations,
was jointly organised by Healthworld and the Organisation of Pharmaceutical
Producers of India (OPP). Apart from Kapoor; Healthworld founder,
chairman and CEO Steven Girganti and Global Business Group executive
vice president Frank Hone were also present at the launch. The Healthworld
group is the world's third largest healthcare agency in the world
and will be operating along with Bates in India.
Girganti, who especially flew to India for the launch said, "Healthworld
launching in India is very exciting for us. We have been pioneers
in moving the traditional medical advertising business to a communications
business. We believe in diversifying in all directions to meet the
needs of our clients."
Girganti added that since India was one of the crucial emerging
markets and also the second most populous country in the world,
Healthworld would leverage its global expertise and reach to create
successful and world-class brands here. Also on the agency's agenda
are plans of developing knowledge management units in key therapeutic
areas to meet the clients' needs.
Healthworld has global units in New York and will soon be setting
up the same in Asia. "For the life of the brand" is the
motto of the agency and Girganti said that they believed in converting
Rx brands to direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands and further to over-the-counter
(OTC) brands.
Kapoor said that the pharma industry was going to face huge unprecedented
challenges of brand building and customer loyalty in 2005 and that
there were no concerted efforts of setting up the communications
industry. "WPP has been a pioneer in offering every kind of
services to its clients but has not necessarily been successful
since it was unable to get high quality training advice. This is
the first time ever that the chief executive of a worldwide healthcare
company has come down to India to set base here and that in itself
speaks volumes." He added that resources would be built and
training provided to professionals to understand the needs of the
pharma industry to make Healthworld a sustainable company in India.
Healthworld's "for the life of the brand" approach to
brand communications is closely aligned with the essential needs
of the clients and their brands. The agency has demonstrated its
ability to drive success from the early phases of brand development
to extending the brand lifecycle. And with the request of --- "Look
at things from our way for a change" --- Girganti said that
since India was a great market place for the pharma industry, they
were looking to be the top agency here very soon!
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