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WHAT'S in a Name? Elevated Drug Sales
August 22, 2003
It's a weird job, but somebody's got to do
it: naming an erecetile
dysfunction drug.
For example, the little orange pill that pharmaceutical
giants GlaxoSmithKline and Bayer are positioning
to deflate Viagra, which had 2002 sales of $1.74
billion (U.S.).
The new drug, which can do the job in as little
as 16 minutes, is already used in Europe and
was approved this week in the United States.
It's likely to be available soon in Canada.
Its name? Levitra.
What other words does this bring to mind?
Levitate? Elevate? Vital?
"You're exactly right," says Jim
Dettore, nomenclature guru and chief executive
of Miami-based Brand Institute, the world's
largest company for naming products.
Brand Institute named Levitra — and Lipitor,
Relenza, Allegra D, Sarafem and Celebrex. It
names about 200 to 300 drugs every year and
charge $100,00 to $300,000.
Notice that the names all have three syllables
— short enough to be memorable, long enough
to be creative and evocative.
Until very recently, "plosive" sounds
— p, k, c, q — were popular. Research
showed that names with sounds that explode forcefully
from the mouth (think Kodak or Compaq) are regarded
positively.
Prozac, for example, starts and ends with a
plosive. It also starts with the affirmative
"pro" and ends with "ac,"
for action.
Also popular in drug names until recently were
"z" and "x" which, according
to Dettore's competitor, Jim Singer of California's
NameLab, evoke a sense that the drug is fast-acting
(think Ex-Lax). It was NameLab that came up
with Prozac.
But playing with sounds is only part of creating
names for drugs, a process that begins in the
early stages of clinical testing.
Potential names also go through rigorous testing.
A list of 2,000 to 3,000 potential names is
filtered through target audience respondents
— pharmacists, physicians, patients, consumers
— to eliminate those that don't conform
to the marketing agenda or that have negative
associations.
They're screened for linguistic and pronunciation
suitability.
A short list is checked for trademark infringement
in 40 to 60 countries.
Names that survive these tests are subjected
to intense regulatory scrutiny to make sure
they don't look or sound like other drug names
or medical terms.
Ensuring safety in prescribing, dispensing
and patient compliance is the number one objective
in naming, Dettore says.
But with direct-to-consumer marketing of drugs
in the U.S. (leaking into Canada), scientific
names and Latin roots are no longer enough.
"The last thing a company wants to do
is go out the door with a name that's off-strategy,"
Dettore acknowledges. "How attractive is
the name on its own merit? Is it a name you'd
like to use?" He talks about the "nuance,
the gut feel."
Levitra is a word Dettore considers a work
of art. "If you listen to the name, it
immediately brings forward a premium and elegant
tone," he says.
But what about evoking masculinity and, er,
hardness — maybe even macho crudeness?
Something along the lines of Up 'N' Adam?
Bzzzz, wrong approach. Dettore gets the big
bucks for knowing better.
"In the area of erectile dysfunction,"
he advises, "the last thing you want to
say in a name is something that's harsh sounding."
With Levitra, he boasts, "the tonality
is there from the perspective of credibility
and overall elegance. It's a very elegant name,
a branded step-up over some of the other products."
By "other products," Dettore no doubt
means Viagra.
It's hard to come into the marketplace with
a new product when the name of the established
competition is not only ubiquitous in the popular
culture but is used as the synonym for treating
erectile dysfunction.
Viagra suggests vigour and vitality and, rhyming
with Niagara, power, force and flow. It also
ends with a vowel.
Now look at Levitra. It ends with the same
"ra" sound and incorporates the "v"
sound that kicks off Viagra. By placing the
French article, "le" in front of the
"v" sound, Levitra comes across as
an updated, more European, more sophisticated
treatment
for erectile dysfunction. It also helps
that it sounds like "libido" and maybe
even "la vida," Spanish for "life."
You could say Levitra is one-upping Viagra.
(An erectile dysfunction drug denied approval
is called Vasomax, which explains what it does
but lacks that je ne sais quoi.)
Levitra is part of the trend to more lyrical
names with softer consonants and more vowels.
For example, an older arthritis drug is called
Arthrotec. The newer one is Dettore's Celebrex.
The "l" sound and sibilant "s"
or soft "c" are considered especially
appealing now for lifestyle drugs marketed to
consumers.
Indeed, the newest erectile dysfunction drug,
already available in Britain and Australia and
soon to be approved here, is called Cialis.
Touted by Eli Lilly as a drug that will improve
the ability to achieve erections for up to 36
hours, the branding company has said the name
is derived from the French word for sky, "ciel,"
suggesting that the sky's the limit for sexual
spontaneity.
There's only one problem with Cialis, and it
has a name: Albert Cialis.
The accountant from Kent, England, wrote to
the British Medical Journal last year to protest.
"We are horrified.... We consider it as
being virtually the same as being called Viagra."
Albert's cousin, Brian Cialis, who lives in
Surrey, B.C., says, "It's very embarrassing
for the family. We all feel very strongly that
Lilly has taken our name for an erectile dysfunction
drug."
The family continues to campaign in Britain
for a name change for the drug.
"I've had people say, `Have you had it
up lately?'" says the 74-year old Surrey
resident. "How would you feel if your name
were attached to a product of this nature?"
Dettore says his company checked phone books
to ensure there is no Mr. or Ms. Levitra.
source:-http://www.thestar.com
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