Correspondence: Giles D. Moss, Ave des Bouleaux, 14 Braine L'Alleud Belgium. e-mail: giles.moss@yahoo.com

¹is a pharmaceutical industry insider who has risen through the ranks during a 20-year career. Starting as a Sales Representative at Squibb, he has gathered extensive sales and marketing experience (BMS, Sandoz and SmithKline Beecham) in the UK before moving on into General Management. He works in Operations as Vice President Europe; Region 1 for UCB Pharma., a Belgium-based global top-five Biopharmaceutical Company. Previous recent experience includes Regional General Manager South East Asia, Australia and New Zealand and Head of CNS Global Marketing and Medical Affairs, both at UCB. He has published pharmaceutical brand articles in numerous publications including the Journal of Brand Management, the International Journal of Medical Marketing and the Journal of Pharmaceutical Marketing & Management. His book Pharmaceuticals — Where's the Brand Logic? was published in hardcover and soft cover in the US in August 2007 by Haworth Press Inc.

Received 14 May 2007; Revised 14 May 2007.

Abstract

The world of branding is divided between consumer practices and those employed in the pharmaceutical world. Fast moving consumer good companies focus on a brand creation model while pharmaceutical companies create products. The pharmaceutical brand model does not easily fit into consumer theory and this leads to few people understanding the subject well. Consumer brand architecture theory is reviewed and then related to pharmaceutical practice (current and future). Aspects covered include the consumer work of Kapferer and Aaker in the area of brand architecture, examining how their work can be translated to pharmaceuticals. Recommendations for pharmaceutical brand management in the future conclude that, although there are many examples of excellent brand building in pharmaceuticals, the discipline has not yet reached a strategic level.