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Branding COVID vaccines: A nightmarish journey for branding practitioners?
Journal of Brand Strategy,
10
(2),
102-108
(2021)
Abstract
Branding practitioners must be having bad dreams after watching products that are experiencing the highest demand ever, selling billions of units for billions of dollars and that are used by the majority of the world’s population, carry brand identities that were not conceived, researched, tested or, apparently, given even two minutes of consideration. COVID vaccines that have been authorised or approved do not carry anything close to unique, creative, constructed trademarks or brand images. They are known — and very boringly so — for the names of the companies that developed them or are commercialising them or sometimes for the underlying technology, eg ‘mRNA’. This paper reviews some of the dynamics that got us here and discusses possible implications moving forward.
Keywords: branding; brand architecture; marketing; commercialisation; vaccines; COVID; pharmaceuticals
The full article is available to subscribers to the journal.
Author's Biography
David Davidovic has been involved in the commercialisation of products and in building global best-in-class innovative commercial capabilities in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries for 40 years, including over 24 years at Merck & Co. and 8 at Genentech and Roche, where he was Vice President and Global Head of Commercial Services. During the last 7 years, he has headed pathForward, providing strategic and advisory support to many established life-science organisations, of all sizes and stages, start-ups, and non-profits focused on healthcare. David also serves on a number of company advisory boards and is a member of the Board of Directors of Clinica Verde, a non-profit healthcare organisation designing and operating sustainably designed community health hubs in Latin America. David was born and grew up in Quito, Ecuador; he holds a Bachelor of Science and Master of Business Administration degrees from McGill University in Montreal, Canada; he is based in San Francisco, CA.
