Abstract:

The challenge of establishing a leading brand in terms of market share and pharmacist recommendation in the OTC segment of pain relievers proves to be the ultimate task for marketing and market research: the coping strategies of sufferers seemed too long-established, the risk evaluation of patients and pharmacists too negative, and the dominance of leading main stream brands in the media and in consumers' minds too overpowering. The success story of the OTC-migraine therapeutic Formigran in Germany proves that the realisation of this market success needed unconventional research beyond well established standards and traditional ways of thinking.