Forever Trusted: The Human Side of Eternal BrandBuilding

Human-to-Human Marketing: Why Eternal Brands Begin and end with People

As we arrive in 2026, I find myself reflecting on a professional journey that began well before my own. Nearly forty-nine years ago, my grandfather – Prof Chitta Mitra – introduced prescription-based market research to the pharmaceutical industry in the world—an idea that fundamentally changed how brands understood strategic decision-making. Since then, the mechanics of brand building have evolved dramatically. Marketing, sales, research and development, supply chain logistics, and customer engagement now operate within increasingly sophisticated, and technology-enabled ecosystems.

Technology, we are told, has made these processes more efficient and more effective – Apparently!

Across industries, the most successful brands continue to share a common trait: they treat customers, stakeholders, and partners as humans, not merely as segments or targets (in a transactional manner). Prof Philip Kotler’s recent book on H2H (Human-to-Human) Marketing articulates this truth with clarity.
While modern brand-building rightly leverages advanced technology, it too often neglects the human dimension at its core. Marketing, in many cases, has become transactional—optimized for short-term outcomes rather than long-term relationships.

There are multiple examples to elaborate on the same across industries. For example, surge pricing in ride-sharing services during emergencies or adverse weather conditions may optimize short-term revenues, but it frequently does so at the cost of trust and credibility. Similarly, the excessive misuse of mass automated email campaigns has eroded this channel’s overall effectiveness, as reflected in consistently declining open rates and diminished consumer confidence. In both these cases, technology has been deployed efficiently—but without empathy.

For example, in the IPM, when there is a Loss of Exclusivity (LoE) especially in chronic therapies, multiple me-too brands enter the market, with one key differentiation that is a discounted price and/or trade margins. Objectives revolve around Rx, sales and coverage targets, and in this process of short term gains human realities of prescribing and consumption are overlooked. From a physician side – the emotional and professional responsibility involved in switching a stable chronic patient to a new brand, particularly when the switch offers no other meaningful improvement in efficacy, safety, adherence or patient experience. For patients – frequent changes in brand, packaging and tablet appearance often lead to confusion and reduced compliance despite molecule remaining unchanged. If pricing advantage erodes over a period of time, the limited brand equity results in declining Rx and diminished trust. A human centric approach – grounded in Rx research – would have acknowledged these behavioral and emotional barriers, enabling differentiation through clearer communication, product design, and adherence support to patients.

This raises a fundamental question: How do we genuinely understand the emotions and latent needs of our customers?

Forever Trusted: The Human Side of Eternal Brand Building

The answer remains disarmingly simple.

• We must meet them.
• We must observe them in real-world settings.
• We must spend time listening, watching, and understanding.

There are no shortcuts, and technology can play a role here to ease this process.

Exceptional brand builders do not rely solely on stated responses or survey outputs. They apply observation, judgement, and intuition to understand behavior—often reading between words and gestures to uncover deeper motivations. This is where human creativity and insight continue to take precedence over machine learning and artificial intelligence. Brands that consistently place users at the centre of decision-making, and continuously adapt to evolving needs, become what may be described as eternal brands. These brands are not merely delivered to customers, they are co-created with them.

In contrast, many products and services launched within today’s start-up ecosystem fail precisely because patience is replaced by haste. Short-term financial metrics often take precedence over thoughtful product development. Without a robust and meaningful core offering, sustainable revenue remains elusive.

Within the Indian Pharmaceutical Market (IPM), this distinction is particularly instructive. In a highly competitive, largely “me-too” environment, enduring brands are those that have applied human-centric principles consistently over time. Even when such brands experiment or experience disruption due to strategic experimentation, their accumulated equity allows for course correction and recovery.

In this context, Rx-based research remains an exceptionally powerful tool. It captures a physician’s real world intent and aspirations for patient care—not merely what is said, but what is actually prescribed in a real world setting. The distinction between stated intent and observed behavior is central to the communication hierarchy of marketing. By analyzing prescription behavior, brand builders gain critical insights and direction into understanding both physician and patient needs, enabling meaningful enhancements across dosage, formulation, pricing, packaging, delivery, and convenience—ultimately
improving patient outcomes.

As artificial intelligence continues to expand its influence across industries, these foundational principles of brand building remain unchanged. Technology will undoubtedly augment our capabilities, but it cannot replace human creativity derived from empathy, observation, and trust.

The brands that endure are those that recognize this truth: Human understanding is not optional. It is essential.

And in that sense, the principles of building eternal brands whether in pharmaceuticals or any other industry—will themselves remain eternal.

— Mr.Aneesh Mitra (President-SMSRC)