A Frenetic Workday Schedule - Article Example

A Frenetic Workday Schedule The typical American today goes through a frenetic workday schedule involving brutal working hours and too short vacations. Aggravating this lifestyle is the constant anxiety that surfaced in the wake of September 11. These two factors have led to insomnia becoming a glaring trademark of an overworked and overwrought American society. It was reported that in 2005, 120,000 new insomnia patients were registered in the U.S. (Brandweek Magazine. “Marketers of the Year 2006: Lunesta’s Tim Healey and Jay Popli”); the IMS reported 42 million prescriptions were issued for sleeplessness in 2005 (a 60 per cent increase over 2004 {The New York Times.

“Record Sales of Sleeping Pills Are Causing Worries”}). Before 2005, the insomnia category was written off as not growing or changing. The chief drug to combat insomnia was the brand Ambien (it recorded sales of $ 2.2 billion in 2004 {Brandweek Magazine. “Marketers of the Year 2006: Lunesta’s Tim Healey and Jay Popli”}), that rose to the top after successfully fighting off other ambitious drugs like Sonata, Halcion and Tylenol P.M. The American public was resigned to the dominance of Ambien in the absence of a better alternative in spite of increasing high-profile cases that highlighted the dangerous side effects of Ambien (such as U.S. Rep.

Patrick Kenney’s car crash, a lawyer in Buffalo who ‘messily’ raided his own fridge and tore a towel rack off the wall, the crash of the Staten Island Ferry that killed 11 persons, a Texas bus crash resulting in the death of 8 passengers, and several videos of YouTube depicting people drooling and zonked out (The New York Times. “Record Sales of Sleeping Pills Are Causing Worries”). Into this scenario of sleeplessness and uncertainty came Lunesta. Launched in April 2005 by Marlborough Mass.

-based firm Sepracor, it swiftly emerged as the hottest sleeping pill in the U.S today. The Lunesta fairytale success story is based on two factors: a measure of good fortune, and a massive ad budget featuring an irresistible ad. Lunesta initially had two strokes of good fortune: its original name and original ad were scrapped. The FDA rejected the brand name ‘Estorra’ on the grounds that it sounded too much like ‘Estrace,’ a prevailing hormone-therapy drug. An ad featuring an elderly elf stealthily entering darkened bedrooms and sprinkling sleepers with magical sand was cancelled when Sepracor’s marketing department found that women (who are a very big audience, reportedly having more insomnia sufferers than men) unanimously rejected the idea of an old man creeping into their bedrooms late at night.

After several prospective ads were viewed, Sepracor ultimately chose one from the McCann HumanCare Ad Agency in New York – and the rest is history (Brandweek Magazine. “Marketers of the Year 2006: Lunesta’s Tim Healey and Jay Popli”). Lunesta’s simple yet novel, blue tinged luna moth ad features a glowing, ghostly, animated moth gliding over towns, entering darkened bedrooms and soundlessly alighting on attractive middle-aged couples, magically charming their sleep so that the sleepers are seen smiling in contentment while unconscious.

The ad’s massive use is well illustrated by Dr. Gregg Jacobs, psychologist and assistant professor at Harvard who saw two Lunesta ads while watching just one hour of prime time television (The New York Times. “Record Sales of Sleeping Pills Are Causing Worries”). The ad is primarily targeted at late night viewers, subtly suggesting to them that its time to go to bed. The word ‘Lunesta’ too drew high admiration from marketing analysts: it is associated with the lunar (moon) and its soft, soothing nature; it contains the word ‘nest’ that evokes a yearning to rest safe and snug in one’s own nest (bed).

Lunesta effectively turned insomnia from being an irritating, moribund resignation to a malady that can be cured without after-effects and without the fear of addiction (Brandweek Magazine. “Marketers of the Year 2006: Lunesta’s Tim Healey and Jay Popli”). Sepracor launched the Lunesta ad immediately after obtaining FDA approval to market the drug. They started out with a $ 60 million advertisement budget, aiming to be the first new drug to challenge Ambien. The ad’s effect was so overwhelming, that by the end of 2005, Sepracor had happily spent a mammoth $ 228 million on advertising.

Within a span of 8 months, Sepracor emerged from being an unknown company to one that had the largest single ad budget in the world, topping even Pfizer’s ad expenditure on Lipitor or Viagra (Brandweek Magzine. “Marketers of the Year 2006: Lunesta’s Tim Healey and Jay Popli”). The success of Lunesta’s ad has a solid base: an impeachable product that guarantees a full 8-hour sleep with no after effects. FDA approval of the drug came after extensive tests on ‘after-day’ effects – a drawback that had maligned all sleep aids before it - designating Lunesta as a drug for “the treatment of insomnia” – as against Ambien’s approval for the “short-term treatment of insomnia” which suggests that Lunesta users need not worry about addiction - one of the American’s worst nightmares (who hasn’t read the chilling episodes in “Valley of the Dolls,” or heard of Marilyn Monroe’s drug related hallucinations, what led to her eventual premature death?

{Brandweek Magazine. “Marketers of the Year 2006: Lunesta’s Tim Healey and Jay Popli”}). The Lunesta ad is unique in that it also educates the physician (who reportedly receives just 2 hours insomnia education in med school {Brandweek Magazine. “Marketers of the Year 2006: Lunesta’s Tim Healey and Jay Popli”}). The effect on physicians is underlined by the visit of Sepracor’s well-trained sales representatives (Sepracor had 1,500 representatives, a number it increased by 450 this month).

Sepracor proudly reported that in 2005 more than 213,000 doctors wrote 3.3 million prescriptions for Lunesta (The New York Times. “Record Sales of Sleeping Pills Are Causing Worries”). Lunesta generated $ 277 million sales in the first 6 months of 2006, a figure expected to cross the half-billion dollar mark by the end of the year. Today, Lunesta is the No.2 drug in the sleeping aid category, holding a 13 per cent share of the U.S market. Its success story has led other drug companies to project it as a classic example of how to successfully launch a new drug brand, meanwhile themselves trying to make inroads in the suddenly lucrative insomnia market; recent reports indicate the sudden influx of prospective sleep aid drugs into the U.

S market such as Takeda’s Rozerem, Sanofi’s Ambien C.R, Merck’s Gaboxadol and GlaxoSmithKline’s Requip (Brandweek Magazine. “Marketers of the Year 2006: Lunesta’s Tim Healey and Jay Popli”).References used:Anon. “Marketers of the Year 2006: Lunesta’s Tim Healey and Jay Popli.”Brandweek magazine. 9 Oct 2006. http://www.brandweek.com/bw/search/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003286297Saul, Stephanie. “Record Sales of Sleeping Pills Are Causing Worries.”The New York Times.

7 Feb 2006. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/07/business/07sleep.html?ex=1296968400&en=8fd30fa48137535e&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss