For my dream project, I focused on the pharmaceutical industry and its consequent rules and marketing patterns. First I had to create a product, the name is INCEPRA, which comes from the Latin “insepere” or “to begin.” The purpose of INCEPRA is to serve as an energy drug, boosting alertness and productivity, whilst suppressing tiredness and languidness. It is a caffeine derivative and is balanced with calcium carbonate to allow for day-long energy supply. Once the product was created I began trudging through the endless rules around pharmaceuticals, though in the US they are far less regulated than in Europe, they still have to follow strict guidelines around marketing (misinformation), product purpose and results (side effects), and expected consumers (who to recommend or prescribe the drug to).
The greatest challenge in this project was time management and knowing the limits I should go to. The research part of my project ended up taking much longer than I was expecting. The complexities and endless laws concerning pharma industry meant that I spent most of this project deep in books and web articles, it seemed every new law had had countless exceptions and different levels of enforcement. The FDA’s drug approval guidelines alone took me three days to get through, and in the end, I hardly understood the parameters.
When designing my final packaging and display design I found myself corraled by the rules of the industry. The end result was diluted and simple from my original concept, I learned that the regulations on drugs are far more severe than most would think. Even the use of coffee grounds in my display is not permitted within certain pharmaceutical retailers as it contains a possibly perishable substance.
The same rigid parameters greatly changed my advertisement concept, initially, it was an artful ad full of color and different font types and blocking. But once the rules had their way with it, it looked like a standard pharma advertisement.
By the deadline for completion of my project, I had been taught me many lessons. I now have some grip on how the pharmaceutical industry navigates regulation and the ever-competitive drug market. Following the complex laws around marketing, packaging, and display. Finally doing thorough research on both concept and procedure, which I have found can be far more time-consuming than I had previously thought, as the need for concrete information is necessary to push forward with product development.
Taste chart for INCEPRA tablets is based on the properties of different spices.
I began with different logo ideas, the one on the left was my original product logo idea, however, it was changed later in the process to better reflect my product. The logo on top is for my pharmaceutical company.
The box’s packaging strictly follows the principals of pharmaceutical marketing.
My advertisement, like the rest of my project, followed a template created by the industry and the market.
My final presentation for my project, was a major reduction from my first concept.
